Introducing: Tuka on solo endeavours the hustle it takes
For the first time in four years, Thundamentals’ Tuka has found his groove yet again in the solo sphere. The introspective, self-aware musician melds the hip-hop and rap listeners have been accustomed to with carefully considered commentary on the most plaguing issues to grapple throughout adult life. The rapper reemerges with singles ‘F*ck You Pay Me’ and ‘Selling Me Out’, each providing an outlook on society’s constructs of power and strength. We chat to Tuka about the climate surrounding his latest releases and the power of uplifting your peers.
You’ve embraced vulnerability on your Instagram about how you don’t enjoy the prospect of being a product and selling yourself that way.
How has it been to promote your solo music and share that experience?
It’s close to my heart. I haven’t done the solo part for about four years. I noticed that it’s hard to get the momentum back up. Coming from Thundamentals, we had a strong couple of years. It feels like I’ve gone back in time a little bit trying to get the ball rolling with solo stuff. It’s a hard sell… I don’t see fans as fans, I see them as peers. It’s unfortunate that I have to be on the front foot and demanding people’s attention.
It would be nice to have traffic come to me, but the reality is, I like to be authentic and genuine because there’s not a lot of that going on in the climate right now. It’s important for society to stop lying to itself. It was a way to show the turmoil of having to say, ‘hey! You already know about this tour, so I’m going to tell you for the fifth time’.
My fans are beautiful and tell me it’s not spam, but it’s not in my nature. I grew up as a little bit of an anarchist and detesting transnational corporations and the effect they have on the planet. I understand that I am a product, but it’s never going to be something I come to terms with in a wholistic sense. It will always be in the back of my mind. The more honest I can be about it, the less I have to hide.
The commentary of the current climate is really evident in ‘Selling Me Out’ and ‘F*ck You Pay Me’. It’s fascinating that you sound so assured as you unravel these somewhat confusing and conflicting topics.
Can you talk about where you find the ability to articulate in that powerful way?
I’m just a conduit of what I got hit with those two songs. They weren’t big, well thought out songs. They kind of just hit me. I liked the idea of ‘F*ck You Pay Me’, because I think it’s relatable and a lot of people can feel like that on their day to day. There’s an aggression in society at the moment where people feel undervalued. Hopefully people can use that song as an anthem to motivate them to not be walked all over.
Whereas, ‘Selling Me Out’ is about how willing we are to compromise genuine connection and intimacy for security. How many of us don’t take a risk and go with the safe option romantically because we might end up owning a house? Is it worth it in the end for your own mental health? How much do we put ownership over ourselves as a person and what we really need as sustenance for our souls? ‘Selling Me Out’ was a story that came from a personal experience, not to shame anyone…
While I was in that relationship, I felt like me as the person wasn’t valuable enough. I feel like you’re not just a man these days, but you’re a man with assets. You have a car, a house and a career. I think it’s been like that potentially since the beginning of currency, but I’m not sure. I’m just [using the song] to question that. Maybe it’s wrong, or maybe it’s right. I’m just questioning that, aren’t we valuable enough just in our birthday suits? What’s wrong with just the person?
Women can feel like that as well, obviously, not just men. But, I do think there are a lot of men striving and slaving away for status and I’m fucking over it. I don’t care for celebrity, for popularity. It’s taken the world into a dark place where we are a massive façade of a society. The Internet is slowly untangling that and showing our vulnerabilities. It’s showing that when you are vulnerable, people are attracted to you… You just need to be honest and people will actually accept you. We’ve forgotten that connection.
The Internet is interesting because in one way it’s the thing that facilitated those façades, but it’s also the thing conquering that.
I think we’ve always been like this, but the Internet is just exposing it. I do feel you, that we have to go through this super vain time frame and now, that empire is crumbling. The real rock-stars of the Internet are just normal people who are kind of quirky and have imperfections that make them desirable which is a beautiful thing.
You can see that you’re also cementing your role in using the Internet as a mechanism, not a barrier through the Catsquad and your Support Competition to select your support acts.
How does that feel to be firsthand part of that through so many initiatives and avenues?
That’s really flattering, and I hope I am. I’m taking a very different route to a lot of my contemporaries. Thundamentals has been a reasonably successful band and I’ve been able to coast off that popularity. The more fulfilling things I found about being popular is having the platform to do something tangible with it that affects someone’s life.
When I’m doing solo stuff, that’s kind of my prerogative and my focus. [I wonder], why am I so special? I don’t feel ultimately special. I have this attention, but what makes me more important than anyone else? I don’t feel like that. All I want is to feel connected with my community and deep down that’s what everybody wants. It’s to not feel isolated, because there’s a loneliness epidemic out there. That leads to radicalisation of your thoughts… There’s some serious undertones to isolating ourselves and not being honest with ourselves.
The initiative with Catsquad is to stimulate critical thought and promote empathy and kindness. How can I do that if I don’t lead by example? With my music, it’s like ‘ok, cool. I’ve made a catchy three-minute song that gets caught in your head’. But, how can I add value to someone’s life beyond getting a song stuck in their head? I’ve been thinking about that and trying to navigate ways to contribute to my community as best as I can without exhausting myself. To be honest it is pretty exhausting…
But you’re doing a good job!
When I read your posts as well, they resonate and activate my critical thinking as you mentioned, but not in a way where I feel stuck with my thoughts.
That’s literally my intention! I’m very careful to spread the least amount of negativity I can. Negativity is in all of us, so when I construct those posts… I want to try to help people have Eureka and epiphany moments with their own intentions. For example, why are you working 9 to 5? Why are you surrounding yourselves with people who don’t want to see you win?
If it starts an inner revolution, and once you address that, you might rub off that critical thought to other people. You never know what ripples you can start. The beautiful thing about a three-minute song is that if it is constructed in the right way, it starts ripples. Language and intention when paired well together can be very powerful.
It feels great that in Catsquad, people are likeminded and there’s a culture where people listen to one another… They use it to get things off their chest and to celebrate wins as well. When wins do happen, we should acknowledge their wins because that can be one of the best things to happen in their lives. One of the worst things could be that nobody fucking cared. It’s a complex situation that society has gotten itself in. In my opinion, it’s time to support each other.
As Tuka embarks on his national solo tour, he has selected a range of guests to support him across Australia.
You’ve done the same thing of supporting people through the Support Competition.
What does it do for the confidence of the musicians you select, and how does it enrich you as an individual?
Going back to Thundamentals being a reasonably successful band, I was able to not have to worry about the local hip-hop scene. I’ve never felt like I’m above anyone, but the industry wants to prop you up and put you on platforms that aren’t healthy for the human mind. Before Thundamentals got a name for itself, I was so in the scene. I was going to every single gig and aware of the new rappers. I had my hand on the pulse. After getting gassed up, that radar was lost.
For me personally, I feel like I’m connected with the type of artist I was six or seven years ago. I’m remembering the hunger and survival instinct of needing things to work and how much sacrifice you put into something and how that feels. My empathy gland has been stimulated and for the first time in a long time I feel connected to the scene. I’m talking to so many young and upcoming artists. So many of them say I’m the reason they started rapping. I question that, and my inner dialogue doesn’t want to accept that. I ask them why and they give me a big essay about why. I remember being acknowledged by Obese Records and they signed Thundamentals. That was a big thing in my life. I was telling myself, ‘if I’m not signed by 25, I need to look at a different career’. I got signed at around 24 and that recognition gave me the motivation and an opportunity to run at.
I can’t offer these support acts much, but I’m giving them as much active promo as I can and a small fee… If I can use [myself] in a positive way to help them feel better about what they’re doing, and they can see that I was in their shoes at one point [it’s great]. There’s a lot of mental illness around what we’re trying to do, and the expectations we put on ourselves and failure that comes along with this. People can become super jaded without a little bit of community in terms of feeling involved and included. It’s important to be inclusive and the more powerful and respected you get up the ‘chain’, the more valuable you become to opening the gates and inclusivity happen…
The more powerful or respected I am perceived, the more resources I feel I have to inject back into the same sphere that got me there. Something I hold close is the idea of genius and scene. I don’t think geniuses come from nowhere. All geniuses have surrounded themselves with a scene, and that scene holds the key of what makes that genius magical… I’ve felt disconnected from the scene and the support comp has entrenched me back in the struggle of what it was like ages ago. I hope I’m doing the right thing, so I’ve just got to wait it out.
Tuka’s nationwide tour with his hand-picked special guests commences this November.
Tour dates:
Friday Nov 1 – Newcastle, The Cambridge
Tickets: https://thecambridgehotel.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/2a5282b9-7b9e-46b3-8f36-e0e7bf50f97f
Saturday Nov 2 – Blue Mountains, Baroque House
Tickets: https://www.thecarrington.com.au/conferences-events/venues/the-baroque-room/
Friday Nov 8 – Adelaide, Fat Controller
Tickets:https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/tuka/115590?skin=FC18
Friday Nov 15 – Perth, Jack Rabbit Slims
Tickets: https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/57ded317-6064-4fcd-8509-347a8d8517e6
Saturday Nov 16 – Melbourne, Howler
Tickets: https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/tuka-selling-me-out-tour/115587
Friday Nov 22 – Brisbane, Foundry
Tickets: https://thefoundry.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/d0673526-b248-4ce0-a28c-8978a23eae7d
Saturday Nov 23 – Sydney, Lansdowne
Tickets: https://tuka-23-nov.in-tix.com/
Friday Nov 29 – Canberra, UC Hub
Tickets: https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/tuka-selling-me-out-tour-/115555
Saturday Nov 30 – Hobart, Republic Bar
https://republicbar.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/2d8afb6f-b659-4411-9a4b-de29198f8148