WHEN one of Australia’s most popular and influential hip hop crews announce that their new album contains no rap, eyebrows are raised.
However, as fans of TZU can attest, the five-piece Melbourne band has never followed convention. “It felt great in an artistic sense but as a business it’s a pretty stupid thing to do,” Pip Norman, aka Countbounce, says, laughing.
“It’s like Coca-Cola stopping selling soft drinks! People expect us to do something weird anyway.”
After a four-year hiatus, TZU are polishing off an album scheduled to drop in September. After considering making a “stoner instrumental record”, the band realised that while the music needed vocals, rapping was a little too much. Like on their first single, Beginning of the End, TZU are taking a moodier approach.
“There are absolutely no fun party jams on there, it’s all really dark,” Norman says. “There’s a few murder songs and a ghost story. Because we don’t have to bring it street-style, we can create these narratives that are a bit more out there.”
After the release of their third studio album, Computer Love, Norman settled into a studio in Preston, producing and writing for the likes of Urthboy, Pez and Sparkadia. His work has been nominated for the Australian Music Prize nearly every year since its inception, but Norman needed more time adjusting to being TZU again.
“I’m simultaneously doing Urthboy and TZU’s album at the moment,” he says. “You’ve just got to go for a walk, reset your ears and then come back in and work on the next album.”
Norman also found it strange joining the band on stage again. “All you’ve got to do is start and you can feel the autopilot kick in, but there was a while there at the first gig where I was wondering what to do with my body.’’
TZU will be at the Corner Hotel, Richmond, on June 1. Visit tzu.com.au.
