September Issue
Melbourne | Free
T r oy e S i va n The face of a new generation of Australian pop
Get your head around this year’s Melbourne International Arts Festival
Why Thundamentals are in love with love
Inhale deeply: where are we at with weed these days?
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Credits Publisher Street Press Australia Pty Ltd Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen Group Senior Editor/National Arts Editor Maxim Boon Editors Daniel Cribb, Neil Griffiths
Bring back…
I
Assistant Editor/Social Media Co-Ordinator Jessica Dale
’ve never been one for watching gigs on a screen at home. It’s hard to get into ‘gig’ mode with the distractions of home around you. Mid-guitar solo you may suddenly get the strange urge to do dishes or your could find yourself in the fridge looking for snacks instead of soaking up an encore. Gig home-viewing just lacks the atmosphere of being ‘in the moment’. However, I am a sucker for a great one-song live performance on TV. It’s hard not to miss the glory days of Australian music TV from Countdown through to Recovery. At the moment we have to be happy with a few scraps thrown at us on breakfast TV or US late night talk shows (if you’ve never seen Lizzo’s triumphant Good As Hell post-Trump-electionwin performance on Samantha Bee’s Full Frontal you need to Google the shit out of that now). It’s kinda cool therefore that there has been some movement on the live-music-on-TV front in Australia of late. MTV seems to be pulling itself out of its scripted-reality mire with the return of Unplugged and Total Request Live (this time without Kyle Sandilands). There are also mumblings of new performance-based music shows on free-to-air TV. Plus, there is the possibility that Saturday Night, the Rove McManus show that Ten piloted in August, might get given a weekly slot in 2019. It seems to be a national hobby to rag on Rove (and let’s face it he has served up some shit TV in his time but haven’t we all…) but his Saturday Night pilot wasn’t all that bad. He surrounded himself with a great team of comedy talent that included Judith Lucy, Mel Buttle and Alex Lee. The show also allowed for a stand-up spot and a musical guest — not a bad way to get some local talent back on our screens. Even if Rove’s guest selections are not to your tastes, if it succeeds it may pave the way to some more shows being picked up that do cater to your tastes. Or not. But let’s not give up hope yet. If the bookers for these shows want some guidance please take note of the local talent we feature in this month’s issue. We chat with the likes of Thundamentals, Troye Sivan, DREAMS, The Goon Sax, Tkay Maidza, Ball Park Music and San Cisco. And, we also can’t recommend highly enough the latest release from Cash Savage (SPOILER ALERT: it’s our Album Of The Month). We don’t just supply music though, this month we take a look at creepy internet myths, the explosion of craftivism and we look into the current crop of films memorialising late artists. Hopefully that’s enough to tide you over until your next hit of live music on TV.
Editorial Assistants Sam Wall, Lauren Baxter Gig Guide Henry Gibson gigs@themusic.com.au Senior Contributors Steve Bell, Bryget Chrisfield, Cyclone, Jeff Jenkins Contributors Nic Addenbrooke, Annelise Ball, Emily Blackburn, Melissa Borg, Anthony Carew, Uppy Chatterjee, Roshan Clerke, Shaun Colnan, Brendan Crabb, Guy Davis, Joe Dolan, Chris Familton, Guido Farnell, Donald Finlayson, Liz Giuffre, Carley Hall, Tobias Handke, Mark Hebblewhite, Kate Kingsmill, Samuel Leighton Dore, Joel Lohman, Matt MacMaster, Taylor Marshall, MJ O’Neill, Carly Packer, Anne Marie Peard, Michael Prebeg, Mick Radojkovic, Stephen A Russell, Jake Sun, Cassie Tongue, Rod Whitfield Senior Photographers Cole Bennetts, Kane Hibberd Photographers Rohan Anderson, Andrew Briscoe, Stephen Booth, Pete Dovgan, Simone Fisher, Lucinda Goodwin, Josh Groom, Clare Hawley, Bianca Holderness, Jay Hynes, Dave Kan, Yaseera Moosa, Hayden Nixon, Angela Padovan, Markus Ravik, Bobby Rein, Peter Sharp, Barry Shipplock, Terry Soo, John Stubbs, Bec Taylor
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Our contributors
This month Editor’s Letter
18
Memorial movies
49
This month’s best binge watching
23
Christine & The Queens
50
Leanne de Souza
25
VB Hard Yards
52
eran of the Australian music industry with 25
Shit We Did: Apple Pie McFlurry Guest editorial: Executive Director of the Association of Artist Managers Leanne de Souza
26
Should Australia legalise recreational cannabis?
and advocate for Queensland and women in contemporary music. Currently the Executive Director of the Association of Artist Managers
co-founder of the Rock and Roll Writers Fes-
Tkay Maidza
30 32
55
Creepy urban internet legends
56
Ball Park Music & San Cisco
58
tival. Leanne works and lives on the lands of the Jagera and Turrubul peoples and pays her respect to Elders past, present and future.
nne-Marie Pear
d
Chinese phones
ment and events. A long-standing champion
for the Museum of Brisbane, she is also the
Magical things are happening Weed
years’ experience working in artist manage-
(AAM) and the the Curatorial Advisor (Music)
28
Troye Sivan
54
The Goon Sax, DREAMS
Leanne de Souza is a highly-respected vet-
n : Prudence Upto
Pic
Original creators and special guests recreate The Go-Betweens’ classic album
en
The Big Picture: 100 Keyboards
38
Immersive theatre
40
Thundamentals On writing love song after love song after love song
Donald Finlayson is a young man who enjoys
Pi
34
36
How to keep track of BIGSOUND
Donald Finlayson
net. His interests include: Karaoke with the
Comprehend the whole spectrum of the Festival
Political theatre
59
music and saying stupid things on the inter-
16 Lovers Lane
Artists’ picks of the Festival
Pic: Luke Ebl
Where craft and activism meet
c: A
Melbourne International Arts Festival
Craftivism
Slash Ft Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, Wolf Alice
60
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
61
Album reviews
62
Your Town Body Positivity
44
The Forum highlights
46
Howzat!
69
Your gigs
70
This month’s local highlights
72
The end
74
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with the guitar) and riding horseback across the beach.
Liz Giuffre
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boys, playing the gee-tar (not to be confused
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Liz Giuffre has been writing for The Music since it was Drum Media, joining way back in 2006. When not proudly writing for The Music, she talks and writes music and arts at UTS and sings songs with her baby daughter.
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Her Cherness
Catman (ski-babop-badop-bop)
After her quick visit to headline this year’s Sydney Mardi Gras, certified culture icon Cher is back this month for her first tour of the country in over a decade. The ten-show run kicks off in Newcastle this 26 Sep.
The Cat Empire kick off a huge headline Australian tour 6 Sep that will continue throughout the rest of the year ’til mid-December. Dance the night away to ska? Jazz? Whatever you want to call it, it’s a damn good time. The Cat Empire Noname
Cher
Lakyn
And LO, it was good Back for the third year, Listen Out Festival is heading round the country from 22 Sep for four dance-filled days and nights. With a line-up featuring A$AP Rocky, Skrillex, Brockhampton and Noname, expect non-stop bangers and good times for all.
Lakyn like that Australian-based New-Zealander Lakyn Heperi is starting his first headline tour this September. Known for his acoustic performances on The Voice, Lakyn’s been quietly releasing his own music ever since, the latest being chilled out pop single Sweet Days.
Sword and the stoned Austin-based stoner rock band The Sword are making their way to Australia from 5 Sep. Inspired by iconic metallers Black Sabbath and contemporary doom pedlars Sleep, they’re supporting their latest album, Used Future.
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Stream dreams
Better Pred than dead
This month’s best binge watching
Ever since that sonofabitch Dillon stopped pushing pencils to head into the jungle with Mr Universe back in ‘87, humanity has never been free of the Predators. The newest one The Predator is all hopped up alien GMOs and ready to rumble from 13 Sep.
Kidding
Caiti Baker
Actor Jim Carrey and director Michel Gondry reunite for the first time since Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind with a new series about a kids TV presenter called Jeff, aka Mr Pickles. Despite his multimillion-dollar empire and iconic status, Jeff’s family life is falling apart. Carrey’s reputation for eccentricity and Gondry’s childlike wonder at the world will no doubt combine for an interest-
Bake it or leave it Bluesy pop artist Caiti Baker is taking her show on the road this 20 Sep, starting in WA and heading round the country. Following support slots for Guy Sebastian and a collab with AB Original’s Briggs last year, Baker is clearly heading in the right direction.
ing watch.
Streams from 10 Sep on Stan
Maniac
Maniac is a new dark comedy from Cary Fukunaga (director of True Detective) starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill. Based on a Norwegian show of the same name, Maniac follows two unrelated people who are drawn into a mysterious pharmaceutical trial that claims to cure any and all troubles of the mind. The doctor claims the treatment should only last three days and have no side effects, but we all know how that goes. Streams from 21 Sep on Netflix
BoJack Horseman, Season 5
App of the month: Space Nation Navigator
Anti-hero and star of the ‘90s sitcom Horsin’ Around, BoJack Horseman is back for a fifth season of celebrity escapades and devastat-
Want to be an astronaut? Course you do. Space Nation Navigator was developed in collaboration with NASA. It has games, quizzes, missions and challenges to hone your mind and body for interstellar travel .so you can reach for the stars from your couch.
ing animated emotion. Last season saw a real low point for BoJack (voiced by Will Arnett), and the promise of redemption. All we’ve seen for season five is one mysterious image and a brief teaser trailer, but the hype is nonetheless real for this hilarious and depressing show.
Streams from 14 Sep on Netflix
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Podcast of the month: Do Go On Do Go On is pegged as a fact-based comedy podcast hosted by Melbourne comedians Matt Stewart, Jess Perkins and Dave Warneke. The idea is to learn a thing or two while you giggle, but we tune in to hear Perkins laugh her arse off and Stewart call Sir David Attenborough a cunt.
Wooden’t it be nice Indie-pop artist Woodes is on a roll - from her highly-praised Golden Hour EP earlier this year, to her killer Splendour set in July, she’s going from strength to strength. Next on the cards is her Change My Mind tour, starting 7 Sep in Sydney and heading around the country. Woodes
Tesseract
4Djent Prog-metal outfit and giants of djent Tesseract are gracing our shores this 11 Sep in support of their fourth album, Sonder. It’s been three years since their last appearance at Soundwave (RIP), so this should be huge.
On the road again If you’ve ever wanted to know the weirdest stuff Australian roadies have seen, now’s your chance. Stuart Coupe has interviewed and collated the best stories from backstage and is releasing them in a book titled Roadies - The Secret History Of Rock ‘n’ Roll, released on 25 Sep.
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Kite height Melbourne indie-folk band The Paper Kites have been real busy overseas, with their song Bloom being certified Gold in the US and a new album on the horizon. On The Corner Where You Live is an atmospheric, noir-ish record featuring saxophone and rain noises, out 21 Sep.
Jen Cloher
ImaJen that
Sh*t we did With Sam Wall
Jen Cloher’s had a huge year since the highly praised 2017 release of her self-titled album. She’s hitting the road for a run of intimate solo performances from 20 Sep before heading off again for an overseas tour.
Apple Pie McFlurry Hot damn! A new McFlurry flavour. UberEats and Macca’s have noticed that people who get a McFlurry delivered to their door will often throw a McApple Pie in the order. Instead of making the obvious leap of logic that when people don’t have an audience sometimes they like to double dessert, they’ve
Tech N9ne
decided that the homebody demographic are jamming the latter in the former and hoeing into the lot, M&Ms and Oreo chunks be damned. Whether that’s true or not, the Apple Pie McFlurry is now a reality.
The verdict The regret is almost instant. Less than halfway through it feels like I’ve been given a coat of primer on the inside and my stomach is twitching like a dog having a bad dream. That’s pretty much a standard McFlurry reaction though, definitely not enough to stop me scarfing the rest down. The Apple Pie itself is moist but strangely dry all at once. The cinna-
Hectech The Paper Kites
mon aftertaste is something I can get behind, but it feels like a blessing when the pie runs dry and I can enjoy my sundae in peace. The
Kansas-born rapper Aaron Yates, aka Tech N9ne, is heading down under for an Australian tour starting 12 Sep. Best known for his quick rapping style and wild live shows, he’s bringing his “partner in rhyme”, long-time collaborator and label-mate, Krizz Kaliko.
sensation of finding an unexpected chunk still lurking in a knuckle-thick clot of caramel towards the bottom is definitive proof that the six basic human tastes are in fact sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami and horror. Finishing, I feel quietly, indefinably sad. I would say empty, but the sudden need to scuttle to the head tells me I‘m only just about to learn meaning of the word.
Deep in vogue
Second opinon “All of the flavours were good. You got the vanilla, the caramel, the cinnamon, the
Love him or hate him, US TV creator Ryan Murphy knows how to stun. Having hit paydirt with the twee Glee, he then somehow turned destined-to-be-oneseason-wonder American Horror Story into a long-running cult franchise. Starting on Foxtel in September is his latest series Pose - set in the queer underground ‘80s world of vogue dance-offs. Did we mention James Van Der Beek pops up?
stewed apple; all exceptional flavours. However, when it comes to texture, not so great. That being said, I did eat it all and I definitely do feel sick.” - Felicity, Designer “It’s great! Just remove the apple… and the pie.” - Ben, Designer “From the start, I was hopeful about the sundae. Ultimately though, however tasty it was, I had a whole lot of regrets about 15 minutes after eating it. So delicious yet so remorseful.” Pose
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- Jess, Assistant Editor
Diversifying festival line-ups: ‘This is the new normal. Start yesterday.’ Music festivals are a major hub in Australia’s a cultural landscape. Leanne de Souza looks at the importance of giving everyone a chance to participate.
M
usic festival experiences have shaped who I am, and I know I am not alone. Festivals inform our social lives, provide a cultural education and opportunities for artists and allow the music industry to earn a quid occasionally. Festival performances in front of thousands of people are game-changing for an artist. Artist managers and booking agents know that a festival spot can consolidate years of expensive, self-financed touring. Being booked by a Woodford Folk Festival, Splendour In The Grass, Bluesfest or Laneway Festival at the right time can mean bigger venues on subsequent tours. Festivals are pathways and important cogs of the music ecosystem. In future years, an artist can return to a festival with higher billing, higher guaranteed fees and provide muscle for all important ticket sales. A long-term win-win. The social, cultural and economic benefits of diversity in music festival programs far outweigh ALL resistance, excuses and cop-outs to make change. In his book Australia Reimagined, Hugh Mackay asks, “Who’s afraid of diversity?” Scrolling through @lineupswithoutmales on Instagram, it appears that too often it is the programmers of music festivals. Aside from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (who certainly did not choose colonisation), generations of new Australians continue to live and settle here. I understand ‘diversity’ as the entire glorious spectrum of genders, sexualities, cultural backgrounds and those less able than others physically and mentally. An array of people worthy of celebration, participation and representation. Resisting diversity and clinging to the status quo of the past is no longer an option. If anything, those that do run a risk that will no longer outweigh the benefits. The culture industries are reflecting an overdue correction to society’s colonial and patriarchal power structures, norms and values. Perhaps we are at a zeitgeist moment and the music industry — like it was with the ‘great – Hugh Mackay digital disruption’ — are at the forefront of inevitable social change. Attending, and for an artist, performing at, a music festival is engaging in the social life of the country. Whether it is buying a ticket or offering a performance fee, I believe it is incumbent upon festival directors to provide an experience that is safe, respectful, inclusive and diverse in both transactions. A responsibility of their very citizenship and right to play in the sandpit. A safe festival experience must be a non-negotiable. Important work for social change in this area is being undertaken by many: the education and resources provided by the feminist collective LISTEN; the leadership of Helen Marcou and the Victorian Sexual Assault Task Force; the independent research being undertaken by Dr Bianca Fileborn at UNSW and the formation of Your Choice; an industry-supported campaign to reduce incidents of violence, discrimination and sexual assault at music events. Research has shown that festival attendance creates a sense of community by bringing groups of people together with a common purpose and emerging with a connection (Gibson & Connell, 2003). An expansive attitude toward social inclusion and diversity in festival programming will catch the impending tsunami of social change. Artists’, the music industry’s and audiences’ expectations and attitudes are evolving. A homogenous, dominant experience will no longer work. Neither will what Grayson Perry calls the “Default Man” — white, middle-aged men that look like traditional power. Without men embodying meaningful change, they cannot capitalise on the soft power that gender equity and cultural diversity commands. It is the cultural impact of diverse festival programming I am most passionate about. Australian voices, songs and stories are important. In a cultural landscape increasingly dominated by global playlists and the ongoing resistance of commercial radio to play new Australian artists, music festivals provide space for audiences to be exposed to our culture and songs.
Traditions of First Nations peoples recognise the importance of maintaining culture. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples encode knowledge, traditions and culture within language, art, song and dance. Songs are powerful knowledge systems. Songs can (re)tell history, express emotions and perspectives that are different to what we have known or heard before. If festivals exclude songs created by women, people of colour and those from diverse backgrounds the knowledges within those songs are not exposed to audiences, effectively silenced. Exposure to different perspectives and stories other than the dominant culture builds tolerance and understanding — as anyone in the audience for AB Original’s set at Splendour In The Grass 2017 would attest. Money from ticket sales, sponsorship and government funding is unequivocally the measure of a music festival’s success. However, without economically resilient artists, ALL other music businesses, which depend upon their cultural production, are not sustainable. Accepting guaranteed performance fees for music festivals contributes to an artist’s viability. Those who get the opportunities gain, or retain, the resources. If the majority of a line-up is white, male artists, that is where the economic power is redistributed. When artists of colour and/or women are from overseas (a positive step toward cultural diversity) be mindful that the economic power of festivals is not being redistributed to help sustain the Australian music sector. Line-up reveals are the first ‘bump’ a festival receives in ticket sales and audience interest. Festival marketing and PR can no longer solely control their message through advertising and mainstream media. There is an imperative to cultivate audience participation from the outset and socially networked audiences are powerful and are also the ticket buyers that sustain a festival. The first line-up not only announces the artists but also broadcasts the festival’s own brand – Dr. M Yunupingu and values — their truth. Author Rohit Bhargava presented at SXSW 2018 the trend of “Truthing”. He said, “As a consequence of eroding trust in media and institutions, people are engaging in a personal quest for truth-based direct observation and face-to-face interaction.” The truth sells. Announce a line-up incongruent with common human values of diversity, inclusion, respect and safety you will be criticised and held to account by a networked, demanding audience. The time is over to stop being defensive and hiding behind excuses. The time IS now for ALL the power brokers who program, book, pitch and negotiate Australian artists performances. Start the process, commit to action and get serious about including a ‘diversity rider’ in your artist contracts. Prioritise the creation of line-ups that will have far-reaching social and cultural impact while delivering those all-important ticket sales. This is the new normal. Start yesterday.
“Making money can be one thing. Building bridges can be the other one.”
“Attitudes evolve in response to new experiences.”
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References
Australia Reimagined : Towards a More Compassionate and Less Anxious Society — Hugh Mackay (2018) Non Obvious : How to Predict Trends and Win the Future — Rohit Bhargava (2018) Sound Tracks : Popular Music, Identity and Place — John Connell and Chris Gibson (2002) The Descent of Man — Grayson Perry (2016) www.listenlistenlisten.org www.your-choice.net.au Positive Psychology and Music: The Power of Engagement at Music Festivals
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Guest Editorial
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September
In bloom Second album syndrome is a very real thing bands and artists face, especially after the huge success of a debut LP. Troye Sivan tells Neil Griffiths how he not only managed, but delivered the biggest pop album of 2018. Cover and feature pic by Jules Faure.
“I
had never consciously written happy music before and then I was just really happy in my life and I was like, ‘What does that sound like?’” Sivan recalls. “Nine out of ten times when we’re writing, we’ll start with chords whether it’s on piano or a synth or something like that. And I think that inherently, sort of, makes me want to write something slow and makes me want to write something, maybe just kind of heartfelt or whatever. And so this time I kind of pushed myself. I was like, ‘What if we start with a kick drum instead?’ Or ‘What if we start with...?’ just to push myself a little bit and try and find out what a song that I write that’s not sad sounds like. I wouldn’t have gotten half of the songs on the album if it wasn’t for switching up that process, I don’t think.” While he hit the mainstream already backed by a huge following from his YouTube days, it’s fair to say 23-year-old Sivan’s rise globally was swift. The SouthAfrican-born-Perth-raised artist’s 2015 EP Wild peaked at #1 in Australia and just three months later, he released his debut album, Blue Neighbourhood, which smashed charts around the world and featured hit track, Youth, as well as the previously-released, Wild. Coming into his second record, Bloom, Sivan made a point to not rush the process. “I came into the process really not wanting to rush anything and kind of wanting to take my time and do what felt right,” he said.
“I think I was just really inspired because then the album just came together surprisingly quickly. Songs just started to really fall into place.” In January this year, Bloom’s first single was released — My My My! — which again proved to be a hit for both critics and fans. “I started off the process with my core crew that I wrote my first album with and so it was super comfortable. I felt a lot more confident and comfortable, so we were just trying stuff and having a really good time. The second part of the process was going to work with, like, Max Martin’s crew [Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, NSYNC]. “So that was half in LA and half in Sweden. At that point, I felt we had built enough of a sound with my core crew to then take it to them and be like, ‘Ok, what does the popiest end of that world sound like and how do we find that?’ It was the best.” As well as the already-released track with fellow pop sensation Ariana Grande, Dance To This, Sivan worked with Sydney artist, Gordi (who no doubt will get some extra eyes on her following Bloom’s release) for Postcard. However, some will be surprised to know that despite the Australian connection, it was one fateful flight from the US back home where Sivan first heard Gordi’s music. “I was on a Qantas flight and I fell asleep with the headphones on and it was like, Qantas radio or whatever, and I remember waking up from my sleep being like, ‘Whose
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voice is in my ears right now?’ I didn’t have internet so I was, like, trying to figure out what she was saying and write down lyrics so that I could Google it once I landed. That was probably a good year and a half ago, maybe two years ago... she was in LA and we were gonna write together, basically. I thought maybe we were just writing for me or maybe just writing for her, I didn’t really know what was going on. “I asked her if she would sing background vocals and the bridge on this song and it’s, like, one of my favourite moments on the entire album. I feel like as soon as she starts to sing it, it’s like the air gets sucked out of the room. She’s just got the most beautiful voice and is such a good writer. I’m a big, big fan.” Sivan will embark on a massive tour of the US just weeks after Bloom drops. There is probably no better way to prepare than by performing in front of over 60,000 people with Taylor Swift, which is exactly what he did in May at LA’s Rose Bowl. Shortly after his cameo at Swift’s concert, Sivan confirmed that his guest spot was planned last minute and only came about after he sent a text to Swift asking for tickets to the show that night. “I’m like, ‘Hey can I get some free tickets?’ And she’s like, ‘Well, yeah, if you come on stage and perform with me,’” he recently told Zane Lowe. “I thought I was going to be fine and I actually wasn’t in the beginning,” Sivan admits.
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“I popped up out of the stage like Destiny’s Child style and I loved that. When I looked straight forward, I was like, ‘Ok, the venue’s not that tall, so I can do this.’ The difference was that I looked to the side and it just didn’t end. The crowd just didn’t finish. And then I looked to the other side and there was double on the other side. “Everyone had on these colourful wrist bands, so you could see every single person and then I started feeling kind of queasy for a second. I looked at the floor to try and ground myself and the floor of her stage is, like, LED screens so it’s, like, moving and changing. As a last resort I was like, ‘You know what, I’m gonna look at her face because seeing another person close up in a huge crowd will also probably ground me.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s Taylor Swift!’ So it didn’t help at all. But I managed to calm myself down. Once we started to strut down the stage I felt much better.” Sivan confirms that Australian shows are in the pipeline for his Bloom tour but he’s already focused on what comes next. It could be an album, or it could not. “[A third album] is a little bit in my brain but... I’m also tempted to do whatever I want and maybe do an EP or maybe do some more acting. I’ve also thought about going to uni maybe for a little bit.”
Bloom (EMI) is out now.
“And then I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s Taylor Swift!’”
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High time or pie in the sky: should Australia legalise recreational cannabis?
Greens leader Richard Di Natale wants the whacky tobbacy to be the right side of the law, but how likely is it that Australia may join the likes of Catalonia, Uruguay and nine lucky states in the US to make recreational cannabis use legal? Maxim Boon investigates. Illustration by Felicity Case-Mejia.
T
he year is 1936. America. The Great Depression, the end of Prohibition and the decline of the temperance movement has seen a moral rot spread through the country’s squalid metropolises. And it’s a scourge that good, God-fearing, middle-class suburbanites are petrified of. Because this creeping threat has breached the city limits and is now blighting the bright futures of America’s impressionable youth. It’s green, mean, and will give you the munchies. It’s the wacky tobaccy, the devil’s weed, the jazz cigarette. Or as it became known in the mid-’30s, the reefer madness. This alarmist nickname eventually became the title of a propaganda film, intended as a cautionary tale for anyone who might partake in what we’d refer to today as cannabis. Or at least that’s the title that has endured. Originally called Tell Your Children, this shock-them-straight melodrama was almost immediately appropriated (and renamed) for the exploitation film circuit of the late ‘30s and ‘40s. By the ‘70s, it was being screened by advocates of the cannabis reform movement. Drawn to the film’s hysterical depictions of clean-cut youths transformed into murdering, unhinged, sex offenders, all thanks to a few tokes on that sweet, seductive Mary Jane, it made for an easy piece of ready-made satire. And half a century on, it’s still easy to see why the moralistic apoplexy of Reefer Madness, and its sensationalised depictions of cannabis use, so quickly became the butt of a joke. But while our collective nose for historical humour may have evolved, cannabis legislation has lagged behind. So why, if our moral paradigm has shifted so far has our legal stance remained static? It’s a question that’s being asked by Greens leader Richard Di Natalie, who in
April called for recreational cannabis use to be legalised in Australia. Currently, some uses of cannabis for medicinal purposes are legal in Australia, and in several states and territories — namely SA, ACT and NT — possession of a small amount for personal use has also been downgraded to a non-criminal offense, although it remains technically illegal. Di Natalie has proposed a policy under which a government agency would licence, monitor and regulate the commercial production and sale of cannabis, in much the same way as with alcohol and tobacco. It also calls for the institution of improved safeguards, including appropriate age limits and major restrictions on branding, marketing and packaging. Di Natalie has also proposed that tax revenues from cannabis sales be used to improve the prevention and treatment sector, which may also prove beneficial in tackling alcohol and other substance abuse. However, despite these pros, opponents have still cited several cons to the proposed legislation. Concerns over an increased use of cannabis are closely tied to arguments suggesting this will lead to an increase in crime, car accidents, and
“The suggestion that cannabis use either increases dangerous or antisocial behaviour or leads to the use of more dangerous substances — the so-called “gateway” hypothesis — has been debunked.” other incidents that constitute a risk to the public health. The legalisation of a banned substance should be held to rigorous scrutiny, but the suggestion that cannabis use either increases dangerous or anti-social behaviour or leads to the use of more dangerous substances — the so-called “gateway” hypothesis — has been challenged and debunked by certain studies. There is, however, well-documented evidence that cannabis use is both personally harmful and habit-forming. Studies have shown that up to 10% of adults who regularly use cannabis become dependent, and that habitual use doubles the risk of psychotic symptoms, including severe personality disorders like schizophrenia. Unsurprisingly, studies have
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also shown that driving under the influence and using while pregnant are both bad ideas. Another major hurdle for reform advocates is built into the Government’s official drug strategy, which is strictly based on a principle of supply reduction, which by extension equates to harm minimalisation. This does seem to reveal a problematic double standard, particularly in the definition of “harm.” Receiving a criminal record for possessing a quantity of cannabis for personal use can have a drastically harmful impact on a person’s ability to find employment or apply for overseas visas. This could be mitigated by decriminalisation, which would allow for the offence to be handled via fines, cautioning or rehabilitation orders without resulting in a criminal record, but this would continue to pose a burden on the justice system. The assertion that cannabis should remain illegal on the basis that it is harmful is also called into question by the inconsistency reflected in current laws. Many demonstrably harmful activities are legal, from extreme sports like skydiving and bungee jumping, to everyday occurrences like driving a car or grabbing a pint at the pub. This, combined with evidence that shows cannabis has a very low instance of overdosing, has led some campaigners to say the banning of recreational cannabis constitutes an infringement of civil liberties. This might sound like drawing a long bow, but as was shown during America’s Prohibition era, when the production and sale of alcohol was criminalised, criminal activity goes hand in glove with the restrictive legislation, whereas regulation, taxation and controlled production are all proven and effective measures for reducing public risk. But do Australians even want legal cannabis to become a reality? A recent poll suggests it’s not a big priority for many. Just 30% of polled Australians thought cannabis should be legal, with the most likely supporters among teenagers aged 14 — 17, who under the proposed legislation would still be too young to legally purchase or use cannabis. Another poll — the National Drug Strategy Household Survey — found that only a quarter of respondents felt cannabis should be legalised, and just 15% approved of regular use by adults for non-medical reasons. A quick straw poll among The Music’s staff found a similar divide. While 100% of the office thought the legalisation of recreational cannabis would be a good thing, only a third believed it would lead to them using cannabis for recreational purpose. So in the timeless words of psychobilly trio The Reverend Horton Heat, ‘”Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!” Just don’t expect to be doing it beyond the reach of the long arm of the law anytime soon.
? E N O D GIG
D E B O T N GET I WITH US To help make the business of touring easier and reduce the impact of travel, artists and managers can now access exclusive beneďŹ ts at ibis Hotels, all designed to meet the changing requirements of artists touring around Australia.
FIND OUT MORE AT
accorhotels.com/ibisplaynstay The Music
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September
Ni hao, is it me you’re looking for? Psst, want to know a secret? Some of the best new smartphones coming onto the Australian market are being produced by China’s booming phone industry.
I
n just a few short years, several major disruptors to the dominant stranglehold of Apple and Samsung have emerged from China, with comparable functionality, high-end finishing and quality software. And yet, many Aussies are totally unaware of this exciting electronics offering. We take a look at some of the brands you should be considering before making your next smartphone purchase.
Oppo
Huawei
ZTE
Topping China’s smartphone market for the first time mid-2016, Oppo are riding a wave of popularity in China not dissimilar to Apple in Western markets. First launching Down Under in 2014, they managed to shift just 3000 units in their first year of operations. But slowly and surely they’ve been hooking more and more Australian fans, with sales now in the hundreds of thousands of units annually.
Possibly the least mysterious Chinese brand on the market, Huawei have been selling its phone Down Under since 2012. After offering affordable, low-frills handsets it has now set its sights on the luxury market with new models that boast all the sleek design and cutting edge tech that high-end consumers demand. It’s a company that has designs on world domination; at the 2017 Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas it projected being the world’s number two phone producer by 2019.
Any economist will tell you, competition produces innovation, and this is certainly true of another of the major rivals to Oppo and Huawei, ZTE cut its teeth with cheap and cheerful handsets in a partnership with Telstra. But $200 and $300 burners does not a luxury brand make. While it may still lag behind its competitors, when it comes to the number of features on offer, its devices offer quirky alternatives that will resonate with consumers who want a point of difference.
Top product:
Top product:
Top product:
Oppo Find X
Huawei P20 Pro
Features:
Features:
• “FullView” 6.1 inch OLED display
• Edge-to-edge, uninterrupted
• “Natural Tone” setting that adapts
panoramic screen
to ambient lighting for “paper-
• Facial-recognition security
like” viewing
• 25MP AI-enhanced 3D Camera
Features:
• Two 5.2-inch TFT LCD displays • 20MP rear camera • Price: $725
• World’s first Leica Triple Camera,
• Price: $1140
including 40MP main lens and telephoto lens
What’s great about it: With the phone’s camera stored in a retractable bay at the top of the handset, the screen is seamless across the whole device’s face, beating even iPhone X. AI features anticipates preferences like selfie settings, photo lighting and app use.
The Music
ZTE Axon M
• Price: $1070
What’s great about it: Few new handsets get rave reviews as unanimously as the P20 Pro. In addition to its triplecamera – described as a “game changer” – the unique gradated colour designs give this phone a funky edge on the usual plastic and metallic finishes most commonly on offer.
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What’s great about it: With a unique hinged double screen, the combined screen space is a whopping 10.4 inches. The screens can be used in tandem or in “tent mode” allowing you to display the same movie or image on both screens simultaneously, making it easier for you to share your screen time with a buddy.
Melbourne international arts Festival The Music’s essential guide to the best, brightest, weirdest and most wonderful acts on offer at this year’s fest
Welcome to the 2018 Melbourne International Arts Festival
I
t is an honour and delight to be directing my third festival in our wonderful city. This year’s is a gloriously fiery creature, but it is also a unique opportunity to open a series of doors into parallel worlds, to step through to discover a universe of real and imagined journeys, to become immersed in stories, adventures and experiences far beyond our everyday. As children we stepped through each doorway with excitement and nervousness, never quite sure what would be on the other side. As adults, we too rarely step outside of
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our comfort zone. That all changes at festival time, when we are invited to leap into the unknown, to take a secret door into someone else’s world in the most thrilling and exciting way possible. During this year’s Melbourne Festival, we will get to enter the Royal Botanic Gardens and see it awash with flame (an artist’s impression, pictured above). We can enter a circus tent and discover a world of music and performance. We follow explorers as they travel the Silk Road, or journey back to discover where they
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came from, or push on to safety, or fall into star crossed love. Melbourne Festival creates and opens doors into unmissable, unexpected and unforgettable worlds. And of course, there is also lots of fire. October is Melbourne International Arts Festival. November is for sleeping.
Jonathan Holloway Festival Director
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Keep on lovin’ You
Ahead of the upcoming 16 Lovers Lane show at Melbourne International Arts Festival, Anne Marie Peard chats to Go-Betweens members Lindy Morrison and Amanda Brown and pens a love letter to the historic album.
I
n 1987, the Brisbane-formed, London-based indie band The Go-Betweens returned to Australia, moved to Sydney and then released 16 Lovers Lane, their sixth album, in 1988. In 1988, I was 20 and my soundtrack was 16 Lovers Lane; played over and over on a portable cassette player. 16 Lovers Lane [16LL] is lauded as one of the greatest Australian pop albums and countless artists claim the band, and especially this album, as an inspiration. It’s so loved that a concert version of the album, featuring Lindy Morrison, Amanda Brown and John Willsteed — three of the five band members on 16LL — supported by a who’s who of local singers, is almost guaranteed to sell out at the upcoming Melbourne Festival. I first saw The Go-Betweens in 1987 in an Adelaide pub, where age was never questioned, wine came in schooner glasses and no one was brave enough to step barefoot on the carpet. There was the pretty-boy singer and guitar player in a blue and white striped t-shirt and denim jacket: Grant McLennan. The other lead singer and guitar player, tall and lanky and his
paisley shirt, oozed flamboyant rock-god masculinity: Robert Forster. They were joined up front by a young woman in coloured frills, lace tights, and shiny patent heels playing oboe and violin: Amanda Brown. The bass player was quieter and so damn cool with a long-fringe combed-forward and worn better than any Beatle ever did: Robert Vickers. And the drummer had long, crimped, blond hair and a short dress, punk sensibility: Lindy Morrison. The Go-Betweens didn’t look or sound like an ‘80s Australian band. As Brown said, “It just wasn’t the typical Australian music of the era — to put it mildly.” Grant McLennan and Robert Forster met at university and founded the band in Brisbane in 1978. Morrison joined in 1980, Robert Vickers in 1983 and Brown in 1986. Vickers didn’t return to Australia with the band and was replaced by John Willsteed in 1987. At first listen, McLennan’s music sounds like catchy pop without a saccharine aftertaste. But his genuinely sweet melodies twist with chords so achingly melancholy and lyrics so full of yearning and frustration (and forced rhymes) that they can leave you, “crying for...you don’t know what for” (Right Here, 1987).
In counterpoint, Forster’s songs are like beat poetry written to the melody rather than the beat. His more obscure lyrics often sound dark but are always supported by a belief that the world’s going to be alright. Brown tries to explain why the band are still so loved: “Music, along with filmmaking, is probably the most collaborative of the arts. There’s some inexplicable chemistry with bands that happens and it’s not dependent on musical prowess. It’s a real personality thing, which I think is why when you hear a lot of bands when people have incredible session musicians and the best in the world, but there’s something missing. “The Go-Betweens sort of exemplified the complete other end of the spectrum from that. We weren’t top session players by any means. We just had a certain musical chemistry and a personality that created something really unique.” Morrison says something similar: “We developed as this incredible unit. We were playing exactly the same things, we were just locked in rhythmically and that gave us such a unique band sound. We were so inexperienced as
Pic: Jerzy Wypych
Pic:Thomas Feiner
Now
hear
this
If the prospect of The Go-Betweens’ epic collaboration has put you in the mood for more musical adventures, the Fest has definitely got you covered. Here are the other top highlights from this year’s eclectic music offering.
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Nils Frahm
Matt Johnson and his cheekily named post-
German piano man and composer extraor-
punk group are finally back. In many ways,
dinaire Nils Frahm is back in town, with new
their moniker is a precursor to that joke in
album, All Melody. Defying all categorisa-
Peep Show where Jez names his band Vari-
tions and audience expectations, Frahm
ous Artists in order to “fuck over people with
has become a man well known for bringing
iPods”. But none of that matters when their
down the house and his latest appearance
music is still so excellent and underrated.
Down Under will no doubt be another box
Don’t let them get away from you this time.
office smash.
From 4 Oct at Arts Centre Melbourne
From 12 Oct at Arts Centre Melbourne
m e l b o u r n e i n t e r n at i o n a l a r t s f e s t i v a l
“I am going to sound like a bit of an arrogant wanker now, but I always felt that 16 Lovers Lane was pretty close to being a perfect record.”
players and we all just grew through the original ways we approached the songs and the instruments.” There have already been 16LL concerts in Brisbane and Sydney. The idea was suggested by Katie Noonan, from George, when she was collaborating with Brown on a different project. Brown thinks it “seemed timely and fortuitous” being nearly 30 years since the album and ten years since McLennan’s death. “I mentioned it [the concert] to Lindy. She was very, ‘Do you think we can do it?’ I was, ‘Yes we can!’ and it all slowly came together from there.” Forster was invited and has happily spoken about his decision not to join them in other interviews. Morrison says there are “stupid stories about this” and “whispers that Robby wasn’t happy” but “that’s just old stuff”. “He gave us his blessing and was thrilled we were doing it. He came to the Brisbane concert and he said the highlight for him was to see Amanda do Devil’s Eye. That’s incredible for him to say that because Devil’s Eye was written about her. So, for him to say that...” Fans know the “old stuff”, which includes interpersonal relationships, a miserable break up in 1989 and a 2000 reformation by Forster and McLennan that didn’t include
former band members. The old stuff was also their ongoing issues with labels and that, despite the critical acclaim of 16LL, “it didn’t sell a bean”. Brown laughs as she talks about the “kind of classic that it has become, even though it doesn’t sell like a classic album. “Maybe it’s been long enough to be able to laugh and to love going back to 16LL.” Talking about 1988 and 1989, Brown says, “It wasn’t perfect by any means, but that time of living and working with Grant was incredibly prolific, productive and creative. It was a really wonderful time. We really did live and work together very harmoniously.” Of the new concerts, she says, “Having the guest singers has brought a whole other level and depth to it and something new for people. Otherwise why would you go to a concert, you might as well just listen to the record.” Melbourne-based singer-songwriter and indie legend Jen Cloher is one of the guest singers. She says she “nerded out” on The Go-Betweens when she discovered them ten or so years ago and has since covered Love Goes On! from 16LL, wrote about the band in her song Great Australian Bite, and says that “it’s great to celebrate wonderful records and get the opportunity to step inside of songs, as an artist, and experience the genius of the songwriting”. For the concerts, the original members are also joined by Dan Kelly, Danny Widdicombe, Luke Peacock and special guests on the Melbourne leg are Alex Gow, Dave Graney, Laura Jean, Paul Kelly, Clare Moore, Rob Snarski and Romy Vager. They’re playing the whole album as well as some Go-Between’s favourites. Morrison quietly tells me that Paul Kelly asked to sing Robert’s Spring Rain, and Brown says she’s “dragging out the oboe”, which she has “not really played since the band broke up”, for McLennan’s Bye Bye Pride. Back in 2000, I asked McLennan about the consistent praise for the band and 16LL and he said, “If I answer kind of positively about it, I could sound kind of arrogant.” Years later, Brown is more forthcoming: “I am going to sound like
a bit of an arrogant wanker now, but I always felt that 16LL was pretty close to being a perfect record.” “You can’t say that of your work very often. I really wouldn’t have done anything differently. It was a really — from the start — a beautiful collection of songs, and the arranging and the production. Everything just came together.” It’s an album about love. In his 2016 book Grant And I, Forster says how on 16LL he and McLennan were finally writing songs about love: “A word that both of us, two songwriters obsessed with relationship songs, had conspicuously avoided.” Love is also something that Forster and McLennan received in buckets when they re-formed and released three more albums. They finally won an ARIA Award in 2005 for Oceans Apart, their final album, and continued to have the love of critics. But something was always missing. The 16 Lovers Lane concerts are an opportunity for fans, most now in their 50s and 60s, to let the other members of the band know how much they were loved and never forgotten. Morrison says, “That’s why this period is so nice because I realise just how much we are loved and, yeah, let’s not talk about ‘88 and ‘89 again.” She says the reaction to the concerts has been “unbelievable”. “It’s massive and it’s just filled with so much love. People have expressed so much love for the band and the songs and I’m forever grateful for Robert and Grant. And I say that on stage. It’s their songs we’re doing. But their love for us — John and I and Amanda — and also the musicians who help us out. The audience’s love has been incredibly uplifting for me. It’s really helped my confidence and it’s made me feel so proud of the work. It’s been an extremely positive experience for me.” “It’s been incredible — incredible — to know that people get me. That’s the hardest thing and the most incredible thing that I began to realise was that people actually got me, that they understood me. They understood that I can be gauche, and I can be magnificent. I can be both those things and people can still like what I do and get what I was trying to achieve musically.” Morrison, we always knew you were magnificent. You all were.
16 Lovers Lane is at Arts Centre Melbourne on 6 Oct
Pic: Frederico Martins
Pic: Tao Ruspoli and Marie Noorbergen
Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto
Ana Moura
Tan Dun – Buddah Passion
The vocal art of fado is a Portuguese tradition
A highly celebrated Chinese composer
An Acapella masterpiece created by Renais-
Ryuichi Sakamoto, co-founder of cult
that stretches back as far as the 1820s. With
of classic film scores such as Crouching
sance composer Orlande de Lassus in the
favourite Japanese synth-pop band Yellow
mournful tones and melancholic lyrics, no
Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero as well as
final days of his life, Lagrime di San Piet-
Magic Orchestra, and his long-time friend
other artist expresses the beauty of fado
the man behind much of the Beijing Olym-
ro draws from the poetry of Luigi Tansillo and
and musical collaborator Alva Noto from
better than Ana Moura. A Grammy nominee
pics’ ceremonial music, Tan Dun’s perfor-
the biblical recount of Saint Peter to create
Germany will be bringing their glitchy tones
that’s shared a stage with artists like The
mance of Buddah Passion will be backed
an experience like no other. Peter Sellars and
and exquisite sounds to the crowds of this
Rolling Stones and Prince, Moura is a foreign
by both the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Grant Gershon will be taking this work and
year’s Melbourne Festival.
sensation that simply must be heard.
and the MSO Chorus.
displaying through a modern lens.
19 Oct at Hamer Hall
7 Oct at Melbourne Recital Centre
6 Oct at Arts Centre Melbourne
From 6 Oct at Melbourne Recital Centre
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Lagrime Di San Pietro
CHOOSE your own ADVENTURE From mild to wild, there’s something for everyone on this year’s Melbourne International Arts Festival bill.
W
hether you’re in search of traditional storytell-
fit, artistically speaking, this handy breakdown might
ing or a creative experiment on the bleeding
just do the trick. We’ve sifted through this year’s offering
edge of the avant garde, this year’s program
and ranked eight of our favourite events from most trad
has something to suit just about every taste. But if you’re
to most rad. Simply spin the dial and find your personal
in need of some pointers on where to find your perfect
happy place.
No One Is Watching You
My Name Is Jimi
When to comes to existential absurdism, artist
This beautifully uplifting autobiographical mix of
Ronnie van Hout is in a league of his own. With
music, stand-up, dance and storytelling explores
hints of sci-fi, cultism, art history and pop culture,
the personal reflections of actor and proud
this bizarre and brilliant showcase is a wild ride of
Wadagadum man Jimi Bani, as he prepares to
whimsy and weirdness.
become his people’s chief.
Until 21 Oct at Buxton Contemporary
From 4 Oct at Arts Centre Melbourne
Polyverse
ZZZZ
Aussie photographer
Birds do it, bees do it,
Polly Borland has shot
even educated fleas do
the Queen and Donald
it. No, not that you filth-
Trump. And also a lot
bag! I’m talking about
of adult babies! In this
sleep. This fascinating
sprawling showcase of
exhibition explores
new and recent work, Borland’s exploration of the grotesque and erotic
e im er
the mystery of why
na
l
Exp
attempted to unriddle
a
io
Potter Centre
the ways artists have tr
it
From 28 Sep at the Ian
t
d
fills the frame.
n
al
A Quiet Evening Of Dance
we snooze. From 5 Oct at Gertrude Contemporary
Lexicon
2018 marks the 250th birthday of the iconic circus ring format. To
Don’t be fooled by the
celebrate this milestone,
utilitarian title – there’s
British circus mavericks
nothing quiet about the
NoFit State have created
blistering invention of
a work celebrating the
American choreographer
past, present and future
William Forsythe. This
of the art form.
quartet of works is a rare
From 3 Oct at the Big
chance to see this icon’s
Top, Royal Botanic
work on home turf.
Gardens
From 17 Oct at Arts Centre Melbourne
Layla And Majnun
Watt
A thousand years before Romeo And Juliet, there
In a new adaptation, created and performed by
was Layla And Majnun. With music performed
Irish actor Barry McGovern, this surreal quasi-
by the Silkroad Ensemble, legendary American
comedy of manners comes from the mind of
choreographer Mark Morris has brought this
one of the 20th-centuries most visionary theatre
millennia-old story vividly to life.
makers, Samuel Beckett.
From 10 Oct at Arts Centre Melbourne
From 4 Oct at Arts Centre Melbourne
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The Big Picture
Asuna 100 keyboards We caught up with Japanese multiinstrumentalist sound artist Asuna to discuss their latest work as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, the aurally ambitious 100 Keyboards. The content of 100 Keyboards is easy enough to literally see at a glance, but what is the subtext of this work? Is there another layer of meaning you’re communicating with this piece? My viewpoint is “Moire Resonance by Interference Frequency”. The focus of this work is the phenomenon of sound interference that happens when sounds of the same frequency collide with each other in the progression. What does this work reflect of your personal artistic philosophy? The philosophy in my work is to try to reveal other features that things possess originally from another side by re-irradiation/re-considering. You’ve assembled a range of different keyboards for this piece. What were the criteria for selecting the instruments? The criterion for selection is to be a battery-driven cheap keyboard. For those keyboards, the tuning of each is subtly different. There are things that cause the moire phenomenon to occur. Since the keyboard being played is a cheap product or most of what is made as a toy, the sound/tuning of each is slightly shifted or the transition of unstable sound due to battery driving through it may show. However, complex interference sounds and resonances in the space create different sounds and loops of undulation for each dense position.
Pic provided by Asuna
Using wooden sticks you carefully adjust the timbre of a chord, which produces a surprisingly dynamic sound world. How did you develop this system, and what changes are you aiming to achieve as you make adjustments to the installation? I’ve been interested in the collection of keyboards since my teens and their characteristics from long ago. I was influenced by Tony Conrad, Charlemagne Palestine, Alvin Lucier, Phill Niblock, Harry Partch, Conlon Nancarrow, José Maceda, LAFMS, MEV, HNAS, SPK, Merzbow, Masonna and Donald Judd, Brice Marden, Frank Stella, Josef Albers, Bridget Riley, Walter De Maria, WrK (Minoru Sato-m/s, Toshiya Tsunoda, Jio Shimizu, Atsushi Tominaga, Hiroyuki Iida), etc when I was a teenager. At the same tim,e I was playing in bands like Stillupsteypa, The Dead C, Boredoms, etc. Then I was looking for a completely different own methodology of music. From there, I spontaneously reached this performance. It can be said as a hearing experience or like a colourful ‘fluctuation’ seen in Bridget Riley’s paintings. Maybe.
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What do you want to provoke or instil in your audience when they experience your work, and what is the best way for an audience to engage with this piece? In this site-specific listening experience, the audience will listen to subtle variations of sound interference and resonance that vary based on your location in the performance space. I would like the audience to listen by changing the direction of their ears and/or while moving around the keyboards. Complex interference and resonance in the space can reveal different sound beats and loops between minute changes in position.
100 Keyboards can be experienced at the National Gallery of Victoria from 10 Oct
Earth, water and fire
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Ahead of next month’s Melbourne International Arts Festival, Stephen A Russell explored how immersive theatre will immerse the city within the elements.
e nt M
ute au
Can you handle it?
Shivering in the winter chill of Hobart’s Macquarie Point during Dark Mofo’s inaugural Dark Park in 2015, immersed in the visceral thrill of intriguing art experiences, were turbo-charged installation artists Christian Wagstaff and Keith Courtney’s ambitions. “It really was the turning point for us,” Wagstaff tells The Music. “We spent a fortune going to absolutely every show that year and were absolutely entranced. We knew we had to get involved.” Chasing down a meeting with Dark Mofo’s creative director Leigh Carmichael was the hardest part. When they finally got a face-to-face, Carmichael jumped on their pitch for what would become House Of Mirrors, the visually arresting labyrinth populated by countless reflections of enthralled visitors. Debuting at Dark Mofo the very next year, it has subsequently toured the nation as well as hopping over to Auckland and Singapore, touching down in Melbourne last year as a literally glittering highlight of the Melbourne Festival. Now renamed the Melbourne International Arts Festival (MIAF), Wagstaff and Courtney’s grand vision of immersive art is set to captivate audiences once more as their latest maze, 1000 Doors, take over the Arts Centre forecourt again. Unlike House Of Mirrors, over which the Arts Centre spire towered, this time a roof will cap the experience. “It’s more claustrophobic this time, a pressure cooker,” Wagstaff notes. “We wanted to push the boundaries a bit more. It’s about memories, about smelling things and touching surfaces, feeling different textures under your feet. We want to do something analogue, more connected to your physical self.” Comprised of corridors, anterooms and vestibules, Wagstaff says the many doors involved lead absolutely nowhere. “There’s no final destination. It’s a metaphor for life really, an ongoing disappointment.” Cackling wickedly, Wagstaff hopes that people will be overwhelmed in the most wonderful way by 1000 Doors’ twisting, turning, transitional spaces, tapping into ancient mythology with a handful of carnie’s magic dust. And if he and Courtney have their way, these companion pieces will someday collide, post-MIAF, wildly magnifying their discombobulating effect. “Our art is the experience people have in there, in the moment.”
The Music
Get lit
Just a short stroll across St Kilda Road, humming with the ‘ding ding’ of trundling trams, the Royal Botanic Gardens will light up after dark in another of MIAF’s large-scale immersive experiences. French outfit Compagnie Carabosse will transform the lush green space into Fire Gardens through their haunting use of blazing sculptures. Working with the elemental power humanity has harnessed since our earliest days is thrilling, says Carabosse’s Stephanie Auger. “Just like water, it can be both terrifying and mesmerising, almost hypnotic, and a real moment of poetry.” Though their trademark burning pots appear consistently, each installation is unique, with preparation for Fire Gardens beginning in 2016. Two scouts assessed several possible sites, diligently measuring out their intricacies, with the Royal Botanic Gardens instantly capturing the team’s imagination. Once a plan is drawn up, they build everything they need from scratch in their warehouse back in St-Christophe-surRoc, a village-turned-artists’ commune in Western France, before shipping it out and constructing in situ. “Each one of these installations is an occasion,” Auger says. “We shut down the city lights and the fire does all the rest. That darkness mixed with the flames gives a real cosy feeling to it all. Fire lights everything differently, creating new ways to look at and appreciate the space you are in.” Those spaces have included the Kremlin in Moscow, England’s eerie Stonehenge and an abandoned Moroccan prison, but wherever they have landed in their 20-year-plus career, Auger says Compagnie Carabosse always conducts itself with “great respect of the place where we are invited”. With musicians concealed in the trees and on the water, Fire Gardens is set to enchant. “It’s important to us that the public feels free to go about the show in any way they wish,” Auger says. “They can walk freely, spend as much time as they want and come back around later on. That way, every person attending creates their own visit. Thanks to the night and the fire, there is a quiet atmosphere and a serenity that we find the public respect.”
Dive in
Arguably the most immersive experience on offer at this year’s MIAF, and one of the most topical too, is Curious Directive’s Frogman. Presented at St Kilda’s Theatre Works, it’s a theatrical experience with a difference, augmented by virtual reality (VR) headsets. Set in and around the shallows of the Great Barrier Reef, it’s also a missing person drama told in two distinct time periods, exploring how darkness encroached on childhood imagination. British-based director Jack Lowe acknowledges that 360-degree film could be seen as the antithesis of theatre. “Film often offers our mind specific imagery and representations, something literal, whereas theatre works more from and with metaphor, but mixing the two does do something very unusual,” he says. “It gives you a sensation of being in a room with a community of people, then the more solitary experience of a film.” The idea for the story came about when he was diving at the reef while on holiday and wondered what it would be like to take a theatre audience underwater with him. “Our work is story-driven, so it felt important to use the VR masks as more than diving masks, so we also go back in time using them. We’ve had audiences of all ages and rarely does someone come with much expectation as to what the show is going to entail, which is unusual for theatre.” The company’s first time working with VR, the challenges of underwater filming on a shoestring budget were considerable, but Lowe hopes MIAF audiences will be impressed with the results, particularly as the fate of the natural wonder in question is fraught with question marks amid political inaction. “It’s really difficult talking with our collaborators about the status of the reef,” he says. “It’s an incredibly difficult time and the only way to help things, it seems, is to keep it in everyone’s minds. Maybe this show does that on some level.”
1000 Doors is at the Arts Centre Forecourt from 28 Sep; Fire Gardens is at the Royal Botanic Gardens from 10 Oct; Frogman is at Theatre Works from 11 Oct.
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The Music
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September
ƌȽƷưژǠȄژȵƷǒǠȏȄƌǹژw°ÞژƌȄưژɋǚƷژ -ƌȽɋ ژȏƌȽɋًژwȏưژ¥ȏưȽژȏǑǑƷȵژƌژ ƨƷȽȲȏǵƷًژȲȏȵɋƌƨǹƷژƌȄưژǑɓǹǹɲژ ƩȏǹǹƌȲȽǠƨǹƷژƌƩƩȏȂȂȏưƌɋǠȏȄژۯژ ȏǑ˟ƩƷژȽȏǹɓɋǠȏȄًژǠưƷƌǹژǑȏȵژǑƷȽɋǠɫƌǹȽًژ ȽȲȏȵɋǠȄǒژƷɫƷȄɋȽًژƩȏȄȽɋȵɓƩɋǠȏȄژ ȽǠɋƷȽًژȂǠȄǠȄǒژƨƌȽƷȽًژưǠȽƌȽɋƷȵژȵƷǹǠƷǑژ ژۯȂȏȵƷِژ ¥ƌǠȵǠȄǒژɋǚƷژƩȏȄɫƷȄǠƷȄƩƷژȏǑژ ȽɋƌɲǠȄǒژƩǹȏȽƷژɋȏژɋǚƷژƌƩɋǠȏȄًژɬǠɋǚژ Ƚɋ ɋǚƷژƩȏȂǑȏȵɋȽژȏǑژɲȏɓȵژȏɬȄژǚȏȂƷژ ǠȄƩǹɓưǠȄǒٕגאژɫژۯژȽȏǹƌȵژƷǹƷƩɋȵǠƩǠɋɲًژ ƌǠȵٮƩȏȄưǠɋǠȏȄǠȄǒًژȽƷƩɓȵǠɋɲًژƨɓȄǵȽژ ژۯưȏɓƨǹƷژƨƷưȽژۯژȂȏȵƷِژ
The smarts behind the arts
Why take our word on what you should see when you can get a hot tip from even hotter talent? We’ve picked the brains of the some of our best and brightest local arts figures to find out what events they’re most pumped to catch.
Jean Tong — Playwright
Mama Alto — Gender-transcendent cabaret star and activist
Prize Fighter
Future D Fidel’s Prize Fighter is my absolute
Song For A Weary Throat
must-see, and I feel blessed about its Melbourne debut. As the country grapples with its ongoing,
I am especially excited about this sublime work by the incredible performance collec-
seekers, this theatricalised experience of a global
tive Rawcus, with the Invenio singers. I love
Pic: Paul D unn
grotesque treatment of refugees and asylum crisis feels like an urgent reminder of Australia’s role in that international arena. We are not apart from this. Plus, Busty Beatz did the Sound Design Remix, so my body is ready.
works that explore the deepest elements of human emotion and spirit. Song For A Weary Throat promises to traverse the mysteries of grief, loss, survival, resilience, longing and hope. It is also a well-deserved remount
From 9 Oct at Northcote
for a show that enjoyed acclaim and awards
Town Hall
in its first outing. From 10 Oct at Arts Centre Melbourne
P P i c: A
i c: D y l an
m b e r Ha i n e s
Ev
an s
P i c: An drew Watson
Richard Watts — Editor Artshub and Chair of La Mama Theatre
Particle/Wave
Imagine a collision so cataclysmic that the resulting shock waves cause the very fabric of space and time to ripple, like a still pond disturbed by a stone. Now imagine the aftershocks of that collision, millions of light years later, having travelled
Stephanie Lake — Dancer and choreographer
so far, for so long, that they’re virtually invisible. These are gravitational waves, and until recently
One Infinity
we couldn’t detect them. Their discovery has changed the way we see the universe
I’m curious and excited to see and hear this new collaboration between choreogra-
P i c:
— and inspired artists at the festival this year,
pher Gideon Obarzanek, sublime recorder
FX P photograph
whose words, sounds and images will help us imagine the cosmic and the infinitesimal. From 6 Oct at Melbourne Planetarium
virtuoso Genevieve Lacey and dancers and musicians from Australia and China. It seems to be an extension of themes that Gideon
y.
P i c: R
has been cleverly interrogating across many
ob in Fi sh e r
years — the implication of the audience, symmetry and causal triggers. The Dancenorth dancers are phenomenal and I’m fascinated to see what they do alongside Beijing Dance Theatre. From 12 Oct at Malthouse Theatre
Stephen Nicolazzo — Director and founder of Little Ones Theatre
Bindi Cole – Artist and photographer
John Stezaker: Lost World
Re-Member Me
I’m most looking forward to seeing John Stezaker’s collage works, I get lost
in them. They split my brain right down the middle as I start to dream about
As someone who relishes, wades, bathes, and moisturises in the irreverent, Dickie Beau ticks every box. Taking queer and camp sensibilities and applying
the deeper meaning of his juxtapositions and why he places things where he
them to recordings of earnest and reverential portrayals of the Bard’s Hamlet
does. I’m thinking conceptually and technically and then all of a sudden, I’m
is the only way one should explore Shakespeare in a contemporary age. Why
right back in front of this amazing photography and ready to move onto the next image. Next minute, I want to head back to my studio and create col-
watch another ghostly version of “To be or not to be” when you can see it re-
lages. Inspiring and influential at the same time.
envisioned through a queer lens?
From 21 Sep at the Centre For Contemporary Photography
From 17 Oct at Arts Centre Melbourne
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The Music
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“That’s where revolutions start, baby” As Australians, what are we afraid to say to each other? What truths are too painful to face? This month, the underground activists of Belarus Free Theatre — together with an ensemble of local artists — are urging us to confront some painful realities, writes Rose Johnstone.
em
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as Nat a li a
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“From our personal observation, it feels like the refugee situation in Australia is one of the worst in the world.”
T
here’s a reason why governments censor the arts. And there’s a reason why artists fight back. Politically charged works have the power to shift the way we perceive the world; to empathise with those on the fringes of our society; to incite activism. Perhaps unexpectedly, one of the most radical works in this year’s Melbourne International Arts Festival, dealing with the current political state of our nation, does not come from an Australian company. Trustees is a work by Belarus Free Theatre; an internationally respected group who have been creating highly subversive theatre against all odds since 2005. Founded by Natalia Kaliada, her husband Nikolai Khalezin and their colleague Vladimir Shcherban in 2005, Belarus Free Theatre began by creating work in resistance to the brutal dictatorship of Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the country since 1994. In 2011, the trio were forced into exile, and found asylum in London with the Young Vic Theatre. Since that time, the company has continued to exist under the regime’s radar in Minsk, hosting risk-heavy performances in apartments, forests and underground cafes. Kaliada and Khalezin — both ‘enemies of the state’ in Belarus — often organise these performances and run rehearsals through Skype and social media. For years now, Belarus Free Theatre has extended their reach to other corners of the globe. Their first work, Generation Jeans (which was reprised at Malthouse Theatre several months ago) centres on Khalezin’s experiences and imprisonment in the Soviet Union. Burning Doors was a collaboration with Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina, and included an unflinching portrayal of the torture of political prisoners in Russia. They’ve told the stories of fishermen in Brazil and genocide survivors in Rwanda. Often, humour, and even song and dance, features in their work. This time, they’ve set their sights on Australia. Trustees is the product of nearly three years’ worth of research by cocreators Kaliada and Khalezin, into what Kaliada describes as the “taboo subjects that exist in Australia”.
Ka
li a
da
an
dN ik
ol a
iK ha
in . l ez : Mi P ic
c hi e l euwkerk van Ni
“We started with a series of meetings here in Melbourne with a range of people; business people working with refugees, the Australian commissioner on human rights,” says Kaliada. “We went on a trip to the Northern Territory to spend time with the community... which was very painful but at the same time, very powerful. We tried to understand why people are not interested in the history of the people to whom the land belongs.” “We’d been trying to get permission to fly to Manus,” she continues. “ We didn’t manage to... so we met with refugee communities in Melbourne. From our personal observation, it feels like the refugee situation in Australia is one of the worst in the world.” Once the research phrase of the process was complete, the co-creators moved on to the next phase of the work: delving further into Australia’s collective consciousness. “We are interested in the complexity of humans,” says Kaliada. “Understanding the complexity of life, of different people in this particular country. With every single show that we create, it’s always about reminding people when they stop thinking on a human level.” In bringing this investigation to life on stage, Kaliada and Khalezin gathered a diverse ensemble of Melbournebased performers, who will each talk about their own experiences of life in Australia. “We rely on their thoughts and their understanding of their own country,” explains Kaliada. “Because we are strangers — and we are those who came from outside. We can only create an artistic language. But they are the people who are putting content in it; they’re sharing their lives. With their help, we’re able to try to make our audience think together with us.” One such ensemble member is Hazem Shammas. The Palestinian-born actor — who immigrated to Australia from Israel in the mid-seventies — isn’t planning on holding back in Trustees. “As performers, we’re not pretending,” he says. “We’re putting things on the line, and a lot of them are personal things. [The show is about] Australia now, with all of its political and social issues and taboos, but we’re invested in them as people. The piece is about deconstructing a facade.” What facade, exactly? “There’s so much we don’t talk about,” he says. “We pretend it’s all okay, she’ll be right. We’ve gone backwards, definitely. Things have gotten a lot worse. I’ve been here most of my life and I never felt like I needed to defend my Australianness more than I have recently. We are a severely deluded bunch of idiots — wonderful idiots.” As a seasoned actor (he was recently awarded a Logie for Most Outstanding Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Ismail Al-Bayati in asylum seeker drama Safe Harbour), adapting to BFT’s “very particular process” has been a welcome challenge. “More than just theatre artists, they’re documentarians and anthropologists,” he says. “They really come with questions that challenge you as a person. It’s fucking hard work, but that’s what makes it worth it. It’ll be an amazing piece because of that. It’ll be real.” If Shammas is sure of one thing, it’s that governments have every reason to be scared of political art. “Storytellers and the audience are far smarter than the few people at the top making stupid decisions. And they’re afraid of that. They know that the people telling stories are smarter. That’s where revolutions start, baby.”
Trustees plays from 28 Sep at Malthouse Theatre.
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QUEENSCLIFF, VICTORIA
19-TWENTY ALANA WILKINSON ALI BARTER ALICE SKYE AL PARKINSON AMISTAT BEN OTTEWELL (UK) THE BLACK SORROWS WITH VIKA & LINDA BOMBINO (NER) CARLA GENEVE CHARM OF FINCHES CHINA BOWLS (UK) THE COLLINGWOOD CASANOVAS THE COOL CALM COURTNEY BARNETT DAN SULTAN DONAVON FRANKENREITER (USA) ELLA TRINIDAD FRASER A GORMAN GRIZZLEE TRAIN GURRUMUL’S DJARIMIRRI LIVE HARRY JAKAMARRA (SMALL HALLS) THE HERD HORNS OF LEROY JEN CLOHER JESSE REDWING KASEY CHAMBERS THE LITTLE STEVIES MADDY JANE MADISON VIOLET (CAN) (SMALL HALLS) MIKE LOVE (USA) MONTGOMERY CHURCH OH PEP! OSAKA MONAURAIL (JPN) SARAH BLASKO THE SENEGAMBIAN JAZZ BAND SKINNYFISH SOUND SYSTEM STU LARSEN & NATSUKI KURAI TEENY TINY STEVIES THANDO THIS WAY NORTH TIM SNIDER (USA) TRIPOD THE TURNER BROWN BAND (USA) THE TWOKS VINCE PEACH WANDERERS THE WHITLAMS
23-25 NOVEMBER 2018
The Music
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September
BIGSOUND Buzz Acts Here are the acts we’re expecting HUGE things from.
#TheMusicAtBIGSOUND Couldn’t make it to this year’s BIGSOUND? Fear not, our southern state friends, here’s how you can keep up with all the news, reviews and interviews from this year’s conference and festival.
VOIID We took a vote around the office and VOIID are a unanimous must-see at BIGSOUND 2018. This four-piece garage band promise to melt faces and make boyfriends cry and we are damn curious to see what happens during their set.
Extra, extra
Pod on
Read all about it — BIGSOUND news, that is — with regular stories on conferences, showcases and more on theMusic.com.au
Park the true crime for a sec because we’re back for another huge year of podcasting live from BIGSOUND, where The Music Podcast will be once again interviewing all the buzziest acts and the industry’s most influential. Available wherever you grab your podcasts.
A Swayze & The Ghosts If you haven’t already caught Tassie’s A Swayze & The Ghosts at the likes of Falls Festival, MONA Faux Mo and A Festival Called Panama, on one of many support slots or their own headline tour, now is the time. They’ve honed one hell of a show.
Review mirror
Keep it social
Our intrepid team of reviewers and photog-
Save yourself from a killer case of #FOMO by
raphers will be on the ground in Fortitude
following along on our social media channels
Valley every night to bring you daily reviews
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on which bands you need to watch over the
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next 12 months.
Thando Listen to NUMB, Thando’s track with Remi, and then give us a good reason why you wouldn’t be attending her BIGSOUND show-
Clipped
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Publicist extraordinaire turned personal coach, Viv Fantin tells Cyclone how you can achieve that elusive work/life balance and her top tips for self-care.
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Fantin explains. “I’m a personal coach working specifically with people in the creative industries. I help clients set meaningful, and realistic, goals and help them discover their strengths. I also help identify fears and unhelpful behaviours like selfdoubt, perfectionism and its evil twin, procrastination. As a coach, for me the most important goal is to help the client close the gap between where they are and where they want to be.” But there is a key qualifier. “You can’t judge people,” Fantin emphasises. The creative coach is a new — and niche — phenomenon. “I think I may be the only coach out there — so far — specialising in the music industry,” Fantin suggests. That said, her exclusively, women and a combination of music artists and the people who work behind the scenes with music artists:
the music industry, as artists become ever more DIY
label managers, publishers, managers and publicists. Interest-
— and competitive. Viv Fantin is an accredited per-
ingly, the age demographic is mixed. Some are middle-aged
sonal coach, uniquely assisting those employed in the creative
people who are tired of the way they work and want to find
industries — from composers and performers to executives —
new ways to achieve greater happiness in the workplace. Then
to handle pressure and achieve that life balance. And, at this
I have much younger clients; 20-something music biz workers
year’s BIGSOUND, she’ll be leading the workshop Tune Out
who are proactively trying to achieve a sense of work/life bal-
Your Inner Critic.
ance and create strong boundaries around when work ends
ness. She commands legendary status as an entertainment
Here are the acts we’re expecting HUGE things from.
clientele is surprisingly wide. “My clients are mostly, but not
ental wellbeing, or self-care, is finally a hot topic in
Fantin knows all about the demands of the music busi-
BIGSOUND Buzz Acts
Pic: Savannah van der Niet
Put me in, coach
and home life begins.” Conveniently, Fantin liaises with users both over Skype and in person (she visits Sydney bimonthly).
publicist in Sydney and beyond. “I’ve been around the Austra-
As for the most common dilemmas confronted by espe-
lian music industry forever!” Fantin acknowledges. Indeed, she
cially music-makers? “Boundaries, or [the] lack of them, is
went from gigging in-house at Festival Records to being the
a recurring theme,” Fantin reveals. “There’s a real issue with
national publicity director of Big Day Out (“in the glory years,
being unable to disconnect properly from work. People feel
from 1993 to 2006”) to plugging other iconic music festivals.
they have to be constantly available and are afraid of the con-
Even today, she still works with APRA (Australasian Perform-
sequences if they choose to switch off for the evening. Perfec-
They caught our attention with their match-
ing Right Association).
tionism is another big one. It can totally paralyse people and
ing outfits and kept it with their damn catchy
kill creativity.”
tracks. Nice Biscuit will surely gain yours too
However, Fantin has gradually made the transition from PR to media trainer to personal coach — launching Next Act
Fantin admits that social media exacerbates anxiety — art-
Coaching in her adopted Byron Bay home in 2015. “I shifted
ists compelled to not only engage with fans, but also to closely
directions because I was basically burnt-out from years of say-
follow their peers. “I think social media has created a real issue
ing, ‘Yes,’ to everything; not giving myself enough downtime
with musicians falling into the comparison trap,” she observes.
or having strategies to manage stress,” she shares. “I’d always
“Our ability to curate social media can make everything look
been interested in the ‘helping’ professions, so coaching felt
glossy and easy.”
right to me.” Fantin sees herself as a “recovering perfectionist”.
As a veteran, Fantin welcomes the fact that the music
“A lot of the issues that are presented to me are ones that I
world is now recognising the significance of psychological
have personally experienced.”
welfare. “I feel there are a lot of positive changes happening, in
A coach’s primary role is to listen, analyse and guide cli-
that people are far more aware of the mental health challeng-
ents. “There are plenty of different types of coaches: business
es faced by people working in the music industry,” she says.
and executive coaches, career coaches, fitness coaches, etc,”
“[But] I think some organisations could do more to encourage
Nice Biscuit
with their floaty harmonies and bouncy riffs.
their staff to disconnect when they leave their place of work. All of that needs to be role-modelled from the very top.”
Personal Coach Viv Fantin’s Three Self-Care Tips For Musicians 1.
Re-think your relationship with stress.
Often our perception of stress is greater than the thing that’s stressing us. Ask yourself these questions: “Is what I’m stressing over within my control? Do I have the ability to influence the
CLEWS They say they were raised on the “anthemic ballads of the ‘90s”, and from what we’ve heard from CLEWS that sounds about right. This Sydney sibling act are definitely worth your time.
outcome?” If not, then try and let it go. Also ask yourself, “Will any of it really matter in a week, in a month, or in a year?” 2.
Don’t say “yes” when you really mean “no”.
Constantly saying “yes” to the needs of others can often mean no time left to attend to your own. Your personal goals and self-care get put on the back burner and then resentment starts to kick in. 3.
Challenge that perfectionist thinking.
Perfectionism is subjective. What evidence do you have that something is either perfect or not? Let’s face it, it takes energy and time to be ‘perfect’. Do an audit on how much time it’s taking you to be perfect or do perfect work. Are you re-writing, re-checking
Kwame
[and] re-recording to the point where other aspects of your life are being impacted? Ask yourself, “What’s the
Western Sydney’s Kwame has already played
worst thing that can happen if you do work that’s less
Splendour In The Grass, earnt well over two
than perfect?” Make good-enough great.
million plays on Spotify and supported acts like Migos, Bliss N Eso and Peking Duk. We’re sure his fanbase will be growing as rapidly as
Viv Fantin speaks at BIGSOUND 5 Sep.
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his streaming numbers after this BIGSOUND.
“I basically had just fallen in love and I was writing love song after love song after love song.”
Thundastruck
I
n 2018, Sydney hip hoppers Thundamentals are celebrating their 10th anniversary. But, instead of indulging any dual MCs Brendan Brendan Tuckerman of nostalgia, “Tuka” Tuckerman and Jesse Thundamentals talks to Cyclone “Jeswon” Ferris plus DJ Morgs Jones) are looking about the therapeutic nature of the (Morgan ahead with a fifth album, I Love writing process, love songs, being Songs. Most surprising? It’s a album about love. yourself and detaching from the concept Thundamentals’ defacto need to impress to other people. leader, Tuckerman, is running early for a 9.30am interview — Feature pic by Luke Eblen. rare in the entertainment world. “I actually write some of my music first thing in the morning, so I’m always up,” he says seraphically down the line. Like Hermitude, Thundamentals hail from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. In fact, Tuckerman cites Hermitude and A Tribe Called Quest as touchstones. Notably, Thundamentals supported the fabled Tribe in Sydney back in 2010. “It’s just crazy — I can’t believe that happened,” Tuckerman rhapsodises. “I didn’t realise Phife [Dawg] was so small; I didn’t realise Q-Tip was so tall. Holy shit.” Thundamentals premiered with an eponymous EP in 2008. They’d issue a trinity of albums on the now defunct Obese Records before signing to Universal Music and introducing their own imprint, High Depth. Last year Thundamentals presented Everyone We Know, reaching #2 on the ARIA Albums Chart. (The single Sally, featuring Hermitude singer Mataya, was voted #8 in triple j’s Hottest 100 poll.) Nonetheless, in December beatmaker Kevin “Poncho” Kerr quit for a solo career (and to pursue Check The Guide on an unexpected interest in cryptocurrency). theMusic.com.au Meanwhile, Thundamentals have continufor more details. ously gigged, recently hitting regional hubs
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with their Decade Of The Thundakat Tour. Typically, Thundamentals would take a year off to do individual projects. In 2015, Tuckerman dropped the successful Life Death Time Eternal, sonically referencing Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Drake and Flume. He even performed at New York’s CMJ Music Marathon. But, a decade in, Thundamentals seem to be driven by a creative urgency — and so they progressed with I Love Songs. “Personally, I just don’t stop writing,” Tuckerman states. “It’s kind of like therapy — it seriously is therapy to me. If I don’t do it, I start feeling super-guilty and weird and anxious.” He shared his new songs with Thundamentals’ other members — the autobiographical trajectory similar to LDTE. “I basically had just fallen in love and I was writing love song after love song after love song. They didn’t mind a couple of the ideas I was putting down. We just decided to do another Thundas record straight away, rather than me do another solo record and they do collaborations or whatever they wanted to do. So it was a really organic decision that we made; just to put it together.” Thundamentals completed I Love Songs with local producer Carl Dimataga (lately credited as a composer on Khalid’s American Teen) and guest vocalists Eves Karydas and Adrian Eagle. “I’m really happy with how it came together. It’s been the least stressful songwriting process we’ve ever had — everything just kind of fell where it fell. Normally, the energy is quite anxious sometimes. This one was really relaxed and organic-feeling.” Led by the hooky I Miss You, I Love Songs is far from a conventional Australian hip hop album, with inflections of R&B, electronica and Caribbean music. Yet, in exploring emotions, the album concept also defies the genre’s hyper-masculinity. Says Tuckerman, “What underpinned the entire
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project was this sense of vulnerability and not being so associated with the masculine or the feminine and just being yourself.” Indeed, Thundamentals recognised the significance of that sentiment in 2012 when they covered Matt Corby’s soulful Brother for triple j’s Like A Version. “We noticed that, [by] putting your vulnerabilities forward to people, not only does it make you seem more like a real person, but it actually showcases a lot of powerful elements of your personality — because, once you’ve got your cards on the table, per se, you’ve got nothing to lose; you’ve got nothing to hide. So showing your vulnerabilities is almost a way of showing how powerful you really are. People that are speaking their genuine truths about things, rather than hiding them, I feel is a way forward. I guess we did that in our songwriting for I Love Songs as well — just not being so attached to wanting to impress people with all our whims, but more going on the genuine story of how complex and fucked-up love can be.” In March, Tuckerman circulated a Tuka single: the aerial Naked Heart. “I’ve got so much stuff that I’m gonna show with the solo work but, at the moment, the band is just killing it. I’m loving the guys so much that we’re gonna keep going...But I’ll definitely be back. I’ve got a really weird project that I wanna drop sometime next year. There’ll definitely be another solo record sometime next year, too. So it’s all there...It’s like, Thundamentals, we’re ten years deep and we’re just going for it.”
I Love Songs (High Depth/Island/Universal) is out this month. Thundamentals tour from 10 Nov.
A life in film Speaking to director duo Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui about their fashion icon biopic, McQueen, and Thomas M Wright about his Adam Cullen documentary, Acute Misfortune, Anthony Carew takes a look at how we bring late artists to life in film.
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hen Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui began making McQueen, a documentary about the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen, they had a bunch of other docs in mind. “Having worked on Listen To Me Marlon, Peter knew what it was like to make a film that’s essentially bringing someone back to life,” offers Bonhote. “We [loved] Pina, the Pina Bausch movie from Wim Wenders, [where] there’s no celebrity interviews, just commentary from close collaborators; where it’s all about the dancing and the creativity. Senna was a big one. It doesn’t matter if you’re not a petrolhead, if you don’t care about Formula One at all. It’s almost like a Western. And, obviously, Amy, the Amy Winehouse documentary, was incredible, such an intimate portrait that at the end you felt like you knew her.” For those scanning for portraits of fallen artists, streaming-service menus are now littered with endless docs and biopics. Often they chronicle self-destructive figures; genius, in both narrative and archetype, oft entangled with darker impulses. Winehouse is a great example of a favoured subject: the musician who died young. Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin; of course films have been made about them. Control turned the tragic demise of Ian Curtis into steely art. Bohemian Rhapsody will soon bring Freddie Mercury to screen. Jazz icons from Charlie Parker (Clint Eastwood’s Bird) to Miles Davis (Don Cheadle’s Miles Ahead) have seen their drug-addled lives depicted on celluloid. In the past year, we’ve seen two docs about Whitney Houston (Whitney: Can I
depiction of the musician; as if out to shake the cliches of the music biopic, so entrenched with the success of Oscar bait duo Ray and Walk The Line that they begat the piss-take Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. The acclaimed new Australian film Acute Misfortune is another portrait of a selfdestructive artist that engages with greater notions of storytelling. It’s adapted from Erik Jensen’s biography of artist Adam Cullen, in which Jensen’s life becomes entwined with his subject, an oft-violent painter who drank himself to death. When director
Be Me and Whitney), something recalling 2014’s duelling Yves Saint Laurent biopics (Yves Saint Laurent and Saint Laurent), or 2009’s two Chanel period-pieces (Coco Before Chanel and Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky). Fans of French cinema have also just watched Gauguin sleeping his syphilitic way around Tahiti (in Gauguin) and Rodin lay pipe in between glowering sculpting (in Rodin); far better are the prior films made about Rodin’s lover, Camille Claudel (Camille Claudel and Camille Claudel 1915), whose story speaks, sadly, to the crazy-artist myth.
“One of the reasons we wanted to explore this cultural phenomenon was to have a conversation with the culture.” Thomas M Wright read an excerpt from the book, his first reaction was, “Why would anybody bother to write a book about this fuckin’ asshole?”, but soon he found himself intrigued by Cullen as an artistic figure. “The persona has been captured, revealed, explored, and exploited by this author,” Wright says. Knowing that “there would be no reason to make a traditional biopic” of Cullen, Wright instead questions the problematic nature of the Great Male Artist and toxic masculinity. “One of the reasons we wanted to explore this cultural phenomenon was to have a conversation with the culture. At the end of the day, Adam Cullen was an artist
Even outsider-artists are being brought to screen, be they depicted in a biopic (Maudie, Seraphine) or documentary (In The Realms Of The Unreal: The Mystery Of Henry Darger). Ethan Hawke’s third directorial effort, Blaze, arrives as a prime self-destructivemusician story. It tells of cult country songwriter Blaze Foley, who was shot and killed in 1989, at just 39. Hawke has a history in this cinematic sub-genre: he recently played Chet Baker in Born To Be Blue, and appears as an interviewee in Eugene Jarecki’s The King, which uses the iconic figure of Elvis Presley to examine American society. Though based on a memoir by Foley’s wife, Sybil Rosen, Blaze is an interpretive,
Acute Misfortune
that, everyone knew, had swastikas tattooed on his arms, yet Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull owned his paintings.” Echoing the book’s evocation of the writer’s relationship to their subject, Acute Misfortune also sits close to Cullen: filled with his real paintings, lead actor Daniel Henshall wearing Cullen’s clothes. And the writer’s real-life downward spiral gave the film a sense of drama. “There’s all sorts of self-destruction that all of us engage with on a daily basis,” Wright says. Self-destruction leads us back to McQueen, where Bonhote and Ettedgui chronicled an “extreme artist” whose dark work served a therapeutic outlet, but who still died, by his own hand, at just 40. “It’s almost a film about madness,” Bonhote says; McQueen’s essential moral being “the more successful you are, the more demons you have”. Neither the filmmakers nor the interview-subjects wanted McQueen to shy away from the unflattering elements of its subject. “We wanted to make a film about the man, not the fashion designer,” Bonhote offers. “Through the shows, which [McQueen] always said were so autobiographical, you could magnify other elements of his life: his darkest secrets, the abuse he suffered when he was younger, his mental health issues. His interest in darker aspects in life echoes with a lot of other creative people.”
McQueen is in cinemas from 6 Sep
McQueen
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Making Chris-tory French pop artist and performer Chris (formally Christine from Christine & The Queens) is exceptional in many ways. She spoke to Liz Giuffre about her latest tunes and transformation.
a good comparison to be made between Jackson and Chris’ bold attack. A recent cover spot on The New York Times, featuring her Girlfriend film clip, also confirmed her impact with the medium, noting not only a strong visual style, but also a striking attack on genre and gender. Releasing music previously as Christine and The Queens, now the artist prefers simply Chris as her stage personae. The change of name (another honing in of a character separate to her birth name) is a deliberate statement and plays with the audience and identity. “With Christine, the first iteration of my stage character, there were already questionings about gender, very much so. There’s a song on the first album [where] I’m singing about having a penis for like four minutes. And it was fun because people didn’t ask me how I wanted to be gendered then…But now with ‘Chris’ and my shorter hair, people are immediately assuming that I want to be gendered masculine. So it’s interesting to me because the visible is so much more of a language than what you’re saying, and of course I’m being really candid because I’m in the pop territory and I should know better, but it’s interesting that I’m just discovering now [that how I look is more impactful than what I say],” she laughs. The different rules for men and women are explored on Chris’ new self-titled album in many ways, and it’s a play she put in deliberately. “Chris is very much a strong woman, and the femininity in that record is not really classic. It’s really side by side with macho culture, with wet hair, an open shirt, and actually, if you think about the macho culture and macho way of exposing your body is really feminine also. So by doing that I’m going back full circle to my own body way more. And this is why it’s so interesting to me, I’m just staging the hypocrisy of the social construction of gender norms, I’m kind of showing the theatrics, it’s working on me as a woman.” Chris could easily give a lecture on identity politics and leave it there, but instead, her approach is to stay firmly in a self-proclaimed ‘pop’ world. It’s an even more interesting juxtaposition given pop is the genre where style and substance are often seen as mortal enemies. “Yeah, I think in pop territory there is a possibility to over-perform gender to the point where it becomes absurd. When I think about Madonna, I think about the conic breasts, that were almost phallic, they were so pointy
and big they were almost phallic, so it was like, ‘Oh, ok. You just made breasts phallic!’” she says. “And there is a certain empowerment that comes out of this because to me, the pop star is always exploring, and hopefully it’s not just freedom that should be just in that entertainment category, it should be available elsewhere. I think if you can be the start of a conversation on a table somewhere, then it’s great.”
Chris (Because/Caroline) is out this month.
“I’m just staging the hypocrisy of the social construction of gender norms. I’m kind of showing the theatrics.”
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Pic: Jamie Morgan
F
ollowing on from the catchy-as-hell single Tilted and debut record Chaleur Humaine (released in France in 2014 and here in 2016 as Christine and The Queens), new record Chris already brings crackers Doesn’t Matter (or Voleur de Soleil) and Girlfriend (or Damn, Dis-Moi). Whether you’re listening in English or French, the appeal of each track is hard to deny — tracks produced with freshness and colour and supported by bold stylised film clips. “I have no preference actually,” she says of the process of making music in both French and English. “French is my native language so I like the musicality of it, and English, I do love the powerfulness and the ‘pop-bouncy-ness’ of it, so it’s hard to choose.” An important part of Chris’ appeal is her performance style — bold but understated, and with a charisma that we seldom see these days. “Every time I’m writing an album, every song comes infused with a video, and so each song comes with that theatricality for me. I can’t separate a song from the performance and sometimes the performance helps me finish the song or work on the production. I’d say that the music is at the core of my work but the performance aspect of it takes the lead really quickly after that,” she explains. “I can easily get obsessed about what I want to do on the stage and on the TV. And it’s really hard to do good TV actually, because it’s difficult as a format. I’m always trying to bring some warmth and presence and even some awkwardness even, to just move away from having it be too glossy and dull. I think that TV can be a bit like anaesthesia; you can just be dull to it, so if you can create a silence or an accident or sense of hesitation on TV, then it’s also really cool.” At the moment those musical performances are drawing attention as much as Chris’ sounds — with spots on international big name talk and performance shows like Later... With Jools Holland, The Tonight Show and The Graham Norton Show. When asked about preparing and staging such pieces, she gets into the medium, but also its former king. “I always think of the television moment as a theatrical moment. I’m sorry, I’m going to talk about him, I’ve been refraining for an hour,” she says with self-deprecating fandom but also reverence. “When you think about a Michael Jackson performance there is a sense of resonance between the video clip and the [television] performance. And also, when I prepare for television I think some people don’t know me at all, so I have three minutes to try and introduce them to what I’m about and what the song is about.” For those of us captivated by Chris on screen as well as in the speakers, there’s
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100 KEYBOARDS 16 LOVERS LANE ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO ANA MOURA EXTRA SHOW NILS FRAHM ANNOUNCED PARTICLE/WAVE EXTRA SHOW THE THE ANNOUNCED feat. Lindy Morrison, Amanda Brown, John Willsteed & special guests
& MORE
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festival.melbourne
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You can get it playing a gig The VB Hard Yards Tour is affording three hard working, up and coming bands the chance to play with some big name headliners. After a shortlist was chosen, the public decided the winning acts that deserved to head out on the road. Here, we get the Victorian winner, Claws & Organs, to ask some advice of an act that’s already done the hard yards in the headliner for the Melbourne leg of the tour, Alex Lahey.
Claws & Organs: Was there a time when you’ve wanted to give up? If so, what made you keep going? Alex Lahey: To be honest, I’ve never wanted to give up. Sure, I’ve been in the back of a tour van in the middle of winter in Ohio with a sinus infection and a month’s worth of solid shows ahead of me within a four month world tour and thought “I can see why people bail on this”, but that idea has never occurred to me as something I need to do in order to be happy. C&O: What have been your biggest obstacles? AL: Seeing and acting on the black and white in an environment that requires you to be emotionally vulnerable in order to do your job properly. C&O: What’s the best advice you’ve received? AL: “Project what you think the norm should be and the norm will follow” — Sara Quin (Tegan & Sara) C&O: What is the worst advice you’ve received? “You know what that song needs? Mouth organ.” — Middle aged man at regional show giving unsolicited creative advice. C&O: Is there anything you’ve done in your career that you would have done differently? AL: Although retrospect is a valuable thing to consider and learn from, I think that it’s important to keep looking forward. Of course, we can always do everything differently, but I think it’s important to stick to your gut and believe that if it doesn’t go to plan, there’s always a “next time” where you can assess what didn’t go so well and make the necessary changes. C&O: Have you made any mistakes that you’ve learned from and have become positive? AL: Being drunk on stage does not work in my favour. I suppose it has become positive because now I have more beers to enjoy after a show.
Claws & Organs. Pic: Kane Hibberd
C&O: What are some of the biggest sacrifices you’ve had to make in your career? AL: Accepting being away from home for the majority of the year when in a touring cycle and knowing how much I’m going to have to suck up to my cats in order to win their love back when I return home. C&O: What is your opinion of the inequalities within the Australian music industry and have you been impacted by this? AL: My opinion is that the ratio between talking about the inequalities within the industry and the action being taken to rectify them are grossly disproportionate. It’s about time that we all stand up and actively make collective changes. C&O: How does the first gig you ever played compare to the most recent gig you played? AL: Hopefully the most recent gig was a bit better! The first show I ever played with this project was in the carpark next to the Tote and the most recent show I played was at a boutique festival in a small town in Ohio — so it’s actually quite a good gauge of how far it has come along with demonstrating some of the weird and wacky places this job takes you in its every stage.
Alex Lahey. Pic: Peter Dovgan
C&O: What do you think the future holds for guitarbased music? AL: I think that the future of the guitar is in the hands of non-male identifying individuals. I’m so inspired by publications like She Shreds that shine a light on women and GNC guitar players who are pushing the boundaries of the instrument both as solo musicians, within groups and in the studio.
The VB Hard Yards tour runs from 3 Oct.
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Turning DREAMS into reality
Silver pillow dreams Brisbane trio The Goon Sax return with their second album and as Louis Forster and Riley Jones explain to Chris Familton, the desire to document their thoughts and experiences through an open musical relationship remains the driving ethos of the band.
Bryget Chrisfield checks in with Daniel Johns (Dr Dreams) and Luke Steele (Miracle) to uncover musical connections that overlap like a complex Venn Diagram to make DREAMS come true.
T
hey were still teenagers negotiating the twin worlds of school life and being in a band when they released their debut album Up To Anything and now, facing the challenge of adulthood and the new responsibilities that come with it, The Goon Sax have found some different angles from which to write about familiar themes on its follow up We’re Not Talking. “I think growing up was definitely a big theme,” says singer/guitarist Forster. “We were writing more about love than we’d written about before. On the first record, we were writing about that from an outside perspective, as a foreign concept. This time it was closer in that sense,” he reveals. “It was also about finishing school and worrying about what we were doing every day, which we hadn’t had to do for 18 years.” The group recorded the album down in Melbourne at Super Melody World and though they have mixed feelings about the experience, both Jones and Forster agree that it yielded positive results. “The recording process was really different because we worked with producers who had an idea of what we should sound like and we had a different idea, so the album is like both sides pulling and fighting for some middle ground which definitely makes it interesting,” reflects Jones. Forster agrees, adding, “we started writing as soon as we finished recording the first album, from 2015. It’s coming from the same place as the first record. I think there’s tension in every aspect of the record. It feels like it has so much tension and energy, that feels like it’s on the verge of falling apart or exploding which is a good thing. It didn’t seem like a good thing at the time but maybe it is now,” he says, with the benefit of hindsight. One feature of the album is the increased democratisation of the musical relationship between the three of them. Alongside James Harrison, all members contribute lead vocals to the new album. “We definitely sing the songs that we write and then the others chime in. We recently made a rule that anyone can chime in whenever they like and so far that has worked well,” explains Jones. That willingness to try new things on We’re Not Talking extended to the use of new instrumentation such as strings, piano and more across its 30 minute playing time. “We wanted to experiment with drum machines a bit and have some horns and things,” says Forster. “We all wanted to sing more on each other’s songs. There are more group vocals and we were all having more influence on each others songs, both with the singing and the ideas we were putting forward. There are bits of Riley and James on all my songs and vice versa which wasn’t maybe there before that. It wasn’t necessarily a conscious thing but we did it at the time and it felt good.” One common element that the newer songs share with the first album is the streak of melancholy and self-doubt that permeates their music. Is that a representative of their personalities or just the mood and tone of how their creativity is naturally expressed? “I think to some degree it is part of our personalities but we definitely wrote about things that were difficult and that bummed us out at the time and writing about them made us feel good again. Sad music is made for a reason and maybe it’s to repurpose something you’ve gone through,” ponders Forster. “It’s important for us to make music that feels necessary, not just for the sake of it. You need to feel like you have to do it. I like the absurdity of putting sad lyrics to happier sounding music, it just makes me laugh.” Jones has a similar take that also reflects the way she enjoys listening to music. “I like it when you can be nostalgic about those kinds of feelings and remember through the music how strongly you felt about something.”
The Dissociatives/Paul Mac Daniel Johns: “I met [Paul Mac] at an ARIAs afterparty and I’d just heard the Itch-E & Scratch-E record. I think I was about maybe 17 or something, you know, really full of enthusiasm. I was like, ‘Wow, Paul Mac! I love Itch-E & Scratch-E,’ and we got talking. He was living in the Blue Mountains... I had quite bad agoraphobia and wouldn’t leave the house and I said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t leave,’ so Paul just got in his car and kind of came and kidnapped me [laughs]. So we went to the Blue Mountains and then we did I Can’t Believe It’s Not Rock and then from there we stayed in touch. Paul played on a lot of Diorama... and obviously played a lot on Young Modern, and then subsequently toured the Young Modern record with Silverchair. And prior to that we’d done The Dissociatives, as well.”
Grandmaster Flash Luke Steele: “We struck up a friendship straight away. [Grandmaster Flash] did a couple of remixes
for
[DREAMS]...
He’s
quite old-school so he doesn’t really email much; he’ll just call outta
We’re Not Talking (Chapter/Inertia) is out this month.
the blue and go, ‘I’m thinking this, whaddaya think about that?’”
Lindsey Buckingham Luke Steele: “When [Empire Of The Sun] worked with Lindsey Buckingham it was quite organic. I spoke to him on email and he said he’s in LA and he’ll come down to our studio. And he just sort of sat on the couch and we just jammed for seven hours and, you know, made a song outta that.”
Beyonce Luke Steele: “I had this session with Jeff Bhasker, who’s a big LA producer, and we did that song [Rather Die Young]. He was working with Beyonce at the time and he said, ‘She’s been saying she needs one more track, let me send it to her,’ and then he got back saying, ‘She wants it’.” Pic: Ryan Topez
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Tkay takeover
Kimbra/Van Dyke Parks Daniel Johns: “I think Kimbra had known [Van Dyke Parks] through the work that I did with him on Diorama, and I did
With a new album and a big tour on the way, Tkay Maidza chats to Cyclone about the art of flexin’, production inspirations and the influence of Duckwrth.
a few songs for Kimbra’s record [The Golden Echo], and Kimbra wanted Van Dyke to do an arrangement for our song. So we knew each other through that project — the three of us — and then Van Dyke wanted us to be the vocalists for this [2013 Adelaide Festival] performance.”
Scott Horscroft Luke Steele: “The first session [DREAMS] ever did was at Big Jesus Burger, which was a famous Sydney studio... For many years it was Scott Horscroft’s studio — he’s actually my A&R guy now – but, yeah! That was a big hub for everyone from The Presets to Dan to me to every band in Australia, pretty much.” Daniel Johns: “[Luke and I had] probably done about two or three different albums that we didn’t release until we got to the DREAMS record [No One Defeats Us] and Scott was involved quite heavily in all of the early stuff... The three of us spent a lot of time together, through our 20s especially.”
Wade Keighran (The Scare, Wolf & Cub) Daniel Johns: “Wade Keighran, the bass player, engineered the session that No One Defeats Us came from.”
The Presets Luke Steele: “We’ve been mates with The Presets for many years. Julian [Hamilton] actually was the string arranger on the last Sleepy Jackson record.” Daniel Johns: “The Presets thing came about when we were auditioning keyboardists for [Silverchair’s] Diora-
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ma album and we needed
akudzwa “Tkay” Maidza is back. And the rapper, singer and pop icon is flexing her creative skills, and sass, with a new EP, Last Year Was Weird Vol. 1 — her first solo music since 2016’s bumper album TKAY. At 21, Maidza has achieved much, gaining global exposure. Even before her debut, she guested on Troye Sivan’s US #5 mini-album Wild. She was nominated for BET’s ‘Best New International Act’ award. Last year, Maidza’s song Glorious was synced for Girls. Plus she’s performed extensively, notably hitting 2017’s Governors Ball in New York. “It’s been definitely life-changing, of course,” the outgoing Maidza says of her success. “It’s more eye-opening. I think I’ve had a lot of great things happen and then I’ve had a lot of things that I didn’t expect... And just a lot of experiences. At the end of the day, you’re just like, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of things that can happen.’” Born in Zimbabwe, Maidza arrived in Australia at five. Her parents’ scientific expertise (Maidza’s father is a metallurgist and mother an industrial chemist) was in-demand amid the mining surge. Settling in Adelaide, Maidza threw herself into sport — and, by way of youth programs, music. She briefly attended uni to study architecture. Developing an individualistic mode of electronic hip hop, Maidza aired the “bratty”
someone who was next-level good so they could pull off the Van Dyke Parks arrangements live... Instantly I was just like, ‘Julian’s the guy’... On the early Presets stuff I did some co-writing and was jamming with them a lot in the studio... ‘cause me and Julian were kinda going back and forth on tour. And then Kim [Moyes] became the drummer in The Dissociatives and Julian went on tour with The Dissociatives.”
Empire Of The Sun Luke Steele: “It has a really strong name in a lot of circles and cultures around the world, and I think over the last ten years we’ve travelled so many places that it’s become quite a universal name, so it definitely helped a lot in making connections with people.”
Jay Z Luke Steele: “When I collaborated with Jay Z, they called and they just said, ‘We’ve got 24 hours,’ and then I did my part and sent it and then he called me and said, ‘This is dope, we’re done’.”
No One Defeats Us (EMI) is out this month
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Brontosaurus — eventually striking a deal with Universal Music. Following 2014’s buzz EP Switch Tape, she dropped TKAY — with prestigious input from Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike. However, after this accelerated rise, Maidza took time out to reassess her career. Young artists are often inundated with others’ opinions — and Maidza was no different. “I just felt like my project didn’t completely feel like mine anymore,” she shares. “I wasn’t centred. So I just had to refocus and be like, ‘What’s the whole point of my existence?’... I felt like I had to mentally go back to the start and be like, ‘Okay, who am I? What do I want?’ kind of thing. ” Indeed, Australia’s queen of hip hop needed space. Maidza claimed a laover year, ostensibly to concentrate on fitness. In fact, she composed material independently. The lead single from Last Year Was Weird Vol. 1 — which Maidza hints is the beginning of a trilogy — is the trap banger Flexin’. It catches Maidza at her most assertive yet still radiates charm. “That one was, I felt like, the old me, but also mixing in the new me.” She is joined on Flexin’ by emerging Cali rapper Duckwrth, who matches her fire wordplay. They tracked Flexin’ during his Australian tour in May. The EP emphasises both Maidza’s range and creative ambition — opening with the reggae bop Big Things (featuring Dad on bass!). “I feel like now I’m just more attracted to music that sounds, I guess, timeless. I wanna have real drums or an element of something that sounds like it could exist at any time...So I just tried to learn more about what makes really good records and I’ve tried to implement it into my music to make myself better.” Next, Maidza will present a fresh show on headlining and festival dates. “We want to make it a lot bigger. I think, ‘cause I’m such a visual person, we’re gonna add a lot of new stuff... I definitely wanna bring a lot more to the shows visually and add a lot more people in the band and all of that stuff. I’m excited.”
Last Year Was Weird Vol. 1 (Dew Process/ Universal) is out now. Tkay Maidza tours from 7 Sep. Check The Guide on theMusic.com.au for more details.
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Are you afraid of the dark?
veryone remembers scary stories shared on sleepovers or on the playground at school, and when the internet hit the ‘90s, that tradition transferred online. Mostly starting in forums and weird parts of the internet, so-called ‘creepypastas’ are spooky stories that are shared and built upon until they become urban legends in their own right. Some of the most popular ones have gone on to inspire movies, video games, TV shows, and at least one infamous real-life crime.
There are some scary stories that resonate so much so that they’re shared and shared until they take on a life of their own. Rebecca Nosiara investigates the sometimes mysterious, sometimes hilarious origins of the urban internet legends known as ‘creepypastas’.
Slenderman Forums like Something Awful were the place to be in the 2000s if you were into weird shit and wanted to find other people like you. Here the legend of Slenderman was born of the imaginations of photoshop aficionados and amateur horror writers, in a thread where people edited photos of children to look like they had a tall, shadowy man in the background. Classic Friday night activity. People latched on and started writing their own ‘Slenderman experiences’ adding to the legend, including German folklore-style tales from the 16th century, a video game, and now a movie. The whole thing became so popular that in 2014, two twelve-yearold girls lured another out into a wooded park in Milwaukee, USA, and stabbed her 19 times. They claimed they wanted to become Slenderman “proxies” in order to see him and live with him in his mansion in the woods, as you do.
The Expressionless The Expressionless is a story based on a single photograph of two nurses holding down an extremely creepy-looking mannequin. The black-and-white photo was taken in 1968 by a ‘Lord Snowdon’ and was titled, ‘Student nurses with a waxwork patient’, but should have been called, ‘Most cursed image of all time’, due to how I should never have seen it and probably will die in seven days. The story itself was anonymously posted to the internet sometime around 2012. In it, a woman walks into the Cedar Senai hospital covered in blood, with a face expressionless as a wax doll that, unsurprisingly, makes everyone who sees it highly uncomfortable. She then proceeds to pull a mangled kitten out of her mouth, bares huge, pointed teeth and proclaims, ‘I... am... God...’ Which is totally fine and will not at all prevent me from sleeping ever again.
The Rake The Rake originated on the most infamous of internet forums, the hive of scum and villainy that is 4chan’s /b/. For those who don’t know, 4chan is an online message board where people are basically the worst, and /b/ is the ‘random post’ section. In late 2005, an anonymous user asked people to create a new scary monster. Originally described as having three eyes, no noticeable mouth and pale skin, this was then elaborated into a short story, in which a couple wake up to what looks like a naked, hairless man at the end of their bed that moves on all fours like a mutated dog. Great! I guess it’s time to start
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running to bed again and leaping on before anything can grab my ankles. Because I totally stopped doing that as an adult.
Candle Cove Sometime in 2009, web cartoonist Kris Straub wrote a short story that looked like forum posts between people who remembered watching a weird kid’s show in the ‘70s called ‘Candle Cove’. As they reminisce on how effed up it actually was - including stuff like puppets pirates, a skeleton called The Skin-Taker, and an episode where the puppets all just scream for half an hour they finally discover the show never existed. They’d been separately watching it in TV static. Cool. Cool, cool, cool. A great, albeit short, story on its own, Candle Cove was adapted as the first season of horror anthology show Channel Zero in 2016, where it was given a longer plot surrounding one of the characters mentioned in the original story. This is one of my favourites because the forum posts are written super realistically, and it’s such a good premise - half-memories of old kid’s shows that were really disturbing is actually super relatable. Or is that just me?
Zalgo Zalgo is less a single story than a weird catchphrase, inserted into comics to make them seem apocalyptic and ominous. In 2004, a Something Awful user posted an edited Archie comic to one of the forums, in which he replaced the dialogue with stuff like, “Zalgo is upon us, Arch,” and, “These are the end times. We’ve got to be prepared. Zalgo!” It’s associated with scrambled text, pictures of people bleeding from their eyes, and some kind of unimaginable god who will bring the end of the world. If HP Lovecraft had been alive in the 2000s, we can only assume he’d be doing stuff like this, although the DeviantArt images under the Zalgo hashtag are extremely emo-looking.
Russian Sleep Experiment This story emerged back in 2009, when blogging reigned supreme and everyone had a LiveJournal or WordPress. An experiment was performed on five Russian inmates in the ‘40s, who were told that they’d be gassed with a stimulant, and if they could remain awake for 30 days they’d be given their freedom. From there the story devolves into screaming, faeces smearing, and eerie silences, like any great horror story should. This premise seems kind of cheesy in the beginning, but after imagining the maddened prisoners begging for more drugs, pulling their organs out of their still-living bodies and cannibalising their own limbs, I’ll give it props - pretty horrifying. After it was posted on a bodybuilding forum (lol), the story got popular and people started sharing a black-and-white image along with it - something like Gollum but with bigger teeth and black holes for eyes. Turns out it’s a Halloween decoration you can get at wholesalehalloweencostumes.com, which is decidedly less spooky.
Win 2 days recording time at Chapel Lane Studio in Adelaide With any Neumann purchase during our 90 Years in 90 Days Promotion you can win two days with an engineer at Chapel Lane studio in Adelaide along with flights and accommodation.
To find out more visit www.neumann.berlin/90years-in-90days
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Ball Park Music
San Cisco
Check The Guide on theMusic.com.au for more details.
Ruby Fields, Jennifer Boyce of Ball Park Music, Scarlett Stevens of San Cisco
On patting animals and late nightsnacks With Ball Park Music and San Cisco about to team up for a mammoth national co-headline run, we grabbed San Cisco’s Scarlett Stevens and Ball Park Music’s Jennifer Boyce to quiz each other about any burning questions they had for their future tour mates.
Ball Park Music and San Cisco tour from 7 Sep.
Jennfier Boyce asks questions of Scarlett Stevens
Scarlett Stevens asks questions of Jennifer Boyce
Do you have a pre-show ritual? Scarlett Stevens: I tend to get really nervous so I usually sip herbal teas and warm up by stretching my arms and legs. Then right before we go on stage we have a big country singalong where we do acoustic country covers of our own songs.
When and how did you start playing bass? Jennifer Boyce: I was always keys player and had very briefly noodled on bass a few years before I met the fellas, because my little sister got a bass for Christmas! When she let it fall by the wayside, I thought I’d give it a crack but didn’t really know what to do with it. When I walked into my first rehearsal with Ball Park in 2008, they played me All I Want Is You. I asked them who would play bass, and said that if they found me a bass I’d give it a go.
What is your post-show routine? Do you like to stay out or go straight to sleep? I always find when I come off stage that it’s impossible to go straight to sleep. I think the adrenaline after playing takes a while to wear off and you have to go do something, whether it’s going back to someone’s hotel room and chatting ‘til the early hours or debriefing about the show. Or we’ll go find a late night snack somewhere. What is your favourite ever San Cisco show (so far!)? I love playing the Bowery Ballroom in New York. Something about that venue and the city is really special to me and it feels surreal getting to play there to lots of people! What was it like welcoming a new band member? Did it feel natural or did it take some time to get used to a new line-up? Welcoming our Jen to the band has definitely been a natural process and it’s been a lot of fun. Jen has been a close friend of ours for the last four years, we’ve toured with a couple of her bands and she had filled in for Nick when he shot himself in the foot in 2015 right before our album dropped and we were heading overseas to go to South By South West and play our first show in Mexico. It was amazing how quick she picked up the songs. I think Jen and I already had that chemistry of a rhythm section because we’d played together in our friends’ bands GUM and Ghetto Crystals. What’s your favourite shade of red? ‘Bordeaux’.
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What female musicians do you look up to? My idol is Carole King. I truly respect her songwriting and her strength to follow her dreams of being a professional writer in a male dominated industry. Musically and stylistically I really love Margaret Glaspy. How many cats do you have and how do you cope with being away from them when you go on tour? I have two cats, Dave and Rapunzel. They are pretty used to us being away, and we have people come in to feed them if we’re both on tour. I sometimes miss them. But I also try to find plenty of animals to pat on tour! What were the last five songs you listened to? Sara Watkins – Be There, Jade Bird – Uh Huh, Little Red – Slow Motion, Phantastic Ferniture – Fuckin ‘N’ Rollin, Lady Antebellum – Need You Now. Ruby Fields and I keep saying you’re like our wise older sister. What advice would you have for young women starting out in the music industry? Be yourself. Stand your ground and don’t let anyone else tell you who to be or how to act. Follow your heart and your head. Play as much as you can! Find like-minded people to work with and proceed to kick butt.
Anne Marie Peard talks to author and craftivist Sayraphim Lothian about the movement that’s thrilling the world with kindness. Photos by Sayraphim Lothian.
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here’s something colourful on a bench in a shopping centre. Leave it, it’s not yours. Should I tell security? May as well have a look. It’s a colourful cupcake made of felt. Tied to its fluffy cherry-on-top is a label that says, “For you, stranger”. Melbourne craftivist Sayraphim Lothian’s For You, Stranger project started ten years ago and continues to inspire a secret army of stealthy craftivists who make gifts for strangers. Her first book Guerrilla Kindness & Other Acts Of Creative Resistance has just been released. Craft resistance isn’t new. Suffragettes stitched slogans into their clothes. In Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship, women made traditional fabric pictures that showed their country’s horror — often stitching these arpilleras from the clothes of missing people. The pictures survived because they were dismissed as “craft”. The term “craftivist” — craft + activist — was coined in 2003 by Betsy Greer from the USA, who describes crafting as “personalised activism” for social and political causes. One of Greer’s popular projects is YASVB. If you ever find a cross-stitched message saying, “You are so very beautiful,” or “strong”, “fabulous”, or “excellent”, it’s been put there by a craftivist who knows it will be found by a person who needs to hear it. Greer is a fan of Lothian’s and in her introduction to Guerrilla Kindness says: “We live in a world where we hear and see hundreds of messages per day that tell us we are not good enough, thin enough or pretty enough; messages that tell us we need to fix ourselves, and that we can’t possibly be perfect the way we are right now. In any society where these messages persist, kindness, whether to ourselves or others, is an act of resistance and subversion.” It’s easy to be angry these days. Even recently, Australia’s federal government proved itself to be run by selfish boys. Meanwhile, asylum seekers live in hell, homeless people sleep on our wealthy streets, domestic violence increases... and if I continue, the list will be longer than any rainbow scarf I could knit. We need to resist and subvert the negative and unfair messages that surround us, and craftivists can help us re-think how we protest, raise awareness and express dissent. Resistance doesn’t need to be angry. Anger doesn’t need to be mean. “Guerrilla kindness” combines political guerrilla and protest art — like paste-ups, re-working advertisements and yarnbombing — with the idea of random acts of kindness for kindness’ sake. “Kindness and joy themselves can be radical acts ... An act of guerrilla kindness is subversive; it’s a tiny moment between two strangers; it’s one person stepping up to change someone else’s day, anonymously, sneakily, joyfully,” explains Lothian. Her book is filled with stories and projects like the worldwide (Secret) Toy Society, where homemade toys are left in places like hospitals. There are easy-to-follow instructions for anonymous gifts like knitted hearts and messages in felt bottles. Or try a #MeToo yarnbomb, ‘Riots Not Diets’ stencil or ‘Sisters Not Cisters’ re-purposed doily.
Riots Not Diets stencil for Body Positive Movement
I first encountered Lothian’s craftivism in a participatory craft project called A Moment In Yarn. She asked me to tell her a happy memory and as we talked about the day I got my cat called Flue, she crocheted a granny square. It’s white for Flue’s fur, and black for how it was always on my clothes, as well as the colours of her collar and eyes. It instantly became precious to me and sits on top of her ashes. This project also led me to discover that I love making things with yarn. Earlier in 2017, I knitted my first #pussyhat in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of women in the USA protesting their newly elected President. Later that year, Australians faced the cowardly #MarriageEquality survey and hatred and shame tried to ooze into our lives. I couldn’t stop hatred, fear and ignorance, but I could sit on my couch and make rainbows. So, I learned to crochet and started making #QueerGrannySquares for friends. And strangers. I bought scrap yarn from op shops — let’s give our money to organisations who help others — and kept making. I’ve seen them become bunting, doilies, bookmarks, coasters, pocket squares and mouse pads. They’ve appeared in theatre shows and been sewn into a giant diversity blanket. Some aren’t rainbows, but all are about rejecting shame and accepting love. And I loved making them. Melbourne singer and activist and Mama Alto wrote about her square in a Facebook post about “the power of making things and of making communities”. She said, “Creation is the antidote to hatred.” Craftivism is about making connections and communities far more than making things. Lothian adds that these “acts of generosity function like secret messages and whispered words of encouragement and solidarity”. A small act of kindness may not change the world, but it can create a moment of happiness. And that moment will inspire another act of kindness, which will inspire another one. And the reach can be far greater than we expect. Lothian tells me how “the most surprising thing is the reaction I get on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook etc. People react to the items just as warmly as if they’d found it on the street. That was so awesome to understand that the ripples of loveliness can spread online and that it’s not just beneficial to the single person who finds it.” So, find those hashtags about the issues you’re passionate about and explore ones like #craftivism, #craftivist, #creativeactivism, #creativeresistance and #creativeresistancebook. Or bake vegan protest cookies, cut a feminist potato stamp, patch your clothes with #AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe embroidered patches and join the craftivists who are “making the world a better place, one handmade object at a time”. Every time you make something, Lothian asks you to remember that, “Random acts of kindness are a rebellion against the expected and entrenched nastiness, and joy and confidence in yourself is radical act.” Be a rebel. Be radical. Feel joy and be kind.
Knitted Rainbow Heart
Tiger made for The (Secret) Toy Society
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Alice on the road to wonderland In-between tours and documentaries, Ellie Roswell of Wolf Alice speaks to Anthony Carew about the perils and pleasures of digital fame.
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Check The Guide on theMusic.com.au for more details.
n 2016, English rock quartet Wolf Alice took part in something far from your regular rockumentary. On The Road followed the band on a British tour, but inserted a pair of fictional characters into their world; charting a flower romance between two members of the band’s road crew. The film was the work of Michael Winterbottom, who worked with real concert footage (and real sex) with 9 Songs, and made the classic rock flick 24 Hour Party People. For the band at the centre of the production, the film was a strange case of novel and business as usual. “It was a case of ‘just carry on as you are’, and so we did,” says Ellie Rowsell, Wolf Alice’s singer/guitarist. “You don’t want to start thinking ‘how am I going to be portrayed?’ Or worrying that it felt like too much. I just made sure the cameras and the mics weren’t on when I didn’t want them to be. I watched the film and really, I’m not even in it that much. I just kept out of the way a lot. You don’t have to let the presence of the camera crew convince you that you
have to give everything of you. It’s okay if the camera just sees one side of us.” Weighing up how much to give is something Rowsell thinks about often, especially in regards to social media, where she often speaks out on social issues. “If I feel strongly about something — for example, politics — I don’t have to put that in my lyrics,” she says. “I can share my views outside of the music. People want a lot more from you, they want to know everything about you, fandom feels quite extreme these days. [But] I feel like I have to be really sure in what I’m saying, and make sure it can’t be perceived in any other way. It’s a really intimidating prospect.” The intimidation comes because of the online tendency to make mountains out of molehills, but also ever-lurking trolls and the social media currency of abuse. “I do feel a sense of vulnerability,” Rowsell offers. “Everyone grows up making mistakes, and if everyone’s watching you all the time, then your mistakes are going to be there for people to scrutinise. I think, often, people who have any celebrity status are scrutinised infinitely more so than the normal person, which is quite scary. But then also, I have the privilege to have a platform to share my ideas and opinions, and that’s also a very powerful and exciting thing.” While Rowsell found press in 2017, for railing against the Tories and backing Labor candidate Jeremy Corbyn in the UK election, she’s glad that the year was defined by the release of Wolf Alice’s second LP, Visions Of A Life. (Their 2018 is defined, thus far, by their tour of Australia for Laneway, where Rowsell befriended Moses Sumney and hung with the boys from Shame, and the
Slashin’ the conspiracies As Slash Ft Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators crank their rock’n’roll machine into gear again, Brendan Crabb talks to singer Myles Kennedy about being a workaholic.
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ather than recuperate from and celebrate the mega-grossing, worldconquering Guns N’ Roses reunion jaunt, axeman Slash has instead reconvened his solo rock band, Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators for another go-around. New record Living The Dream is his third fulllength featuring the Conspirators, which includes Alter Bridge vocalist Kennedy, Brent Fitz (drums), Todd Kerns (bass/vocals) and Frank Sidoris (guitar/vocals). Kennedy says there had been the discussion of doing another Slash record “for quite a while, but it was really just a matter of finding that window of time”. However, the point remains that most musicians who have enjoyed the luxury of such a lucrative tour surely wouldn’t feel compelled to
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band spent downtime at beaches.) Rowsell felt far different, making her second album than she had when writing Wolf Alice’s debut, 2015’s My Love Is Cool. “If I had an idea but was too embarrassed to suggest it, on the first album, I’d just sit there and would keep my mouth shut. On the second album, I was more like, ‘What have I got to lose? I might as well try,’” she says. The goal was “to be bolder and braver in [their] experimenting”, something the band’s growing confidence allowed them to do. After feeling “a sense of freedom” on their early singles and EPs, Rowsell was worried that they’d lost it as their stature had grown.
engage in other projects quite so soon. Is that testament to Slash’s work ethic? “Yeah, I think that highlights [how] he lives to play. I don’t think that I’ve met too many people in all the years that I’ve been doing this who have the amount, the need to perform and create that he does. I think that it’s definitely inspiring, and to me, it highlights that this is a person who’s truly following their bliss, and has found...he knows what he was put on this planet to do, and I don’t think he takes that lightly.” “So I think that’s a testament to Slash’s, not just work ethic, but just his love for music... I think we both recognise that we’re both workaholics, we just love playing music. I think that’s part of why that works.” Rock’s perennial nice guy is speaking from his home in Spokane, Washington, taking a break from playing guitar to tackle press duties. Although his prowess on that instrument has been a key element of The Conspirators’ sonic palette on both Living The Dream and predecessor World On Fire, Kennedy concentrated on lead vocal and lyrical duties. “It doesn’t necessarily have a common theme that runs throughout, but some of the songs are from personal experiences,” he says of the new Slash material. “We have a song called The One You Loved Is Gone, which a lot of people think is about lost romance with a human, but it’s actually about a dog that I had about 20 years ago,” he laughs.
The uncertain world With a new album out and an Aussie tour on the way, Ruban Nielson of Unknown Mortal Orchestra chats politics, paranoia and scheduling with our very own Rod Whitfield.
“What I’ve learnt most is not letting go of those things that you felt at the start, to not try and normalise your work too much,” she offers. “Although, maybe the fact that we did normalise our work, helped us get to where we are today. I guess it’s a catch-22. But now, we don’t have to do that. We have a host of loyal fans, which can allow you to take risks. The bigger you are, the less you have to normalise your work.”
he translation of an artist’s recorded works into the live
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The balance and the contrast between the downtime of
setting can be fascinating, the two mediums being
writing the new record and the unrelenting nature of being on
naturally so drastically different. Some bands follow the
tour once the record comes out is also what gets him through
album close to note-for-note, some bands take it to new and
life as a travelling musician. “As the band starts to do a bit bet-
different places, and all points in between. Formerly Kiwi, now
ter, the gaps in between the records start to get a bit longer,”
US based alt-psychedelic outfit Unknown Mortal Orchestra
he reveals. “In between records and tours I try to make sure
prefer the multi-directional approach, as Aussie audiences will
that I’m home 24/7 for longer stretches at a time.
discover when the band tours here for the first time in three years this coming September. “I’ve heard people say that the records can be quite introthe band in Germany. “When I’m writing, I’m often by myself, writing about sad things and stuff, but the live show is much more a celebration. Listening to the records you might think the live show is somewhat of a sombre affair, but it’s not, it’s quite the opposite.” “We take a lot of liberties with the songs too, like we out. The shows are never the same, they’re all at least slightly different every night. People come and see us and it’s not that uncommon to have fans of the band come to see us ten times and every show they’ve seen has been different.” The band’s new record, Sex & Food, was released in midApril, and several tracks from it will be featured in the band’s live set come September. Its creation was inspired, at least in part, by the dark and uncertain political climate the world,
That said, Living The Dream’s storytelling doesn’t delve into the deeply personal depths of Kennedy’s recent solo effort, Year Of The Tiger — a soul-baring exercise exploring a family tragedy from his childhood. Namely, his father’s death. “It’s definitely so different from what I did on the solo record... It wasn’t like this cathartic process that I went through with Year Of The Tiger. But it definitely was a welcome change because it gave me the opportunity to step away from something that was so heavy in that respect and tell some different kinds of stories. ” As Slash, Kennedy and company prepare to hit the road, the set-lists are sure to incorporate liberal amounts of material from the guitar legend’s assorted ventures, including Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver. “It’s interesting because that was one of the big challenges when I first took this on,” Kennedy remarks. “What I would try to do is, to a degree get inside the song, understand what the song is about...It became a matter of me trying to fill in the blanks myself, and make sure that as I was singing it that I was connecting to something that I could emote. That’s part of the challenge sometimes with things like that.”
especially America, finds itself in right now, although the title and content of the album are more of a reaction to that rather than a reflection. “My thinking behind it as I wrote the record was that the world was getting really complicated and really dark,” he recalls. “Politics was getting really serious, and there was a lot of really serious things starting to happen, violence, and I live in America and just on a day to day basis I started noticing people starting to look at each other sideways, and we just seem to be living in a very paranoid era. I just knew that this was going to influence the record, I couldn’t really escape that. “But at the same time I didn’t want politics to take over the record. I think I called it Sex & Food because I really wanted to explain what I thought life was about, and to stop the record from becoming too serious. There’s enough seriousness in the world as it is.” Now that the album is out, the band will be on tour for much of 2018, Australia being just a small part of that. Neilson has his own special way of dealing with the sometimes daunting thought of being on the road for such extended periods of time. “I’ve kind of been living life like that for a number of years now, I don’t actually look at the list of dates,” he admits. “I try not to think about it. I’m fortunate enough to have management and booking people who run the machine and I just kind of go. “My mindset is that tonight I know I’m playing Dusseldorf and tomorrow night I’m playing Paris and I try not to think too much about what happens after that. I try to stay in
Living The Dream (Snakepit/Sony) is out this month.
in the long term.”
verted,” explains main man Ruban Neilson, from on tour with
extend them, change them or improvise and stretch things
Wolf Alice tour from 23 Sep.
“Because I’ve got kids, it makes it hard, but I kinda just hope I can find that balance and it all comes out in the wash
the now, and maybe the tomorrow, I don’t look at the dates because it seems endless, it might stress me out,” he laughs.
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Unknown Mortal Orchestra tour from 12 Sep.
Album Reviews
On her fourth album, Cash Savage does two things. She takes an unflinching look at Australian society, and she gives an intimate and evocative insight into love and desire. She does it all with her characteristic swagger and assertive tone, superbly backed by her cohorts, The Last Drinks. Better Than That is a devastating track, honing in on the events of last year and the impact of the marriage equality debate in this country. As she sings “Secretly I’d hoped you were better than that” the band deliver a bittersweet, melancholic sound that feels like the calm after a storm. Similar subject matter is addressed in the insistent pulse of Human, I Am — with its frayed-nerve, post-punk sound that blossoms into glorious intermittent choruses — and on the title track where she sings, with the emotional drama of latter-day Nick Cave, about the male-dominated world she works in. Collapse imagines a society where socio-political structures have fallen and the world is chaos, undone by its own failings. The Last Drinks back her to the hilt with an ominous industrial junkyard blues stomp that perfectly amplifies the song’s apocalyptic leanings. Single Pack Animals is a magnificent example of Savage’s ability to build and maintain tension in her more rockleaning songs. Its cosmiche pulse patiently builds like a slow-moving tsunami, with sonic flares and sparks heading off in all directions like downed psychedelic powerlines. “I keep thinking ahead, to when I don’t have to lose my head”, sings Savage, one of many instances across the album where she contemplates the future of the world and whether humans will resolve their multitude of failings.
Cash Savage & The Last Drinks Good Citizens Mistletone/Inertia
HHHH
Elsewhere Savage dials back the intensity and paints a tender picture of the highs and lows of love and devotion. The melancholic longing on Sunday has the feel of Dirty Three in its staggered rhythm and Kat Mears’ aching violin. February and Found You explore similar territory, the latter taking a big, melodically swinging approach with chiming guitars and an agitated dancefloor rhythm section. For all the stage prowling, piercing stares and stirring sound of Savage’s live performances, Good Citizens possesses a resolute sentimentality about it. She’s speaking out with conviction about societal inequalities and how they manifest and are dealt with in the public realm, yet the aforementioned flip side of how to navigate the miniature minefields of personal relationships is what hits the hardest. As she sings “I’ve never been so down, I never needed anyone, now all I ever want is you” on February, she captures the essence of love and common experience. Good Citizens is a bold and astute album that thrives on its balance and range. It pulls on heartstrings as effectively as it raises questions and it thrillingly blends musicality with Savage’s emotional and intellectual commentary. Chris Familton
Christine & the Queens
John Butler Trio
Dead Letter Circus
Because Music/Caroline
Jarrah Records/MGM
BMG
Lilac Everything; A Project By Emma Louise
HHHH
HHH
Liberation
If Heloise Letissier’s debut Chaleur Humaine danced with subtlety, inviting curious people into her sexually fluid world where simply being called ‘bi’ or even ‘pansexual’ seems painfully limiting, Chris is intentionally more muscular, more intense, but no less diminished by lazy labelling. Musically, it’s like a chilled synthpop spritzer that effervesces from her remarkable debut. Vocally, Letissier remains assuredly feminine, but the sensuality has roughened with the metamorphosis of Christine to Chris — expressing a confidence and unapologetic sexual bravado usually reserved by redblooded male performers.
After four years of radio silence, John Butler Trio are back with an edgier new album. Lyrically, the album is about love and family, but also self-discovery as Butler realises we all grow and sometimes things change. Butler’s vocals are amazing throughout the album, getting especially get dreamy in Tell Me Why. Brown Eyed Bird starts off very serious before the infectious folk beat jumps in at the chorus, making you want to dance. The only negative thing about Home is that there is no standout track that will leave fans wanting more. But it is a very humble, mature and refreshing album that any John Butler Trio fan will surely love.
Early impressions their fourth album were that Dead Letter Circus hadn’t really extended themselves in a songwriting and playing sense like they have previoulsy. Multiple further listens certainly revealed more layers and viewed in isolation, this is an excellent Aussie progressive/ alternative rock release, chock-full of adrenaline-fuelled, fist-pumping moments, strong musicianship and a masterful command of musical dynamics. As part of this band’s illustrious canon of work, it is unlikely to be looked upon as either a true shining light or a low point (they’re probably incapable of the latter anyway).
Mac McNaughton
Aneta Grulichova
Rod Whitfield
Chris
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Home
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Album Reviews
Emma Louise
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Musicians constantly experiment with new sounds and styles, but it’s rare for one to divert so much that you think you’ve bought the wrong album. The change in pitch on Lilac Everything is so extreme that Louise is unrecognisable from her past works; with a far more androgynous vocal style. But Louise still has those fruitful and haunting songwriting skills and once you get over the initial confusion of such a drastic change, you’re in for one emotionally immersive ride. Her poignant, universally-felt tales; make it a brave and gripping release. Keira Leonard
For more album reviews, go to www.theMusic.com.au
Skegss
My Own Mess Ratbag/Warner
Pale Waves
Tia Gostelow
Dirty Hit/Sony
Lovely Records
Thick Skin
My Mind Makes Noises
DREAMS
No One Defeats Us EMI
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H½
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Stoners and slackers rejoice! The boys from Byron Bay are back, and this time they’ve brought a debut album with them. Lyrically they’re best compared to Cheshire Cat era blink-182, with their everydude type songs carrying a healthy dose of juvenile humour to help the growing pains go down. There’s not a whole lot of originality to be found on this album, but whatever. Skegss have developed a sense of melody that’s far beyond what most in the genre are capable of churning out, and when it comes to this kind of stripped-down indie-rock, that’s really all that matters.
Manchester’s Pale Waves have turned in a truly insipid record that, while liberally peppered with shimmery guitar-driven yacht rock-lit touches, lacks any sort of conceptual framework beyond “make it shiny”. My Mind Makes Noises (Jesus, that title) is rote and weak, reluctant to really lean into, well, anything. Lead vocalist Heather Baron-Gracie sounds bored, and while her voice is technically proficient, it sounds utterly anonymous. You don’t believe (or remember) anything she sings about and that drags down the rest of the relatively slick (yet strangely flat) production.
It sounds like someone may have crossed Tia Gostelow in the past, and we certainly wouldn’t wanna be them as she releases her debut album with 11 beautifully articulated, moody bops. It’s a dreamy collection of broody, indie anthems that will resonate with the modern millennial gal as Gostelow sings tales of romanticised photos, killing time, velvet dresses and Saturday nights. The teenager’s voice has almost a healing element to it, soothing but enthralling. Thick Skin proves that Gostelow has got one hell of a career coming her way.
The first shock delivered by this viscerally visual duo is the laziest album artwork this side of a punk record sporting a dirty square of toilet roll, Luke Steele this time ‘round peacocking as ‘Miracle’ and Daniel Johns adopting a ‘Dr Dreams’ persona. But there doesn’t seem to be a lot of depth behind the masquerading. The hefty electronica is no great diversion from either’s recent output and the first half tries to wow with phat, bass-y beats and chanted sloganistic choruses. DREAMS are ambitious and loud, but these two kindred daydreamers have never sounded more on their own planet.
Donald Finlayson
Matt MacMaster
Keira Leonard
Mac McNaughton
The Goon Sax
The Living End
Thundamentals
Richard In Your Mind
BMG
Island/Universal
HHH
HHHH
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The Living End always had a knack for telling hearty tales with attitude and, with 20-something years under their belt, they’ve still got it. Wunderbar provides us with 11 anthemic bangers that are certainly going to have you on your feet, chanting the words right back - It wouldn’t be a Living End album if you couldn’t imagine belting it out alongside them, and they give you just that. Wunderbar comes together with a collection of diverse tracks that all align nicely, while still staying consistently true to the band’s roots. It’s uplifting punk-rock.
I Love Songs represents growth for the Thundamental MCs. Jeswon shows what melodies he’s been keeping cooped up on True Love; coupling technical ‘ratatat’ delivery with more flair than we’re used to. Tuka, too, ventures further, leaning in to a few of the different styles he’s capable of delivering as a singer. The result is hypnotic. Catch Me If You Can is gentle and approachable; it’s nice guy music. With the backdrops Morgs has painted for them, Jeswon and Tuka show here that they’ve shed the simplistic conception we’ve had about them for over a decade. This is mature and majestic. This is striking. These are songs to love.
The latest Richard In Your Mind album is a lesson in enduring qualities. Sure, they never let go of the ‘60s psychedelic era, but there’s no denying its quality and refinement within a genre that gets reinvented every few years. This is the sixth release and although not a “best of”, it is all the best bits of albums past, pasted together to produce an atmospheric and immersive record. Like all albums before, there is not a shred of selfconsciousness or urge to follow any type of formula or trend, which speaks volumes given they’ve outlasted lots of other Sydney bands. At ten tracks long, it is over before it begins, but it’s another fine, fine effort.
James d’Apice
Adam Wilding
We’re Not Talking Chapter Music
HHH½
At its strongest, We’re Not Talking still reaches the same impossibly catchy, jangle-pop heights they impressed with on their debut, but across its 30 minutes, some minor risktaking doesn’t quite pay off. When the album works it’s a thrilling dash through young love and self-doubt. Opener Make Time 4 Love is brisk, fun and infectious. In contrast, other songs such as Now You Pretend are only partly formed interludes. The many highlights on We’re Not Talking suggest that The Goon Sax are still evolving and successfully exploring the art and craft of confessional, catchy and quirky songwriting. Chris Familton
I Love Songs
Wunderbar
Keira Leonard
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Super Love Brain Rice Is Nice
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METAL UNITED DOWN UNDER
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PRIMAL FEAR + SINNER: APOCALYPSE IN AUSTR ALIA
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AMENR A
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JUST FRIENDS: AFTER DARK
THE SUPERJESUS
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KILLSWITCH ENGAGE
FEAT. YOLANDA BE COOL
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DIET Just like a runaway train, momentum is building for DIET (see what we did there…?) They have just released their second EP Sundown and are currently in the midst of a launch tour. They have three BIGSOUND showcases at the start of this month and then at the end of the month they’re bringing it on home with a couple of launch shows in Melbourne. Later, you can celebrate New Year’s Eve with them as they play NYE On The Hill.
The skin you’re in Despite literally everybody having one, the way we perceive and treat our bodies is pretty complicated. They come in many shapes and sizes as there are people, with just as many opinions about which is ‘ideal’. Here’s a few ways to try and ignore that and just dig your rig.
T
Hard to stomach
he words healthy and ideal often don’t quite connect when we think about our weight. Somewhere in the gap between the two, countless fad diets have emerged some funny, others strange, and many straight up dangerous. Bodies are a lot like snowflakes, in that no two are exactly alike and it doesn’t take much to do them irreparable damage. Maintaining physical health requires personalised planning and stable, positive behaviours. It can’t be done overnight, and in the hunt for the Holy Grail that might grant the ‘perfect’ body, people have been sold some seriously poisoned cups.
KE10/feeding tube diet
The immortality diet
The KE10 diet is a “low-calorie, protein and fat-rich solution” pumped 24 hours a day through a hose that runs via your nasal passage and oesophagus directly into your feed sack. So that none of that interferes with your day to day, the pump and solution fit in a convenient shoulder bag provided by KE10, making this diet both a reverse colostomy bag and the world’s most uncomfortable Dune cosplay. If you don’t choke on the tube, and your stomach bacteria doesn’t sneak past the obstruction and go to work on your throat, you could drop nearly 10kgs in 10 days - a timeline that means you’re mostly losing fluids and muscle mass.
Fasting is interesting business. Depending on who’s talking, skipping breakfast every now and then does everything from reducing inflammation to preventing cancer. In Luigi Cornaro’s opinion, it was pretty much the fountain of youth. The Venetian nobleman was born in the 1460s. A celebrated carouser, by 35 Cornaro suffered constant feverishness, gout and gastrointestinal distress and was told he’d die before 40. He changed his ways lived to a hearty (and likely exaggerated) 102, which he attributed to moderation, mindfulness, and his modest daily intake of 350g of food and 414ml of wine - now commonly dubbed ‘the immortality diet’.
Lemonade diet/ Master Cleanse If we have this right, start by weaning yourself of solids with smoothies and such. Then you’re going to want to get off that rookie trash and onto straight water and fresh OJ, exclusively. After that four to five-day process, your temple is ready for cleansing. Squeeze half a lemon in 1.5 cups of water. Add 40 grams of maple syrup and 0.2 of cayenne pepper. Wash that down six times a day with the odd quart of warm salt water and a laxative tea for between ten and 40 days, if you’re feeling biblical.
Swamp diet Did you know that you weigh more at the poles than the equator? The greater centrifugal force cancels some of Earth’s gravity, meaning you’re about 0.5% heavier on trips to the tips than you are hanging out in Bogota. On the other hand, there is absolutely no reason to believe that living in a swamp will tip the scales one way or the other. Back in 1727, Thomas Short firmly disagreed in his book, The Causes And Effects Of Corpulence. After noticing folk who settled down in swamps tended to be heavier than those who didn’t, Short declared that humidity caused increased weight gain, no doubt loudly and within earshot. His proposed diet? Move.
Tapeworm diet
Sleeping Beauty diet
Cotton ball diet
Please don’t eat tapeworms. Don’t even google them, they’re seriously unpleasant. The idea behind here is pretty straightforward; they steal your meals from the inside - swallow a pill with your new live-in friend in it and never skip dessert again. Yes, this can cause weight loss. It can also cause anaemia and malnutrition. Tapeworms can migrate too, so instead of sinking their little hooked heads into your digestive tract somewhere they might end up in your brain, eyes or just wherever. Best of all they can grow up to 20 metres long, with the largest worm ever found in a human allegedly measuring 30. At that point you’re just a walking skin suit.
The Sleeping Beauty diet got notice last year when it apparently gained favour in ‘pro-anorexia’ forums, but legend has it that it’s been around since at least the ‘70s, when Elvis once used it to try and counteract all the peanut butter, bacon and banana sandwiches. The SB method involves eating a handful of sedatives like Xanax or Valium and sleeping for 18 to 20 hours a day to avoid eating. This is not a good idea. Even if you’re willing to look past an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes, the high chance of addiction, and the devastating effect on mental health, research actually suggests oversleeping can be linked to an increase in weight.
Before we get into the cotton ball diet, let’s talk bezoars. These solid clumps of indigestible matter form in your digestive tract, usually in the small intestine, where they plug you up like a thick wad of hair in a sink trap. The cotton ball diet involves dipping four or five of its namesake in juice for dinner in an attempt to fool your body into thinking it’s been fed. Those fluffy white clouds are actually bleached polyester fibres most of the time, something that’s noticeably absent from the food pyramid, and apart from their toxicity and the huge risk of malnutrition, they will absolutely bezoar your backdoor.
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Super foods for super moods Moringa
Maqui berries
hen us folks here at The Music hear the term
A native tree to North India, parts of the moringa oleifera have
Health nuts on the internet seem to think that maqui ber-
“super food”, we usually think of that awful ‘80s
been used in traditional African and Indian recipes and medi-
ries are some kind of miracle fruit sent from heaven to raise
cartoon, Bananaman. But to more sensible indi-
cines for thousands of years now. Its crushed up leaves have
the dead, heal the ill and correct certain male performance
viduals, Superfoods are an effective way of adding some much
been scientifically proven to lower both high blood pressure
issues. We don’t know about any of that, but they certainly are
needed nutrients and vitamins to your potentially shocking
and cholesterol levels. Why is this a good thing? Well appar-
good for you in all the obvious ways and then some. The small,
everyday diet. Your body is an engine, so start treating it right
ently those two things aren’t too good for you, or so the health
dark Chilean berry is high in antioxidants and anti-inflamma-
with the super fuel it deserves. And when in doubt, just think:
industry claims. Chewing on leaves usually isn’t an attractive
tory nutrients, meaning they’re excellent for giving your skin a
“What would Joe Rogan eat?”
look but thankfully moringa supplements are also readily
naturally healthy glow. Sorry to all the pregnant women of the
available in a variety of powder or capsule forms.
world, now we all may experience the wonders of the glow!
Cassava
Hemp seeds
Lucuma
The strange shrub known as cassava looks like it was made by
To all of our teenage readers: next time you come home smell-
While lucuma may sound like something you’d hear in a hospi-
a Hawaiian-shirt-wearing mad scientist in a lab located inside
ing like something green and gruesome, tell Mum you’ve been
tal waiting room (“We’re sorry, sir, you have stage five lucuma”),
a volcano. With the outer appearance of a sweet potato and
munching back on nutritious hemp seeds with your health-
the tropical Peruvian fruit is actually one of the sweetest new
the inner colour of coconut flesh, cassava is easily the strang-
conscious squad. If your parent or guardian has dreadlocks
Superfoods around. Known to the locals of Peru and health-
est super food on this list. A local favourite in many develop-
then chances are you just may get away with it! But all tree-
store Indiana Jones’ as “The Gold of the Incas”, lucuma is said
ing countries, cassava root can be ground up and used in a
smokin’ jokes aside, hemp seeds are an excellent way to stock
to taste like a syrupy combination of both sweet potato and
variety of cooking situations. In the west, it’s become popular
up on both healthy fats and protein. They’re also stuffed full of
avocado. Diabetics recommend it as an alternative to com-
among those with dietary restrictions due to the fact that it’s
powerful vitamins like potassium, calcium, iron and zinc, mak-
mercial food sweeteners thanks to its low-glycemic index and
grain-free, nut-free and also gluten-free. But be warned, when
ing them ideal for vegans or people who’re trying to get HUGE
mango-ish colour.
consumed in large, raw amounts, cassava can be poten-
in a more ethical way.
W
tially harmful. Definitely not a super food for late-night binging then.
Naked ambitions
Y
ou know when you go to a change room at a public pool and the older set just walk around with their junk out like they were back in the Garden of Eden? Like a “naked innocent boy roaming the countryside” as Cosmo Kramer once put it. Well according to the growing trend of body positivity, it’s that kind of nuts-out confidence that we should all be aspiring to. So with that in mind, here are the best places in town to embrace your birthday suit without copping a lawsuit.
“Am I supposed to draw the penis?”
Body surfing
Full-frontal with friends
You don’t have to be some kind of trenchcoat-wearing public exhibitionist to enjoy the idea of taking your clothes off in front of strangers. In fact, thanks to the perverted wonders of the art world, you could even get paid for it! The naked human body is an endless source of inspiration and training for painters, drawers and sculptors everywhere. So drop the robe and head on down to Life Drawing Melbourne in Brunswick to get your genitals some fresh air. Donating your body to art is a hell of a lot safer than donating your body to science anyway.
Even if you’re like most of us here at The Music and your arse looks like the moon on a clear summer’s night, it doesn’t mean you should be missing out on the timeless art of nude swimming. Originally invented by the Scottish as a means of bathing without having to pay for indoor plumbing, skinny dipping isn’t just something for horny teenagers to do or for REM to write songs about, it’s for everyone! Follow the “Melbourne Nude Swim Nights” group on Facebook to track the ever-changing locations for naked nights at pools around the city.
Bathhouses have gotten a bad rap in polite society mostly thanks to the limited imaginations of porno directors. But in real life, traditional bathhouses are a wonderful, strictly non-sexual place to simply unwind and let the heated water jets do their thing. Bring some friends along to The Japanese Bath House in Collingwood, get naked and enjoy each other’s au naturel company to take your friendship to the next level without being weird about it. Nothing says, “I respect you as a close friend,” quite like casual nudity.
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Pic: Joshua Braybrook
Pic: Monique Pizzica
Pic: Kane Hibberd
Pic: Jaz Meadows
DMA’S
supported by Hatchie
Pic: Jaz Meadows
I
t’s been a year since one of the most iconic landmarks in Melbourne unveiled its breath-taking internal facelift. With its lavish 1929 interiors restored to their former glory, The Forum wasted no time in asserting its stature as a world-class venue hosting equally world-class artists. Melbourne has seen 12 months of bumper-to-bumper spectacles, but we’ve cherrypicked a few shows that really knocked our critics’ socks off.
Reviewer Donald Finlayson said:
Vera Blue
Dizzee Rascal
Reviewer Michael Prebeg said:
Reviewer Kelly Herbison said:
Miguel
Angus & Julia Stone
Reviewer Tobias Handke said:
Reviewer Michael Prebeg said:
supported by Kira Puru
Fans at The Forum As the revamped Forum celebrates the first birthday of its glitzy internal renovations, we look back on some of the year’s most thrilling events.
For full details of The Forum’s upcoming shows visit The Guide at theMusic.com.au
supported by Baker Boy
“The massive split-level stage comes to life during the explosive entrance of Vera Blue (aka Celia Pavey). This is by far one of the biggest productions she’s ever put on and they’re clearly pulling out all stops. A three-piece band is positioned above Pavey, leaving plenty of room for her to move around and dance freely as she tilts her head forward and shakes her long red hair around to the electronic beats during Magazine and Give In.”
supported by Thandi Phoenix “Miguel and his band reappear for the energetic Kygo collaboration Remind Me To Forget and slow jam All I Want Is You. Before leaving, Miguel gets the lights turned on so he can see the crowd and addresses them one final time, telling everyone to “appreciate the moment” and “never take things for granted”. As he wanders off stage to the adoring screams of his fans, it’s obvious nobody in attendance will be forgetting this moment anytime soon.”
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“Ever since the explosion of DMA’S with 2014’s Delete, these Sydney lads have suffered a long and tragic history of Oasis comparisons. Not that they don’t bring it upon themselves with their outfits and Tommy O’Dell’s Mancunian accent. Still, the success of their latest album For Now, along with the fact that they’ve just sold out Melbourne’s Forum Theatre, can’t be denied.”
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“Rascal leaves the stage after You Got The Dirtee Love, but we all know he’s not going anywhere until Bonkers happens. After some crowd chanting, Rascal and his crew return to the stage, telling us, “We’re past curfew... and we gotta head to Sydney”. But before he can get off the stage, the beat drops and Rascal rips into Bonkers before a jumping crowd. As the night wraps up, Rascal leaves on this note: “Everybody who came out here tonight, we don’t know each uva, but we was one big family!”
supported by Angie McMahon
“A backdrop of engaging visuals plays during each song and enhances the flow of the music. Angus & Julia Stone’s tear-jerking love song Santa Monica Dream is elevated by the song’s accompanying video clip, which features footage of their grandparents falling in love back in the day. It takes a while for the rowdy crowd at the back of the room to settle, but eventually the theatre becomes completely silent and still to take in this beautifully quiet, acoustic-folk ballad.”
Howzat! Local music by Jeff Jenkins
Hall monitors ARIA Hall of Fame Predictions
A
round this time of year, Howzat! starts his usual rant: “The ARIA Hall of Fame...why isn’t Stephen Cummings in there? And more record producers. And songwriters. And maybe video directors?” But this year, instead of just foisting my opinions on readers, I turned to some industry people whose views I respect, asking them to nominate three artists that should be inducted, as well as getting their thoughts on what should be changed. “Not sure I’ll be of much help,” journalist and author Barry Divola said. “I tended to ignore them as a joke even back when I was at Who. And looking at that list of Hall of Famers just reaffirms that belief. It just seems totally random, doesn’t it?” The list includes 77 acts that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame since it started 30 years ago, including 35 bands and 38 solo artists. Just 11 of the 77 are female artists — nine solo artists and two bands fronted by women (The Seekers and Divinyls). Manager and publicist Chrissie Vincent says it’s time ARIA redressed the gender imbalance. Chrissie chose five women, “because I really couldn’t narrow it down to three”: Adalita and Magic Dirt, Suze DeMarchi and Baby Animals, Vika and Linda Bull, and Deborah Conway for Do-Re-Mi and her solo career. “Each one of these extremely talented ladies has managed to establish and sustain a healthy career in an industry dominated by men, and should be celebrated for paving the way for all the young ladies who are inspired to get up on stage, strap on a guitar and belt out a tune — giving it all they have.” Three First Nations acts have been inducted (Jimmy Little, Kev Carmody and Yothu Yindi), and 12 artists represent genres that aren’t rock or pop. TV and radio presenter Jane Gazzo is calling on ARIA to induct its first female Indigenous act — Tiddas. “In the ‘90s, Tiddas broke new ground by becoming one of the first female Indigenous folk acts to break into mainstream music,” explains Jane, who is also chair of the Australian Music Vault’s advisory board. “They played pubs on line-ups that were completely off-genre, experienced racism and sexism, yet produced three beautiful studio albums and blazed a trail.” ARIA’s criteria stipulate the Hall of Fame is “reserved exclusively for the creators of recorded music — the writers, the recording artists, and in some cases, the producers”. But they inducted a TV show, Countdown, alongside Ian “Molly” Meldrum, in 2014. “I think broadening the ‘entry’ criteria would be a good idea,” says Neil Rogers, who has hosted Triple R’s The Australian Mood for more than three decades. “For example, allowing producers, roadies and other key people who have contributed to the music industry would be good.” Jane also believes ARIA “should do away with tradition and honour the grafters, trailblazers and the people behind the scenes. We seem to honour the obvious — nothing wrong with that, but it becomes a little samey each year.”
Milestones and memories 2018
Renee Geyer turns 65 (11 Sep). 5 years ago
The Hunters tribute album, Crucible, Stephen Cummings
Jane says ARIA should immediately honour record producer Mark Opitz, who produced seminal albums for The Angels, Cold Chisel, INXS and Divinyls. “Is there an Australian sound? If Opitz’s records are anything to go by, then yes, there is.” Jane also nominates a video director — Russell Mulcahy, who made clips for Dragon and The Saints before moving overseas, where he became the world’s leading video director, making ground-breaking clips for Duran Duran and countless other stars. But Paul Cashmere, of noise11.com, makes a fair point: ARIA is the Australian Recording Industry Association, “so it should be limited to recording artists and producers... Molly counts as a producer and should be there, Countdown is a TV show and shouldn’t”. Paul nominates John Schumann, Tommy Emmanuel and Diesel, “but we are getting a backlog with The Living End, Silverchair and Powderfinger now all qualifying”. To address this, Paul says ARIA should induct multiple acts each year. “Maybe not to the degree of the mid-2000s when they were doing seven a year, but we can easily accommodate three a year.” Howzat! believes Mondo Rock should be in the Hall of Fame, which would make Ross Wilson our first triple Hall of Famer (he was inducted solo in 1989 and with Daddy Cool in 2006). But should ARIA prioritise artists who are yet to feature? Neil Rogers argues that Ed Kuepper should be inducted for his solo work, on top of The Saints’ induction in 2001. Neil also nominates The Sports, Kevin Borich, Diesel, Kasey Chambers and Deborah Conway. Despite his indifference to the Hall of Fame, Barry Divola believes there’s one glaring omission. “I notice The Triffids made it in 2008, so I’m surprised The Go-Betweens haven’t had a guernsey yet, especially after Grant’s death, the recent doco and the big tribute nights. I mean, Brisbane even named a bridge after them, but no ARIA Hall of Fame?” As for Stephen Cummings, Howzat! has a high-profile supporter — Michael Gudinski. When he announced that Stephen had signed to the Bloodlines label, Gudinski said: “It’s high time that ARIA recognised Stephen’s remarkable body of work and inducted Stephen Cummings and The Sports into the ARIA Hall of Fame.” Hear, hear.
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is released.
Keith Urban’s Fuse enters the US albums chart at number one. 30 years ago
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds release their fifth studio album, Tender Prey, featuring The Mercy Seat. 60 years ago
Slim Dusty’s A Pub With No Beer becomes the first homegrown chart-topper.
The Gibb family and Red Symons arrive in Australia.
Hot book
Craig Horne — Daddy Who?
As Stephen MacLean wrote in Go-Set, in the first Daddy Cool review, “Daddy Cool is the wildest, happiest group you’ve ever seen, knocking out the freakiest rock songs you’ve ever heard.” The first Australian band to sell 100,000 albums, they deserve a great book, and Craig Horne, a writer and musician, has delivered with this deeply personal tome.
For the latest live reviews go to themusic.com.au
Expo Liaison @ Flemington Racecourse. Photos by
further, the Expo Liaison lads
“As we enter through the festival gates, we’re encouraged to make fantasy truth at what promises to be an experience like no other.”
touring festival, even enticing John
— Michael Prebeg
Joshua Braybrook.
Diversifying their portfolio even curated and headlined their own
‘You’re The Voice’ Farnham himself to jump in on the venture.
Odette @ Northcote Social Club.
Phantastic Ferniture @ The Gasometer Hotel. Photos by Nathan Goldsworthy.
Loveable indie-pop outfit Phantastic Ferniture made a stack of
new fronds touring their self-titled
debut album last month, especially
Photos by Nathan Goldsworthy.
“Album highlight I Need It is just as magnetic in a crowded club venue as it listening on a record player at home, sounding like Tame Impala fronted by Angel Olsen.”
Not many artists manage to completely sell out their debut album
tour. Having already turned heads
with her incredible voice, Odette’s
— Tobias Handke
To A Stranger launches, includ-
ing four Northcote Social shows,
here in Melbourne.
straight up vanished.
“Her Like A Version cover of Magnolia by Gang Of Youths perfectly suits Odette’s voice as if the vocal melody was written specifically with her soaring, emotive pipes in mind.” — Bryget Chrisfield
Mammal @ The Croxton. Photos
“Pure, unbridled adrenaline; a funky, highoctane shredfest of pure rock played at extreme volume and with extreme energy.”
by Nathan Goldsworthy.
Since their return, Mammal have consistently shown they haven’t
slowed a jot since forming in the
naughties. Judging from the pics alone, their Croxton show was as wild and woolly as they come.
— Rod Whitfield
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September
This month’s highlights
The Bennies
Flexicon Tkay Maidza’s new EP Last Year Was Weird (Vol 1) is the absolute the bee’s knees and you can catch it live when her Flexin’ tour rolls into Howler on 13 Sep. Kwame and Arno Faraji will also be there fresh from smashing it at BIGSOUND.
The Hills Are Alive and Corner Hotel have combined forces to bring the Gippy party to Melbourne this 28 Sep for new event, Hills City. The Bennies are headlining with BATTS, Planet, DIET., Chitra and more joining in the fun.
Arno Faraji
Hillock’n’roll
Frey day Divide & Dissolve
After a watershed year Freya Josephine Hollick is back with a new record. Vic’s favourite badass country chameleon launches Feral Fusion with support from Spike Fuck and Hannah Blackburn on 15 Sep. Freya Josephine Hollick
Next-level Negfest is back again this 22 Sep with another line-up of the nation’s best heavy and experimental acts. Divide & Dissolve lead the event’s Melbourne leg at Reverence Hotel with Convulsing, Omahara, Merchant, Bolt Gun and more.
Mahon and on and on
More Ferla is good Ferla and after last year’s smashing Guilt Pop: Stay Posi set the outfit are back in 2018 to launch their latest slice of sad-sultry pop gold at The Grace Darling. Get your head around the The Human Heart on 14 Sep.
Going from strength to strength since releasing her debut single Slow Mover last year, Angie McMahon is now hitting another milestone with her first headline tour. She stops at Forum Theatre, 6 Sep with Canada’s Leif Vollebekk supporting.
Tea it up Blending the classical and the contemporary, ARIA Awardwinning didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton is headed to Arts Centre Melbourne with a string quartet as part of the venue’s latest High Tea series. Grab a scone and settle in this 2 Sep.
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Angie McMahon
Ferla. Pic: Kalindy Williams
William Barton
Good ferya
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ARTIST MANAGEMENT
LOOK THROUGH THE KEYHOLE AT MIDNIGHT
Gordi Willaris. K Micra Pleasure Coma paradise estrange
su-ku-ya.com
the best and the worst of the month’s zeitgeist
The lashes Front
Back
We’re #1
HB’yo, what’s up?
BESTSOUND
Dutton
Abbott
Morrison
Get ready for a not-so-
Can you feel that? New TV is
It’s the most won-der-ful
What
a
mess.
humble brag... We’re only
coming, including a brand
tiiiiime of the yearrrrrrr... No,
gloating because we’re
new, very last ever, definitely
not Christmas - BIGSOUND!
proud and also ridicu-
murder-filled season of
We’re stoked that four glori-
lously competitive, but The
Game Of Thrones. HBO has
ous days of conferences and
Music’s Melbourne team
dropped the first look at the
showcases are upon us. If for
took home Corner Hotel’s
show’s final run, as well as
some reason you’re reading
Industry Trivia trophy last
peeks at Big Little Lies, True
this magazine backwards,
week. We know, we’re sick
Detective and more. The
get all the hot goss yonder.
of us too...
wait might actually kill us.
The final thought
Words by Maxim Boon
Another new Prime Minister? Well none of us saw that coming!
H
ey everyone, remember democracy? Yeah, nah, me neither. Seems common folk like you or I needn’t worry our pretty little heads over dreary shit like, oh I don’t know, who’s going to run the country. Voting’s clearly for suckers, and why bother when you can just sit on the sidelines and enjoy the show, as the pollies go full Game Of Thrones on each other, soar-
The Music
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ing past that pesky ballot box like a zombie dragon over a giant wall. It’s a well-known and oh so well-worn fact that Australia changes its PM like most countries change their proverbial underwear, but as Canberra apparently shoots a shot for shot remake of the Wizard’s Chess scene from Harry Potter, it kind of begs the question, is anyone actually running the show at the moment? Is our girt-by-sea fate currently in the hands of interns, tea ladies and whoever mows the massive lawn on top of Parliment House? And just which dystopian nightmare will we end up living in: Handmaid’s Tale, Mad Max or The Purge? Seriously, none of those paradigms seems particularly far-fetched at this point. And that bears dwelling on. I’d like to think I’m just overreacting, but it’s difficult not to feel the tiniest bit of existential horror at the kind of political bumper cars that’s presently playing out before our very eyes. At the time of writing this piece, there was still no clear conquerer striding their way to the PM’s office, and I dread to think who/what might be the head of our Government by the time these words hit the street. Because as entertaining as it is — and let’s face it, we’re all fucking rivetted — these clownish politicians, with their root-vegetable features (*cough* Dutton *cough*), spouting batshit nonsense with a rubberface and a doofy hat (I’m looking at you, Bob Katter), are not just harmless figures of
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fun. Bumbling down the corridors of power, their ranting, raving, racist, homophobic, anti-immigrant, monocultural sentiments are dangerously close to the mechanisms of legislation. And thus the values that they extoll, and the laws that enshrine them, can and will have very real, and very damaging repercussions for actual people. Our fellow human beings. And the most maddeningly frustrating thing of all is that the electorate’s voice — a collective force that should be the most powerful influence on the political status quo — is being shut out, on the wrong side of the party room door. Short of donning a “The End Is Nigh” sandwich board and taking to the streets, it can feel alarmingly innert just spectating as this power grab plays out. But just when Australia’s politics looked like they might be the drunkest dude at this week’s political party, that damn scandal factory, the good ol’ US of A, rolled up its sleeves, leaned over and said, “Hold my beer bro.” I’m referring, of course, to the pearlclutching revelations pouring forth from Trump’s asstranged lawyer and former hypeboy Michael Cohen, and the multiple guilty verdicts heaped upon Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort. It’s palace intrigue almost delicious enough to distract from the dumpster fire that is the Aussie Parliament. Looks like we can’t even get being a country-sized hot mess right.
DENIM BY BRIXTON
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