Amplifier

Local hip-hop outfit Home-Brew has always been one for the DIY route, and have done so rather successfully. Four EPs have been released (with a full-length on the way), there have been a couple of nationwide tours, and last Friday Home-Brew performed at Big Day Out for the first time.

Just like Home-Brew's music, this notion of 'do-it-yourself' is often (perhaps misguidedly) credited as being distinctly Kiwi. As vocalist Tom Scott explains, with the upcoming release of the EP Max Marx and Friedrich Calloway at Carnegie Hall, Home-Brew has outgrown that label and are ready to try a different tack.

Is this year's Big Day Out the first time Home Brew has played at Big Day Out?

Yes.

How do you feel about that?

It's the shit, it's cool! I don't really get caught up in the fact that it's the Big Day Out, it's just another gig really. But it'll be cool to have that many people there. I think playing to heaps of people is a buzz. As an artist, that's your whole point, you're trying to express yourself and it's pretty hard to do that to 21 people in Whangarei. So that'll be cool. It'll be choice to be on that stage.

What are some of your favourite memories from Big Day Out? How many times have you been?

I've been a few times, probably System of a Down was definitely one for me, that girl who broke her leg in the front row was some crazy shit. I think seeing Kings of Leon play 'Milk' when the sun was setting was fucking amazing. Seeing Xzibit was rad, when he was actually good.

The whole event is just crazy, so we'll hopefully make some more memories this year.

Have you got any tricks up your sleeve?

Actually, that's what we're working on. We rehearse a lot as a band, so we're just going to spend a day trying to do some tricks. We're trying to get a cannon in, maybe get some niche lights and pyrotechnics going. That's the dream.

What is your live performance like?

We just try to bring lots of energy and connect with the audience and let them be involved. That's the whole reason they like us in the first place is that they feel a part of it, they feel like they relate to our lyrics. I always get people coming up saying, 'Hey, Tom bro!', thinking I'm their long-lost cousin, so obviously I'm doing something that's making them relate to me. It's important on stage that we do the same kind of thing, but take that to another level and make them feel like they're part of the band and shout the choruses out. Just bring a lot of energy because they paid their money to come and see us. They could have just listened to us on their iPod, so we try to do something different.

I understand Home-Brew has a live band...

We've got Chip Matthews, he plays bass with us, he also plays with Opensouls, Anika Moa, all of that. And we've got a drummer, guitarist, saxophonist... but we're still trying to use samples, because I feel like live hip-hop bands sometimes sound like a Roots cover band. We try to make it different. Live hip-hop usually fails, so we're just trying our best not to do that.

Do you improvise or experiment much on stage?

When were using the keyboardist it was a lot easier because you're not stuck to a clip, there was a lot more jamming and things like that. Nowadays we just try to have a tight live performance and have songs locked down and the ideas locked down and make sure there's not a nanosecond of delay on each cut and things like that, so we're not really experimenting much at the moment, but we definitely experiment with how things are arranged and things like that. In terms of a 17-minute sax solo, there's not too much of that.

Your music has often been described as distinctly Kiwi, what does that mean to you?

I guess it's a good thing, I don't want to be the kiwifruit/gumboot rapper that sounds like the Kiwiburger ad, but I think it must be a good thing if I'm reflecting my environment in my music. I sort of rebelled against that lately, I'm sort of sick of being the barbeque rapper, I've been doing a lot of things that are the opposite of that but it's definitely a good thing. I wouldn't want to sound American or sound anything I'm not, I don't think any artist would want to sound anything they're not. I guess I must be Kiwi, I didn't realise I was that much of a kiwi, but I guess I must be.

So you obviously don't feel any pressure to maintain that distinct New Zealand sound?

No, I'd rather rebel against it if anything. I don't want to make another album about barbeques and being on the dole. I always like to push things.

The new release we've put together, Max Marx and Friedrich Calloway, that's kind of the opposite of Home-Brew. I think that's how music happens, like ska was being played in all of the rich touristy places so people started to make reggae. As an artist I will always be rebelling against whatever I was doing last.

How do the dynamics of the group work, particularly when you're writing music?

Writing music it's usually Haz and I. For those EPs we pretty much just got drunk and high and made the music. If it's fun it'll come along and I think that's the key dynamic, just to have fun. If you're just sitting there, trying to get a good feeling out of something, you'll keep pushing yourself until you find that good feeling and that good feeling might come from a cool hook or a catchy riff or experimenting with some kind of jam on the keys. Whatever it is, we'll make the music. So I think as long as the fun's there, then that's the main dynamic. We're trying to write as a band these days as well.

So it's not like Haz makes the beats and you write the lyrics and it comes together?

Yeah, it still is that because a lot of our stuff is reinterpreted from what Haz has done. Live, that's definitely it. But this next EP that we're doing, we really want to include the band and build from nothing rather than reinterpreting the beats and I'd like to go that track. We've got heaps of tracks ready for it and we should be done with it soon.

Do you know when that might be released?

I have no idea because we have no record label, so it's just up to us.

Is there a plan for a full-length release any time soon?

Yeah, definitely. That's going to be this year. It's going to be overwhelming, but it's gotta be done. It's easy to make an EP because it feels like it's an extended single. To make an album, I always feel like albums should be a journey, so I'm just trying to find what kind of journey we want to take people on with that and figure it out.

Are you going to try for Air New Zealand funding with this one?

Yeah, I'm not against free money, that's for sure! I think they've finally started to change the way they do things and that's cool and if they want to help support us then that's cool.