‘That's Just Hip-Hop, Right?’: They Hate Change Are Bringing the Ruckus

A Thursday night in Sydney’s CBD is humbled by the vacancy of its streets. Unlike any summer we’ve had before, the late sunsets have made this season feel everlasting. The sky darkens and the remnants of a 36-degree day slowly begin to wash away in the cold breeze. The usual bustle of this concrete jungle is abnormally hushed, but within the prestigious walls of the Sydney arts venue, Phoenix Central Park, chaos is transpiring.

Tampa-based experimental music duo They Hate Change take to the performance space like fuel to a fire. Made up of Vonne and Dre, They Hate Change navigate life with one sole intention: to move with unapologetic intensity. 

Unknowingly, they spent the entire night challenging the expensive, soundproof architecture of Phoenix Central Park. Hellish screams and sharp raps set to the background of drum & bass, Florida jook, breakbeat and jungle-influenced production bounce off the curvatures of the walls.

Hesitant staff members are understandably dumbfounded when they see the duo begin to encourage audience members to spread all over the venue, dance frantically and let loose. Arms are flailing, sweat is gathering and Phoenix Central Park has just been turned into a full-blown moshpit. 

This is all part of the They Hate Change live experience. Reminiscing the night prior, the group told VICE about the politics of owning whatever space you’re in – no matter how big or small.

“That venue that you performed in is very clean cut, very expensive. Not a lot of chaos and mayhem is encouraged there. So how did it feel to…” VICE asked.

“Bring the ruckus?” Vonne responded.

“It was damn cool,” Dre said.

“We're just fully ourselves, always. Whatever the space is, whether it's a DIY space or a big venue, large festival, whether it's a nice clean-cut sort of thing. We need to turn it into our zone for the next however long we're here.”

Vonne and Dre were music fans before they became musicians. Because of this deep love, they vowed to constantly dig into the music scenes that are brewing in the cities they’re able to perform. To my surprise, the first two artists Vonne mentions they know from Sydney are also two of the city's biggest music trailblazers right now.

“This guy Sollyy, he’s sick. And Zion. Zion Garcia,” they said.

“We wanted to get into the studio with them, but we couldn’t because of scheduling.”

From this answer alone, I knew They Hate Change humbly understood the importance of platforming the local music underground.

Coming from Tampa, Florida, where they witnessed the death of multiple creative scenes during the peak of the pandemic, They Hate Change have always felt like they had to show up for themselves in any way they could.

When we meet them on the rooftop of their hotel, we ponder more over live performances, geek over good music and cooking, and get deep over the concept of change.


VICE: Have you always had that mentality of needing to make your presence known?

Vonne: We have to, I mean, that's just hip-hop, right? It's about what you do. When we pop up at a show, we gotta show them who we are and what we do, rather than try to fully give in to somebody else's world. 

The way we arranged the setlist last night, when we saw the way things were, we’d start off with this song or that song, because that's gonna give people an idea of how this is gonna go. But we know when to draw back or when to take breaks.

Yeah, that's good. It would take just a lot of trial and error to reach that point of reading a crowd.

Dre: It does, and we're grateful to be performing in front of a lot of different crowds. Us being music fans as well, where we don't want to come out like, "this is our show and we're gonna play exactly what we want". You have to curate and cater. That's why it was kind of funny seeing people stand up from off of the wall.

I was even observing the crowd and watching people's body language. I feel like a lot of people there probably didn't realise what they were in for, but they left being big fans.

Vonne: I think that's our whole thing. We come from performing in front of crowds that have no idea who we are as a support act and festivals. Our whole thing is about arranging things in a proper way where, if we present it properly, by the end  it won't matter that you didn't know who we were at the beginning. By the end, everyone will have their hands up. We try to map it out in that way. And it's worked out.

Do you feel like you've had to go through a lot of proving yourself in order to reach this point? Have you felt like a lot of it comes down to being misunderstood?

Dre: Yeah, totally. It goes back and forth.

Vonne: I think everybody gets it or can get it, but I don't know if everybody believes it until they see it. And, that's fine.  It's the classic saying of "Seeing is believing". I can't even hate on that. I think everything is a proving ground. Even if we're the only people performing, we still have to prove ourselves.

Do people refer to you as the ones who have paved the way for the Florida music scene? Kind of like OGs?

Vonne: In our city, for sure. I would say we have respect across Florida and the Miami scene, that's also separately bubbling right now. Nick Leon, Johnny From Space, Danny Daze – all those people have a wild amount of respect for us as we do for them. I think together we are all putting on for Florida.

What's something that you'll experience or see in Florida that you won't anywhere else?

Vonne: There's a restaurant called Salem's, it's open until 3 or 4am. After a show, if you want fried shrimp or something, you can get it there. That's a hometown staple.

Dre: Oh, Cubans!

Vonne: We invented the Cuban's sandwich, you can get one elsewhere but it's not the same. What else? Crank music, Jook music.

Dre: [Crank and Jook music is] very much an inner city scene thing.

Vonne: It's really underground. It barely even exists there now, it’s moreso a thing when we were growing up. We always like paying homage to that stuff.

Because you are music nerds who do the research and look into the history of the genres you've adopted, do you feel like that's something that should be standard for artists?

Dre: Because we honestly appreciate music, if it's a standard or not, is fine. But I do think we all should care about the craft at the very least. It definitely helps to have that background and knowledge. Your inspiration has to come from somewhere. If you don't try to dive into that, you're gonna hit a wall at some point.

Vonne: Musicians should at least. It's kind of funny when people talk to us like "oh, how do y'all know about so much music?". It's like, we are musicians. Wasn't this the job?

What's the first album that you fell in love with?

Vonne: “Hybrid Theory” by Linkin Park. I was in fourth grade or something. Do you have fourth grade out here?

We call it Year 4.

Dre: That's tight. That sounds dramatic.

For me, it was “Songs From The Big Chair” by Tears For Fears. I remember hearing “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” on a Coca-Cola commercial, and then I had dived into it and I was like, this album is amazing. The older I get, I'm like, damn man. [imitates crying]

Vonne: Dre has bought that album physically at least like five times.

Dre: Yeah, very much so.

Is there ever a comparison that gets a bit overrated?

Vonne: There is a whole sector of hip hop that exists currently that's very  terminally online, ratchet. We don't make that. Those things also bend genre in a certain way, but we don't exist in that space. I think we're doing a much different thing that's a little less cringe. 

Speaking on your group name, I feel like to a certain degree, a lot of people, including myself, struggle with change. Change can be confronting. How do you accept change and learn to move on?

Dre: Adaptability. Everything can become cumbersome, and I'm not saying roll with the punches, do what you gotta do. Sometimes it's just hard.

Vonne: It can definitely be hard to be swift and changeable. But at the same time, every day, we're on a new Earth, so to speak. We regenerate and rejuvenate everyday – things are changing. So if you are going with the flow, you will be changing as well. You just gotta learn to accept that tomorrow, things might be a little bit different – how are we gonna move from there?

What's something that revitalises you outside of music?

Dre: Being home. Especially being on tour so much.

Vonne: Reading, cooking. We talk about cooking a lot. I think it's a real centering thing for us. It's like work but in a different way. Working on music is a particular sort of work, but this other thing has a different means to a different end.

What's your favourite thing to cook?

Vonne: Right now, heavily on a baking thing. A lot of tarts. Big up Alison Roman.

Dre: When Vonne put me on [to her] I was like, damn, I'm making everything: jam, two cakes. Lovely.

Vonne: Even just roasting a whole chicken. It's so easy but so rewarding. You just get this thing and you're like wow, look at this.

Dre: The crust!

And then to close, what's something that you hope people take away from your music?

Dre: I'd say exploration. We aren't expecting everybody to be as heady as we are. We put so much stuff in our music, to the point where when people do talk to us and they hear a reference in the music, we're thankful.

Vonne: If you're willing to explore, you'll always be on the cutting edge. I think that's definitely something to take away. Being a good fan is what is the beginning of everything. It's the beginning of fulfilment on all levels. We make the music we make because we are big music fans. We're big music listeners first and foremost. And I think any good fan can also be a great artist.

Adele is the Junior Writer & Producer for VICE AU/NZ. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter here.

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