It’s been over five years since Pez exploded onto the national radar with his hit single ‘The Festival Song’.
The track – taken from the Victorian emcee's debut album, 'A Mind Of My Own' – quickly became a Triple J favourite and propelled him to the status of Aussie hip hop royalty. He toured vigorously with local names like Bliss N Eso; he played with international stars like Lupe Fiasco.
But then Pez seemingly vanished – his touring schedule ceased and there was little information regarding whether the rapper had even begun crafting his sophomore record. “I had a pretty big hiatus because I was quite under the weather,” Pez explains [he was diagnosed with Graves’ Disease]. “It was nearly 18 months or 2 years since I'd done something. I can't say I never thought about music, but it certainly wasn't my focal point and I certainly wasn't writing any music.
“I didn't really even know where I stood anymore. Like, the climate had changed quite a lot since I came out, so it was pretty daunting getting back into it and trying to remember why I started writing music in the first place.”
It appears it wasn't just his fears of remaining relevant in the ever-changing music industry which caused Pez to withdraw himself from the public spotlight. More importantly, he had to overcome his battles with anxiety and what were perhaps the darkest years of his life.
“Because it's been so scary for me, I guess that's been the main journey. I didn't want to keep hiding. I didn't want to get drunk to play a show because I was scared. I wanted to be able to tackle this shit head-on and deal with it.
“That's the thing that's driving me now – I want to move beyond all that and keep connecting with people. I want to feel more and more confident to let myself create without putting a censor on myself.”
As Pez grew in confidence, so did his desire to again test the waters of hip hop. The result was the single, ‘The Game’ – an uplifting track which continued Pez's love affair of combining real instruments with rapid-fire prose and heartfelt melodies. “Luckily it actually went really well, got received well and got played a lot. That was cool because I didn't expect anyone to really give a shit – when you're away for so long you start to wonder if anyone really cares anymore.
“It was nice to see there were still fans out there who were still really supportive, but it made me panic even more because I hadn't even finished the album. So I've pretty much been scrambling over the year to get in and finish the album.”
For the first time as an artist, Pez approached the recording process of ‘The Game’ entirely by himself. “It was a lot more tedious and probably not advised, but I loved it,” he laughs. “Now, after I've been able to step away from it and [I've stopped] over-analysing it, I'm actually quite proud of it.
“I think this album's taken a lot longer too because the songs have been made in that style where I've had an idea first and tried to create the music for it. The result is that it feels a lot more special, but it's certainly taken me a lot longer to execute.”
The long-awaited second Pez album, 'Don't Look Down', will feature some of his most personal songs yet. “I never wanted to be one of those rappers like Eminem who've made a living talking about themselves – it's just the same story you've heard a million times. I've never wanted to be like those guys because it's almost scary for me to talk about certain things.
“I didn't want to write a depressing album so it took a little bit longer to write the album because I was in a pretty dark place. But it's nice to release the album when you're coming out the other side because it has balance and it has hope. It's kind of called 'Don't Look Down' for that reason – it's a metaphor that sometimes things get scary as shit, but you've just gotta block it out and go for it.”
Written by David Miso
Pez plays the Big Day Out
Sun Jan 19 — Metricon Stadium (Gold Coast)Fri Jan 24 — Flemington Racecourse (Melbourne)
Sun Jan 26 — Sydney Showgrounds
Fri Jan 31 — Bonython Park (Adelaide)
Sun Feb 02 — Claremont Showgrounds (Perth)
Pez is an ambassador of The Be Project, an Australian Government initiative tackling binge drinking.
