Hip hop duo Spit Syndicate released their fifth studio album, 'ORBIT', earlier this month.
After meeting in high school and growing up in inner-west Sydney, the duo released their debut album 'Towards The Light' in 2008, earning themselves an ARIA nomination.
Through the release of four studio albums and a range of acclaimed hits, Spit Syndicate have established themselves as one of Australia's premier hip hop groups.
After several months of development, one half of Spit Syndicate, Nick Lupi says they're stoked with the final product of 'ORBIT'. “[I'm] incredibly excited.
“I don’t know whether to call it nerves or excitement, but you kind of don’t know what to expect when you're doing these things. Anytime you're making music and releasing it, you're really putting yourself out there so there's always a bit of in-trepidation.
“We've been doing this for awhile now and with each album and each release you kind of get better and you get sharper.
“I think we are just starting to give less and less of a f#$% about what certain people think of us. The thing that's most important to us is our fans... our crew likes it, our friends like it.”
When it came time to piece the album together, Nick explains there wasn't a concrete idea as to how the project would be constructed. “We were kind of making these songs like it was a mixtape, not thinking about where it was going to go, not thinking about what it was going to turn into.
“We kind of let the songs take shape themselves and then we kind of decided, as it took more shape, how we wanted to put it out.
"We weren’t intending to make an album to be honest, we were just making some songs.”
The album initially started to take shape last year. “We had a handful of ideas we had started before 'One Good Shirt Had Us All Fly' [2017 album] came out,” Nick says.
“We took a trip six, eight months ago. We went down to a friend's holiday house with a bunch of our friends and musicians and whatnot and we turned this house into a studio for a week and we started making songs.
“We were trying to avoid the familiar traps that often delay albums. Is this any good? Is the radio going to play this? What's this song about? What's it really about? What's the concept? All these innocent-enough questions, which can derail the creative process. We wanted to slap away those questions when we found our minds drifting towards them.”
Spit Syndicate will tour Australia throughout June and early July. “[We're] incredibly excited about playing our biggest tour ever – in the biggest rooms that we have ever headlined.
"Everything we have been working towards in the past, however many years, feels like it's been leading up to this point,” Nick says.
For those wanting to immerse themselves in the full Spit Syndicate experience, Nick has some news. “In all the capital cities [that we are playing] we're throwing these kind of warm-up block parties.
"Same venues, same day as the show itself. From 4pm to 8pm we will have DJs spinning. Free entry if you have a ticket to the show.”
'ORBIT' is available now.
– written by Nicholas Hastie
Spit Syndicate Tour Dates
Thu 31 May - Prince of Wales (Bunbury)Fri 1 Jun - Settlers Tavern (Margaret River)
Sat 2 Jun - Mojos (Fremantle)
Sun 3 Jun - Rosemount Hotel (Perth)
Thu 7 Jun - Miami Shark Bar (Gold Coast)
Fri 8 Jun - Solbar (Sunshine Coast)
Sat 9 Jun - The Brightside (Brisbane)
Sun 10 Jun - The Northern (Byron Bay)
Thu 14 Jun - Long Jetty Hotel (Central Coast)
Fri 15 Jun - Cambridge Hotel (Newcastle)
Sat 16 Jun - The Factory Theatre (Sydney)
Thu 21 Jun - Karova Lounge (Ballarat)
Fri 22 Jun - The Workers Club (Geelong)
Sat 23 Jun - The Corner (Melbourne)
Thu 28 Jun - Rocket Bar (Adelaide)
Fri 29 Jun - Republic Bar (Hobart)
Sat 30 Jun - Club 54 (Launceston)
Fri 6 Jul - Wollongong Uni Bar
Sat 7 Jul - Transit Bar (Canberra)
