Violetta Del Conte-Race and Xanthe Waite of Melbourne band Primo! gave us an insight into new LP Sogni. This record feels fresh and finds Primo! building on their post-punk sensibilities, experimenting more – the record features saxophone, violin and sound created by dry beans being poured in a bowl. Listening to a Primo! album is like having a conversation with your best friend, you walk away feeling like you can face anything and that you’ve totally got this! Life’s a bunch of choices, make the right decision and buy this record.
Something I’ve always really loved in Primo’s music is the clean guitar; what inspired you towards this sound?
VIO: We enjoy experimenting with different guitar sounds including distortion, pitch shift and chorus, but the clean guitar is great because it contrasts with those harsher or stranger guitar sounds and provides a grounding for the song, particularly a clean rhythm guitar.
What got you writing for your new record Sogni?
XANTHE: We had a burst of writing over the summer of 2018/19… from memory we kind of set a challenge to try and come up with some new songs because we had been tinkering away for a while without having anything particularly concrete. Most of the songs are really of a time for this reason. There were a lot of changes going on for all of us – break ups, moving homes, starting new jobs and other life decisions. We focused on the theme of decision making as a starting point for the songs … like how do people make decisions and why, acknowledging that there is not always a choice and external factors force change as well. Not all of the demos made it onto the album and it’s a loose theme but that is what got us writing.
Sogni is an Italian word and translates to “dreams”; where did the album’s title come from?
VIO: I was researching Italian words, looking up what certain English words translate to and the idea of dreams came up because of our song ‘Reverie’. When I saw the word ‘sogni’ I liked it because it also kind of looked like the word ‘song’ and I thought dreams really related to a lot of the themes on the record like decision making and matters of the heart because they are things you imagine, dream of or hope for.
This record was collectively written during rehearsals and developed further in a live setting; is there a particular song on the record that took an unexpected turn during that process from where it began that you can tell us about?
VIO: The song ‘Rolling Stone’ took a bit of an unexpected turn during recording. Towards the end of the song we hadn’t quite finalised what we would do, so Amy added the layers of saxophone and I think it really takes the song to a different place than where it starts. Love Amy’s saxophone playing!
The vocal harmonies in Primo are always so frickin’ cool; how do you approach harmonising in your songs?
VIO: We all really like singing together and have a lot of fun trying out different harmonies or ideas for vocals. Often we sing the same thing in unison with slight differences but on this record we tried to work out harmonies in a bit more of a concrete way, which the recording process helped with as we could listen back to things to hear what worked.
What’s your favourite song on Sogni; can you tell us a little bit about it please?
XANTHE: I think ‘Comedy Show’ and ‘1000 Words’ are two of my faves, I like how they turned out. I like the composition of these songs especially the way the saxophone, keys/synths weave into Primo!’s normal instrumentation.
Photos courtesy of Primo! Insta.
The final track on your album “Reverie” feels really intimate; what did you tap into to create that mood?
VIO: ‘Reverie’ does have a different mood than our other songs, I think we tapped into the moment of all being there together. From memory, it was the last song we recorded on the day, and I don’t think we had rehearsed it prior to the recording, it was just an idea I had demoed at home. We worked out our approach to playing it while we were in the studio, sitting around in a circle. Later on I added some keys and Xanthe overdubbed some beautiful violin.
One of the themes that are broached on the record is practicalities of work and daily life; how do you balance your creative life verses the daily grind?
XANTHE: I find the tension of being busy with work and stuff is weirdly conducive to being productive creatively. If I’m working hard at a job or study I tend to value the free time I have more when and know what I want to do with it, which is usually to play, write or record music. Having said that I’ve never really done it any other way. It would be interesting to have a full year of just working on music without doing another thing such as work or study. Maybe we would write five albums or maybe we would struggle to write one… We may never know!
What’s one of your biggest challenges in regards to your creativity?
XANTHE: I’m really missing being able to play music with Vi, Suz and Amy in person. I am also doing a law degree at the moment which puts a bit more pressure on the balance I talked about in the question above, it’s a lot of work but I’m loving it and have music plans for the next Uni holiday… looking forward to that.
The world is in such a weird and uncertain place right now, it could be easy to feel a little down with everything that’s going on, isolation etc.; what’s something that never fails in cheering you up?
VIO: Going for a walk and seeing nature, even something growing in someone’s garden, really cheers me up.
Sachet play dreamy indie guitar-pop. Their new album Nets is charming and spry with a little quirk and melody and harmony in spades. We caught up with Sachet’s Lani Crooks to explore the LP.
Where did you grow up? How did you discover music?
LANI CROOKS: I grew up in Sydney between Petersham, Marrickville, Surry Hills and Newtown. I was honestly pretty similar to how I am now. Not sure how much I’ve really developed! I was into English and acting. I had a nice group of friends, which was easy at the school I went to, but I guess I marched to the beat of my own drum. Music-wise, I shared some interests with my mum and step-dad who like lots of alt-country and some indie-pop and classic stuff. I properly got into music on my own when I was about thirteen and bought some pirated CDs in Vietnam that were all scratched and skipped in a million places, including that Beatles Numbers 1 Hits comp. After that I’d read a lot of forums and Pitchfork and stuff and buy lots of CDs. I loved Elliott Smith and spent every afternoon on that forum. I first picked up a guitar at probably sixteen but was very bad at it and stayed that way for many years.
How did Sachet first get together? What did you bond over?
LC: My partner Sam [Wilkinson] and I have played in several bands together over the last decade. After our old band Day Ravies folded we started other bands and one of those was Sachet, with our friend Nick Webb. We were a three-piece for the first album. A year or two earlier I’d seen Nick playing in another band at a house show and thought to myself, “He’s a sick melodic guitar player. I’m going to play in a band with him one day.” He was just an acquaintance from the music scene when we started but now we’re really close. After the first album we got a new drummer, my friend Chris, and became a four-piece. Chris plays on Nets but he left a while back and now we have Kate Wilson. Kate and Nick are two of the best people on the planet. We bond over lots of stuff. Food, booze, Brighton-le-Sands beach, bitching about posers in the Australian music scene, that sort of thing. The important stuff.
What influences your sound?
LC: I basically like lots of kinds of non-mainstream pop. Rather than a particular band or sound, melody is absolutely my driving force when writing songs. I start by trying to cement the best vocal melodies around the best changes that possibly I can. Once the lyrics are done I try to squish in some melodic guitar parts and once I’ve taken a song to the band, Nick fits in his really cool melodic parts as well and Sam does a crazy amount of melody on the bass. The first album didn’t have bass at all and now I feel like Sam’s playing is a big part of our sound. We all like pretty similar music and all worship the fuzz pedal but I definitely have that real verse-chorus-bridge pop focus. A few bands I love are The Nerves, Guided by Voices, Built to Spill, Sneaky Feelings. I’m not great with stuff from the last couple of decades but I do like Cate le Bon a fair bit and I think that’s starting to show in my newest songs. And there are a few Australian guitar bands from the last few years that have really inspired me, especially The Stevens, Possible Humans and Treehouse.
Recently Sachet released LP Nets; what’s the album about?
LC: I’d love to write a concept album one day so I can definitely say “this is about xyz”. To be honest, Nets is basically like everything I’ve done before in that it’s just a collection of songs that I hope hangs together. But I am pretty happy with this collection! It has songs based on things I’ve felt, things I’ve read, lots of anecdotes I’ve heard where I take just kind of the emotional element of the story and exaggerate that and obfuscate and add details so the listener would probably have no idea what I’m on about, and often I don’t even know. I like the lyrics to sound kind of emotionally weighty but flippant at the same time.
What were your artistic goals when making Nets?
LC: The first album was recorded not long after forming and we were just a three-piece and it was my first time playing guitar in a band. So I think it was a little more basic and maybe had a few more garage-y sound-y songs. This time I had more time to practise guitar and felt more free to write whatever kind of song I wanted, and we had bass. So I think it’s a bit more developed and fuller-sounding, with certain songs being much more complicated in terms of structure and arrangement. My goal is always just to improve upon what’s come before, write a song that’s better than the last, etc.
You made a fun clip for the album’s first single “Arncliffe Babylon”; can you tell us a bit about the shoot? What can you tell us about guest star, Tuco?
LC: We have been pretty slack in the film clip department so far. There is just one other clip I made, using archival footage, for the track “Kaleidoscope Museum”. I knew we should do one but it’s not my department, so I kind of nervously pitched the dumb non-idea: “Are you cool if we get a hold of a dog and I walk it around Arncliffe wearing this vintage marching band outfit?” No one had any better ideas so that’s what we did. We couldn’t get a camera so we used phones, which I think turned out okay. The shoot was a few hours on a hungover Sunday about a month before the quarantine stuff. We were lucky. The dog Tuco belongs to my friend Joe. Joe was there just out of shot so Tuco kept whining and trying to reach him. It was great.
We love the album art image; who’s behind that? What feeling did you want the cover to evoke?
LC: Thanks. I’m hoping it looks good on the LPs when the package finally get to Australia, ‘cos that’s what it’s really designed for. It’s a photo of shark nets at Brighton-le-Sands. It’s a double exposure I took with 120 film in a plastic camera. I suppose it has a Loveless vibe and makes it look like a shoegaze album, which it’s not. So what feeling did I want it to evoke? I don’t know, that’s a good question. But the album is called Nets and they’re shark nets and, y’know…yeah.
What’s your favourite song on the LP? What’s the story behind it?
LC: To my mind the best-written songs are “Kaleidoscope Museum” and “Arncliffe Babylon”. I really like the bridges in both. I’m all about the weird key-changey bridge. “Kaleidoscope Museum” does have a little story. It’s about when I was walking alone through Kyoto and found myself in a back street at a kaleidoscope museum. They were closing in five minutes but they let me in and I had to have a very quick dash through and check out all of these super-fragile kaleidosocpes, some of which you could touch and look through and some of which you couldn’t. I felt nervous and clumsy but also privileged and awestruck. I imagined myself breaking them and being the museum’s worst enemy.
What was the process of recording Nets?
LC: Like the first album, it was recorded on four-track, except for vocals and a few overdubs. We just like that warm analogue sound and the no-fuss method. It was engineered by our good friend and neighbour Toby Baldwin, Sydney soundie extraordinaire. He was set up in our garage, talking to us through an amp, and we were above him spread out in different rooms of the house, playing live. He brought his skills in recording and also telling us plainly which takes were shit and which ones were usable. After we’d bounced it from tape I spent a lot of time on my own recording vocals and harmonies, and mixing those in. You probably can’t tell but there are a lot of vocal tracks.
Your record was recorded in 2017-2018; how do you feel the band grown since this album was made?
LC: It’s very common in the music world for things to take a long time but I won’t lie, it does feel like a long time! I have almost another album written now and our live set has a lot of new songs. The drums are sounding really awesome and different now, with Kate bringing a really ’60s vibe to a lot of the new songs. I think Nets was more developed than the first album and the next one will be more developed again. The newest songs have a lot of sections in them some really prog-y bits. They’re kind of a headache to play but we’ll work it out. Sadly, quarantine means we can’t jam right now. It’s a bloody shame.
Are you working on anything new?
LC: Yes. But I like to have nice breaks from songwriting because the process gives me brain strain. Just as long as there’s a good pile of songs for the band to always be working on and we don’t run out.
What do you do outside of music?
LC: I’m an ESL teacher, Nick is a music label manager, Sam repairs coffee machines and builds fuzz pedals and lots of other things, and Kate is a science writer. Sam has his own bands Shrapnel and Uncle Pit. I also play in Shrapnel. And Kate plays in two other bands currently, The Holy Soul and Majestic Horses. We keep busy!
Melbourne’s Program play catchy as fuck power pop. The songs off their debut album Show Me get stuck in your head, so much so that later in your day after listening to them you’ll find yourself humming the melodies to yourself. We spoke to Program co-founder Jonno Ross-Brewin.
Program released their debut album Show Me in October last year; have you been working on anything new?
JR-B: Rory [Heane] and I have been working on stuff for quite a while now. We’re constantly working on stuff. We’re working on the next album, we’re in the early stages.
How long were you working on Show Me for? It took a while, right?
JR-B: It was because it was the first record for the band, we didn’t really mess around with demos or anything. You could say Rory and I were writing songs for a couple of years before it came out. We were in another band before this one for years, we were kind of a mathy-punk-emo-jam band. For a couple of years we started playing guitar, because neither of us played guitar that much. It probably took a year from when we formed the group.
What inspired you towards the sound you have now?
JR-B: How we were feeling about everything. I used to write much more angsty stuff when I was younger because that’s how I felt. Now that I’m older – I’m not sure if it comes across in the music though – there’s a resignation and acceptance and maybe even a slight comedy about stuff. I’m seeing things in a lighter way, I’m being a bit lighter about things. I still feel the same ways I did then but, I’m just better at dealing with stuff. I know what is useful and what to act on and what you can’t really change.
Lyrically Show Me is quite personal.
JR-B: Especially for me. The tracks that I wrote were pretty personal. There’s definitely a mix in writing but the ones that I sung on were ‘Tailwind Blues’, ‘Program’, ‘Unexpected Plans’ and ‘They Know’.
Was there anything in particular that you were going through in your life when you wrote them?
JR-B: Yeah. ‘Unexpected Plans’ and ‘Tailwind Blues’ are basically based on a failed romantic endeavour, where I flew over to the USA for somebody.
Awww man, that sucks, I’m sorry. Why did you decide to kick the record off with ‘Another Day’?
JR-B: That’s what we’re feeling at the moment, there’s elements of repetition and boredom of our lives, that kind of stuff.
I noticed the album has really bright sounding jangly guitars all over it.
JR-B: A lot of that is just from the guitar that I started learning to play guitar on, it’s an old Japanese Fender imitation thing. The stuff that we’ve been writing is definitely inspired by Big Star and more poppy kind of stuff like The Kinks, a lot of Replacements—a lot of heartfelt power pop.
What did you listen to growing up?
JR-B: Neither of us really came from musical families at all. Our parents are the kind of people that would just listen to The Eagles or Bob Marley. When we were kids Rory and I listened to a lot of stuff that I’m probably a bit too embarrassed to mention [laughs]. I was a massive Red Hot Chilli Peppers fan when I was a kid, and that’s what got me into music. Later on there was stuff like The Strokes, stuff like that has massively influenced us.
I’ve seen Red Hot Chilli Peppers live five times and every time they’ve totally sucked. I was so disappointed, because growing up I’d listen to them too.
JR-B: Yeah, I feel exactly the same way too. I only saw them once, when I was eighteen, and that was the last time I listened to them in a non-ironic haha sort of way. They came out for album Stadium Arcadium when they were well after their prime, I was very disappointed. I thought that I was watching little robot ants from a distance.
Pretty much everyone I talk to that’s seen them says they are boring live. You hear them recorded, see their videos and live footage of them overseas and I think, they might be great to see live, then you do and it’s boring! I actually fell asleep at one of their shows.
JR-B: Where was it?
At an Entertainment Centre like a big arena.
JR-B: That’s probably why, because the place was too big. I don’t really rate big venues. All my favourite moments of live music have always been pretty intimate, in bars and smaller settings… except The Pixies, they’re always amazing no matter where they are. I saw them at Golden Plains recently and I saw them ten years ago at Festival Hall, both times amazing!
What’s been one of your favourite musical moments in an intimate setting?
JR-B: Probably my favourite band, who we’re all mates with too, is Possible Humans—I LOVE seeing those guys. We played their launch at The Tote. Every time I see them I love it. They’re really lovely dudes, amazingly lovely dudes!
You and Rory started Program around 2016 but have known each other since the first week of primary school…
JR-B: Yeah, since we were five!
That’s pretty amazing to have a friendship for that long.
JR-B: It’s wild! We live together as well. It helps us make music, we understand what each other wants.
Can you tell us a little bit about the recording of Show Me?
JR-B: We recorded most of it live except the vocals and a few overdubs. We did that in a day down in Geelong, in Billy [Gardner]’s warehouse. Billy from Anti Fade has this little rehearsal studio down in these old army barracks in Geelong. We drove down to Geelong for the day.
What made you want to do it live?
JR-B: We just heard his Civic recordings and we thought that sounded amazing! I’m pretty sure they did most of it live as well, so we were really happy for him to do it. There wasn’t too much thought actually, we were like, let’s just do this! We weren’t even sure about it all to be honest until we heard it.
We would have officially formed the band in 2018, Rory and I had songs we were doing but we hadn’t officially got anyone together. We were probably just jamming for about a year because we didn’t even know what we were going to sound like and it took a while. We started playing a few shows, mainly house parties. Not long after that Rory bumped into Billy at a party and Billy said “I’d like to record you guys”. We were lucky. When Billy was mixing it, he got an idea of it and just asked if he could put it out. He seemed to really like it. Things just really worked out.
I love that there’s so much melody on the album.
JR-B: There’s a lot of that. We’re all about jamming in as many riffs and melody as possible.
What was the thought behind the album art?
JR-B: The idea was Rory’s but it was a group effort. We went through a lot of ideas of me trying to draw up stuff and it was getting close to the release date and Rory was like “What about kids playing Four Square?” I found a cool image of it and the album is called Show Me and the vibe is the idea of having a young view of the world, not knowing what to do. I did the little squiggly bits then our bassist James Kane came in – he does a lot of posters and stuff so he’s really good on the design perspective – we put it together. I did the drawings and James put it together on Photoshop and did the font.
It sounds like everything just happens really organically for you guys?
JR-B: Yeah, I think it’s because we’re all really old friends. Jessie [Fernandez] and the two James’ we’ve all known each other for ten years. It was all very low-key, let’s just get these dudes because we like them. Jessie saw our first show and told us she’d been playing keys and asked if she could play keys for us, and after six months we said, let’s do it! She’s not on the album because we recorded it before she joined. Hopefully keys are going to be really prominent on the next recording.
What kind of direction are you headed in now sound-wise?
JR-B: With the songs we’ve done we’ve set it up so there’s kind of different genres in each song – some songs are more punky, others are more poppy, some are even folky – I think we’re going to still run with that for a bit. We’ll keep doing this until it sounds shit and then we’ll probably try something else.
What’s the part of songwriting you find challenging?
JR-B: I find the details challenging [laughs]. I’m better at coming up with chords and a vocal melody. Rory is a much better musician than I am, he’s really good at all the technical stuff and riffs.
My lyrics are very direct and personal. I don’t like them to be too overthought. I like them being accessible and easy to hear but upon more analysis they mean more. I try to do that, I don’t know if that actually happens though [laughs].
I really like the track ‘Memory’ on the record I think it’s a good blend of Rory and I as writers. There’s not much effort put into it but I really like the result, it sees effortless.
Do you edit yourself much?
JR-B: Definitely. Usually I’ll write on my phone and then go over it and fine tune it over a period of months. It never ends up being anywhere near what I initially write. I always reduce it to all that’s needed. We definitely spend a lot of time on the tracks.
Who are the songwriters you admire?
JR-B: My gods are David Bowie and Neil Young. I like how epic Bowie is and how heartfelt Young is. There’s a lot I like though. Maybe Ray Davies as well, I like his tongue-in-cheek and catchiness.
What’s been influencing the songs you’ve been writing lately?
JR-B: The same everyday stuff and personal things.
What do you do outside of music?
JR-B: I work full-time as an Operating Theatre Technician. I set up for surgery. Most of my music just takes up everything around that.
What an interesting job.
JR-B: It is at the start. I work in a smallish hospital with the same surgeons, so you get to know each surgeon and what they’re like then it becomes pretty repetitive and dull. But in some ways it’s good because I’ll be sitting there and in my head can be coming up with lyrics. Rory does the same thing, we both work in the same place.
Wow! You guys are so linked.
JR-B: Yep, that’s it!
It’s pretty special to share so many things in life with someone.
JR-B: I think at the end of all this isolation period there’s going to be so many people coming out with stuff. Rory and I are working on demos. We’re just trying to make good songs, nice songs. We’re on to the next one and excited about that!
Melbourne band The UV Race bring a lot of fun and joy to people’s lives with their humorous, clever, raw punk rock. Vocalist Marcus Rechsteiner is a sweetheart and as genuine as they come. We chatted with him on the one year anniversary of their LP Made In China (out on Aarght! Records).
How’s your day been?
MARCUS RECHSTEINER: Good. I’ve been at work.
What do you do for work?
MR: I work with people with disabilities.
Nice. How did you get into that line of work?
MR: A long time ago I started volunteering.
What inspired you to do that?
MR: Because I had no work [laughs]. I had a family friend that was teaching music at a disability organisation in Warragul where I grew up. I volunteered. She ran music classes and was paid, I just volunteered. Then I started volunteering at the local pool helping people go swimming and then the organisation that used the pool, I started working for them.
So now you get paid!
MR: Yeah [laughs]. It’s really good.
How have you been going with everything that’s happening right now in the world with the lockdowns and isolation?
MR: I’m getting used to it. I was looking forward to some things that can’t happen now but health is more important. I was going to go see Eddy Current [Suppression Ring] and I was going to go to Jerkfest; hopefully they can happen at a later date.
Is there anything that you do when you’re feeling stressed or down or overwhelmed to cheer yourself up?
MR: [Laughs] Not really, I just talk to friends or watch TV. I live by myself so it’s nice having my own space.
What have you been watching lately?
MR: I don’t have any internet so it’s just free-to-air TV. I usually just watch 7Mate or Channel 9 has their own version of 7Mate. I like car shows and American Pickers.
Recently, you came back to Instagram after a break; what made you take a break in the first place?
MR: I had it around 2011 and there was a lot of sepia-toned photos at the time and people going crazy on the filters and felt it was a bit misleading. People would take photos of that day and then putting the sepia-tone on it so it looked like the photo was thirty years old! It really annoyed me but apparently that was just a craze at the time and only lasted a few months and then went on to something else. It really annoyed me at the time though so I got off it. I felt all the filters are misleading, like Photoshopping photos, which some people love; I don’t like it.
With all this staying at home and no gigs one of my bandmates in Luxury asked me to get it so we can do a live performance, which hasn’t happened yet. I mainly got it to do performances on it. [You can follow Marcus here].
Is having connection with people a reason you like being in a band?
MR: It’s a great way to meet people, yeah. I got friends all over the world and that’s through music. It’s a really good icebreaker, you play a gig and then people come up and talk to you after, whereas if I just went into a bar or a gig without playing,= I find it a lot harder to connect with people. It’s a great way to get to know people. Most of my friends are in Melbourne that I met from music.
How did you first start singing?
MR: [Laughs] Well I can’t play any instruments so that was the only option I had really. Al [Montfort] and I went to high school together, we grew up together and have known each other for about twenty years. We were in the same class in Year 7 to Year 12, we started high school together in 1999. He was always into music, he was into pop punk music and I got into it as well. He started playing in Straightjacket Nation when he was 17. We had always talked about being in a band together but it didn’t really happen until 2007.
Is there an instrument you wish you could play?
MR: A guitar is pretty cool [laughs]. Doing a mad solo would be pretty fun! There’s not really something I wish I could play. If you have an instrument and sing it’s hard and when I sing I like to put a lot into dancing and interaction—I feel that’s my instrument. It also always lets my bandmates focus on their thing while I’m doing my thing out the front. It works out well. I’ve just been trying to learn how to play a washboard. Jake Ausmuteants-and-lots-of-other-bands gave it to me a couple of weeks ago! I’m planning on doing a country band with a friend of mine so I’ve been practising the washboard, it keeps me entertained.
That’s awesome! I remember when I was a little kid and I’d go visit my grandma and she had a washboard in her laundry room that she actually used to wash clothes with like in olden times!
MR: [Laughs]. That’s awesome!
Before UV Race how did you express yourself creatively?
MR: I probably didn’t. I didn’t realise how important it was until I joined the band and I really enjoyed it. If we haven’t played for a month or two, I’d be really keen to get on stage and express myself, it’s a good release. I don’t think I would have ever been in a band if it wasn’t for being friends with Al. None of my family are really into music. Our friendship has really brought that out for me.
Awww that’s so lovely. Do you ever feel nervous before you play?
MR: I just get excited now! When I first started I was pretty nervous. At our third show we had James [Vinciguerra] from Total Control drumming ‘cause Dan [Stewart] was bringing out bands and doing stuff with another band at the time. When James drummed for us he was drumming faster than Dan usually would, I was shaking my head not very happy, and people in the crowd said they were having a great time and loved it but they could tell I wasn’t into it because I kept shaking my head. I was like, ah, ok, I have to hide my emotions a little bit more. Even if I’m not feeling the best I try not to let on because I’ve had experience where I’ve watched other bands and you can see someone is in a down mood and you’re enjoying the music but they’re bringing you down. Most of the time I’m having a good time anyway.
Do you ever find it hard to hide your emotions? You seem like a real honest, wear your heart-on-your-sleeve kind of guy.
MR: I am! I try channelling what I’m feeling into the performance and get it out on stage. When I first started… I don’t want to say I went over the top but, I guess I didn’t really know what I was feeling at the time; now that I’m a bit older I can actually recognise my emotions and be a bit more in check with them.
So maybe you’ll do more dancing on stage to get things out?
MR: Yeah! Or sing a bit harder [laughs].
I’ve heard you have a good memory; do you remember what happened one year ago today?
MR: Hmmm….. [laughs] no.
You released your Made In China LP!
MR: Nah, I didn’t remember, that’s crazy! I didn’t even realise that. That record had been recorded three or four years before that. When it finally came out I kind of felt disconnected from it. Not in a bad way though, it was just strange that it was finally out. We’ve slowed down a bit though with bandmates having babies and us all being in our thirties now. It’s crazy it’s been one year since it came out!
What do you remember from recording it?
MR: Not a whole heap [laughs]. We had a few people we did the recording with, we recorded it with a guy called Texas Tom and then Mikey [Young] did some stuff and Al. I don’t particularly like recording that much, I find it a bit hard. I don’t really focus that much, like my memory doesn’t focus that much.
You like playing live better?
MR: Oh much more! Yes! I find it a lot easier when people are in front of me and I’m on a stage. When it’s just me and I have to nail every word in the right spot, I just don’t really enjoy it that much.
Is there any songs on the album that are significant for you?
MR: ‘Belfast Belle’ [‘Irish Girl’] that was about my girlfriend at the time, we’re not together anymore. It’s the first and only proper love song that I’ve done in The UV Race.
I really like the song ‘Fairly Free’ that’s one of my favourite songs. Al and I wrote that together. It’s kind of about having a good time, you always know that it’s either going to end or you’re still constrained by society’s perception of things and how you really need to act; you could be getting a bit loose but you know there could be consequences down the track. It’s basically about how no one can ever truly be free, that doesn’t really exist.
What’s the song ‘Why Die’ about?
MR: I actually forget that song [laughs]. A few people have mentioned that song to me and I try to place it but I totally lose it. I think I know it, I actually really struggle with that one.
What’s your favourite songs to play live?
MR: I really like ‘Raw Balls’! I like ‘I’m A Pig’ too and ‘Burn That Cat’. I like our songs with lots of energy.
I haven’t got to see you play live yet but from what I’ve heard and seen in videos online, UV Race shows can get pretty wild and people come to shows wanting to see you go crazy; do you always give them what they want or sometimes want to do something else?
MR: Usually, it depends on how hot the room is. If it’s really hot I just take my clothes off [laughs]. Sometimes it’s hard though because if you’ve done something in the past people expect that. It also depends on how the crowd are, if they get into it, I get into it more. I find that when we play places outside of Melbourne like say in Brisbane, people get a little crazier there because they don’t have as many opportunities. Even in Sydney people get into it more. I feel like Melbourne is a little spoilt sometimes, because of how many bands and venues there are.
So getting naked on stage is a comfort thing ‘cause a room is too hot?
MR: [Laughs] Sometimes. Sometimes it’s an attention thing too.
You wear some pretty cool costumes too?
MR: I haven’t worn too many lately though, I haven’t been that organised. I used to have friends that would make me some. I want to get back into wearing them. Last year we had a spy themed gig, but I couldn’t find any spy outfits. I wanted to be Austin Powers but I couldn’t find any outfits big enough for me so I ended up going as the wrestler Macho Man Randy Savage! Everyone was wearing berets and trenchcoats and I’m in this jacket with crazy threads on it and wearing a cowboy hat—that was fun!
All photos courtesy of The UV Race Facebook.
Who are the musicians you admire?
MR: I really like Dee Dee Ramone because he was the coolest Ramone, he was the cheeky one. I like the brats! I like Ol’ Dirty Bastard, I feel he’s the best of the Wu-Tang Clan, he makes sense but he doesn’t make any sense [laughs]. We he raps he kind of makes sense but it doesn’t, he does it really well. I don’t have many others.
Do you have a favourite UV Race-related story?
MR: Ummm… there’s one I can tell you but you probably shouldn’t put it in the interview [laughs]. I love it but it’s a little bit wrong, I’ll tell you though… [Marcus tells me but I’m not publishing it to respect his wishes].
I read somewhere that you did a show in conjunction with an art gallery exhibition and the theme was ‘time’ and you sang songs about time like Cindy Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’?
MR: Guy Blackman and I did a duo together, it was called Guy & Marcus Blackman Experimentation Project. Joel from Liquid Architecture was doing this thing where he did this bus thing where he got a group of people out to a gallery. Part of that was to do with the concept of time and doing karaoke on the bus so that’s what I did.
I know The UV Race always like to challenge yourselves creatively; are you working on anything now?
MR: Not as we speak. We’re still trying to finish the sequel to The UV Race movie. We’re trying to get that done and record the soundtrack for that. We still have some songs we need to record for that.
How’s it all going?
MR: [Laughs] Slow. We’re not spending that much time together though. It’ll get done. It was filmed a fair while ago. The sequel is a bit crazier because it’s set in space. The first one is kind of like Blues Brothers, I’m trying to get the band back together after blowing our recording money gambling. We break up and it’s set five years after that where I’m trying to get everyone back together but they’re doing different things. In the sequel we’re in space and crazy space stuff happens. [Laughs] It’ll be fun to see the final product.
I can’t wait to hear the music that will accompany you guys in space.
MR: It’s a bit more synth-y as you would expect.
Do you have a dream project you’d like to bring to fruition one day?
MR: [Laughs] No, not really. I’m doing what I like at the moment.
You mentioned the country project…
MR: That’s a bit of fun with my friend Eileen. I’m in another band called, Luxury.
What’s Luxury sound like?
MR: [Laughs] It’s hard to describe. It’s a bit rocky and bluesy. Lots of guitar solos. It’s fun and upbeat. It’s humorous, I sing about not typical subjects; we have a song about ghost love, we have a song about Narwhal the whale. It’s a little bit sillier.
What do you get from songwriting?
MR: Self-expression, expressing how I feel. I love making people laugh and people think. I like to think that I have a different way of writing lyrics to how other people do, I like sharing that with people.
How do you write? Do you have a notebook to write down ideas?
MR: Sometimes. Mostly I use an iPhone now and put it in my notes, that way I can copy and paste to and send it to everyone else.
What’s the last song you wrote?
MR: Some stuff for the country project I’m doing. I haven’t written much UV stuff lately. A song I wrote for Luxury recently is a song ‘Single And Eating Pringles’ about not wanting to change and to make myself more available… I could lose weight but then I could eat Pringles, so I chose the Pringles [laughs].
What’s one of your favourite things to do?
MR: I like going on adventures with friends. I like doing things I’ve never done before or going to places I never have before. I love to travel, that’s probably my favourite thing to do.
Where was the last place you went before everything got locked down?
MR: I went with a friend and her son to a billy cart race! That was fun. That was in the Dandenong, they shut off the main street and kids raced their billy carts down there.
That’s pretty cool. Did you ever do stuff like that when you were a kid?
MR: I grew up on a farm. I had “paddock bombs” and motorbikes when I was a teenager and used to muck around with my friends. I had a pretty adventurous childhood doing things with my dad on the farm.
What was it like growing up in the country?
MR: It was good, I liked it a lot!
How do you find it when you go to the city being in an urban environment?
MR: Right now I live in the middle of the ‘burbs because Melbourne is so big. I live 45 minutes from the city but an hour from where I grew up in Warragul. I have to get out into the countryside every couple of weeks just to recharge. I just have to see green grass, I don’t like starring at buildings all year round.
Do you ever find you get too much stimulation being in the city?
MR: Sometimes. I usually try to find a quiet spot. I have a bar I go to in the city that my friends work at that can be quite quiet, it’s pretty chill. You can find places that aren’t so busy.
Anything else you’d like to tell us?
MR: I have another story I could tell you that you can print that’s UV Race-related. In 2011 UV Race was touring on the Big Day Out festival. We were on a side-stage called Lilypad, they’d have weird entertainment and bands play. They had an area where there were inflatable pools setup and there was a rainbow archway, we were all hanging out in the pool and the singer for Rammstein walks up and we’re like, “Come in the pool! Come in the pool!” [laughs]. He looks at us and says [Marcus puts of a German accent] “Maybe later” and he hit the rainbow archway with his hand and he walked off. That’s one of my favourite stories. They were scary! They were very intimidating.
Great music transcends language because it is its own form of communication, it expresses feelings and captures moods and sparks the imagination, speaking volumes beyond words. Rata Negra are from Madrid, Spain and sing in Spanish; when we first found them we didn’t know yet what they were singing about (English being our first language) but the power of their great songwriting, their music and its melodies spoke to us. Rata Negra are one of the coolest punk bands you might not know yet. We interviewed bassist-vocalist Violeta to get to know Rata Negra better.
Rata Negra are from Madrid, Spain; what’s it like where you live? Can you tell us about your neighbourhood?
VIOLETA: Madrid is the capital and it’s a big city in the centre of the Spanish peninsula. It’s a pretty cool city with lots of things to do, but I live in the worst neighbourhood ever. Right now I live in an apartment which belonged to my grandmother. When she moved out here at the beginning of the 80’s this was the outskirts of the city in the north, and it was lots of open space. Right now it’s the rich neighbourhood of the city where the worst people live, all of them unsupportive rich bastards with a total lack of respect or solidarity. So right now I’m trapped here and can’t wait to move out.
What were you like growing up?
VIOLETA: I was a total loser, had lots of problems making friends and going through high school. That made me who I’m now, a total hater. Thankfully that hate was pretty productive so I came out as a very creative person and my concerns kept me making things, drawing and composing music.
How did you first find punk rock?
VIOLETA: My best and only friend in high school was from the US. Back then, we didn’t have internet or such an easy access to the culture as we have right now, so she introduced me to the Ramones first and then we started exploring punk music.
I understand that one of your favourite bands is the Adolescents; what do you love about them?
VIOLETA: Their music sound immediate and fresh to me. They have the best energy. Simple and perfect at the same time.
I know you are inspired by pop punk from Spain from the 80s; what are some of the bands you would recommend to us?
VIOLETA: Some of my favourite pop ones are Alaska y Dinarama or Pegamoides, La Mode or Los Zombies. Also some more punk like Deshechables, Parálisis Permanente or Ultimo Resorte. And finally the sad and darker ones like Décima Víctima, Ataque de Caspa or Golpes Bajos.
What made you start a band?
VIOLETA: I’ve always find making music a very fun process. I met our guitarist Fa the last year of High School and we used to spend the afternoons making songs with an acoustic guitar and recording them track by track in a double deck cassette player. Time went by and we met other people interested on music so we started Juanita y los Feos.
Can you tell us about your process for writing songs? Is it collaborative?
VIOLETA: Some of the songs just come up at our practice space, but most of the times we start from an idea, the most common thing is that Fa composes a guitar line at home, record it and shape it adding other instruments in a digital format and then send it to the rest of us by mail so we can start thinking about our part and finally we put all the pieces together at the rehearsal. So yes, we all collaborate in the process.
What are some of the feelings you’re trying to get across in your music?
VIOLETA: I always say that sadness, anger or other obscure feelings are more interesting than positive ones ‘cause people can relate more easily when you are telling your problems than when you are proclaiming how happy you are or how wonderful your life is. So normally I talk about things that I find frustrating or that I’m struggling with. Mostly death and getting old. But also things that I see and find interesting.
Where did the title of your last album Justicia Cósmica (Cosmic Justice) come from?
VIOLETA: In the song ‘te elevas’ we talk about this person who is not moving on while everybody else is doing great, we try to reflect the frustration behind that feeling, and also how we find peace on thinking that the “cosmic justice” will put everyone in place sooner or later. We believe in karma in that sense.
What is the song ‘El chico de las estrellas’ about?
VIOLETA: ‘El chico de las estrella’s tells the story of a friend of us who is certain that some of these days the aliens would come and take him with them. He loves psychedelic drugs, and he is very serious about all that. I found a resemblance somehow with David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars, also inspired by Rocket Man by Elton John…you mix all that and ‘El chico de las estrellas’ came out.
Your latest release is the EP La Hija Del Sepulturero (which translates to The Daughter Of The Gravedigger); what inspired this song/EP?
VIOLETA: The song “Que tendrá” is based on a poem with the same name by Gabriel y Galán, a Spanish poet from the XIX century. My friend Hector from the band Sudor, found it and sent it to me because he knows very well the things I like and the poem is very dark but also very funny. It tells the story of this girl who happens to be the daughter of the gravedigger whom nobody likes but is always happy, and nobody likes her cause she is always showing off with new clothes and people gossip about how all of those clothes come from all the bodies his father buries.
I love that you include your lyrics with your music; why is this important to you?
VIOLETA: I’ve always loved to sing along with my records, so I try to help people to do the same with our music. Is not essential but I think that is important to know what a song talks about.
Outside of music what are some things that are important to you?
VIOLETA: Art and Literature. I’ve studied Fine Arts and I love drawing. I love making posters for the incoming shows. Pablo, our drummer and I screen print. Also love comic books and really enjoy reading.
What are your working on at the moment?
VIOLETA: Musically we are working on our third album. In the real world I’m an art teacher in High School. Pablo works as a printer in a workshop. Fa is a graphic designer and illustrator and he designs most of our artwork.
We love Melbourne’s Ubik with their brat-beat anarcho-punk stylings. They’re inspired by sci-fi & horror films as well as politics; who can tell the difference between the two right now though, with politics in Australia feeling like a sci-fi dystopian horror movie. We interviewed bassist-vocalist Nellie Pearson.
How did you discover music?
NELLIE PEARSON: I grew up with my parents being obsessed with classical music, and being forced/being privileged to learn classical instruments. As soon as I had any independence I started obsessing about modern music, reading old Q magazines at the library as a tween, buying Oasis cassingles etc.
How did you first get into making your own music?
NP: My first band was over a decade ago in Wellington; me and some other young women decided to all give it a go for the first time since we were a bit sick of seeing a heavily cis-dude hardcore scene. Thought it couldn’t be that fucking hard. It wasn’t! mostly.
What’s a record that had a really big impact on you; what was it about it?
NP: Honestly I’m a bit of a song magpie; I listen to my personal greatest hits of every band so often don’t go deep into a full album anymore (since it became an Online Streaming World). I refuse to apologise for this. The two DiE 7”s I was obsessed with for ages. I’m also a huge fan of ’90s British sort of stuff, so the Stone Roses self-titled has certainly had a huge impact on me. Definitely honed my ears for how a rhythm section can work together.
When you first started Ubik everyone had other bands – Masses, Red Red Krovvy and Faceless Burial + more; what inspired you to start Ubik?
NP: Tessa and Ash had plans to do like… an oi band I think? Then I inserted myself and suggested my friend Chris as a drummer. It was his first time in a band and Tessa’s first time playing guitar/writing. We sort of just went from there, had fun and ran with it.
You’ve had a couple of line-up changes; what’s something you can tell me about each person in your current line-up?
NP: Only one line-up change; Max has been the drummer for over 3 years, and we’ve been a band for less than 4. Ash and Tessa own two fluffy weird cats each. Max has a giant young dog and I have a tiny old dog.
What’s your favourite song you’ve written? What’s it about?
NP: My favourite is ‘Sleep’. It has equal doses of dumb head bang and fiddly fun bits for me to play, personally. And good dynamics within the structure. I think it’s just about anxiety induced insomnia, which is something most people can identify with.
Vid by PBS 106.7fm.
On the Ubik/Cold Meat split release each of you have a homage to amazing women in punk, Siouxsie Sioux and Exene Cervenka of X; why did you chose to cover X’s “Nausea”?
NP: We supported Cold Meat when they visited Melbourne (the first time but not the last time that happened, I think?), and we were all fans of each other. The singers of both bands are redheaded childcare workers called Ash so we were drunk and like hurhurhur Ash and Bizarro Ash (I still don’t know which is which). The split idea happened, and they had done their Banshees cover that night so we thought we’d get matchy-matchy.
Last year Ubik released Next Phase MLP; what sparked the idea to write the songs ‘John Wayne (Is A Cowboy (And Is On Twitter)’?
NP: This is one of my favourites, Ash-lyrics-wise. I believe it’s directed at internet right-wingers, trolls, MRAs, and other general digital filth. Skewering the misunderstanding of “free speech”, and pointing out how “free thinking” doesn’t often overlap with critical thinking.
What about “Peter Dutton Is A Terrorist”?
NP: Peter Dutton IS a terrorist. Music-wise, Tessa wanted to do another very anarcho song, so I always picture myself in a ‘80s squat playing this one. The lyrics that Ash wrote do a great job of expressing the shame and sadness regarding Australia’s offshore concentration camps, and the horrifying treatment that Peter Dutton and other potato-headed fascist stool samples think is justified in regards to refugees and asylum seekers. Just an utter lack of the basics of humanity.
Mikey Young recorded and mixed Next Phase MLP and your self-titled EP and mixed and mastered the Cold Meat split; how did you come to working with him?
NP: The self-titled EP was actually recorded by Adam Ritchie in the same session as the Cold Meat split. Max and Mikey go way back both personally and musically, so it was a great choice. It was very quiet and laid-back, and we were doing it all in one day (minus box) so we all just put our heads down and worked. He was, as usual, impeccable.
Who in the band has a love for sci-fi and horror films? You had song “The Fly” and one of your shirts featured Debbie Harry when she was in Videodrome; can you recommend anything else cool we should check out?
NP: I’m pretty sure all of us are sci-fi and horror fans. Genre stuff definitely goes with the punk territory in general. Me and Ash in particular are big on Cronenberg. Most of it has naturally stemmed from the name (evidently the Phillip K Dick book), and Ash’s specific interests, since she writes all the lyrics. I’ve been watching a lot of ‘90s movies with their visions of futuristic virtual reality; very pretty, very silly, very fun. Apart from the obvious Johnny Mnemonic, recently I really liked Virtuosity, where Russell Crowe plays a virtual reality murderer who crosses over into the real world.
Have you been working on new music?
NP: Both me and Tessa have scraps of stuff, and we had one or two songs almost ready by the end of the Next Phase recording session. However we’ve all been madly busy, then we toured Japan, and now we’re all sitting at home getting weird because of the global pandemic. Instead of being at all productive while staying at home, I wear soft pants and play video games.
Other than making music do you do anything else creative?
NP: Most of my time is taken up with bands. I used to write but I realised I hate it. Give me two more weeks of social distancing/isolation and I’ll probably start a podcast, just to make 2020 even worse.
One of our Brisbane-based favourites The Stress Of Leisure are premiering the song ‘Interesting Times’ along with its DIY made in isolation video here on Gimmie today. The track is a mix of post-punk and new wave goodness with hypnotic keys, a stomping drum beat and Tina Weymouth-ish bass line. We spoke to guitarist-vocalist Ian Powne about the track.
The Stress of Leisure are premiering a song today “Interesting Times” which was recorded during the sessions for your album Eruption Bounce; why was the time right to release this track now?
IAN POWNE: Jessica Moore (drums) had been lobbying hard for this song ever since it didn’t fit Eruption Bounce. Subtle representations were made again at the start of March. I’d kind of forgotten about it. Jessica is smarter than me, so here we are.
Can you tell us a little bit about writing the song?
IP: We wrote the music for this song at the end of a rehearsal from memory, very quickly, most probably in 2016. My memory of this song is quite blurry but I remember spending a lot of time on the lyric and really hollowing it out to it being very non-specific subject matter. It feels like kind of a response to modern ‘tough guys’ like [Donald] Trump and [Jair] Bolsonaro, but then again strangely, it also feels aligned with the present pandemic.
You’ve made a real DIY clip for it while in isolation; how did you go about making it?
IP: DIY is the word. Pascalle Burton was the creative force behind this. She had assembled a whole lot of Prelinger footage. Coupled with that, was her idea to have a social media feed. We set up a green screen in our living room and I was the difficult talent in the end performing to the song. Pretty much like training a cat. I find it hard to watch, but I’m trusting my bandmates’ judgement on this one.
How have you been faring during these interesting times currently happening in the world? Other than making videos, what else have you been doing while in isolation?
IP:Observing all the health systems and people struggling around the world, it’s not hard to feel vulnerable. Both Pascalle and I are working from home so we’re very lucky. I’ve become an infectious disease armchair expert in the meantime.
Recently you went to Melbourne to record for a new record; what can you tell us about it at this point? What is it sounding like?
IP:We recorded it just in time it seems, and have mixed it now. It feels like a great capture of who we are, all the idiosyncrasies of what makes us tick. John Lee who has recorded and mixed it for us, ‘got us’ pretty much straight away and has really drawn out our punkier side. There’s something a little No Wave-ish about the spirit of it. It’s our most political album too, a lot of discontent in the lyric. We’ll release it later this year, Scomo will be trembling.
Can you recommend something we should check out?
IP: Have really enjoyed the release of Use No Hooks The Job that Chapter Music just put out. Basically it’s a collection of songs this funky Melbourne art band recorded in 1983, but had never put out. Lots of fun, and smart. We’ve played with Cable Ties before and am excited for their new album Far Enough which I’ve just started listening to.
Melbourne’s Shepparton Airplane are about to unleash their best album yet into the world. Sharks sees the band stride confidently into a more noisy and in moments more punky and shoegaze-y territory than previous efforts that were rooted firmly in ’90s post-punk and ’80s oz-rock. This is a mature evolution garnered from years of playing together and the synthesises of true mateship. We spoke to guitarist-vocalist Matt Duffy to dive deep into the making of Sharks, and we also discovered his deep seated love for band, Fuagzi.
We’ve been listening to your new record Sharks a lot since we got the sneak peek a week or so ago, it’s almost time for it to be released into the world; how are you feeling?
MATT DUFFY: We’re really happy with it. We went to a bit more effort than we have with the last two [Self-titled and Almurta]. We’re happy with how it sounds, especially since we got the test pressings back and can actually listen to it on vinyl—it sounds awesome!
Did you have an idea for what you wanted it to sound like from the beginning?
MD: Yeah, we did. We recorded a lot of stuff. Before we recorded that album we had twenty-something songs, some were finished, some not. We went through all of our recordings from rehearsals and the ten that we picked for the record just seemed to work together really well as a full experience rather than a bunch of songs just slapped together.
The record seems a lot more shoegaze-y and noisy and punky as well compared to previous releases.
MD: Yeah, there’s a lot of stuff going on. In one way it’s all over the shop but somehow it all makes sense. The two albums before have certain feels throughout them and didn’t jump around a lot like this one. We jam a lot and come up with all kinds of things.
I think I like this one the best out of all of your albums.
MD: [Laughs] I think we do too! I know the band always likes their latest thing the most though! [laughs]. The first two albums we did all ourselves but this time we thought we should go to a really nice studio [Sing Sing Recording Studios] and get some cool sounds, record on tape and put it in someone else’s hands to get an outside perspective. I think that helped a lot doing something different.
You worked with producer Anna Laverty.
MD: Yeah, she’s awesome! Most of us have worked with her before, half the band is in The Peep Tempel and she’s recorded all of their albums. I did some stuff with them too even though I’m not in that band. We’ve got a good working relationship with her, she’s great to bounce ideas off and tell us when we’ve done something good or not good [laughs]. She’s really, really, really good at what she does and she’s a good friend. It made sense to do it with her.
I love album opener ‘Citrus’ it’s a beautiful song.
MD: That song came out of nowhere. Most of our songs come from the four of us bashing it out in the rehearsal room. We work on things on our own too though, that was one that Steve [Carter] our drummer brought in. He had it half-formed, he did a recording at home on this electronic drum kit and a bunch of synths and we just added guitars to it. Once the whole band gets into a song it usually changes into something even better. That song took on a few different forms, it morphed from a weird electro thing to a shoegaze-y thing. When we recorded with Anna she said it had an indigenous-feel to it, she said it sounded like percussion with sticks. We never had really thought of it that way. It had an English ‘90s shoegaze-feel to an Australian desert touch to it.
I put it on first thing this morning and it’s actually a really nice song to start your day.
MD: I think so too. It does get a bit chaotic though [laughs]. It was always going to be the first song on the album, it’s a cruisy instrumental.
What were the songs that you worked on by yourself and brought into everyone?
MD: The second one [‘Say What Again’] was one that I had started about a year ago just messing around. When I record something on my own I don’t necessarily think it’s going to be a Shepparton Airplane song, I just do stuff for fun. I had all the music done and thought it could work well with the band; someone always brings something new to stuff and it really brings it to life! It’s quite exciting when that happens. There’s been a few on the album that was someone’s throw away song but together we’ve moulded it into something cool. The lyric ideas sometimes come from one of us just shouting things freeform and then someone else might get an idea for the lyrics. It’s great having freedom in the band where no one is calling the shots, we’re all in together.
Another track I really loved on the album is ‘No Stars’.
MD: That was an epic jam that came out of nowhere. At one point it was 16 minutes long, we kept chopping it down. Longer it was a little bit too self-indulgent [laughs]. We eventually got it down to eight and a half minutes.
What’s the song ‘Fear’ about?
MD: That just came together from jamming it out. Myself and Stu the bass player were both at the time talking about a bunch of documentaries we’d been watching on cults. We both had written a bunch of lyrics on that topic, we put them together and realised we’d written the same song! Music-wise it came together so organically, we didn’t labour over it too much. There’s bits in it… though it may not totally sound like it but, to us we can hear influences in it, there’s a Slayer bit, a guitar part that sounds like it, or an AC/DC part. Lyrically you may be talking about cults but you may as well be talking about government. We never try to write too topical though because stuff can often become dated. We don’t want to do what everyone else is doing too.
What kind of feeling do you get when you play?
MD: That’s a good question. There’s a lot of adrenalin, even in the quieter moments. The way we feed off each other works well. There’s a really good chemistry between us and I feel that’s infectious with the punters too, we all feed of each other. We have a party but it’s also dark and joyous too.
The new album is very much a journey.
MD: I’m glad that you said that, I’ve been trying to write bios and stuff and I started writing and used that word but thought it sounded naff coming from me but, I’m so glad you’ve said that because we truly do feel that! [laughs].
It so is! You put it on and your start with ‘Citrus’ and then you go through the rollercoaster of emotions in each song before ending with ‘Fleeting’.
MD: I’ve felt it too. We really made sure we captured that when we chose the songs, put them together – there’s three short, loud punk songs we chucked in the middle – to take you places. We thought the two instrumentals were perfect to bookend it all. It’s all really beautiful. We didn’t want to take things too far though and put on it everything we’ve ever liked; we all love hip hop but were not going to do a hip hop song on this record. We couldn’t pull it off convincingly.
We were just talking about how there’s lots of cool guitar moments throughout the record; what’s your favourite?
MD: ‘No Stars’ because there’s so much going on. We had a scratchy recording of it and we turned it around and created a Yo La Tengo sounding song and turned it into an epic journey. We had to learn it again because we just made it up on the spot. The guitar in that is a highlight of the album for me. It’s probably the cleanest guitar we’ve done too, a lot of our earlier stuff is driven and distorted. We don’t usually use loads of effects too, that song is a guitar plugged straight into an amp.
Until you guys got to this album I don’t think I ever would have used the word beautiful to describe your music.
MD: [Laughs] I certainly wouldn’t have either!
The album has a really nice feel.
MD: Yeah. Because we’ve been playing for a few years now we’re able to do a lot more things, we’ve developed and we sincerely mean what we’re playing—we own it and play it convincingly. We really wanted to make the album move around, some of my favourite bits are the most pleasant bits!
Anna has worked with Lady Gaga and Florence and the Machine who are poppy and have a really slick sound; do you think she helped in getting you to the sound on this record too?
MD: Yeah, she’s done all kinds of stuff. One of her biggest qualities is that she gets what we’re doing. She saw us live a few times and always said she’d love to work with us. She worked well in terms of not getting in the way of anything, she let us do everything we wanted. She’s great for positive reinforcement. It was a pleasant experience.
Where did the album title Sharks come from?
MD: Steve threw that out one day, I was immediately “I’m in” because I’m obsessed with sharks [laughs], they’re incredible. There’s so many different ideas you can draw from the word sharks. People are often “sharks”. If there is an underlying theme on the record it’s that it touches on the darker side of humanity. Sharks are seen as big fearsome creatures whereas in real life they’re not. But people sharks, particularly men are the worst sharks of all. The art work plays into that too, people hunting a shark, this is the fucked up things that people do.
How did you first come to playing guitar?
MD: When I was a little kid around eight, my sister who is ten years older than me had a crappy acoustic guitar. She was learning it at school but didn’t do anything with it so I got it and when I was twelve I got my first electric guitar. I really got into it in my teens. I spent about ten years playing bass in bands then came back to the guitar. I’m not a virtuoso but I’m happy with that because it lends itself to more creativity. If you don’t know if things you’re playing is wrong, all you have to do is care if you think it sounds good. You can give yourself nightmares or you can bliss out! [laughs]. I love having the freedom to do whatever.
Anything else to tell me?
MD: A lot early on we were more conscious that we didn’t want to sound like anyone else. We’d come up with something we’d think sounded really cool and then listen back to a song and be like, that sounds exactly like Fugazi! We love Fugazi but we can’t sound exactly like them, otherwise people are going to think we sound like Fugazi [laughs]. This time around we were like, oh, that sounds like Hüsker Dü or that sounds like Sonic Youth and we’re like, fuck it who cares what anyone else thinks! We love those bands, why pretend we’re not influence by them. Freeing ourselves up from that was a real turning point for us.
Did you see Fugazi when they came to Australia?
MD: I did! They’re pretty much my #1 favourite band ever, still to this day! They’re incredible live. I can’t deny their influence on everything I have ever done really [laughs]. They’re one of those bands that are four people playing together that really feed off each other and improvise a lot and there’s a real connection that goes beyond people writing songs. It was in the late ‘90s more than 20 years ago! I saw them twice, two nights in a row. Steve our drummer and I went. I just remember being totally blown away. I have the recordings of those shows, because they recorded all of their shows over their career.
Yeah, you can buy them from Dischord.
MD: Yeah. I have a bunch of those, all the shows I’ve seen, you get to relive it! They were playing songs they hadn’t recorded yet – they played all my favourite songs off of all my favourite albums – I was like, what is all of this?! There was an interlude in the middle of the show and they were playing all this kind of stuff that I’d never heard them do. I was blown away. It was cool with everyone being there to see a band they love and hear all the songs they know but then Fugazi playing all this unheard stuff. I guess they just had the confidence to throw completely new things at us that was a real departure from their other stuff. I remember being completely impressed by that. Everything about them is incredible—there’s very few bands you can say that about.
Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie Zine 