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Style High Club.
 When not gracing the city's stages, local hip-hop quartet Style High Club have spent the last three years working on their debut album 'Creativity Department'. It's a jazzy brew of beats and choice samples, including such unexpected, atypical hip-hop fare as Cream's Strange Brew, The Velvet Underground's Afterhours and The Cure's The Love Cats. "Pretty much there's two ways that we work," producer/vocalist Keith Oakden-Rayner explains when I ask how the band construct their tracks. "Most of the we go out and buy a lot of records, sample them and whatever works we'll build on from that, and the other way is that we think of a concept for a track and go through some records until we find something that suits - but usually it's the first way. Me and Tim [Heading] do most of the production - then Hugh [Jones] will add some percussion and [DJ] Nixon will add little scratches that he thinks suits."
It's been a long road to this point and Oakden-Rayner sounds exhausted just thinking about the recording process. "It was a very lengthy and steep learning curve," he sighs. "I'm sure the process to our next album will be a lot different to how we've done this one. It was pretty frustrating at times, and I guess we started off not really knowing what we were doing, but we're in a much better place now."
I surmise that being an Adelaide hip-hop crew means that comparisons with the Hilltop Hoods are inevitable, especially interstate. "It's pretty unavoidable. Not only will we get compared to the 'Hoods, but it's also a reference point for a lot of people when they come to a show or something like that. But I think that the results of them being so big are pretty positive: it's exposed a lot of people to the music that otherwise would probably have had nothing to do with it. We've noticed a change in the crowds at shows over the last year: a lot of people that you wouldn't appear to be traditional Australian hip-hop fans have been coming to shows."
Oakden-Rayner stumbles when I ask if the group have any overriding philosophy as per, say, the politically-charged likes of TZU. "I think... Well, I guess that we'd be about..."
Have a good time, all the time?
"No - I mean, there's still fun, but... hmmm... it's about positivity and honesty, I guess."
There's certainly some darkness on the record.
"Yeah, there is, definitely, but I think that's not being negative so much as frustrated, I guess. I mean, at no point on the album do I say that the world's screwed and that there's no hope for better times to come. It's just being frustrated at people not having long-term goals - I guess I'm thinking more politically there."
One thing that immediately struck me about the Style High Club is that, DJ Nixon aside, they've eschewed the standard policy of adopting group pseudonyms. I mean, since Oakden-Rayner's a hip-hop MC and producer, one might have expected him to come up with a stage name with a bit more zing than "Keith Oakden-Rayner". I mean, how about, ooh, I don't know, MC OakRay?
"I guess that comes from the action plan of honesty."
Or DJ Oak-K?
"Me and Tim do most of the lyrics and honesty's always been at the heart of the message the music conveys, and we just felt that [taking on noms de rap] could..."
Block-Rockin' K-Dog?
"...not that they'd be distractions, but it probably goes against what we stand for..."
DJ Mighty Prince K-Skillz?
"...and that by taking on monikers we'd be, at least subconsciously, would take on another role, which we don't really want to do."
Whilst 'Creativity Department' is an accomplished debut, the band are already looking to the next album. "There's not really a national strategy," the K-Ray DJ explains when I ask whether there are plans for the disc beyond the launch. "We're going to remain based in Adelaide but I've just moved to Melbourne and we hope to establish ourselves over there as well. And because this album has taken such a long time to be finished, our next album should be out by the end of the year. We're quite well into work on that."
And what can listeners expect from this next Style High Club disc? Notorious Killa K pauses again.
"Um... same but better, I guess."
And a name with "izzle" in it?
"No."
Andrew P Street
 | Style High Club launch 'Creativity Department' at the Rhino Room on Fri 17 Feb. |
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