After almost a year and a half, hip hop producer Chasm has finally completed his four-part EP series, with the help of none other than the UK's Blak Twang.
While 'Night Vision' will sport a sense of familiarity for Chasm's fans, especially those who enjoyed his first collaboration with Blak Twang on the album 'This Is How We Never Die', the EP's three tracks definitely show how much the artist has evolved since his EP series began. “Towards the end of last year, I was listening to producers like Harry Fraud and enjoying that kind of laid-back, spacey sort of hip hop sound,” he says.
“I was into doing slower, more chilled kind of stuff. It's just a different take, each EP has a different vibe. This is like classic, chopped-up, sampled hip hop, and Blak Twang's take on it gives it that UK flavour that sets it apart.”
Blak Twang's voice wasn't the only thing he contributed to 'Night Vision'. Part of the collaboration involved Blak Twang lending his lyrical prowess to the creative process, adding themes of Southeast London nightlife to the track 'Late At Night' while also voicing his opinion of the music industry on 'Don't You Worry'. “It's all his lyrical content, so I don't want to speak too much on that side of things,” jokes Chasm.
While the two have worked on a project together before, their previous collaboration was done completely by correspondence. For 'Night Vision', however, Blak Twang flew out to Australia to clock in some studio time with Chasm in person. “I felt it improved from the previous collab in which he just got sent the music over the internet and we never met,” Chasm says. “It was definitely a lot better to get in the studio and really vibe with each other and work on a few tunes.”
As a long-time fan of Blak Twang, Chasm was thrilled to literally work alongside him. “When I was coming up, his tunes from the early 2000s and late '90s were big anthems for a lot of friends of mine and me,” he beams. “So it was pretty crazy, sometimes I'd stop and go, 'Damn, it's Blak Twang!' It was cool, he's a down-to-earth dude, I was stoked to be able to make some music with him.”
Beyond sharing studio space with a figure he has admired for years, Chasm legitimately enjoyed the collaborative nature of his EP series in and of itself – earlier entries in the series featured Australian vocalists like Jane Tyrrell, Daniel Mifsud, and Momo. “Sometimes it's harder to make it a succinct listen that flows well if there's heaps of different rappers on one album,” he explains. “That was the cool thing about it, each EP could be that one artist with me and I could give the music a certain feeling.”
The journey he took in producing four individual EPs wasn't all peaches and cream, however. Although he began the endeavour thinking it would be a lighter project to undertake between albums, Chasm now realises he bit off more than he could chew. “I thought it'd be easier to just do four EPs, but it actually ended up being a lot of work,” he says. “Each time you release an EP, you do a promo run and marketing for it and you're already onto planning your next one. I was trying to release one every three months, so it was a bit hectic trying to be creative and getting everything else – all the business side of it – in check.”
When asked if a multi-part series is something he'd ever try his hand at again, Chasm simply laughed and denied any interest in doing so. However, he does plan to jump straight back into the fray. “I've got a couple of collaborations I'm working on, so I might not do any solo stuff for a bit. But I'm definitely keen to do full album releases again.”
Written by Simon Jun
'Night Vision' is available online now (digital release only). Chasm plays Mr Falcons in Glebe, Sydney, alongside Klue (True Vibenation) and Blaze Tripp (free entry).
