Drapht The Life of Riley

Drapht The Life of Riley

Drapht: wordsmith, re-arranger, perfectionist has finally delivered his fourth album, The Life of Riley! The two previous albums on Obese records "Who am I" and the sleeper hit "Brothers Grimm" provided an initial smattering of attention and airplay, before the single "Jimmy Recard" kicked the doors in properly in 2009. "Jimmy Recard" came in at 10 in the Triple J Hottest 100 2009, making serious inroads at commercial radio and becoming one of "those" festival moments over the following year. "Jimmy Recard" went on to spend an enormous 102 weeks in the AIR independent charts and the "Brothers Grimm" album was one of the biggest selling independent records of the year.

To quote the man himself, "Never in my life have I put so much time and energy into one single thing. Mentally, the making of this album broke me and drove me to the brink of insanity on so many different occasions, a song wasn't worthy of the record unless it did so."

The "Rapunzel" single was the first taste of "The Life of Riley" and was a very, very big track at radio, as well as coming in at number 12 on the Triple J Hottest 100. We are proud to announce that "Rapunzel" has now been certified platinum on the ARIA single charts. The next taste of the album "Sing It (The Life of Riley)" will be unveiled shortly. It's an incredibly diverse album with material derived from a wide range of influences, and adds to what is already a broad musical palette over the breadth of Drapht's back catalogue.

"The Life of Riley" will be the first release on Drapht's own label The Ayems, which is distributed through Sony Music.

Drapht: The Life of Riley Track By Track
The Life Of Riley: Is the title track. It was by far the hardest track to break the back of, and complete record wise. But I think that had more to do with the bullshit summer Perth was having to deal with, my home studio being upstairs and having no air conditioning for its entirety. The content of the song is base around - growing up and your life being unknowingly influenced by peoples' choices that are the closest to you. Only to realise 15 years down the track, like it or not, if it wasn't for these people you would not be in the same position you are today.

Down: The two verses in this song I had originally written for my previous record (Brothers Grimm), but I just couldn't source a beat that would suit the personal subject enough to put it sleep. This beat was a first little taste of Trials production for the new album, and I knew right away it would be a beautiful match with this song in mind. When it came time to recording the chorus I had written for it, I just couldn't get to a point where I was happy with my execution and overall finishing product. So we ended up getting a Perth Blues singer in by the name of Simon Cox. It could have been the whole bottle of my Slate bourbon he consumed before he recorded, or the fact that cops didn't stop calling him throughout our two hour recording session, but this guy sweated Blues music through and through, and at the end of the day the hook speaks for itself.

R.I.P J.R: In the making of the album I was constantly confronted by jealousy fueled comments like "I hope you have another Jimmy Recard?" or "How are you going to back that one up?" This track is the response to those questions. I had the idea to reveal and expose the real Jimmy Recard and the arrogant asshole that he actually is. So I went in search for the darkest beat I could find, mirrored the same song arrangement and chorus structure as the original, and wrote a diss song to my alter ego.

Won't Listen When: The subject matter in this song really portrays the message I was trying to get across throughout the albums entirety, which is - not abiding by society's pressure and living the life you choose, and not how people want, or expect you to live. The arrangement of the song was inspired by the Beatles track 'Rocky Raccoon' by not having a solid hook structure, and having the three verses flow into each other from start to finish.

People Don't Know: I met Abbe May through a mutual friend of ours, and I had really dug her work ever since I heard 'Howl & Moan'. I've had the pleasure of seeing Abbe live a few times around Perth and she is amazing, so I was really keen to get her on a song for the record. I gave her this particular beat, and gave her creative ground to just write what she felt without me clouding her style or judgment. Then I tackled my verses around the "People Don't Know" chorus phrasing with all ignorant Australians in mind.

Bali Party: Nfa was in town over the Christmas and New Years period, so we organised to get him around to work on something. The beat we ended up working with, was one myself and Trials really wanted to use on the album (both loving the swinging nature of it), but didn't think we would have enough time being in the end process and wrapping everything up. Myself and Nfa sat down working off a concept I had kicking around in my ideas book, and wrote and recorded the song in that one nights sitting, with it just making the record in time for the mixing process. Dude is by far one of the most creative, positive and prolific people I have had the pleasure working with.

Air Guitar: Being a white Australian rapper that plays no common form of instrumentation, I have found it's been a little difficult in the past for the older generation and the rest of the Australian music industry to actually understand and take what I do seriously. So from this point I have given up trying to explain myself, and I figure it will be just as easy to tell people I play the Air Guitar.

The Paul The Dan: Was written by myself and Trials on an album trip I had to Adelaide Using our odd couple status, tongue and cheek nature and our government names as the subject, this track produced more than its fair share of tears of laughter while recording it.

Murder Murder: This is one of my favorite songs on the record, for a number of reasons. I love its complete disregard for the conventional Hip-Hop sound and structure, which went even further after I had the melodica played all over it. Another reason being, the subject was close to my heart and based around two people I know that were once friends of mine, with similar self diluted psychopathic tendencies. They found it easier to place the blame, than take responsibility for their own actions, constantly with the thought they were right no matter how many people told them they were wrong and no matter how many friends they lost in the process.

Take the Party with us: We wrote this track around a situation we had with the Western Australian police after the last Groovin' The Moo festival in Bunbury. I had joined my good friends The Oars on their road trip down south, just to hang out, jump up and do a verse in their set. After the show, we were on the way to the after party when we were stopped by an R.B.T, where an older more militant sergeant claimed he could smell the sent of cannabis coming from our vehicle. After an hour and a half of the van being searched, tour manager being tested for use and each individual being frisk searched one by one, obviously they found nothing and we were free to go.

Good Morning: You can hear straight away that M-Phazes is supplier of the beat, with his textbook untouchable lazy drum patterns, sample stabs and aery midi effects. I got this beat off Phazes when we were on the road together on his NSW leg of the Good Gracious tour. The idea is based around drunken one-night stands and waking up next to someone you don't know and don't particularly want to even hangout with. It comes down to- are you searching through each girl one by one trying to find a gem, or are you attracting the same girl each time because you are yet to learn your lesson.

We Own The Night: I was lucky enough to have two of my favorite MC's guest on this song. Myself, Mantra and Urthboy wrote this over the internet corresponding back and forth through group emails. The beat Trials produced has that Wild West nomad feel to it, so we came up with the idea to portray the touring life from the perspective of three saloon hopping cowboys. I could really get used to working with these two, both being two of the most driven and passionate MC's I have had the pleasure in working with. I have told Urthboy on numerous occasions the three of us will have to an album together at some stage.

On and On: This track was originally written over a beat that used the same sample as Horrowshow's 'Thoughtcrime'. So with their album being released well before mine, I had to find an alternate beat that would suit the song. I had been on Trials' back for months trying to source a beat for this track, because I really liked allot of the punch lines in the verses, the sound of the hook and I really didn't want them to go to waste. One weekend I woke up with a file in my inbox from Trials, by the name of 'On and On,' quoting the Slick Rick line he had sampled and put through the chorus section. Without Dan's knowledge and being purely coincidental, the chorus I had written had a similar phrasing as the sample with my lyrics stating "life goes on and on and on and on" so it fit like a glove and it was added to one of the many "meant to be" moments we had making this record.

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