Off Tap

On the day of our conversation, praise for the appearance by Paul Ridge – aka Drapht – on Spit Syndicate's album Sunday Gentlemen has started to pour in to his Twitter account, and his return single Salute was released onto iTunes about 20 minutes earlier. The mix of relief and excitement in his voice is noticeable, as well as the anticipation of the fact that shit is about to get crazy again.

“Dude, it's absolutely insane,” he laughs, “I was talking to my booking agent about this just the other day. I've been slaving over Salute over the last week, just the mixing process. I want to push everything out before I leave for the road because there's a month where I won't have access to do anything, really. So I literally spent all weekend mixing this song – tedious work bouncing back and forwards with the dude who masters all my stuff in Texas trying to get it as perfect as I possibly could. My ears were ringing and I was getting delusional and I finished the song and emailed it straight to triple j, and they were like, 'Yep, cool, we'll play it tonight.' Later that night I put it up on Soundcloud and then it was released the next day (on iTunes). So in the space of three days it's gone from finished to being on high rotation on triple j – it's amazing!”

With this instant gratification comes a price. The amount of music coming out on a daily basis, even just specifically in the narrow field of Australian hip hop, means that all too quickly people are ready to move onto the next track that shows up on their social media feed.

“It's a positive, but it's also a negative,” he agrees. “I mean, people's attention spans – people are just so fickle at the moment. You can release an album one week, and the next week someone else releases something and their attention goes straight to that. Six years ago I could spend a year-and-a-half on something and then give it life for a good six months to a year. Now, the light switch can be turned off after a week-and-a-half, which can be soul-crushing. It's cheapened the art a little bit I think and people constantly have to give away free music, and try and depend on their live shows, which sometimes just doesn't work. It's a tough market but you just need to adapt to the instant society we have at the moment.” 

It's been a little while since the last LP from Drapht, 2011's The Life Of Riley, and he says nonchalantly that he really wanted to have some downtime after the whirlwind of activity that record ushered in. Not one to shy away from a challenge, however, Ridge's idea of downtime is not sitting around investing hours into Call Of Duty like many of his peers. In fact, it sounds like what the rest of the real world calls hard work.

“It will be two years in April, which has just flown by,” he says of the passage of time since The Life Of Riley dropped. “I didn't really need to release anything (for a while) because it just kept going and going which is something I appreciate immensely. I felt like I needed to have a little bit of downtime, but in that downtime I started creating a cafe which I'm just about to open here in Perth.”

When it's suggested that the idea of starting a small business doesn't really sound like downtime, he laughs hysterically.

“I know, right?! I should have been sitting on a couch or something – I don't know what I was doing! Anyway, it's all come to fruition and I'm all set to have the opening when I get back from tour.”

He laughs again at hearing himself say this out loud and realising that he's clearly got a busy year ahead of himself.

“The cafe is called Solomon,” he goes on to explain proudly. “It's sort of a niche idea I had. I've suffered from food intolerance for the past 15 years so it gives people the option to go out and eat, catering to people's food intolerance whether it's gluten free, sugar free, dairy free. It's something that's really close to my heart and something I'm super passionate about, especially with touring and travelling around the world I've always found it really hard to find somewhere to eat where I'm comfortable and I can nourish my body.”

His sister, who's been in the hospitality industry for years, will be helping him run the cafe and he says one of the major perks is that he won't have to cook every meal for himself anymore. He's been heavily involved in every aspect of the business so far and he sees it drawing some parallels with his other 'job'.

“I went to Bali searching for lights and fixtures and things, my sister has been going through op shops looking for old plates – it's been absolutely relentless but it's a different avenue for me and it still has that creative element to it, which I just love. Like forming the menu with seasonal ingredients, recipes and stuff – it's shit I'm really passionate about and I've been unknowingly doing research on it my whole life. It's coming into fruition now and I'm just so excited about the fact that I will own my own cafe, you know? It's incredible.”

Aware of the fleeting nature of the music industry, he sees the cafe as a long-term goal and something that has the potential to live beyond his rapping career. In some ways, it's actually made him re-evaluate his approach to making music.

“It's already taken so much pressure off my music and I think you can really hear that on the three songs I've just released. I'm not writing for a specific radio formula anymore, I'm really trying to delve into that mind frame where it's feeding me creatively as much as possible, and not depending on my music for my sole livelihood, which I think can have a detrimental effect. I've managed to live pretty comfortably thanks to my music but I don't see myself as being a 60-year-old rapper.”

Drapht is not letting the chance go to play to as many people as possible on this tour, cramming in about 30 shows in a month. It's been a couple of years since he has taken on a tour of this magnitude, and he says he cannot wait.

“I'm super excited,” he enthuses, with heavy drawling emphasis on the 'super'. “I'm really looking forward to playing a bunch of old catalogue tracks I'm rehashing and revamping, I'm super proud of the whole set through and through.”

Drapht will be playing the following dates:

Wednesday 6 March – The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba, QLD
Thursday 7 March 2013 – The Red Room U.Q St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD
Friday 8 March – Wharf Tavern, Mooloolaba, QLD
Saturday 9 March – Parkwood Tavern, Gold Coast, QLD
Sunday 10 March – Hotel Great Northern, Byron Bay, QLD
Tuesday 12 March – Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW
Thursday 14 March – Wollongong University, Garden Party, NSW
Friday 15 March – Bar On The Hill, Newcastle Uni, NSW
Saturday 16 March 2013 – The Entrance Leagues Club, NSW
Wednesday 20 March – Capital, Wagga Wagga, NSW
Thursday 21 March – Zierholz U.C, Canberra, ACT
Friday 22 March – UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney, NSW
Saturday 23 March – Village Fair C.S.U, Bathurst, NSW
Thursday 28 March – The Rosemount Hotel, Perth, WA