Congratulations on the release of your sophomore album Strange New Past! For those who are perhaps a little slow on the uptake, can you tell us a little bit about the album?
Well, it’s my second album but for me it feels like my third because I did an EP back in 2009. It took me about two years to write and it’s my most personal album to date.

Strange New Past is brutally honest at times. How hard is it to put yourself out there in such a personal way?
It wasn’t so much putting myself out there that was the hard part; it was mainly the writing that was challenging. You’ve almost got to relive certain things to write about them and I do a lot of drafts so every time I’d have to go back for a rewrite I had to go and put myself back in that headspace. It was definitely challenging although I’m glad I did it though.

The first single Run tells the story of a mischievous kid who would sneak onto building sites to, let’s say ‘source’ materials for a skate ramp. What was it like growing up in Mornington Peninsula?
It was a great place to grow up but there wasn’t a whole lot to do. I mean you could surf but as we got older we started getting in a lot of trouble basically because we were bored. I hope I’ve matured since those days but I’m still a little bit naughty.

Lyrically, your first album spoke of the frustrations of hospitality. How have things changed since leaving that life behind?
I made the transition from part time rapper full time waiter to full time rapper no time waiter, which is awesome. I was never super ambitious in that I never had any specific goal that I wanted to achieve other than I knew what I didn’t want to do and that was hospitality. So I achieved that in the last couple of years and it’s really cool. I guess in that comes a bunch of other challenges once music becomes your job but I couldn’t ask for anything more than to do something I’m passionate about for a living.

It seems like it’s been a pretty crazy ride so far – what have been some of the highlights?
I still get a real kick out of seeing people sing lyrics to my songs at shows, I won’t ever get tired of that. Being able to travel around as much as we have has been awesome, going to America and appearing on a US talk show was a trip. I really set my expectations with music so low from the start that everything has surprised me. It sounds really negative but I never assumed that any of this was going to happen, especially back in the day when rap music in the country was so overlooked. It was me and one other kid at my school that was into rap music so it would have been crazy to expect anything else out of it other than treat it as a hobby.

You’re at the start of a mammoth three-month tour that includes 47 shows covering thousands of kilometres. What’s the best and worst part of touring?
The best part is being able to go to regional towns that maybe haven’t had a lot of live music come through. Growing up in a little regional town myself I know how that feels, we didn’t really get a whole lot of live music and so it really meant a lot when someone would come to town. I remember when The Living End came through near where I grew up and it was so cool. You do miss your own bed and you get sick of staying in a different hotel. We moved around a lot when I was a kid so I never really had a family home so now home has a real sense of stability to it, I like being home.

What inspires you?
Just life in general. I think if you’re a writer and you keep your ears and eyes open people just bring you song topics and lyrics all of the time. You can get inspiration from anywhere if you’re present, aware and patient.

Take us back to the beginning, how did you feel when you first heard one of your songs on the radio?
It was really cool! I was with a girlfriend at a time and we were just going in to do some shopping at a supermarket and we were in the carpark and ‘The Waitress Song’ came on the radio. It was raining outside and we listened to the whole song. It was such a surreal feeling.

You’ve achieved monumental success in just a few short years. What are you most proud of?
I guess it seems like a few short years but for me I’ve been doing this since I was a kid, so it doesn’t feel like a few short years. I’m just proud of being able to quit my job, to be honest. It was a great day.

Did you quit in some spectacular way or was it a bit more civilised?
I have done some spectacular quits before, some fucking amazing ones actually, but this last one was a bit different because they knew and I knew that I was going to leave soon. They were employing me knowing I was about to embark on a big tour so it was a nice way to go out. I once quit mid shift on a Saturday night, I went to walk out and the guy yelled that I was still wearing their shirt so I just ripped it off, buttons popping everywhere and I just threw it on the ground and walked out. A few years later I was working at a different place and the boss told me that a friend of his was trying to start a new business in Melbourne and asked if I could help him out and do a few days there and when I rocked up it was the same fucking guy that I’d ripped my shirt off in front of. That one came back to bite me.

How worried were you about letting out an accidental cuss word on Jimmy Kimmel Live?
I don’t think I did though did I? I was very worried because all of my songs have swear words in them and they didn’t allow anything, you couldn’t even say piss weak. That was the hardest thing, even though I knew those songs back to front we still had to spend a week in LA just rehearsing without the swear words. I hate not being able to swear. Apparently people who swear are more honest. So if anyone tells you not to swear, just tell them you’re being honest.

If you could give your teenage self one piece of advice, what would it be?
I don’t really have any big regrets in life, I feel like everything happens for a reason. I’d like to say that I would tell myself to do this or do that in order to take a shortcut and get stuck into making music quicker but then if I did that then maybe I would have missed out on some vital parts that really inspired me to make a bunch of music so I don’t know.

Any words of wisdom or advice for musicians?
Don’t be in a rush to reach some kind of preconceived goal that you may have with your music. Just relax and enjoy the process. I talked to a bunch of young rappers recently and they seem to be in a rush to get famous or just blow up and get an album out there but you really need to enjoy the process and enjoy writing and enjoy making music because that in itself has intrinsic value.