The Great Melody 

The solo show of Tim Levinson’s, aka Urthboy, has been almost entirely the focus of the Aussie hip hop artist’s for the past year.

After a summer of festivals and relentless touring Tim takes a moment to catch his breath to do some basic math: over 100 shows in 14 months. But with the dawn of a new year hot and heavy on our shoulders, the temptation to chat about what The Herd has been up to lately was just too much.  “At the moment we are working on a new record and that’s an ordeal (laughs). But a good ordeal. It’s a lot different to working on a solo project. The record will be coming out mid year, I’m not exactly sure, but around July.“

The recording process for the latest album has involved lots of late nights and 2am pizza deliveries, with most members finding it tough juggling their regular day jobs with the band. But before long Tim gets into chatting about two positive things that have surfaced: heavily melodic tracks and the return to personal songwriting. “Anyone who knows The Herd and can trace back to that first album will remember there was a lot of personal stuff. Don’t get me wrong that record was schizophrenia on vinyl you know. It was all over the shop. But this record has kind of gone back there.

“Ozi Batla’s been coming up with some verses which has surprised me cos he’s usually adamant that we don’t go too personal because of the group dynamic. If one person in the group is quite personal than it falls with other people in the group to go there as well. You’re a chain, you bring people with you in The Herd.”

Another aspect that’s becoming increasingly more obvious is that The Herd are jamming more catchy melody and structure into their songs with each new album that’s produced. ‘Summerland’ was definitely more melodic than ‘The Sun Never Sets’, and according to Tim this album is more melodic than that. “I think we’ve always had that melody maybe from the first record. But songs like ‘77%’, it’s more anger than melody that allows the song to be recognised. But right from before The Herd even started when we were solo artists contributing to compilations on our label, we always had a little bit of a melodic approach to songs. We’ve always embraced it, we just didn’t quite do it that well.”

The chase for the greatest melody is pretty enticing, and as Tim points out you don’t have to necessarily be considered pop music to really capture it within your music.
“Melody is the best and hardest thing in the world. ‘The Great Melody’ is something that is priceless. You cannot hope in your life to exchange money for a melody. Anyone, even the most amateur songwriter through to the experts can come up with some melody that is catchy and really memorable. It’s why people always surf. There’s the endless wave. It’s the same with songwriting.”

But before The Herd really gets into the swing of things, release the album and begin touring, Tim plans to get in a few Urthboy shows. Playing Brisbane this week for ‘Fun Raiser’, a flood relief benefit show, he’s stoked to be giving something to a town and its people that have given him many memorable experiences in the past.
“Our music aside, I’m just really happy we are able to use the music we have and maybe the name we have to just have fun with some folks from Brisbane who share the same nights, the same interests. It feels like a privilege we’re able to give something. That’s really all we want to get out of it, is for people to have a good time. That’s the main reason we made it donation entry.”

Organisers have tailored the event so that all donations (sans the cost of overheads etc) will go to flood relief, and one dollar from every drink purchased at the bar will go in the kitty too!
“We’ll be bringing everything we’ve got for it. I’m keen on one hand just to play the show in solo context, but also after many years of coming to Brisbane for music we’ve had the fortune of spending time getting to know and enjoy lots of local little haunts, like going to breakfast at The Little Larder café in New Farm. “Those little experiences and memories from all the times we’ve come to Brisbane came straight to the forefront when all the floods had occurred. Just some of those landmarks that we have some experience of really brought out just how devastating the situation was.”

URTHBOY PLAYS AT ‘FUN RAISER’ ON THURSDAY FEBRUARY 3 AT THE STEP INN WITH VEGAS ACES, MR HILL AND DESMOND CHEESE. ENTRY IS BY DONATION (GIVE GENEROUSLY).