Twenty-one-year-old hip-hop artist, Lanstan, from Sydney’s northern beaches has recently released new hit Trophy as a celebration of his music career. The Australian hip-hop talent went viral in 2017 with smash hit Garn Servo, which featured around 100 Australian slang references. We chatted with Lanstan about his origins and inspiration…

Words Alex Knight

What first got you into music?
I think it was probably my dad. We used to listen to a lot of music when I was young. He took me to see David Byrne from Talking Heads when I was nine years old. Right from the start I remember at the concert, they were giving out song sheets at the end with all the songs that they played and then they ran out when I got to the front. So, the drummer gave me his stick at the end of the performance and I always kept that as a little memento. I think that really got me into music. 

Did you grow up listening to hip hop particularly or were you influenced by a lot of different genres?
I was influenced by a lot of different genres. I think it was probably Eminem; same as a lot of guys my age. Then as a teenager that progressed into a lot of other artists like Kendrick Lamar. Then when the new trap scene came, I got really immersed in artists like XXXTenacion and Lil Uzi. I’ve always listened to an eccentric range of music though. 

What do your parents think about your career as a hip-hop artist?
They’re excited – my mum wants to manage me now. I’m not letting her just yet, but she is very excited by it all. Dad likes it as well. I mean, he’s always loved music as well, but I have to explain some stuff about hip-hop to him.

How would you describe the music you create? 
When I started, I may have been a bit blind to all the great music coming out, but as far as I’d seen, I didn’t think there was any trap music happening in Australia. I’ve learned now that there is quite a lot of incredible artists that I’ve met through music. But at the time, I just wanted to come out and give out some exciting new trap music with an Australian reflection because I hadn’t really heard that anywhere around here.

Hip-hop is my full-time gig. I’m going pretty hard with music. My girlfriend told me we need to start treating it more as a business and that has been really helpful. I’ve been figuring out the best way to make music especially during Covid, but it’s been a pretty exciting time for me.

Who would you love to collaborate with? 
In Australia there’s a few people in particular. I would love to work with my friend Phi11a – we’ve talked about it a little bit. Other than that, I’d love to work with Manu Crooks and Youngn Lipz. Internationally, I mean in the long term, I’d love to be linking up with artists like Travis Scott and Wifisfuneral.

What’s your dream venue to play? 
I would love to play a sold-out show at the Enmore Theatre. I think that would be pretty amazing, but I think in long term, everyone dreams of the stadium tours. I know a lot of artists say when they get to that point, they miss the intimacy. I think playing a sold-out show at the Enmore Theatre is probably the peak. It is a beautiful place; I love the acoustics. I’ve grown up around there and I’ve seen Sticky Fingers play there a few times and just think it would be a perfect venue.

Tell us about the experience of releasing Garn Servo…
That was a very interesting time in my life. That was the first song I ever put out with my homie Miles Marmalade. I had a weird feeling at the time that it would blow up online just because of the type of song that it was, but I didn’t really know what that would feel like until it happened. The second we put it out, it blew up straight away. My social media started going crazy. I didn’t really know the monster that I just created. We thought it would be funny song cause we wanted to make some trap music that we hadn’t heard before in Australia and we thought the best way to do that, would be just to grab a hilarious cultural idea like going to servo and throw in as many Australian references as we could. I remember at the end of making it we counted it up, and there was something like 100 Australian references that we’d thrown in there. 

From then till now, has there been a huge change in your process of creating music? 
The way I created music has changed drastically. When I first made music, I didn’t really know anything about how making a song worked. I just sat down and found a beat and I quickly came up with lyrics on the spot and voice recorded it. Whereas now, I go to the studio. I have proper mixing engineers and recording engineers that understand the industry and how PR works. Back then, I didn’t even really know how to how to upload it. I didn’t even really know how to get it on streaming services or anything. 

What inspires you to create the music you do?
I think there’s a lot of different things. The lyrics are inspired by hip hop having intricate rhyme patterns and interesting flows would definitely come from people like Kendrick Lamar. Being from the northern beaches, I’ve listened to heaps of Tame Impala and Sticky Fingers as a teenager. That was a massive influence for me, and those kinds of psychedelic reggae rock sounds all filter through in little ways into my sound. 

A lot of the artists that I grew up listening to with my dad like the Indigo Girls and Talking Heads influence it in subtle ways that other people might not hear, but for me, it makes a big difference. 

What was the mood when releasing Trophy during the Coronavirus pandemic? 
It’s definitely a weird time but, if anything, I think it’s actually been a positive for me. It is really difficult not being able to perform, and at the start of the year, I had a whole different release plan. I had a whole schedule ready to go from the project that I’m working on for this year and then when Covid hit, I had to sit back and re-strategise. But it’s worked well, and I think people are really keen to hear new music while there’s not a lot to do and not a lot of places to go. 

What is Trophy about?
Trophy to me is a celebration of where I’m at this point in my music career. It’s a positive song – it’s meant to have a lot of ambition, but also caution, talking about the pitfalls of the music industry and knowing how to manoeuvre my way through. Overall, it has a lot of positive energy. 

quick questions:

1. Cricket or Soccer?
Definitely soccer 

2. Favourite Soccer Team?
Tottenham Hotspur 

3. Beach or Pool?
Beach 

4. Strawberry or Chocolate?
Strawberry 

5. Tattoos or Piercings?
I actually don’t have anything. Maybe I’m too basic. 

6. Met any celebrities?
I saw Elton John once. It was at a Coldplay concert. He was sitting two rows below me in a little VIP area and I was just staring at him the whole concert thinking. ‘I’m sure that is Elton John, like I’m certain that is Elton John’. Then he got up and left about halfway through and 10 minutes after he left, Chris Martin of Coldplay said, “Elton John’s in the building tonight.”

7. Thoughts on Cardi B?
I rate Cardi B a lot.  

8. Surfer?
No, I’m not a surfer, I feel like a little bit of a fraud that I’m not a surfer because I think a lot of people are seeing that that’s part of my vibe. I’ve lived in northern beaches my whole life; I got the long hair and everything but no I am a fraud. 

9. Artists you like in the Illawarra?
Hockey Dad, Pinheads and big shoutout to Coast & Ocean.