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TZU.
 When a band releases an album, they typically tour behind it and play most of the songs featured on it over and over again. But TZU don't like rules. Sure they've released an album and tour dates have already been organised, but most of the songs heard at these gigs won't come from their new long player, 'Smiling At Strangers'. According to MC and multi-instrumentalist Emseed, they're currently only playing four of the album's 14 tracks live "because we wrote them for the studio, we didn't even write them to be played live so we're now trying to interpret them."
In light of this, it's perhaps unsurprising that 'Smiling At Strangers' is a markedly different album to TZU's sample-heavy, upbeat debut, 'Position Correction': this time around, they've brought in live instruments, a few tracks so slow and mournful they could be dirges and even a couple of instrumentals. According to Seed, the move was a conscious decision because "we just wanted to play music and we don't want to be a hip-hop group; we want to be a group that makes music and uses hip-hop as one of its forms, one of the main forms." In the process they've added another level of expression to their music, which has helped them "make a richer album and set ourselves in stone as a more diverse band".
One of the most noticeable results of the new process is that Seed and Joelistics have a far larger musical input, something that they're clearly happy about and that beatmakers Yeroc and Paso Bionic have been able to adapt to. "Joel and I only had one musical song each on that last album, whereas this one is pretty much our songs then interpreted by the band. So we go 'here's the chords, this is how it goes' and then they write a beat for it or they give ideas."
A great example of the results of this new creative process is In Front Of Me, a contribution that Seed is proud of despite his throwaway claim that "it's a bit of a nothing track". After waking up one morning, he put the chords together and came up with a chorus and verse before taking it down to the studio and letting Yeroc record the guitar and add a beat. Then, as he says, "I came back at the end of the day and I had this bloody song on a CD. I played it to my girlfriend when she got home and she'd heard me writing the first chords when she left the house."
Unsurprisingly, such an immediate creative process doesn't allow much room for collaboration, though Seed hardly seems aware of this before it's brought to his attention. "We meant to do more on the first album," he starts before pausing and laughingly admitting "and we didn't do any, did we? We haven't done any at all, come to think of it." Joking aside, "...it's something that we've always meant to do, it just hasn't worked out. It hasn't been a planned thing - we've tried it but it hasn't worked", but Seed is adamant that any collaboration would be with friends. "I don't know if we'd ever get a rapper who's not part of our crew." The way he says it, it's clear that rather than expressing any distaste for other rappers, he's merely making clear the affinity he feels for the burgeoning numbers of like minded souls in the Melbourne (and Sydney) scene.
It seems strange to have spent the greater part of an article talking about the new album of a group renowned for its great live show, and it would be greatly amiss of me not to mention it at all. It's not an easy show to rehearse for because, as Seed says, "we require an element of chaos in our shows to make it what it is, so there's got to be a bit of improvisation, a bit of freestyle." Nevertheless, it's a show that rarely leaves heads disappointed because though TZU are no session players by their own admission, they can sure belt out a tune and the chaotic nature of the shows means that you never can tell what's going to happen.
Alexis Buxton-Collins
 | Smiling At Strangers' is out now through Liberation and TZU play at the Crown & Sceptre on Sat 17 Sept. |
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