Well last saturday night was the first time I have seen Chance Waters live since his name change earlier this. And what a change it has been. Chance has stepped all aspects of his performance up and music and headed in the right direction. The night however wasn't all about Chance with great supports from High Noon and Forbes to kick off the night.
High Noon did what all great first supports do best, warm up the crowd and get the crowd moving. This is exactly what they did with their banging beats and hard hitting vocals. With a small venue they had the venue half packed by the time they picked up the mic.
Moments later Forbes from the Gold Coast stepped up on stage, rocking it solo preforming as both the DJ and the emcee. At first I wasn't sure how that was going to play out and my suspicions were soon confirmed after technical difficulties interrupting his set within minuets. However as soon as they were out of the way the show was back on the way. Forbes managed to hold the crowd that High Noon had warmed up and even had a handful of people up the front getting right into his material starting what could be called a mosh if a few hundred more people joined in haha. Accompanied by a back up singer Forbes had the crowd pumping and showcased some of his best material stretching right back to his original ep, The Abstract.
With an amped up FBI Social wanting more it wasn't long before we were all graced with the presence of Chance Waters on the stage along with his live band which included a banjo with is always a sign that the set is going to be more than entertaining. The set kicked off with some of Chances or should I say "Phatchances" tracks off his Inkstains album which hand the crowd yelling for more! I haven't seen Chance play with a live before and in fact haven't had the chance to see any live hip hop accompanied by a band until a few weeks ago when Spit Syndicate played the Rocklilly at The Star accompanied by Joyride and The Accidents, and its safe to say that the crow enjoyed it and it clearly adds to the atmosphere and stage presence of the artist, I for one can't wait to see more of it. The set ended with Chance's first successful single from his up coming album, Infinity which had the crowd moving and singing along.
The final track for the night was Chances latest track Maybe Tomorrow which has been getting heaps of requests on the J's since he dropped it last week. Produced by one above the beat and lyrics send shivers down your spine. Check it out below and be sure to request it on Tripple J now on Facebook, call 1300 055 536 or text in on 0439 757 666.
So Chance Waters is heading out on his first headline tour and is taking it to Infinity and beyond. The Approaching Infinity Tour kicks off on the 27th of April in Coffs Harbour and works its way along the east coast of Australia. Supported by Forbes at all stops on the tour this is sure to be one massive party so make sure you get down to your local gig. Get in and grab your tickets early. If you havnt taken the time check out Chance's new award winning video clip for the track Infinity make sure you do it is not only an amazing song but an amazing video clip. For tour dates and details see below.
Friday 27th of April - The Plantation Hotel - Coffs Harbour - Free
Saturday 28th of April - The Byron Bay Brewery - Byron Bay - Free
Saturday 5th of May - First Floor - Melbourne - Tickets Here
Friday the 11h of May - Chatswood Club - Chatswood - Tickets On The Door
Friday 18th of May - Beaches Hotel - Newcastel - Free
Saturday 19th of May - FBI Social - Sydney - Tickets Here
Satuday 26th of May - X&Y Bar - Brisbane - Tickets Here
So Sydney based emcee Phatchance who is part of I Forget Sorry has today announced that "Phatchance is Dead". Don't worry Chance Waters is still alive though. With the completion of his second album approaching, Chance's change of stage name form, Phatchance to Chance Waters is a clear sign that his music is evolving into bigger and better things. Today in his announcement of the change he had this to say, "When I was 16 and started out performing Phatchance was a great name for me, I was a battle rapper and it suited what I was doing really well" and that "I wasn't happy with the name Phatchance anymore, when people asked what I did and what I was called I felt like every-time I said the name they got an impression of the type of music I make that just wasn't what I'm trying to do." Make sure that you go cop Chance Waters latest release now for free through the I Forget Sorry website.
So the I Forgot Sorry Christmas Mixtapes dropped over the christmas break and all I can say after listening to them all through and through is WOW. It simply left me asking myself whats next from this collection of Sydney artists and nothing but big things can be expected in 2012 is the answer. Head over to the I Forget Sorry website to Download your free digital copy of the mix tapes or to the Store to purchase a limited edition hard copy.
What started as a bunch of friends collaboratively coming together to promote one another under a local crew name IFS (I Forget Sorry) has now seen the release of several successful releases from all five artists. The next step for this crew come label, distributor and artist management hub is a free mix tape from all five artists once the clock strikes 12AM on Christmas Eve. We were lucky enough that our good friend at I Forget Sorry, Coptic Soldier did not forget to send us a early copy of his mix tape. Check out our review of a few of the tracks below.
Amazing Grace
I don't think that I would have ever though of Amazing Grace as a hip hop track, but Coptic Soldier has done the unthinkable. This traditional Christian hymn that carries the message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit. We see in the opening lines of the track that Coptic Soldier looks at the modern world and how it judges all aspects of our life. "I don't know if grace is gone, cause all i see is mirrors placed that are placed in front of our blemishes, so each face is judged as if that would inspire change in us." This is juxtaposed by the traditional chorus "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now I see." which talks of a ever forgiving God who forgives all.
On Edge ft Koolta
Track 2 features Koolta and discusses how we continually live life on the edge, out of nothing more than curiosity to see what will come next. " We live on the edge just see the view " Coptic Soldier reflects on his premature entrance into the scene due to this "On Edge" lifestyle that he talks about. "My first release was a false start mix tape, it didn't put me in a good light, i don't know what they expected me to look like but they were just my first tracks, in hine sight i wish i didn't put them out, but a label signed me and i was off on tour, they had a bad rep, i had a rookie sound, first impression counts and I lost that lure."
Words I Never Said
Words I Never Said see's Coptic Soldier take a crack at the media for the way they portray Coptic Christians and how they seem to always twist stories or only tell half the story to ensure that it is politically correct. "Well go and turn on TV Charlie Sheean and so and so blabbering about such and such, but that ain't Women's Day, homie thats the news, and these are the same people suposiably telling us the truth." He focus's on the recent revolution in Egypt and how all media agencies from Australian to International did not manage to get the full picture of what was going on. "western world response to egypt was a bunch of bull, from CNN to Channel Ten they couldn't get the full picture." The chorus of the song see's a plead with both the public and the media to wake up and look at the truth. "Its so loud inside my head with words i should have said wake up now look up now"
Lordy Mary
Lordy Mary sees Coptic Soldier take a step back and analyse where he is in life at the moment and what he is really doing with his music. "They say this scene is a chess game, I'm a pawn just looking for my next break, musical is spiritual but am i just using it to fetch fame." We see that as the track progresses we see that he appreciates what he has and that music is a spiritual outlet for him and not a quest for fame. "I don't want to spend my life chasing this fame, but many one day ill write a song for the sake of song, and then i might see all the joy i can claim form it or the change it could bring"
Check out this demo track from Jonny Utah's upcoming debut LP, Handful of Gravel. You may have already herd this version of the song on the bonus disc from the Mind Over Matter album, Just like Fireworks. This particular version was mastered by Phatchance and features Ernst Carter Jr on the chorus.
BOTA: When and why did you first start writing music, and have you always called your self Phatchance?
I guess before I started 'writing' music I was pretty into the freestyle and battle elements of the whole thing, I'd think up lines but I don't think I ever committed anything to paper until the later years of high-school, even then it was more of a hobby for me and my style of writing was very different to the tip I'm on now. Phatchance was definitely my first pseudonym though, prior to that I just went by my real name, which is Chance.
BOPA: Your latest body of work, Inkstains (Acoustic) saw you preform live with a band and a whole new approach to your music. Why did you decide to take you music in the that direction?
We'd performed with a few band members here and there on our tours before, we like to generally take at least a bass player and a guitarist with us wherever we go, but this was the first time we'd ditched the backing music entirely and gone for a full band line up. I guess it came about because both myself and Coptic were interested in doing something a little different and a little more musically challenging and we were already working fairly closely with our friend Jon Reichardt, whose quite the multi-instrumentalist, so the opportunity kind of presented itself. I've got a huge penchant for acoustic and folk music and I thought it'd be interesting to try and pull some of those sounds into local hip-hop, as I don't believe it's been done in that fashion before. It was a really rewarding experience and probably the most fun I've ever had putting together a musical project, it was also nice to give some of the b-sides from Inkstains a proper revamp and let them see the light of day, particularly a few of my favourite tracks which were never very 'singley' on the original album.
BOTA: As and independent artist, what do you wish to achieve through your music or what is your biggest goal in your music career?
I think the elephant in the room is that all independent musicians would like to be able to live off of their music, which is obviously one of my long term aims, but I guess I have more esoteric goals than that which are probably more important to me when you boil it down. I really love the idea of leaving a mark on the world in some fashion, I feel like lyrics are one of the best ways to really touch somebody and create change in the world around you, I think in Australia particularly we're actually pretty receptive to personal song writing if we're given the opportunity, but it can be very hard to break the radio and media circuit with those types of songs, that's probably very high on my list of priorities, managing to achieve success without compromising the core messages in my music.
BOTA: How would you best describe your music?
My tag-line is 'Emotive, Independent, Australian Hip-Hop' which probably captures it pretty well, I guess I'm a mish-mash of influences but I definitely fall on the alternative/emotive side of the spectrum, I think I'm one of the few hip-hop artists in the country who uses a lot of harmony work in my tracks and my favourite songs are usually the type of introspective tracks that get thrown onto albums as a b-side or a book end, I think something magical happens when you manage to do those tracks right and make them a corner stone of the album.
BOTA: Are there any future works and performances planned/in progress?
I'm knee deep in writing my second album 'Infinity' - we're currently polishing up a few of the best songs and trying to work out who we want featuring. Most of the production side of it's done and at this point it's just trying to take our time to make sure we get everything right. I'm also finishing up the writing and recording of a free mixtape I'm dropping in December called 'Approaching Infinity' and I have a few video clips and collaborations in the works, including some songs with Mind over Matter, Johnny Utah, Cool Poindexter , One Above & Mr Hill.
BOTA: Your recently released a remix of Gotye’s 'Somebody That I Use To Know'. What is it about this song that made you remix it?
The second I heard the track I resonated with it heavily, in my opinion Gotye is one of the most talented, professional and approachable artists in the Australian music scene. I've been pretty obsessed with his work for a long time, I'd say 'Hearts A Mess' is probably one of my favourite Australian tracks fullstop, so when I heard STIUTK I knew pretty much straight away I wanted to approach him about remixing it. He was kind enough to send me the parts, I contacted One Above and asked him if he'd like to remix the song for me and we worked on it together solidly for a week or so till we had something we were both happy with.
BOTA: You are apart of a independant movement, I Forget Sorry? Who makes up this crew and what is IFS all about?
'I Forget, Sorry!' is comprised of myself, Johnny Utah, Coptic Soldier and Mind Over Matter, as well as the solo projects of Smiles Again, who is half of Mind Over Matter. Basically we're a group of close friends and like minded musicians who wanted to try and maintain our independence and work closely together, 'I Forget, Sorry!' is kind of like an alternative approach to the record label model of music, we help each other out with everything and cross pollinate our music as much as possible and basically focus on finding ways to engage with our listeners and keep each other passionate about the work we're doing.
Johnny Utah is one of the many tallents that make up the Inner Sydney crew, I Forget Sorry (IFS). This december he is following trend of many other emcees latley by releasing a free mixtape, "Us" out this december. If you havnt herd much about Johnny Utah before head over to http://www.IForgetSorry.com/ for more info. In the mean time check out this little sample from the mixtape from the mixtape.
