Music
How Lisi is bringing his “history making” show to life
For one night only, the Goodna rapper will perform alongside a 25-piece orchestra, playing a very different set of songs. Here's what he has planned for Red Bull Symphonic, his most special show yet.
There’s two words Lisi uses to describe his upcoming Red Bull Symphonic show: “history making”.
“I’m doing something new,” he says. “It’s a step out of my comfort zone. And I get to do music that shows you who I am – it shows what I’m about.”
While you might have seen Lisi perform a high-energy festival or solo show before, rattling through hits like Say Less and Fists Up, this show will be a completely different experience. Instead of spitting his bars while a DJ provides the backing music, the Goodna rapper will be performing in front of the 25-piece Queensland Symphony Orchestra, who will be recreating his music live. As he raps about overcoming adversity and repping his postcode, violins, trumpets, cellos and trombones will bring his tunes to life. It will be the Lisi songs you know and love, only with added drama and emotion. And it’s happening for one night only, on June 25, at The Princes Theatre in Brisbane.
“It'll be like Lisi: the film score”
“It'll be like Lisi: the film score,” describes Nicholas Buc, the arranger and conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. “If you’re a fan of his music, it'll be that to the nines. It feels epic in moments and feels sort of intimate and emotional in other spots. And hopefully it feels a bit dancey in moments”.
While performing alongside a symphony orchestra is something new for Lisi, it’s not uncharted territory for rap music. Aussie hip-hop fans might remember Hilltop Hoods Restrung, a remixed version of the rap stalwarts’ classic album The Hard Road featuring the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. It was a huge hit that won an ARIA Award, was certified gold and made it into the top ten of the ARIA Album Charts.
Elsewhere, there’ve been rap and classical crossovers like the Def Jam album that paired rappers with opera singers, the Nas track that samples Beethoven, or he and DJ Premier’s team up with the Berklee Symphony Orchestra. The emotive lyrics of rap and the spine-tingling sounds of an orchestra just go together. It ups the intensity of the music, making it something you can really get lost in.
For Lisi, the chance to perform a set that’s a little more emotional is also licence to show off a different side of his discography. Not only is this show longer than he usually performs for, it will also be full of different material. The big hits will still be part of the setlist, but he’ll also get to play songs he wouldn’t normally perform live – making the Red Bull Symphonic show a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Lisi fans to see him do something different.
“A lot of my sets are really high energy so I don’t do some of my slow, sentimental stuff. But because this is a more intimate show, people actually get to sit down, watch and listen. I get to bring the sentimental stuff out. I get to do more meaningful songs,” he says.
Lisi for Red Bull.
© Tristan Stefan Edouard
That includes songs like Brown Brother, Lisi’s message of solidarity to Polynesian people. He’ll do Til The Death, a storytelling track from his 2021 album Perspective. They’re “the things you wouldn’t hear me play a lot at a live show”, he says.
“They’re the songs that are more for yourself when you’re alone or you’re driving, when you’re just trying to feel the vibe and feel the message. So to have it at the show with the orchestra too, it’ll be a real experience.”
It’s important to Lisi to get the chance to perform these songs because their words and messages are part of who he is as a man and an artist.
“I want people to understand how I think, who I am as a person, and the values that I hold,” he says. “That's pretty much my music when you listen to it. But if you come to watch me at a live set or at a festival, you wouldn't get that. But because this show is very intimate, I get to show that side and I get to show people that I’m not just this crazy energy dude. Like yeah, I can rock a stage, but I can also turn it down a bit for you to understand me and hear what I have to say.”
Another element of the show that Lisi is excited about is the way it reps Polynesian culture. Joining him on stage will be the SELAH Samoan Gospel choir and Samoan drummers – a deliberate choice by Lisi.
“I’m from a small island, Samoa, and I’m very proud of where I’m from. And I thought this was a good opportunity for me to give my culture a platform, to put it out there and let people know that I show it off a bit,” he explains. “To incorporate the choir and the traditional drums, it’s just a little thing on the side for us to show off a bit. We’re proud of who we are.”
He’ll also be bringing out fellow Brisbane rapper Nokz, vocalist Faith Sosense and his own crew Th4 W3st for songs. And with the show happening at the The Princess Theatre in Brisbane, it’s “nice and close” to the suburb of Goodna where he grew up.
For arranger Nicholas Buc, Red Bull Symphonic is a show that’s been a long time in the works. He’s been working for months in the lead up to the show listening to Lisi’s songs and thinking of ways to reinterpret and add to them orchestrally, without making them unrecognisable to fans. He’s excited about what he and the orchestra are pulling together.
The Queensland Symphony Orchestra in full flight.
© Supplied
“All of a sudden, we can open up Lisi’s songs, which have quite a strong storytelling background to them, and heighten any particular moods. There's some songs which are quite dark and cold and we can make them even colder with spooky texture or colours. Others are really big, proud and bombastic. We can heighten that with brass, timpani, and strings.”
While some might see rap and orchestra as unlikely bedfellows, for Buc, it makes perfect sense.
“Rap is musical poetry more than any other music genre, because it is so word based. And so for me, the job is finding the beauty in Lisi’s words and the stories that a particular song is telling. And then translating that into ways that I think can be represented musically.”
Lisi can’t wait for this unique collaboration to be unveiled.
“It’s a big thing because I get to show people who I really am on a personal level,” he says. “You might relate to what I’m saying and you’ll get to know me a lot better. That’s a massive thing for me, because that’s all I want out of music: just for people to know who I am and how I think.”
Red Bull Symphonic happens for one night only on Saturday June 25 at the Princess Theatre in Brisbane. Head here for more info.
