BANGERS & MASH
Pegz By Leigh Dillon & David Williams
He’s been called one of the pioneers of Australian hiphop, Melbourne artist Pegz has been influential in the continual rise of the country’s hip-hop scene. The innovative force behind both Obese and Zenith Records, Pegz has the upcoming new album “Axis” about to be released. After a prolonged absence from performing live, Pegz spoke to us about the new album and the hip-hop scene in general and juggling his day with all his hip-hop passions. What have you been doing this week? I’ve done about 100 different things today, but basically just running the vinyl plant and the label and it’s taking up every moment of the day as you could imagine. They’re both at separate premises so I’m running between Richmond and Prahran about three times a day picking up records and just trying to run both businesses. It’s doing my head in, but things will quieten down and I’ll find some new staff to run one side of the business. You’ve got the new record “Axis” soon to be released, how is that going? With all of my past releases as an artist, I’ve kept myself on the label pretty underground. I haven’t really done advertising campaigns or anything like that. This is probably the first time I’ve given myself a publicity campaign or a marketing budget. I normally like to put the other artists first. It’s not that I wouldn’t enjoy doing some of those things it’s just that time doesn’t allow it sometimes. But now that I’m four releases in and this is my best work to date and it has taken about two years to make and it’s been a long slog, I’m hoping to make more of an impact with this one and pushing like I push every other artist on the label.
“I Am A Gay Man Trapped In A Woman’s Body ...”
In terms of the record and your evolution as an artist, how does “Axis” show that evolution or how does it differ? I think it normally takes a few mistakes to get it right and it normally takes a few years as well. Releasing things as a 21 year old there’s only so much experience that you’ve got in life and I feel that at 29 now, with all those past records, I feel I’ve learnt from those mistakes so I feel it’s the most well rounded album that I’ve made both production wise and lyrically. It’s really based on strong concepts and there will be things on the record that have never been rapped about in the history of hip-hop. I really wanted to have something original and offer the listeners a different perspective on Aussie hip-hop when it comes to subject matter and concepts. So that’s been the real foundation of this record. I wanted it to be consistent and diverse, so that’s probably been a huge turning point for me, really focussing on a strong cohesive effort for the album and looking at it like an album. I feel that a lot of artists makes tracks these days and potter along without ever really having that vision of what the album is really going to sound like. What mistakes are you talking about? They’re just learning lessons I suppose that every artist is going to go through themselves. With this album I wanted to make music for the listener, whereas in the past I wanted to make something for myself to enjoy. I think sometimes things can get a bit too personal or a little bit too deep, and when it came down to it I wanted to make an uplifting record that wasn’t so deep and personal, something that people could switch off to, something that they could relate to ,that I didn’t have to drag them through your mess of a life. What sort of things are you rapping about on this album that you feel haven’t been rapped about before? There’s a lot of original concepts but the standout one is a track where I’m sort of playing a bush man who is stuck out in the Nullabor and just utilising a lot of word play and a lot of word play with an Aboriginal dreamtime feel. It’s hiphop style song but a lot of words that are based on indigenous culture. It’s unique in that it’s all metaphors and similes all bunched up in there to sound witty, but at the same time it’s almost like a mystical track. There’s another track called “What Would Happen?” and it goes through 200 things I’d do if it was the last day alive.
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