“My music is written really honestly,” Briggs says when I ask whether he ever thought of not claiming his regional roots – like many musicians have done before him.
“If I was coming out and saying I was from Melbourne it wouldn’t be honest and I’d feel like a bit of a dick. Everyone knows I’m from Shep, I grew up there, I’m from there and I was a regular everywhere. There’s no hiding it and I just wear it. That’s me and what makes me unique.”
Briggs is someone who is honest as all hell. In his music he’s loud, brash, thoughtful and complex all at the same time. The same can be said to how he’s depicted Shepparton in the perfect light, a place he spent his younger years, listening to music, creating his own and otherwise getting up to mischief.
“Just numbskullery, being a mischevious jerk of a kid – that’s pretty much what kept me entertained,” he laughs.
“You’re left to your own devices a lot, so the fun you make is your own.”
Though it’s listening to Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube that motivated him to take the path to becoming a rapper. Three releases later and now Briggs is often compared to one of his inspirations: Ice Cube. With Sheplife released last year, as we spoke on the phone Briggs was currently at the APRA writing camp piecing together some new tracks.
“It can be a bit hard when you’re a rapper, you know what I mean, to work it all out,” he says of the writing process at APRA.
“It’s a very niche thing that I do but when you’re paired with the right kind of people it’s great and you can get a lot of great stuff and I’ve got more out of it than I thought I ever would.”
It may seem a little bit too purposeful to head along to a writing camp, but for Briggs, there is no exact writing environment. And while the camp may create a new work ethic and setting for the rapper, his creativity knows no bounds.
“No matter whether I set out to go to the studio, or wherever, I always go there to make something happen,” Briggs says.
“I just write whenever I get that inspiration. I like to sit around in studios, hang out and just vibe and listen to beats like what I do at home or on the plane.”
Perhaps it’s his rural upbringing that has made him so relaxed about his processes within the industry, and while there’s plenty of time for that to have changed about the musician: it hasn’t. Set to play at Beechworth Music Festival early next year, festivals allow for musicians to become quite exorbitant at their requests. But that inclination hasn’t affected Briggs.
“I’m not very precious. I just like being places with my friends,” he says.
“As long as I’m reasonably cool and I have refreshments, I’m fine.”
Written by Amanda Sherring
When & Where: Beechworth Music Festival, Beechworth – January 23