“I’ve had people say the term ‘overnight success’ and I think ‘man, I’ve been doing this for 10 years’. Overnight success? There’s really no such thing.”
When a dad named Russ Bauer and his young son, Toby, made a kitchen video for Timmy Trumpet’s track, Freaks, it quickly went viral and sent the Australian DJ/musician into the stratosphere. BOB GORDON checks in ahead of his appearance at Metropolis Fremantle’s Christmas Party this Saturday, December 20.
You’ve been on the ascent for some time now, but from the viral video for Freaks you’ve skyrocketed in an unexpected way…
Mate you couldn’t have put it better. It’s a ride, you know? Life’s a ride and sometimes you don’t have control. I’m just doing what I love and if it means that a father and his son make a remake of my record and it ends up going viral around the world, then I’m just thankful, you know? It’s a bit of luck, I guess. I don’t know (laughs). I’m very thankful.”
I believe in collaborating, you know? With guys like Savage (on Freaks), who’s incredibly talented, which helps. But having said that, it may look like it’s just been the last year, and I’ve had people say the term ‘overnight success’ and I think ‘man, I’ve been doing this for 10 years’. Overnight success? There’s really no such thing.
I guess you deserve some crazy luck when you’ve worked so hard…
I hope so, Thank you Bob, cheers.
What were your thought when you first saw the video?
The Bauer family first sent that to me as an inbox. Then we posted it and it went viral from there. I think on my page it’s had like 12 million views and from there it went further and further with other people reading it and then posting it. World Star Hip Hop and LAD Bible posted it, all these other social networks. It’s definitely been out of my control.
Has there been a flow on effect with international bookings?
Definitely. It’s been getting played in Italy every hour on the radio. Same in France and I’ve never been to those places. It’s amazing to hear about that. Joel Fletcher was in Italy the other week and he said to me, ‘mate I played Freaks to about 3,000 people and every one of them was chanting the lyrics to your song’. That’s just so surreal to me that it can go that far. So we’ve booked a European tour in next year. We’re gonna do two months in Europe, two months in the US and a month in Asia.
What’s 2015 in terms of releases and collabs?
You know what? No one’s asked me that question yet (laughs). I’m doing a collaboration with Will (Sparks). We did it up on the last tour and that’s going well. I’m doing a lot of collaborations and a lot of originals. We’ve got a vocalist on that record, Nightmare, the one that I released a month ago. It’s kind of more for radio now. She’s fantastic, she makes the track. It could be a good little follow-up. I’ve got about six other records, originals that I’ve been working on that are almost finished. It’s just a matter of planning out the year and getting them out one by one.
Check out the viral video here.
