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Unplugged & On Stage: Horrorshow & Co Are Going Back To Basics

Cyclone Wehner

"But we've actually been doing this kind of thing for a long, long time - pretty much ever since we started playing gigs."

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Sydney hip hop combo Horrorshow have enjoyed an epic 2017. In February, MC Solo (aka Nick Bryant-Smith) and beatmaker Adit Gauchan presented Bardo State, landing in the ARIA Top Five. Then, mid-year, they embarked on an extensive Australian headline tour - following an appearance at Atmosphere's US Soundset Festival. Horrorshow even reinterpreted The Whitlams' 1997 No Aphrodisiac for triple j's Like A Version, impressing its original vocalist. "I wouldn't have thought a year ago that I'd be mates with Tim Freedman!" Bryant-Smith enthuses.

Bryant-Smith and Gauchan launched Horrorshow as high schoolers, signing to Elefant Traks for 2008's debut, The Grey Space. The duo crossed over with their third outing, King Amongst Many, which was shortlisted for 2013's Australian Music Prize. Meanwhile, they established the super-crew One Day with Joyride, Spit Syndicate and Jackie Onassis, culminating in the blockbuster Mainline. Late last year Horrorshow announced their comeback with cut If You Know What I Mean, recruiting B Wise and hip hop polymath Omar Musa for the tour. Bardo State arrived as the pair's deepest album, thematising life passages (the title is inspired by Bardo Thodol, the Tibetan Book Of The Dead). The Jezabels' lead vocalist Hayley Mary is a revelatory guest.

Now Horrorshow are returning to the road in an unusual acoustic iteration, some of the seven shows already selling out. (Additionally, they're heading Port Macquarie's Festival Of The Sun.) They'll perform as a live band with the versatile Gauchan donning bass, plus a guitarist (Jono Graham from the hip electro outfit Left.), keyboardist and drummer. "It's fun to kind of reinvent things and keep things fresh," Bryant-Smith notes.

Pre-rehearsal, the biggest challenge has been rearranging the songs. "It is a sort of involved process, getting this tour format ready, I guess," Bryant-Smith explains. "Normally we have the tracks produced and ready to go. Adit chucks them on the turntables and we're good to go. But, with this process, you're really breaking the songs down into their basic elements, so then you have to build them back up again." Bryant-Smith feels the acoustic approach accentuates Horrorshow's "musicality" and his lyricism. "It kind of really strips back a lot of the noise and hype and energy from a normal rap show." Crucially, it's an intimate experience for the performers and audiences alike. "It's a little bit terrifying, but also really, really rewarding."

Horrorshow first travelled with an unplugged set in 2015. "But we've actually been doing this kind of thing for a long, long time - pretty much ever since we started playing gigs," Bryant-Smith stresses. "We started out doing them here in Sydney, just at local pubs and stuff, with a lot of the same musicians that are still involved in the show today." The difference is that now they have a budget.

Bryant-Smith is "super-stoked" that Taj Ralph, who sang on the Bardo State single Push, will support them. He discovered the teen busker in beachside Manly, describing it as "serendipity". Recently, Ralph was nominated as a triple j Unearthed High finalist, going on to open for Kim Churchill. Ralph joined Horrorshow to perform Push at Sydney's Enmore Theatre in June ("it was just such a special moment," Bryant-Smith recalls) and they'll make that a feature. "We might even get him to sing some stuff on a couple of the other tracks."

Horrorshow have named the tour after their romantic current single, Cherry Blossom - a fan favourite now rivalling 2009's Walk You Home, complete with quirky animated video. Bryant-Smith tells of punters proposing to their partners during live renditions. "I think it says a lot about the connection that lots of people have had with that tune."

Horrorshow have no intention of taking a hiatus in 2018 - and hip hop heads won't have to wait for new material. "Yeah, [we] definitely wanna release more Horrorshow music as soon as we can," Bryant-Smith assures. "I think we've learned that one of the best things you can do as a band is to just keep things rolling and keep the momentum up." They may drop an EP next. "There's also been some vague talks between the One Day guys about getting together to work on some music, but it's in a pretty casual sense. I think we're just kind of excited about the idea of hanging out together and being creative together."