PHFAT

For their first time in Australia, South African DIY hip-hoppers PHFAT will be embarking on a tour of Australia’s east coast with little idea of what to expect. However, ask member Mike Zietsman how he is feeling and he’s keener than any jelly bean.

“There is splinterings of lost South Africans that moved to Australia who have heard of us, but mostly I see this as an opportunity to make a great first impression,” says Zietsman. “But, what is my perception of Australia? Hmm, you guys don’t seem to like us in sports? No, but I think there is a kind of developed party scene there, which is what caught my eye in terms of PHFAT.”

Sports aside, there’s no doubt that this tour will be a stark contrast to their regular jaunts around their homeland. As a group, they refuse to sell their music – preferring to share it on their website for fans to download and share accordingly – a method that most musicians would usually avoid.

“Personally, I always buy the physical CD if I can,” he says. “But with our music, I realised that it was going to get to more ears if we maximise the process of sharing because we didn’t want to work with record labels.

“The record labels we did work with were very cool, but the way that they are set up as a musician you often get cock-blocked,” Zietsman laughs. “I didn’t want to do that again, and we wanted to be able to make stuff very quickly, so giving away our music was the way… that worked best.”

Every South African hip-hop lover could vouch for that. Not only have the group graced opening slots for mammoth acts such as Public Enemy and Bert McCracken’s outfit, The Used, from their own homegrown reputation they have been able to sell-out venues all over their country with just their name on the flyer.

“It’s just this sustainable little thing without outside funding or labels. We are our own little entity and I’m hoping that with the short time in Australia that we have we can start making headway and start connecting with the real grassroots fans over there.”

This electro hip-hop mish-mash will be storming through Sydney over the next couple of weeks in support of their latest single Lights Out featuring JungFreud. (CD)

May 16, MUM @ World Bar, 24 Bayswater Rd, Kings Cross, tickets onsale at the door, 18+ only, theworldbar.com.au