WHEN you think of rap and hip-hop, you don’t usually think think of saxophones and acoustic guitars.

But Basildon outfit Life are out to change that, with a unique blend of soul and hip hop, which they’ll showcase at Southend store DNA Wear this weekend.

Frontman Garth Johnson explains the four-piece met in the studio and developed their individual sounds from there.

He explains: “We stumbled across it really. We did an acoustic night and decided to do something without the backing track, just spoken word over a guitar. It went quite well and from there it’s just grown.

“There’s a lot of hip-hop and rap in different formats, but the way we do it is to break it down to an acoustic level.

“We’re all into different types of music. Our guitarist Chris has an indie background and our sax player George is a bit of a Miles Davis-head. I come from from a hip-hop and producing background.”

Although the band is usually a four-piece with two vocalists, Garth says the line-up changes to adapt to different spaces.

He says: “We change our format for different venues. If we’re doing a club we might go into more of a beats kind of thing, but sometimes it’s nice to break it down and do something more mellow.”

Garth, 38, has been writing and producing hip-hop since he was 16 years old – more recently working with fellow vocalist Jaysin.

The pair first drafted in sax player George Cleghorn to provide some backing on one track.

Then guitarist Chris Last made an appearance in the studio and Garth recruited him as well.

He says the unlikely combination is something he’s wanted to do for a while.

“It’s something I’ve had on my mind for a very long time,” he says. “I love instrumentation and all kinds of music.

“I’d always worked with a lot of session musicians, but I hated it when I went live and it was just a backing track.

“It was never enough for me to just stand up and be myself on the mic, it felt like karaoke.

“But it feels really right when we’re doing it as a band, we get a lot of good comments.”

Life take their name from their songs, which Garth explains are about life, in all its forms.

He says: “We’ve got a song called a Boy Named Cris, which is about a boy living in Essex. He’s a bit of a Jack the lad, he’s got a couple of driving offences, and it’s just his life story.

“We do songs about life, we really do. Our songs are about life, love, drama, that sort of thing.”

Life are playing a special show at DNA Wear tomorrow at 2pm. It’s a store which stocks new and old vinyl, clothing and spray paints, and is based in Warrior Square, Southend.

They’ll play a set alongside DJ Kevbadger.