Funkoars’ national tour takes them to the Prince of Wales in Bunbury on Friday, May 29, and Amplifier Bar on Saturday, May 30. JAI CHOUHAN reports.
Immersed in the Aussie hip-hop scene for close to two decades, Funkoars have had a front row seat to the scene’s transformation into what it is today. With four albums and a fifth on the way, it seems that the boys from Adelaide have still got it.
Reminiscing about its humble beginnings, Hons opens up about being a part of a transformation in a genre that wasn’t always respected.
“It has definitely changed a lot. We’ve been going to shows since the late ’90s.” The MC starts, “Everything’s changed so much. I remember going to shows where if you got 50 people in the room that was considered packed. Now, people are doing 5000-10,000 people shows. We’ve watched it sort of grow from pretty much nothing to the absolute monster it is today. For a while there was a struggle where it wasn’t considered a real form of music by a lot of people, but now it’s dominating a lot.”
Coming up alongside Hilltop Hoods before either got recognition; the group is now part of their longtime friends’ label, Golden Era.
“We got taken under the wing from those guys and they helped unbelievably,” Hons says. “Our relationship has grown stronger and stronger and now that they have a label, they were nice enough to let us be a part of it and put our music out. It’s always risky mixing business and friends but those guys are just great as businesspeople and as friends. It’s definitely a very nice home to have.”
Releasing their last album on the label back in 2011, Funkoars have been somewhat under the radar since, only dropping the abrasive Dawn Of The Head EP last year. Fortunately, the trio from Adelaide will be returning to your headphones sometime this year with their new album, In Case of Emergency.
“It’s our fifth album and yeah, we’re really excited for it. This is the first time we’ve gone into the studio and pretty much recorded the album as a whole. The other times it was a bit more spaced out with a half-finished track here and a half-finished track there, but this time when we’ve gone and recorded the album, we did a rough mix, learnt the songs, went into the studio and had a crack at about six songs a day. We got a lot of people playing live instruments as well, adding to Trials and Sesta’s beats, the samples and stuff like that.
“Trials and Sesta have just gone way beyond from the previous albums, learning actual instruments to add a lot to the beat which is what makes our group sound good, especially with a large audience.”
