A short excerpt from Volume’s PNC cover story:

“I’m about the drink, drugs, girls, cash, love, hate, power, passion – if I’m not the realest I don’t know who is, under the mother-fucking influence”

If albums provide a snap-shot of a moment in time for an artist, then no title could be more apt in describing PNC’s current state of mind than ‘Under The Influence’. There are moments of anger, sadness, nonchalance, reflection – a range of emotions – but the album never quite feels like it covers off happiness. Because, even in it’s most ‘up’ moments, partying and revelry, the highs are artificial.

 “When I started making the album it was under the influence of drinking, drugs, I was quite down a lot of the time while making it…it has that sort of up and down nature. The first half is quite melancholy and the second half is quite up.”

 Even with his signature party tracks, it is PNC’s darkest album to date. He’s covered off perhaps grittier subject matter in previous projects, but this is his most emotionally heavy…

Check out the full PNC cover story (written by yours truly) in the latest Volume magazine by picking up a copy from your favourite local record stores, bars, cafes and clothing stores (from Invercargill to Whangarei). Or read it online here. Also featuring a review of the record and a Crooks & Castles giveaway. The mag is free, just like PNC’s new album, Under The Influence – which you should get here if you haven’t already.

Please, allow me to introduce you to James Jeffery – a kiwi producer and drummer you need to familiarise yourselves with right now, you know, before the world’s up on this shit. He’s recently signed a publishing deal with Rondor Music, is currently based in LA and working with people that will blow your minds just a wee bit. I kinda feel like I have the scoop as there have been whisperings of a couple of the biggest names in Hip Hop jumping on ones of his tracks. I was lucky enough to catch up with James Jeffery just before he left for LA and the story of how he came about his deal is fascinating. He also gives a really great insight into how the music industry works.

This story begins, like many modern stories of discovery, on youtube -

Lets talk about how the deal came to be. Did that begin with your youtube videos?

Basically it’s a publishing deal with Rondor, they’re under Universal. It started out with the youtube videos. I was actually trying to push myself as a drummer at the time. I did these remix videos to show off my drumming, but it really ended up showing off my production more than anything. I’d already played drums for David Dallas, on ‘Say No More’, and I’d done drums for a B-side acoustic of this Tinie Tempah and Kelly Rowland song called Invincible.

I then started doing drums for this kid in the States called Julian Swirsky, he’s produced for a whole bunch of pop artists like Nicole Scherzinger. He didn’t pay me, he just said ‘I’ll post one of your remixes on twitter. He has 100 thousand followers on twitter. This guy, Sean Pace, who was managing him at the time, found me on facebook after seeing his tweet.

At the same time, mind you, Boy1da had posted one of my videos. Boy1da did ‘Not Afraid’ for Eminem and ‘Forever’ for Drake. Boy1da posted at least two of my remixes, so I’d had that going on as well. And another songwriter had been in contact, Heather Bright, who’s written for Toni Braxton and Usher. So, Sean Pace, who’d been Julian Swirsky’s unofficial manager at the time, added me on facebook and said, ‘Start sending me tracks, I think you’re really talented’. I started sending him tracks, and he loved all of them.

My dad said, ‘Why don’t you go to LA and just meet all of these people?’ I’d been to UCLA for a year in 2008, so I had friends out there and places to stay. I went out there originally for a four-week trip. Sean Pace picks me up the first night and talks about trying to get me signed, but I didn’t know how serious he was. About 3 weeks later he took me to a random studio and I met Cassie and Rock City.

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Just last week ozzie female rapper Sky’high let loose her ‘Your Highness’ EP, produced completely by P-Money. He is the reason most of us know about her, and a big reason why we pay attention. In stark contrast to this sound, we have The Disco 3  project, a collaboration with DJ Dan Aux that was released last year. His straddling of these two genres, first seen over three years ago with his hit song and album of the same name ‘Everything’, doesn’t look to be subsiding. I caught up with Peter Money recently to get the run down on what he’s been up to and what projects he has in the pipeline. We cover a lot of ground, and begin with life after his third album.

How did people connect with the ‘Everything’ album compared to your previous two albums?

The songs that people heard from the record got great responses. The album itself wasn’t a seller. Maybe people just didn’t dig it or maybe people didn’t know it was out there because the marketing was pretty low level. I think the biggest mistake I made with the album was actually titling it ‘Everything.’ The song ‘Everything’ was already a year old by the time the album was released…probably a bad idea because it sounded like it was an old album, when it was a new one.

Because it was mainly a dance album, you’d gone away from the Hip Hop heavy album, were you feeling confused then as to where to go from there?

No, because although the record didn’t ship heaps of numbers, the songs were really well received and my show bookings went up exponentially. I actually had one of my busiest years. I did 50 something shows in the year, where the year prior I may have done 20. So I was booked in a broader variety of venues where I could play dance music and Hip Hop. Instead of just doing Hip Hop nights, I’m now doing raves and dance parties, it just doubled my bookings. In that regard it was a great move because I enjoy making that music and I’m glad that other people enjoy listening to my dance music, and its good for the longevity of my career, being acknowledged as a DJ that can play a multitude of styles.

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It’s refreshing to have new artists come out with material seemingly unaffected by current trends, no desperate attempts at copy-catting, just intent on making good music and establishing their own sound. Spycc & INF are such artists, with their impressive debut EP ‘Summer Madness’ a well put together and thoughtful piece of work. And of course, I have a slight soft spot for the duo because they rep Onehunga, my old stomping ground, and went to my school, Onehunga High. So you know we had to get a couple of shots of the Onehunga depot in there!

If you haven’t already, download their Summer Madness Ep here – and listen to it while you read the interview below:

The Summer Madness EP is super cohesive. It sounds like its all meant to be, it all fits right.

SPYCC: There’s a song by Kool & The Gang, ‘Summer Madness’, and that’s one of my favourite songs I’d play all the time. I said we should do a mixtape that just caters to summer, but as we started, it wasn’t really working. So we came up with the idea that all the madness we went through, all our thoughts, feelings, and emotions that we went through during that summer – that will be the idea behind the mixtape. So we didn’t have the pressure of trying to make all our songs sound summery, but it ended up sounding summery anyway.

Even though it all sounds very nice, there’s that nice summery feel, the sentiments are not necessarily all that happy:

 INF: It sounds nice, but if you really listen to it, it’s all our emotions and feelings at the time. It’s not like it’s a party every song, there’s always ups and downs. We’re not always up all the time. We just tried to make songs based on how we were feeling at that moment. I guess the whole EP is just about having problems, struggling sometimes and having fun with all your friends. All the good times and still learning about yourself.

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Finally forced David Dallas to do an interview with me. A few quotes from the interview are there to whet your appetite, but you should listen to the whole thing, it’s really good. Honest.

A lot of times, especially me and my friends, we’ll get pissed and…start talking about our grand ambitions, this is what we’re gonna do, yeah, we’re gonna take over…

Take a Picture is more confident than Big Time. Big Time is hopeful…but Take a Picture, there’s an arrogance to it.

That was probably the most surreal moment of the last 3 months I was over there [in New York] just Buckshot introducing himself to me and saying he liked my stuff, I was like far out, that’s crazy.

You need people that have got some enthusiasm, that are gonna bring something positive to your life. Some people might be able to function in the situation where their personal life is in turmoil…I work better when my personal life is good, that’s when I do my best material.

Frontline ‘What You Expect’ I don’t think that’s depressing at all, it’s ‘Borrowed Time’ and I don’t really know why that is.

Even the title of ‘Borrowed Time’, I don’t know what I was thinking at that time…I was kinda like, this might be the last thing I ever do and if it doesn’t happen for me now, fuck, it’s all over.

Photo: Jason Brown

Here’s part 2 of the PNC Man On Wire Interview. We talk about That Kinda Guy, Champagne Gang, the story behind Slow Motion, how it almost didn’t make the album, and Murderer. I also ask him the really tough questions, like, does he REALLY drink champagne?? It was definitely the sillier half of the interview, as I think you’ll find my 5 am shift earlier in the day was starting to catch up on me, haha. Enjoy, tell your boys, buy the album.

Listen to Part 1 here.