The man with 'the shortest shorts in punk' (his words) introduces himself
Hi, I’m Hyphen.
I’m writing this article in short shorts. My flat is roasting because of June’s record-high temperatures.
When I was 16, I was that annoying guy at a party asking people if they’d read any Noam Chomsky.
That obviously didn’t age well.
But I come from a family of lefty academics.
Champagne socialists is probably the right term.
My mum is a professor of development economics. It’s the study of why poverty exists and what to do about it.
I remember going to Ha-Joon Chang and Jeffrey Sachs lectures in the same year. I was 11.
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So how does that relate to me making angry punk music?
Well… we all feel it don’t we?
Whatever your politics.
It used to be better. That makes a lot of people angry. Me included.
Rather arrogantly, I think I know what went wrong.
For one, we didn’t have a slot machine rotating a 24/7 algorithm of toxic polarising sludge as our main device for texting our mums.
Also, there were fewer manchild pathologically insecure billionaires with the power to shape the world into whatever they wanted it to be.
So that’s why I write songs. It’s an outlet for my anger.
My shows are a space for people who understand how bad things are. Who want to acknowledge the shittiness
of it all but also shake their asses. What the fuck else are we meant to do.
Wildly unsubtle plug – I just had a sell-out UK tour which ended at the iconic Scala in London. It was people up and down the country – all in need of a release, all looking for community.
I want people to feel connected. To create an escape from it all.
I also want people to look in the direction of what’s causing so many of our problems. They travel in yachts, not dinghies.
One of my songs is called Gary’s Economics. I made it with my brother, Australian prodigal son and punk-rap calligrapher MUDRAT (a fellow brown punk).
Then I met Gary.
And now I’m writing this article. Really, it’s quite simple.
My mum spent her life studying inequality.
I rap about what she taught me in short shorts.
I was wearing them before it was cool. Or hot.
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