Duo kicks off album tour

By Bridget Brady
TWO Bunyip boys have merged their musical backgrounds to produce their long-awaited first studio album.
And the result – a sweet sounding fusion of Dylan Smith’s reggae hip-hop and Marcus Ross’s electronic rock.
After about a year in the making, Direct Influence will kick off their album tour in Melbourne tomorrow night.
Ross, 25, said he was excited to gauge the response from the album, War In My Kitchen, which has gained airplay on Triple J and features Dan Sultan in their track For My People.
Ross said an amalgamation of musical interests made Direct Influence who they were.
Smith, 26, is originally from New Zealand, where Ross said a reggae drum and base music scene is taking off.
“Dylan has got me into so much music from New Zealand and it’s a really different scene that is doing well on the global scale,” Ross said.
“He (Smith) was raised by a single mother in one of the roughest parts of Auckland. It comes out in the songs.”
The pair met at high school in Drouin when Smith moved to the area and soon discovered one another’s love of music. Ross had learnt piano since the age of eight and guitar since he was 12, while Smith had no musical training.
“He has never had a singing lesson in his life and has managed to work out every chord on the guitar by ear,” Ross said.
Ross said they wanted to make Direct Influence a full-time pursuit for now.
“We want to push the band as far as we can. We’ve been touring the country since we started and we love touring, It’s what it’s all about.”
Direct Influence will launch War In My Kitchen on 1 April at Miss Libertine in Melbourne before heading to South Australia, New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland, New Zealand and finishing their tour in Western Australia on 23 May.
For more details visit www.directinfluencemusic.com.