Phatchance is an alternative hip-hop artist from Sydney who creates a unique brand of introspective local hip-hop blending electronic, acoustic and indie textures. He’s just released an acoustic EP containing thorough re-workings of songs from his debut album Inkstains and will be touring the disc nationally later this year.
What was the first band you saw live?
I’m fairly sure I was busting out front row of a Wiggles concert at some point, but my first memorable band experience was an all day hip-hop festival at Luna Park sometime around 2003.
What’d you learn from them?
So much. This was at a point when Australian hip-hop was just starting to worm it’s way into the national conscious, I got to watch most of my favourite bands all in the one place and I learned first hand how important it is to make your music available to younger people and to pour as much energy as possible into your live show.
Got any pre-gig rituals?
I try to remind myself to warm up before I go on stage, I think most rap artists don’t really do that stuff but it’s important for me because I sing (badly) a fair bit too. Making sure there’s batteries in the microphones is usually a good one also, there’s been a few iffy moments where I’ve seen a flashing red bar as we head into the last few songs of the set, life would be easier if I did Opera.
What do you think the most important issue facing artists in NSW is?
It’s definitely adaptability, technological innovation and huge changes in the way we perceive and consume music have made the industry volatile and prone to rapid change, it’s really important for local artists to develop the flexibility to deal with a changing market and find niche spots within an increasingly global music scene. I think the extremely rapid decline of Myspace is a perfect example of just how dangerous it can be to invest too many eggs in a particular basket, remaining on top of social media trends and finding ways to make budgets stretch is really important to the survival of local artists without the luxury of a huge marketing push.
If you weren’t a musician, what do you reckon you’d be doing?
Probably playing poker, I’ve never really been able to deal with too much structure and there’s just enough excitement and unpredictability there to keep me on the hook.