THE PRELUDE EP
Five tracks of self engineered ca$h have come in the form of Sydney stoic Royce Drixhen’s debut EP titled ‘The Prelude‘. This release closely following a strong chain of 6 singles and two music videos, spanning just over 12 months. From ‘A Cityside Story‘, track one from the EP being added to Spotify’s ‘The Aussie Hitlist’ playlist in March, to featuring on the latest instalment of of Alex Bradshaw’s On The Brink series just a few days ago, Royce is everywhere.
“The most shuteye that I get is when I’m blinking”
The dude’s a natural, the commanding presence of his voice takes the listener to a place in the back of their brain where there is only Drixhen and his vast king-sized hooks. Providing a unique high quality class of rap, the kind that is as empowering as it is unapologetic. Royce‘s vocals range from distant & slightly ethereal, hazy melodic flows, all the way to hard hitting, concise and unerringly confident. The tracks of ‘The Prelude‘ work together to create a seamless incline, hyping you up without you even noticing, blending in with your brainwaves.
Stories and melodies from the soul, for the soul.
We had a lil chat with Royce about some stuff n tings ~
AUD’$: Tell me a little bit about how you and Matt Schembri pulled together those killer L$D VCR styles visuals for A Cityside Story.
ROYCE: I’d seen a little bit of Matt’s work before for and creatively our taste and vision align. I like mysterious and weird things out of the normal. Probably because I feel a bit that way myself! So we just completely went off the cuff with that project just filmed spots that we thought would be cool and I said to Matt I felt like a futurist world ending / space type vibe would be cool based around Sydney City. Matt is extremely talented and he went all out crazy in the post production just creating planets / spaceships etc. The VCR or grainy look was a distorted look Matt went for to make it feel glitchy as you could imagine a video would look like if the world was ending with alien interference etc. It had a very dark feel to it but that’s just insight into our minds and where I was at when I wrote that song!
AUD’$: How did it feel when you put your first single Midnight out there, compared to how you feel now with the release of your first full length project.
ROYCE: When I released Midnight it was a lot of excitement and nerves about how it would be received. Now releasing my first project there’s no real nerves, my energy is more focused in the direction of getting as much exposure as possible.
AUD’$: How do you hope people feel when they listen to your music?
ROYCE: Music is something that everyone will feel different about in their own way but when I make a song I want them to feel the way I feel when I made it! If it’s a fun turn up song you can guarantee I was in the studio drunk as hell probably on one… like Midnight I just came from a festival when before recording that popped one and went in the booth! So you know once I’ve laid that type of song down I’m jumping around having the time of my life maybe with a couple of bro’s and some girls so I want people to feel that when they listen and hopefully enjoy it in that type of atmosphere! If it’s a song like A Cityside Story I’m all alone with absolutely no one in the studio I’ll be tracking myself (recording myself) completely in touch with that energy I’m singing about! So I hope they feel that too or relate to it on that level you know!
AUD’$: So if ‘The Prelude’ = an action or event serving as an introduction to something more important; then what is this EP the prelude to?
ROYCE: The Prelude is a metaphor and also a literal statement! The cover art is the metaphor to how I feel about my life… Staircase is the journey / the climb to your doorway of the life you incision! Although the Prelude is just an introduction of music to what’s going to come out! I’ve got two more projects coming this year where boundaries will be pushed and sounds with be created nothing like you’ve heard from me yet so The Prelude is the end of a chapter for me! You’ll have to wait for what’s next but I’m the mean time I have two more videos coming from songs off The Prelude!
AUD’$: If you had to pick your GOAT, your MVP, the next person to be on the Australian dollar coin – who / why?
ROYCE: Definitely not Pauline Hanson haha! Nah but in all seriousness I’m going to be on some corny shit and say my mom, cause she deserves some shit like that! Shout out Wendy!!!
Check out The Prelude in full VIA Soundcloud below 💰
https://soundcloud.com/royce-drixhen/sets/the-prelude
