Empathy –The Currency of Music

By Grace Flanagan

Bragg starts on the picket line. He was out playing for Unison paramedics in Yeovel today. Last week, he was in Dorchester with nurses who were striking for the first time.

“That was quite exciting,” Bragg enthuses. “So not only did they not know any of my union songs,” he laughs, “but they took a big step. I took that step, during the miners’ strike in my country in 1984, but now that you’ve taken that step, you’re part of this tradition. It’s not just about you, it’s about the women that came before you, and the struggles that they were involved in. It certainly made me feel empowered.”

That lived experience bleeds authenticity into Bragg’s music. Since his first release in 1983, his 13 studio albums blaze through punk, pop, and folk. Goaded by the loveless, the bigoted, and the vicious Tory government, Bragg became Britain’s foremost political singersongwriter.

“When I come and sing at the Folk Festival in Canberra, and I’m singing Power In A Union, I’ll be trying to evoke the spirit of the picket line where I was today.”

Indeed, Bragg is headlining the National Folk Festival, playing 8 - 9 April of the Easter festival at Exhibition Park, Canberra.

“That, to me, is the power of music,” he says. “The feeling that you’re not the only person who cares about this shit, whether it’s picket lines, or personal experience.

“Music has the ability to make you feel that you’re not the only person who’s ever felt this pain, or felt this joy, or felt this sadness, or felt this sense of disconnection. Whatever it is that you’re finding in the song, that makes you feel that you’re not alone.”

‘Emotional solidarity’, as Bragg characterises it, is the satiating part of his work. Whether it’s a school yard crush, the weight of capitalism, or COVID – he doesn’t just make you feel those feelings, he labels and validates them.

Bringing a new perspective to a time-bound, global experience led Bragg to write his most recent release, A Million Things That Never Happened, with an ensconced, personal approach. I Will Be Your Shield draws on his experience shielding his immunocompromised partner through the pandemic.

“You’re trying to come at it from a number of different angles… so they can bring whatever it is that they feel, even if it’s just that, and the idea of someone shielding them from the worst aspects of what they have to face.”

Capturing the dislocation, depression, and uncertainty of lockdowns, moments of Good Days And Bad Days hark his rendition of pleading ballad Love Has No Pride (1988). The latest release follows his lean into smooth Americana dotted with historical landscapes. Lonely diaries are lifted with chorus vocals. A couple of punchy tracks relieve the sober album in standard Bragg form.

The only COVID-specific track, A Million Things That Never Happened, was written to tie the album together.

“That was the one thing that I thought, without saying, just by putting up these images, just by giving people these tiny little vignettes, they would join the dots.”

I winced when Bragg released the 2021 album. After Canberra’s second lockdown had stretched to eight weeks, his instinct to massage the strained, tender parts of a listener’s soul felt like a threat.

Of course, it was like a heat pack I’d put off microwaving.

I mention Canberra’s bookish, middle-class reputation, contrasting so strongly with the places and times that spurred his most iconic work. I ask Bragg if his albums resonate differently across cities’ cultures and economies, and how that could play out in Canberra.

“No, I don’t think it changes city to city,” he states. “I think it changes decade to decade. These things don’t go away, they just find a different route. You’re never gunna completely defeat the racists. You’re never gunna completely defeat the bigots, and the sexists. Each generation has to constantly renew their commitment to take that on. The fact that they [my songs] still resonate doesn’t surprise me.”

The One Step Forward, Two Steps Back tour opened ticket sales in 2019 and can now, finally, go ahead. The tour features three consecutive shows, each set spanning a portion of his 40+ year career, with visits at other festivals.

While not a canonical folk artist, Bragg’s influences and recent instrumentation sit squarely in the folk scene. At the Folkie, he’ll be joined by a pianist.

I ask Bragg why he started as a solo artist, considering his focus on the collective, and connecting with others.

“Well, I was trying to cut through really,” he reveals. “Everything that was in the charts was synthesiser duos, like Soft Cell, and Erasure.

“And I kind of missed the edginess of punk. The image of the single figure on stage telling their truth. At the time that had never been married to an electric guitar.

“Back in the day, you couldn’t get a gig if you said you were just playing solo guitar. So I went under the name of Spy v Spy so nobody really knew what they were coming to see. And then they’d find out it was a bloke with an electric guitar, a sort of ‘One Man Clash’, and I’d hope to keep them in the room doing that.”

Bragg imbues his intimate and declarative work with urgency. This attitude held through his campaign to get signed in the early ‘80s. He was first played on radio after delivering an unsolicited lunch to a hungry radio DJ, and posed as a TV repairman to infiltrate a recording company’s office.

I ask if music felt necessary for him, and what’s necessary now for him, and for music.

“I’m not really a musician, I’m a guitar player,” he states. “And I only play the guitar because, when I was 19 years old, the only way I could get a platform to express my views was to learn to play the guitar and write songs and do gigs.

“I’ve just got the urge to communicate. That’s what motivates me, rather than being a great musician. That’s why I talk a lot at the gigs, because I don’t just wanna sing the songs; I wanna contextualise them.

“Music in itself cannot change the world, it has no agency,” he continues. “But it can make you believe the world can be changed, and it can give you a better idea of what the world could be.”

That’s the experience he wants audiences to have.

“...so the next time they’re facing challenges, at their work, in the home or at school, wherever, they can think to themselves ‘well, there’s a room full of people in my town who give a shit about this, cause I saw them at the Braggy gig’.”

Much like with his own origin story of going to Rock Against Racism in 1978, Bragg sees music as the tinder to ignite a deeper struggle. Energised fans encourage him to keep the fire burning.

“I’m like, ‘mate, you just saw what I do, I’ve just done it’… I play songs, you’ve seen it. It’s up to you. It’s about you doing your bit now, taking those ideas, and moving with them.”

He says it’d be a cop out for audiences to think that just coming to gigs, or buying records, will change the world.

Settled, yet self-reflective, Bragg challenges himself as much as he does listeners. Exploring the tension between principle, privilege, and age, in Mid-Century Modern he reveals ‘the gap between the man I am and the man I want to be’. When performing older material, the picket poet often updates his lyrics to show solidarity with current struggles.

“I didn’t have any political education; I left school when I was 16. I only had my class consciousness, really, which is why I went out to support the miner’s strike. That was my kind of political education.”

I ask about the politics within his fan base, the performance of activism he describes in Talking Wag Club Blues (1984), and the declines in union membership seen, especially in Canberra.

“If you wanna talk to an audience about socialism, there’s a lot of baggage that comes with that, unfortunately. Sadly,” he says.

“But if you wanna talk to people about accountability, if you wanna talk to people about things like empathy, then I think… although you’re using a much broader brush, you have much more opportunity to connect with them.

“Coz I happen to believe that empathy is the currency of music.”

While still branded as ‘capital-P’ Political, Bragg’s recent work strives for greater nuance and compassion. He says his Marxist friends would laugh at the approach.

“I think if socialism isn’t about empathy, what is it about?” he says. “If it isn’t about accountability, what’s the point of it? It has its roots in people organising to get accountability in the workplace, and elsewhere in society.

“Socialism is a form of organised compassion. You need to have that understanding of how other people feel in order to have that solidarity with them. Without empathy, there is no solidarity. Without optimism, there is no change.”

Allowing hope to grow has felt less risky in the last 12 months. Bragg says it falls on everyone to put their shoulders to the wheel.

“While the ball’s in play it’s worth engaging in the match; not just standing on the sidelines taking the piss.”

Billy Bragg plays at the National Folk Festival on 8 - 9 April. Tickets, and further info, are available via folkfestival.org.au/

Metalise

Well, I’m still cooked after two days of Canberra Metal Fest. Our sincere congrats to the organisers. Keen for next time! And as we all know, time waits for no riffs, and there is an abundance of them cresting the horizon.

Canberra Metal Vio-Lence

Come Tuesday, 7 March there’s a classic twin USA thrash classic at The Basement with genre legends Sacred Reich and Bay Area stalwarts Vio-Lence. This tour has been a LOOOONG time in the offing, not just because both bands are legendary ‘80s proponents, but because of the stupid Covid.

If you bought tickets the first time around they’re still valid. And fear not friends; tickets are available via Oztix so you can enjoy a good ol’ mosh! Like we used to do!

Triple Album Tour - A Cerberus of a Show

The Basement also hosts South Australian’s Charnel Altar with fellow crow eaters Endless Loss on Saturday, 11 March.

Joined by a pleasingly mixed bill of fine locals in Ploughshare and Futility, Charnel Altar are touring their 2021 release Abatement of the Sun and Endless Loss their 2022 EP Bloodletting Narcotic Divination

Throw Ploughshare into the release mix on the back of their late ‘22 effort, Ingested Burial Ground, and that’s a lot of verbs and nouns that all equal a brutally good time.

One of the Canberra Metal Fest highlights for both this, and last, year were Frankston’s crazed Nembutolik.

It was welcome news that the band will be back on Wednesday, 19 April as a part of the 9-date antipodean tour with Wisconsin death groove merchants Jungle Rot. The Basement will, of course, host and tickets can, of course, be bought via Oztix.

Japan’s excellent Butcher A.B.C. (pictured below) announced a surprised visit to town in April, and we sure to love it when unexpected grindy guests come to town!

Joined by 100 Years War, Darkhorse and Wretch, all your blasting needs can be met at The Basement on Sunday, 23 April with tickets available via Oztix now.

Into The Fall Gives A Little Side Action

Ploughshare are also heading up to Sydney to play one of only two Into The Fall side shows with the awesome Gatecreeper on Sunday, 19 March at Metro Social.

The other side show is in Brisbane with headliners Obscura, and Undeath joining Convulsing at The Brightside. Tickets for the main game in Melbourne are about 50% gone now so if the Saturday, 18 March date has you umm-ing at ahh-ing at the prospect of seeing Obscura, Gatecreeper, Stabbing, Undeath, Cryptic Shift, Inverloch, Carcinoid, Altars, Freedom of Fear, Resin Tomb, Pestis Cultis, and Growth - then you need your head read.

Get on them tickets from good ol’ Oztix.

It was a pleasant surprise to hear Your Mate Bookings announce that UK’s Esoteric are making a long overdue saunter down under in June.

For the first time ever, no less. Friday, 30 June at The Basement is the date for the Maniacal Pyrrhonism tour and it will be best to investigate tickets early as this one will evaporate quicker than my bird bath on a 36-degree day.

Sunburn... Fore!

Speaking of fests, and then doom, it’s time to consider your ticket options with the weekend of 28/29 April rapidly approaching.

Yes friends, Sunburn IV is nearly upon us, and that lineup of the best in Australia’s stoner and doom bands is ridiculously stacked.

Alphabetically, you have a menu consisting of Amammoth, Astrodeath, Atolah, Bongcoffin, Burn the Hostages, Dirty Pagans, Droid, Dr. Colossus, Earth Omen, Elephant Orgy, Emu, Fumerole, Full Tone

Generator, Giant, Goat Shaman, Golem, Holy Serpent, Hydranaut, Khan, Kitchen Witch, Kvll, Lucifungus, Master Leonard, MWOC, Mourners, Pistonfist, Planet of the 8s, Pod People, Robot God, Smoke Witch, Sundowner, Yanomamo, and Vvarp

Please buy tickets; I believe I may have just developed carpal tunnel syndrome from frenziedly typing out all that doom-y goodness.

Vale Ivan Merchant

And we finish up this month with some sad news, as we mark the passing of Dirty Sanchez guitarist, and former Precursor and OG Pod People guitarist, Ivan Merchant on 31 January.

Ivan was, and continues to be, an integral part of the DNA of Canberra heavy music. He was right at ground zero for one of this city’s most fertile and exciting times for original live music.

From the Youth Cafe shows in the early ‘90s (that many of you would never believe how big and wild they got), through to the venues that have also passed into legend like The Terrace Bar, Ivan was a big part of why many of us got motivated to take a leap of faith and start our own bands.

Pretty sure a rad picture of the man graced the first or second issue of this very rag. Vale, Ive.

BMA’s sympathies and thoughts extend to his brother Ross, step-dad Jim, and his family and friends during this time.

I Have No Enemies is an original work, devised by an ensemble under the direction of respected theatre artist, Christopher Samuel Carroll. Bare Witness have collaborated with Canberra-based company SilverSun Pictures, who have created digital elements, projected on stage. After stumbling upon a private voicemail full of sensitive information, four actors embark upon a morally-ambiguous sociological experiment to disentangle the reality of life online. Confronting, enlightening, and absurdly entertaining, it’s radical contemporary theatre that decodes the uncomfortable truth of life through a lens. 7:30pm, tickets $38.50/$27.50 via Humanitix

Travel via water on the stunning Lake Burley Griffin to Canberra’s premiere cultural destinations: The National Portrait Gallery and The National Museum of Australia. Jump aboard a captivating all-inclusive lake cruise and walking tour weaving together visual art, architecture, live dance, amazing music, theatrical tour guides, and great local food and wine. Culture Cruise is an exclusive half day art immersion - memorable and sensorial - connecting destinations and revealing stories here on the beautiful ancient lands of the Ngunnawal people, Canberra. 10:30am – 3pm, $181 - $209 pp via australiandance.party/ culturecruise/

Correspondence is the key to this ultimately romantic friendship destined to last for almost half a century. From childhood, friends communicate with each other through angst-ridden boarding school experiences, European adventures, failed marriages, and the ups and downs of careers. Over their lives, Andy and Melissa’s bond goes through many changes, as the sometimes-sweethearts/sometimesfriends go through periods of estrangement, but ultimately remain each other’s most trusted confidante. “True lovers” on paper, if not on the earth. 7pm + 2pm matinees, $25 - $50 via venue

Warehouse Circus is Canberra’s Circus. For over 30 years, Warehouse has made elite, globe-trotting circus performers, and entertained Canberra at major events, minor events, and at their own awardwinning productions. Now comes a comedy circus variety show for the whole family! Presenting a fabulous line-up of interstate circus superstars, Canberra’s rising talent, great local comedy acts and a whole lot of clowning around. A funny frenzy of amazing acrobatics, jocular juggling, incredible aerials, and other fantastical feats. Come see what all the hoopla is about! 1pm, $25 - $35 via venue

Created by circus visionary Yaron Lifschitz, with a pulsating score from Melbourne composer Jethro Woodward and striking lighting design from Paul Jackson, On by Circa is an unmissable and powerful new work infused with fierce humanity and exceptional acrobatics. After the smash-hits of Humans 2.0, Carnival of the Animals, and Peepshow, Brisbane’s globally renowned Circa returns, following eight strangers whose lives cross in the courtyard of an apartment block. Over the night they will fight, love, laugh, and find moments of beauty and transcendence. 7:30pm, $20 - $45 via venue

Miriam Lieberman Trio return to The Street Theatre with acclaimed new album Just Transforming. West African influences blend seamlessly with blues-infused melodies and soaring vocal harmonies. Lieberman’s songs are soulful collections of stories, beautifully told through kora, guitar, and her unmistakable voice. Trio members Lara Goodridge (Baby et Lulu/ FourPlay) and Lara Norman add soaring violin arrangements and vocal depth. Together they offer a powerful soundscape. 7:30pm, $29 - $35 via the venue

COMEDY REVIEW: Chris Marlton - Mephisto Waltz

Brilliant Canberra stand-up in her own right, Sarah Ison reviews the debut comedy special from local chuckle chameleon Chris Marlton which is—gasp!— available to watch now on YouTube.

Snorting silicon dust off the shaved back off an ape. Finding the keys to unlock your grandmother’s landlocked past. Shoes tied together with spaghetti laces you can throw on the stove after a long day’s work.

These are just some of the brain breaking ideas that simply don’t come close to any one-liner you’ve ever heard from a standup comic. But that’s Chris Marlton, the character-comic that effortlessly switches from a southern belle—who happened to be at both the signing of the Constitution and the filming of James Cameron movies—to the slam poet and rapper, Davy Bluetooth, spitting lines about veganism.

In his one hour special, Mephisto Waltz, Marlton morphs into seven characters hailing from across the globe with (mostly) on point accents that dance from English and American to unabashedly South African.

Marlton opens the show with the softly spoken Mama America, who knows everyone in the crowd from those times they spent together in the 1940s and somehow also the 1780s.

After reminiscing over how Danny-Rae died from being kicked in the chest by a horse called Star Pickle, she goes on to educate the “young’ns” about the Constitution being the “new bible”, but with allowances to shoot whomever you’d like.

Fast forward to the very yelly motivational speaker Rob-Rob Anthony reminding us our lives are like films, on which we are set designer, executive producer, accountant, and gaffer.

No one could possibly understand Marlton’s train of thought (good luck even getting to the bottom of the show title) and yet the audience doesn’t hesitate to call out responses to whichever character has materialised before them throughout the special.

Despite being very much on his plane, Marlton confidently invites those watching to join him in on his truly confounding journey through time and space asking questions like: what was your grandmother’s favourite ice-cream flavour?

It’s very rarely a rhetorical question, with Marlton persistently drawing the crowd into his madness; a place of suspended disbelief, incredibly imaginative writing and, sometimes, a complete silliness that you can’t help laugh at.

Mephisto Waltz is currently streaming for free on YouTube at youtube.com/@chrismarlton. Chris is currently touring new show, Moonlight Pilot, which you can see as part of the Canberra Comedy Festival on Thursday, 16 March at Canberra Theatre Centre. Tix via canberracomedyfestival.com.au