‘We’ve been getting loose’, Spit Syndicate’s Just Enuf tells me as I enquire about the boys’ activities over the past few months.
‘We have man’, Nick Lupi continues, ‘we’ve been staying fairly busy. We put out an album in June and we’ve been doing a bit of touring to support that and yeah, just tryin’ to milk it for all it’s worth’.
And it would seem all this time spent in the creamery hasn’t gone to waste with the SS having recently been nominated for an ARIA. ‘It didn’t actually do much to our profile except hurt our heads in the morning’, Just laughs. ‘But it’s nice to get a mention and we’re very humbled by it. I mean it’s nice to be mentioned in the same breath as the other nominees. It was cool. It’s different for us, but it was definitely a cool experience man’.
‘The after-party was a real highlight’, Lupi interjects with a laugh. ‘The awards ceremonies themselves were fuckin’ boring as shit. I was waiting to get out man but the after-party was cool. It’s not often that you go into a place like Ivy… Well, it’s not often we go into a place like Ivy full stop, but with an open bar you know it was just cool’.
‘We spent the whole time at the awards with free alcohol, the whole thing was catered and then we got to the after-party and I got my wallet out ’cause I just assumed after eight hours of free piss I’d have to pay for something but not so’, Just adds with a sigh of fond nostalgia.
While both still in their early 20’s, Spit Syndicate have blazed a trail through the Sydney hip hop scene, selling out shows at The Oxford Art Factory and signing to local label heavyweight Obese Records.
‘We actually signed on the dotted line in February of this year’, Lupi informs me, ‘but we started talking to them in about November of last year. We were both overseas during the summer and we had this album ready and we were gonna put it out when we got back, it was just a matter of who we did it with’.
It would seem the boys made the right choice with the label throwing its full weight, no pun intended, behind the young duo, giving them a slot touring with Pegz and Muph & Plutonic.
‘That was a big thing for us, The Block Party Tour. We didn’t have many interstate trips until we did it and it was just before our album came out, so it was a great opportunity. We did a whole bunch of dates with the rest of the roster so it was a really good chance to push our music out there. We wouldn’t have been able to do it on our own so, you know, the more times you hit those states the better it gets’.
And getting can only get better with the boys consistently brining a live show to make your knee caps crumble, occasionally bringing in a live band to spice things up a bit.
‘If we could play live with a band every show that we did we probably would’, Lupi tells me, ‘but at the moment it’s just something we keep for special occasions. Logistically it’s a bit difficult –getting everyone together, then doing interstate stuff, and trying to get promoters to pay for 6 airfares and 6 accommodations. It’s something we’d definitely like to do down the track one day, but for now we’ve just got us and our one man band Dj Joyride’.
And a one man band he is, often taking over keys duties when the boys bring the band along.
‘You shoulda seen him smooth it out on Saturday’, Just laughs. ‘Girls were passing out, blokes were getting sweaty, it was a sight’.
With energy like this on stage it’s no wonder the boys have been doing so well on the touring circuit, but it seems as though they’re ready to take a break.
‘We’re working on some new music man’, says Lupi. ‘We’re sorta falling back from touring. We’ve got a couple more shows – couple of interstate shows – but for the most part we’re just trying to start working on the new album, working on some new music. We’ve been touring the shit out of this album. We’ve been playing it for two years now and as much as we enjoy it, it’s time to look forward, look to the future and work on some new music’.
Be sure to grab a copy of they boys’ debut Toward the Light out now through Obese Records and check them out at http://www.myspace.com/spitsyndicate
Photo By Jim Skouras
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