Sydney hip hop act Chance Waters is a star on the rise. His music has been celebrated as far afield as Europe, and he’s toured with some of the world’s biggest names including Method Man, De La Soul, and our own Bliss N Eso. As his Infinity tour approaches I caught up with Chance Waters to chat about his unique style of hip hop, the upcoming shows, and why he dropped his stage name.
You used to perform under the name Phatchance. What inspired you to drop that moniker and record under your real name?
I’d had the moniker since I was 16. I started out primarily as a battle rapper, mainly playing around with the freestyle element. The pun sort of suited what I was doing then, but getting older and moving away from that style of music I felt like it was time for a change. Heading into the second record it was a point of no return in terms of making a decision. I’m really happy to be away from it. It’s given me the opportunity to refresh a few things and I feel like working under my given name is a lot more flexible and doesn’t carry with it as many connotations as the Phatchance label did.
I was really struck by the sound of your single “Infinity,” the lush string section and these really moving lyrics. It feels really different to a lot of hip hop that’s on the market. What sort of music has influenced your sound?
Obviously much of the musical credit needs to go to One Above. We’ve been working together really closely to try and make something a little different on my second album. I find inspiration in a lot of places. Hip hop inspires me from a writing perspective, but musically I draw influence from all over the shop. I listen to a lot of alternative and independent music from a huge range of genres. In particular I’ve got a penchant for anything that blends genre lines and listen to a lot of acoustic, rock and electronic music and lift little things from here and there amongst that spread.
You’re about to release the album, also called Infinity. What can you tell me about it?
The album’s been a real labour of love. I started writing some of the songs in 2009 after I released Inkstains, but I’m still putting finishing touches on a couple of the tracks.
As I mentioned I’ve been working really closely with One Above, but also a lot of other talented local producers including Rahjconkas, Akouo, Cool Poindexter and Zeed The Mantis, mainly guys I’m also lucky enough to call friends. I’ve also worked with a heap of singers and songwriters, including Paris Wells, Rainbow Chan, Kate Martin and Lilian Blue, and a couple of my rapper friends have jumped on to break things up.
This is your second album. How have you grown between the making of the first album and this one?
I’ve tried to learn from my first release (Inkstains) and work as much diversity and pace into the tracks as I can. It’s a bit deviation from that album, but probably not as much of a deviation as the acoustic folk/hip hop side project I released in March last year. There’s some really personal songs and a few very existential tracks, probably as you’d expect from an album called Infinity, but I’ve made an effort to fight my melancholy instincts and blend a little light in with the shade this time around.
As you mentioned, the album sees you working again with One Above. What does he bring to the recording process that keeps you coming back?
Basically he’s just a great guy, really creative and progressive with what he’s doing and super prolific. Sometimes he’ll just subtly mention in conversation some work he’s doing with another act, and more often than not it’s a top tier artist from somewhere in the world, so I feel really privileged to get to work so closely with him. He also introduced me to Skype. Can’t complain about free calls, no sir.
When you tour the single this month fans will have their first taste of many of the album’s tracks. Are there any nerves about that?
Definitely! I never know how people are going to receive new material. It also creates a lot of pressure in terms of how I should ‘interpret’ the songs in a live setting. It takes at least a fistful of performances to really get comfortable with a song and learn what works, and I won’t have that luxury heading into this tour, so it’s going to be a big learning experience for me, hopefully without too steep a curve.
This tour takes in the East Coast. Are there are any plans to hit the rest of Australia soon?
I find myself touring the East Coast a lot more regularly than the rest of Australia. It’s really just a distance thing. It’s so much more expensive to try and drag a band over to Perth than to somewhere like Melbourne or Brisbane, and I happen to have my largest followings in those places. But I really enjoy touring properly, especially rurally, and some of my shows in Perth or various small towns have been the best I’ve played, so I’ll definitely be trying my luck to throw the net a little wider later this year, probably for the album tours.
You spend so much time on the road so you must love it. What’s your favourite thing about being on stage?
Probably getting to jam out with whatever band I take with me. I try to always have at least a few people as part of the show and interacting with them in a touring environment is always great. I’m really lucky to work with some fun and interesting people. I also have a following of really cool people who take the time to come out to most of my shows and catching up with them is always awesome. Lots of shenanigans.
I believe your music’s been getting some attention in Europe. Do you have any plans to visit and explore that?
It’s been really weird. Firstly my tracks were on a BMX video for Dane Searls (R.I.P.) which went very viral throughout Europe. Apparently they’re crazy about BMX. And then my Gotye remix got picked up by a lot of radio stations over there, particularly in Sweden and Berlin, none of which I ever expected. To be honest I don’t really know how to capitalise on it. It’s very rare for hip hop acts of my size in Australia to take their music overseas, even though international touring is quite common for acts in other genres. I’d love to sort out something, but I guess I’m focusing primarily on opening a few doors properly in Australia first. I get requests all the time though so it’s in the back of my mind.
Do you have anything else on the horizon?
As soon as the album’s finished I’m launching straight into working on more music. I’d love to knock out a free mixtape, maybe another acoustic project with renditions of some of the songs on Infinity, and obviously I’ll be touring properly and making some videos for Infinity. One Above and myself have been discussing the possibility of working on a release together exclusively too, so that will probably go into the works, and I’d like the gap between this album and the next to be much shorter. Basically if I’m lucky I’ll be just as busy as usual!
You can catch Chance Waters at the following venues this month and the next.
27 April 2012 – Plantation Hotel, Coffs Harbour
28 April 2012 – Brewery, Byron Bay (Free)
5 May 2012 – First Floor, Melbourne
11 May 2012 – Chatswood Club, Chatswood
18 May 2012 – Beaches Hotel, Newcastle (Free)
19 May 2012 – FBi Social, Sydney
Image used with permission from Reckoning Entertainment