Raw Ink Magazine – September 2012

art | design | music | writing | creative | culture

magazine

brisbane gold coast tweed coast

1 st Birthday!

Issue 13, September 2012 www.rawinkmagazine.com

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THE RAW INK TEAM

Roxy Coppen

Graphic designer and editor. roxy@rawinkmagazine.com www.roxycoppen.com

Ruth Dunn

Journalist. ruth@rawinkmagazine.com

Liana Turner

Journalist and photographer. liana@rawinkmagazine.com www.liana-anitra.tumblr.com Cover painting by

Barek www.facebook.com/pages/

Barek/309812505784045

FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/rawinkmagazine TWITTER www.twitter.com/rawinkmagazine 2

Hello Readers, That’s rigth - Raw Ink has turned one! We’re very excited to share this with you. A big thankyou to everyone who has supported us throughout the year!

Also, congratulations to Jackson and Christopher for winning the Tshirt comp!

Once again, if you know of any creative events happening in your local area, or would like to contribute to the magazine, feel free to send us an email to: roxy@rawinkmagazine.com Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on our Twitter-tweets.

We’ll see you next month.

From,

The Raw Ink Team xx

contents Buffalo Diaries’ 8 ‘The Liana Turner

46 ‘Semi-Permanent’ Roxy Coppen

Folklores and 16 ‘Foxy Fairytales: Beata Batorowicz’ Ruth Dunn

with Kitty’ 21 ‘Hide’n’Seek Ruth Dunn

32 ‘Pigeon’ Liana Turner Twins’ 38 ‘Volataire Liana Turner

Cole of Nat Col and 42 ‘Nat the Kings’ Liana Turner

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FRIDAY 26th – SUNDAY 28th OCTOBER 2012 FIRST LINEUP ANNOUNCEMENT:

The Original Wailers (Jamaica) Prince Alla (Jamaica) with Mr Savona JPod (Canada) Gaudi (Italy/UK) Chant Down Sound Kooii The Upsteppers Ganga Giri Antiheros Rhythm Collision Sound plus many many more to announced!!

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Wes Carr aka

The Buffalo Diaries - Liana Turner

You’ve recently released the stunning single “Blood and Bone”; it’s safe to describe it as thoroughly breathtaking.

How do you feel this has functioned in terms of being the first taste of your debut EP? Is it a fairly accurate indication of the things to come?

Well thank you! It’s definitely an accurate indication of where I see The Buffalo Diaries heading in the near future, the general reaction so far is that people dig it. It’s honest and raw, just the way I intended it to be.

Was it nerve-wracking, or just very exciting to get this single out into the public domain?

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It was very liberating. To know that I have put everything into this and backed myself for the first time in my life, there’s a real sense of achievement. When I was signed to a major label I had no real sense of achievement cause it all happened so fast and the intention for a major record company is to sell as many records as possible in a short amount of time. This time it’s the opposite, The Buffalo Diaries is about music and telling the truth through it.

The song is accompanied by an equally astonishing film clip. The video stars the gorgeous Isabelle Cornish, who seems the perfect fit for the song. What led you to featuring her in this video?

Alyssa McClelland and I had some ideas floating around about how we were going to present the song. It came down to one simple idea capturing the essence of what life and death can be about.

It’s the cathartic experience that we wanted to capture on film. Life is beautiful and so is death in many ways. As I answer this question today it’s the 1 year anniversary of my Nana’s passing. I watched her pass peacefully and sat with her till the end, her favourite flowers were yellow roses which is in the clip to pay homage to her. Isabelle Cornish did such a wonderful job of portraying the girl who was to be so ethereal and ghostly, for me that girl in the video represents my Nan, but to someone else that girl represents something else to them, you get to paint your own story to the clip and that’s what I love about it the most. Isabelle was so wonderful to work with and it was such a special day on set. We are all blood spirit and bone.

Back in 2010, you forced a Nashville-bound plane to delay takeoff so you could remain in Sydney.

What inspired this decision? Was it sheer impulse, and if so how do you feel in hindsight, having acted upon it? Do you feel this was in some way momentous in defining where you are today, as “Buffalo”?

It redefined everything for me looking back. I was in turmoil within myself. I felt like I had no control over where I was heading musically, personally, spiritually there was no substance in my life except for my now wife Charlotte who was a stranger too as I just came and went on a busy schedule chasing an illusion of celebrity that I never got into music for in the first place. I’m too shy for shameless promotion. I had a breakdown and emotionally I was done.

Getting off that flight was the best thing I did for myself and eventually I could evaluate where I was heading with my life. It took me a while to get back on my feet but I started writing and found meditation and read books and soaked up anything that expanded my mind in a healthy way for me to then take off the glasses that I had been wearing trying to play the role as “Wes Carr.” It didn’t suit me and once I decided to work on a new music project under the new name of Buffalo, my words and music began to flow again.

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Buffalos, in Native American culture, are associated with the act of returning to one’s roots. Was this notion at the heart of how this project came to be?

Yes indeed. I started writing music when I was 12. At the same time I taught myself to play the guitar, piano and harmonica. For me, writing and creating music is why I’m a musician. Some people treat music like a competitive sport, which is fine, cause it takes all types to balance the world, but for me I’m all creative and The Buffalo Diaries represents creating honest music. I like to wear my heart on my sleeve.

Having spent several months in LA, did you find it challenging as a musician trying to strive in such a very different, albeit exciting, place?

I do Love LA. It’s a really fun city when you know people there. But it can be a very lonely place even if you know half the city. I wasn’t trying to strive for anything in LA, I was writing and working with loads of different writers that the record company wanted me to collaborate with. Although I connected with a few great writers, it can become very much a stale process going in and out of writing rooms with different people, everyone trying to write that one ‘hit.’ It’s a little desperate and I grew tired of that very fast, that’s just not who I am, and creating music should flow out naturally, not be in a smelly studio competing for the next line or chord of a song. It’s the antithesis of what you are trying to achieve.

Music is communicating, not dumbing it down for some imaginary audience. Loads of ‘writers’ out there think they have cracked some special code and have very large egos to think they know what the public wants to listen to so they pull rank.

I had my first Hollywood experience the first day I was there, I wrote a song for that first day of writing, intending for it to be finished off with the two guys I was meeting that first day. I walked into the writers’ studio and played the song I had to one of the two guys I was working with that day. Once his buddy showed up, he said to him: “check out the song I just wrote for Wes!” It was my first taste of that Hollywood charm!

You’ve previously said that The Buffalo Diaries is about “losing faith in humanity, and regaining it again by seeking the truth”. Your music is beautiful and easily appreciated even without any context, but do you feel strongly about your audience understanding and valuing the ideas underlying your work?

I do actually. My music can be interpreted anyway the listener feels, that’s the beauty of music, it can become so personal to you.

My music so far is like looking back on diary entries, most people think I’m just that dude off TV who plays that Woah song, but that is about 1% of where I really come from. Blood and Bone and many other songs I have written are timeless stories, a little like diary entries and I try 12

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to capture a certain feeling. Woah was a major label release purely for radio and that’s fine but if you wanna listen to the real me, The Buffalo Diaries is where it is these days.

You’ve just started a tour for the release of “Blood and Bone”, and have already dived straight into a national tour with The Mclymonts. Is there something special about performing newly-released music for the first time? What do you find most exciting about travelling to showcase your music?

The new songs are getting a really good reaction live. It’s just me solo acoustic and I haven’t played like that for a few years, it’s really liberating, it frees me up to give a spontaneous show and talk about my stories. I wouldn’t call my music country at all, it’s more acoustic folk-rock, or what I like to call “Australiana,” but touring with the McClymonts gives me an opportunity to play in great venues and play in front of new audiences. It’s very exciting.

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foxy folklores and fairytales:

beata batorowicz ruth dunn

I’ve often wondered what it would be like to see the world through the eyes of an animal. What would they think of the strange adornments we wear, the fancy food we eat, the strange devices we use? What about the wars we fight? In Tales within historical spaces the artist, Beata Batorowicz, becomes the fox and guides us through an exploration of Polish and German experiences of World War II. Walking through the exhibition there is a very noticeable eerie silence. Images of uninhabited forests, sculptures and paintings of silent animals (some with muzzles), and empty masks combine to create this silence. Yet there is so much being said…

Beata has found, in the rich iconography of European folklore and fairytales, an effective means to recall World War II. In a very fitting way, fairytales often serve the purpose of teaching children of the dangers, evil and pitfalls in the world. These adjectives can be readily applied to World War II, and in Tales within historical spaces there is a sense of the teaching purpose of fairytales being present.

“Through objects, installation, illustrations and

photography, Batorowicz weaves tales that resonate across time and continents, valuable to both those who experienced the atrocities of World War II and those who have learned of them,” said Vanessa Van Ooyen, Senior Curator of the Queensland University of Technology Art Museum.

Her artworks aren’t just a general exploration of the war; they are intimate, personal reflections of her family’s experience of it. Though Beata immigrated to Australia with her family in 1984, she returned to her homeland in 2011 and set out to record her family’s history. Intertwined within this history she found stories bearing witness to the carnage of Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II. The subjectivity of Beata’s family history is captured within the fairytale and folklore imagery, as well as within the way it is executed. The sculptures are hand knitted, woven and sewn together, and the paintings are small, detailed and intimate. These qualities draw you into the story as you lean in close to take in the details of the small artworks, and walk around the sculptures occupying the space. The artworks are created intimately and received intimately.

As well as intimately weaving her sculptures into existence, Beata also weaves her family history in with her research into a collection of children’s stories secretly written and illustrated by Polish prisoners in concentration camps, titled 17

Fairytales from Auschwitz.

In Tales within historical spaces Beata welcomes the audience into her space of storytelling to experience a unique and interesting mix of family history, and European fairytales and folklore. So take up your fox mask and join Beata’s animals as they take you on a journey through the not so distant past.

Tales within historical spaces is at the Queensland University of Technology Art Museum until 28 October. For more information check out www.artmuseum.qut.edu.au

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HIDE ‘N ‘SEEK PROJECT Hide ‘n’ Seek Project is a one year writing project that will include articles about Brisbane street and graffiti art, as well as interviews with some of Brisbane’s best street and graffiti artists. New material will be published each month exploring the Brisbane street scene and the artists that work within it.

This month I interviewed Kitty, read on to check it out!

If you’ve spied some street/graffiti art in Brisbane and want to publish some photos or let me know where it’s at email me! - ruth@rawinkmagazine. com

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HIDE ‘N ‘SEEK WITH

RUTH DU 22

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UNN 23

Kitty is a street artist working with water colours, posca pens and old paper to make drab walls beautiful. She is known for her colourful peacocks which appear in surprising places and project happiness onto the streets.

I caught up with Kitty to chat about her art, experiences and future artistic goals.

How did you first become interested in art?

Ever since I was a little kid I liked art. We did lots of activities with my mum; we made Christmas decorations and birthday presents – I really remember making lots of potato stamps!

When did you first realise you wanted to become an artist?

When I was in high school I really got into art. My parents discouraged me from pursuing a career in art so I went and got a 9-5 job. After a few years of being miserable and watching other people achieve the stuff that they wanted to, I realised there was nothing stopping me from achieving what I wanted to. So I started to get back into it.

I’m still a bit rusty, but I’m really enjoying it.

How did you learn to paint?

I’ve never really had any formal training; I just sort of painted whatever I felt like painting…

So you are completely self-taught?

Yeah, 100% self-taught. Although I would love to do some classes and maybe learn some technical skills to improve my work.

I have a lot of great ideas in my head that I can’t translate onto canvas very well because I don’t have the technique.

Art is obviously something that’s pretty engrained in your life. Why is it so important to you?

I think I’ve gone through a lot of stuff in my life, a lot of emotional turmoil, and it’s just a really great way to focus that somewhere.

Someone once said to me that when you find something you lose yourself in, then all your problems fade away and nothing else in the world matters. It could be dancing, or cooking, or anything, and for me it’s painting. It’s a real little sanctuary for me.

Is that sanctuary idea something you try to share with people through your art?

I like to try and make people smile, and I like to surprise people. I do that with other stuff as well, like baking cookies and posting them to my friends. I just like to surprise people with little things that will make them happy.

Is that the reason you started putting work up on the street?

Yeah definitely. There’s no other motivation, I just like the thought of someone finding it and being pleasantly surprised.

So you just want to make someone’s day…

I hope so! I hope they’re not mad about me putting things up on their buildings hahaha.

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If I found out someone was upset, I would happily go back and remove it.

When did you start putting work up on the street?

Probably about two years ago… I was really nervous at first, but I’ve gotten a bit braver lately.

What was it like the very first time you put up work on the street?

Terrifying hahaha, it was terrifying! I was really terrible… I did this massive, really complicated peacock, that was almost impossible to put up, and it took me like half an hour, and my boyfriend was saying ‘hurry up! Hurry up!’ It was a disaster. It was windy too! There was just glue everywhere.

Looking back it’s hilarious, but at the time I was terrified and my heart was racing. I’m much better now. I’ve refined my designs down, I’m a lot faster with glue, and I have a much better technique.

Did you have anyone to show you how to do it?

Nah, I just had a crack at it, which is probably why I failed so badly the first time!

What has the experience been like for you since then?

I’ve had a lot of positive feedback, which I really wasn’t expecting. I was happy to stay anonymous, but I’m surprised by people who seek you out to compliment you and tell you they love your stuff. It’s been really encouraging, and it’s made my life a lot brighter.

Has your street art practice transformed since the beginning?

I’m experimenting with lots of new designs at the moment, like a little dragon, and a few other things. I’ve transformed a bit, in terms of being more confident now, and I’m a lot less inclined to care what other people think.

Let’s chat about your peacocks. What is it about peacocks that you like so much?

I like things that flow and I really enjoyed drawing the first one I did. I’m able to experiment a lot with them, especially in the tails. I’m not stuck to it, I’ve just been doing them and I haven’t got bored with them yet.

Placement is a very important thing for you.

What are some of the key things you think about when you are putting work up on the street?

I see people spray paint on the front of 100 year old brick buildings and think it’s really uncool. Those buildings have a history, they’re beautiful and the people who own them are probably going to be upset. For me that defeats the whole purpose of my artwork, which is to make people happy and make ugly places pretty. I’ve always lived by ‘you do unto others’, so I try and think whether I would be upset if someone did it to me. I think if you put art in some 25

ugly place that’s been neglected you’re not making anyone angry as a result. You just need to be thoughtful about where you put your art.

Is there any particular place you like to put your peacocks?

Yeah, they fit really nicely in doorways. I like to put them on old doors if I can find a place like that, and if they are under a little ledge they seem to last a lot longer. I also love old grungy brick, that’s my favourite. I can’t resist it, if I see old grungy brick I have to go back there. It’s like my kryptonite. I just love it.

What’s been your favourite thing about working in Brisbane?

I love Brisbane. I know a lot of people bag Brisbane out, but I love Brisbane, it’s laid back and there are lots of unexplored places. I also find most of the people to be really friendly. There’s not a huge clicky scene yet, so you don’t have to worry about any politics or accidently pasting over someone else’s work. There’s a few people exploring street art and they are all really nice, so it’s nice to be a part of.

So despite the restrictions of street art there are still some strong positives…

Yeah, the restrictions obviously aren’t nice and with Campbell Newman dedicating so much money to buffing peoples work and increasing penalties, that stuff does worry me. It’d be nice if they weren’t spreading hatred towards art, but on the other hand when you have people spray painting the front of a business that’s the kind of thing that encourages the public to hate on all street art as one. I think it’s a big pity when people paint thoughtlessly like that and cause people to be upset.

How often do you usually go out doing paste ups?

Probably once a month, and I’ll put two or three up. It usually takes me two or three hours to make one peacock and I do a lot of trades. So I might make ten and put two or three up around Brissy and send the rest out. I send them everywhere around the world- France, Seattle, Brazil, Tokyo.

What’s next on the agenda for you?

There’s the Punk Milk show in Melbourne where I have some art displayed, I sent a stack to some shows in the U.S just recently.

I also sent some work to Art De La Rue which is a Canadian street art bike tour, and I have a ton of “Free Art Friday” trades to get out. Apart from that I’ll just be working on some new designs and trying to expand my skills a bit.

Do you have some words of encouragement you would like to share?

I think if you enjoy making art and you lose yourself in it, you should just do it for that reason and good stuff will come. Don’t do it for fame or recognition, do it because you love it. That’s something I’ve learned 26

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the hard way over the years, and my life has been much better because of it.

Shout out to Brisbane street artistsBarek has been really lovely to me since I started and he’s given me heaps of tips, so I’d like to thank him for reaching out and not being too cool to smile. Lady Alchemy, because she encouraged me to get out there and have a go. And all the other excellent Brisbane street artists like Skull Cap, Beta Max, Rump (my partner in crime), Ladyp, Dilute, Cherie and Kerfuffle.

Keen to see some more of Kitty?

Head on over to www.facebook.com/misskitty.art http://statigr.am/kitty_art

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pigeon LIANA TURNER

It’s safe to say this has been a busy year for many – Brisbane fivepiece Pigeon not least of all. Following last year, which saw the band gracing the stages of Splendour in the Grass, Parklife, Peats Ridge Festival and Festival of the Sun along with the release of their successful debut EP, you’d forgive the electronic/dance getup to reward themselves with a big pat on the back and a little time off.

On the contrary, amidst Queensland Music Award nominations and support slots with Van She, Pigeon have just celebrated the release of their new single Oh Hebe with an accompanying tour. The single is the band’s first new release of 2012, and is the first hint of what’s to come from their forthcoming EP – due to be released in October.

supporting is bad, it was an awesome opportunity and we loved it; it was amazing.”

I caught up with Pigeon in Brisbane’s Alhambra Lounge, the venue of their second instalment in the Oh Hebe tour. Feeling fairly optimistic after their first show – which took place in Maroochydoore – the band were eagerly gearing up for an impressive set in their hometown. “It was awesome,” says lead vocalist Danny Harley of their Sunshine Coast show, “It was really, really sweet. The Sol Bar is really the only live music venue there so everyone just goes there; it’s a bit of a hub, it’s always good with a bit of a reaction.”

While it can be somewhat intimidating to perform new material for the first time, it’s a point of great accomplishment for the band. It’s really, really refreshing,” says Harley, “We had a big year last year, and it was sort of daunting but we’re all really excited to release new music. It’s been a year so we know each other a bit better and know each other’s musical styles a bit better; the product is a bit more cohesive to us so it’s really exciting for us.”

It had only been a month since their last live performances, but the group’s enthusiasm was unmistakable. After recent support gigs with the likes of The Belligerents and Tijuana Cartel, the band find an uplifting change through having their own headline shows. “It’s good to head out on our own headline tour,” says Harley. “You can add your own flavour, a bit more so than being a support. Not that 32

After having endured the year so far without any new music, Pigeon’s rapidly growing posse of fans have been battling with an increasing sense of anticipation – but this is also the case for the band themselves, who are introducing a range of new music into their set to precede the forthcoming EP. “Anticipation?,” says Harley, “For us, yeah. Hopefully for other people too, but for us definitely. We’re doing a few new songs, new material we’re trying to rotate; it’s been exciting – a bit nerve-wracking but mostly exciting.”

Being oftentimes referred to as a “festival band” may come naturally after the selection of gigs Pigeon landed last year, but how truly might this analogy depict the group? Their dynamic live performances lend themselves to this image well, and it’s a label the band doesn’t overly mind. “We’ve got a lot of comments about our music being lively and energetic,” says Harley, “A lot of the time the word “festival” pops up. I don’t know whether it’s because we’ve done

a bunch of festivals or whether people get that vibe. People seem to get that vibe from us. I think it subconsciously makes its way into our music and sneaks its way into our live performances as well. We always like to keep a high energy and I think that’s congruent with our music and liver performances: high energy and good fun!”

Pigeon have been described in the past with the well-fitting phrase: “Fuck genres, this is music” – this is warmly welcomed by the frontman. “It’s perfect,” says Harley. “I think our new music is a bit more cohesive; we’ve found where we all meet as musicians – as a band – but when they were talking about our live set, it’s all over the place – like genre hopping. We just do whatever we want.”

Sure, it’s all about the music and the audience, right? In a way, but there’s nothing quite like formal recognition of the hard work musicians undergo; being nominated for the 2012 Queensland Music Awards was a real, auspicious moment for the band. “We produced all the stuff as well, so it’s really rewarding to have something that we’ve had a really heavy hand in writing producing and saw it come from an idea to fruition and then see that nominated for an award is just super-cool, we were stoked,” says Harley. “We go through quite a lot of wine during the process, and it take a lot longer than it would if we were recording another band – because we record other bands as well – recording your own stuff it’s niggly and you find yourself going round in circles. It’s definitely challenging, but we’re usually happy with it.”

The band have had a fairly prominent position on Triple J unearthed and believe this is an invaluable platform for emerging musicians in Australia. At the same time, however, it’s becoming much more difficult to be the lucky ones who get noticed: “Especially because it’s becoming easier to record yourself at home,” says Harley, “I mean, more and more people are able to do that so you’re getting really good quality stuff from everyone, all the time, so it’s this really big pool of great music. It’s hard to stand out; we’re lucky. I don’t know how we’ve managed to…I have no idea.” To listen to Pigeon’s single Oh Hebe and for information on live shows, head to www.pigeonofficial.com or www.triplejunearthed.com/Pigeon

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Art from the Margins, Troy Cowley - Don’t Be Consumed by the Black Dog of Depression

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We catch glimpses of it, but we prefer to stick with what we know. It is alive, it is raw, it is beautiful, intelligent and inspiring, but it often remains hidden. This is Art from the Margins, an exhibition providing a creative platform for artists who suffer from disadvantage or isolation.

Returning for its fifth anniversary, Art from the Margins is showcasing original and incredible talent from the margins of our society. The exhibition is known for stimulating thoughtful reflection and discussion, as well as presenting confronting, beautiful, and fascinating artworks.

This year Brisbane will also be treated to live music, workshops and performances to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the exhibition.

Art from the Margins has been met with great enthusiasm and support from the community in past years, and its value cannot be underestimated. It provides an important outlet for unrecognised artists whose creativity would otherwise have nowhere to be publicly displayed.

Art from the Margins will be showing from 8 September – 22 September at Windsor: Brisbane Institute of Art. For more information visit www.brisbanefestival.com.au 35

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Volat Twin You’ve just celebrated the release of your third EP, Apollo; after an already busy year (South by South West, Canadian Music Week , a national tour with San Cisco etc), audiences the world over are having their interest piqued. How long has this EP been in the making? Was there a great deal of anticipation built up over the time prior to its release?

We wrote the majority of the EP over Christmas 2011, but one song, Jump Cuts, has been in the live set since early 2010 at least. We had tried recording it before, but it never quite worked, so we had to workshop and experiment with it a lot to get the vibe we wanted. We definitely felt like this EP had to be much better than the last two because there’s definitely more people watching this time around. Hopefully it’s the last thing we release before the album, so we also felt it had to be good enough to whet people’s appetites for a full length release. So there was definitely a bit of pressure and anticipation there.

After supporting the likes of The Maccabees and Van She already this year, how does it feel to be setting off on your own tour?

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A little bit scary, but mostly very exciting. We’ve been hungry to play our own shows nationally – you can do a lot more when it’s your own show.

You play for longer, and you can cut a little more loose and amp things up a bit more.

Your music seems to have been causing a bit of a stir, with the likes of Triple j and Rage jumping straight on Young Adult upon its release. If the public eye wasn’t already focused on your music, it was when the video clip for Solaris was banned from Youtube after six hours. Your music is already delightfully catchy; the “incident” with the artistic nudity only seems to make it more appealing… and I mean that in a non-creepy way, I assure you! Do you feel that as musicians, being daring and not being afraid to go that little bit further is one of the most inherent steps to set yourself apart?

I think the more you give, the more you get back. Good art happens when an artist puts their audience before their own comfort. Artists who put themselves out there and take risks are ‘giving’ the audience something special – they’re taking a risk or stepping outside of their comfort zone

taire ns

liana turner

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for your entertainment. The Solaris video was a lot of fun to make, but it was also a bit scary, and when we uploaded it we were very nervous about people’s responses, or whether we’d look gross or something. But when we were planning the shoot, we never considered saying no to anything the director suggested, because we always wanted to put the video before our own comfort.

It’s been said that Apollo “blends ruminations on youth and innocence” – particularly with your signature synth pop hooks.

There’s a lot of dark music out there – I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing – but do you feel it’s truly important to sometimes just take a look at all the good stuff ?

There are a lot of ways to express yourself – we’re not dark people, but our music has way more darkness than light, lyrically at least. But that’s just how it comes out when we’re writing it. I think our music is less dark and more balanced than it once was. Dark, light – if it’s good, it’s good!

I’ve been told that the EP is made up – in its entirety –of meditations on the past. Would you say that your music is largely influenced by personal experiences and memories?

Lyrically, almost always. We try to tell stories with our lyrics because we’re easily bored, and we’re also very self-critical, so lame lyrics about love and dancing don’t really make it into our songs if we can help it. It’s easier to write about what you know, so we tell stories and talk about people we know or have known, and whip them up into song-stories, often with a lot of weird fantasy elements attached.

Is it then sometimes confronting to present it to the world, if it’s so deeply derived from your own life? Do you feel that the experience of creating music has a heightened significance when you’re pouring a lot of yourself into it?

Yes and no. By the time we’ve recorded a song and we’re playing it live, that personal significance has faded and it becomes more about the music than the lyrics to us. There’s undoubtably something satisfying about getting your feelings and memories down on paper at the time, but the aim of our music is to entertain, and ideally, we’d like to write lyrics that other people can relate to or attach their own significance to.

Was having your drummer, Matt Gio, produce the EP challenging or more convenient? Do you feel the entire process is more accessible in that way?

It was definitely convenient, and we were able to workshop lots of little elements of the EP down to the nth degree because we had the time and facilities to do that. Gio’s own emotional attachment and investment in the material as a co-writer as well as a producer meant he was hugely driven to get the songs as perfect as possible, but I think it was a particularly intense and exhausting experience for him as well.

Did you find having Lars Stalfors of Mars Volta mix the majority of the EP was beneficial? Do you feel he helped you to express a new, fresh sound? How might you reflect upon having such an iconic person on board for this EP? If we’d mixed it ourselves, it would mean the whole process, from start to finish, would have been done within the band, without any input or ideas from the outside world. By the time we finished recording, we were all so close to the material that we couldn’t accurately judge what it needed anymore. Lars was just what we needed – a fresh set of ears and ideas to approach the project without any baggage. When we met him in LA we really clicked, and when he was mixing it felt like we were all on the same page throughout the process, so it was pretty ideal.

In terms of his profile, we were more concerned with getting someone involved who we gelled well with and who liked and understood our music, so his resume wasn’t really a big consideration. We just liked him and how he worked, and we definitely hope we can do it again.

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Nat Cole

of Nat Col and the Kings 43

When I received the phone call from Nathan Cavaleri, he was crammed into a tour van along with the rest of Nat Col and the Kings. The familiarity of the renowned guitarist’s overtly Australian accent made all the pent up anxiety dissipate instantly; after watching youtube videos of his childhood talent, it was difficult not to be intimidated. Over the last eighteen months, Nat Col and the Kings have developed an impressive following and have been busy travelling between such festivals as Byron Bay Blues Fest, Caxton Street Festival and Broadbeach Bluesfest, to name a few. The band’s second EP, Single Things, debuted at no. 1 on ITunes and remained there for a month.

After a few months’ break from touring, the band were heading towards Port Macquarie to gear up for the first show of their Coming Home tour – celebrating the release of their single of the same name – first to be lifted from the forthcoming EP. “It’s been a while,” says Cavaleri of their live gigs, “But it’s good now; we blew out a few cobwebs during rehearsals last week, so we’re all ready to get back into it.”

This leads to a bit of necessary adapting, when returning to their own headline shows: “Actually, they’ve very different,” says Cavaleri, “Festivals are so quick with the performance – you don’t really get any sound check time, you just get on stage, do a quick blind check and do your thing, whereas you’ve got a bit more time to prepare at your own gigs.”

“At your own gigs, you’re putting a little but more into it – they’re just there for you, while at a festival you’re one of many bands. I really enjoy the festivals as well because you get to see a lot of other bands, generally all of similar styles to yourself.”

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From the age of thirteen, Cavaleri was already a highly esteemed guitarist not only across Australia, but internationally. Having supported the likes of BB King from a young age, he was able to tap into invaluable expertise. He was, however, not necessarily aware of the unique situation in which he had found himself. “I think because I was so young when I supported a lot of those acts I didn’t really know what I was doing,” says Cavaleri, “I didn’t really know who they were – I suppose it’s a good thing because I actually learnt a lot from it instead of being star-struck. It’s pretty special when you get to perform with those big names, in terms of what you actually learn.”

Whilst touring with BB King, Cavaleri appeared fairly disinterested when Jimmy Paige asked for his autograph, distracted by his yearning to see another band. “I definitely got my priorities mixed up,” he says, “I didn’t know who Jimmy Paige was. I was more excited about seeing Ugly Kid Joe. I had no idea, I’m kicking myself today.”

There probably haven’t been all that many people to call in sick to Deep Purple before, but Nathan Cavaleri has been there. Realising, upon being invited to accompany their encore, that he’d never actually played that one song that everyone can play was perhaps a moment of sheer panic for Cavaleri. “Smoke On the Water,” he says, “That was pretty embarrassing. It just dawned on me, I’d never played Smoke On the Water before. I mean, it’s the first thing you learn as a guitarist! And you know what? I kind of knew it in my head but thought, you don’t want to stuff up smoke on the water in front of that many people. I just got a bit nervous and pretended to be sick.

I learnt it that night and ended up getting up with them the next night at Newcastle.”

Far removed from the stereotypical child-star-who-never-lasts scenario, Cavaleri’s parents pulled him out of the music industry for a time so he could finish school. “It was very necessary,” says Cavaleri, “I mean, I wanted to finish school, and I think when you sign with a major label there’s a lot of pressure there as well. It’s easy to kind of go off in their direction, where you might not want to go and not even realise it at the time. I’m definitely really happy that they pulled me out of it at that time because it did allow me to back away and say “what do I really want to do?”. I think you’ve got to be smart. A lot of the time there’s desperation – when you get the attention – to just milk it as much as you can but that’s not really setting you up for a very long-term career.”

Cavaleri’s capacity to maintain the passion he had when he first appeared on television as “that kid who can sure play guitar” is surely astounding, and his upbringing is largely to thank for this. Even speaking to him, it’s clear to see that there’s a lot more driving his work than notions of fame and success. “I think it’s because of the way I was introduced to music when I was really young,” says Cavaleri, “[My parents] got me playing music, it got me through some pretty dark times.”

Coming Home, compared to previous material to come from Nat Col and the Kings, is a little less rootsy, says Cavaleri: “And a ballad,” he says, “We don’t have too many ballads. On the EP that Coming Home is from we’ve got a pretty cool unplugged track – which we don’t normally do.”

This unplugged track, which includes more seldom-used sounds such as that of the mandolin, may be representative of the unrestricted nature of their music writing. “That’s the beauty of being Indie as well,” says Cavaleri, “You don’t get a major label riding you and putting all these restrictions on your tracks. You can kind of experiment. I’m definitely not bagging major labels at all, because they definitely have a place, but not having that pressure just makes it easier to keep in touch with the music you actually want to play.”

So what is it, after all these years, that makes Cavaleri keep pursuing a musical career? “When I play in front of big crowds – and even small crowds – it’s just that feeling you get that everyone’s getting something from it,” he says. “They’re watching a band and we’re all sort of losing ourselves in the music, that’s probably one of my favourite things. It doesn’t matter what you’ve got on during the day, or the pressures, you can go to a bar or something, whenever I go to a pub and I’m watching a band – a good band – I’m lost.”

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Semi-Per

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rmanent Brisbane 2012

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Semi-Permanent 2012 - another inspirational and thrilling year. From photographers to felters, the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre was buzzing with the stories from the industry professionals. Here are some of the highlights from the day.

Beastman showed us his childhood inspirations of street wear and stake lifestyle, and how his artistic style evolved from these beginnings. You may have even seen some of his iconic symmetrical, bold art pieces in Coolangatta and Fortitude Valley.

Bec Orpin, a trained graphic designer and illustrator and very crafty woman. She’s studied fashion design but found her niche in textile design creating fabric patterns and household items.

Toby and Pete, introduced to us as ‘two tall men’, showed us a variety of their work from animation design to branding concepts.

They called themselves ‘specialists with general interests’, taking on all different kinds of projects and loving the challenge.

Bec Winnel showcased her amazing selftaught illustrative style. Preferring to draw girls, these delicate creatures almost leap out of the page at you. This year’s posters also featured her artwork. @Radical Media presented us with some of their online projects, including The Wilderness Downtown and the Johnny Cash Project. If you haven’t seen these already, go and Google them - amazing.

Paul Davies showed us his love for modernism building and visual arts, combining the two in his pieces. He showed us his process and talked us some of favourite pieces.

Andrew Quilty, who Liana interviewed in our last edition, started off with a photo of his very first camera. The audience was captured and inspired by his stunning environment photography.

Last but not least were The Monkeys - an advertising agency with a twist. They’ve brought us the classic ‘Oak Kills Hungry Thirst’ campaign and have also created some TV shows.

The after party was pumping with good tunes and a freshly painted mural by Beastman himself (you could still smell the spray paint). The atmosphere of the night easily reflected the amazing day. SemiPermanent 2013 - we’re ready for you.

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