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We caught up with the lads from DHT read the interview here

DHT INTERVIEW - by Sparky Gambino!
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We hooked up with DarkHalfTera (Sub X & Terawrizt)
an emcee/producer duo from Dublin to talk about their
album release and get a few opinions about the music etc.......
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1.) Sparky -  First of all, tell us a lil' bit on how DHT came about?

Sub had heard a track of mine called "Tear Down The Wall" which was over a pink floyd sample, he approached me about doing a track over one of his beats. So he sent me on the beat for what is now "All I Got Left", which is the first track on the album. I sent the track back to him the next day recorded and from there we hooked up a couple of times for a chat and decided we had a lot in common with our musical tastes and the type of hip-hop we were lookin to create was very similar, everything kinda fell into place from there.

Sub: Well pretty much as Tera said, I had formed Dark Half with Schizophrenic a couple of years earlier and when Skitz decided he was going to try life out in Thailand, I continued to use the name Dark Half as my production name and just kept writing tracks until I heard Tera on "Tear Down The Wall", i liked what he was doing and thought that we might both compliment each others styles, hooked up a couple of times, found out that we had a lot more than just music in common and the rest as they say is history.

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2.) Sparky - Both of you have done the gig circuit now for a good while in the hip-hop scene,
what do you make of it and what kind of reaction do you recieve from the crowds,
both here in ireland and over seas?

Tera: Though we've played some appalling gigs, with bad sound and even worse crowds we've always been well recieved and supported. Some people might think that because musically were not commercially oriented that people aren't or won't be into what were doing, but i think we get alot of support for that very reason. But you start to see the limitations in this country for hip-hop once you go abroad. For lads in the U.K. its almost a way of life, but for alot of people here its a past time or hobby.

But lads like Tom (www.hiphop.ie promoter) are going the right way about putting on successful gigs and mixing the underground sound with a mainstream crowd. We have a whole new line up of live tracks from the album for when we get back giggin so i cant wait for that

Sub: The most important thing about it is this, the love of Hip-hop is what brings us all together. we might not all agree with each others tastes and viewpoints but we all come together under the banner of lovers of Hip-hop. we wouldnt be here if we didn't love it. I mean over the years there has been some great talent in this country and judging from our own experiences it can get very disheartening when you're playing in front of 10 people or seeing artists not getting the credit or recognition they deserve, but still they're putting out tracks year after year because they love what they do and believe in themselves. I dont write tracks so other people will like them, i write tracks that i like and if somebody digs what im doing then thats a bonus.

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3.) Sparky -  The album 'Art Immatatin' Life' was released in May, how would you describe it to a listener who maybe wouldn't have heard your work before?

Tera: Well first off you can forget the whole stigma around irish rap being gimmicky, its not gonna sound like that. You can expect top quality production, and get to hear some of the countries most talented emcees at their best. Some of the tracks were produced by lads from New York, Canada, Scotland and Belgium so there's a consistent change in the type and style of each track, so with that varity i think there's somethin to fit nearly everyone's tastes, plus it adds to the flow of the album from start to finish.

Personally though, for me on this album, i exorcised a lot of demons, got a lot of shit off my chest, so theres kind of a dark somber undertone to the whole thing.

Sub: I think its got something for everybody on it, theres a good mix of tracks from start to finish, aswell as a wide range of concepts and topics that i personally think makes it a bit unique, with very talented emcees and producers contributing anything from some lighted heart stuff right up to the dark somber aspects of life too. Its like it says on the cover 'Art Immatatin' Life' and thats exactly what it is.

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4.) Sparky - Having put it out and actually having it in your hands do you realise the difficulties in breaking through, in regards to record companies and the record business in general?

Tera: As it is with everything, its more about who you know not what you know or if your good at it. So its a constent hustle. But people do forget i'm not long on the scene and myself and Sub only started up DHT last summer, so within less than a year we have a product we can shop around. Were going from obscurity to shopping an album so we never expected an easy ride. But were getting alot of positive responses from the album so were definately moving in the right direction.

Sub: I come from a known family around the Irish music industry and as a result I have been around the Irish music business for a few years in different capacities, so i have a pretty good idea how it works, so we knew from the start that it wasn't going to be an easy ride. sure everybody sits and daydreams that Russell Simmons or some one is going to come across your website and hear your shit and sign you. but its hard work from the start. If you're serious about what you're doing and trying to achieve something, even then your not guaranteed anything. As i said before if you love what your doing
then it doesnt matter because you will continue to do what you love regardless. and if the day comes that you are picked up by a label your still not guaranteed anything and in most cases record companies will try and find a way of fucking you over anyway.

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5.) Sparky - Why in your opinion do alot of irish emcees put out half completed bad quality
tracks on the internet etc. instead of working on solid albums or mixtapes?

Tera: Personally i think its down to a combination of either bad equipment or lack of the proper equipment and lack of oppurtunities or a market to outlet the finished product. But a lot of the time i think it can basically boil down to laziness or a half assed attitude in artists. Trying to get your material to the standard and quality needed to gain you recognition is by no means an easy feat and takes a lot of hard work, perseverance & dedication. But you also need to get stuff out initially for people to hear  what you're about and i definately have my fair share of dodgy tracks with bad recording floating around so its more of a learning curve for artists. As they start to improve and take what there doin more seriously, they'll have more pride in what there doin and that will shine through in the quality of the tracks.

Sub: Look not everybody that thinks they're an emcee or producer, ARE an emcee or producer. bad quality recordings are secondary to talent, bad quality recordings can be fixed over time. but if you havent got talent, a good quality recording isnt going to fix that. at the same time if you dont try you will never know. i would listen to a track quicker from some one looking for advice or they're not sure about something, than some nobody coming along shouting their mouth off about how great they are. or even attacking an artist thats been around awhile just as a cheap shot, then finding that they're not only shite but they have made a fool of themselves. and yes i know there is a certain amount of front about how good an emcee is, but there is also a point where you need a bit of humility too.

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6.) Sparky - Probably the first choon i heard from you's as a duo was the diss track aimed at Spiral cleverly entitled ''Getting Evicted'', why did u feel the need to put that track out and do you think that hip-hop competition brings out the best in emcees in general?

Tera: I think Sub took it more personally than me, being from Finglas and all. For me Getting Evicted was about distancing myself and "THE SCENE" from Spiral, because he has no credibility here. Again its a case of who you know not what you know, cause anyone with half a brain can see Spiral is a complete and utter talentless shambles. Personally ive got nothin against the guy or care how much an idiot he's making himself out to be. But when you see the exposure this guy has had you know every emcee out there is thinking if only they had that oppurtunity or were in the same position they'd be makin a big name for themselves.

But when you drop a diss track you know people are watchin, so you tend to make a conscious effort to go all out and not hold back. We shall wait and see if our track was worthy of a response, im sure someone's gonna be curious enough to see how bad his album turned out to be and fork out for it. That guy wont be me though.

Sub: To quote Collie "Hes some sham", hes fuckin awful, he cant rap, he's as deep as a glass of water, a fuckin embarrassment to Hip-hop in general. he's just a gimmick and not a very good one either, but that seems to be the way the wind blows these days - you dont have to have talent anymore. I have had the great pleasure of being around a lot of talented artistsin Ireland and it's sad to see shit like that even getting a mention, when there are guys out there that deserve the kind of exposure that gimp is getting.

The sad fact is a lot of people watch Big Brother and a lot of them haven't got the first fuckin clue about music at all, so theres always that market. But the guy knows THAT much about Hip-hop he couldn't even respond - now what does that tell you ??? I wouldn't give a shit if he was trying to be the next pop sensation, but he came and pissed in our pool, so he needed to be slapped down. It's nothing personal bitch, thats just Hip-hop.

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7.) Sparky - In terms of hip-hop who would be your most favoured influences when it comes to writing and producing the music, and could you ever see yourselves crossing over to a different genre on tracks wheather it be on a DHT project or solo album?

Tera: For me Tupac is a devine influence to my music. It wasn't about the lyrics, it was more about how you could feel his pain and emotion in his delivery. You felt what he was talkin about. But i have at length studied the great master lyricists from eminem to nas, rakim, big pun, and Big L. But more recently i've been caught in the whole underground scene, vinny paz, apathy, ill bill - even a lot of UK stuff has a nice vibe off it, kinda freshens up hip-hop from the usual recycled garbage we've been stuck with the last few years. And you're definately going to be hearing alot of far out cross over shit from us in the future. You can expect whole new sound from us on the DHT album thats about all i can say on that at the moment. We're also releasing an album with Nucentz, which for me is definately different from my solo stuff. You're going to be hearing a much more chilled out Terawrizt on that.

Sub: I have too many influences in Hip-hop and non Hip-hop to mention here, and all of it influences me in some way or another when im writing shit. But thats the beauty of Hip-hop, it's so easy to cross-over and mix it up as much as you like. we have a few tracks already, that people will be a little surprised to hear are written by ourselves... but you will just have to wait and find out in the future.

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8.) Sparky - Do you worry about peoples opinions toward you and do u listen to criticism?
coz there are alot of people out there with something to say either good or bad...

Tera: I'll respect any one's opinion if it's not ego driven and its honest. i'm not too bothered about what people are saying though because i'm confident enough in what i'm doing. i'm focused and i'm determined and more importantly i believe in it. Not everybody is going to be into my music and idiots are still going to mouth off regardless.

But we're getting a lot of good feedback from the album which obviously inspires you to push harder so as long as people are talkin about us i'm happy.

Sub: That would be called Free-will and we all have it. so everybody has got an opinion good or bad, and everybody has got the right to express their opinions and criticism. But it's the way that you express your opinion that matters. I mean coming along and saying something like "Hey you're shit", well i mean that just goes to show you the extent of their brain capacity. what benefit would that be to anyone? i don't listen to that sort of shit. I would listen to anybodys opinion once it's expressed in a constructive manner.

If we all liked the same shit and all thought the same, life would be boring as hell.

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9.) Sparky - Artists who come up and work their way through the underground scene will
understandabley always have a love for it, but would you be happy with mainstream success?

Tera: I think anybody who's serious about what they do is ultimately working towards commercial or mainstream success. But this is where i was first heard and first gained recognition as an emcee, and also met most the lads featuring on the album there so there'll always be a connection there. But i do feel its only a matter of time before someone breaks into the market and makes a big impact and hopefully pave the way for everyone else.

Sub: The underground I think gives artists much more freedom to express themselves and experiment with different styles. Of course we would be happy with mainstream success, but only if we were still doing what we are doing now and not trying to do stuff to accommadate a certain market. Thats just not us, we don't write tracks for anyone elses taste.

We write tracks that WE like and if people catch on and are into what we are doing, well that makes it even better.

(picture Tera)

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10.) Sparky - Where do you hope to take DHT as a name and as a group?

Tera: Well Dark Half Tera as a group is the main focus at the moment, getting our name and material out to as many people as possible. But we have other projects in the pipeline like the up-and-coming release 'Sense The Terror' album amongst other stuff, so the intention is to expand DHT Productions in the future & start adding up and coming talent to the roster and maybe a cross over of genre's. But as i said were focusing on ourselves at the moment so expect to being seeing a lot of us in the near future.

Sub: As far as this ride will take us.

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11.) Sparky - A few collaborations appear on the album, what was that like to put together,
and do you enjoy working with other artists on tracks?

Tera: Unfortunately Maverick was the only one we didn't have on-site to drop his vocals. He had to send them to us online. But workin with Nuie, Red & Jambo is always a good laugh. 

I mean your workin with the best in the country right now and they were all on fire. The banter is always good but the lads are proffesional when it comes to their art so when its time to get shit done its ridiculous the amount of sick tracks that get churned out.

Sub: It's always good to do collabs, especially when you're working with people that wouldn't normally write to the kind of stuff we are doing, and come across with a banger of a tune.

Which - was proven a few times on the album, we have a few non-Hip-hop collabs we are working on at the moment, but anybody that knows us, knows we always keep that shit to our chest ;)

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12.) Sparky - Is there a certain type of artist who you wouldn't work with?
Tera: People who treat what they do as a hobby. If you wanna dick around and waste your own time thats cool with me - just don't expect to waste my time. Otherwise i'd work with nearly anyone that approached me.

Sub: Hobbiests,Time wasters, untalented eejits and Spiral (or did i just describe Spiral there?).

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13.) Sparky - There are alot of young emcees coming up in the game, would there be any advice ya would throw at them so they dont get lost in the crowd and so maybe they could stand out with something different?

Tera: Just stay determined and work hard at it. If you believe you can succeed well then that's half the battle. Plus it's easy to be disheartened here when there's not a lot happening. For me you gotta have material you can push so it's about workin on some solid tracks for an EP or mixtape, or even a promo to be able to put in peoples hands if they ask you. And it'd be a good idea to turn up at gigs and involve yourself in whats going on. It's good for networking and gettin to know the people involved.

Sub: Work on your shit, perfect what your doing and give it time and ask for help if you need to, but dont have an ego about it. Because most times, people with egos have nothing to back it up and people wont want to help you do shit if you have that attitude.
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14.) Sparkly - Fave DHT choon? ...and what track from the album would ya think would make a good single?

Tera: As Sub would say thats like asking a parent to pick their favourite child. "Somethin to say" is probably my most personal track on the album but it'd be hard to pick.

Any single would need a lot of editing but i'd say either "Victim" or "Rollin Up", but i dont think there's any stand out single tracks on the album. I never wanted to do a commercially radio friendly track - i wanted to keep it dark and uncensored.

Sub: I think AZBOs would make a great single, you know one for the kiddies. If you listen to Mavs lyrics, it didn't seem to do any harm to him now did it ?(Hee hee, i think we broke his mind). I don't think i could pick a favourite but if I HAD to pick it would have to be The Last Supper, for 2 reasons - (1) because it was the track that nearly never happened, it just wasn't coming together at all for either of us and then BAM it just started to fall into place. (2) I think the message on that track is a reflection of whats going on today in the world with freedom of speech or having an oppossing opinion - It can be a very dangerous thing to pratice either of those two.

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15.) Sparky - Why did you decide to leave certain choons off the album in favour of others?

Tera: That was a hard decision to make, but in the end it boiled down to trying to squeeze as many tracks on as we could. I think we had 24 songs altogether so we had to just start crossing them off and seeing how it fitted together and sound-wise how they matched up.

Sub: That was the hardest part of all i think. We agonized over that for weeks, right up until it was going to press. We had 24 great tracks ready to go and had to pick 17, so that's why we decided to put out Blank Canvas first, rather than just saying "well there's the 17 lets just go with that and leave the rest". I think it also gave people a taste of what was to come when the album came out.

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16.) Sparky - This is a bit of an overdosed question but do u think the internet has helped you
at all in regards to getting ur name and music out there or do u think it could help in the future in any way?

Tera: I think the internet is important for any artist these days, as peoples trends are changing and everything is easily accessable on the net. But its still important you're out shopping your music and playing gigs. People need to see you about because out of sight is out of mind. Plus we're knocking out a lot of international sales from our website along with nation-wide, so it allows people to get their hands on CD's they couldn't get from their local shops.

Sub: The interweb i think has been a great help, it's much easier for people around the world to access your stuff like never before. Then you just got to look at our album and see a lot of those tracks would never have happened if it wasn't for the web. The world of music is much more accessable than it has ever been before, for good or bad.

(picture Sub) 

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17.) Sparky - How do u reckon hip-hop in ireland can get out-of-country recognition and respect?

Tera: Even if someone breaks the Irish market, that doesn't neccesarily mean that they'll get any recognition outside Ireland, so i reckon the internet will have to play a big part with networking and expanding similar to what was done with the celtic connection.

Sub: Perserverance and hard work, but that shouldnt be a problem if you are serious about what you're doing and enjoy it.

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18.) Sparky - I see a few music videos popping up lately in the irish hip-hop scene, do u think this is an advantage or a good way in putting a face to the name, and do u reckon it would help in the album/mixtape sales?

Tera: A video if done right adds a different dimension to your music and opens you up to people who wouldnt ordinarily listen to hip hop. We've recently released the Sin City video lifted from the Sense The Terror album featuring Redzer, which is getting a great response from people, so hopefully it will raise the profile of that release - plus the solo stuff of everyone involved.

Sub: With the explosion of You Tube and the likes, the traffic through these kind of sites is unbelievably huge, and i think you reach a far wider audience outside of your respective country, aswell as within your own. It puts names to faces, and at the very least when we did the Sin City video, we all had a laugh, we all got toasted, people got injuried and the result was a sweet looking video with three of Irelands top emcee's with a great up and coming Irish director (big props to everybody involved - especially Johnny for his fine work).

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19.) Sparky - So what's to come in the future, What are the people to expect from Sub and Tera?

Tera: There'll be DHT tracks featuring on Redzer, Nucentz & Jambo's new releases. I feature on about 6 tracks on Cmx & Tanya D's The Proof mixtape out now. Also DHT will be bringing you Sense The Terror coming soon and i have other projects on the way with other Irish emcee's. We're also gonna be starting the DHT album soon. So DHT are gonna be busy in the near future gigging and pushing our album.

Sub: Tracks, gigs, blunts, tracks, beers, blunts, gigs, blunts, blunts, tracks and if we have time we might get to sleep for a bit too.

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20.) ...And something for me now haha, what would be the album in your opinion which defines hip-hop?

Tera: Sparky you're a bollix haha. Thats a toughie, how do you define or summarize hiphop when its ever changing. I suppose it'd be either Biggie's Ready To Die or DMX's It's Dark and Hell is Hot, they both got some major rotation. But my taste in rap has changed so much from my gangsta rap days.

Sub: I don't think there is an album that defines Hip-hop because Hip-hop is an ever evolving process, changing all the time, at the moment its kinda going through a meltdown process because most of the Hip-hop reaching a wider audience is pretty terrible and all sounds the same and really doesn't say anything at all, but the underground stuff is so fresh and in a lot of cases undiscovered. Of course people are always bitching that Hip-hop is dying out, thats just the shit their listening to - of course it seems like its dying out, until you discover what the underground has to offer.

Real fuckin Hip-hop, talking about real shit, not bitches and how much money you have or what fuckin piss you drink, yeah your rich, you lost your way
so fuck off with it. This unfortunitly has happened to too many great rappers, they hit the big time and sell their souls.

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21.) Sparky - Anybody ya would like to thank or shout out..........?
 

Tera: Big shout out to all the lads who helped on the album, jebus for his endless efforts. All the lads who religiously turn up to support irish hiphop. Tom for his hard work getting this site up and running and having regular gigs and giving the support slots to underground artists thats some dedication right there. And of course the grandmaster himself, the wu gambino probably the most die hard irish hiphop head alive. Cheers Sparky ya legend. Now when do i get paid haha.

Sub: Good luck to Tom with the site and his endless endevour to promote home-grown Hip-hop. A big shout out to everybody that bought the album. All the people that continually support Hip-hop in Ireland by buying albums, going to gigs and trying to spread the word to whoever may listen. Sparky the Hip-hop guru. Everbody
thats been busting a nut to help us achieve something - karma is on your side and good deeds never go unrewarded.

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Disclaimer: All the information giving here may have been true at the time of answering, but the very likelihood that they were answered under the influence of some sort of herbal substance or other, which in turn we cannot be answerable to at anytime, gives us amensty against trying to remember what we have said here and at anytime in the future.
'Dark Half Tera'
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Notable DHT tracks:
Something To Say (Art Immatatin' Life)
Victim (Art Immatatin' Life)
Social Outcast (Art Immatatin' Life)
Hole In My Heart (Blank Canvas)
Rap Heavyweights (Blank Canvas)
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                                              ........Questions By Sparky........
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For more on DHT or to buy the Album! you can visit http://www.darkhalftera.com/