The Time Is Now

This first record is a huge stepping stone for Hayes, but easily one of his biggest accomplishments to date.

“I already had most of the tracks for the album sorted, but I needed help from other musicians,” he explains. “I happened to come across a band doing live stuff, and I basically just asked them if they wanted to incorporate some hip hop into what they were doing, so we just started jamming together. Then I asked them if they wanted to record on the album, which meant having to find out how we were going to do it because I basically already had half the tracks done with the producers and had never really worked with a band before. There was a lot of time working with the band and we spent a lot of time working on things, ditching bits and pieces and starting again. It was a lot of fun, but also really difficult. You’re working with seven different people and everyone’s got ideas and opinions. It was definitely more fun than hard, though. In a sense it is my baby – I wrote and composed the songs for the most part – but when it comes to doing the live parts, they had a lot of influence. It took a long time, longer than I wanted, but it was a big learning curve.”

Australian hip hop is the talk of the town at the moment, with a number of groups, particularly the pioneers in Hilltop Hoods, releasing new material. While the bar is higher than it’s ever been, Hayes believes it’s the best thing for the genre, providing greater inspiration to those wanting to get involved, something that can be felt across the country. “We went out to this town which is six hours inland of Carnarvon and we worked with the kids out there. We recorded with them and got them to make beats, and it was actually really amazing scoping out the talent out there. It was just as good for them as it was for us, which was great to see, particularly at such a grassroots level. I think it really shows that (Australian hip hop) is in a really good spot. Our artists and Aussie hip hop generally is getting bigger and bigger, and so are the opportunities for artists to really make something of themselves, and I’m hoping to keep pushing myself to do good things. I don’t want anything else I do to take as long as this first album did, so you should be hearing from me a more regularly in future.”