From The Heart: The Versace Boys, on creativity, farmers’ markets and masculinity.

Will Henderson and Alex 'Coasty' Johnson, also known as The Versace Boys.

If you’ve ever visited the Farmers’ Markets around Byron and stumbled upon a wildly dressed music duo rapping and singing about anything from fruit and veg to fast cars and nails, then most likely you’ve been blessed to witness the iconic Versace Boys.

Will: We met at a Sticky Fingers concert in Berlin, and after that, Coasty came to one of my Hektisch Kunst concerts. We jammed a lot and started writing some music together. When COVID hit, we found ourselves both in Byron Bay, so we teamed up with our friend and producer, Miggy. We ended up recording our first five - track EP in just five days.

“Will and I started having jokes around the name designer music, clothes and flamboyant, Aussie bogan, cross, ironically V boys, VB, Versace Boys, felt like the right decision.”[Coasty]

The Versace Boys lighting up the stage at the Mullum Spring Plant Fair Festival.

While the duo now books a lot of local and national festivals and gigs, you can also often find them regularly playing at the Mullumbimby Farmers’ Markets, bringing some hip hop, soul and jazz vibes to early morning shopping.

Will: Performing at the markets is one of my favourite things. I live in Mullum and go there every week as my kind of community church. Having a beautiful environment for kids and fresh local produce makes it one of my favourite days of the week. The markets are one of the first places we have ever played and we have a super strong support group there. We love having to be a bit more child - friendly with our freestyles as often they can be a bit red hot, it's great to have delineated boundaries that we can tightrope walk on and give all the parents and hippies a giggle.

Coasty: Market gigs are fun – the food, the culture, the community, they support us in many ways. We just love the free stuff and gifts we get. Coffee, bread, meat, fish, veggies, fruit, the audience is loving too. We love market shows.

Will and Alex at the Tree House in Mullumbimby.

Creating much of their songs on the fly either in the park or during gigs, Will and Coasty’s creative process is fun and reactive to what’s happening around them.

Will: Our creative process is a bit unconventional. We often play 3 set shows around the area to keep our weapons sharp (mind, fingers, lips etc.) These shows serve as two hours writing session which we make up things on the spot and one hour of the bangers to win everyone back. Sometimes we would have one - or two - week long writing sessions with Miggy our producer which we just come in without anything and try to write a whole new set of bangers that we can play live and make billions from streaming royalties. Coasty: We would drink tins, casually have an adventure in a park, and come up with stuff acoustically, riffing and laughing, and jamming, until it became a track we’d record. Now we do that in front of audiences.

Choosing their Sienna colours for the interview.

Their new release “Nails” (a favourite of ours, of course) was created in response to a woman painting her nails during one of their market gigs.

“We actually freestyled the “Nails” track at the Byron markets as a lady was doing her nails in front of us and kind of ignoring us. There is so much juicy content to create about nails that we went bananas and the track is about 5 minutes long. It involves the Amazon rain forest, Only Fans, problem gambling, and fake tans.”[Will]

Will chose Sienna pastels, while Alex op ted for brighter colours.

While creative and colourful outfits aren’t that unusual at the Mullum farmers’ markets, Will and Coasty intentionally experimented with their performance outfits to draw the attention of the shopping crowds.

Will: I've always struggled with my fashion identity trying to fit into whatever boxes. When our band came along I guess we took the concepts and ran with it, when you busk (as we did a lot in the beggining) the more fabulous you look the more you stop people. Suddenly our wardrobes are exploding with the weirdest extravagant numbers from the local op shops and we've created our own vision we like to call "trashthetique".

Coasty: It feels good. No pressure. I like new styles and experimenting.

The Versace Boys posing in their recording studio.

As a parent, Will is conscious of the pressures that society puts on people, of any gender, to look or dress a certain way.

Will: My partners fashion sense is even more far out than mine so originally I was on the fence about how we sh ould be clothing our kid, then I looked in the mirror and had a laugh. Growing up with Lesbian mums and having a sister in a Trans relationship has taught me a whole heap about love, acceptance and different expressions of masculinity. Fortunately I feel s ociety has opened up a heap more than when I was growing up so people can be whatever the f@#k they want to be. Whatever makes you happy is the most important thing in regards to gender and masculinity, I'll support and love my son forever with any choice he wants to make in relation to this and have hopes things weren't as feral as they were when I was a kid.

Coasty: Agree, to disagree... But love cannot be found in acceptance by others... it’s in oneself, and owning THAT. I’d want to celebrate my masculine or feminine – to own that. Whatever fuels your deeper mission to help others. And greater good.

The Versace Boys performing at the Mullum Spring Plant Fair Festival.

Having both lived in Europe and now finding themselves in a regional town in Australia, the pair are content to enjoy the slower pace and connect with community on a deeper level than is possible in big cities.

Will: I grew up in Armidale and Bellingen so feel it's pretty normal for country people to get back to the bush. I've Lived in Sydney for 10 years and Berlin for 10 years, we wondered if we would get FOMO after having a kid but went back for a 19 festival tour with the little fella and realised we wouldn't change where we are for anything. Having access to clean air, water, epic crowdless waves and enough shows and recording clients to support our lifestyles here is the absolute dream. Byron provides enough transient fun loving backpackers for us to do plenty of shows that fill our cups, and there are enough millionaires out in the hills that want some designer spices on the regular so we are more than content.

“Both are essential – in cities you can command a lot more with a ticket sales, heavy business investing, marketing, brand deals, more action and on-the-go planning – but if you don’t touch a community deeply in small towns, it’s not enough for a movement to impact." [Coasty]

Check out The Versace Boys on Instagram to find out when their next gig is.