Funkoars Enter the Golden Era

With more than a decade behind them, Adelaide quartet the Funkoars are three parts MC - Trials, Hons and Sesta and one part DJ, Reflux.

The boys are members of Adelaide's Certified Wise Crew, a collective of Australia's hip hop talent that includes the Hilltop Hoods, Terra Firma, Cross Bred Mongrels and After Hours.

The Dwarf spoke to Daniel Yates (aka Reflux) about what these cheeky hip hop boys have been up to.

The Funkoars have played a string of Summer festivals including Homebake in Sydney, Breakfest in Perth and Pyramid Rock on Phillip Island in December. So was there a standout?

“Homebake was particularly good for us. Playing main stage, it was such a good time-slot. The Sydney crowds in Festivals are notoriously rowdy, they really do give it up. And Sydney we only really have played festivals the last kind of 12 months or so. We did come together festival, Homebake was just a great little addition for us, it was so good to do such a prestigious stage. Homebake is not a small festival... Yeah that was awesome and Pyramid Rock was always good, it always has a good vibe. And we have Clipsal 500 coming up in Adelaide, we are doing the Friday night, it is Lowrider, ourselves, Hilltop Hoods and Midnight Juggernauts.”

February sees the Funkoars hit the road with Ash Grunwald for the 'Little Did I Know Tour'. The single of the same name has received significant airplay on Triple J.

“We have just got three shows coming up in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney... just Eastern States and that's about it. It's just a bit of a collaboration show, a bit of fun, see what we can do with it. He [Ash Grunwald] is an amazing musician... We are basically going to do our own sets and then do a combined set and he is going to do some Funkoars backing stuff and do his interpretation and then we will all get up and do some interesting rhymes over his tracks and then we are going to mash something together to see what we can come up with. He'll do it on the spot on stage totally unrehearsed so it's going to be interesting whether it comes off or not we will wait and see on the night.”

With the recent closure of the Tote in Melbourne, what are your feelings on live music venues in the Funkoars home city of Adelaide?

“Adelaide has had that problem for a while as well. It's not as obviously large and prestigious venues as some of the ones that we have been hearing like the Tote closing down, but Adelaide has always struggled for live venues and it's always been a difficulty to have enough venues to do what we need to do. It makes it hard there is only a limited number of venues at a certain size so you get kind of caught doing shows in places where you would not normally do shows. It makes it difficult, it really does and live music is where our money is at and unfortunately it is getting harder and harder to do.”

The Hangover has just been re-released as a Premium Edition to the mark the group's move to the Golden Era Label. Are you happy with this move?

“Obese was for one album and then we left the label to be by ourselves. We have re-released 'The Hangover' on Golden Era, so we now we are signed to Golden Era which is the Hoods label so the new album will come out on Golden Era which should be way cool. Obviously 'cause they have a lot of push behind it. They are one of the bigger bands in Australia at the moment and one of the largest billing bands as well. We learnt a lot from them business wise and music wise as well but we are still our own entity. Yeah we've always been mates, even before it got all big."

So there's new stuff on the way?

“We have just started, Trials is busy at the moment finishing off Drapht's new album, he has been here during the week finishing it off in the studio. It's kind of conceptual stage at this point in time, some beats, some rhymes some kind of ideas getting thrown down and up in the air. So it is early stages yet, but it is still happening."
What's the process like?

“The communal studio is at my house out the back in the granny flat, Trials has a production studio in the bedroom in his own house, the same as Sesta and stuff, so they make beats in their own time and things like that. And we usually have a couple of nights together and just whether it's just looking at Youtube videos or whether it is actually doing something, something happens and getting together is the critical thing. It's a bit hard when you are touring but that is generally the way it goes down."

Your work with Ash seemed to go really well. What other artists would you be keen to collaborate with?

“There are plenty of American artists that I would love to be able to do some stuff with whether it is actually going to happen or not. I am really inspired by that Blakroc album, the Black Keys would be fantastic to do some stuff with... that kind of thing would be fantastic to be able to do. Hence why the Ash Grunwald collab worked for us."

After a string of live shows, including the recently announced Groove in the Moo Festival in May, is a holiday next on the agenda for the Funkoars boys?

“Our break is pretty much in the studio. We are actually shooting over to New Zealand in April to tour for a couple of weeks... Just going to go down to the South Island. Get my Lord of the Rings on... hots springs too.”

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