In the latest edition in our series of interviews with Perth artists, we spend a minute with Mathas and find out what’s happening…
Describe your music in five words or less.
Begrudgingly optimistic pisstake rap jargon
What’s going on right now in the world of Mathas?
I’m trying to finish the editing of a film clip for my song “White Sugar” that has taken months… hopefully it will be done in the coming week if the world decides to work properly. I’ve also been smashing through a bunch of rap collaborations, a few re-workings of songs by Benedict Moleta, an Injured Ninja remix and a couple of solo ‘one off’ singles for internet release. And by the end of the year Sibalance and I will have finally released a Math&Balance EP, the group I first started rapping out live in.
What are the worst and best gigs you’ve ever played and why?
The worst gig was when I was 13 in a band called Elixir at the Fly By Night Club supporting Beaverloop & Cinema Prague. I absolutely idolised Beaverloop, was nervous as shit, my voice was in the middle of breaking and we had to stand on stage in front of a sea of older kids. Naik was the guitarist, he broke a string and went for the back-up guitar, it wasn’t in tune, so he had to stand there with his 13 year old knowledge and a guitar tuner while I apologised to the crowd for the delay with a teste-popping little boy voice. I could hear older girls in the crowd going “awww they’re sooo cute.” It was frightening.
Best gig would probably be supporting Sage Francis. We’d organised the gig, gotten a good turnout and it was probably the first time where I felt like I was playing to a room full of ‘my’ people. I’m a big fan of Sage Francis, not a huuuge one, but the kind of people who listen to him understand why I make the music I do. There is nobody I appreciate more than a good listener. They are my kin.
Tell us something about your music that we might not know.
On my album 10lb Hairless Sasquatch, the song P.L.R.T stands for Past-Life Regression Therapy.
You’re putting together your perfect local gig? Who would you get to play, why and where? Feel free to include acts/DJs/bands/venues that no longer exist.
It would be a camp set up in the middle of the bush somewhere or outside at the Fremantle Arts Centre. Featuring a fair body of cats from The Community, not because I’m trying to sell our name but because I actually genuinely love a lot of the music they produce and perform. Three Perth songstresses Abbe May, Hayley Beth & Felicity Groom for the same reason, Injured Ninja doing a dub set and Tangled Thoughts of Leaving… something like that. Maybe the Sunshine Brothers or Cosmo Gets to bring the drunken stomp at the end, few cheese sausages cooked on sticks over the bonfire, bit of tent lovin’ going on about the place. Yeeaah. I reckon I’d dig that concert…
