Church & AP Drop Debut Album 'Teeth' + Interview

Church & AP fans have been champing at the bit for their hugely anticipated debut album Teeth which is out today. The Tāmaki Makaurau hip hop duo unleashed a string of red hot releases over 2019 in the lead up to the album drop, racking up hundreds of thousands of streams and clocking student radio charts. Elijah Manu (Church) kindly took the time to answer a few questions from us, spelling out some of the ideas behind Teeth, and where he and Albert Purcell (AP) found their support as budding musicians. Press play on their epic first collection, and get the scoop below...

UPDATE 19/12/19: Church & AP are playing a double headline event with Eno X Dirty this summer at Leigh Sawmill...

Eno X Dirty + Church and AP
Thursday 9th January - Leigh Sawmill Cafe, Leigh, Auckland
Tickets available HERE via UTR

Annabel Kean: A lot of your new songs have a certain unsettling / spooky sound to them, not to mention the horror movie references in the 'Roulette' music video. Where did that come from? Was it a creative choice you made early on?

Church: This album was inspired by house and industrial music in many aspects. So that’s where a lot of that distorted sound comes. As for the ‘Roulette’ clip, that’s just us being fans of cinema and wanting to showcase that a bit more. But yeah the grittiness that TEETH has was definitely a conscious choice from the jump.

Can you tell me about the ending of 'Moneytalk'? It kind of turns into a club song, and then a mini-skit at the end. How did that track come together?

'Moneytalk' was a track inspired by artists like Daft Punk and Channel Tres. We really had no direction for a long time. We spent hours trying to make something work and it wasn’t until after a whole day of being unproductive that we came up with the concept for the track. The outro though just came from me (Church) wanting something similar to a Jersey Club song or Big Freedia. There’s always a dope energy to her tracks in particular that I wanted to try and imitate. It ended up cool but I know in future it’ll be even cooler.

Who has been a mentor to you?

Iron Will. He used to run to the community centres out in Mt Roskill and Te Atatu where we got our start. He just helped guide us to where we are now from a real young age. Just a positive influence like that can affect your whole life.

Did your high school support your interest in music, or was it just through the programme at the Te Atatu community centre that you found guidance?

We had no support from our school so yeah the community was all we ever had.

I saw something on Twitter recently about rappers being secret theatre kids... Any comment?

I was a drama kid all throughout school. Shakespeare and alladat.

Do you take into account what will make it onto mainstream radio when you make your music?

Of course, as I think every artist does. We categorically go through our music and figure out what can work for them and what won’t. TEETH doesn’t fit on radio but that’s by design. No doubt we have something prepared for them though.

Before your music careers took off, did you have plans for tertiary education after high school? Or are either of you still keen to study more?

I wanted to either make film or get into journalism. I started a communications degree this year before I had to drop out for this. Honestly I think I’ll still do both later in life.

Please name five Aotearoa-based musicians / bands you've been listening to lately.

The Beths
Miss June
Maxwell Young
Yuki
KOME