The Gully Platoon

Ryan Leaf represents Australian hip hop, Blue Mountains style. A former member of Down Under Beats Crew, he’s currently part of the Gully Platoon and a talented artist in his own right.

While his day job/ night jobs might differ, he’s a master of his trades and firing with enthusiasm about his up coming schedule - a new album and still-hectic touring diary. “Man, lots has been happening on all fronts. We've just finished a national tour with Pegz and that was the biggest tour I've ever done - 15 dates! I also recently had a little boy so I was juggling touring with the date that he was due, so that was fun.

“On the tour, I also got to places I'd never been - especially in WA and that was really cool. I've also been working on a few collaborations. And then I've also done a couple of songs, which are heading towards the radio soon. It's hard and it's ridiculously stupid trying to do it all.”

It’s of course more than a little bit difficult trying to balance life between family, touring, time in the studio and, of course, a day job. “I try to keep a semblance of normality with my partner and music and everything. Sometimes it can be hard to divide the time but I can increase my working hours or whatever to concentrate on my music so it isn't all bad.”

That said, Dialectrix is still relishing the opportunity to work on his next solo project. “The solo stuff I've done before, in a nutshell - it was quite conventional. It was sort of soul sounding and comparative to what others are doing in the scene. It had a tried and true Australian feel to it and I tried to do some stuff which was a bit of a throwback style; a bit more experimental with 80 bars at 120bpm and stuff.

“The second album was a lot more old school and traditional and experimental. So with this next album I'm consciously focused on making newer sounding music. It's going to be better produced, it's going to have better instrumentation and synths and it'll be more diverse than that last two. There might be a couple of songs that are radio-friendly and pop but it'll be more contemporary and I'm feeling good about it.”

Likewise, being part of the local hip hop scene gives Dialectrix a sense of belonging and community. “It's a whole lot of fun. I'm feeling a little bit notorious, a little older. The golden era might be gone but there are a whole lot of sub genres in rap now with people who aren't under one banner anymore.

“There is such a broad section of sounds - you've got the Elefant Traks boys with a hippy mentality; and then you've got Broken Tooth and Shogun who are darker and street oriented - and then all the colours and shades in between. Part of me likes that and part of me reminisces about the old days when it was just plain old Aussie hip hop. It's like a Catch-22 I suppose.”

Finally, Ryan and his boys are ready to give it one more go at Manifest. “I've got my crew ready and we're really going to rip the shows up. All of our gigs are getting tighter and tighter. We've done some great shows and performed at larger venues so it has the effect of making our music sound more intentionally live. It's lots of rap and jumping around and classical traditional shit.

“Basically I've got the most live and energetic songs I've had for a long time and I want to get on stage with as much gusto as I can; I guarantee the gigs are going to rock. The last gigs I did in Queensland were pretty rowdy so I'm guessing this time with the festival and all it's going to be even better.”

Off the hook, maybe?

Dialectrix plays Manifest at Bestbrook Mountain Resort September 23-25. manifestqld.com