One-half of the ARIA award-winning hip hop outfit Koolism, Triple J radio host Hau Latukefu, always wanted to do a solo project. It's a goal he's had since before Koolism began, back in the '90s. "And it just came to a point where it felt like the right time to do it," Latukefu says.
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"It sounds cliched, but it really means the world to me," he says about the release of the long-awaited release, No End Theory. "Being part of Koolism for so many years, you learn to compromise with your partner with their songs and the content of songs. With this, it's 100 per cent me."
This, he says, is the album he wanted to make. "I envisioned a couple of years ago how it would turn out and it turned out exactly how I planned it. So I'm very proud," he says. "And if this is the last album I ever make, I'll be a very, very happy man."
Using Will.I.Am from Black Eyed Peas as a muse, the album's killer lead single Kill.I.Am is partly a reflection of Latukefu's desire to stay true to himself.
"I thought that would be a cool title for a song, Kill.I.Am. Sounds good. And when I thought about the song, it's just so much based around the legacy of Will.I.Am, more than the man himself. What he became. He was very much an underground artist and has transformed into this massive pop icon.
"And just the journey ... I thought, how much are you willing to sell your soul for that taste of success? And that song is based on basically that, that dancing with the devil."
Latukefu says he has also had his own struggles with temptation.
"You want to make a living off something that you love. So you are always second-guessing yourself, thinking, maybe I can make a song like this and that and probably get more radio spins or video spins, and a wider audience may be able to connect with that as opposed to the kind of more abstract stuff that you do.
"But I think once you actually start doing that, you lose yourself. And you don't want to look back in 20 years' time and think, man, I really messed up there when I was trying to appease an audience that is partly fickle anyway. You want to be able to sleep at night knowing you were true to yourself and were true to your art."
Fronting Koolism, Latukefu won his ARIA in 2004, in the inaugural year for the Best Urban Release category, that would later include Hilltop Hoods, Bliss n Eso, Illy and Seth Sentry among the award winners.
"It was a shock to even be nominated," Latukefu says. "It was a bonus. It was never in our dreams to win an ARIA. It was just to make music that we wanted to hear. It was a very proud moment of our career," he says.
Though there are no immediate plans to revisit the Koolism format right now, Latukefu says never say never.
"At the moment we're just leading different lives. Myself with my solo project and family life, that's like the main priority for me at the moment. And with Daniel he's doing a lot of mixing and mastering for other groups. So, I guess you'd say it's on hiatus, and we'll pick it up next year or later on. I'm always open to that."
HAU
When: Friday December 18, 8pm
Where: Transit Bar
Tickets: $18.40 from moshtix.com.au.
