Coda Conduct On What They've Learned From Their Five Years In The Biz

Like many reflections, hindsight can be a tricky lens to look through. Would you have done something differently? Are there possible alternate outcomes you dream about? What if you had chosen the other path and would you like where it leads? It’s funny that when we think about an alternative to now, it’s always positive... That is, "If I had just done that thing, I could be… (insert life’s aspiration here)." In all reality it could have led to something far worse than your life as you know it now. Sometimes all we ever need is a little push; a friendly voice offering support or a trusted educator to pass on intangible pearls of wisdom. What if you knew then what you know now?

This week I caught up with Sally Coleman of hip hop duo Coda Conduct discussing some things the incredibly talented hip hop duo wished they’d known back then…

"A lot of people say we’re ‘new’ and in some regards I guess you never stop being ‘new…’ We’ve been around four or five years now but the reason there’s not really a tangible starting point is because we started gigging before we started recording. I was living in Sydney but I’d go to Canberra every weekend to play shows… I guess things happened in an order for us that it doesn’t always happen for others."

So how did some of Canberra’s best emcees take their first step? I wondered if there was managerial support around not just the step, but the footprint it leaves behind too.

"It never occurred to us we were the type of band a manager would be interested in… When we realised that we had community support we decided to go out on a limb and while it felt like a huge risk we bought a mic and went to record some actual music. When we first put a track on triple j Unearthed, it was played a week later on triple j Breakfast and all of a sudden people wanted to know who we were. For them you’re someone out of nowhere but for you you’ve been doing it for years and it’s a logical step… it was really exciting but also a terrifying feeling to be way over your head all of a sudden… realising that there aren’t as many barriers or ceilings as you thought… that really takes away your safety blanket." 

In the late 90s/early naughties (you can’t make the millennial sound ‘hip hop’ unless your Will Smith #willennium) getting ‘signed’ was the main priority. The contract opened an unfathomable vehicle for career trajectory and more importantly was a justifiable statement; a recognition of your talent as an artist. Thanks to the internet however this is no longer the case. In 2017 we can earn recognition without leaving our house or even playing a show, plus (I might add) everyone seems to be getting a little squeamish around labels. In all honesty I think the whole concept is a little romanticised but were (or are) record labels of importance to you?

"It was something that was so far out of our field of vision we never thought of it, but at the moment there seems to be two camps; there’s the camp that says ‘labels are obsolete and don’t bother’ and then there’s camp ‘I have to sign because that’s what’s always been done and I need it to get the project off the ground.’ For us we reckon it’s super contextual, if we had a release we thought would benefit from a label we’d definitely consider it but for now it’s on the ‘think about another time’ pile. What I would offer as advice though is to think small picture, what does this EP or album need? Then later you can think bigger picture."

Let me point out a few accolades on the duo's CV: They’ve received unearthed and triple j airplay, are also regular triple j presenters, present their own show What’s Good on FBi Radio, have supported Thundamentals, Pharoahe Monch and Charli 2Na, played festivals like Groovin The Moo and Spilt Milk AND both have time to study — how have you found such an incredible response to your tireless endeavours!?

"Look there were a lot of dead ends," Coleman admits. "We’ve never had a publicist so we do our own press. We took it upon ourselves to make sure music media and potential fans were getting our music. We didn’t have a Mail Chimp, we emailed one by one. It was horrible and time consuming but I’d possibly recommend it! My one hot tip? AMRAP."

I like to think I have my head pretty close to the speaker, but I too was scratching my head on this one. "Go on..." I encouraged.

“Oh my God! It’s a community radio mail out program. You submit your tracks online and if it’s accepted they’ll send out physical copies of your CD and press releases to stations they think will play it. It’s a community project and it’s absolutely incredible! The best thing is you can go on their website and see which station is playing what artist. It’s an amazing resource that I wish more musicians knew they had access to, it’s built to help artists get in touch with community radio, it’s absolutely fantastic!"

Already I wanted to scurry back to my laptop and start applying tracks. How is it that more up-and–comers aren’t aware of the service? There are so many institutions offering music-focussed education nowadays... Their marketing presence is peddled more than your first BMX which means they must be doing something right. It also means the now available tertiary degrees in classes such as Entertainment Business Management invite more competition than ever. Are these types of institutions worth a $40,000 HECS debt knowing our government is about to make it a whole lot harder to pay back?

"The first and foremost thing you need in any industry is relationships with people. Going to music-focussed education institutions allows you to meet great people and keep those connections for the rest of your life. But you can also do that at gigs, interning or writing for your local street press… I think the best way to do it is just get involved. Graduating doesn’t give you everything you need, it might just be a starter kit and you really need to do the rest yourself… But look I haven’t been and it’s not fair for me to write it off, I’m sure you get some great things out of it. I just think if you spent two years of your life doing three days a week volunteering in a music position, you would ‘graduate’ with zero debt, two years of industry experience and a network. Now that doesn’t necessarily give you everything, but I’m cynical of anyone making profit out of education…"

I asked Coleman about whether the rapid rise in social status affected her. If being in the public eye had resulted in a change to which she or their music was treated.

"I guess what stressed us out was having to immediately deliver more. More music, more clips ‘keep this momentum rolling’ etc. That was great in some regard but also panicked us into thinking we needed to be the best or our moment in the spotlight was up."

Music is not fleeting. There is a cyclical concept where you create music (rise), release music (peak), tour (plateau) and then move on (decline). If this is the case however how can Salt-N-Pepa still be touring? Why is Tupac’s Changes still relevant 19 years later?

"It’s really easy for an artist to look at someone else billed on a line-up and say ‘that could have been mine.’ In reality, every woman I’ve spoken to knows that’s not the case; there could have been four women on that line-up!"

"It’s a system that’s been made that doesn’t necessarily benefit the artist. 'New' is a small aspect of music. Our peak Spotify plays wasn’t a week after Click Clack (Front N Back)’s release, it was six months later… it’s reassuring to know you can get natural longevity off a song people connect with simply because they’ll want to keep listening to it. In a way the industry's obsession with ‘newness’ keeps it competitive but it would be a real shame if it didn’t get played just because it wasn’t picked up immediately."

What I’m constantly learning through these pieces (and I hope you playing along at home are too) is that music doesn’t have to be competitive; an answer to competition is contribution. That is; you don’t have to drag someone down to get the spotlight, there’s plenty of light to go round when you’re making your own.

"We often get tokenistically included in playlists or line-ups. It can give you some great promotion or a look-in on festivals or whatever…" (I could tell Coleman was trying to make the best out of what is actually completely sexist and plain ignorant). "But it’s really easy for an artist to look at someone else billed on a line-up and say ‘that could have been mine.’ In reality, every woman I’ve spoken to knows that’s not the case; there could have been four women on that line-up! The industry gears you to try and fit a particular lane, but from our perspective we’ve seen the more successful our female peers get, the more success is vicariously given to us. What I’m getting at is that’s a broader metaphor for the wider industry, if your peers are doing well, you’ll cop some of that shine."

I suppose when one is navigating foreign and unknown territory it must be easy to get lost however. Was there ever a time you felt exploited, misled or hopeless in trying to portray your music and its message?

"Honestly I think we still feel lost on most fronts! The difference is we know now that everyone is, even the best bands. There’s no road map, you make it up as you go along. It’s like the moment you realise your parents were your age now when they had kids… no one knows what the fuck they’re doing, you just do what you think works."

I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to speak to an emcee who can so honestly describe that the industry isn’t beer and skittles. There’s no one size fits all, it’s not all bar tabs and radio time and the lifestyle can be exploitative on your reason for making music in the first place. Coleman goes on to tell me about scrapping a finished EP before its release last year.

"The industry doesn’t care what you do, nor should you bend to what it ‘expects’ from you. It was a really tough thing to go through without mentoring but we just wanted to go back to what we loved."

So, if you did know then, what you know now?

"Don’t panic, don’t stress, just enjoy yourself and have fun. Be ok with asking for help whoever that may be from, just don’t be afraid to ask."

Coda Conduct have a new clip coming out this weekend at Vivid and they’re supporting Thundamentals at the Enmore, Saturday 3 June. Do yourselves a favour and keep an eye on these two brilliant emcees.