With UBERfest’s final leg of the winter tour wrapping up in Melbourne this weekend alternative hip-hop crew Living Earth Sound Sessions took some time out of their day to chat everything uber in their lives, their take on mainstream hip-hop and the place of the alternative scene.
Melbourne youngsters LIving Earth Sound Sessions may be fresh on the hip-hop scene, but they have the drive and ambition to make their unique sound stick.
HAPPY: Technically ‘Uber’ is something that is supreme or outstanding. What in your life would you say is Uber?
LESS: We’ve all spent much time of our lives performing in other acts and trying to balance music with surviving financial stresses, relationships, bands, shows, travel etc and its been quite un-astounding to be entirely honest. What’s ‘UBER’ about our lives now in that we are together. We are four best friends that get to live together, work together, travel together and life has never felt so easy because of the constant love and support we provide for each other. It all feels pretty warm and UBER fuzzy and the love is definitely put on show when we perform together.
HAPPY: How did you first get into alternative hip-hop?
LESS: At the moment we wouldn’t define our sound solely as hip-hop. We definitely came into this thinking we were going to be a hip-hop band but since we’ve started writing together, the songs are coming out in all sorts of different colours and timbers and we are finding it hard to classify LESS. Our debut EP will be released this year and you can expect alternative rap, roots, reggae, rock and hip-hop. After that, who knows, but we are aware of the need to change sounds and improve as people and musicians as we move forward.
HAPPY: It’s safe to say that the hip-hop scene in Australia is quite homogenised. What’s your take on the scene and how it has developed over time? Is there room for more alternative styles?
LESS: You know what, we have no idea! We are young, fresh and completely inexperienced. We’ve come together through friendship and music and it’s all been so positive. We’ve played a few hip-hop shows in Melbourne where there were MEAN looking MC’s battling in proper raw hip-hop events! These guys opened the stage up to us and had plenty of time for our uplifting reggae beats so if that experience is anything to go by then yeah, there is plenty of room for alternative styles!
HAPPY: UBERfest is a showcase of up and comers from a melting pot of genres, what are your thoughts on the festival?
LESS: It’s great there are people using their lives to create platforms like this. It’s going to be a killer local event! We are playing at 4.30pm and we bring all the boogie so you come bring the dance.
HAPPY: What is your thoughts on the role of small festivals and tours like this in Australia?
LESS: More please. Surely there are a ton of super proactive, talented people out there in Australia who just need to quit their stupid day jobs and run tours for a living. We encourage you all to do this. Now.
HAPPY: At Happy we always talk about stuff that makes us happy, so what makes you happy?
LESS: Fletch just bought a sweet Vespa so every second word that dribbles out of his mouth at the moment is ‘vespa’. Martin really digs spinach. He actually couldn’t be here for this interview because he is busy attending his spinach farm. That sounds like an illicit drug reference but it really isn’t. He loves spinach. Sam has recently got his Fender Mustang set-up by a music shop that gave us no discounts so they will remain unnamed in this interview. When asked this question Emil’s response was “Music bro”. Then he walked off into the yard all nonchalantly, smoking a cigarette and sippin’ on gin n’ juice.
