Source : the age
As a solo artist and one half of ARIA-winning duo A.B. Original (with Trials), Yorta Yorta artist Adam Briggs has long been one of Australia’s most acclaimed and popular rappers. But he has a simple response for anyone who might be confounded by his sudden, and unexpected, pivot to hardcore punk.
“Those imaginary lines of ‘you can’t do this’ and ‘you shouldn’t do that because you do this’? First of all, I’ll do what the f— I want,” he says with a laugh from his home in Melbourne.
“Second, I do things I’m passionate about and that I have my heart in. I just wanted to do something different. I wanted to make a different kind of record and just explore.
“If you look at my career and the things I’ve done, I’ve always done different shit. I’ve done rap, comedy, written kids’ books, written episodes of TV. I’ve acted in films, I’ve acted in TV. I’ve always done something different, so this shouldn’t be such a surprise.”
The perfectly titled Songs in the Key of Wrestling is Briggs’ debut hardcore album with his new band Big Noter (the band also features Steve Smith on drums, with Leigh Davies on guitars and Craig Strain on bass). If the sonic delivery is different, the tenacity is signature Briggs.
Over thunderous riffage, opener My Genocide preaches collective liberation; It’s All Good Til It’s Not questions moral complacency; and Identity celebrates pride in self-determination. Album closer What’s the Matter with Adam? is a rhetorical dig at our mental health crisis.
“There are all these sick people, so at some point the system has failed,” says Briggs. “Even for me, I’m looked at as some kind of well-off dude, but for me to be able to get in to see a psych, it’s taken nearly 18 months. Some people don’t have the capacity and the facilities to wait that long.”
What prompted him to seek mental health treatment? “Just trying to be a better person, man, that’s all. I’m not an emergency case, I don’t hear voices and stuff,” he says with a laugh.
“I’m a fortunate person and I get to express myself in a lot of interesting ways, and I’m forever grateful for that, but I don’t measure my personal success as the benchmark for where we’re at as a society and as a community. If my mates are struggling, so am I.
“People will talk about going to see their personal trainer and whatever, but there’s a stigma around seeking therapy or seeking mental health treatment. The sooner we equate physical health and mental health as one and the same, the better off we’re all going to be.”
‘It’s the same moral code and the same values, which to me is the most important part of anything I do.’
It’s immediately clear on Songs in the Key of Wrestling that no matter the genre, righteous fury remains the driving force behind Briggs’ creative expression. His work is a literal manifestation of John Lydon’s famous claim that “anger is an energy”.
“For sure, but I have to balance it with humour,” Briggs says, pointing to songs like What Ya Swingin’ At and Big Noter (recorded with Idles singer Joe Talbot) that revel in brash braggadocio.
“It’s meant to be over-the-top, like an action movie, the kind of stuff we grew up on. Because the thing is, when I’m angry, bro, I can’t focus. I’ve got to be Zen when I write, I’ve got to be calm to focus, and that’s when the anger comes through. But even when they’re angry, these songs are fun. Because there’s a release to it. Finally, you get to breathe.”
Hip-hop and hardcore have always lived side by side for Briggs. As a ’90s kid growing up in Shepparton in country Victoria, Rage and Recovery were his gateways to heavy music. “Scratch the Surface by Sick of It All, that was a huge one for me,” Briggs recalls. “And then I found Terror’s One with the Underdogs EP when that dropped. That was very much my kind of shit.”
Born in the streets and community halls and fuelled by alienation, hip-hop and hardcore have always shared more similarities than differences. It’s Public Enemy sporting Minor Threat tees. Ice-T fronting Body Count. Even Beastie Boys were a hardcore band before they bought an 808 drum machine.
“And Sick of It All are a band from Queens, you know what I mean?” adds Briggs. “I hung out with them for a bit, and Lou [Koller, the Sick of It All singer, who died in July] – rest in peace, legend – was telling me stories about seeing Kool G Rap outside his high school. They were up on all their rap shit because they’re all from the same ’hood.”
Even today’s biggest hip-hop stars, like Travis Scott and rage-rappers Playboi Carti and Ken Carson embrace the overlap. Look at their gigs and they resemble hardcore shows: there’s a circle pit going, kids are stage-diving and slam-dancing, complete release.
“The boundaries are imaginary, bro. They don’t exist,” says Briggs of the genre switch. “It’s what I felt doing this Big Noter record. It’s the same message, it’s just how I’ve chosen to deliver it. Not much really had to change. It’s the same moral code and the same values, which to me is the most important part of anything I do.”
In a nod to the overlap, he recruited some famous friends to appear on the album. On What’s the Matter with Adam?, Tom Morello of iconic rap-rockers Rage Against the Machine contributes a typically blistering guitar solo that sounds like turntablism-meets-Space Invaders.
On the interlude A Message from Chuck, Briggs gets his friend Chuck D of Public Enemy to deliver a few words shouting out Yorta Yorta Nation and calling out January 26. “I wanted to pay homage to rap because I didn’t want to create this idea that I was leaving hip-hop,” Briggs says.
“When I wrote a kids’ book I wasn’t leaving hip-hop. When I was writing for Disenchantment with Matt Groening I wasn’t leaving hip-hop. But suddenly I shift genres and I’ve left something behind? Nah, that’s not it.
“Having Chuck on the record is just an acknowledgment of the community he’s been a part of as well,” Briggs adds, noting Public Enemy’s famous link-up with heavy music stalwarts Anthrax on 1991’s Bring the Noise. “He sent it back with multiple takes and I was like, sick.”
It did, however, create one lasting bit of light-hearted concern. “I was saying to a mate, like, in this world of AI, I bet a lot of people will think I just got this AI Chuck D to shout out Shepparton and Yorta Yorta Nation,” he says, laughing.
“But f— it because I know what’s what. A lot of the things I do on my albums and in my career are solely for me, so I don’t even trip.”
Big Noter’s Songs in the Key of Wrestling is out now. The band will perform at The Tote in Melbourne on September 19.
