Story Boarder

Competitive bodybuilder by day and MC/ nightclub promoter by night, Fortafy is a name currently heating both the Brisbane and Gold Coast urban scenes.

What first drew you to music? As cliche as it sounds, I’ve always listened to music from an early age, and not only to the beat/ hook of the commercial songs, but I was actually drawn into the more conscious type music with meaning and stories behind them.

Tell us about your group Fundamentalz?
Fundamentalz consists of myself and Exbozay; we met in boarding school in New Zealand and hung out and started writing lyrics, as we both had the same influences such as Talib Kweli, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots etc.

You released your own solo EP earlier this year, ‘Caffeine’. Are you happy with how it turned out?
‘Caffeine’ for me was a big milestone personally, as the music made on that EP was exactly how I thought it would be when prepping or first thinking about what my solo EP would sound like. I was very happy to meet talented producer Heaprize, who I was a fan of; realising he lived down the road was a blessing for me.

Do you have a set process when it comes to writing music?
The music I write always depends on the mood; sometimes I’ll have situations written down that might be one or two pages long and then come across a beat one day that I think will suit that concept, and then I’ll transform that story into a song. Other times I hear a beat and write the song on the spot.

Outside of music – your other interests include tattooing/ body art and body building. What has drawn you to these pursuits?
Bodybuilding has really made me disciplined in other aspects in life such as music and general everyday life, so I owe a lot to bodybuilding. Tattooing is just an extension of having a good body/ mind; the tattoos tells a story of one’s life.

You’ve written a song about your tattoos and the body art in general. Do you think people judge you any differently because of your ink? I generally have a good response to my tattoos; (I) don’t really pay attention to people who look at me differently anyway, I just try and smile no matter what.

Fortafy regularly performs at Magic City in Brisbane and Shooters Nightclub on the Gold Coast.