Why 360 Did A 180 On His Lifestyle

16 April 2015 | 2:30 pm | Rip Nicholson

“You will hit the wall so hard because you get so run down."

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From his third album, Utopia, released last year, Unborn Child has 360 aka Matt Colwell addressing the demons that crossed his path in recent years as one of the country’s most recognisable rappers. His arch-nemesis and former rap battle foe, Kerser, also recently released a single – Let Me Chill – where he illustrates his own struggles along much of the same pathway.

“I might reach out to him,” Colwell suggests, “because I can imagine he’s going through some shit and it’s always good when you can talk to someone who’s going through the same shit.”

These echoes from both MCs highlight the most common mental health issues in young Australians, anxiety and depression, and for those who share an image in the public, add the party life of drugs, sex and alcohol, and it can be a gripping issue to which it becomes harder and harder to hold onto one’s sanity. “When you’re on tour, if you don’t look after yourself for a couple of days you’ll fuck up,” stresses Colwell. “You will hit the wall so hard because you get so run down. You’re performing at night, then you get home at around one or two AM and you’re pumped full of adrenalin so you can’t really sleep for a couple of hours. You get to bed at about four and sometimes you will have to get up at say six or seven AM to get to the next spot. I’m sober now – I haven’t had a drink for ages – but when I did used to drink on the road that would be the biggest fuck-up you could do because you just get sick and there’s nothing worse than being sick on tour.”

“When you’re on tour, if you don’t look after yourself for a couple of days you’ll fuck up"

Colwell is on a rescheduled round of touring originally slated for January. Colwell insists he’s clear-headed, less jaded and living more in the present this time around, something he’s felt for a while. “Especially [about] girls,” he interjects. “You always think, ‘Oh, they don’t really like me, they just want to be with the rapper.’ It’s always this battle that’s going on and if you are using drugs or on the piss you get completely jaded and your whole perspective gets thrown. So, staying sober and clear-headed is the way you have to go about it. Otherwise, you lose your shit really easily.”

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For an MC who once described his own lyrics as ‘comical and unintelligent’ Utopia made 360 face his matador head on and now finds the rush in writing about it. Since revamping Early Warning acoustically, Colwell is fascinated with the idea of touring unplugged. “I think when you do an acoustic song you really pay attention to the lyrics. And the way people have been paying attention to Early Warning has been pretty sick, so I was thinking it would be awesome to do a tour doing a bunch of my songs acoustically. I reckon that would be sick.”