Groundbreaking Perth rapper Drapht will join forces with Western Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) this month to bring his music to life like never before in Drapht and WASO: How The West Was Won. The premiere event will see the multi ARIA-award winning artist’s songs reimagined with captivating orchestral arrangements, for two nights only, at Perth Concert Hall on Friday, November 18 and Saturday, November 19. BRAYDEN EDWARDS caught up with Drapht to find out how he is giving his acclaimed catalogue of tunes the classical treatment, and why it’s shaping up to be a performance unlike anything he, or his fans, have experienced before.
You must be pumped to be performing with an orchestra! How does this stack up with the biggest shows you have been part of?
Yeah, I can’t wait. It’s completely different to any pub/club/festival show that I have played in the past, so it’s hard to compare and will stand within a world of its own entirely. Also from being backed by a five-piece band, to a fifty-five piece orchestra is a pretty huge step-up too. So it’s shaping up to be one for the books.
Was it different coming up with a set list for this show compared to others, given the songs needed to work with the full orchestra in swing?
I always want to play the songs that people want to hear first and foremost, so there’s going to be a whole lot of obvious fan favourites, but I guess with an extra added orchestral twist, with extended sections and arrangements. But yeah, there are a few oddball older tracks within the setlist, that I wouldn’t have played for maybe fifteen or so years, that are heavier on the strings or brass that were obvious go-to’s when thinking about the orchestra too.
The circumstances around the release of your latest album Shadows and Shinings were quite different from those that came previously. How was that experience, and have you been able to perform much of the new material live yet?
To be honest it felt kind of nice and freeing to have everything put on pause for a minute, with a chance to have a little breather with zero pressure around release times etc. But with how well WA stood throughout the majority of the pandemic, we also had a heap of opportunities to play shows up and down the West Coast while our state border was closed too. So we were super lucky.
Upon its release, you said there were songs on the album that had been in the works for a long time and some were quite new. Given it was written over a period of time, what do you feel ties the album together thematically or stylistically?
Even though a lot of the ideas were written over a ten year period, they were recorded in a six month chunk. Production was recreated and flipped to have more of an updated contemporary feel and I guess a lot of my writing style has always been based around personal experience and my own observations for the most part anyway, so I feel that will always tie things together when it’s all said and done. I kind of pride myself on diversity when it comes to putting together an album too, I feel if I’m true to myself and my influences I can just allow the rest to unfold organically.
Australian hip-hop has changed a lot since you first started out. What would you say is the biggest difference between now and then?
Completely changed! As much as it’s an oversaturated market, it’s a pretty amazing time to be a young hungry independent artist. The opportunity for people to distro, push and upload their music to streaming platforms with a click of a button from the comfort of their own home is pretty incredible. Also using social media to hustle, taking advantage of the algorithms and independently promoting their music on a minimal budget is pretty massive too.
And how about your own craft? What’s something that you notice is different about you now compared to your first records?
I want to always feel like I’m evolving whether it’s personally or musically, so I can only hope everything is different. But back then, it started as a pretty tight, street level local scene, and a lot of opportunity came from only having twenty odd acts in each state releasing music within our genre. It was so crazy watching a lot of things unfold for the first time…from seeing friends play in front of thousands of people on national festival stages, to hearing local hip-hop on commercial radio, it was incredibly inspiring watching how quickly it all grew. I feel so lucky to be a part of it all over the last twenty years and seeing how far the genre has come, it kind of feels like a few lifetimes in one.
And what are you looking forward to the most about this show?
Perth Concert Hall is a beautiful venue, so I’m really looking forward to playing two shows there. And there are a lot of my family and friends who wouldn’t normally attend a show after so many years, so it feels like somewhat of a milestone celebration for the most part.
What’s next for you? Any more live shows or new music in the works we can look forward to?
I just released a new song Tomorrow Today into the world a few weeks ago, and I have a few shows over east to round out the year before a bit of a Christmas break.
