Contest Us Cd Story - Lock in and Warts for All

The first session I had for 'Lock In' was with Aaron '1/6' Stephanus, who would have to be one of the best rappers in Melbourne who like Mikey Chan is known for getting on people's albums, I can't count the amount of collaborations his been on, and I had met Aaron through various gigs. I picked up Aaron one afternoon from Obese Records in Prahran where he worked to head the studio, We picked up some beers and Aaron immediately started to pick his way around the beat and found a spot which he liked, as all rappers on the beat had a bit of drama finding their rhythm, Choi set up the vocals to the slowed down effect or devils voice and spent the next forty minutes messing around with the effect as Aaron is also one of the funniest people you will ever meet, and that made us decide to keep the devil voice in the mix as backups and Aaron wrote the bridge trying not to be too specific, as we were still getting other vocalists in, we were thinking the subject of a party and the experiences you have at a party. For the next session I was able to get Elf Tranzporter, I had known Elf from working at Noise Bar and various other gigs, I wanted to push Elf with putting him on this track as his not on many traditional hiphop beats, he is more of an electronic hip hop even dance hall rapper and singer and I really wanted to hear the Aaron and Elf on a track together. Once in the studio we showed Elf the ideas for vocals and the two got writing with Choi and I chipping in where we could, the guys put down their vocal ideas, everyone in particular was amazed by Aaron's verse as it was like magic, everyone in the room excluding Aaron saw it, I believe it was due to everyone being their own worst critic.

At the time I planning 'Noisefest' which is a yearly festival run indoors at venues across Melbourne I'd run the two years before, and this year through friend and booking agent Leenie Mayfield my headliners would be Akil The MC from Jurassic 5 and Louis Logic, I wasn't planning on getting them into record at this stage. I first met the guys at a friends restaurant / venue in the city where I'd agreed to let Akil Dj for the night. I got to the venue before the guys and saw Candice Monique and Vida-Sunshyne and hung out with them, at this point I had already organised for Candice to be on the track but wasn't sure who else would be on it. I had hung out with the girls for a while we had a steak and some drinks and watching them jump up for the open mic session that was happening and I discovered Candice could rap, and I thought to myself I'd get her to rap on the track not just sing, as she does so often on Hip hop tracks. The guys Akil and Louis had arrived to the venue with Leenie and was introduced to the guys after they had their dinner as they had gone straight back stage. Soon after it was time for Akil to go on so I headed to the bar with Louis and we got stuck into a bottle of whiskey and before long we were like the best of mates, I was swinging him around on my shoulders, both of us acting like fools and having the best time.

The next day I rang Leenie and said I had spots for the guys on my album 'Warts and All' with Candice Monique and 'Lock In' with Elf Tranzporter and 1/6 which they agreed too, I chose Louis for Warts and All because he has a tone that suits and he has worked on similar beats, plays and uses a lot of piano in his songs, and Lock in because its proper hip-hop, Elf has played shows with Akil before and I knew Aaron would love it. Seeing though the guys had such a hectic schedule we would record that night, I emailed them the beats, organised the studio and Candice to come over and we were set. I arrived at the studio straight after work as Candice and the guys would be there shortly Choi and I set up for a vocal session and not long after we set up the guys arrived, Candice with her four year old daughter Kadjeeja or Ja ja. Louis and Candice talked about subject for lyrics for a while and Louis said because he'd never recorded vocals with a woman before he wanted to do a bizarre love song which Candice was happy with, I wanted Louis to rap two verses, Candice to rap one verse and sing the hook, so they went in to the lounge room and started writing, Louis pulled out his laptop and started watching a movie with his headphones on and started writing, I can't remember what movie it was, but though what a bizarre writing style it was. In the studio I had Akil who was listening to what Elf and Aaron had put down in previous sessions and with a bit of explaining Akil was writing to the beat and vocals. I was babysitting at the time which was awesome as I love hanging out with Jaja and hope if I ever have a daughter she would be just like her. Akil had finished writing and was starting to record his vocals, which was a bit hard as Ja ja was insistent on playing drums and wanting to sing so I took her out and started playing games out in the lounge room, it didn't take Akil long to record his verse, so whilst waiting for the others Choi and Akil had started jamming, Choi on the Drums and Akil free styling even Ja ja got a turn and sang a hook, it was her counting to four but worked really well. Candice had finished her verse so she jumped and put her hook down first which I was instantly blown away by and thought this is a single, she put her verse down and we were good to go with Louis. Louis put his verses and the intro down and we were done. I was doing an interview at Kiss FM on the Afternoon Delight show where I got to meet 'Bone Thugs and Harmony' about 'Noisefest' when I got an email with mp3 sent to me saying Candice had gone in to finish of her parts and re-recorded her verse as she thought she could do better and she had so being over whelmed at the time announced it on the radio. listening to the track over and over again I was trying to thinking of ways on how to make more powerful I came up with the idea to put a choir on the end of it, so who ever came in for sessions after so Lady Lady, Kylie Auldist, Dylan Smith and myself can all be heard in there.

I emailed Aaron and Elf a mp3 we had done of the session with Akil on the and both were shocked as they didn't expect it at all, so I got them in a few weeks later as there was still a hook to do and Elf wanted to rewrite his verse, to make it sound more like the others. When Elf got back from the Northern Territory where he runs workshops at the local schools and communities we got back into the studio this time really early, as I wanted to get a raspiness tone out of Elf and the guys got the hook down perfectly, Elf sounded the way I wanted and we were done. The guys left and Choi and I spent the next few hours arranging it all, which would have to be the easiest song to arrange on the album.