Interview: EAST AV3 on releasing their anticipated debut EP
Adelaide trio EAST AV3 have been steadily gaining momentum with each fiery release of theirs. Today, the trio release their debut EP ‘RUGRAT$’. Teeming with confidence and intensity, the trio constructs a left-of-centre brand of hip-hop as they invite unconventional electronic elements into their music. We chat to Sensei about the sentiments surrounding their debut EP, and the road to achieving this major milestone.
During the wait for this EP, did you feel like you needed to keep working to get your mind off it?
Yeah, in the process of doing it all, we keep trying to make music as much as we can and be as creative as we can while we have the time to do it. We don’t have any potential shows, so it’s a good time to really hone in on some new stuff coming along.
Do you find that you’re comparing new unreleased music to the stuff people are hearing now?
It’s like we’re putting out the work that is almost six to eight months old now, so we’ve got another full progression on top that which we can hopefully put out at the end of the year. This [EP] is the introduction to how we want to be perceived at the beginning… This is a taster.
‘RUGRAT$’ was one of the first songs completed in your journey, but one of the latest ones to be released.
Can you talk about the reason behind that and why you saved it?
We made that song at the same time as we made Riding Through the Fire, which was our debut single. At the start, we were tossing up between whether we should release Riding Through the Fire or RUGRAT$.We had this back and forth, and decided to sit on this one, and now we’ve built an EP around it and made it more of a significant song in our catalogue.
Where did the thread of the word ‘rugrats’ start for you three?
When we started making music at East Avenue, we were fresh out of school. I’d just moved out of home and the boys were over all the time. We had a spare bedroom that we’d make music in. We find that era as a mischievous, rugratty era. That’s the basis of where we find our inspiration for making music now.
Songs like ‘Le Labo’ have a bit more danceability to them compared to ‘RUGRAT$’. Does the EP stick to that more mischievous side, or do you balance it out?
There are some songs, maybe BL3W BAND$ that are on the same wavelength as Le Labo in terms of its danceability and the chorus is a bit of an earworm, and there’s dance breaks within the song. We’ve tried to balance the two out on this project, but still very much that rugrat vibe that’s very dark.
Were there any key moments on the EP where you were surprised with how much you were able to make the songs danceable, but whilst maintaining that intense aggressiveness?
Yeah! It was pretty surprising. From where it starts where we’ll write about something, and then seeing that translate into something that can still keep someone engaged and listening [was interesting]. We [tried] to cut bits and put bits elsewhere and play around with it until we find a nice song pattern.
How does the song-writing work between the three of you?
Sometimes we’ll come into the session with something pre-written or just an idea we’ve started, or we’ll start something completely new in the studio. Sometimes it’s about the day we’ve experienced, or just an old idea that we recycle. Sometimes we write the same thing, weirdly and we come to the studio and we’re like ‘wow, how did you even think of the same thing?’ We have a lot of chemistry, so we know what each other writes about and it flows pretty naturally.
When you go into recording, how do you channel the chaos and get each other in the zone?
The best songs we make are when we’re all together in the same room and we blast it and try to jump around and warm up. We’ve made a couple of songs over Zoom in the time we’ve had to isolate, and it kind of works either way.
The Zoom thing is interesting, and obviously you didn’t expect to do it, but did you enjoy it? Was there anything you took out of it that you thought could transfer well when you physically record together again?
Yeah for sure! I found out that you can put audio files into your notes now. I didn’t know you could do that before. I’ve been putting the instrumentals Nick and Tigerilla have been making. They send them through, and I put them in my notes so I can just write under the beat whilst it’s playing and then come out with a demo at the end of that and clean it up later.
Speaking of working over Zoom, did your Supergroup entry all come about over Zoom too?
Yeah, that was over Zoom. Tigerilla sent through the beat and Tropez and I wrote two verses to it. We sent it back and he just cut it up. By the end of the day we had a song! That was probably one of the fastest songs we’ve ever made, because all the samples were already there, and it was just about piecing it all together.
The most exciting thing was how well and dynamic your voices sounded with Tkay Maidza. Is collaborating in that way something you’ve ever had in mind, or now want to do?
Definitely! It’s really fun to be able to experiment with your own sound, and RUGRAT$ was establishing our own sound and EAST AV3’s. But, collaboration is something we want to look at. It’s just about finding the right person and the right vibe. Tkay is definitely along those lines for sure.
The music almost feels like it’s made for night mode. That’s something that the visuals of your music really accentuate.
Do you channel that in any way in the studio?
Around the time we were recording RUGRAT$, it was in our old studio in the city, which was underground, in a basement of a club. It was always very dark and the neon red from the Riding Through the Fire cover kind of is within that space. That’s the environment we were in. It was dark and dull, and we’d have the club lights [around us].
Finally, do you have any last words on what this EP is to you guys? What’s the biggest thing you learnt from this?
Ooh! I think it’s a bit of a weight off the shoulders. We’ve been waiting to put out a full body of work that’s expressive of ourselves [for a long time]. We’ve learnt a lot about how we gel as a group and how to make it as efficient and effective as possible. You just know when the songs are [done] as well, and when it’s just a demo. [We’ve learnt about] knowing the right ones… and not putting out a half-done song. We’re definitely picky about which ones we want to push further.
Do all three of you have the same sentiment and feelings around the public finally hearing this?
We’re all on excitement mode right now, especially being isolated and not being able to perform and be out there. Hopefully we can build a bit of hype around this and it’ll be even bigger when things open up.