BARE MINIMUM Opportunities Seized

BARE MINIMUM

Opportunities Seized

Broome hip hop act Bare Minimum are about to kick off a seven stop tour to promote their self titled debut EP and to show that Western Australian hip hop isn’t all about the South West. Ben Thoars speaks with JOSHUA HAYES.

The trio – Thoars is joined by fellow rappers Filth and Silasybin – began collaborating through the small Broome music scene, making demos with what Thoars describes as “a bare minimum of budgets.”
    “There’s not really a big music scene [in the Kimberley], let alone a hip hop scene, mate. It was pretty much us when it came to the hip hop in Broome,” he says. “There’s a couple of pubs and in the dry season we get a lot of tourists coming to Broome so you get a few bands coming through but in the wet season there’s absolutely nothing, mate. You don’t get to see live music.
    “It makes it very difficult to get any exposure; get your name out there to people. So it’s been a hard road but we’ve been lucky enough to meet some of the right people, which is what it’s all about in music; making the most of opportunities,” he adds.
    The first opportunity came about when they supported Bliss N Eso on the Broome leg of last year’s Running On Air tour. “In a way it worked well for us that we were all the way up in Broome because Bliss N Eso were looking to cover as much of Australia as they could,” Thoars says.
    The second opportunity came when they met Dazastah – who was holidaying in town – at the gig. After seeing Bare Minimum perform he chatted with the lads backstage. “Ever since, we’ve kept in touch with Dazastah and let him know how we’re doing. He liked our music and he said he’d love us to come down and do some recording in Dazastah’s Lair,” Thoars says. The group took Daz up on his offer, resulting in their EP.
    Perhaps the third opportunity is the chance to introduce the sound of the Kimberley to Perth hip hop heads. Thoars says the group’s early demos used a lot of didgeridoo and they’re influenced by the likes of Yothu Yindi and the Pigram Brothers. “We love the old laidback style of music, crossed in with that American style of music. I’m a big fan of Eminem, Wu-Tang and KRS-One, so we’ve kind of mixed the both together; our love of hip hop with our love of the Kimberley lifestyle, and it’s come off a little bit different which is what you really want in music.”
    Dazastah will be joining the group on their state-wide tour, as will upcoming artists Bryte and DJ Zeke. After this trip, Bare Minimum plan to run hip hop shows and workshops around the Kimberleys.
    “There’s a lot of communities up here and kids are starting to get right into the drugs and stuff like that, so we figure we might as well go out there, do shows and tell them ‘hey, it’s not on’, in our style of doing it – not trying to tell them off and stuff like that,” Thoars says. “That’s the sort of direction we want to go in; we’re not gonna go for the big money and chasing the fans straight away.”