+ (614) 1300! HOTLINE

Issue 02Music

4 Nov

Written By Francesca Nwokeocha

TALENT 1300

PHOTOGRAPHY Feker Yibeltal

PHOTOGRAPHER ASSISTANT Rejjie Fanning

STYLIST Marisa Suen

WORDS Francesca Nwokeocha

Who would have anticipated a Korean-Australian hip-hop group reshaping the Australian music market. Creating a fixated impact with the producers on Triple J, to headlining festivals such as Splendour in the Grass, Falls Festival and to performing at the Sydney Opera House in 2022, 1300 is coming in hot. Inspired by their shared Korean-Australian heritage, Sydney-based 1300 are redefining what it means to create Korean hip-hop music. The quintet is composed of Pokari, the producer, rappers GOYO, Rako, and Dali, and singer/producer, Nerdie. What seemed like a casual studio session between new friends in 2020 – during the beginnings of Covid – turned into the creation of a new sound. Their punchy rap flows, energetic production, melodic singing and off-the-wall beats have grasped the Australian and Korean ear, which yearned for more, and inevitably flooding the 1300 Hotline. The 1300 hotline has successfully connected with home, Korea, with 1300 receiving love from Korean rappers such as Kid Milli and Lil Boy as well as being covered by Dazed Korea. With something so new and booming throughout Australia and Korea, I had to jump on this dial line and get some insight into all the buzz.

614. How did you guys first start as a group?

Rako. Me, Dali and Goyo, we were initially in this group called Island, which is another Korean collective. We were the only rappers there. Then we met Pokari and Nerdie at this listening party for Yura’s EP launch party. She was also part of Island. We just showed each other some music but we didn’t know we’ll meet again because at listening parties, everyone shows their music. Everyone says it’s sick. Everyone says they like it. But nothing happens after that. But the three of us started contacting Pokari and Nerdie for our solo projects separately. Then, one day Nerdie invited Dali to their studio. Then Dali invited me and Goyo as well. So all five of us met up in the studio for the first time, and we clicked so well. We made like three songs from scratch and were all pretty good and then we just did a few more sessions. So we decided to make a group called 1300.

Nerdie. We just kept meeting up like every week. Every Wednesday we’d meet at Jason’s studio and it was a vibe. We all just connected naturally from the first session, so it just worked out and doing it together was really fun. And the thing that we made was like our little baby.

Pokari. It was at the beginning of Covid too, so everyone had nothing to do.

614. How did you guys create during the restrictions while not being able to see each other?

Pokari. We’re in discord.
Rako. It’s like a game chat.
Nerdie. We stream our screen while we are making beats and then we send files over. It’s pretty efficient, to be honest, like it’s even more efficient than actually being in the studio. Because we can work on multiple songs at the same time. We’re very lucky to have that.

614. What does 1300 mean? Where did the name come from?

Rako. [Laughs] It sounds cool, but it’s not that cool. We were just making a song from YouTube beats, and we had to title the song, to upload it on SoundCloud. We were like, “uh, what should the topic be?” We were looking around, there was an info desk cut from some random company stuck in Goyo’s studio. Starting from 1300. We were like, “oh yeah, 1300”.

Nerdie. It’s not gang related [laughs].

614. What inspires you guys when it comes to making music? Are there any Korean artist influences that you look up to?

Rako. Yeah, when we first did our sessions, we always referenced some kind of music and some kind of artist, but these days, Pokari just pulls up some lines with random instruments. Then he sends it to Nerdie. Then Nerdie puts random drums and then we make amazing music. Then we just write songs. So it’s just like, da, da, da, da, no, like, oh, and we’re just like yeah, it’s made.

614. So that’s the collaboration process?

Nerdie. It always comes from one idea musically, yeah. And then we just build on it. We know our roles, so we just start with the music and then everyone starts writing to it straight away. We don’t really talk about it much. It’s more subconscious... telepathic. Yeah.

Nerdie. We don’t do very much talking. We just throw random shit at a wall and hope it sticks.

“We just throw random shit at a wall and hope it sticks.”

— Nerdie

614. What made you guys want to make music that’s bilingual, both Korean and English, since you are based in Australia?

Goyo. When we talk, we talk in Korean and English, so we mix it around. So naturally, when we rap, sometimes we do change languages because it sounds better in the other language.

614. So it wasn’t like a conscious decision?

Nerdie. We rarely make conscious decisions about anything [everyone laughs].
Pokari. It’s quite chaotic [laughs].

614. Were you guys surprised by the response from Australians?

Nerdie. We were not expecting anything.

Pokari. When we first started, especially with the first and second song, we had no intention or plans. We didn’t think people in Australia would listen. Our focus was to try and make noise in Korea through the internet. But Triple J ate up our second track completely.

614. What was your parents reaction when they knew that you wanted to pursue a music career?

Pokari. My mom, my mom hated it. Yeah, my parents didn’t like it at first.

Goyo. My parents thought I was gonna give up, like after a bit, but I just kept going. So they’re fully supportive.

Rako. They thought it was a hobby, ‘cause it was too big already. They were like, yeah, it’s a hobby, it’s a hobby. To be honest, they don’t know if our music’s good. They just know because there’s a lot of reactions these days. So they’re like, oh, if reactions are good, it must be good. Yeah. ‘Cause they don’t know hip-hop that much.

614. You dropped your album Foreign Language this year. Such an electric body of work, what was the concept for it?

Nerdie. [It was] a collection of songs that we made in the whole time that we were in music. So there are very early songs, there are newer songs. That’s why it’s a mixtape. ‘Cause it’s just a collection of fun, hype songs. We play most of them at our live shows. It’s a full peak energy mix.

614. When thinking about performing live does it influence the way you create music?

Nerdie. We do think about how it’s gonna sound live and how we can make it as hype as possible so people would just wanna jump. But I think generally we try to keep that energy anyway. Which is why people love the songs that we made before. Especially in a live setting, it’s really fun to perform, because it has that element of this organic feeling, like just a bunch of boys having fun.

614. What are your favourite songs in the Foreign Language album?

614. The Woah Damn video music is crazy.

Nerdie. It’s like way crazier, but in a different way. It’s really terrible.
Rako. [Laughs] that’s kind of true.
Nerdie. It’s a non-music video. Anti-music video. But it’s a music video, but anti-music video.

614. The creative direction is super vibrant, and chaotic, is that what you aim to do?

Nerdie. It’s supposed to just show the personality of the group.

Rako. Also because we don’t like being serious. It’s either be serious or be fun. So we just chose to be fun.

Nerdie. Well, the guy that makes them, Brad, who’s a good friend, he’s really into not liking regular music videos. But if it is a regular music video, then there’s something about it that’s different. We definitely pushed a boundary with our music videos [everyone laughs]. A boundary was pushed no one was actually harassed, not that kind of boundary [everyone laughs]. An artistic boundary.

614. So how does it feel to be doing festivals and your fan base growing so quickly? You’re getting recognition from rappers and artists in Korea back home.

Rako. I think that’s really crazy. Like we’re basically communicating with the rappers that we were growing up listening to so it feels crazy. Like some of them my parents know.

Goyo. We also rap Korean. Being in the same spot in those festivals like Splendour with people like Tyler the Creator, Gorillaz and people like that... I can’t describe it with words.

Nerdie. Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense. Eight years ago, if you said there’s a Korean rap group. It would not have happened, but now times have changed.

614. What do you guys like to do together other than music?

Rako. Yeah, I think we did like fun stuff twice; TimeZone, both TimeZone, just next to our studio. Yeah. That was our only hobby that we did together.
Nerdie. There’s nothing else to do, to be honest. Like this is life [everyone laughs].

614. So what’s next for 1300?

Rako. We have no clue [everyone laughs].
Nerdie. We’re gonna make some really good songs [everyone laughs].
Goyo.We’re gonna make some songs with some people in Korea. We’re going to Korea next month to collaborate and do our own show.
Rako. Maybe, um, quit our day jobs. We’re still working [everyone laughs].