WORD PLAY
Coming out of New York, via San Francisco, versatile rapper Aesop Rock is no stranger to collaborating with others, as his side project Hail Mary Mallon shows.
Mary Mallon of course is Typhoid Mary, the first person in the United States identified as a carrier of Typhoid fever. Aesop Rock, who’s touring here next month with HMM and Kimya Dawson, goes on to explain the weird connection when they were recording their album, 'Are You Going To Eat That'. "It was just a strange set of images that already existed in (Mary Mallon’s) story and it was something to relate to even if your writing a song about something else. There was this constant backbone that ran through the whole record. It was something really interesting."
Consisting of Aesop, fellow NY MC Rob Sonic and DJ Wiz, HMM released their debut album in May, but they've known each other for much longer. "Yeah, we've been friends for a long time. We've been touring together for about six/ seven years. Given that we've always done solo projects me and Rob have always - well not always, but for the last few years been on the road doing tour duty together and we've been touring with DJ Wiz for the same amount of time.
“It's just one of those things that seemed like it would inevitably happen. We both sort of found ourselves at that point where it would be more fun to collaborate than do anything else, so we just worked on that record for a while and really just tried to bang it out and get it done."
Also coming out to Australia on this jaunt is American anti-folk singer Kimya Dawson. Aesop goes on to explain how this unlikely collaboration came about. "(Kimya and I) have known each other for a year or two. I've been a fan of her music for a long time and she was making her new solo record in the area where I am in California. We had spoken back and forth on email a couple of times over the years and she just invited me to help and be a part of a couple of songs on her solo record," he explains.
"From there we just sort of started working on a separate record, a more collaborative record and we just ended up doing a couple of tours out in the US together and, I don't know, we're taking this bitch out on the road!" he chuckles.
Although the two artists come from very different backgrounds, working together was never a problem. "We're both pretty wordy in general you know, it’s just a matter of finding that middle ground. I'm pretty comfortable rapping over anything with a semi rhythm to it, so acoustic guitar is totally fine. I think we just kind of have that similar sensibility even though we have somewhat different backgrounds."
So what can Australian audiences expect? "We have been doing the same line-up here for a while ... pretty much half the night is acoustic stuff with everything from me and Kimya doing a bunch of new stuff that's not out to her doing a long solo acoustic set, then it moves over to the turntables and we do a half Mary Mallon and half Aesop set and then Kimya comes back out to sing over the beats and turntable stuff. Everyone's coming and going over the course of a couple of hours, and we'll be playing some music that no one has ever heard before so it’s pretty fun."
A visitor to Australia a couple of times before, Aesop explains why he's happy to finally be doing a proper tour down under. "In the past it’s always been festival related so sometimes it’s difficult to get in touch with the people who really want to see you. I did the Big Day Out one year and we did one of those electronic festivals a couple of years ago, we were pretty out of place on it. “I love it, any chance I get to come there which isn't really as often as I like, but when ever I do I take the offer because it’s my favourite place to go outside the US. I don't really like travelling very much," he laughs.
Aesop Rock performs with Kimya Dawson and Hail Mary Mallon at the Hi-Fi October 16. ‘Are You Going To Eat That?’ is out now.