Other Genres   

Gold Coast raised, now Melbourne based, M-Phazes is one of Australia’s most successful hip hop producers.

Not only has he worked with Aussie acts like Bliss N Eso, Phrase, Drapht and Dialectrix, he’s also had notable success in the US producing tracks for Pharoahe Monch, Amerie, Talib Kweli and Slaughterhouse. He was actually planning on moving there this year.
“But because a few things happened in Australia that were promising,” he explains, “I didn’t really want to drop everything and leave. I decided to stick around for a bit, but it’s definitely on the cards at some point in the future.”

Not content with confining himself to hip hop, he’s been taking on more general music production of late, including working with singer/ songwriter Kimbra.
“Kimbra is definitely the main change in the way I look at music and what I want to do with it. Thanks to her and her management who are sending a lot of new people to me that I usually wouldn’t work with. Right now I’m working with two other groups that aren’t hip hop at all. You know I’ll keep doing hip hop, but I definitely want to venture out to other genres as well.”

Last year the release of his solo debut, ‘Good Gracious’, won him an ARIA award for Best Urban Album. A second solo album is already in the works.
“It definitely won’t be in the same vein as ‘Good Gracious’. It’ll probably have a lot of different artists on there from different genres, probably American artists as well, not just Australian. I’m trying to do something different and out there as opposed to just following what I did last time.”

With an album that features a different MC on every track, he says his upcoming Brisbane show will basically be like a DJ set with special guests.
“We’ve got Mantra coming up, and my boy Seven who won the Triple J competition who’s doing some great things up in Brisbane, and then there’s a few other special guests that I can’t announce just yet. It’s a surprise. But yeah it’s cool, it’s quite interactive … a bit of random showmanship I guess you call it, as cocky as that sounds. I don’t want people to get the wrong idea and think I’m just pressing play on the turntable.”

M-PHAZES PLAYS THE SPRUNG FESTIVAL, AT THE BRISBANE RIVERSTAGE, SAT OCTOBER 15. SPRUNGHIPHOP.COM.AU