Beats Working

I don't know how to do a bio without sounding like a complete tosser or a desperado willing to say anything to get a record deal and become famous, so maybe you can just send this letter to any prospective labels, venues, media gurus, record industry scum etc etc.
So where to start? Well, firstly we can safely say that we're a hip hop group. I think listening to our music should make that rather obvious, so let's just leave that there. Hopefully we're doing something different though - we're trying to at least. We all love hip hop, and Australian Hip Hop holds a special place in our hearts because it is a truly Australian art form. I know a lot of people who don’t really hear the music say that Oz Hip Hop is just copying what the yanks do, but take a listen to most artists around today and the last thing any of them want to do is end up sounding like Jay-Z (not to bag Jay-Z, I love his music but I'm not from Brooklyn, if you know what I mean). Actually, I think that artists like the Hilltop Hoods, the Herd, Urthboy, Pegz, Bliss n Esso - they're all doing something uniquely Australian without resorting to cliches like Beer and BBQ's and Pubs and let's be really Aussie and keep it underground. Contemporary Australian society is a complicated place, especially for people like us, who have to navigate through all the bullshit society throws at us. Australian hip hop allows us to express ourselves, who we are, what we're about, and all the complexity and nuance that comes along with being a twenty-something in a culture that doesn't really fit.
Shit, well that's how I feel about it anyway.
At the same time, as much as we all appreciate the history that comes with the culture we have chosen, we'll always be trying to mould it and change it and bend it to make it our own. That's why Beats Working has determined to be a little different. When people hear our album I want them to say "shit, that's a change!". Hopefully we've achieved that, because it's hard for an artist to get a clear perspective on the work they're doing. I was telling this to Tull - I don't think I'll ever be able to actually sit down and enjoy the music I make, because I'll always hear little imperfections, things I would have changed - and that will always be the case. You never finish a song, you just give up on it.
But I do think we have succeeded in making something that will stand out from the crowd. I'll never be able to tell if it's better, but at least I know that it's different. Sure, we do straight up Hip Hop - tracks like Mad Sip, Exercise, Music - but at the same time there are tracks on Harbour Drive that I hope don't sound like anything else out there. Think of Hey! Lena, which started out life as us trying to do a Hip Hop impression of The Strokes, and somehow ended up as this mishmash of Hip Hop, Pop, Rock and Country music - Phil Emmanuel's guitar work took care of the country bit of it rather well. Then you've got songs like The Piece and One More Reason and Don't You Know, which I think will come to define the Beats Working sound in the future. It's a combination of our influences really. Tull and Dan's obsession with Oz Hip Hop combined with my love for what Pop music is capable of when it's at it's best. I think those tracks are catchy enough to be called Pop songs without losing the edge that makes them credible and innovative and appealing to the discerning listener.
I don't know if we're quite there yet, but I think the best and most innovative music is always made where the underground meets Pop - which is not, in my book, a dirty word. Shit, sometimes I even find myself liking Britney Spears and Pink...although that is probably taking things a little far. Maybe a better reference is people like Timbaland and the Neptunes, who have both managed to make these huge pop tracks but still maintained the artistic integrity that will always make the underground love them (the exception is of course that Timbaland / One Republic song "Too Late To Apologise" or whatever, which is a monstrosity). I think that Oz Hip Hop, after years of being a purely underground art form, is ready to make that leap to a more widespread audience. The Hoods have already done it, and it's only a matter of time before someone else does it as well. I want to be involved in that.
But that's not to say that we'd be willing to make music that cynically targets a wide audience to the detriment of musical integrity. When it comes down to it, we make music for ourselves - nobody else. Beats Working will always be making music that stands up for what we love and what we hold dear in our lives (mainly beer and sex)
- J.B.
I love lamp...
- Handsome Dan