Brisbane live act Soma Rasa recently released their highly anticipated EP ‘On The Run’. After receiving widespread acclaim from both fans and critics alike, they’ve decided to hit the road for a national tour, dragging fellow Australia live act NuBreed along for the ride. Kicking off in Adelaide on Friday March 12, ITM’s melE caught up with group member Dan Hazard to find out what’s been keeping the Soma Rasa crew busy of late.
Are you happy with the results of your current EP On The Run?
Totally, it has all been going really well, for us it has kind of turned into a bit of monster picking up heaps more radio and club play than we expected. We had about 2 years between releasing this EP and our last album so we had heaps of time in our studio over the past while. Now it is just awesome to have it out and an excuse to get out and do some shows again. We initially had planned to get straight back into the studio to finish our next album but all things just felt right to get out and do a national tour before locking ourselves back up again.
You have been receiving a lot of air play on Triple J with tracks even being nominated and voted into the Triple J Net 50. How do you feel about this? Have you managed to find any time to celebrate your successes so far?
Yeah our summer has been huge and the airplay has just topped it of and given us something else to work with and set us up just right for what we want to do this year. It’s just awesome to see radio and punters both picking up on Australian breaks and dance music in general and really giving it a go.
Could you give us a quick run down of the plans for your On The Run tour? How are things coming together? Who will you be performing with where?
It’s all come together really well. The main idea for the tour was to set it up as a full live breaks night in live venues but with a vibe of a club so we made sure we could get a late license at all of the shows to keep it going all night long. Although we are a breaks act we do it as a full live band with Drums, Percussion, Samples / Fx, Dex and Kina on the mic for this tour so a big sound system is the only way we can really do our show. We’ got NuBreed on the tour doing a full live show as well and also have DJs EK from Melbourne, DJ Rasp from Brisbane, Kristian Hernandez from Brisbane and DJ Shannon from Sydney, all playing at their home town shows.
How did you develop your relationship with the guys from Nu Breed? What can we expect from you when you all come together for this tour? How did the idea of merging with them for a tour come about?
We actually haven’t crossed paths before so are yet to meet. We have been big fans of their music for some time and I have big respect for any Australian act that can get it happening overseas. We pretty much have been doing the same kind of music but we come from different backgrounds. Soma Rasa, we’ve done most of our live playing as the band, like doing ‘live room’ venues and festivals as opposed to playing clubs which is what NuBreed have mainly done most of their career, so it is an interesting meeting point for two bands that play similar music but come from different situations. For this tour we just wanted to do something different and go the whole way and make it a big night out and show off where Australian breaks is at the moment. NuBreed have recently added a drummer to their live show so the energy of the beats is sure to be massive all night long…... this is no “DJ set”.
So Dan and Bill, when can we expect to see Hazard brothers tour?
Not too sure on that one, the Hazard Brothers kind of do their own thing it that regard, like they’re on auto pilot. When we are in DJ mode we don’t really work to any firm agenda, we just get out and play the tracks we like when we are not too busy with the band. Our main thing here in Brisbane is a monthly night called “Freefall” @ Ric’s that we have been doing for a couple of years in the Valley and that keeps us on our feet at this stage, but yeah getting down south for club sets would be awesome.
Is there anything you would like to say to all the people who have already bought their On The Run album and tickets for the tour?
Very wise indeed, and get ready for some ass shackin’ and hard hitting beats. I truly believe it will be a rare night out.
You can catch Soma Rasa at the following venues as part of the ‘On The Run Tour’:
March 12: Adelaide, Universal Playground
March 13: Sydney, Metro Transit Lounge – w/ Nubreed (BUY TICKETS)
March 19: Brisbane, The Zoo – w/ Nubreed (BUY TICKETS)
March 20: Gold Coast, Troccadero
March 27: Melbourne, Gershwin Room Espy Hotel – w/ Nubreed (BUY TICKETS)
