Putting heart and soul into vinyl addiction

Chris Portugal (L) and Michael Turner say they make what they feel at the time.

Ask Chris Portugal how many records he owns and the phone goes silent as his mind boggles. "Thousands," says the man also known as Thes One, "and thousands and thousands."

This might sound par for the course for a DJ, producer and MC who, along with his equally multi-talented partner Michael Turner (Double K), is part of LA hip-hop duo People Under the Stairs.

"You'll see us in the record store buyin' it up," they proclaim on their new album, Stepfather.

But you'd be hard pressed to find anyone with such unconditional love for their vinyl. It wouldn't be surprising if the record fair they visited in Adelaide was arranged specifically for PUTS' arrival. Do they ever sell them?

Silence.

"They're like children," says Portugal, as if the very thought would be to commit a cardinal sin. "You can't."

They're not the only thing PUTS wouldn't sell. Even after more than a decade together, five albums, great reviews and busy touring schedules, most people probably think of the horror flick when they hear the name People Under the Stairs. "But we'd never sell ourselves," Portugal says. "This is our lives. We put our heart into it, and we rap about what's going on in our lives.

"Other groups, they're cool but they've always got some kind of plan, like 'This song is going to be a hit'.

"We don't operate like that. We just make whatever we feel like at the time, and so far it's been good."

There's no career plan because it's "art before business". Which isn't to say the money isn't flowing - their New Zealand gigs will mark the end of a tour that has taken them around 40 states in America and and five cities in Australia.

Yet you won't be hearing anything "loud and shiny" like the stuff that tops the charts. PUTS' music is finely crafted, old-fashioned hip-hop that many still associate with the early 90s.

The only new technology they've embraced is a computer to help them record. The rest of the time they're purists who use samples, old drum machines, and rhymes that recall the cheerful youthfulness of 90s rap: "This girl put a spell on me, I would have married her there, but I smelled like weed."

"We use a little bit of computer work-station stuff but for the most part all the music is still coming right off the drum machines and the samplers," Portugal says.

"We still make music the way we made it eight years ago, 10 years ago, and the way dudes were making it 20 years ago. We like our music to have a little character to it and using the analogue gear gives it a little bit of flavour."

Producing an album the PUTS way might sound romantic - the duo do everything themselves, right down to the legalities of sampling to the artwork - but that can have its downside.

Stepfather took almost two years to produce and Portugal reckons it could have been achieved in less time if they had outsiders on board to help them.

"Maybe there's a little bit of control freak in us but mostly it's a way to ensure that what the fans get came straight from us and that we make the product what we want it to be. "We don't have people trying to sell us as something that we're not. We're pretty much the only dudes, me and Double K who can speak on behalf of the group."

Their desire for autonomy isn't the only reason PUTS do everything themselves.

Their love of P-funk and soul doesn't exactly endear them to the ephemeral nature of mainstream hip-hop. Portugal listens to "nothing but old records". At the moment, it's Parliament and Funkadelic on high-rotate.

"It's tough for people to market us as a group because there's no gimmick in it. You've got two dudes and they never know what we're gonna make from album to album and it's a little bit risky. We're not like super-political dudes and we're not this and we're not that. So people are, like, stay away from those dudes."

Nevertheless, he hopes the new album has a timeless quality.

"A lot of the dudes are obsessed with this so-called golden era of hip-hop of 1992 and 93," he says. "That's cool, but we want to continue to push the envelope and make something a little new.

"We're not doing a throwback type thing, this is not a gimmick, we're just making music that makes us happy and hopefully people dig that."

* People Under the Stairs St James, tomorrow, with support from 4Corners