Are you in a band and finding it hard to promote your latest single?
Maybe you should follow the lead of Australian Australian hip hop group TZU who have taken a novel approach with their comeback single ‘Beginning of the End’ by releasing a companion comic book.
It was four years ago TZU released the highly successful album, Computer Love. But shortly after, the band went on hiatus while some life-changing events occurred. Some members had children, while others explored the world and released solo albums, but now they’ve gotten the band back together.
With a new single out, an album on its way, a national tour kicking off very soon, the band were looking for a novel approach to promote their new single, which is where the idea for a comic book came from.
The lyrics of their new single were used as a starting point to create multiple stories that branch off from the undercurrents of anxiety and impending disaster that infuse the song.
With the comic book, the audience is introduced to a girl who is a time travelling drug addled thrill seeker entering the consciousness of the last man on Earth.
The group have also continued the theme with a film clip, where the audience is drawn in by a collage of images that hint at a catastrophic event. Both stories are companion pieces to the song.
The video clip was directed by Dimitri Basil, who has also worked with Flight Facilities on their ‘Foreign Language’ music video, and with The Grates on their videos for ‘Turn Me On’.
Speaking to Tone Deaf exclsuively about the new album, Joel Ma (AKA Joelistics) says that he “wouldn’t call it hip-hop.”
“I would say it’s influenced a lot by hip-hop in the same way that The Gorillaz or Santigold or something like that. […] I think when we started this record, we’d had four years off, we had all had life changing experiences and moved in different directions as individuals and we sat down together and decided to take away any barriers towards what style, genre, scope when we made this album.
“So it’s a very ambitious record and we probably never even thought we’d play it live.”
Formed in 1999, TZU are pioneers in the Australian hip hop scene, releasing four albums and earning themselves an APRA Award and J Award, as well as winning the Australian Music Prize for best contemporary music album with Smiling at Strangers.
