A Quick Chat with Palien & Tommy Moom$

VERCETTI started because Palien forgot to send some beats. Can you walk us through how the album actually came together from there?

Tommy Moom$: The album basically started from a conversation ages ago, after Palien had made a couple of beat-tape type projects. He sent me a few beats and then I didn’t respond, or I got lazy. Then I decided to give rapping another shot and asked him to send some more beats. A couple of them were really fresh, so we finally pulled our fingers out and had a session. I’d written to a few of them and then we went into the studio at Palien’s place. We did a few songs, and before we knew it, it started building into more tracks. The vision for the album came together when we started talking about how it sounded like GTA Vice City vibes, and decided to name it after the game’s main character, Vercetti.

The album draws heavily on the aesthetic of GTA: Vice City. How much did that concept shape the music itself, versus just the presentation around it?

Palien: It’s like Tommy said, it sort of came into play when we were listening to some of the early drafts of the tracks, and then references to GTA slowly leaked into some of the bars. It feels complimentary to everything else we’re doing on the project, rather than being just a shallow tribute to a video game. I also really wanted to work with Fatih Ozturk for the visuals – he does heaps of video game themed artworks that are really vibrant and nostalgic. I have one of his San Andreas artworks hanging in the studio so when Tommy said the project was sounding like Vice City, I turned around and looked at that print on the wall and it felt like the perfect opportunity to make that happen.

You two have pretty different styles on the mic. Did you have to find a way to make that work, or did the contrast happen organically?

Tommy Moom$: I think that just took care of itself in the room. We met ages ago when I was in the band Flimsey Lohan. We played a gig together at Laundry Bar and just really connected. In this music journey, there's always a bunch of people who are disingenuous, but I found Palien to be really genuine and down to earth. We got along on a friendship level and did a song called Dani Minogue about five years ago. When we came back together for this project, the complementing styles worked fantastically. You don’t want a bunch of people that sound identical on a song. Variety is the spice of life.

The physical release — the cassette, the NFC keyring — is pretty ambitious for an independent debut collab. Where did that idea come from?

Tommy Moom$: I worked with a visual artist years ago on a previous project and when we’d finished making it, he asked if I was going to put it out physically. I hadn’t even considered that before, and he asked if it was even a release if it wasn't physical. There’s an element of truth to that. These days, anyone can put a song on Spotify, but the number of physical releases by independent artists seems to be much lower. Having that tangible thing that you’ve created is fantastic to look back upon. It is ambitious, but doing it together, we can mediate and share those costs. It’s about taking the idea to the full extent, and I’m really proud of it.

Palien: Yeah, exactly. Because we were putting it out independently, it was going to be too expensive to do a vinyl run. We didn’t want to cut corners by doing cheap, shitty pressings, either. The pivot to cassettes made sense because of the ‘80s Vice City aesthetic. Plus, it seems like people are buying cassettes again as souvenirs at live shows, but not necessarily to play at home. The keyrings were just a cool idea we had and we found someone who could make them for us. People love ‘em, we’ve nearly sold out already. It’s a great way of making a project feel like more than just a one-day social media blip. I definitely want to make more objects as merch in the future. I want to do an album that’s, like, an ashtray or a crowbar. Imagine being able to fight off a home invasion with an album.

You launched the album by performing it front to back live on release night. How did it feel hearing the whole thing played out in a room full of people for the first time?

Tommy Moom$: It was awesome. A whole bunch of people came – the room was so full it was spilling over. We practiced really heavily and I felt on point, plus we owned the show with our sense of humor and personalities. I think we molded together really well on stage. It was a lot of fun and I felt really happy and relaxed. We held the room really well and it was a really sick moment. I love performing, and every time I do, I feel like this is what I'm meant to be doing.

Palien: It felt so unreal getting all these messages in the afternoon from people listening to the album for the first time, then seeing them in the room that night pushing to the front for certain songs. It really felt like a victory – or like beating a level in a game, I guess!

What's next for both of you — are you already thinking about what comes after VERCETTI?

Tommy Moom$: I have another album that I’ve been working on that I just finished a couple nights ago. I’m in the process of getting some art together for that. It’s a different sound to VERCETTI, more dance and drum and bass style. I made it during a time of great pain and trouble, so releasing it will be good. I’ve also recently gotten into a new studio, so I've got a secondary project I'm working on with a Japanese producer named SANTACS. He produced Flydie, one of my favorite solo tracks that I’ve done. Palien and I are also thinking about doing a sequel to VERCETTI.

Palien: Yeah, I think we both saw VERCETTI as a one-and-done originally but it wound up so good and working with Tommy has been so much fun. Literally minutes after it was released on the Friday, we were already looking at each other like “should we do a sequel?”. I’m also back in the pit working on the next solo thing. It’s too soon to announce what that is exactly, but I’m trying to get a little bit freaky with it. I want it to be really bombastic and engaging as a live show, too, so I’ve been learning how to make my own stage visuals. People loved the ones I produced for the VERCETTI gig but I know I can go bigger and weirder, so I guess even that is going to be its own journey.