BIAS B
MYNSE
A Song For The Dead
The Cycle Begins
BY TOM WILSON
Anyone who’s shared a can with the Mynse and dared to mention hip-hop is within seconds aware of Mynse’s enthusiasm for the local scene and his drive to get it out there as much as possible. His collaborations with other artists are many, and range from “pissed tracks”, created on the spur of the moment after a few beers (these number many), to more professional releases, whether it be on a Mynse beat or if he’s just chucking on some vocals. Common fixtures in these tracks include Axesent, Cejas, Oxcyde, Azrael, Mynse, Skurge1, Drastik X and Rumn. He has done production for artists including Axesent, Deedare, Drastik X, Cejas, and Skurge1. The energy Mynse has injected into the local hip-hop scene through his groups and collaborations has certainly paid dividends for the young producer himself. His frequent
“Been There, Done That” – the third solo effort of Oz hip-hop mainstay Bias B – is being buzzed as “a genuine look into his life and persona”. But how can this be true, when the album is orchestrated by not one producer, but a handful of different people? How can such a work retain a sense of personal introspection for the artist? I decided to find out when Bias spoke to me ahead of his Tasmanian visit. Firstly, production duties on the album were shared between several different people, including Plutonic and Bones. Why so many? Why not just one? I find … I have a lot of friends, and if I’m always around everybody, and in the studio, that type of thing, and I hear beats from different people. That makes me think, “I want to work on that.” “I want to work on this.” Most of the people I work with are MCs themselves, so it’s hard to get a whole album of good beats out of them, because when they make a real banger, they want to keep it themselves. That’s also difficult. I find, myself, [that] with working with different people, you learn a lot more, because each person works differently; they have different ideas in tracks, and it helps me learn about what I do as much as it helps them. So I think that’s why I’ve always worked with a lot of different producers. Some people say it can take away from the consistency of an album, but at the same time, if it’s always the same producer, it can always have a “same sound”. I think I like to do different things; it means it brings different things out in me; different ideas and different concepts, because everyone’s going with their personality, and the type of music they make reflects on the overall tracks when they’re finished. This is your third album. How confident are you that this album’s going to have the longevity of your previous two albums? I think it will, because it’s a lot more – for me, anyway – a lot more professional. In the past, when I’ve recorded things, there’s always things that, when I listen back, make me cringe a little bit, and I find it hard to listen to my own voice and listen to my own music. But this one, I’ve got right in there; if there was one backup that was wrong, I went back and moved it. If there was one beat I didn’t like that came in before a verse or something, I went back and changed it. So, to me, this is the most professional
PAGE 10
thing I’ve done. And I guess I’ve put [in] a bit more variety; it’s not all about graffiti, or just about girls. It’s more … there’s a few more personal tracks, like the track about my Mum. I guess [there’s] just more of a mature touch. And also, different types of beats. We’ve got Bigfoot; Bigfoot did half of the production on it. His beats are really good at the moment; [I’m] loving what he’s doing. He plays a lot of the instruments himself. I’m hoping that it will do – I’m pretty confident that it will do – better in sales than the other two.
“
… There’s a few more personal tracks, like the track about my Mum.
”
You were mentioning the track about your Mum, called “Now You’re Gone”. I gather from the lyrics that this happened a long time ago. What prompted you to write this song now? Well I’ve always tried to. She was one of the inspirations for me, in the whole hip-hop thing, and also in life. She always said, “If there’s something out there that you want to do, go out there and do it, regardless of whether it’s right or wrong; you will learn from your mistakes. No one else can tell you how to make a mistake. You have to go out there. If you believe in something, go and do it. That sort of led me to do the hip-hop; I was always a shy person, and for me to get on stage was a really big thing … I always wanted to write something about her; a track. And I always wrote tracks more about what happened; cancer, and the sadness. It sounded bad. But when I took the angle of writing it for her, it was a lot more personal. And it’s turned out as one of my favourite tracks on the album. It’s one of those ones that gives you the tingle up the spine; even when I listen to it myself. With Miss Brown on the vocals in the chorus … I write a lot of personal stuff, but I never release it, a lot of the time. And that track – I think it came out really beautiful. I really feel it, and I hope other people feel it as well. It’s just a nice personal side of me. I still think about my Mum; she was the closest person in my life. I just had to get that out. And I finally had the beat that was perfect. I think everything just came together great. To listen to the entire interview go to www.sauce. net.au/interviews.
recording and gigging have seen him finely hone his production, beatmaking (a daily practice for Mynse), DJing and MCing to a point where they are winning fans statewide. The lyrical content of “The Mynstrual Cycle” will mainly feature Mynse’s musing on the life lessons learned over the past few years, his battles to overcome negativity, and the constant belief that if you want something bad enough, there’s nothing to stop you achieving it. It’s also a voyage into Mynse’s many and varied musical tastes, and will feature “slightly off-center/deep tunes to hyped beats”. Those familiar with his earlier work know that Mynse doesn’t pull any punches; this release will be no exception. So, if you’re a fan of what you’ve heard in the past, you can certainly expect to hear the same skills here, plus a side of the Mynse you may not have previously encountered! “The Mynstral Cycle” will be launched at Launceston’s James Hotel on the 2nd of March. Prepare for the world according to Mynse.
PRESERVING EFFORTS DVD
Hip Hop On A Budget With budgets ranging from $100 to $50 000, a new hip hop video clip archive, the “Preserving Efforts Vol.1” DVD, proves you don’t need a lot cash to make a kick-arse clip. We caught up with a handful of the artists featured on the DVD to chat about their clips. “At the time of making the “Better Man” clip, I was studying video production at TAFE. This clip
clothes designer and wanted a variety of colours. Other than that, we chose some good locations, and the team behind the clip knew what they were doing, so we made a decent clip on a tiny budget.” – Urthboy on their “Come Around” video clip “It’s an animated video for what a lot of people in the Canadian underground call my “breakout hit” [laughs]” – Wordburgler on his “The Wordburgler” video clip “My Brother Ryder Grindle came up with about 5-10 ideas, and we chose one and spent one-and-a-half days in a car park driving around in circles. We all ended up with a very high level of carbon monoxide in our system.” – BVA from Mnemonic Ascent on their “Hold Back” video clip
was actually my first project as part of the course. It was a two-man crew and myself, and we spent the day shooting it down in Sorrento at the back beach. In the end it only cost me $100 to cover tapes, petrol and food expenses. It came out really raw but I think it suits because the song, as it’s quite raw itself.” – Muphin on his ‘Better Man” video clip. “We combined ideas with a vision, the production company responsible for it, and eventually took our idea of pedaling our 12-inches like drugs on street corners with their “future dystopia” take on things, and combined it with crazy vampire-Nazi-cops. We were pretty drunk during the whole shooting, but we had a great time. It was something completely new for us. There’s actually a lot of “behind the scenes” footage of the clip too that will probably surface on an upcoming DVD release … or on “Today Tonight”, if there’s a slow news week.” – The Optimen on their “Give It Up” video clip “I wore a bunch of clothes that I’d never wear in real life, ‘cause the director’s brother was a
“For the “Adrenalin” clip, we handed the creative driving wheel over to someone else. That was a first for us, and a hard thing to do, but when you allow a team of people to do what they do best, great things are possible. We had grips to tie a camera to a truck and all that stuff that normally involves real money and government approval. But in true hip-hop style, it was done mostly by donated efforts and while no one was looking.” – Danielsan from Koolism on the pair’s “Adrenalin” video clip