32 • B.ENTERTAINED www.bendigoweekly.com.au Bendigo Weekly – Friday, April 15, 2011

ENTERTAINED

Aussie hip hopper Drapht is no di� erent– his latest record was crafted through blood, tears and a veritable deluge of sweat.

The man who intro-duced the world to Jimmy Recard had a miserable time putting together his � fth LP The Life of Riley, bat-tling some god awful Perth heat, higher expecations, and a debilitating illness.

“It was one of the most gruelling processes I’ve ever been through in my life,” he said.

“We’ve (Perth) had the hottest summer on record, the most consecutive days over 30 in our history.

“I don’t have air condi-tioning at my joint at the moment either.”

That’s not cool, espe-cially when you’re craft-ing the follow up to 2008’s breakout album Brothers Grimm, in the con� nes of a home studio.

“I was at breaking point on numerous occasions,” he said.

“I was struggling with stomach issues for six months of the recording process.

“I had fatigue after ev-ery time I’d eat so I’d have to sleep, which was bad when I really needed to re-cord.

“It got to a point where I couldn’t bounce my mu-sic o� anyone, I was going crazy.”

That stomach illness was something Drapht calls “leaky gut syndrome”; an a� iction he’s su� ered for nearly a decade.

“The digestive system doesn’t work properly, and it really stu� s with your mind also because you get this thing called mind fog where you can’t think,” he said.

“It really stu� ed the whole process. I wasn’t al-lowed to have any sugar or grain. The only thing I was able to have was fruit, veg-etables and meat.

“I was eating chick-en, broccoli and brussel sprouts for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was hard-core.”

Just as well Drapht spent a lot of the recording on his Paddy Malone.

A strict diet with an even stricter alcohol ban, made for a less than typical “life on the road” experi-ence when touring late last year.

“It’s pretty crazy for me, everybody was drinking around me so it was hard, but at the same time it was one of the best shows I’ve ever done,” he said.

Phrase’s new album is a statement about inde-pendence. He’s well versed in the subject, having left Obese Records’ stables.

While there’s been the odd complaint about work-ing conditions, there’s no regrets for the 28–year–old about walking away from the apparent comfort of a

major record label.“I appreciate every-

thing they did for me, but there’s only so much you can do, I felt like I ex-hausted every avenue with Obese,” he said.

“It was getting hard, in the end I felt with this al-bum, there was no better time to push my own music rather than line the pockets of somebody else.

“To put some money into my own pockets for a change, because at the end of the day, I am doing all the work.

“I don’t want some-body else bene� ting o� my process.”

While the album title could be seen as continu-ing the Drapht tradition of highlighting names apart from his own, it comes from an old Irish quote, in sync with his desire for free rein.

“It’s a conceptual re-cord about living the life you want to live without society’s pressure,” he said.

“Not getting pushed into something at a young age.

“I know so many peo-ple who working towards a mid life crisis, who are just miserable with their lives.

“I wanted to send out the message that it’s impor-tant to follow your dreams and not follow everybody else’s expectations.

“Live the life you want to live.”

Drapht plays Groovin The Moo at the Bendigo Showgrounds on April 30.

BEN CAMERON

It’s underlined in the muso text book that every artist must suffer for their art.

DRAPHT

WEIRD BENDIGONEW

It said “New Gal-lery Open-ing Soon”.

It was the small

print that intrigued me. “Stocking local, national and international contemporary pop art, lowbrow art, pop surrealism and underground art, art and design books, vinyl collectible � gures and ceramics.”

You don’t often see the word “lowbrow” or “under-ground” in Bendigo.

Hudson’s Hub was the gallery’s name, the architect of this venture 30-year-old Cristean Tilkeridis, who up until very recently was a so-cial worker at St Luke’s.

Cristean is a man on a mission. His aim? To bring “a diverse range of imported and local art to Bendigo” in a way it’s never quite been done before.

Studying graphic design at BRIT – later La Trobe Uni-versity – Cristean decided that he was “more cut out as an art appreciator than an artist”, the � rst thing he tells me when we meet in his new space.

So he stepped back from making art and “re-evaluat-ed” his career. Human Servic-es called him instead, as did art collecting.

It’s a big leap going from art collector to art dealer though. And opening a gal-lery is a big investment. “I know,” grins Cristean, when I ask him about making the transition.

“I’ve spent a lot of time travelling to Melbourne over the years to buy the kind of stu� I like and one day I thought why not open a shop here in Bendigo.” But it wasn’t done on a whim.

“I’ve had the plan for

about � ve years now – it’s not an impulse by any means – I did a small business course. It’s a serious venture.”

Cristean’s taste is certain-ly out there – a man after my own heart I have to say.

I too was bitten by the underground art bug early, having spent many hours poring over weird art books in Melbourne institutions like Polyester, collecting � gurines at Minotaur and later buying reproductions (I couldn’t a� ord originals) by amazing artists such as Mark Ryden, Shag and Alex Gross from Outre Gallery.

Growing out of his love for comics as a teenager – shared by high school friend and artist Logan French (whose work Cristean will stock), Cristean’s interests moved further underground as he discovered work by Joe Mad, Kyozyndan, Shag, Keith P. and Chris Batchelor.

We spend a bit of time looking at the work he’s bringing into Hudson’s Hub on Cristean’s laptop. It’s clear that he is attracted to illustra-tion that is at once beautiful and strange.

He shows me a little mu-tant vinyl creature – “Desk toys I like to call them”, he

laughs – which is beguiling.Limited edition prints

and drawings will adorn the walls too, hard to get unless you have the chops to ring the artists directly to ask whether they have Austra-lian distribution.

Which he did and they didn’t.

But is Bendigo ready for this kind of culture? Judging from the multitude of ex-cited posts on Hudson’s Hub Facebook page, it is.

“The Bendigo art scene is coming alive!” was one. “At this rate artists won’t have to leave Bendigo to feel appre-ciated and supported... So good to have art accessible to buyers!”

But Cristean is a com-mercial realist too, hoping to strike a balance between un-derground and mainstream – “I love both” he confesses.

“I think the time is right to bring in something new to Bendigo. I want people to be challenged – to a point – and excited because they will ex-perience diverse art with a di� erence.”

Count me in.

w w w. h u d s o n s h u b. co m and 78 Mitchell Street Bendigo.

MEGAN SPENCERWalking down Mitchell Street a few weeks ago, I spied a sign on a shopfront that got my pulse racing.

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