Together, Luke Dubs and Elgusto make up Hermitude. A legendary name in Aussie hip hop and part of the renowned Elefant Traks stable, they both grew up in the Blue Mountains where they both played musical instruments from a young age, before eventually hooked up and producing their own beats together in 2002.
Initially they were concocting their blend of hip hop and downtempo beats from their lair in the Blue Mountains, they’ve since located to Sydney and released two acclaimed full length albums. And now they’re back – their new Rare Sightings EP is in the stores now, and ITM ahs a chat to find out what they’ve been up to.
Hi guys, thanks for giving up your time to answer these questions. What has been going on with you guys? What projects are you currently working on?
Well, we just finished the ‘3 Strikes Tour’ with Urthboy and The Tongue so now the fun is over and it’s back to the studio. We just dropped our EP Rare Sightings, and now we’ve got to pump out the next album. We’re hard working Hermits…
Luke, I note you have a formal music background – how much of a role does your technical knowledge play in your approach to production?
A large role I guess. I’ve done a it of compositional training in my time so that comes into play, like counterpoint and 4 part harmony, but formal training doesn’t necessarily mean making good music. You’ve gotta keep it all in mind but ignore it at the same time and go for what ever sounds good.
How do you guys work as a duo? Is it a matter of collaborating from the outset or do you tend to come up with something individually and then see what the other person thinks of it and work off that?
Both. In the beginning it was always constructing a song from scratch together, I guess because we had a bit more time on our hands, and we were living together. We still do that a bit as well but we also start our own songs and see what the other person can bring to it.
How big a role does technology play in your music, both in terms of production and live performance?
It’s pretty hard to avoid technology these days when you’re making the kind of music we make. Samplers, computers are essential tools in writing electronic music, and live we use Serato Scratch so I suppose it plays quite a big role.
How heavily are you influenced by the Blue Mountains area of New South Wales, Australia, where your production studio is located? In what way does it affect your music?
It probably effected our earlier material more so because we wrote it all up there. Nowadays, we’re city hermits and only cruise up the hill every now and then. The backbone of the track gets started in the city and we take it to the mountains when it’s ready for some liveness like perc or drums or some other crazy instrument.
Your music blends together a range of different music styles, such as hip hop, funk and Cuban. Are these influences merely the result of your individual musical tastes or have they been influenced by other factors as well? Have you ever been to Cuba for example?
El Gusto has studied percussion in Cuba when he was younger. So that definitely is apparent. It’s more the fact we just listen to a lot of different kinds of music and hip hop has become quite a good platform to combine styles, so we use hip hop as a foundation and build upon it with other styles.
You guys have collaborated with a number of different musicians, amongst them Spikey Tee, Urthboy and Blu MC. How do you choose who to collaborate with and what is the normal path that the recording of a collaboration would take?
If we see them at a show and we feel their style, we’ll hit them up for a collaboration. It’s pretty simple. The recording of the collaboration can take different paths. With the Spikey collab, the beat had already come out on our last album. We hit him up and he wanted to remix Gustos Theme so we did it. As for the Blue MC track, Blue was involved a little more in writing the beat. She played flute on there as well.
Who would you like to collaborate with in the future?
You’ll have to wait for the third album…
Which musical artists are you most influenced by? Are you influenced by other artists, such as writers or painters? If so, which ones?
So many, Pluto, Chasm, Paso, Albert and Leonard. Internationally, Loefah, Danny Breaks, Wagonchrist. Grafitti writers like PASEone, unique and a whole bunch more…
You guys have performed on bills with big international names such as Kid Koala, RJD2 and Dizzee Rascal. What have you learnt from such performers? What are they like off-stage?
Each one is different. Some are nice off stage and happy to chat, others are dicks. But that’s OK, each to their own. I don’t really care as long as they can hold it down on stage. I guess you just learn the importance of being professional and how to fully rock a crowd. It can be very inspiring.
Many of the big names you have performed with, such as DJ Krush, have been glowing in their praise of your music. How much does such praise mean to you, and does it provide a big boost in terms of international sales and recognition?
It’s a massive compliment, especially from people you have looked up to for so long. It can definitely help with sales and can sometimes bridge a bit of a gap for peeps who wouldn’t have heard of you unless they google Krush for example.
What are your views on hip hop as it stands today? To my mind there are lots of great hip hop artists going around, such as Ohmega Watts, Madlib and Kero One, who are releasing great tunes, but they are overshadowed for the most part by the formulaic and bland hip hop that is played on commercial radio. On the other hand, globalisation and technology has made music a lot more accessible so people have much more ability to choose what music they listen to – people are no longer confined to listening to what the local commercial radio stations serve up.
Hip hop has definitely changed a lot in the 15 or so years I’ve been listening to it. You’ve always gotta look to the underground to see what’s really goin on. Oz hip hop has definitely changed. It’s come a long way in some respects but radio has also transformed it into something else. Back before 2000, you’d never hear a full Oz hip hop album with catchy choruses on every track. A lot of stuff coming out now feels it has to comply with some kind of formula to get heard on national radio, and it kind of does I guess. But not everyone wants to sing along every 16 bars to some catchy ditty. I dig the more abstract arrangements myself but at the same time you gotta have your radio track to get heard. You gotta find the balance between the melted cheese and the chilli.
Speaking of technology, what are your views on the worldwide music downloading culture? Do you feel strongly that people should pay for music downloaded or do you think that it allows for much greater exposure for artists such as Hermitude and therefore enables you to draw bigger crowds to your shows?
The only music I download is dudes who are multi millionares, commercial stuff. Don’t download your local artists who are struggling and scraping every time they put out a release and probably don’t even come close to making it back. Yet they’ll keep putting out more and more albums. If you’re feeling them, you should be in the store buying their music, not ripping it.
Finally, what are you guys up to over the Australian summer? Where and when can your fans catch you performing live?
You can catch Hermitude at the beach, at the skatepark, at the local sipping on frosties… It is summer after all. Oh yeah, and we’re playing some shows too. Keep checking MySpace, elefantraks.com or hermitude.com for dates.
The Rare Sightings EP by Hermitude is in the stores now through Elefant Traks/Inertia. If you’re in Melbourne you can catch them playing the Corner Hotel this Saturday, November 23rd.
