INTERVIEW: Onra

French beatmaker, ONRA is making a return to Australia this month after his jaw-dropping debut headline tour in 2011. ONRA's live show features a range of hardware, gear and special surprises. He strays away from laptops, making him unique on the scene and a favourite amongst the traditional hip-hop heads. In anticipation for his return, we were lucky to have a few words with him!

Firstly, as a Hip-Hop producer, do you remember the first Hip-Hop record you bought?

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It's a bit confused after all these years, but I think it was a Rap compilation, with all major artists at the time, such as Run DMC, LL Cool J, Public Enemy... Even MC Hammer was on it. I got this cassette at the supermarket.

Your Chinoiseseries albums are a throwback to your Viet heritage. What were the challenges in sampling old Asian folk music compared to the western-influenced funk and soul music which is much more common in Hip-Hop?

I really did not think about what I was doing, I was just having fun with something new. I laced half of the album in 3 days cause I just got back from my trip to Viet Nam and it was the first time hearing such melodies. That's why it sounds so basic as well, because I never took it seriously. I thought it was gonna be my third and last official album, so I kind of did not care about it too much. The second one though, I took it more seriously, and it was definetely a challenge to go through this kind of music once again to create something new. It was also a real challenge cause most of the albums are crap, you have to listen to hundreds of really bad songs only to find a few seconds you can make something with.

What were you looking for in particular when digging through old Asian records, in comparison to digging through more conventional funk or soul?

I had no idea what I was buying, I'm not chinese and I can't read chinese or any other asian language. I bought some vietnamese records but mostly chinese, so I just instinctly chose them by the cover cause I coud not read or listen. And I learnt that, it doesn't work like when you dig for other stuff, you really can't trust the cover, that's why I got a lot of crap.

Your collaboration with T3 must have been a dream for a Slum Village fan such as yourself. If you could collaborate with any producer, and also any MC, living or dead, who would they be?

Yes, it was definetely a dream come true to work with a member of Slum Village. I never thought it would happen, and I was actually surprised how easy it did. We made another song a couple years later, and we still have never formally met.

I'm not really at ease with those "dream collab" questions, I have no idea how could I pick one person, especially if I can choose amongst dead people. But if you already know I'm such a Slum Village fan, then you know the answer to that question already.

Are there any Australian producers reaching international ears, or at least your ears in Paris?

Ta-Ku is blowing up! I heard him everywhere I went out. Paris, New York, Tokyo... We were at the Red Bull Music Academy together back in 2008 and it's great to see him finally explode.

When you perform live there is no laptop, just analogue gear such as your MPCs. Is this an important aspect of your performance for you to maintain, and if so, why?

It's just the instrument I've always used to make music, so it makes sense I perform with it but I also like the symbolic Hip-Hop reference behind those machines. It's cool that only a few people are doing it like that. It makes us stand out from the regular computer/controller set. We also take more risks, and I guess that's what makes it exciting too. If you have to perform several times a week, and the only thing you do is "press play" on a pre-programmed session on your laptop, then yes, you're not gonna make any mistake, it's probably going to sound exactly like how you want it to be, but I guess it gets a little boring too. Everytime I have to be on point, really focused or else it's silence.

Yatha Bhuta Jazz Combo was a completely new direction for you to take. What did you learn from the experience of composing an album from live instrumentation rather than samples?

It's not really a direction I take, it's more somewhere I wanted to experiment, it doesn't mean I'm gonna keep on doing it. This project was just completely selfish and spontaneous, it started on a night where we got really high, and we were just tripping, having fun with different virtual instruments and percussions. It was very much a delightful experience, to record myself playing instruments live. I felt so free from the usual sample-based method I have with the MPC. We really had fun doing it, and we are proud of it even if most people thought it was way too weird.

Lastly, what advice could you give to the new-wave of budding hip-hop producers?

Do it for the love (only).

Learn piano or guitar.

Do what you really feel and try to come up with your own ideas.

Keep your day job until you really can live off of it.

Trust your instinct.

Keep your business straight.

And fuck what everybody else is thinking about it.

ONRA - AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES

July 18 - Howler, MELBOURNE

July 19 - Oxford Art Factory, SYDNEY

July 20 - The Bakery, PERTH