“There’s a handful of groups that are really the pioneers of bringing the culture forward in the country,” he says. “First it was 1200 Techniques who had success on radio, then the Hoods were the first real big group. We were the second, equally as big group, and we led the way with them [and] a bunch of other acts. We’re very blessed and honoured to be a part of some of those pioneering artists.”
Next month Notley and his compeers, MC Eso (Max MacKinnon) and DJ Izm (Tarik Ejjamai), bring their Circus Under The Stars tour to Melbourne. As well as being Bliss N Eso’s biggest tour yet, it’s another instance of the chart-topping group breaking new ground. Boasting a multimedia stage show, right now the threesome are taking over a stack of huge venues nationwide, coming to Flemington Racecourse on Friday May 16 (and stopping off in Ballarat and Bendigo on the way). What’s more, they’ve got Melbourne MC Seth Sentry and Sydney duo Horrorshow along for the ride.
“It’s probably the strongest lineup we’ve ever had,” Notley says. “This tour is almost a mini-festival. They’re all outdoor shows, we’re creating that atmosphere. It’s licensed and all ages, so there’s no restrictions there. It’s exciting to us to do something on this scale and also to bring it to so many regional centres that are starved for any kind of live music, especially hip hop.”
Not only is the luminous Circus In The Sky album artwork being amplified into an onstage visual feast, for the first time Bliss N Eso are backed by a live band that “brings an entirely new energy to the show, which is fantastic,” Notley says. “The DJ’s still the heart and soul in terms of the beats that everyone knows, it’s just we’re adding onto that. It’s more embellished and a little bit deeper. It’s nice to spice things up and it really brings another dimension to the performance.”
Teaming up with a full live band – featuring guitars, drums, grand piano and backing vocals – might seem like a curious decision for a group that’s very comfortably used an old school MCs-and-DJ set-up since forming near the turn of the 21st century. However, Notley explains they’ve been toying with the idea of live backing for years.
“I think it was just a natural evolution; it was always inevitable. We actually had a gig back in the day with a band called True Live. It was just a one-off where the band actually played all our beats for us live and it was amazing. The energy onstage was phenomenal and we were loving it. Ever since then we’ve always said, ‘Man, we’ve got to get a live band going!’”
Thankfully, expanding the band’s personnel hasn’t forced the show schedule to be any shorter. As Notley mentioned, in addition to all the major cities, the Circus Under The Stars is visiting a large chunk of regional Australia. This move reflects Bliss N Eso’s ongoing efforts to spread Australian hip hop to many of the nation’s less frequented regions.
“We’re bringing hip hop to some of these regional centres who have never had hip hop shows before, ever. We were the first group to do that. Even that is breeding more bedroom MCs, more artists that are coming up.”
Speaking of MC-breeding, touring partners Seth Sentry and Horrorshow are two acts advantaged by the game-changing foundations laid by the likes of Hilltop Hoods and Bliss N Eso. Horrorshow’s third record King Amongst Many made it to this year’s Australian Music Prize shortlist, while Sentry’s This Was Tomorrow LP has just achieved Gold-sales accreditation. The decision to bring both of these estimable contemporaries on tour goes deeper than their impressive individual feats.
“We’ve pretty much always toured with local acts,” says Notley. “The Australian community’s pretty tight – we’re mates with most of these guys. It was a no-brainer for us [to say], ‘Well, let’s get Seth and Horrorshow involved.’”
While Bliss N Eso and their fellow hip hop pioneers certainly paved the way for the wave of Australian performers rising up in the last few years, that doesn’t mean a bunch of sound-alikes emerged. Indeed, by now the collective tag ‘Aussie hip hop’ is ill-equipped to account for the diversity of music being made.
“When I’m driving around it’s amazing how often I hear Australian hip hop artists on triple j,” Notley says. “It freaks me out, there’s all these new artists coming out that I’ve never even heard of. The quality of the music is just getting so much better these days and it really has evolved so much from its humble beginnings. It’s really good to see and it’s inspiring.”
Far from being superseded by the new crop of innovative acts, Bliss N Eso’s success continues to flourish. 2013’s Circus In The Sky, their fifth LP, echoed the impact of 2010’s Running On Air by going straight to number one (in fact Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories was the only higher-selling album in Australia last year). Despite the commercial triumphs, they aren’t resting on their laurels just yet.
“Every time you put out a record,” Notley says, “you have to inject all your heart and soul into it, do the best you can. The main thing is you’re feeling it, that’s first and foremost. We don’t really go in with major expectations of, ‘We’ve got to sell this much,’ or, ‘We’ve got to hit this number of views on our videos,’ because that kind of thinking can sabotage the creative process. We just try to focus on the music and then if people like it, they like it.”
Of course, giving complete attention to the artistic particulars is easier said than done, as success inevitably conjures a maelstrom of distractions. “I’m not going to lie – sometimes the external factors definitely play a part in our thinking,” Notley admits. “It’s almost impossible to totally cut it out because obviously you need to be aware of what’s going on in your career and make certain decisions based on what’s happening. But fundamentally the idea is to try to faze everything out and just focus on the music.”
Notley’s working relationship with his bandmates stretches back to their late-‘90s high school years and the trio’s tightly woven bond clearly helps to fend off outside contamination. Likewise, having persevered through all of the dismissive scrutiny in the early days of Aussie hip hop allows Bliss N Eso to truly appreciate where they are now.
“We’ve been together as a group for well over 15 years and we’ve built this platform where we’ve got the attention of people. Sometimes you get a little bit burnt out by the years and years of plugging away and you just need to remember how hard you’ve worked to get here. It’s inspiring to go, ‘Fuck man, I’m sitting in this position where people care what I say.’ I can put everything into it and actually bypass what it was when we started; how hard it was just to get people to hear your music.
“I don’t want to get complacent and lazy now,” Notley adds, “because that’s when the next generation is going to come up and basically take over. You need to remember where you come from, appreciate the fact that you got to where you are, realise how special that is and then embrace that.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
