Exclusive David Dallas Interview

Last year, David Dallas uprooted his life in New Zealand and moved to New York in pursuit of his musical aspirations like some competent hip-hop incarnation of Flight of the Conchords. However, unlike Bret and Jemaine of the ‘Chords, Dallas is fast making his mark in the land of opportunity.

The rapper has signed a deal with venerable hip-hop label Duck Down and today releases his second studio LP The Rose Tint as a free download – brandishing assists from Buckshot, Freddie Gibbs and a couple of his Kiwi cohorts.

Speaking with Rhyme & Reason Magazine from his new home base in Harlem, David Dallas shares stories from his American adventure, recounts choosing hip-hop over computer science, notes the power of being blogged by Kanye, and laments his enduring struggle for a rose tinted perspective.

Tell me about your big move from New Zealand to New York?
At the moment I’m in Harlem, which is uptown New York. I spent the last two months of last year here, so I’m used to it now. Being from Australia and New Zealand, we’re used to having backyards, seeing trees when you walk outside – so at first it was weird. My block is super-concrete, there’s no nature around or anything like that. I come from a place where it’s quiet at night, you can go out on the street and kick a ball or something. Whereas here, I’m on a main street where it’s busy and noisy at all hours of the night. Even just living in a big building as opposed to a normal house is kind of weird for me. So it’s been quite a culture shock, but I’m used to it now.

As a musician from New Zealand living in New York, are there moments when your life feels like an episode of Flight of the Conchords?
[Laughing] I guess in the sense of people looking at you totally sideways. I get it even more so because of the music we make. A New Zealand person making rap music, especially to people over here, that just sounds absurd. I opened for Pharoahe Monch at his album release party a few weeks ago – it was a fully packed crowd – and as soon as I got on stage and opened my mouth, people turned around and you could see their faces, like, [intrigued]. I guess the good thing about it is at least people are curious, you know what I mean? If you think of how many artists there are out here, how many rappers, I guess I just have that point of difference. At least I’m going to get people’s attention. At least they’re going to be curious. And I think that when a lot of them hear the music they’re pleasantly surprised.

Obviously, it was a major decision to move half-way around the world to pursue your career. What prompted you to make that decision at this point in time?
The opportunity presented itself and it was just the right time for me. It was one of those things that I couldn’t say no to. Maybe two or three years ago, I was always on the internet, on the blogs reading about artists, listening to new music everyday and wishing some New Zealand artists could be on those sites. I was like, ‘Why not?’. We have all these talented artists back home and we don’t get those sort of looks. So around 2009 we started trying to get on a few of those sites and I was lucky enough that some of the bigger hip-hop sites started picking up on my stuff. Then late last year my management team were over here and they chanced upon a meeting with Duck Down and were like, ‘Hey, we should show them Dave’s stuff.’ Fortunately, because I had a video on Kanye’s site and other blogs, they had stuff to show them and they were really into it. So when the chance to come here came up, it was a no brainer.

You mentioned Kanye West featuring your music video [“Big Time”] on his blog. What actual effect did that have on your career?
There was definitely a big spike in interest at the time. The video jumped up about 30,000 views in a day [laughing]. There’s nothing I could do in New Zealand that would ever get beyond national news. It put it on the radar for a lot of other hip-hop websites. I guess the other sites saw it and thought; ‘Kanye’s posted it so maybe we should pay more attention to it.’

Savage is the most recent New Zealand rapper to have made any sort of splash in the U.S. market. Have you sought advice from Savage or had conversations about his experiences in the States?
Nah, I’ve never really sat and talked to Sav about it. I’ve hung out with Sav since, like at home and stuff, but we never really spoke about it. Andy, one of the guys from Dawn Raid, he’s part of the bigger team that is looking after my stuff now – it’s a group called Frequency [Media Group]. Andy from Dawn Raid has actually played a big part in making things happen over here with Duck Down. He was the one who actually arranged the meeting with them, so they’re definitely part of the family and played a big hand in helping things along.

Were you fielding offers from other labels before signing with Duck Down?
Nah, nah, nah. It was totally just a partnership thing. I wasn’t really looking for a deal.

Was the Duck Down catalogue something you listened to coming up in New Zealand?
Yeah, totally. I listened to them since a kid. I was really up on the Duck Down stuff like Buckshot. Buckshot and Method Man – I thought they had the coolest flows in rap. So it was quite a trip to come over here and meet Buckshot for the first time at the Pharoahe Monch show. And for him to know who I am… it was pretty sick, man.

Duck Down has such a rich hip-hop legacy. Have you had the opportunity to sit-down with the label’s CEO, Dru Ha, and pick his brain?
I’ve spent some time with Dru and his brother Noah. I get to talk to those guys all the time. It was crazy meeting Dru for the first time; he was this little, short guy. My image of Dru Ha… I was thinking he was going to be like Suge Knight or something [laughing].

What has been the most surreal moment of your U.S. adventure so far?
When I was at South By Southwest I got to see the Nate Dogg tribute show – being in the venue with Snoop, Warren G, Daz and Kurupt. I grew up idolising that music; Snoop’s Doggystyle is like my favourite album. Just seeing those artists I was like, ‘Far out!’. Where I’m from back home, that era never died – west coast rap of that period was just the biggest shit in New Zealand. So it was crazy to be there.

Was it an emotional show?
You could see that they were quite down, but at the same time they were super energetic. It sounds cliché but there was a lot of love in the building.

Your new album The Rose Tint is released today as a free download. Why did you choose to put it out as a free project?
I want to put my best foot forward and let people hear the best music I’ve got. There’s so much good music being released here on a daily basis and a lot of it is free. So I thought it’d be naïve of me to come over here and the first thing I do is try and sell [my music]. I haven’t really established myself here yet, so I’ll put this out for free. I’m a firm believer that if people like the music then something will come of it.

Explain the concept behind the title – The Rose Tint?
I just liked the sound of it. The phrase came to me before I started working on the album. I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I think I’ll call my next album The Rose Tint’ [laughing]. And I think that subconsciously helps you, gives direction to the project. But the theme of the album is me trying to look at things in a positive light. I’ve always had a tendency to be pessimistic and down-play things when I should be celebrating. I could win an award and everyone will be like ‘You should be stoked’, but I’ll already be focused on the next thing. So I tend to write songs that are more motivational and empowering in an attempt to try and amp myself up, you know what I mean? I’d rather write stuff like that than write depressing stuff that makes me want to go slit my wrists [laughing].

Musically, where are you taking us on The Rose Tint?
85% of it is produced by my boys Fire & Ice. If anyone heard the stuff we did on Something Awesome, it’s still very soulful, vintage sounding, but we’ve pushed it a bit further. There’s a lot of live instrumentation on it; we’re still using samples but then there’s live bass or live drums, guitars, etc. For me, I’ve just grown as a songwriter. With each project I get more comfortable with doing the sort of material I like – so it’s very melodic, there’s a lot of singing on the hooks, all that sort of thing.

How easy was it to make a living off hip-hop back home?
Not very [laughing]. I wasn’t scrambling for crumbs or anything ‘cause I hadn’t done anything other than music since 2005 – I didn’t work a day job or anything like that. But I’ve never been rich. I’m sure if I had kids or something to look after, I would’ve had to get other work to support myself. But because I was always just supporting myself, I was fine. I had publishing cheques and things like that to live off.

How upset is your mum that you aren’t capitalising on your Computer Science degree?
[Laughing] Mum’s always hassling me like; ‘When are you going to buy me this? When are you going to buy me that?’ When I first finished university, I just wasn’t doing anything but music for about 10 months and at that point there was no precedent for what I was trying to do. I didn’t have any material out, I was actually just taking time off and mucking around before I got a job. She was pretty annoyed with me at that point. When I entered my first MC battle she was stressing me out, not letting me practice because she was trying to have a daytime nap or something [laughing]. She’d keep coming in and telling me to shut up. And I was like, ‘Ma, this is very important!’ At the time it felt like it was life or death to me, like; ‘If I lose this battle my life is over and I can never show my face in town again’ [laughing]. But really, it was no big deal. So I went off to the battle and came home with money – I’d won – and after that she was alright with what I was doing. As long as I could buy her a pack of cigarettes, it was all good.

When you recorded your verse on Scribe’s “Not Many” remix, did you ever imagine it would lead you here?
Nah, no idea, man. I wasn’t one of those kids who grew up entering talent quests or writing raps. I didn’t write any raps when I was in high school or anything like that. I didn’t do any of that. So doing what I’m doing now is quite crazy. When I recorded the Scribe thing, that was the first time I had ever been in a studio, the first time I had been in front of a camera for a video. At that time, Scribe and P-Money might’ve been underground but because I followed the hip-hop scene they were pretty big stars to me. I was already like, ‘Whoa, I’m on a song with P-Money and Scribe! That’s crazy!’ Just doing that, I felt like I’d made it.

Are we going to hear David Dallas and Scribe on another track together?
Oh yeah, I’d love to do another song with Scribe, but it’s just always so hard to catch up with him. He’s never around. I wanted Scribe on my last album, Something Awesome; he was supposed to be on the song “First Time” but I could never get him to record the verse.

*DOWNLOAD ‘THE ROSE TINT’ ALBUM FROM DAVID DALLAS*

- Interview by Dominic Di Francesco