Kickin' It

Hermitude had what can only be described as a huge 2012. During a year of recognition and accomplishment most bands will only ever dream of, the predominantly instrumental hip hop duo from the Blue Mountains released their acclaimed fourth album, HyperParadise. From there, things went insane, with supports for 360 on his Australian tour, an appearance at Parklife and festivals overseas, as well as a show at, of all places, the Sydney Opera House. An international publishing deal with Sony/ATV followed, and Hermitude were also nominated for ARIAs, an AIR Award and a J Award. Then, in what must be regarded as the crowning glory of an already glorious year, Hermitude were nominated in December for the prestigious Australian Music Prize, then announced as shortlist candidates. As such, Luke Dubber, aka Luke Dubs, and Angus Stuart, aka El Gusto, will be bringing their revolutionary sound to Federation Square for AMP Alive – a free concert featuring other shortlisted nominees. Arguably then, this is the best music this country has to offer, and the event is hosted by Clare Bowditch and Kevin Mitchell. It might be a bit of an obvious question, but when Inpress hooks up with Stuart, it needs to be asked nonetheless: how does he feel about playing to a crowd of god knows how many people in Federation Square in the middle of summer? “It's going to be awesome,” he says. “We're really psyched up for it. Playing in front of big crowds is just a lot of fun, you know, getting that much feeling and that much energy off the crowd. It's going to be amazing.”

As mentioned above, Hermitude are not exactly strangers when it comes to playing huge shows. Having said that, Stuart sees the AMP Alive show as something distinctly different. “I guess some of those summer festivals like Parklife, it's a big day out, and people are geared up to be there all day and see a lot of acts. I think the AMP live thing is more focused on the shortlisted nominees and I just think there's going to be a really good vibe there. I think the audience is going to be appreciating the artists for what they've done, the kinds of records they've made. A lot of the festivals are just about partying and having a good time. Seeing your favourite band, I just think there'll be a lot more recognition and appreciation going on.”

In what may or may not be good timing, AMP Alive is happening the same day that Hermitude are playing at the Corner as part of their tour to promote new single, The Villain. For punters going to either gig, Stuart explains that seeing the same band twice in one day isn't necessarily as strange as it might sound. “We definitely tailor our sets to each individual show,” he says. “The AMP show, for example, is only a 20-minute set, so we'll whittle it down to some of the more important songs off the album. A set at one of our headline shows at, say, the Corner is going to be different again. Then, it'll be a slightly different set again for something we'd play at a festival, where you've got 45 minutes and it needs to be really high energy. At the Corner, it'll be high energy, too, but we'll have the time and the ability to also play some of the songs that we don't always get to play live. So, yeah, we generally do tailor our sets to suit the occasion.”

Moving on to the subject of being nominated for the music prize, again, as outlined above, accolades are nothing new for this band. But as he indicated when answering the question about playing AMP Alive, Stuart still sees being nominated here as something quite singular. “It's definitely special,” he says. “It's been so great for us that our record has been doing so well. It's amazing to put a whole year's worth of work into a record and then to see people really getting into it. Being nominated for awards and receiving awards just makes you feel like you've really achieved something. We're totally stoked that that's going on and we feel really good about it. Being shortlisted for something like the AMP award, given the fact we're kind of like an electronic duo and that this sort of music doesn't always make it onto these kinds of lists, makes us feel even more happy.”

It's interesting that Stuart should mention electronic music not often making shortlists for awards, because Inpress wanted to ask about this, but wasn't sure how to go about doing so without coming off as complete berks. Does he feel like being nominated is some sort of answer to those who claim hip hop and electronica don't mix? “We totally feel like this is vindication, for sure,” he continues. “It's interesting, the scene is changing. I guess we kind of border on hip hop, but we're also quite heavily into the electronic scene, and the recognition for that at the moment is really fantastic. You see artists like Flume going gold for his record. Obviously we've picked up awards and nominations. It just feels like the current climate is just really taking it on and really loving that electronic, instrumental, hip hop sound. We've been around since 2002, so to finally have a time where that kind of music is being appreciated, it's just awesome to be involved.”

Okay, so what will Hermitude do with the $30,000 when they win? Inpress has asked this question of nominees for prizes before, and we're happy to report that Stuart's answer, as opposed to most we've heard, doesn't involve a whole lot in the way of sensible spending, but leans more to the rock'n'roll indulgence/Stones making Exile On Main Street side of things. “Maybe we'll fly to some exotic island somewhere and set up a hut and drink cocktails and make a new record,” Stuart says. “You gotta let off some steam and put your feet up now and again.”

Given the truly awesome year Hermitude have had, do they have a highlight? Surprisingly, Stuart doesn't nominate some mega festival, or even a small and intimate local happening. “We had, like, a really incredible show at the Prince Of Wales, when we launched HyperParadise. It was an awesome show, we sold the room out and the vibe of the audience was just fantastic. It was just a celebration of dropping the record. Yeah there's been a lot, but I think that was one of my favourite moments of 2012. It was also my birthday recently. I was born on New Year's Eve. We were playing at this festival in Perth and I had about five or six thousand people sing me Happy Birthday, so that was also really cool.”

ermitude had what can only be described as a huge 2012. During a year of recognition and accomplishment most bands will only ever dream of, the predominantly instrumental hip hop duo from the Blue Mountains released their acclaimed fourth album, HyperParadise. From there, things went insane, with supports for 360 on his Australian tour, an appearance at Parklife and festivals overseas, as well as a show at, of all places, the Sydney Opera House. An international publishing deal with Sony/ATV followed, and Hermitude were also nominated for ARIAs, an AIR Award and a J Award. Then, in what must be regarded as the crowning glory of an already glorious year, Hermitude were nominated in December for the prestigious Australian Music Prize, then announced as shortlist candidates. As such, Luke Dubber, aka Luke Dubs, and Angus Stuart, aka El Gusto, will be bringing their revolutionary sound to Federation Square for AMP Alive – a free concert featuring other shortlisted nominees. Arguably then, this is the best music this country has to offer, and the event is hosted by Clare Bowditch and Kevin Mitchell. It might be a bit of an obvious question, but when Inpress hooks up with Stuart, it needs to be asked nonetheless: how does he feel about playing to a crowd of god knows how many people in Federation Square in the middle of summer? “It's going to be awesome,” he says. “We're really psyched up for it. Playing in front of big crowds is just a lot of fun, you know, getting that much feeling and that much energy off the crowd. It's going to be amazing.”

As mentioned above, Hermitude are not exactly strangers when it comes to playing huge shows. Having said that, Stuart sees the AMP Alive show as something distinctly different. “I guess some of those summer festivals like Parklife, it's a big day out, and people are geared up to be there all day and see a lot of acts. I think the AMP live thing is more focused on the shortlisted nominees and I just think there's going to be a really good vibe there. I think the audience is going to be appreciating the artists for what they've done, the kinds of records they've made. A lot of the festivals are just about partying and having a good time. Seeing your favourite band, I just think there'll be a lot more recognition and appreciation going on.”

In what may or may not be good timing, AMP Alive is happening the same day that Hermitude are playing at the Corner as part of their tour to promote new single, The Villain. For punters going to either gig, Stuart explains that seeing the same band twice in one day isn't necessarily as strange as it might sound. “We definitely tailor our sets to each individual show,” he says. “The AMP show, for example, is only a 20-minute set, so we'll whittle it down to some of the more important songs off the album. A set at one of our headline shows at, say, the Corner is going to be different again. Then, it'll be a slightly different set again for something we'd play at a festival, where you've got 45 minutes and it needs to be really high energy. At the Corner, it'll be high energy, too, but we'll have the time and the ability to also play some of the songs that we don't always get to play live. So, yeah, we generally do tailor our sets to suit the occasion.”

Moving on to the subject of being nominated for the music prize, again, as outlined above, accolades are nothing new for this band. But as he indicated when answering the question about playing AMP Alive, Stuart still sees being nominated here as something quite singular. “It's definitely special,” he says. “It's been so great for us that our record has been doing so well. It's amazing to put a whole year's worth of work into a record and then to see people really getting into it. Being nominated for awards and receiving awards just makes you feel like you've really achieved something. We're totally stoked that that's going on and we feel really good about it. Being shortlisted for something like the AMP award, given the fact we're kind of like an electronic duo and that this sort of music doesn't always make it onto these kinds of lists, makes us feel even more happy.”

It's interesting that Stuart should mention electronic music not often making shortlists for awards, because Inpress wanted to ask about this, but wasn't sure how to go about doing so without coming off as complete berks. Does he feel like being nominated is some sort of answer to those who claim hip hop and electronica don't mix? “We totally feel like this is vindication, for sure,” he continues. “It's interesting, the scene is changing. I guess we kind of border on hip hop, but we're also quite heavily into the electronic scene, and the recognition for that at the moment is really fantastic. You see artists like Flume going gold for his record. Obviously we've picked up awards and nominations. It just feels like the current climate is just really taking it on and really loving that electronic, instrumental, hip hop sound. We've been around since 2002, so to finally have a time where that kind of music is being appreciated, it's just awesome to be involved.”

Okay, so what will Hermitude do with the $30,000 when they win? Inpress has asked this question of nominees for prizes before, and we're happy to report that Stuart's answer, as opposed to most we've heard, doesn't involve a whole lot in the way of sensible spending, but leans more to the rock'n'roll indulgence/Stones making Exile On Main Street side of things. “Maybe we'll fly to some exotic island somewhere and set up a hut and drink cocktails and make a new record,” Stuart says. “You gotta let off some steam and put your feet up now and again.”

Given the truly awesome year Hermitude have had, do they have a highlight? Surprisingly, Stuart doesn't nominate some mega festival, or even a small and intimate local happening. “We had, like, a really incredible show at the Prince Of Wales, when we launched HyperParadise. It was an awesome show, we sold the room out and the vibe of the audience was just fantastic. It was just a celebration of dropping the record. Yeah there's been a lot, but I think that was one of my favourite moments of 2012. It was also my birthday recently. I was born on New Year's Eve. We were playing at this festival in Perth and I had about five or six thousand people sing me Happy Birthday, so that was also really cool.”

Hermitude will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 31 January - Republic Bar, Hobart TAS
Friday 1 February - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 2 February - Jive, Adelaide SA
Tuesday 5 February - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 9 February - Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst NSW
Friday 15 - Monday 18 February - Earth Frequency Festival, Brisbane QLD
Thursday 21 February - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 20 April - Big Pineapple Music Festival, Woombye QLD