'This Isn't A Golden VIP Room – We're Just Like You': After 25 Years, Bliss N Eso Are Still Shooting For 'The Moon'

When Bliss N Eso released The Sun, their seventh studio album, back in 2021, they already knew their next move. 

Their next album was going to be entitled The Moon, serving as its companion piece. Simple, right? Just one problem: The ARIA-winning, multi-platinum hip hop trio ended up “going HAM in the studio” – to quote MC Bliss directly. 

A surplus of new material ended up in circulation, with the group not wanting to make any sacrifices. What to do? “A double album wasn't an option,” says Eso, one the group's two MCs. 

“I didn't want it to be a scenario where three or four singles see the light of day and then another 16, 17 songs disappear without ever being noticed or appreciated. It was important for us to highlight as much as we could – we wanted everything to shine.” 

With that, the follow-up was morphed into two separate albums. The Moon (The Light Side) was released back in April, and topped the ARIA Albums Chart upon release – their fourth album to do so across their 25-year career. 

Now, we've arrived at the release of The Moon (The Dark Side), which will bring the project and the newly-expanded trilogy to a close.

“The draft process was pretty quick,” recalls Bliss when discussing the divide of material between Light and Dark. “I sent Macca [Eso] a list, and he sent one back. We made a couple of swaps, and that was that. It was a matter of what songs we wanted to send out first, and what felt more suited to later in the piece. 

“Of those swaps and changes, I can definitely remember Macca being adamant about The Ultimate being on The Light Side.” 

Eso nods, adding that he wanted the track out there as a tribute to “the old-school fans” of the group. “I wanted them to get that taste they've always remembered and love,” he says.

“We're always doing so many different types of songs; we're so versatile. When it came to picking the songs, there had to be that perfect mix; the perfect recipe. You need to have the fun song that's a little cheeky on there. You need to have a bit of that soul in there. You need to have a bit of those in-depth, vulnerable moments. I think we did really well with choosing for both records.”

Fans got their first taste of The Dark Side earlier this year in the form of Chemical Heart (Geed Up), which – as its title suggests – sees the group take to Grinpsoon's 2002 classic Chemical Heart. 

As MC Bliss will attest to, this has been on the collective minds of the group since they first heard the song all those years ago when it was first conquering the airwaves.

“Immediately, it stuck out as hip hop to us,” he says. They had looped a drum break, which was rare in rock music at the time, and matching that with the guitar loop... it just got us, straight away. We're like, 'Man, this would be dope for a flip'.

“Years later, our live drummer [Dan Kerby] had become good friends with Kris [Hopes], Grinspoon's drummer. We didn't know the guys, so we asked him to run the idea by them. They came back and said they'd be into giving it a shot.

“Next thing you know, Grinspoon's manager is literally crawling under his house, underneath the floorboards, trying to find the old box where the CD ROMs were with the original stems.”

The ambitions for the Geed Up version of Chemical Heart started high, with Eso confessing that they may have flown too close to the sun in the process. “We wanted to go with something modern and fresh – I think we even had some drum-and-bass sections,” he laughs. “When I look back at it now, it was almost like the Homer car; just a bit too much.

“I also think the subject matter we had on the original was a little narrow, and it wasn't that much fun,” he continues. “For this one, it felt right for us to just both be free. I'd read the original song was about Phil [Jamieson] losing a pinger at a festival. 

“So, in my verse, I have moments where it feels like you're all together at a festival, with a million mates off their face because Jimmy's snuck in the pingers in his Dunlops. It's very Aussie; very old school memories of the Big Day Out.”

Both Bliss and Eso have fond memories of roadtesting material from The Dark Side on their recent Party On The Moon tour of Australia, which took them across every state and territory with 32 dates total over nearly four months. 

For Bliss, it's the ballad Reach The Heavens, featuring up-and-coming Melbourne singer Benny Morrell on the hook. 

“It was electric, man,” he recalls. “I remember getting off stage and looking at Benny and giving him the biggest hug. I was like, 'Dude, that was crazy'. It's got a real build-up in it, and then Benny's vocal just soars over the top of it with that hook. That was super, super dope.”

For Eso, he was most excited by the reception of My Gang, one of the album's more rousing party-starters. 

“We all knew it was a cool song, but I didn't know it was going to come out on stage like it does,” he says. “When you're doing hip hop, you're trying to keep the crowd involved the whole song. Sometimes, the hands may come down and you have to rev it up to get them back up. 

“With My Gang, it seemed like they were just bobbing from start to finish. I remember getting off stage that night, and Bliss was like, 'Fuckin' hell! My Gang went alright!'”

When Bliss N Eso are speaking to The Music, it's the first time the two have been back at their homes since the Party On The Moon tour ended – Bliss back in Sydney, Eso in Byron Bay. It's the most extensive jaunt the group – completed by DJ Izm – have ever been on in their careers. 

Eso can't help but get a rib in: “I've been watching other artists on social media say that they're going on tour a quarter of the way through our tour,” he laughs, “and then halfway through our tour say that they're finished! These motherfuckers are just coming and going, and we're conquering this cunt!” 

The trio see the success of the tour as a living testament to their incredibly loyal fanbase – some of whom have been with them since the release of their debut album, Flowers In The Pavement, all the way back in 2004 – before many of their current fans were even born. 

“It's like a family that has grown up with us throughout the years,” says Bliss. “They've stuck with us through thick and thin.” Eso agrees: “This isn't a golden VIP room,” he says. “We're just like you guys. We started out as young kids, excited to play with words, and we've done everything from slapstick porn songs to reflections on our vulnerabilities. 

“There's a message in our music that's very human. You just don't get that from a Taylor Swift or a three-minute TikTok thing.”

Bliss N Eso’s The Moon (The Dark Side) is out now via Flight Deck/Mushroom Music.