IllyAl 'Illy' Murray is in a relaxed and jovial mood. However, he's deep in another M-Phazes recording session when he gets on the phone, and there ain't no chillin' when the celebrated producer is on the controls. “He's a ball breaker but he gets the results so I'm cool with it,” says Illy with a laugh. “It's probably a good thing because if it was left up to me nothing would ever get done. So it's a happy medium between stress and not giving a shit.”
This day stands as one of the final sessions at M-Phazes' studio in Melbourne for Illy. The MC's been recording his vocals through a Microtech Geffel M930TS into the Portico 5012 preamp, though sometimes he'll run them through the Portico 5042 Tape Driver for more grit. It all then goes through Cubase 7 through M-Phrazes' Yamaha UR824 interface. You'll hear all this on his fourth record which will soon be completed; the results of four months hard work and more than 18 months of songwriting.
Although Illy is reluctant to call the record a sequel, he does admit this album will be more in line with the sound of his breakthrough 2010 record The Chase rather than last year's Bring It Back. “I think if you go off the first single, On And On, you can sorta hear there's a bit of familiarity with some of my previous singles – they're sort of on that vibe.”
There's also new ground being covered, though it's never been a conscious choice during recordings. A few things from the On And On sessions have been kept as they didn't fit the more stripped back, traditional sounds of that 2012 release, and Illy reveals there'll be plenty of big hooks, beats and songs. In a sonic sense, the record is large, and a release he calls a “step up in every aspect”.
“It's definitely got Phazes' signature sound. The drums knock from start to finish and it's really just a very high standard of production. He's done a number on it, it's pretty incredible – some of his best work.
“Phazes will have a beat, it will be drums and samples or something that he's played in a real basic structure, and then I'll usually write a hook first and if there's something there we'll go off that and keep working on it and refining it,” Illy expands. “If there's not anything there we'll toss it to the side, and that's true for every stage. There's been a few that we've worked on and rewritten and he's fucked with the beats and then we've ditched them because they haven't been up to scratch, so it's been a pretty intense process this album, there's really been no settling for some half-arsed shit.
“A lot of the tracks, like the beats, have probably gone through two or three changes; most of them would have actually in the time we've been working on this. He'll come up with an idea, flesh it out, then build on it, then build on it again, and I kinda do the same with my stuff. We bounce back and forth; we move forward by bouncing ideas off each other when we're working on a track. It ends up being quite a fair way from where the tracks start, but they usually end up being pretty good.”
With M-Phazes acting as executive producer on the as-yet-untitled fourth record, Illy has also called on a number of other heads to throw their weight into beats and production, including Styalz Fuego, Cam Bluff and J-Skub. As far as musical collaborations and guest spots are concerned, you'll hear some familiar voices: Fuego stretching his wings, Hilltop Hoods adding their signature flow. Your hook harmonisers include the urban smooth of Daniel Merriweather and the sassy, raging passion of Kira Puru. But then you've got Ahren Stringer of The Amity Affliction thrown in, whose unexpected turn could be the highlight of the whole damn thing.
Illy keeps his cards close when pushed for extra info on the song, but is excited by the opportunity of extending a fanbase that already reaches wide, and challenging stylistic perceptions and tastes in the process. “As far as fans of those genres not overlapping, I totally agree. So it was a bit of a coup because I really think that the dude has a great voice and I think the fans from both sides are really passionate about their stuff so I think that it will work; I hope the hardcore people don't get their backs up about it, but I'm sure it will be fine man because it's a really sick track.“
