What is your name and role within Drop Legs?
Antman, guitar and security
Where are you based and what is the music scene like there?
We are based in Bundjalung Nation also known as the Byron Bay area. The music scene is great. It’s a country town so its not like the big cities, but we have a lot of good bands and festivals coming through. Also there is plenty of good musicians around so there are heaps of people to work and jam with.
How did Drop Legs start as a band?
Originally Jason (drums) and Ham (vocals) were in a band called Desa Mani (you can check them on soundcloud) when that kind of came to an end they started up a new project, DROP LEGS. The members of DL have changed a bit over time but all the members past and present have been through sheer gravitation. We are really good mates, we surf, skate, and hang together on the daily. At the moment we are going steady (heart emoji x2) . We have had this line up for 2 years now and I cant see any changes coming its Ham (vocals), Jason (drums), Beansy (horns) Timmy (bass) and I.
You have have been busy lately with the independent recent release of your debut album ‘King Brown Sun Down’ where and when did you record?
We have been slowly putting it together for almost two years now. The first recording was 750 which was done at Ham and Beansy’s old share house on borrowed gear with Macca from Desmond Cheese recording us. Since then we have recorded at Hydro Funk studio in Mullumbimby, Bedlam studio in Brissy and our friends studio which is nicely nestled within a short walk from where we live.
What equipment / programs did you use?
Dam, this is my favourite question but I’ll try not to get too techy here (warning).
If we do demos at home we are mostly on Ableton but when we record at the studio it seems to be on protools.
But lets talk guitars n shit. I’m pretty Frothing on recording on my Tele, it’s a 50s reissue and most recently goes through my Supro 15w reverb amp which has killer tone. We’ve had plenty of synth getting recorded on our newer tracks too. Hams getting pretty good at his MicroKorg and I just bought myself a new synth which happily made it into Cars A Beater.
When it comes to bass we don’t actually have a bass amp yet (we would like one though….) so we use whatever comes our way. I think we basically went DI on the last few tracks with some compression. Timmy (on bass) is just one dank player and Eric does some wiz mix on it in protools and sometimes we find ourselves having to clean the room from dankness! But basically we record with what we have and what we can borrow. Its pretty much what we use live but stripped back a little. 
Who did you work with and how was the recording experience?
We worked with a few people. First up was our good mate Macca. That was a great experience and really useful for me. It was my first time recording so it really helped to be recording with a friend, so its comfortable and judgment free. He is also just the king of smooth which really works for tracks like 750 and Car’s A Beater.
Then we did some Recordings at Hydro Funk with Dave Atkins (Resin Dogs). Dave is an epic drummer and OG of the Aus Hip-Hop scene, so that was humbling. I was pretty nervous at first actually but he has been really cool to us and is also a good mate now.
Our latest few tracks were recorded and mixed by Eric Cohello. He is a wizard in the studio and a mentor for us. The Strides hooked us up with him and things just clicked. Its kind of like
Drop Legs member: “what ya rkn we could put some extra delay through that section”
Eric :“Yeah I was just thinking that so I actually just designed this new delay whilst you were doing your take, check this”
Drop Legs member: “ Mental”
We also did some recording at Bedlam studio’s in Brisbane. Wow, you really gotta focus there as its pretty easy to stay up n party with the crew at Bedlam, thanks to Jack, Duncan and the rest of the crew there. That was wild place to record…. Super fun.
Who or what influences your sound?
Sublime, The Bennies, Ocean Ally, Pow! Negro, The Strides, Tunes of I, sticky fingers, Anderson Paak, Damian Marley, Protoje, The Roots, Sublime (sorry we really like sublime), 30/70 and Astro Travellers, would be the main of band influences. Individually we all have really different genres we froth on and try and bring to the band from Hip-Hop, to Psych Rock, with dub and Afro beat in-between.
Please describe your songwriting process:
We don’t have one. Most songs come from Jamming together (when we get the time), some songs are written by a member then brought to the band where they go through the LEG work and some songs have been pretty much written whilst recording. Either way all the songs really involve a whole band process by the time they are finished. We all like to bring our own little things to them.
I hear you’ll be hitting Europe soon?
Yeah! We have shows in Holland, Germany and the UK. This is our first European tour and besides a few shows in Bali our first real overseas tour. We will be playing some solo shows, some shows with Soja in Holland and a show with the Beautiful Girls in London then we got some festival gigs at Madness (NL), Munich Sessions Summer fest, and Boomtown Fair which we are really excited about.
What can we expect from these upcoming shows?
Dank beats, psychedelic guitar, sexy horns and Ham going Ham.
How do you prepare for each show?
Tinnies, Tequila and a huddle
What do you have planned upon arriving back to Australia?
There is a tour being booked for November – December. Its our first tour being booked by an agency so exciting news is on the way.
Hopefully we can do some recording before this as we have plenty of jams kicking round at the moment.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
I’m actually listening to Mild High Club right now!!!!! Otherwise, check out our Spotify playlists https://open.spotify.com/user/1238968531/playlist/2Yx5fPdAsA1vtZPyTMD5Jg?si=tn5c6Q5gRt-cZJEJgFvA9g
Favourite food and place to hangout?
Jason and Beansy measure every restaurant by the quality of its PHO. But basically we loving hanging by the beach with a tallie could be anywhere in the world really.
MORE INFO ON DROP LEGS BELOW:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1wHMWHLu5b3fYFjAocDhAq?si=uBzFc8arRlaBrSh08iiCcA
www.instagram.com/droplegsband
https://www.youtube.com/droplegshttps://www.facebook.com/droplegs
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