Now when I first got to know about Nine High, this crew were Reading based. They’ve been pushing themselves and working hard for some years. About 12 months ago, Fraksha up sticks to the land of Oz down under. Far from disbanding, the group are still together and are getting ready to release their Australian collaborative Mixtape ‘Take 2.5 – Mad Dogs & Englishmen’ next month.

So Fraksha, in a few words can you bring any readers up to date with a little bit of Nine Highs history:

Basically the line up as it is now came about through open mic’s in Reading. We and Scotty along with our S.A, our DJ, were regularly hosting rooms at Drum n Bass nights where we met Felony when he asked for a rizla and from there we just started hooking up all the time and just recording verses randomly which resulted in our first mixtape ‘First Take’. Listening back now, its pretty disjointed, but it was early on and we were just getting comfortable in the studio. We spent more time on the next one and this definitely shows. From there we just started hitting up promoters around the country and getting our road trip on as often as possible. We’ve played up and down the country and at times were doing like 3 or 4 shows on consecutive nights all over the place which was bit hard work, but proper fun.

It all started in Reading then. How did you find the scene?

Much the same as I find most places I go to. There’s lots of people spitting, but not much organisation with anything and not much that really stands out to be honest. I don’t miss it at all. A few years back it was totally different, there was a regular monthly night at Matrix which was usually packed. I seen some crazy shows down there. I’ll never forget seeing Taskforce there on one of the times they played. They managed to get the whole venue sitting down for one of the tunes, then someone sparked Chester on stage which kicked everything off, this brer got rushed, people falling all over the stage, security going nuts! It was a real good time, but then a couple people got shot one night and that was the end of that. Never been the same since. Jam’s have since been on weeknights and had real bad crowd sizes. I’ve never actually lived in Reading myself, but Scotty does, he’s a part of the DSM crew too, so shouts to them, and massive shouts to Mikey T, Lumes and Driff.

What releases are you particularly pleased with?

Well there’s only really been the two mix-tapes ‘First Take’ and ‘Take Two’. I’m very pleased with ‘Take Two’. It’s definitely not some bullshit mix-tape with a few verses just scattered about. It’s actually mixed for a start and has songs! Lyrically I think it’s very strong and we chose a good selection of beats – some very well known, others not so. We’ve had a very good response from it, sold out pretty easily too, so yeah I’m definitely happy with how that one turned out.

One of your tunes that was a stand out for me was “Wow”. Where can I track down the audio for that?

Funny you should mention that track, because we were talking about it the other day. Its been a tune that a lot of people have mentioned to us as being one they really like which always surprises me cos I’m not a huge fan of it. The others proper like it, and yeah I like the beat a lot, but it just never did it for me like other tunes. We were gonna re-record it with new lyrics but then the other day decided against it and to put it sleep forever. I don’t know where you’ll find it to be honest, it was on our website which has been taken down. I don’t even have a copy myself!

Nice one. You got various styles and influences in your sound. Where did they come from?

I think that’s something which really sets us apart from the rest. We’re all from different backgrounds and all coming from something different musically. I’m a straight-up Englishman and I’m a bit older than the others so I grew up on all sorts. I remember raving it up to Jungle when it came about, liked a bit of hardcore and then got into hip hop probably with Mobb Deep, Onyx, Wu-tang and so on. Scotty’s from a West Indian background. His old man was a well known Soca steel pan player so Scotty’s all about mad rhythms and quirky beats. He came out of the Reading battle scene where he beat everyone and has a very sharp tongue. S.A is originally from South Africa and being a similar age to me got into a lot of the same type of hip hop, but nowadays I’d say our tastes are pretty different. He’s real into the whole Detroit sound. Felony is also originally from South Africa and moved over when he was around ten I think. He has no hip hop background at all, but is a perfect example of someone with just a natural talent with his own take on it all. I mean, he’d never heard ’36 Chambers’ or ‘Cuban Linx’ til he met us! He still can’t see the appeal of it as well. Felz is the youngest in the group and grew up on garage…EZ, Heartless etc…He was known around Slough as one of the best, tearing up pirate’s and raves, and you can definitely still hear that garage influence in his flow. I read a review not too long ago where the guy said we all sounded the same! Call us wankers, say we’re shit, say whatever, but I don’t think it’s possible to listen to us objectively and say something like that. Along with the energy we have on stage I think the different styles and sounds between us is a major selling point and these two things are the parts of us that people mention to us at shows more than anything else.

You had things cooking nicely over here in the UK. What made you decide to shift to Australia?

Well I went over to Australia back in 2002 to check it out. I hit up some open mic’s and from there met DJ Flagrant, Pegz and Reason who have been great friends ever since and have shown me nothing but love. Reason brought me down his and Pegz radio show and took me to a few shows to spit at and I recorded a couple of things at Flagrants and just generally got myself involved in whatever I could. I met a hell of a lot of people, a lot of who I kept in contact with. I then met an amazing girl, took her back to England with me for three years, got married and decided there was no way we wanted to stay in England and so moved back to Melbourne. There’s too many good opportunities over here and everything’s so much more relaxed, I don’t regret it one bit.

I was in Oz last summer – brilliant. Can you pass some tips to anyone intending to hit the country?

It’s the best place to live! I can’t say enough good things about it. I go on about it to my friends who don’t really understand until they’ve been here. Now anyone from back home who has come to visit or whatever has gone home agreeing how sick it is. I would say to anyone coming over here, come here with an open mind regarding the music. I found the whole accent thing strange at first, but then thought, ‘well all I really know or have seen about Australia is Neighbours and Crocodile Dundee!’ I don’t notice it all now and a few phrases have definitely crept into my speech.

Make sure you don’t just assume Sydney is the spot! Sydney’s ok, but It felt to me like being in London with beaches. I had a good time, but couldn’t live there. Make sure you hit Perth, it’s a heavy place, but definitely hit Melbourne. So relaxed and so much fun. I’ve been to a lot of country towns, but I’m always on my toes looking out for a huntsman. If you don’t know about Huntsman’s then Google it and be thankful we don’t have them back in England! Oh yeah, food is too much over here, their fish n chips equivalent is a Parma. Imagine a ham and cheese pizza but replace the pizza dough with Chicken Breast!

Before you left, did you have to hold some sort of crisis meeting with the rest of Nine High?

Not really to be honest. It was always on the cards I would be leaving at some point and I’d always talked about how good it was over here and that everyone should try and get over. I would have liked to have been over earlier to be honest, but certain situations prevented that. We’re lucky in that because of the people over here I knew already we were able to jump straight into some good things. Within a couple of weeks of the last person arriving we were fortunate enough to go on a short tour with Bliss n Eso which Flagrant hooked up. They’re one of the most well known acts over here so it was great promo for us playing to full houses and being able to shot cd’s real easily.

Off the back of your move things seem to be going well for you lot. What projects have you got coming up?

We have a new mix-tape coming out which we put together with the Australian market in mind. Each track features an Ozzie mc or beat and we would have liked to have had it done and out within a couple of months of getting here, but often when you’re doing something like this there is a lot of stuff that’s out of your hands and so its only been now that we’re getting to the point of finalising it. We’re headlining a final oz show at the end of September which we’re hoping is gonna be a big party. We got some good friends of ours on the bill too so I’m sure it’ll be live.

Other than that we’ve been recording our debut album. We could have put something out a while ago, but I’m glad we didn’t because its given us time and space to really put together something special. I’ve real pleased with every track on there. We decided to keep it strictly Nine High, no guest mc’s cos there’s no need. We cover all bases ourselves. I think its really gonna make some people realise they need to step their game up. People talk of raising levels…well we are the levels! Please don’t mistake confidence for arrogance, we’re not cocky people at all, we’re just very confident that what we do is better than what most other people can do. No one can do what we do, come with the variety of styles, concepts, songs, energy that Nine High do. There’s been other acts that have had some good tracks, but they flopped in the end…and I’m not talking sales, I’m talking quality of music. We’ve tackled beats that other groups wouldn’t touch and can confidently say the standard of beats is world class. The production comes from Ghost-Town, M-Phazes, Jase and Driff and its stooopid!

I hear you are coming back to Blighty in the autumn. You got the details of any shows so that people can get some first hand experience of your good selves?

Well its gonna be strange mate because S.A is already back in England. M-Phazes and Flagrant have been good enough to cover DJ duties since he left. Felony and Scotty will be going back beginning of October, but from what I gather Scotty may well be back out here as early as January with Felony not too far behind him. We’ve started another mixtape which should be ready for around January and I’m sure Felz and Scotty will be doing some shows when they’re back, but you wont see the full crew for a while. I’m hoping to come over for a piece next year so maybe next Summer I’m looking at, but while I’m waiting for them to get themselves back here I’m gonna use the time to put together my solo record which I’m currently getting beats for as we speak.

Now the important questions:

Where’s the best place to go out drinking in Melbourne?

There’s loads of places! For pubs, you can’t do much better than the Inkerman on Inkerman street in Balaclava…The Espy in St Kilda is always lively, a place called First Floor as well. If you want grimey then go to Revolver, open 24 hours on the weekend and you’re guaranteed to see people trying to lick their eyeballs at 7am. Friday nights though you gotta go to a place called F4 on Little Collins St in the city for ‘Late Night Hype’, a hip hop night with myself hosting with Flagrant and many many other DJ’s. It’s the jumpoff trusssssss.

One thing though for anyone coming over here, please don’t come here and just go to the English bars. I see so many people do that and I just can’t understand it. You can tell us English a mile off too, the girls all tarted up like they’re going to Chicago’s and the blokes all with identical haircuts and white belts! Sort it out!

Where’s the best place to go out drinking in Reading?

Man I don’t even know to be honest. We just used to street booze it in the cemetery opposite the Fez club. I used to like The Bugle on the other side of the cemetery – a real old man’s pub – but that’s all I can think of right now. I asked Scotty and he said a place called The Malthouse which is where all the battles used to go down back in the day.

Which is better?

No question! The ‘Burn!

What’s your favourite album you’re listening to right now?

I don’t listen to hardly anything to be honest, I get bored real easily. I’m more of a mix-tape person. I also don’t own a stereo! I thought the Nas record had its moments. Devlin’s probably the heaviest thing I heard in a long time and I’m real looking forward to an album from him sometime. Probably the last album I actually liked all the way through and still listen to is ‘Axis’ by Pegz. Shouts also to Hospice for their ‘Dental Records’ compilation, some heavy tracks on this.

If you could change 1 thing in the world, what would it be and why?

Depends how selfish I’m feeling that day. I think in this day and age there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for there to be anyone living homeless in a Westernised country. Just the other day I was reading that the Australian treasury has a surplus this year of $17M!!! and yet there are still people living on the street!

Throwing another shrimp on the Barby or Sunday Roast?

Now that’s a little more difficult! I ain’t had a proper roast for what seems like an eternity, but we’ve had sooo many barby’s over here. For a while we were having a Nine High barby every Saturday in the park which somehow became quite an event! A kilo of prawn for five quid!!! I fucking love barby’s, but to be honest a roast with all the trimmings takes some beating!

Right well safe for taking the time to answer those. Best of luck with your forthcoming releases. In the meantime, can you pass us some links for your audio?

Well there’s the normal myspace one’s: www.myspace.com/ninehigh from there you’ll find all our solo pages… also if you wanna download ‘Take Two’ for free then hit this link. We got no physical copies left so burn baby burn! Keep checking the myspace, cos we’ll put up a link for ‘Take 2.5’ at the end of September too, cos we’re only pressing up a small amount of copies which we’re giving away to everyone coming to our final show as a little thank you for the support we’ve had while we’ve been here

Lastly shout outs:-

There’s just too many people, it’s a case of where do you draw the line, so I’ll just do the usual and say anyone that’s helped us out and not been a snake! But I do wanna give a big shout out to S.A at home at the moment, we miss you bruvver!