Thief Urban
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Thief Urban

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"THIEF URBAN – POP WITH AMAZING HAIR"

Thief Urban is the side-project of Sydney based songwriter PJ Wolf. He has a couple of amazing tracks out on bandcamp already and describes his music as “electro flavoured RnB Pop with amazing hair”. Unfortunately there’s not much more information about this guy on the net so I decided to do an interview with him to feed your music-obsessed bushwahnian brains with some facts about him. Here’s what we talked about.

Thief Urban, welcome on bushwah! Please give us a brief introduction to yourself first: who is Thief Urban? When did you start the project?
I’m PJ Wolf, I’m from Sydney Australia and I make lots of music. Thief Urban came about late last year when I kind of decided to separate my more traditional “songy” songwriting from my interest in the more producery, beatsy, electronicy POP! end of the pop music spectrum. It has proven to be stupidly fun.
Is Thief Urban a one-man project or are there other musicians involved, too?
It’s a one man show at this stage. All the tracks that are up and available online are demo’s I produced from home. I’m now working with the fantastic engineer/producer Matt Redlich (Emma Louise, Hungry Kids of Hungry, Ball Park Music) to help put some extra shiny awesomeness on the tracks. A little extra “Pep” if you will. I’m also in the process of putting a band together for the live show so there will be a couple of other musos getting involved.



As you mentioned above, you started your career as PJ Wolf with a more folk/acoustic style and already released an EP „Arcadia Street“ under this name. What raised your interest in electronic music?
I think I’ve always had an interest in electronic music, it’s just taken me a while to get obsessed with it. And for me obsession is kind of a necessary condition to the making of good music. In a lot of ways electronic music is the music I grew up with. There was that real explosion of synthesized sounds in Pop music during the late 70's and 80's, so I think for a lot of people my age those sounds have a weird subconscious resonance.
This project is kind of about trying to recapture some of how I felt listening to pop music on the radio when I was 10. I do still love just sitting down with a guitar or a piano and letting a song come out though. The PJ Wolf stuff continues to chug along merrily and there are plans for a new EP to be finished early in the new year.
Musicians of the electronic genre often regard lyrics as “less important”. Your approach seems to be quite different. How important are the lyrics for you and how are your experiences as a songwriter helping you writing your songs?
That’s a really good question and the truth is I think it helps a lot. The difference between a real hip song and something more transcendent is often the lyric. In some ways how it’s all packaged is irrelevant. If it’s a great song you should be able to play it a bunch of different ways and still get people most of the way there as far as what you’re trying to convey. When it’s just you and a guitar I think you learn that quicker.
Take Gotye for instance. Somebody That I Used to Know is an incredible song, the guy is freakishly talented. There’s hooks all over the place and the production is incredible but I’d argue it’s mostly about the lyric and the way the lyric is delivered. It’s pure pathos. It’s awesome. You could have someone sit down with a lute and bust that song out and if they were really good, you’d totally feel it.
So yeah, even though the general song writing process is really different for me as far as the electronic elements go, I can’t really shortcut the lyrics. And why would you want to?



The place one is living in can have a huge impact on one’s creativity. Your hometown is Sydney. How important is this place for you in terms of networking, infrastructure and inspirations?
I suppose I’m fairly isolated in my music making, so in a lot of ways I could do it from just about anywhere. With that said though, Sydney is full of awesome musicians, great music venues – and a good part of the “business” side of the music business is centred here so there are definitely opportunities about that you couldn’t find elsewhere. I did live in Canberra for a few years and as fantastic as the scene was down there things did open up a bit more when I moved back to Sydney.
The Australian music scene really had a boost the last couple of years. Do you have an explanation for this phenomenon?
I have no real explanation for it. I think there’s definitely environments where different types of music seem to really thrive for a time. Like Seattle in the 90s or Iceland … most of the time. I think you get this perfect storm of young people with time to kill and stuff to say and maybe also a culture of collaboration or something. I’m not sure. We do have some great community radio in Australia and I think stations like Triple J, RRR and FBI have really helped give some young bands an awesome leg up.



Let’s get back to your - http://www.bushwah.net


"Thief Urban - Cold"

Australian producer and vocalist PJ Wolf has decided to bring us back to the early 2000's when out-of-this-world production duo “The Neptunes” had their stronghold on the music industry, and had already been credited with the shift into strong electronic sounds that would soon completely engulf the entire music world, and take it over by storm. Vocals that are easy to understand, a pleasure to listen to, and instantly memorable, fused with extraterrestrial sounds that provide youthful escapes into alternate realities have always been a favorite of our last few generations. With Cold you get that instant level of familiarity that sounds just like a Pharell laced feature played over his very own Neptune induced space aged tracks. It’s the traditional funky electro-soul sound that we have heard with them in the past, and that feels just as good, as the lyrics become easily relatable with every listen we give:

You, pretend that you don’t have a choice but you do,
and I don’t know why you choose the way you do,
you tell me somethings wrong, but this is all just the same,
yea its all just the same.
I?,
I never thought to ask the reasons why,
for you to show up and not even try
it hurts because you’r hurting,
and it’s all just the same -
yea it’s all just the same.
How?come?we don’ talk anymore, anymore, anymore
I’m?not?closing doors anymore, anymore, anymore
Why are you so cold?
Why are you so cold?
Why are you so cold?
Why are you so cold?”
We have all been in a relationship that has started off strongly and has gone full steam ahead with no clear signs of stopping anytime soon. At first, it seems that this will be the ultimate love story of our lives; nothing before it has ever felt truly as strong and as powerful. The moments are timeless and meant to be, as you see them take shape from every second to every minute to every hour of the days that pass by. The energy is: ‘indestructible’, as nothing can affect your mood because you have subconsciously allowed nothing else to penetrate your mind. The relationship takes on the form of “invincible” to you, as your wiser friends and family members gear their heart-filled warnings up and project them your way. ‘It doesn’t matter because they’re not the ones living it’, you say to yourself. And then, almost out of nowhere, your other half instantly changes. They become a person that you have never seen. The hourly random text messages filled with love notes turn into only sporadic responses to yours. The phone calls go unanswered and pushed off directly into voicemail as the energy becomes distant and cold just like the relationship begins to. You’re left wondering where it all went wrong, and more importantly?why?

Cold by Thief Urban is that very moment captured in melody, vocal delivery, and lyric. For me the song simply highlights how much of a hopeless romantic I have been throughout the years. Although I can’t seemingly put a finger on exactly which Cold person I can relate the song to, it makes me realize that love is probably the most fun-filled and eventful game I have been a part of my entire life, and although I never like to lose a game, the mere fact that I have an unlimited amount of lives in this one will intriguingly keep me playing.

And love will carry on because it’s all just a game,
yea it’s just a game.” - www.etmusiquepourtous.com


Discography

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Bio

Arriving on the scene mid 2012, Thief Urban's intimate electro pop jams immediately created a stir amongst the international blog community.

With a flurry of interest from a range of tastemakers and record labels, Thief is currently working towards the release of his first single Closer, and followup EP to come mid 2013.