Monday, October 10, 2011

360


One of Australia’s most talked about up and coming artists, emcee 360 (AKAMATT COLWELL) talks to RACHEL BARNES about breaking the boundaries of hip hop and the importance of giving your fans something for nothing.

From Casper to Many Styles to 360, Matt Colwell has been through a lot of changes to get to where he is today and that doesn’t just include his previous names. With his love affair with hip hop starting when he was just a 14 year-old skateboarder, Colwell’s passion for rapping has continued to become stronger and more diverse – staying true to the meaning behind his name. “It just means the revolution. I want to try and take my music 360 degrees and not necessarily make ‘hip hop’ but just go in every direction,” he says.

Just after the release of his second studio album, Falling & Flying, Colwell is reflecting on the change in his sound and the reaction of his fans. Though nothing has changed much lyrically, Colwell still writing very personal lyrics about his life experiences or “taking the piss and just having fun.”

Loving working with other artists and integrating their sound into the mix, Colwell continues to take his music to the next level with each new collaboration. With Pez, Josh Pyke, Gossling, and N’fa from 1200 techniques on 360’s current album, the wishlist of collabs for his next project is growing long. Even John Farnham’s name has been thrown into the mix, so who really knows what he could have in store. “I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” Colwell laughs. “That could’ve gone really good or really bad.”

Colwell has never thought twice about the music he is creating, despite some in the hip hop community frowning upon rapping over dance beats. With even some of his own fans turning against him after the release of his latest album, saying that he is now ‘too commercial’, he just doesn’t seem to give a shit. “I can either listen to those people telling me to do that, or I can listen to people that are liking my new music and go even further with it. But at the end of the day I just gotta listen to myself and what I wanna do. This is what I wanna do, so if they don’t like it they can get fucked,” Colwell emphasises.

He says its very important to find ways to make a stronger connection to his fans since the internet completely changing the music industry. In the past seven months 360 has released 17 quality songs on Facebook for free, and Colwell hopes that his fans will remember this when it comes to supporting his album. “The free music that I’ve given out on Facebook and stuff has built my fan base up so much,” he affirms.

Already planning for his next album, Colwell shows no signs of letting the buzz and hype leave 360 anytime soon. He plans to have his next album ready for when the hype starts to settle so he can simply, “blow people out of the water again.”

Colwell is ready for his first headlining tour and can’t wait to make use of his extended set time. Fans can expect to hear a little bit of all of their 360 favourites as Colwell plans on fitting a bit of everything into his shows.

“It’s gonna be epic,” he says, and you can safely believe it.

360 appears at the SPRUNG hip hop festival alongside Pez, Drapht, Illy, Phrase, Joelistics, Resin Dogs and more at the Riverstage on Saturday Oct 15. FALLING & FLYING is out now through EMI.www.360music.com

No comments:

Post a Comment