Jonathan Notley, Max MacKinnon & Tarik Ejjamai of BLISS N ESO: Family, Music And A Time For Realness
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
Bliss N Eso, our Hip Hop brothers from across the ditch in Sydney are here in New Zealand and ready to rattle some cages over a five date tour of the country in support of their stunning sixth studio album Off The Grid.
For MC Bliss (Jonathan Notley), MC Eso (Max MacKinnon) and DJ Izm (Tarik Ejjamai) it is their first tour of New Zealand and they are “bloody excited” to finally be here. I sat down with the boys for a chat about the new album and what their New Zealand fans can expect from a bona fide Bliss n Eso show.
This is your sixth studio album; does it feel a little bit like evolution getting to this point?
Bliss: Well me and Eso, we always like to compare notes on who we are liking artist wise, you know different music ,and one of the things we kept stumbling across that we had in common with all the new artists was raw, blatant, honesty! Like really connecting with the person and just saying some real things; I think we have always had a kinda artistic and poetic edge to our rhymes which has been quite abstract, like a Jackson Pollock throwing paint at the canvas. Whereas with this one we thought, you know what, we’ve got some pretty crazy stories to tell! What we’ve been through in life experiences, well it’s time to share that with our fans; they have never really heard these stories before or heard some of these personal adversities that we’ve had to get through. We have opened up a lot more about that so it became more of a portrait painting exercise rather than ‘free throw paint at the canvas’ if that makes sense, (laughs) a bit of therapy!
Eso: Yeah on our last album we kinda always talked about back in the days when we were all together and stuff, but we want to talk about our story now instead of having that VIP, bullet proof, we’re the man everything is great in life attitude. To be able to show our fans the vulnerable side of us and to be able to dig into our demons and put that into our music, which I think we did with this one.
One such song that captures that sentiment is the track featuring the amazing Gavin James. So what for each of you here today would be your defining moment?
Eso: Mine would be the birth of my baby, changed my life! It was like watching the exorcist with a Disney ending, a beautiful ending (laughs)
Bliss: Look there have been so many, but I will tell you a specific one that happened when I was very young. I actually think that I remember the point where I became self-aware! I know that sounds kinda weird, but I actually remember I was in the lounge – I grew up in Jakarta in Indonesia – and it was like within an instant I clicked (clicks fingers) and I was kinda like ‘I’m here right now and I’m in control’. It is weird that I remember it but I always come back to it – so yeah I would say that’s got to be my defining moment.
DJ Izm: When my brother let me become a part of his world. Instead of being just the little shit, the little brother to him actually going ‘you know what, come be a part of it’. That’s what made me become a DJ because of his influence with Hip Hop, so that was a huge turning point for me to be doing what I am doing now. I was obviously a little bit lost at the time and he felt kind of obliged, like well I can’t be a dick to him his whole life you know … so definitely a turning point!
Those are all so different and very much defining factors of a person’s life. One could say that Gavin James was another ‘moment’ as well – so how did that collaboration come about?
Bliss: You know what; it kinda fell in our lap! We are on the same label that does his stuff out in Australia and we had written a song with Thief who is the guy who sings on Dopamine. So Eso and I wrote that hook with Thief and he had originally sung the demo and we had sent the song to the label and they without us even knowing had sent it on to Gavin James! He hit us straight back and because he had just landed in Sydney – he was doing like a little promo run – within two hours of him landing they had booked a studio and I was on my way in to meet him and record straight away!
Eso: The power of the universe (raises eyebrows and laughs)
Dopamine is indeed a great track, but I have to say that one of my personal favourites is Friend like You featuring Lee Fields. It’s such a meaningful song in the way that it refers to friendship and connection.
Bliss: I think its universal and can apply to a lot of different situations like I’ve got a line in my first bar which says “it means the world that I’ve found a best friend like you” in that circumstance I’m talking about my girl, my partner.
Eso: But the listener can apply it to whoever they want which is the beauty of the song I think; it’s got that kinda universal side to it.
All three of you have been friends since High School, are you sick of each other yet or are you just basically a family now?
Eso: (puts on a heavy Australian accent) It’s a bloody family! (laughs) You know, you hate your brothers, you love your brothers, you get along, you fight, it’s just life, that’s just how it is. But we’ve stuck together for this long which is really saying something because most artists these days are solo artists because bands just don’t last. It’s very rare that you get longevity with bands – I mean we’ve been going for 17 years!
Bliss: And we weren’t a band that got together like ‘Oh look in the newspaper they need a guitarist’, we were friends from the beginning. It can get hectic; we were on tour in America and we got cabin fever! But there is an unknowing magic that lies beneath the world that we can’t explain when the trinity (gestures at all three of the members) get together and there is a magical force behind it that we just can’t explain.
Eso: We have been through a lot together!
Being such a tightly knit group, who would be your biggest influences right now musically? A topic surely that you must discuss on an almost daily basis!
Eso: I tell you what – Spotify. I’m listening to new artists very week; every Monday I have the new list that they give me that’s based off all the other stuff that I like and there are so many god damn new artists around the world! I am finding I’m just finding new artists every day.
Bliss: It’s fucking inspiring for music as well when you have this tap of inspiration that just doesn’t stop flowing. Because sometimes yeah it’s a bit hit and miss, there’s some stuff that you don’t like, but you can find some gems in there. Like you have never heard of these underground people from across the globe and they will have like only 400 views but its unbelievable stuff!
Eso: Mick Jenkins for example and there are like young kids from New York.
Bliss: Yeah a lot of them are super underground; like Rob Curly who we discovered and got on our new album. Amazing artist from Miami, literally I am blown away by almost every song that he’s done. But yeah again there are just so many artists and it’s cool that we’ve found someone like that and we are just able to reach out. Because they are so underground they are still accessible in a sense, it’s not like their huge and there is no way that you can work with them
You certainly have an amazing range of new and upcoming artists on Off the Grid, it adds such depth and wealth of talent to what is already a stellar production. May I ask which for each of you would be your favourite song?
Bliss: (laughs) That’s like asking which baby is your favourite? There are elements of so many like ‘Friend like You’, Lee Fields voice is magic you know and first time I heard it I was in tears; it brought on that kind of emotional response and that’s hard to go past. Also because of what’s transpired and happened with everything, the song has more meaning to me now.
Eso: ‘Soul Glo’ which is another one with Lee Fields.
Dj Izm: Dopamine, yeah for sure.
Eso: I will throw ‘Off the Grid’ in there as well because that was one of the last songs made – so it’s the freshest one to us; it’s still kind of got that new feel.
Bliss: Yeah and I feel like the rhymes on that for me and you [Eso] is set apart from some of the other songs.
So this five date tour of New Zealand includes Queenstown – not a city often included by touring bands I must say!
Bliss: Yes! I’m not going to lie, I really pushed for that. I’m big into skiing and the whole snow scene and I’ve been there the last three years. This is the last show of the whole tour, we do the whole of Australia run and then this and I was just like ‘man how good would it be if we just finish in Queenstown’!? My folks are actually Kiwi so I’ve got family over here; Wellington and Christchurch represent! So yeah we are totally stoked to finally get here, it’s been a long time coming!
So what can your Kiwi fans expect to see at the shows?
Eso: The Craft. You don’t have a Dj standing up there hitting that horn button, this guy (points at Dj Izm is actually going to be mixing, grooving, flippin, scratchin; all old school! There could even be a bit of beat boxing, there could even be a bit of free stylin! We like to bring the full craft!
DJ Izm: Everyone is going to be having a great time – it’s going to be awesome!
Bliss: They haven’t felt energy like us before!
Bliss N Eso kick off their NZ tour tonight at Auckland’s Neck of the Woods, before hitting Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown over the next four days. For more information on these shows you can check out the post here.