Jen chats to Dylan Joel about his debut album ‘Authentic Lemonade’ and his Australian Tour.

Posted on October 1, 2015 in Interviews // 0 Comments

Australian musician Dylan Joel will release his debut album Authentic Lemonade on Friday 2 October. It was my pleasure to interview this talented hip hop artist who has just toured with Seth Sentry. I have followed Dylan’s career since I first saw him at Forest Edge Festival in 2013. Dylan is a down to earth seriously nice guy and I encourage you to check him out!

Hey Jen how are you?

I’m doing great how are going?

I am going really well thanks,

I first saw you play at Forest Edge Festival in 2013, I was there interviewing and shooting MXPX.

NO WAY! You are joking! That is crazy!

I really enjoyed your stage presence and the way that you captured the crowd’s attention. I looked you up when I got home and like your face book page.

That show would have been very early on your career.

That is so awesome! Thank you so much!! That is such a weird way of hearing about us!

Yeah, when I got the email about interviewing a new talent I was like um I’ve known about him for over 2 years!

That is funny as! I guess we have just been chipping away under the surface for a bit, I have been doing it for over three years but everyone is saying that I’m just new.

Recently your toured with Seth Sentry, did you seriously played 50 shows? That is a lot!

We didn’t play all 50 as we didn’t do New Zealand. As of last night we had done 48!

That is still a lot!

Yeah it was enough! Definitely enough shows that is for sure! It was pretty crazy though as when I got the email from Seth’s manager, Seth was saying I want you to do a tour that is going to be 49 shows. I was thinking that this was going to be so hard but it was such a breeze! We were laughing about it at the last show last night and Seth said “Do you want to do another 50? (laughing)

Maybe after a long rest!

Yeah exactly!

Is Seth someone that you always looked up to?

Yeah I heard of him after when I first got introduced Aussie hip-hop or a year into into it. I have always admired how quick he is and how quick witted and how quick he is at thinking and by far one of the best freestylers in the country and so for me I have huge admiration for him. Before the tour, I think from me from a hip-hop perspective he is by far one of the most talented rappers and plans and word plays and quick thinking. Then when I went on tour and that just exceeded everything. This guy is an absolute beast!

I don’t understand how he is that freakishly clever. So yes definitely especially for the last three or four years.

Is there any funny stories you can share? I have looked on Seth’s Facebook page and he shares a lot of amusing things.

Yeah I had two, the first one that comes to mind is the second show the tour and was in Cairns and we will backstage after the show and we were all eating as we were starving and we were consuming some of the food platters. We were hanging out around this back table and there was this guy cleaning all the plates and glasses whatever and he started to get really intense, he started to take away plates with half eaten food on and throw it all away and then restock the plate with the same food and then put it back in front of us. We were like what is going on? This guy kept serving us food and it was really weird. He started cleaning stuff any pickup sunglasses and started asking us where the beer glasses went and who they belong to and I said No, I’ve got no idea what room these glasses belong to, I didn’t think that glasses had room numbers on them and he just started getting everybody’s way and we started wondering what this guy’s deal was. So we asked the Tour Manager ‘Do you know who this guy is?’ And he said I will go and check it out. The next thing that we see is these two security guards escorting him out of the room. He didn’t work there he was just a fan of Seth’s that have grabbed a tea towel and flipped it over his shoulder and pretend to work for the venue and just when about cleaning stuff in the room.

That is such a great idea!

(Both laughing) It was so funny because Seth was like what is going on?

The guards were telling us said that the guy work did not work there and Seth said you mean he didn’t work here and he was with us for ages and Seth said “ quick bring him back!” That effort deserves an applause! so we tried to getting him back in but it was too late they kicked him out.

What a classic story!

The other really funny was that every show we free styled, Seth had been getting us out to rap a freestyle and nothing is planned we just seriously we just get on stage and start the song from scratch. We have no idea what we going to rap about. This has happened a few times, I guess but it was so funny because the front row always pretend to sing the lyrics to the songs and then we would do the freestyle and they wanted to be Seth’s favorite Fans so much they would pretend to rap along to it not knowing that was freestyle. So a couple times we had to address it by saying, that song isn’t a song! We made up at the spot so everybody who was trying to sing along thank you for trying! It was a really fun tour.

I can’t understand how you can freestyle, I can learn songs lyrics after listening to them for three or four times but in regards to actually thinking on the spot no way, not lyrics, I can do that for questions haha.

Before this to a was not something that I could do and I had never freestyle, it was never really something I did. Possibly occasionally with some friends but not like this. Seth said I’m getting you up for freestyle and I am going to do so every show and I was freaking out, and I said what? No! You mean in front of people? No I don’t do this! But I have definitely learnt how to do it now so that’s thanks to him because everything I know about freestyling came from him.

You really had no choice you had to learn or sink!

Yeah that is exactly right! I was pushed into it.

So your new album Authentic Lemonade is going to be released on Friday 2 October.

I have been listening to it for the last few days.

I love the opening song starting with the clapping, Always Fresh, a perfect opening song, was that always the plan when writing the album?

Good question! I think for me a lot of the albums I’ve done in the past, I really like having a novelty intro. It is not just the song, it is either striped back or there is some element to it that is quite different and separates it from the other songs. We kind of started that song pretty early and then left it and worked on the rest of the album. I have always tried to make the intro song summarize the whole meaning of the album. I think it is important to give people like a taste of what’s to come and try and put all that into one song. So once I had finished the majority of the album then went back to that song for ideas and inspiration that I used throughout the record. Then plant that in the one song. So I guess it was at that stage, once we got onto the song I thought we had to use that as the opening song. Then we stripped it back into pretty much just clapping at the start and it kept it a lot more raw.

It certainly had impact on me when I was listening to it.

That is awesome and really cool that you found that.

I can relate to the song Blank, being in a relationship that I knew was not going to work but it was so hard to break off. This is the song I can connect to the most. I can hear the emotion in your voice.

https://soundcloud.com/dylanjoel/blank

That is so cool thank you so much.

Is this the song you connect to the most?

This is another good question. I think that one was pretty strong for me it is not really a special song, I really wanted to keep it light hearted, Blank I mean. I think for me two of them are the probably I connect to the most would be, one of the songs called Dear Baby and one of the songs called Hope Is. Dear Baby is almost like the follow-up of Blank. I wrote it to almost capture the different stages of a breakup, and when a breakup has happened, the phases that you go through and the emotions that you experience. So that song was pretty raw and real from me. the other song Hope Is is probably as much like a connection to me, that was given as a challenge to me from an old friend who was like a mentor to me, to try and figure out how I felt about the idea of hope. There is so much going on in our world right now, that is pretty devastating however there is some really cool stuff going on right now too. there is always going to be shit going on and to me I had to work out how I felt about hope, everyone’s idea is quite different and for some people and it can set up some people for devastation. For some people it is just going to keep them going. For me that was a real challenge and it took a lot of starting that song over and over again to kind of get it finished. I did not know how to approach it, it took me going back to all the crap in my life and things like that to deal with and then all of the good things in my life and all the things I’m thankful for to actually try and push a song about it. For me there is a lot of personal stuff in there.

So was that therapeutic for you, and you left your crap behind?

Yes it was, it was an amazing experience, it was one of the best experiences of writing a song as it was so challenging but at the same time it was so rewarding, it was like I figured out where I stand on the ideas and I don’t think that’s what people just sit down and do. No one sits down and says how I feel about hope, it is a Tuesday and then sit down and figure that out. (both laughing) for me to sit down and nut that out and grind on it, it was a really cool experience. It was challenging but it was also quite sad as well. I realized a bunch of things in the song was pretty disappointing about our world and the way things are but then there was also a lot of encouraging stuff as well. There was mixed emotions that that is the best way of putting it, it is a real mixed bag of pros and cons.

The Music video for Swing is great. I love the ending with you running off with the money. I almost missed that as I thought it was over. You included a lot of people in that video, did the filming go smoothly?

It was super smooth! The guy that shot that whose name is Jeremy aka Grey Ghost, he was superset to work with. We sat down and did a lot of the planning the night before and story boarded it out, and we knew the way things needed to be shot, he was so clever he knew roughly how many people were coming. He said if we should this way we can incorporate all those people and the whole day was so smooth. It was so much fun, it looks liked it was a lot of work to figure out how to do that but Jeremy is pretty clever. It was kind of a joint idea, we had a picture of how we wanted it to look and what kind of vibe we wanted and the song is pretty different and it paints a specific picture. When we caught up with Jeremy we came up with the idea of doing a battle on the street. It was cool.

“Dylan is a true leader of the new school. He represents a generation that a lot of artists are losing touch with. Plus, he can rap like a mother f**ker.” – Grey Ghost

I really like Hometown peeps, this one gets stuck in my head and I find myself to my favorite song is What’s Good and you used this song as a vehicle to launch his Pop-Up Op-Shop campaign earlier this year, raising over $10,000 for the Australian Himalayan Foundation. That is brilliant! Can you tell us about the Foundation?

That was crazy! The number itself was nuts! It was amazing how many people got behind it. When I started writing it I knew what my intentions were for it. I wanted this song to be a song that made people think about the things that they would be appreciated and have that in mind the whole way through. For me I wrote that as a finishing song, I wanted to end the record with that song. Same I did Always Fresh as the opener I wanted What’s Good to be the end. It was really funny because once we finished, my whole team around me including management they thought this is more than just a finishing song this is a really phenomenal song and they said I should do a video for it because it’s got a lot heart in it. So I was planning some video ideas with my management, we thought we can do a house party and everyone just like hang out and there would be really cool vibe. I have been doing a lot of youth work in the last few years and I have been a charity worker and I’ve always want to incorporate that and the management said why don’t we do that, why not make your video for a charitable cause and make a movement out of it. I was like yes you’re right! I had been to Nepal five years ago and we helped fund a building project for school and got to meet some amazing people from awesome communities and then the earthquake happened and I heard some of the people that I’ve met and became good friends with had lost their own homes, one of them ran an orphanage, actually an aids orphanage and a normal one and one of the orphanages. Everyone survived and everyone was safe but it was just the fact that they were doing amazing things and now all their facilities have gone. It really hit the spot so I thought I’m going to choose this is my charitable cause. With the earthquake it can happen quite quick and then people just forget about it and the Nepalese earthquakes were huge and then two weeks later than not really talked about. The killer is that the devastation of that will go for at least another 10 years, rebuilding and restructuring, we thought even though this is out of the media let’s do it anyway.

I have a friend over there right now building an orphanage! Peter Knight.

That is amazing.

You can check out the pop up op shop here.

In your upcoming Headline tour in October, what can we expect, some collaborations and other instruments being played?

Good question, we will definitely get some feature acts up for sure. We are trying to bring in a new element to hip hop, atm it is kind of just a dj and a rapper. We are trying to incorporate as much musicality as we can. We will be playing a bunch of guitars and I will be playing an acoustic set and playing with a full live band. There will be a fair bit about that to expect so hopefully people dig that.

You said on your Facebook page (that everyone should like here)

“We can achieve a lot of things in this world as people, but the only achievements that I think will have any value in the end, allow us to journey with other. Thanks for the opportunity to do that peeps. I am forever appreciative.”

I really like your humility when you perform and thank your fans. What you said was very wise.

Thank you so much for that I really appreciate that.

Thanks for your time today Dylan,

No thank you for the questions it was really very cool.

I will try and make your Wrangler Studios show and met you.

Awesome, definitely come up and introduce you are.

Will so thanks,

Take care.

Bye.

You can preorder the CD here

Dylan will be heading out on the Authentic Lemonade Album Launch Headline Tour in October. Gifted with an effortless ability to jump from double-time raps to spoken word through to vocal harmonies, Dylan also incorporates an impressive list of instrumental skills into his work and live performances. Dylan’s unique combination of musical abilities have seen the talented wordsmith crossing the country, supporting international acts Pharoahe Monch and Hopsin, as well as iconic Australian Hip-Hop stars Bliss n Eso and Illy on their national tours. Overseas, Dylan has performed a selection of international events, most notably selling out his intimate headline show in Toronto Canada, plus numerous Aussie festivals including Pyramid Rock and St. Kilda Festival.

AUTHENTIC LEMONADE ALBUM LAUNCH TOUR DATES

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Thursday 15 October – Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane QLD

Tickets

Friday 16 October – Boardriders, Gold Coast QLD

Free show

Wednesday 21 October – Transit Bar, Canberra ACT

Tickets

Friday 23 October – Goodgod Small Club, Sydney NSW

Tickets

Saturday 24 October – Rad, Wollongong NSW

Tickets