True Live

'True Live join a host of other live hip-hop groups coming up in Australia at the moment, differentiated from the pack by their classical instrumentation rather than a more funk-based setup. Their debut LP, 'The Shape Of It' was released last year to some Triple J attention, and their single TV was used on a FOX Sports program and Big Brother. Currently working on another album, as well as playing a night in the Persian Gardens for the Fringe, the band is confident that things are just going to keep getting better. I spoke to bassist Thomas W. Butt about where the group's headed.

"We're hoping the new record sounds a little bit more like a band," Butt states. "We found it quite difficult to replicate the sound of True Live when we made the record. It's good, but it's hard to make a record sound like a live band. Put a band in a studio and things change. It's a little bit more what people would expect to hear when they come to a show."

This could explain the cheering and crowd involvement sampled on their new single Damn Right, which sees the band in a more assertive, forceful mood than their previous singles.

"It's a bit more raw than the first album, and we hope it sounds really big. It's going to sound huge, actually. Damn Right's one we're really happy with actually. It's sounding a lot more like it does when we play live."

MC and composer Ryan "Rhyno" Ritchie stuck mainly to rapping on the first record. True, he did sing a couple of melodic hooks as choruses (most notably on the aforementioned TV), although you couldn't really say that sung vocals were his focus. This time around, though, not only does he sound more developed as an MC, but his experimentation with singing has gone further.

"He's come a long way since the band started, as a vocalist. He's pushed himself to progress, he's at the stage where he can now sing quite well. We don't need to get backing vocalists anymore."

Other changes have come about within the last year or so. Touring extensively around Australia, changing management and planning their first overseas release, True Live have been fairly busy by anyone's standards. They still had time to play a gig with Justin Timberlake though, something Butt's still pretty excited about.

"Ryan and I, and singer Paris Wells, did a little side support act with Justin Timberlake. It wasn't even our entire band... It definitely had a big impact on us. We had a bit of influence thanks to Mr Timberlake," Butts giggles. "Perhaps mainly because of his awesome synth sounds. Their last record's gold!" he exclaims with conviction.

For a band with strong live roots and no plans to change that, performing on such a large scale was a great experience for them, as well as a good opportunity for them to discover the goings-on and logistics involved in an event of that enormity.

"It was really interesting just to watch how everything works so seamlessly on such a huge scale. Everything's so organised and just as it should be. It was just great. We ended up with Justin's vocal coach, and his backup singer will be on our new album."

Nobody's going to try to claim that hip-hop's the most melodic music in the world. I'd imagine most classical musicians probably couldn't think of a genre they'd like to play less than hip-hop, and until True Live started doing their thing and Hilltop Hoods made it unavoidably mainstream last year, not many had probably even considered it. The musicians in True Live are all professionally-trained jazz and classical players, so you can't help but wonder if they ever get an itch to play something a bit more technical.

"Not so much for me. I've done a lot of playing over the years and it's been a great foundation, but for now I'm dedicated to this. I know our keyboard player plays in a bunch of jazz bands. They're all very busy because they're all doing other stuff, it's not something that we've had to stop doing because of True Live. We just have to fit it around when we're on the road and stuff."



Ben Ford-Smith

True Live play at the Festival's Persian Gardens on Thurs 6 March.