We made it in!
Thank you so much to everyone who voted for ‘Laced Up’ in this year’s Hottest 100. We’ve been pretty quiet, so it was a surprise to see it in there.
Over the last five years we’ve only dropped four songs – ‘I’m Good?’, ‘Show Business’, ‘A Whole Days Night’ and ‘Laced Up’, and to see all of them get into the count has been really special.
I say that to say this. It’s been five years since our last album. FIVE.
Enough is enough, the new album is on its way!
Also, while we’re on the subject of triple j. We want to share our gratitude to, and respect for Richard Kingsmill.
Richard recently exited one of, if not the, toughest jobs in music – heading up programming at Triple J. We’re sure that it’s an exhausting, and often thankless position for him and the team over there. But with Richard at the wheel we saw so many Australian artists careers launched and supported. A lot of artists in this country, including ourselves, owe their careers in big part to Richard.
He always showed us a massive amount of support, and for that we will be eternally grateful. We genuinely look forward to seeing where Richard’s immense wealth of musical knowledge and broadcasting talent lands next and wish him the absolute best. Thank you Richard.
Today marks the 1 Year Anniversary of ‘I’m Good?’ So far the song has raised $212,735.46 for Support Act’s Roadies (Crew) Fund.
Road crew are still doing it tough. It broke our hearts to see Blues Fest cancelled due to restrictions a few weeks back. If things don’t change soon, our industry is going to be in even worse trouble than it is now.
Our love and solidarity goes out to everyone employed, or formerly employed in the live music industry. ❤️
We are very sad to learn of Neville Clark’s passing. Neville has been our mastering engineer since we first rolled up at his door in Brompton with our debut EP, ‘Back Once Again’. Over the years we formed a working relationship, and more importantly a friendship, with Neville and his wife Ros. Debris (Barry) and Neville became particularly close, bonding over their shared love of sound and technology. Neville and Ros made an incredible team, both patient, kind and generous with their time.
Neville’s passing leaves a chasm in the South Australian music community, where he was universally liked, loved and respected.
He had a breadth and depth of knowledge about his craft that was unmatched. We can credit a lot of our success to Neville, who had an ear for sound that can’t be taught or learned. More importantly Neville was a loving father and husband and we are sending our condolences and all of our love to his family and friends. He will be sorely, sorely missed. Neville’s wife Ros has setup a GoFundMe page to raise money on behalf of The Leukemia Foundation of Australia, we’ve added the link should you wish to contribute. https://gf.me/u/ynx8gp
New Alerts x Greeley of THCtv film clip coming soon
Adelaide emcee Alerts has dropped his new single “Southside” via YouTube tonight featuring Purpose, produced by Suffa of the Hilltop Hoods, mixed by Simplex and featuring cuts by DJ Sanchez. The three-minute offering from the pair gives a full 360-degree insight into growing up in the Southern Suburbs of Adelaide, affectionately known by many as the Southside.
Per capita, the Southside of ADL has arguably produced more nationally prominent rappers than anywhere in Australia with the likes of Hilltop Hoods, Delta, The Funkoars, Terra Firma, Prime, Prime, K21, After Hours and Train Of Thought all coming from the South and this track continues the legacy of quality – check below.
Alerts first came to national attention on Simplex’s debut Obese Records solo album “Audio Biography” through the standout posse cut track Opus Operandi along with Australian legends Delta of Nuffsaid Records and the ever-talented Motions. His memorable show stopping live performance accompanying this song at Home Grown for Da Klinic’s 10 th birthday bash in July 2011 at the now defunct HQ Complex main room really put him on notice. The track earned a place in esteemed Sydney DJ’s Shan Frenzie’s memorable Show & Prove mixtape showcasing the best hip hop released that year across the country along with the likes of Trem, Bias B, Drapht, Mantra plus more.
Alerts would go on to collaborate significantly with Kimence, as well as with a careful selection of Adelaide best including Mnops, Social Change, DJ Dyems and most recently Conseps. It is his stand- alone music however which has really established himself in his own right and led to support slots with the likes of Royce Da 5’9, Ras Kass, Kerser, Kings Konekted, Tech N9ne, Raekwon & Slick Rick, Skrub, Complete, Wombat, Rates, Delta, Cormega, Spice 1 and Fat Joe since 2015 leading him to headline his own gigs. Having performed all up and down Adelaide, Melbourne and Tasmania, Alerts has built a reputation for himself somewhat the old-fashioned way as a writer and performer from the ground up with a swell of support.
Back in late March 2018 almost two years ago to the day, Alerts dropped his impressive debut “The Prisoner” track produced by Simplex of Terra Firma. With the captivating visuals to the song executed by Josh Davis & Heath Kerr (Heata) of 1984 Films, the 4:20 minute offering has been played over 42,000 times on YouTube alone – a strong effort for his first independently released, unfiltered track.
Following a busy period of extensive performances across the country, the in-demand follow up was the three and a half minute “Get It” single released in June 2019, again produced by Simplex. The continuity in production work of the pairing of Alerts and Simplex sounds and feels like a natural fit and served as popular follow up to the breakthrough The Prisoner track. The music video is again Executed by Josh Davis and Heath Kerr of 1984 Films, really showcasing their diverse talents behind the lens. Get It also spawned a recent remix by Simplex, providing a fresh take on a heartfelt track.
Stay tuned – more Alerts music on the way soon, from the Southside to nation wide.
What a huge honour, APRA AMCOS ‘Songwriter of the Year! Never in our wildest dreams did we think we’d ever win this award. Having it presented to us by Trials and Briggs of A.B. Original made it extra special, having presented the same award to them two years earlier. The only thing that could have made it more special was to have received it in a big fancy room with free booze and actual people, haha. A big thanks to our teams at Blue Max Music and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia you guys this wouldn’t have been possible.
#TBT to performing ‘Immortal MC’s’ at (the now defunct) Traffic Nightclub in Adelaide. Footage courtesy of Adfu. We’re starting to collect footage for a special project that we’re putting together. If you have any old professional/semi-professional footage or photos of us performing please email [email protected]. Anybody supplying footage or photos that ends up being used will be credited and compensated.
Released last week, HILLTOP HOODS have written a song from, and about isolation titled ‘I’M GOOD?’, with proceeds from the track going to the SUPPORT ACT ‘Roadies (Crew) Fund’. The band had been in lockdown writing their new album but decided to take a break and work on something that would help road and support crew – including those whose livelihoods have been devastated by the impact of COVID-19.
‘I’M GOOD?’ is available on all digital platforms now. Proceeds from the artist, record label and publisher royalties from streams and downloads of ‘I’M GOOD?’ will go directly to SUPPORT ACT ‘Roadies (Crew) Fund’. Additionally, Island Records/Universal Music Australia, Sony/ATV Music Publishing (Australia) Pty Ltd, Blue Max Music, and Media Arts Lawyers are chipping in $2,500 each to kick off the fundraising.
On the production side of things, the band has enlisted SIXFOUR (Paul and John Bartlett) to produce, Plutonic Lab (Leigh Ryan) to mix and Alex Mader of Disk Edits to master the track.
Regarding the release of the song, the band had this to say:‘It’s a very dark time at the moment, so we wanted to make something light-hearted, we’re hoping that the song might give someone a laugh and maybe lift their spirits. But ultimately what we want to do is raise money for the roadies and associated support crew – including those who have lost their livelihoods due to this pandemic.’ – Hilltop Hoods
If you are able, please consider donating to Support Act and directing your donation to the ‘Roadies (Crew) Fund’ here
Hey Everyone, It’s been a very difficult week for the world and we hope that you guys are all doing alright. We thought that we’d better give an update to anyone that was planning on seeing us at one of the six festivals we had remaining on our tour schedule for 2020. As of today, all of the festivals are cancelled with the exception of Right Now Festival, which has been rescheduled for the 14th of November and Big Pineapple, which has been rescheduled for the 21st of November. We hope that by then, things will have returned to ‘normal’ and that those two festivals can go ahead as planned. We have also pledged to the organizers of WoW Fest that we would return in the future to perform in Geraldton. Refunds are now available for all ticket-holders who purchased tickets to WoW Fest, One Tropical Day (Alice Springs & NT) and Greener Pastures. Tickets for Right Now Festival and Big Pineapple are still valid, but if you are unable to make the rescheduled dates refunds are available. It’s an incredibly difficult time for everyone, particularly the music industry. Everybody will be affected economically, whether they be artists, managers, promoters, road crew, venue staff, publicists, photographers – the list goes on. Taking this into account we’ve made the decision to return our deposits to the promoters involved and to pay our band and crew in full for the 4 shows that have been cancelled. As for us, we’re going to hunker down and work on our next album in earnest. We have a bunch of beats from some of Australia’s best producers, a handful of demos and a ton of ideas. I’m actually pretty excited, but that excitement is definitely tempered by everything that’s going on. We can’t view this situation solely through our own prism. We need to think and act as a community. It’s a dark time right now, but if we all do our best, hopefully we can minimize the impact of this pandemic. Make sure to reach out to anyone within your family and friendship group that is vulnerable or alone. Take care of yourselves and each other.
