Newcastle Live got the chance to catch up with Allday (a.k.a. Tom Gaynor) before his headline show in Newcastle this Wednesday, and shoot the breeze about life in the fast lane as Australia’s latest rising rap star…
It ain’t easy being Alldeezy… But damn, he does it well. His first full-length studio album debuted at an impressive No# 3 on the ARIA charts in July, he spent October on the road for his all but completely sold-out Startup Cult national tour, and all the while he kept his long locks luscious enough to take out the ‘Beautiful Hair Awards’…
Although he may have bestowed that last title upon himself, there’s no doubt this has been a massive year for 23 year old rapper, Allday. But when asked about his catapulting career and success so far, Gaynor tends to play it a bit cool,
“I’d love to be one of those people who say they have to pinch themselves to believe it, but I’m not really a person who is easily impressed… Something good happens and I’m like ‘cool, whatever,’” he laughs, “I just see it as each time I reach a new goal, it’s something to tick off and move on to the next goal.”
Though, Gaynor is not always so blasé about his shot to fame, he eagerly remembers the moment when he realised things were really taking off for him during his Groovin’ The Moo festival run earlier this year,
“All these people were jumping fences to get photos with me and I was performing to massive crowds, it was really overwhelming,” he recalls, “It was around that time when I really felt like I had found my sound too, and I knew where I wanted to be.”
Taking cues from Northern American rappers and hip-hop artists, Allday’s ‘sound’ definitely does not fall under what we’re accustomed to classifying as Australian hip-hop/rap.
Gaynor comments that the ‘Aussie hip-hop’ label is currently going through a state of flux as the genre becomes more popular and complex, with more Australian artists advocating more subgenres. His melodic flows and R’n’B undertones somewhat position him as Australia’s answer to rappers such as Drake, Frank Ocean and The Weeknd.
Allday’s debut album, Startup Cult, has been an absolute hit, securing him an almost ‘cult-like’ following of fans. But Gaynor confesses he could not have predicted the album’s popularity before its release,
“I honestly didn’t feel like the album had that many conventional singles, I could’ve played it safe and gone in more of a pop direction, but I wanted to keep it as it was,” he says, “It was a bit of a gamble… I was relying on the fact that if I told stories people could connect with, they would get into it.”
And into it, they got.
Fresh off the back of his tour, Allday was now enjoying some quality downtime at his home in Melbourne, watching Vine videos – His pastime of choice. After we both confessed to shamelessly losing hours of our lives to the Vine, we got to chatting about his interesting (and often, hilarious) social media persona,
“A lot of people have been asking me if it’s really me behind my social media lately!” he says, “And yes, it is actually just me. I am the team.”
Gaynor’s personal, off-the-cuff and, sometimes brazenly, honest approach to social media breaks down the wall between fan and artist, giving him a more relatable and real presence amongst his followers. Even his Tumblr feed has turned into somewhat of a relationship advice service.
“I don’t even know how it started!” he laughs, “All of a sudden I just started receiving all these questions from people about their relationships and then more, and more, and now I’m trying to kind of stop it because it’s taking on a whole life of its own!”
We joke that if the rap game fails, he’ll always have the fallback career as the digital Dr Phil of our generation, “Yes, completely unqualified, terrible advice – It’s what the people want”, Gaynor laughs.
Allday’s first ever headline show in Newcastle is just around the corner, and he’s eager to bring his show back. He has played in Newcastle a few times when touring on support slots, and holds a certain fondness for our city,
“I remember Newcastle was one of the first places where fans came up to me after the show and wanted autographs and photos, this hadn’t really started to happen yet, even in the capital cities, so it was really cool.”
With such a loyal fan base here in Newcastle, Allday better pack his A-Game for his show at Bar On The Hill on Wednesday night.
“I always bring my A-Game,” Gaynor proclaims confidently, “Unless I’m hungover, then I might bring my B-Game… But NEVER my C-Game!”
Catch Allday headlining ‘The Stress Less Sessions’ this Wednesday 5th November at Bar on The Hill. Limited tickets available through Oztix: http://tickets.oztix.com.au/default.aspx?Event=46003
