Bliss N Eso's Music Spookily Becomes More Relevant With Each New Challenge

Another truck rattles passed our wind-swept seats at a cafe in Sydney's Surry Hills, and MC Eso (aka Max Mackinnon, who goes by 'Macca') raises his voice as he waxes lyrical for our interview. Actually, he's rapping it.

"Look, I'll tell you the bottom line / It's a cess-pool-of-shit / We need to get out / get out right now / find that exit sign and bounce / quick."

He stops rhyming here... sort of. Chatting to Mackinnon and MC Bliss (Jonathan Notley) reveals the result of their expansive 17-year hip hop career —they don't actually realise that they speak in verse and rhyme, almost freestyling, when caught on the energy of an idea. 

"Waking up, before I do a poo or a wee, I look at my phone bro, and I seen two fights, a motorbike accident, I seen rappers I don't even care about beefing with each other —Soulja Boy, who are you mate? Get outta there! I'm subliminally pushing this shit into my mind, let alone the bloody news at 9am that needs to feed me full of fear, and um... ah fuck, where was I?" Mackinnon stops.

"We were talking about social media and how crazy it is," assists Notley through a mouthful of eggs.

"Right. We need to unplug. And Denzel Washington was sayin' 'What is the effect of too much information?' We don't know? Well we're about to fuckin' find out."

"We used this time to write therapeutically for ourselves, deal with issues that we're dealing with now and to show people that we're not in this VIP dining room with bullet-proof vests and we're invincible."

This is the bridging discussion between touching on 2014's social media fiasco, in which Eso posted misogynistic photos of himself posing provocatively with wax figures of Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Raquel Welch — "It was never intended to promote violence in any way... It is amazing how far things can get taken out of context... I look at it as a huge learning curve" — and the title of their long, long anticipated sixth LP Off The Grid.

The cover art — their signature hooded figure, shrouded in darkness holding a scull birthing a golden rose — has never seemed more pertinent given the battles faced by the trio since 2013's Circus In The Sky.

"I think there's a bit of a theme — beauty grows from darkness — throughout the album, and in the time period of making it a lot of shit has happened," explains Notley. "But..." and they both pause to reflect, "Little things, like when the Johann [Ofner, who was fatally shot on the set of their film clip in January] incident happened, which shook us to our core... To be able to do little things like a dedication show, get his daughter up on the turntables smiling and scratching, the whole family and all the friends rockin' out to Friend Like You right at the end, the vibe was electricity in the air, that was a little ray of sunlight through the clouds."

Off The Grid has become a continuing catharsis for the Sydney MCs. Beginning as a conscious decision to reveal themselves in the present moment — from Mackinnon's recovery from alcoholism to their experience of a fan's lost battle to cancer. Yet as new challenges arise, each track takes on a new, even more relevant meaning, long after it was sent to press. "It’s funny how everything all turns out," reflects Mackinnon. "With the situations that we’ve gone through recently it seems like the front cover makes more sense. And even the song Friend Like You, that song was made and created way before that incident. But you listen to that song now, it’s like those lyrics can help you deal with that situation. It’s really uncanny."

"We've been through the war in a lot of senses of the word, the shit that we've had to deal with, the demons that we've had to tackle. I guess this album, like Macca said, was the first time we decided to really open up —show a bit more of Jonathan and Max, not just Bliss N Eso," explains Notley. "Now it's time to give them something a bit more personal."

"For an artist, for a human, to come to terms with their problems or their addictions, that's huge in itself," Mackinnon adds. "It's kinda funny - once you start, the floodgates open and it get easier," Notley agrees. "That raw honesty is that human connection... If [fans] can get something from your story and it'll help them, man, that's the bee's knees of music."

Mackinnon joins in with another impassioned speech: "The kids aren't listening to the politicians, the kids aren't listening to their teachers; they're listening to their artists, they're listening to the music, they're listening to the comedians that are going on stage and giving the raw truth… We used this time to write therapeutically for ourselves, deal with issues that we're dealing with now and to show people that we're not in this VIP dining room with bullet-proof vests and we're invincible - we all go through the dark and light times together."