While he was in the country for Big Day Out, just before he hit the stage at the Metro Theatre in Sydney, we briefly sat in the stairwell backstage with Plan B to discuss The Defamation of Strickland Banks, touring Australia, and what’s next for the popular rapper, soul singer-songwriter, actor and director… boy, does he keep himself busy!
Welcome back to Australia! I believe it’s your second time touring down here?
Third time! I came down here on the first record (Who Needs Actions When You Got Words) about four years ago, and then about the same time last year with Chase & Status.
How have your experiences been down here?
They’ve been great. I mean the last time I was doing the absolute minimum work – I was only coming out for the last two songs. I didn’t have to worry about the stuff you normally have to worry about when you’re doing your own shows – the sound check, equipment and so many things being right – with them I didn’t have to worry about that. So I kind of got to chill out. This time there’s obviously a lot more pressure!
I actually saw Salt n Pepa at this venue (the Metro Theatre) last time I was down here, and I remember thinking “what a cool fucking venue!” – and now here we are!
You’ve certainly got quite the production along for the ride with you down here. What did you have along for your first tour?
It was just me and my acoustic guitar on the first tour. That was hard man. But when records sell, and things start making money, things start becoming a lot easier. It’s the way the world works. Money buys you time. Everything becomes more expensive, but the money comes in to break it even. The most important thing for me is that, no matter what territory we’re playing in, that we’re doing the exact same thing that we’re doing over the in UK. Because I know what I’m doing over there is great, and the more opportunities I have to show people that all over the world, the better.
Because I think a lot of people are cynical about music right now – I’m cynical myself, that’s why I made this record. I wanted to make a great record that meant something, because I’m sick of fucking hearing music that doesn’t mean anything. And you’ve got to show the rest of the world that, that there are people out there that exist and feel that way about music.
And you just showed that off with a couple of shows in the States before you came down here?
Yeah we went to the States first.
How do you find the crowds respond to your music over there?
Fucking great man. I think there’s a lot of hype over there surrounding me at the moment, because of what we’ve done in the UK. So we got the crowds in, we smashed both shows – the Bowery in New York, the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Elton John came down with James Blunt… there were a bunch of people there, it was a special show.
But the most important thing is that you go there with all the press there, and all the industry people there, and you smash it! That’s what I’m saying, if we hadn’t had done that, I think it would make it a lot harder.
I understand you and Elton performed together at the end of last year?
Yeah I did, at the Roundhouse.
How did that come about?
He just really loved the record, and publicly said that he thought it was the best record of the year.
That’s not bad kudos…
Yeah it felt great man. It’s strange though, when these massive icons are paying attention to me. It’s strange, but then it becomes normal. Me being in this position, I’m a normal person, I know where I’ve come from, I know how hard it was to get here. You meet other people, who are a lot higher, and you have more of an understanding of how they got there as well. As soon as you meet them, it becomes normal.
Looking forward, you’ve got a new album coming out later this year on your own label I understand…
Maybe, we’ll see. The Ballad of Belmarsh is the hip hop version of events surrounding Strickland Banks. It’s an extension of it. And I may release it for free. All I know is that I’m going to put it out there because I love hip hop music.
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The Defamation of Strickland Banks is in stores now.
http://www.myspace.com/time4planb
