As an Australian-based journalist, it’s a little rare to interview an American artist on the verge of an album release. But not as rare as it used to be: independent musicians now make the majority of their money touring, and that includes touring internationally. Sometimes the timing gets a little awkward. I caught up with […]

Tony Royster Jr reckons everyone has something to give. But then Tony Royster Jr himself has more than most to offer. That’s something I learned when interviewing the renowned drummer for a Scene feature story last month. Acknowledged as a master of his trade, Royster Jr regularly tours with a numerous high profile artists, including […]

Curly Castro was due. Anyone following the Flatbush-born, Philly-living rapper over the last couple of years would have noticed the extra crank and personality that was coming through his rhymes, features and collaborations. It was time he applied it to a coherent album.  His formal debut, Fidel is focused, tight and varied while delivering a […]

We’re a long way from turntablism’s halcyon days in the late 90s and early 00s, when stars such as Mix Master Mike and Qbert scratched and picked their way across the globe. The shows were frequently amazing – jaw dropping displays of technique and skill set against the visceral backdrop of rap music – but […]

Matt Shea is a maestro on the begena Listening to a new jazz artist can be a total chore. The genre’s stylistic purview is so wide that somebody handing you music and telling you to check it out is a sure fire way for said music to end up under the bed or, these days, […]

Your interpretation of Nada Surf’s career probably depends on your genre specifics. If you were a slacker rock fanatic, then they were the one hit wonder kiss-off to the mid-90s movement — their epic single “Popular” a moment of focussed truth-telling before the band disappeared into indie obscurity. But if your tastes run a bit […]

The Afghan Whigs provided us with one of the more surprising reunions of recent memory. As recently as two years ago, singer-songwriter Greg Dulli flatly talked down the idea of the Cincinnati-based four-piece – who steamed through the 90s on the back of a clutch of exceptional, if occasionally flawed, albums – putting aside other […]

With Evidence, it’s not so much a case of starting the story from the beginning, but figuring out which story you want to start with. The Venice Beach-based rapper and producer packs at least two separate career arcs. Most well known is his work with Dilated Peoples, the trio Evidence formed with Rakaa Iriscience and […]

Sean ‘Slug’ Daley’s self-deprecation knows no bounds. At a recent show in Australia he told the audience a teenage story about sifting through his shit for two weeks after being dared by a friend to swallow a watch battery. On the phone, he operates on a similar (if not so vulgar) level, quick to talk […]

Art by Simon Laroche It’s now ten months since Passion of the Weiss’s Aaron Frank interviewed Charles Bradley. Since then, the sexagenarian has gone from blogosphere curio to mover on the modern soul scene. Before his return to Australia this month, I chatted to Bradley about how life’s changed since the release of his epic debut […]