| abstract | - Canberra Dragon started as a trio with MC Mysterious Number 13 on vocals, MC Seeka beatboxing and King James (Kerneels Korst) on drums. The three knew each other from high school. The band gradualy grew to become the 53-peice they are today. The name originated from the groups home town and MC Mysterious Number 13's favourite football team. They cite Australian hip-hop groups The Herd, Hilltop Hoods and Bliss 'n' Eso as their main influences. Canberra Dragon's debut self titled album was released in June 2005. The album itself was recorded predominantly in MC Mysterious Number 13's basement, using money from sucess in several local band competitions to buy equiptment and to fund the distribution of the album. The album itself flopped in the charts, not even landing in the Top 40 Australian Album Charts. In an interview, MC Seeka claimed that despite the low sales of the album, the very fact the album had been produced gave the band enough hope to continue. Canberra Dragon's second album, released in March 2006 introduced the keyboardist Charles Rock (Brodie Goldfinch) to add a bit more melody to the album. In an interview MC Mysterious Number 13 said "We didn't want to go in a metal direction lke so many bands before us by introducing a keyboarder, and I was very against the idea at first. However, after meeting Charles, I thought he would fit in just right and without him I don't think we would have acheived the sucess we have today." Oi 4 Oz also introduced the political side of Canberra Dragon's songs. In an interview with "The Lone Gunman" MC Mysterious Number 13 explained that "Following our touring around Australia to promote our album we saw many things we didn't like. Some of the anger behind these things were certain to leak through in our rhymes". This album also flopped, not making the charts. Before the third album was to be produced, MC Mysterious Number 13 had been looking for local talent around Canberra, which is where he found MC Booknerd and her friend guitarist Makayla Wilson. MC Mysterious Number 13 quickly recruited the two to the group. Shortly after, Canberra Dragon decided to use the profits from it's last album to purchase a farmhouse on the outskirts of Adelaide in a suburb called Waterfall Gully. The group converted the old building into a recording studio as well as a place to live, which is appropriate as they stayed at the studio for two months recording the next album, Now Never Never which was released in April 2006. Keyboardist Charles Rock said " The album showed a new direction for the group.The introduction of myself, Makayla and Booknerd allowed us to change the style of the music in a more instrumental direction, making the tunes just as important as the lyrics." This album also did not do very well, again not charting. The fourth album Insane was a continuation of Canberra Dragon's change in the direction of instrumental music, featuring the talents of trumpeteer Jeremy McKavat, who would later go on to join the group in the opening track "Ahoooooooooooo".This album was the third to be produced in the year, which may have shown that the band was overexerting itself. Insane was released in August 2006. The album was more appreciated by the critics that the other three, but once again failed to chart despite bringing in over half a million dollars. The lead up to the release of the album You And I was approached in a completely different way by the group. Canberra Dragon decided to give updates to their fans online throughout the whole recording process in Waterfall Gully, mostly handled by MC Booknerd and Makayla Wilson. This process clearly worked, as when the album was release in Feburary 2007 the album shot to second place on the Australian Charts.The singles from the album Out Wall, Gin Feeling More and I reached the places of 37th, 22nd and 2nd respectively on the Australian Singles Chart. In the words of MC Booknerd "With this album, we had finally made it." After the runaway success of You And I, Canberra Dragon had the ability to be a bit more wild with their money. Starting with a countrywide tour, Canberra Dragon went on to recruit a new MC (MC Pintsize) in Brisbane and start their own record label for Australian artists called Golden Dragon Tracks. After letting of some steam on a countrywide tour, Canberra Dragon invested in another studio in Wahroonga, Sydney, New South Wales which they called The Home Of The Golden Dragon. The album Sorry About That clearly reflects the move to Sydney, with many more city influences than in their previous albums. Released in October 2007, Sorry About That progressed to 4th on the Australian Charts, with the singles You and Born reaching the respective places of 2nd and 4th in the Australian Singles Chart. After two high charting albums, Canberra Dragon decided to set its views international, namely at Canada. The album Breathin' Fire is noticeably influenced by Kevin Rudd's public apology to the stolen generation, especially MC Pintsize, whose mother was a part of the stolen generation. The album also lacks MC Mysterious Number 13, who was in Golden Dragon Tracks Waterfall Gully studion, working on his solo project. The album does however include the trupeteers Jeremy McKavat, Nick Abboud and Hudon Bonney, all of whom were made full time members of the band. Breathin' Fire was released in March 2008 andreached the peak position of number 1 on the Australian Charts as well as 7 on the Canadian Charts. The singles Down There, Medium Creation and I Could See all managed to reach a peak position of 1 on the Australian Charts, with I Could See also managing to take 33rd position on the Canadian Singles Charts, Following their Canadian success, Canberra Dragon embarked on a risky new plan with their new album. Jeremy McKavat explains that "Canberra Dragon got together after their album hit 7 in Canada and said " We really need to make the most of this opportunity. Not many people outside of the USA can get an album full of local political references into the charts of another country". So we invested in a studio and some apartments in Vancouver and started on our plan: To release an album of Australian politcs in Canada and only Canada. We said goodbye to Australia for a while." The studio was located in the suburb of Gastown and was christened The Winter Palace as the group had to stay there through a patch of winter. In November 2008 Climbing The Ladder was released to the Canadian public, dominating the charts, quickly taking the top position. The experiment had been a success. During a Canadian tour following the release, the band found a vocalist called Zhen Seekamp who was glad to work with such a talented crowd of people. Hazzah was how Canberra Dragon cut it's teeth in the world music scene after taking down Canada. This is often called the best album by Canberra Dragon fans, truly capturing the vibe of Canberra Dragon. The album flopped worldwide, when it was released in January 2009, only making the Australian Charts and peaking at position 36. For the album the band decided to go back to The Winter Palace for the majority of the album, but with the aim of releasing worldwinde from there. The album was put together easily, with the songs "almost writing themselves". When the album Broken sleep was released in August 2009 it performed less than well on the charts, only appearing in the lower halves of the Australian, Canadian and American Top 40 charts.
|
