The Music (Sydney) March 2020 Issue

March Issue | 2020

Sydney | Free

VIOLENT SOHO Less anxious, less aggressive: the next era of Violent Soho

Steph Tisdell wants to know your name, baby

Ocean Grove’s “refreshing kick up the arse”

Witches and loud women: a word from Shrill’s Lindy West

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WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

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Set in Stone - The Music - Half Page FINAL.pdf 1 28/01/2020 12:49:19 PM

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jeff martin set in stone - australian tour

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tour info + new single www.jeffmartinofficial.com

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FRIDAY 24 JULY

FLUME (ONLY AUS SHOW)

• KING KRULE • DILLON FRANCIS YEAH YEAH YEAHS • MIDNIGHT OIL MAKARRATA PROJECT DMA’S • RUEL • CUB SPORT • PETIT BISCUIT • ILLY • JULIA JACKLIN • BAKER BOY THE

CONFIDENCE MAN • SOFI TUKKER • WALLOWS • BRUNO MAJOR • ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER HOOLIGAN HEFS • INHALER • GRYFFIN • FAZERDAZE • GEORGE ALICE • TRIPLE J UNEARTHED PLUS MIX UP DJS DENA AMY • LUEN • AYWY SECRET SOUNDS NEW MUSIC PRESENT STILL WOOZY • JOY CROOKES • MUNA • SLY WITHERS • MAKO ROAD • 100 • MISS JUNE • MIIESHA

SATURDAY 25 JULY

THE STROKES

GLASS ANIMALS • VIOLENT SOHO • DOM DOLLA • TIM MINCHIN • KING PRINCESS JPEGMAFIA • THE JUNGLE GIANTS • OLIVER TREE • THELMA PLUM • METHYL ETHEL

MALL GRAB

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GROUPLOVE

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THE CHATS

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CHILLINIT

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STELLA DONNELLY

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TRIPLE ONE

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PUP

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SHAED

ALICE IVY • ADRIAN EAGLE • THE BIG MOON • THE LAZY EYES PLUS MIX UP DJS JORDAN BRANDO • MOKTAR • CAROLINA GASOLINA ASTRAL PEOPLE PRESENT KLLO • MILDLIFE • JARREAU VANDAL • GREENTEA PENG • BRAME & HAMO • BANOFFEE • STEVAN DRO CAREY & DJ SCORPION • LEX DELUXE • PINK MATTER • MEMPHIS LK

SUNDAY 26 JULY

TYLER, THE CREATOR (ONLY AUS SHOW)

DENZEL CURRY • DUKE DUMONT (LIVE) • MURA MASA • IDLES • SAMPA THE GREAT GRINSPOON • GERRY CINNAMON • G FLIP • JACK GARRATT • LIME CORDIALE TIERRA WHACK • JULIA STONE • JACK RIVER • BENEE • NORTHEAST PARTY HOUSE • ALEX THE ASTRONAUT

SURFACES • GEORGIA • MO’JU • MICKEY KOJAK • CRY CLUB • TRIPLE J UNEARTHED PLUS MIX UP DJS SHANTAN WANTAN ICHIBAN • AK SPORTS • SAUTI SYSTEMS LOVE POLICE PRESENT BAD//DREEMS • SHANNON & THE CLAMS • BABE RAINBOW PERFORM THE VELVET UNDERGOUND’S LOADED STARCRAWLER • THE SOUL MOVERS • LILLIE MAE • ANDY GOLLEDGE • CHARLIE COLLINS

126 TWEED VALLEY WAY, WOOYUNG • ALL AGES & LICENSED • SPLENDOURINTHEGRASS.COM • #SITG2020 THE MUSIC

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Credits Publisher Handshake Media Pty Ltd Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen

Workin’ for laughs

Senior Editor Sam Wall

I

’ve watched every episode of both the UK and US versions of The Office. I’ve never rewatched either. Yet somehow I’ve become completely enamoured with the ‘rewatch’ podcast Office Ladies.

The podcast is affiliated with the US version only (though there are semi-regular references made to the British original), and it’s hosted by The Office actors Jenna Fischer (Pam in the show) and Angela Kinsey (Angela in the show).

What makes this podcast so appealing is the comedic chemistry between Fischer and Kinsey. I first became aware of Fischer’s comedy chops from a little indie film she wrote and directed in 2004 called Lollilove (it was pre-The Office), a mockumentary about Cali hipsters trying to help the homeless which featured Freaks And Geeks stars Linda Cardellini and Jason Segel as well as Archer’s Judy Greer.

And, while Kinsey utilised her background of comedic improv in The Office, it was her appearances on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson (she clocked 19 spots) that really displayed her spark for hilarious storytelling: she has a knack making the ordinary sound outrageously funny.

Together on Office Ladies, the pair display a rapport only lifelong friends share - they delight in each other’s information and jokes, they quibble and tangent off into conversations where they honestly seem to have forgotten they are recording a podcast (the moment where the swap frozen ramen tips is a real doozy).

Each episode recaps an episode of their still-popular TV series (which finished back in 2013): both rewatch the episodes separately (and sometimes deleted scenes and commentary), they contact cast and crew for BTS tid-bits and then present ‘fast facts’ and deep dives into each episode’s plot line. They also bring in former workmates to talk about their memories from particular episodes, so far featuring Rainn Wilson (Dwight), director Paul Feig, Ken Jeong (he guested in season two), Melora Hardin (Jan) and Creed Bratton (Creed, who also has recorded the theme for the podcast).

There were 201 episodes of The Office produced. So far less than 20 episodes of the podcast have aired, so this has some way to go (they were initially contracted for just 28 episodes, but the podcast’s success should surely see it go all the way through).

Also with some way to go (smoooooooth segue, hey), are our cover stars Violent Soho. Jessica Dale sat down with the band (and those who work with them) to take a deep dive into their career and the process of recording their new album Everything Is A-Ok. Also in this month’s issue we talk to some other local artists we are very excited about, including The Jezabels’ Hayley Mary (if you’ve not heard her solo EP yet, get onto it, you may want it in your end-of-year list), Ocean Grove, The Merindas and Fanny Lumsden. And, from the opposite end of the entertainment spectrum, Joel Burrows introduces us to the talent we should be following on TikTok.

Editors Daniel Cribb, Neil Griffiths Assistant Editor/Social Media Co-Ordinator Jessica Dale Editorial Assistant Lauren Baxter Gig Guide Henry Gibson gigs@themusic.com.au Senior Contributors Steve Bell, Bryget Chrisfield, Cyclone, Jeff Jenkins Contributors Irene Bell, Emily Blackburn, Joel Burrows, Sean Capel, Anthony Carew, Roshan Clerke, Cameron Colwell, Brendan Crabb, Guy Davis, Joe Dolan, Chris Familton, Guido Farnell, Donald Finlayson, Liz Giuffre, Carley Hall, Tobias Handke, Mark Hebblewhite, Keira Leonard, Joel Lohman, Sean Maroney, Taylor Marshall, Felicity Pickering, Michael Prebeg, Mick Radojkovic, Michaela Vaughn, 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, Hayden Nixon, Angela Padovan, Markus Ravik, Bobby Rein, Barry Shipplock, Terry Soo Advertising Leigh Treweek, Antony Attridge, Jacob Bourke, Ben Di Donato sales@themusic.com.au Art Dept Felicity Case-Mejia print@themusic.com.au Admin & Accounts accounts@themusic.com.au Distro distro@themusic.com.au Subscriptions store.themusic.com.au Contact Us Mailing address PO Box 87 Surry Hills NSW 2010 Melbourne Ph: 03 9081 9600 26 Napoleon Street Collingwood Vic 3066 Sydney Ph: 02 9331 7077 Level 2, 230 Crown St Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Brisbane Ph: 07 3252 9666

Happy reading.

info@themusic.com.au www.theMusic.com.au

Andrew Mast Managing Editor

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15 DAYS 11 VENUES 24 EVENTS

OVER 100

ARTISTS Now in its 6th year, I’ve seen the 4ESydney Festival grow to become the country’s premier HipHop festival and conference consistently putting on an experience that is ahead of its time for audiences in Western Sydney.

- L-FRESH The LION

4ESydney is the only festival and project of its kind, specialising in HipHop culture and multi artform, interdisciplinary practice featuring L-FRESH The LION, DOBBY, Nardean, Mirrah, Omar Musa, Mz Rizk (Melb/House of Beige) and more! 4ESydney is a space where community, industry and education meet to create unique opportunities for the growth and preservation of HipHop culture, professional development and industry sustainability. 4ESydney, now heading into its 6th year, continues to gradually build a global infrastructure and platform for HipHop in Australia.

Full festival and conference details at www.4ESydney.com!

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Our contributors

This month

Not On Your Rider

This month’s best binge watching

13

Guest editorial: comedian Jessica Fostekew

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Violent Soho

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Examining the long-term environmental effects of the bushfires

P ic : B ri an Ziff

The Not On Your Rider team consists of

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Editor’s letter

Soccer Mommy On being in the spotlight and becoming a responsible adult

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20

Aimon Clark from The Creases, Patience

Fanny Lumsden How her home went from a picture book to a burnt landscape

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Stateless Giving a human side to the refugee crisis

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Hodgson from The Grates and solo artist Jeremy Neale. They were brought together by their love of trivia nights and figured that there is such a great music community in Australia these days, but nobody is really discussing it in a gameshow format anymore.

Album reviews

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Film & TV reviews

32 Tayla Colley

Aussie TikTok stars to watch

The big picture: Aziz Hazara

Hayley Mary Her primal journey to find home

Lindy West From Shrill to witches to leaving Twitter

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Tayla is a Sydney-based illustrator, animator and underwhelming conspiracy maker.

Your Town

@tayla_colley.

Mad as a March hare Find your own Wonderland with tea party tips and secret sites

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Check out more of her stuff on Instagram,

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Your gigs

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This month’s local highlights

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The end The Merindas, Ocean Grove

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Jessica Fostekew An absolute powershed comedian, actor and regular host of The Guilty Feminist podcast, Jessica can be seen in BBC sitcoms Motherland and Cuckoo and is a writer for Mock The Week and 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons Sheer Mag. Pic: Marie Lin

Mag-nificent

The Welcome To Night Vale universe expands from podcast-land with the release of The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home. The newest addition in a bevy of novel tie-ins, Night Vale creators Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink bring their paranormal prowess to the page once again this 26 Mar.

Elizabeth

After nabbing a support slot with Weyes Blood, the inimitable Elizabeth is heading out on her own this month. It all kicks off 6 Mar and culminates in Melbourne on 16 Mar for the official launch of her recent album, The Wonderful World Of Nature.

Feature-less creature fest

The National. Pic: Graham MacIndoe

Simply the ‘beth

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home

Pennsylvanian punk-rockers Sheer Mag are heading back to Aus for the first time in four years. The group will hit up the east coast throughout the month, beginning in Melbourne on 19 Mar for Brunswick Music Festival.

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Stream dreams

Crossing platforms From its humble beginnings on the Nintendo 64 all the way back in 2001, the Animal Crossing series is back for its fifth official title. The anthropomorphic world builder hits Nintendo Switch with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in stores from 20 Mar.

This month’s best binge watching

Castlevania, Season 3

Ok go For their second Australian tour, Japanese rock superstars One OK Rock are pulling out all the stops. Promising a high-octane and stadium-worthy performance, the band begin their Aussie run on 2 Mar.

Drac’s back, baby! Based on the legendary video game series, the dark horror fantasy picks up where season two ended. Alone with his legacy, Dracula’s son Alucard is left to grieve what he has lost. Meanwhile, Trevor Belmont has set off for a new series of adventures with Sypha Belnades, but it still seems all’s not well in Wallachia.

Streams from 5 Mar on Netflix.

One Ok Rock

Ozark, Season 3

Aussie audiences may have been disappointed in the lack of sea change teased in season two’s finale, The Gold Coast, after Marty Byrde fails to get the family Down Under, but season three of the tense Netflix drama promises more than enough compensation from stars Jason Bateman and Laura Linney.

Streams from 27 Mar on Netflix.

Kwame. Pic: Zain Ayub

Westworld, Season 3

National international US alt-rock stalwarts The National are hitting our shores once again, gracing stages around the country with their smooth, melancholic vibes. It all kicks off 21 Mar in WA before the band stops in NSW, QLD and VIC.

Safe and sounds Celebrating the launch of his brand new single, Please, Get Home Safe, NSW rapper Kwame is heading out around the country this month. It’ll all begin in Melbourne at Corner Hotel, 28 Mar, before hitting the rest of the country.

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Following the shock revelations from the season two finale, the HBO sci-fi series promises more twists and turns than ever. With Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) exploring a new reality, the show has added a slew of fresh cast members including Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul and Master Of None’s Lena Waithe.

Streams from 16 Mar on Foxtel.

Beyond the blue passport: life after Brexit As comedy season looms, we can’t help but wonder what the future looks like for the contingent heading to our shores from a post-Brexit UK. British comedian Jessica Fostekew predicts blue passports and beige art. And queues. Long ones.

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t first when you asked me, ‘What’s going to happen in the future in a new political, social and economic situation which no one in the universe has a clue what the ramifications of are because it’s an entirely new position to be in?’ I thought, ‘How do I know?!’

But then I remembered, I’m a comedian. And us new, modern, current comedians don’t just tell jokes, we also pretend to know EVERYTHING. So why not? Sure. I’ll tell you exactly what’s going to happen in the actual future.

I think a lot of post-Brexit artists will look like Meghan Markle: a strange mixture of systematically oppressed and necessarily wealthy.

Dear sweet lord don’t expect them to look as smart and sexy as her though. Especially not the comedians. In fact, I’d go so far as to say NEVER TRUST a smart and sexy comedian. Why are they even doing it?

They already had your attention. Greedy.

Sorry. Back to the point. When I say that artists will be oppressed but also dripping in cash, I mean that a post-Brexit UK is one which has put its hands up and said collectively that its politics are of the pretty far right. Historically, a pretty far-right UK has usually meant little to no arts funding and greater and greater wealth disparity.

So the only people who will be able to afford to be artists will be either the super rich or the super poor. Confusingly, these people actually dress quite similarly to each other. You’ll think you’ve spotted someone who lives in a skip, a white man with dreadlocks who smells of brie, for example. But then it will turn out his name is ‘Tiger’, his dad manages a hedge fund and no one ever needed to teach him to wash, because he’s still got a nanny to do that for him even though he’s 36.

Tiger will be able to be an artist because he doesn’t need money. Tiger and people who are genuinely so below the poverty line that the creativity required of them just to survive will absolutely have to constitute as art. Yay Brexit!

Quick warning, some of the artists are likely to pretend to not have been born into a cradle of soft dollar bills, because it’s not exactly endearing is it? Like that singer Seasick Steve who pretended to be a mad old homeless guy then once he’d sold out Wembley Arena he admitted it was a ‘character’ and he’d come from relative comfort? Expect even more of that.

Fewer artists will be travelling, obviously. The downside of this is there will be fewer artists inspired by their adventures and cultural quirks and rounded compassionate intellect and more who simply makes work inspired by their own boring self. Upside: incrementally slower spreading of the coronavirus.

The UK government has said that only people who are going to earn over £25,600 a year are going to be allowed to immigrate to the UK from now on. Most artists earn approx £4,000 a year and that’s just the ones with their own Etsy pages. This means a lot fewer artists in the UK will have been born anywhere else. Obviously then you’ll have to expect British artists to become essentially Britisher and Britisher: uglier, ruddier, muddier and even more embarrassed.

But don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to be said for ugly, embarrassed art. It’s increasingly popular. Just look at cosmetic surgery. Or tattoos of people’s names. Timeless. Timeless art.

Blue passports. People from the UK will have blue passports in the future. This is going to have a massive impact on us. Massive. Blue is actually the world’s most favourite colour. So on the one hand Britain’s artists will look more tasteful and popular than they’ve ever done before.

We used to have blue passports and then when we were in the EU they became burgundy and now we’re going back to blue again. So our passports will look ‘vintage’ and ‘retro’. And we’ll like that.

We’ll enjoy that. So while we’ll be more tasteful and popular than ever before, we’ll also be much more awful terrible dickheads.

The fact that the UK won’t be in any union outside of itself means that we’ll be queuing for A LOT longer in airports. There’s an international myth that British people love queuing. Yeah, sure, go somewhere posh and elderly (so the edges of Britain) and yeah, there will be queues.

Happy queues. People are so happy to be in some of those queues that they’re touching themselves. BUT, the majority of Brits, especially the artists, especially the young ones, especially-especially the young artist ones, actually hate queuing. Because they’re HUMAN PEOPLE. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried having to wait a really long time for something that could easily have happened quickly? It’s OBJECTIVELY HORRIBLE. And there’s a theory that frustration and rage lead to really excellent comedy, but there’s a comedian whose current show contains a woman screaming, gutturally, into a microphone, “KILL ME AND KILL MY BABY”*, so that’s debatable. I would say, however, that it’s probably, hopefully, slightly more fun than watching a calm, content and efficiently processed comedian, doing their inevitably smart and sexily turned out comedy. Why don’t they stick to presenting TV shows instead of calling themselves comedians? I’ll tell you why. So that people will ask them to write articles predicting the actual future. That’s why. *Me. I’m the woman who screams that.

“Obviously then you’ ll have to expect British artists to become essentially Britisher and Britisher: uglier, ruddier, muddier and even more embarrassed.”

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VIOLENT SOHO ARE MORE THAN OK Everything Is A-Ok brings with it a new era of Violent Soho. Jessica Dale chats with the band’s Luke Boerdam and James Tidswell, manager Nick Yates and label head Johann Ponniah to find out what’s different this time ‘round. Cover and feature pic by Ian Laidlaw.

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our years on from Waco, seven from Hungry Ghost and over a decade since their self-titled work and We Don’t Belong Here, Violent Soho are finally back with a new album. Dubbed Everything

Is A-Ok, the band’s fifth album is their most self-assured yet — the lyrics mature and autobiographical, the playing confident.

Sitting down at a cafe in Melbourne’s Fitzroy ahead of a gig at The Tote — the first of a three-show run around the country which saw hundreds of dedicated fans line up at record stores to score tickets — the band’s Luke Boerdam (vocals/guitar) and James Tidswell (guitar) are buoyant following the album’s official announcement.

“I guess there was this — how to describe it — this more comfortable and confident feeling without having to scream over the top of everything, and this idea of a song where you don’t have to constantly bash into a wall and scream out,” ponders Boerdam, the group’s primary songwriter, when asked about the album. “That had kind of dissipated. There’s definitely songs that are all heavy but everything feels more laid back. I think that just naturally occurred over the four years. Just like any band, you’ll want to progress and try and find different sounds and keep moving so it doesn’t become just the derivative of the last album. There’s no point making the same album over and over, we’d hate to be that type of band.

But we always try and find that approach naturally you know, that’s why it took so long.”

“We played it before hand as well; we played it in as a band a lot more than usual,” adds Tidswell.

“This album is very much about Soho just being Soho,” explains I OH YOU label founder Johann Ponniah, who signed the Brisbane group back in 2012.

“I would love to be able to sit in this interview and say that there was some marketing genius ideas behind the whole thing and you know, we designed this master plan based on the way the market is shifting and all this shit but we haven’t really to be honest,” he laughs. “It’s very much about just allowing the four members of Violent Soho to be themselves, and we found that’s what people gravitate towards.”

As much as it was later dispelled, there was a time between albums where it was unclear whether the band would continue with rumours sparked about a “hiatus” following a misquoted interview with Tidswell in early 2017.

For band manager Nick Yates, there was no doubt that Violent Soho would continue — even if it wasn’t in the band’s current form. “No, no way,” assures Yates when asked if he was concerned if the band just weren’t going to return. “The guys, they’ve been together for so long now; they’re literally childhood friends. And I think they would continue to play music and write music together forever, even if people didn’t give a shit, you know? And I think that’s what this record is really about: them just being comfortable in their own skin. Even though they’re as big as they’ve even been, I feel like there’s less pressure and less expectation and the guys are just doing things on their own terms.”

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following their signing to Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! label and moving to the US. It resulted in recording the album in Wales with producer Gil Norton and touring heav-

Check The Guide on theMusic.com.au for more details.

ily before eventually coming home.

“It’s a tough one for us,” considers Tidswell when asked how they feel looking back on that album now.

“I’m a bit harsh on that record, personally. I’m just like, I see brilliance in it but I just wish.” adds Boerdam. “I think what frustrates me about that record is the situation. And I’d still do it the same way, funnily enough, because we were just thrown into the guy who produced Foo Fighters and Pixies at the point when you’re still figuring out who your band is. I find that part frustrating, like man, I’d kill to go make a record with Gil Norton again and go work at this studio in the middle of Wales and just imagine what we could do. So, when I look back at it, I’m just like, ‘Ah, hindsight’s a bitch,’ because I would have taken more time before jumping to that record and toured first, and all that stuff.”

“There’s no point making the same album over and over, we’ d hate to be that type of band.”

— Luke Boerdam

He continues, “It’s so weird though because it’s so important to our history as a band because that’s the one we toured America with, we got to meet Built To Spill who are like our heroes and taught us what it is to be a band.”

“We still play all the songs from it,” says Tidswell. “I mean, pretty much all of them.

Even at Christmas, at the Mansfield [Tavern], we did the record start to finish both nights. But how’s it feel now? I guess that’s “We took our time,” explains Boerdam. “It’s so much more comfort-

what I mean when I listen back to Everything Is A-Ok, I was surprised it

able in the sound as a record because we just gave ourselves so much

was us and that made me feel really proud, in a way that I’d never been of

more breathing room. With Waco, there was pressure. There was liter-

our band.

ally [recording] dates before songs, and when you’ve got dates before

“Because we got way better personally and we played literally exactly

songs, you’re making decisions to meet that. I think a great record came

how we wanted in the structure and style and everything that we wanted.

out of Waco, I’m really proud of that record but this time there was liter-

To me, it is the most relaxed. So any of those older records, I can hear the

ally absolutely no pressure to even be a band anymore. We left that last

anxiety in all of us. But to some degree, that’s almost like our signature —

record going, ‘We don’t know what’s going to happen, we’ll actually only

like anxiety and aggression. Well, now we’re not anxious or aggressive, so

make a record if it’s worth making a record because we’re going to have

even when like Vacation Forever gets heavy, it’s still more sitting back into

to tour the crap out of it, leave all our jobs for it [so] it better be worth it.’ I

itself and letting the actual music do it rather than us trying to push it on

think with this record, allowing four years for it to develop, getting songs,

you. But to me, that’s exciting because I can’t believe there was growth

the sounds and the shape of it, and then the band jamming it out before

left or that we could be something that we could play forever in that way.”

going into the studio, by the time we were actually in the studio making this record, everything was so comfortable and relaxed and we were really sure about how we wanted it to sound. It just comes with it and that’s the benefit of being in a band for 18 years.”

It’s not always been smooth sailing for the group though, the time surrounding their 2009 self-titled work among the most challenging periods

Everything Is A-Ok (I OH YOU) is out 3 Apr.

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Illustration by Felicity Case-Mejia

Things we lost in the fire

The worst of the bushfire crisis appears to have passed, but with millions of hectares burnt, what are the long-term effects on Australia’s ecology? By Sophie Logan.

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ach fire season is an encounter with the unknown; a reality of living on the driest populated continent. Yet Australia is now facing a new landscape, one formed through the dramatic effects of climate disaster. As the current fires continue a destructive path into 2020, we are left trying to imagine the long-term ecological scars left in their wake and what bushfire seasons may present in the future.

The current fires started in June 2019. A combination of extended drought, extreme heat, and the effects of global warming have led to an estimated loss of 18.6 million hectares across eastern Australia; for context, there are over 100 recognised countries in the world smaller than 20 million hectares.

And the fires are still burning.

It hasn’t just burnt land and trees. A conservative estimate of one billion animals and insects have also perished, and it is hard to fathom what this means for Australia’s ecology. “Australia has borne the brunt of a long and devastating summer,” says Dr Jody Gunn, Executive Manager for South East Australia of Bush Heritage, a national not-for-profit organisation committed to conserving Australia’s biodiversity in partnership with its First Nations peoples. “Species, already contending with habitat loss and fragmentation, may now be contending with entire swathes of habitat or food that are completely gone or significantly changed. This requires urgent action.”

pear completely from a certain area of their range, are a very real possibility. Local refugia will be crucial to maintaining unique Australian species. We can work harder to protect these critical patches of bush that will provide food and shelter to many animals.”

Phase two actions, implemented for up to one year post fires, include herbivore control in both burnt and unburnt areas.

This will enable vegetation to regrow while enduring sustainable levels of herbivory.

Phase three includes medium-term actions carried out one to three years post-fire. These are planned more thoroughly once information is collected from the previous year — allowing for longer-term issues to manifest and be addressed — such as the release of soil-stored weed infestations initiated from burning. Phase four encompasses longerterm actions carried out beyond three years.

Even as a fire-prone nation, the recent months saw Australia endure extreme conditions, leaving the question of whether the country will be environmentally equipped in the future for similar climate crises.

“Fires have always been a part of the Australian landscape,” Gunn explains, “but the length and extent of this season, and the fact that they have been occurring all at once across such a large area — South Australia, NSW, Queensland and Victoria — has been unprecedented. Combinations of conditions, including the previous number of years of below-average rainfall combined with the Indian Ocean Dipole, have contributed to the fire season that we have just seen.”

To mitigate these conditions’ effect on the Australian environment, the Biodiversity Bushfire Response Workshop was held on 10 January. This produced Victoria’s Depart-

“This requires urgent action.”

These aim to sustain the relevant short-term and medium-term actions. Once habitats are restored to sustainable levels, animals can be reintroduced. Planning for managing the reduction of future high-severity fires can be implemented.

Gunn notes forecasts for this summer period had indicated this was going to be a hard season, and that extreme flood and fire events have been predicted to be part of our ongoing future under different climate scenarios. “Improving our capacity to prevent the extent and severity of bushfires and protect Australia’s ecology will rely on robust science, technology and policy which recognises all the challenges and potential solutions. Bush Heritage’s role is to make sure we’re protecting the most important habitat for many different species.”

This is the point of conjecture. We’ve never seen fires of this size or ferocity before in Australia. “When areas that don’t normally

ment Of Environment, Land, Water And Planning’s Victoria’s Bushfire Emergency: Biodiversity Response And Recovery, a report that outlines four key response timeframes correlating to the current bushfire crisis.

Immediate actions are those implemented while fires are still burning, including wildlife being taken to treatment centres and risk management for the expected repercussions of fighting the fires themselves — such as the impacts of dropping fire retardants.

Phase one commences as soon as the fire area is safe to enter and includes translocation of wildlife along with providing artificial habitat and immediate supplementary food and water.

Dr Gunn notes the Federal Government has listed 113 species as currently requiring urgent attention. “This is a preliminary and rapid assessment. It is still too early to know if any of these species have gone extinct but localised extinctions, where animals disap-

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experience fire because they are too wet, like rainforest, burn, we need to take this seriously,” Gunn adds. “The megablazes, those huge hot fires that formed on the south-east coast and spread across the eastern seaboard leaving millions of hectares of burnt land in their path, are like nothing we’ve ever seen before.”

There’s no longer a sense of removal living in the cities during these fires. In the past, there have been the occasional hazy days during peak bushfire burns, but nothing compared to the extremes seen this year and last. The slumgullion of ash and smoke has been relentless and apocalyptic — cloaking cities here and overseas. Carbon emissions from the fires, usually safely stored in biomass that has since been decimated, will itself impact climate change and, with it, future bushfire seasons.

For now, Australians are faced with newly compromised ecosystems – and the compromised national psyche such catastrophic disasters bring upon a country. As yet there is no Ash Wednesday or Black Friday or single day to mourn the still unknown losses of this fire season. Megablazes and modern climate feedback loops require us to remain vigilant. This crisis proves there’s no disconnect between cities, countries or continents - we need to support each other and those willing to adapt to our changing world.

“Australia’s bush and its people will need time and space to recover. Our habitat restoration efforts will be greatly enhanced by listening and shared learning with Aboriginal people, who have deep understanding and knowledge of the land and care for landscape function.”

Dr Gunn continues to remain positive: “The bush will bounce back from these fires.

It may be different but it will recover.”

To find out more about Bush Heritage follow @bushheritageaus on Instagram and Twitter, and @bushheritageaustralia on Facebook.

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Paint it black

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s she begins the promotional cycle for her second studio album, Color Theory, Sophie Allison, who performs under the moniker Soccer Mommy, is pondering exactly how to talk about her songs. “When people want to hear what it means, I can tell them,” says Allison. “But I also think it’s important as an artist to not just bullshit your way through [...], or try to make it seem like you have some crazy depth, because it gets kind of fake.”

Since entering the spotlight in 2018 with her debut album, Clean, Allison has had to adjust to other peoples’ perceptions of her. “Sometimes people want you to be this really interesting enigma of wisdom,” she says. “And it’s like, I’m a 22-year-old girl. I’m not a genius. I might have important things to say, but anyone else can say these things as well. People are just liking how I’m saying it. I just think it gets kind of stupid when people act like they are some godly creature that is nothing like any of the people who listen to their music. Like they’re way above them and those people could never be like them. I was just going to shows and being a fan of stuff a couple of years ago — as were many people who are big musicians now. And it’s just like, anyone who’s listening could also be doing this — they just aren’t yet. It gets kind of silly when people act really grandiose about it. Just a little bit ridiculous.”

Allison has done her share to demystify musicians, and push against their portrayal as rarefied people. She says the perceived distance between musicians and fans is narrowing, but not everyone treats her like a normal human being. “I think it’s been a move in the right direction,” she says. “But I still feel like people don’t really view artists as people. Even at this stage, where I’m not some big star. I think a lot of people just don’t think of you as a person. And I get why, I have been in that position. But it’s kind of terrible for artists, because I just want to be a person.”

Allison says that it’s not only criticism that can feel dehumanising or feed into her slightly paranoiac tendencies. “It’s not just the mean stuff that you see,” she says,

Soccer Mommy, aka Sophie Allison, was just a music fan going to shows a couple of years ago. Now she’s released her second studio album. She talks to Joel Lohman.

“when people are shitting on you for basically no reason.

It’s also people talking about you constantly. Personally, I have a big problem with paranoia of people talking about me, and this does not help. In fact, it makes me worse and go off the deep end. Because I think most people can’t imagine having hundreds of random strangers talking about them every day, saying stuff about them. What would that make you feel like? It makes you feel like an exhibit or something, more than a person.”

Allison is unusually frank about the impact living a public life has had on her psychologically. She has long been open about her struggles with mental health. Does she think becoming indie-famous has affected her men-

“I still feel like people don’t really view artists as people. Even at this stage, where I’m not some big star.” tal state, for better or worse? “I would have anxiety and depression and some of the shit that’s going on regardless of whether I was making music for a living,” she says.

“I would still have these problems, they might just be manifesting in different ways. When I was really young I didn’t see problems in my life as much. I had a loving family and friends. As I grew older those problems personally stopped me from thinking I could do this for a living one day. So I wasn’t really thinking, ‘Once I’m a rock star, things will be fine.’ I was playing music and thinking, ‘I wish I could do that, but I know I can’t because it’s unrea-

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sonable.’ I definitely didn’t see doing music as a solve-all for my issues. By the time I was doing music I was old enough to know that’s not real.”

Even if being a prominent indie musician is not a panacea for a perfect life, Allison says it provides her with meaning. “I think it’s given me purpose in my life that makes me happy, which is great,” says Allison. “I don’t know that it really fixes any of my issues at all. I think it’s maybe heightened some of my problems because of the stress of the job and the spotlight and shit like that. I think it’s worsened some things, but it could also just be time, just getting older and deeper into it, but who knows.”

Was Allison concerned about the so-called ‘sophomore slump’? “There’s a certain awareness because obviously that’s part of what’s going on,” she says. “But it’s not something that affects what I’m doing at all. I don’t really think about that, I just write more songs and they change based on what I’m being inspired by at the time.”

While the relatively lo-fi Clean was written during the last of Allison’s teenage years, the more richly produced Color Theory captures the beginning of life in her 20s. “I guess it kind of felt different,” says Allison. “I was living a totally different life by the time I was writing this album. I was living a much more adult life where I have employees technically and I’m paying people and I have to make money.”

She’s a business owner! “Yeah, exactly,” says Allison.

“Which I hate. So it’s just becoming an adult and having to do shit you hate all the time, on top of stuff you love. But I don’t feel like my writing changed that much, it just kind of grew. I think that I learned a lot more and I became wiser. Maybe. Or maybe I’m still stupid, I don’t know,” she laughs.

Color Theory (Loma Vista/Caroline) is out now.

Tok ‘til you drop

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t’s official: TikTok is now a cultural juggernaut akin to YouTube and Instagram. This video-sharing app has over one billion users and lets every single one of them upload 15-second long vids. These clips have helped musicians like Lil Nas X go viral, resurrected long-dead classics like Mariah Carey’s 2003 Obsessed, and garnered millions of followers for influencers like Brittany Broski, aka Kombucha Girl. But TikTok isn’t just benefiting people overseas, it’s a platform for Aussie creators. Here’s a list of the ones you should stan.

TikTok is a genuine icon launcher these days. Here Joel Burrows rates a few Australian content makers on the platform that deserve 15 seconds of your time.

@lili.ryder

@sam.bt

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iam Ryder may be the most hilarious and underrated TikToker on this platform. Almost every one of his videos is laugh-out-loud surrealism meets brutal political satire. Unfortunately, this champ only has 1,500 followers. So everyone should download the app and watch these rad vids today.

Liam’s greatest TikTok mocks our Government’s response to record high temperatures around the country. In the clip, he stands against a burning backdrop lip synching the words, “Um, basically, just enjoy.

Enjoy it!”

It’s a line from another viral TikTok star, Lovely Peaches, about how to treat herpes, combined with a scathing critique of the time Tony Abbott said, “Climate change itself is probably doing good; or at least, more good than harm.”

The only thing that Liam’s missing is a regular upload schedule. So Liam, if you’re reading this, please make a TikTok today.

@amospearce

am BT is an 11/10 dancer and entertainer. Her choreography tends to be beat-perfect, joyous, and Step Up complex. Most impressively, every 15-second clip feels like an entire music video.

Her most popular vid is a bonkers yet brilliant boogie to Spooky Scary Skeleton.

Every move is flawlessly extra, and it has almost four million likes. Also, she’s wearing absurd sci-fi sunglasses, so it gets an A+ for costuming.

Sam BT also occasionally dips her toes into the vlogging world, sharing snippets of her day to day, from being bored at the airport to filming sunrises. These smaller, more personal moments are mint palate cleansers between the more intense dances.

The best thing about Sam’s content is her infectious enthusiasm. When she’s smiling and dancing, you’re smiling along with her. It’s the bee’s knees watching someone so bubbly and positive.

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mos Pearce is the best boy on TikTok, and that’s because Amos Pearce is a doggo. This Catahoula-beagle cross loves eating mangos and napping. He also stars in the most wholesome content on earth.

However, life wasn’t always easy for Amos. In 2015, he was an ownerless pupper at the RSPCA in Queensland. But when his owner Melissa Pearce found him, his life truly changed for the better. He’s now a social media star and, at the time of writing, has over 400,000 followers. And if this doesn’t prove that TikTok can change lives, who knows what the heck will.

One of Amos’ most popular clips has him wearing a paint-spattered bowtie.

While he sits there, being the cutest, text about his adoption plays under his face. It’s extremely wholesome, and there’s a reason it has more than 800,000 likes. If this doesn’t make you tear up, you just may be an android.

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@australian reptilepark

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mos Pearce isn’t the only famed Aussie animal on TikTok. There are tonnes of them, and most of these critters are found on the Australian Reptile Park channel. That’s right, there’s an entire zoo on this platform. And they don’t just post vids of their lizards. They have clips starring koalas, possums, and a myriad of local fauna. If you want to watch tortoises nomming on sweet potatoes, then this account’s just for you.

The most interesting thing about the Australian Reptile Park’s account is the fact that it exists. This channel’s success proves that TikTok is a legitimate way niche companies can advertise their brand. And their strategy appears to be a smash hit! This zoo has over one million followers and over 13 million likes. But more importantly, it means you can watch their dingo pupper vids. And isn’t that what life’s all about?

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Aziz Hazara Debuting at NIRIN, Bow Echo explores the relationships between people and their environment, between memories and trauma. We spoke to Aziz Hazara about documenting conflict.

The image opposite is taken from your video project Bow Echo. Can you tell us about that project?

The work was produced by the Han Nefkens Foundation, and it focuses on the relation between people and their environment. The protagonists produce eerie sounds as a form of recollection and connection with a landscape in which many traumatic events have taken place. They also embody my own relation, as well as the involvement of many different national and international players, within that space of trauma. The boys (or the protagonists) in Bow Echo are the locals who live in the Chehel Dokhtaran Mountains, a location which has played a significant role in the destruction of [Kabul] in the civil war. It was under the control of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf (one of the warlords). From there, his militias could observe every move within the West of Kabul, and they bombed street by street, house by house.

Your art is deeply tied to Afghanistan but Bow Echo is being launched as part of Sydney’s 22nd Biennale. What do you hope Australian audiences will take away?

On some level, the context in which the work has been filmed plays a role in giving direction to how the work can be interpreted or read. But it can also be anywhere in the world. We all share the same experiences in one way or another when it comes to understanding or responding to our everyday lives, and I hope Bow Echo is able to show this.

Your recent residency at the Camargo Foundation focused in part on your interest in cameras as “a tool of panopticism in conflict zones”. Can you please expand?

The history of using the ‘camera’ as an object in that region is quite complicated and its significance has shifted over time. At first, it was an infidel object - and the operator was a magician. After 9/11, with the arrival of American troops, its role shifted towards a surveillance one. It became a tool used to control the landscape. I was interested in drone warfare and how it affects collective memory as well as personal memory, and how it shapes the behaviour of the participants. Living in Kabul, you always have the feeling of being watched because of the kite balloons that can track your movements wherever you go. At the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, everybody has a fear of drones... To the extent that no one wants to attend relatives´ weddings in order not to be bombed. This is why I was interested in exploring the camera in relation to the Panopticon.

You’ve said your work is archaeological more than anything else. Do you have a purpose or goal in your art beyond documentation?

In Bow Echo, I was interested in exploring how sound triggers memory within the boundaries of the poetic and politics, while looking at memory as an archaeological site.

Bow Echo

Do you believe that to observe something is to change it? Is using art to document conflict inherently an act of change?

Yes, the moment you start observing you are automatically involved in the act of taking decisions. One may not be able to change anything with art or other forms of expression, but it certainly has the power to question our dynamics of perception.

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Bow Echo runs from 14 Mar as part of NIRIN 2020.

Deep primal shit

Check The Guide on theMusic.com.au for more details.

The Jezabels’ Hayley Mary had to move to Edinburgh and serve tradies haggis rolls in order to get out of a rut. Ahead of a national tour, Hannah Story tears the tartan and learns how the act of wandering inspired Mary’s debut solo EP The Piss, The Perfume.

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ayley Mary is a self-described wanderer. The Jezabels frontwoman, who dropped her debut solo EP, The Piss, The Perfume in January this year, has spent the last five-odd years living between Sydney, London and Edinburgh, where she wrote much of the record, including singles Like A Woman Should and Ordinary Me. Now based in Melbourne with her partner Johnny Took (DMA’S), Mary sets out on EP launch dates this month. That wandering impulse means that she’s never really suffered from homesickness. Her hometown of Byron Bay never felt like home — the closest she’s found is Sydney, the subject of the EP’s title track: “It’s the place I go in between everywhere else,” she says.

Mary likes to constantly go back to the same places and collect new memories, so that there’s something “home” about that city when she returns. She finds those “layers of familiarity” in Sydney. “I like nomadic life... I don’t know if I come across as like a homeless stray, but I’ve never really felt at home anywhere.”

Her inclination to wander is “probably some deep primal shit really”. She compares it to the way some people find themselves at their most creative when they’re on the move, even if that’s just going for a walk.

“I think travelling inspires, and movement inspires creativity for a lot of people.

Maybe I always imagined myself like a bit of a whirling dervish collecting [ideas], but searching at the same time, and kind of searching for home.

“It’s like Dorothy: you leave home to find home. But you have to go and it’s the journey that matters. I think it’s pretty primal, it’s like caveman shit that we have to go on a journey to find out what you always knew.”

She chose to live in Scotland because that’s where her father is from. “Maybe there was a desire to make sense of myself a bit.

Being the lost soul that I was, it made sense going there.”

Mary found that some of her sensibilities actually stemmed from a culture on the other side of the world. Her dad wasn’t “crazy”, he was just Scottish. She wasn’t “offensive”, just Scottish. “There’s things about yourself that you come to understand where they came from,” she says. “It’s just a way of thinking. ‘They’re just Catholic, or they’re just Scottish.’ I made a lot more sense.”

Much of the Australian character, she notes, seems to have some kind of root in Scotland or Ireland, in our convict forebears, like a suspicion of authority, or support for the underdog. “There’s a certain spirit,” she says. “My dad in the context of like chill-out Byron Bay, he looks like a bit of a weirdo. But when I go to Glasgow, I’m

“Sometimes you need to live a bit... It can deplete you if you’re like, ‘I’m an artist.’

Fucking go and be a person a bit.” like, ‘Oh, there’s heaps of people like you.’

The rebellion lives on.”

Lately Mary has been trying to be less serious. “I’m trying to inspire myself again, and get out of a rut,” she explains. “There’s something about playfulness that’s quite magical, and it leads to invention.”

That sense of playfulness comes after a prolonged period where Mary felt like a “bit of a lost soul”, flitting between the US, the UK, Sydney and Melbourne, and trying out writing partnerships that didn’t stick.

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A couple of years ago, after four or five years of feeling adrift and scrambling creatively, Mary came home and declared that she was giving up songwriting. So Took started following her around the house with his acoustic guitar, playing chords, saying: “Write a song to this.” That spurred Mary to write the EP’s closing track Brat.

Ten years in a band left Hayley “fucking underqualified” if she had given up her career as a musician. “I’m not even a good bartender... I can’t even make cocktails,”

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she says. “I don’t even make good coffee. I’m gonna suck at hospitality, because I’m way too rude and entitled now. I don’t really like serving people, but I do it.”

Within a month of working full-time in hospitality, at a cafõ¿‰ in Edinburgh, Mary had an EP of songs. “It was kinda like the giving up made me not give up, whereas holding on to the idea of, ‘Maybe I’m still a musician,’ I wasn’t really being productive.

“Sometimes you need to live a bit... It can deplete you if you’re like, ‘I’m an artist.’

Fucking go and be a person a bit.”

Even now, after promoting herself in the months since first single, The Piss, The Perfume, came out in October, Mary may soon need to take her own advice. “I’m gonna have to go away again after this one and get another hospitality job and get back down to earth,” she laughs.

Writing for the first time entirely on her own, Mary could have gone in any direction. “The freedom is kind of the curse with a solo thing,” she says. “I guess I was lucky to be in an immense amount of debt.”

That financial restriction meant Mary couldn’t enlist a pop producer or fly to LA for songwriting sessions. Instead, she wrote the EP in her bedroom in Edinburgh, just vocals and a guitar. Which in turn meant she had to actually learn to play guitar. “At the root of most good songwriting is the guitar and the voice, or the piano and the voice. And so within getting up at 6am to serve tradies haggis rolls, and getting home and then like cooking dinner and stuff, I was like, ‘Alright, I’ll write on guitar,’ because that was what I could do.”

Playing guitar for her solo shows so far has made the singer feel “really vulnerable, like people can see everything, and all of my screw-ups”: “It’s pretty nerve-wracking playing guitar, for me, to be honest. It’s a whole new skill,” she says. “I feel naked with a guitar.”

And going out alone means that Mary is back at the bottom of the musical pecking order, playing shows without a soundcheck and sometimes without even a drum kit. It’s a stark contrast to ten years playing in one of Australia’s most loved bands.

But the experience has so far been character-building.

“I thought I’d built my character, but it turns out the universe has decided that I need more character,” she laughs.

The Piss, The Perfume (I Oh You) is out now. Hayley Mary tours from 20 Mar.

Lindy West writes with the kind of humour that immediately hooks you in. But her work is always grounded in a broader political significance, something that has heralded her the queen of internet feminism. Ahead of her appearance at All About Women, she speaks to Cyclone about Trumpism, Twitter and latest essay collection, The Witches Are Coming.

Join the coven

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indy West has found success as a satirical feminist commentator, critiquing body-shaming, American politics and pop culture. But, having recently authored the essay collection The Witches Are Coming, its title referencing the reactionary misrepresentation of #MeToo as a witch-hunt, she’s contemplating trying her hand at supernatural fiction. “One thing I didn’t expect was the number of people who picked up the book by accident because they thought it was a fantasy novel about witches,” West reveals. “Sorry, guys! I feel you, though. Sometimes when I was writing it, I wished it was a fantasy novel about witches too — that would have been way more fun than incessantly thinking about Donald Trump for a year. Maybe that’ll be my next book. But I am really proud of how The Witches Are Coming turned out. I think it’s funny and I hope it helps people feel a little bit more powerful and a little bit less alone, even if they picked it up by accident.”

West will again guest at the annual All About Women discussion festival held at the Sydney Opera House to mark International Women’s Day (she previously appeared three years ago).

The Seattle native started her writing career in the mid-2000s at the local alt-weekly The Stranger, ultimately rising to film editor. In 2011, West penned a blog about fat-shaming that went viral, heralding her as ‘the queen of internet feminism’.

She’d write for Jezebel, The Guardian and The New York Times. In 2016 West published her first book, Shrill: Notes From A Loud Woman, with personal essays touching on body image and destigmatising abortion. The following year, West hilariously wrote about

attending a Goop Health Summit, a spin-off from Gwyneth Paltrow’s infamous lifestyle brand, for The Guardian — revisited in The Witches Are Coming. “That Goop piece was really fun to write! That’s my favourite kind of writing — where I get to riff really hard and be as funny and goofy as I want, but there’s some kind of bigger political significance underneath that gives it weight.”

West has long chronicled the cyberharassment that female journalists routinely endure. (She once confronted a troll for the radio programme, This American Life.) Nonetheless, in 2017, West left Twitter. Today’s writers rely on social media to promote their brands — and remain relevant. Yet West is resolved to stay away. “I can’t see myself going back to Twitter. I never even think about it. It’s pretty wild that any of us voluntarily download an app that delivers insults and death threats directly to our beds, our jobs, our grandmas’ funerals — whatever. I don’t need to be that accessible to the public ever again. It wasn’t healthy for me psychologically, and I didn’t feel good about it ethically. Quitting Twitter has almost certainly had a negative impact on my career — although it’s not something I can quantify and, of course, I’m doing fine.

But I left when I was already an established writer. I don’t know that personal branding is a necessity for aspiring journalists, but Twitter is definitely a place where writers make professional connections, promote their work, and participate in the kinds of complex, real-time conversations that great ideas (ie, pitches) come from. So I never tell anyone to quit Twitter. But I hope eventually young writers won’t need it to survive.”

Latterly on Twitter there’s been heated

debate about the perils of celebrity activism — and the accountability culture surrounding it. The British presenter/actor Jameela Jamil — an advocate for body positivity and disability rights — has faced invasive pressure to defend her health record. But, then, Rose McGowan, the prominent #MeToo activist, called out Natalie Portman for a performative protest at the Academy Awards — the A-lister’s cape embroidered with the names of ignored female directors.

West’s take? “Obviously celebrities tend to pull a lot of focus when they get involved in social justice activism. They can be shuffled to the front of movements in which they are not experts, which isn’t great for the movement and often not great for the celebrity. I’m sure there are some celebrities who approach activism in bad faith, as PR. But, for the most part, isn’t this exactly what we want people to do? Use their platform and influence to fight for justice and equality?

There are plenty of celebrities who never say anything about politics at all. Piling on well-meaning ones who engage imperfectly feels like another subtle way that the establishment discourages political action.

There’s a way for celebrities to be politically active while firmly and gracefully decentring themselves and, to me, that’s the goal.”

West has extensively analysed Trumpism — and the misogyny in US politics.

However, the Democratic primaries have exposed the deep fissures in the left, with polarised views on which candidate could combat Trump — and who has the most intersectional policies. “The left needs to offer people something concrete to rally behind. This can’t be an anti-Donald Trump platform. That’s not enough. It’s not any-

“I wished it was a fantasy novel about witches too — that would have been way more fun than incessantly thinking about Donald Trump for a year.”

Pic: Jenny Jimenez

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thing, really. People have real, tangible, urgent needs. People need healthcare, they need education, they need immediate and drastic action on climate change. The only way forward for the American left is to mean something.”

Still, West looks at the world through an American lens, subscribing to a mainstream Western liberal feminist discourse — something which she tacitly acknowledges. “White women need to stop assuming that our experiences and perceptions are universal. We need to stop assuming that our instincts are correct. We need to step aside and learn to take criticism, even harsh criticism, even anger, as a constructive gift.

It’s just a matter of living in reality. White feminism isn’t feminism.”

Shrill has been adapted into a TV series for Hulu, with West serving as an executive producer alongside Elizabeth Banks (her alter ego, Annie Easton, is portrayed

by Aidy Bryant). And she’s pursuing screenwriting — even collaborating with her husband, the musician/comedian Ahamefule J Oluo. “I’d love to keep making television!”

West enthuses. “Working on Shrill has been incredibly fun. Of course, I’ll keep writing books and columns, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about writing fiction. I don’t know!

I’m just so thankful to have this weird job. I got here by jumping on whatever opportunities opened up in front of me, so I’m going to keep doing that and see where I end up.”

Lindy West speaks on 8 Mar at Sydney Opera House.

Catch you on the flip side Bassist Twiggy Hunter tells Alasdair Belling that Ocean Grove “feel fucking great and more confident than ever”, thanks for asking.

Check The Guide on theMusic.com.au for more details.

A place in the sun Rod Whitfield speaks to Candice Lorrae and Kristel Kickett of The Merindas about the importance of staying connected to country and culture.

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rom Darwin and Tammin respectively to now supporting the likes of R&B legend Craig David, Candice Lorrae and Kristel Kickett of The Merindas have come a long way from the college where they met.

“We first met at Abmusic, which is a college for Aboriginal musicians in Perth,” Lorrae shares. “I was teaching and Kristel was a student, but it wasn’t until a couple of years later that we caught up. I’d seen Kristel sing on YouTube and I asked her if she wanted to come and do this thing with me: we’d started this group called The Merindas and it was on the launch of [2012 film] The Sapphires.”

Things started to take off from there, the group getting regular bookings performing Motown classics. “We opened up for the film that night,” she continues. “It was a one-off show, but it became this full-time job because it was so popular. We had to do a line-up change because some of the girls had to go back to work. So I got Kristel on board and we really started to connect as soul sisters.”

While their early Sapphires success certainly helped things along, it wasn’t long before the pair emerged from Motown’s shadow and the whole thing started to take on a life of its own. “We’re actually songwriters,” Lorrae states. “We said, ‘Let’s do original stuff. We can only do covers for so long, that’s not what’s in our hearts.’” What was in Lorrae and Kickett’s hearts was a desire to express their own stories and heritage, as well as to bring them to a more mainstream audience, and generally convey a deeper message about who they are. “We want to tell our stories,” she says. “We want to share our language, our culture, and we want to do that through music. I think what we’re doing is unique, and if people support it, it’ll be a total game-changer.

“Even though we’re on this massive journey into this mainstream pop thing, we wanted to share our culture and we wanted to keep grounded as well, keep connected with our culture, and that’s something that we want to teach the young Indigenous kids coming up. Whatever it is that you’re doing, keep connected to country and keep your culture alive.

“And it’s in the music,” Kickett adds, “and music is forever!”

The duo are about to release their debut album, We Sing Until Sunrise, and will tour Australia extensively in support of it. At the same time, they have a definite eye on markets beyond our shores. “I feel that we’re going to do a lot better in overseas markets,” Lorrae states. “Australia is a really small pond, and there’s a lot of gatekeepers and a lot of resistance to certain genres and artists.

“What we’re offering is a little bit more worldly in the way of our costuming, body movement, our stories, our music and our genre.”

O

ne of the most iconic symbols of the technological revolution, the flip phone also brings to mind some of

the old-school charm of the colourful late’90s, early-’00s era.

Speaking to us from Poland where Ocean Grove are touring ahead of the release of new LP Flip Phone Fantasy, bassist Twiggy Hunter reminisces, “It was like the realisation that we were in the centre of the technological revolution.

“It’s only now that it’s become this thing that almost anyone has and you have the world at your hands and in your pocket... If you’d have asked me back then if we had such easy access to anything that we wanted, I would think that you were pulling my leg!”

It’s this sense of sci-fi wonder from yesteryear that the band have channelled into Flip Phone Fantasy, something dubbed by the group as “retro-futurism” — and it’s just as deep as it sounds.

“Our past is always there to either complement the present or remind us of how bad things have gotten in other ways... In a way [the album] represents what the past per-

The Merindas tour from 5 Mar.

ceived the future was going to be,” explains

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Slow and steady

Hunter. “This record references a lot of different time stamps for us that were very shaping of our current selves. We kind of went back to those moments to choose sounds to play around with — there’s a lot of late-’90s and 2000s references here, be that in the undertones of the melodies or the full-body rock sound

Fanny Lumsden’s third album Fallow sees dealing with the loss of loved ones and the joy of bringing new life into the world. As she explains to Chris Familton, it’s an album that represents possibility and new beginnings.

in some of the songs. It’s all a representation of what we feel shaped us, so we tried to embrace a lot of that.”

Of course, embracing shelved sounds isn’t anything new for the band. Their last record, 2017’s celebrated The Rhapsody Tapes, combined elements of nu-metal and skate-punk with metalcore and a smattering of hip hop, earmarking them as one of the more interesting bands to rise out of the surging Aussie metal realm.

However, after signing a worldwide deal with BMG, the band lost both their frontman Luke Holmes and founding gui-

A

tarist Jimmy Hall. It was in this period of transition, with bassist Dale Tanner stepping up to frontman duties, that Hunter came in, and what follows is undeniably the band’s finest artistic work to date.

“I was involved here and there creatively on Rhapsody

Pic: Ed Mason

Tapes... some of the outfits that Dale wore were my creations,”

Hunter recalls on how he came to be involved with the group.

“Nothing really changed from how it was — we’re all mates, and we’re still mates with our past members. I came in, added my own spice and gave them a refreshing kick up the arse and just went, ‘Let’s write a fucking album.’ Dale and I were spending five days a week sometimes with Sam [Bassal, drummer and producer] in his studio, doing this while paying bills and rent, but we weren’t at home, so we were really giving it our all.”

It might have been a rollercoaster 18 months for the band, but they’ve come out of it with something incredible to show, and Hunter assures us that confidence is running high as they kick off a new decade.

t her Tooma Valley home, near the southern NSW border, Fanny Lumsden thinks back to last winter when she recorded her new album Fallow there. “It looked like a picture book. It doesn’t now, it looks burnt,” she reflects grimly. As with much of the country, it’s been a hellish summer with fires raging and destroying or threatening huge swathes of land. Lumsden’s career is intrinsically connected to the country communities she visits on her annual Country Halls Tour and indeed her album launch show is a fundraiser for Tooma bushfire recovery. That connection to the land was one of the key factors in recording Fallow, with producer Matt Fell, in her country home.

“I wanted to do it in a different space and it was the third album I’d done with Matt. If you limit things then creativity comes out of that and so we took away some of his tools and put him in this new space and I hoped that would inspire him to be creative in a new way,” explains Lumsden. “Because the songs were so inspired by the valley, the only way I could translate how it made me feel was to put him here. I remember when I was explaining how I wanted a theme song and an introduction to the record I wanted it to be like driving into the valley and setting the scene and mood. Matt just walked outside and looked down the valley as we were playing it and said, ‘Right, I know what we’re going to do!’”

In the wake of her previous album Real Class Act, Lumsden reached a point late in 2017 where she felt the need to write with a greater sense of optimism and emotional depth. “We lost Dan [Freeman, her husband and bandmate]’s mum and then had a baby a few months later. It was such an intense emotional period and I think I just wanted to talk about those feelings. So many people around me were having a hard time that I just wanted to

create something that was about green grass and running water and beautiful valleys. I think people just want to have an escape, me included, and then the songwriting started to happen after that.”

Managing parenthood and a professional career is always a juggling act and, for Lumsden, it was something she threw herself headlong into. “I just kept going, and looking back it was so full-on,” she says. “I starting gigging again three weeks after giving birth and we toured in the car with my brother, Dan and I doing house concerts every weekend for the first six months of my son’s life — and he didn’t sleep!” she exclaims. “There were so many moments of breastfeeding, putting on make-up and crying because I was exhausted. I’ve had the most amazing support from family and my band though. There’s a level of understanding from them all,” Lumsden says, the gratitude clearly evident in her voice.

Lumsden has always been able to create a personal connection with her audience, while still putting on a high energy and entertaining live show. It’s like she’s harnessed the greatest attributes of Gillian Welch and Dolly Parton and she’s adamant that’s exactly how she is, on stage and off. “I wanted to create a world that I wanted to be a part of. I’m pretty manic and I love colour and I love performing but then the depth of songwriting is really important to me as well.

Finding that balance is always something that is important to me and that I strive to achieve. I think it holds me back in lots of ways as I can’t be pushed into certain genres — which I’m fine with,” she emphasises. “Dan and I have always said we’re here for a slow and steady climb and we want to be doing this for a long time!”

Fallow (Cooking Vinyl) is out this month.

“We all feel fucking great and more confident than ever,” he exclaims. “At the start of the process we all sat down and put our goals on the table and put all our feelings out there to discuss what we wanted to get out of the writing process. This is something that we’re all willing to give our absolute all; we’re confident that people will love the album, we’re confident it’s the first of its kind in this kind of mixtape form... We think it’ll translate well to people.”

Only time will tell how it’s received — but with the recent resurgence in popularity for the ‘90s nu-metal sound and aesthetic, things could be peaking at just the right time for Pic: Dan Freeman

Ocean Grove.

Flip Phone Fantasy (UNFD) is out this month.

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State of play The character of Ameer who Fayssal Bazzi plays in Stateless will be with him for “a long, long time”. Guy Davis finds out why.

I

t takes some heavy hitters to bring to the screen an issue as complicated and fraught as refugees and asylum seekers who, looking to begin a new life in Australia, find themselves enmeshed in a bureaucratic limbo of red tape and detention that’s frustrating at best, dehumanising at worst.

Fortunately, the new six-episode miniseries Stateless on the ABC, had no shortage of such talent on either side of the camera.

Co-created by Tony Ayres, Elise McCredie and Cate Blanchett, whose credits and accolades include The Slap, Glitch, Jack Irish, Ride Like A Girl and, oh, two Academy Awards, Stateless deftly intertwines disparate stories of people fleeing persecution — eager to start over, keen to make a difference in society or simply desperate to provide for their loved ones — into a vivid and compelling mosaic that brings humanity to a topic often dominated by statistics and rhetoric.

Stateless has gathered an all-star cast to do so, with Blanchett, The Wire’s Dominic West, The Handmaid’s Tale’s Yvonne Strahovski, Jai Courtney, Asher Keddie and Marta Dusseldorp. And while he may not be as immediately recognisable as his co-stars, Fayssal Bazzi makes perhaps the most powerful impression of all with his impassioned performance as Ameer, an Afghan refugee whose efforts to give his family a new life in Australia result in betrayal, heartbreak and tragedy.

The subject matter of Stateless and the role of Ameer struck a personal chord with Bazzi, whose own family fled conflict-torn Lebanon for Australia when the actor was only three years old, and when he first read the script, “what struck me was how real it was”.

“Coming from a Lebanese and Syrian background, I know these people,” he says. “Every person in this show stems from a real human being I have been in contact with. Every character has the same heart, the same needs and desires, whether they’re a refugee, a guard or whatever else — everyone is trying to make a better life for themselves. So the thing that I connected with so greatly was that underlying similarity of all the characters. Only their circumstances are different.”

That feeling of connection does underpin Stateless — whether a character is seeking asylum in a new country, wrestling with personal demons or struggling to bring humanity and dignity to a system where such things are in short supply, a sense of powerlessness, of being cut adrift from society, pervades every situation.

“The fact that it is set in a detention centre in the middle of the desert speaks to that,” says Bazzi, whose recent credits include the black comedy Down Under and the dystopian miniseries The Commons. “You couldn’t be further removed from life — even natural life, like trees or water. So you’ve been turned into an afterthought, something to be dealt with later... maybe. Everyone was trying to figure out what to do with this issue as they went, and the easier thing to do is put things out of sight, out of mind.”

Bazzi’s own family history informed his performance as Ameer. “I always talk to my family about the roles I’m going to do and what they entail, but I didn’t speak too much about Ameer because Ameer is everywhere I look in our community,” he said, adding, “There’s a lot of his heart in my father, so that was easy to tap into.” Equally vital in giving the character life and authenticity were co-workers on the Stateless set who had actually experienced the situations and circumstances faced by Ameer and his family. “Some even more heartbreaking,” he says. “Listening to their stories every day, it showed how important it is to represent

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these poor people and put a human face on their tragedies.”

Representation of people frequently misrepresented or denied a voice at all was a key concern for Bazzi, who knew going into Stateless that the project had the potential to be viewed as social and political dynamite.

“I know that Cate Blanchett had been trying to get this made for a number of years, and people had been hesitant to deal with the refugee issue,” he says. “No one wants to look like they’re taking sides, and I don’t think Stateless does take sides. It’s putting a human face on the matter rather than tossing buzzwords and statistics around the place.”

It’s easy to forget these are real people, Bazzi adds. “We get so caught up in the fear that’s been spun around refugees and why they’re coming here. For a lot of these people, leaving their country is the last thing they want to do. But because of persecution and trying to ensure a future for their families, they have to. It’s not a case of trying to queue jump; it’s a case of people looking for a safe way to raise their families and lead normal lives,” he says.

“You or I, would we want to leave Australia for any rea-

“His is a human story, and he is a man trying his best for his family, trying to keep them safe from danger. “

son? If war came and we were in danger, we would have no choice. No one would; everyone would be looking for a way out. It’s easy to forget that. But these people aren’t paying for a cruise — they’re putting themselves through life-threatening situations to [find] better their lives.

“My aim for it was never to make Ameer political at all.

His is a human story, and he is a man trying his best for his family, trying to keep them safe from danger. That was my mantra, my focus, and I feel anyone would do exactly the same thing. Take away the politics and that’s what it is.”

There was plenty of emotional and psychological heavylifting that went into Bazzi’s performance, but he admits with a laugh that the greatest challenge was a more practical one.

“Well, the thing about Ameer is that most of his dialogue is in Dari [a variety of Persian], and I don’t speak Dari,” he says. “But I was lucky in that the beautiful young actor who plays my eldest daughter, Soraya Heidari, her father is a translator and interpreter, and he was my Dari coach. He was on-set with us all the time, and he was amazing — I couldn’t have done it without him. He told me I was his best student, so if you want to put that in writing I’d appreciate it!

“I did have an advantage in that I speak Arabic fluently and read it, and Dari is written with the Arabic alphabet. So I could read it but I didn’t know what I was saying. I’d learn it slowly, and he would say the intonation wasn’t in the right place or whatever. But when I would act it for him, say it in character, he would say, ‘Yes, you got it!’ Once I finish a job, I’m pretty good at erasing all the dialogue from my head. But with Ameer, I still remember all the Dari, all the speeches, and I think he’ll be with me for a long, long time.”

Stateless screens 8.30pm Sundays on ABC and ABC iview from 1 Mar.

THE BLACK SORROWS motor ace tim rogers cass eager

t i c k e t s o n s a l e n o w a t w w w. m e a t s t o c k . c o m . a u

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The reviews

Emerging from a turbulent few years, which included the departure of frontman Luke Holmes and guitarist Jimmy Hall after the band signed a worldwide deal with BMG, Ocean Grove sound as fresh, optimistic and weird as ever on their second album Flip Phone Fantasy.

This new-look Ocean Grove combine the skate-punk adrenaline of the ‘90s with the excitement and ambience of the early ‘00s technological boom. Things come screaming right out of the gate on Superstar, with new frontman Dale Tanner, who had previously handled all clean vocals, powerfully leading the charge, adding a blast of fresh, melodic air into the band’s sound.

Elsewhere, cuts like Ask For The Anthem and Neo showcase the band’s vastly improved grip on the songwriting craft, and they show extra maturity when peeling back the layers to reveal the raw souls underneath the baggy pants and hairspray on acoustic standout Baby Cobra.

There’s always been something more to Ocean Grove than just a good riff and breakdown — something that album closer Freaks, a dynamic and experimental shift for the band, can attest to. Rather than stick to their (tattoo) guns, Flip Phone Fantasy takes all the risks that many groups looking to capitalise on success tend to avoid. New sonic influences and lyrical direction (self-growth and the benefit of hindsight

Ocean Grove

Flip Phone Fantasy UNFD

HHHH

rule the roost here) mark this as the most unique and potentially polarising release from the band yet. However, hardcore kids from the Black Label days won’t be left out. Junkie$ and hooky earworm Sunny mix the band’s signature darkly reflective melodies with a healthy dose of moshable riffage to keep things anchored for the true believers.

True to their self-proclaimed “Odd World” music, things are as mish-mashed as ever, with savage guitar tones sharply contrasted by house soundscapes, as heard on sweaty cuts Thousand Golden People and Guys From The Gord. There’s a greater emphasis on hip hop than their past work too — no doubt a result of newbie Twiggy Hunter, of electronic duo The Beverly Chills — but those sounds are blended with metal roots smoothly, creating a wonderfully dense texture, unearthing new thrills at every turn. Things may have threatened to go pear-shaped for the band at the beginning of last year, but Ocean Grove have risen to the challenge and redirected the winds of change into their ever-expanding creative sails. Great heavy records are those that are different from the pack, and Flip Phone Fantasy is a fiery beacon in this regard, one that excites as much as it surprises.

Alasdair Belling

Circa Waves

Fanny Lumsden

Kingswood

Lauv

Prolifica Inc./[PIAS]

Cooking Vinyl

Dew Process

AWAL

HH

HHHH

HHH

HHH½

In 2013, infectious singles shuttled Scouse lads Circa Waves onto the airwaves. Second album Different Creatures in particular enjoyed many a spin, but those fuzzy, wayward guitars and general diversity in melody and subject matter seemed to go by the wayside in 2019’s tepid What’s It Like Over There. Latest LP Sad Happy paints Circa Waves in an even more lacklustre light, offering very little to pull the band back to where they started.

Catchy here and there, it’s a neat and tidy listen but by the end these 14 squeaky clean tracks just wash over the senses, leaving barely a footprint on the psyche.

Fanny Lumsden’s work covers the best of contemporary country music — acoustic story bases that reward close listening to the lyric sheets. She has a gift for matching the familiar with the unexpected in a chorus.

Single Peed In The Pool is a case in point — not where you thought you’d be as a listener, but damn it works. The album’s title track makes a perfect driving song, while opener Mountain Song sets up a soundscape ideal for a listener looking for an excuse to daydream for a bit. Overall this album, Lumsden’s third, works well for the track hopper or those who like to listen from top to tail.

With each album, Kingswood all but wipe clean the slate. Juveniles starts with a return to their roots — You Make It So Easy has all the fuzzy guitar lines and Fergus Linacre’s trademark wail that their first singles sported. It continues as Ready Steady and Say You Remember tick along, but by midway through it feels polished and fairly straight in terms of melody and structure. Dotted throughout, however, are downshifts into swaggering Josh Homme territory which is cool, but somewhat diverting.

Juveniles feels like a wet blanket pegged to a Hills Hoist — the middle sags but the ends are taut and do all the heavy lifting.

If you were to throw relatable emo lyrics, pop melodies and hip hop basslines into a blender you’d end up with the sweet taste of LA pop singer Lauv’s debut album.

There is so much to digest in this 21-track release. Loneliness is a common theme but Lauv also navigates heartache, love, family and the general ups and downs of modern millennial life.

Whether it’s the soft guitar plucks in Sims, the heavy bass of Lonely Eyes or the piano ballad that drives Changes, How I’m Feeling lays everything out on the table. It’s emo-pop at its most vulnerable, where if you don’t dance you’ll cry.

Carley Hall

Liz Giuffre

Carley Hall

Emily Blackburn

Sad Happy

Fallow

Juveniles

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How I’m Feeling

For more album reviews, go to www.theMusic.com.au

Margaret Glaspy

#1 Dads

US Girls

Silverstein

ATO/[PIAS]

Pieater

4AD/Remote Control

UNFD

Devotion

HHH½

Golden Repair

Heavy Light

HHH½

A Beautiful Place To Drown

HHHH

HHH½

Margaret Glaspy continues to produce competent three to four-minute bops about love that ache with longing and desire. Her innocent and compelling warble dissects relationships with lyrical poetry that slides between storytelling and more personal reflections.

Glaspy wears her heart on her sleeve and the sincerity of her delivery suggests that she’s singing lyrics borne of nothing but hard-won experience. A hugely talented singer-songwriter, Glaspy is hopelessly devoted to producing some powerfully beautiful music.

The return of Big Scary frontman Tom Iansek’s solo spin-off #1 Dads comes with the wonderfully added irony that Iansek has become a first-time dad himself. The reflectiveness triggered by such a life-changing event shows on this sensitively composed collection of songs.

From the opening of the piano-led 4bit, it’s clear that this will be a more strippedback affair than previous outings and while it takes a few listens to come to life, once it’s nurtured and given some attentive love, it becomes a beautiful yet fragile addition to Iansek’s growing catalogue.

The feel-good pop of latest single, 4 American Dollars, is a delightful introduction to US Girls’ latest album Heavy Light. This time around the project, led by Meg Remy, has crafted a collection of almost instantly likeable songs that teem with hooks.

At once depressingly heavy and yet unbearably light, Overtime is an amusing song about working hard and drinking harder. Originally featured on 2013’s Free Advice Column, it’s reworked here to pay homage to the sounds of Motown. Overall the album is a deep dream guided by memory, reflection and acute observation.

With the release of their tenth studio album, A Beautiful Place To Drown, Silverstein celebrate a stellar two-decade career. With the help of some guest talent, the Canadian post-hardcore outfit have compiled an album that bottles up their long journey into one cohesive, intricate and outstanding release.

This album is Silverstein’s best release to date. It supports the idea that Silverstein are a pivotal band in their genre, and if they’re playing as well as this 20 years in, imagine how incredible they’ll be with another 20 years’ experience.

Guido Farnell

Alasdair Belling

Guido Farnell

Anna Rose

Zoe Fox & The Rocket Clocks

Body Count

Overcoats

Waxahatchee

Independent

Century Media/Sony

Loma Vista/Caroline

Merge

Clockwerks

HHH½

Carnivore

The Fight

Saint Cloud

HHHH

HHH½

Self-described as “space-pop”, this indie debut does sound beyond this world at times. Don’t be fooled though, even spacepop is toe-tappy, a mix here of Daft Punk and Blondie if Debbie Harry had a spacesuit.

Singles Shiny Car and Mr Gravity give a good indication of the approach — some shameless play among the tide of pop seemingly focused on “he said/she said” at the moment.

Overall it’s catchy and light, which makes it the kind of thing that’s ideal if you’re in the need of a good audio escape. For a particular trip give Tiny Little Robots a burl. It’s the kind of thing The B-52s would easily have made if still going today.

From the stomping, mid-paced groove and down-tuned chugs of the title track, you know what you’re getting with Carnivore — Body Count aren’t doing a U-turn into jazz fusion anytime soon. Ice-T rails against someone who’s crossed him in graphic, almost comical fashion on No Remorse, while elsewhere he promotes strength in unity as he proclaims, “We ain’t asleep no more, we’re woke.” His attack is complemented by a hard-hitting band and punishing production from metal aficionado Will Putney.

Ice-T, now in his 60s, and cohort still deliver socially conscious, street-level observations with hunger and conviction.

Brooklyn duo Overcoats have stepped out guns blazing for their second album, The Fight. The latest from Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell steps more into the realm of blasting guitar and drums — a new direction to the band’s debut release, Young.

While Mitchell and Elion’s harmonies are an aural delight, the constant dual vocals admittedly become predictable and overused after just a few tracks.

All in all though, there is a lot of fun to be had and it is clear that the duo had plenty of fun themselves in making the record.

It’s uncomplicated, untarnished pop music from a forgotten era.

Katie Crutchfield is back for a fifth time under the moniker Waxahatchee, Saint Cloud an apex release for the artist.

While previous Waxahatchee offerings have featured knowing nods to Crutchfield’s southern US upbringing, Saint Cloud is a full-blown love letter to her Alabama roots. Singing about arid dustbowls and ramblin’ by her man, the album is awash with toe-tapping rodeo saloon vibes.

Waxahatchee diehards may find Saint Cloud a harder pill to swallow, but give into the Old West veneer and it’s obvious that the good old Crutchfield magic hasn’t gone anywhere.

Liz Giuffre

Brendan Crabb

Joe Dolan

Joe Dolan

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HHHH

Devs

HHHH Screens from 8 Mar on Fox Showcase

Reviewed by Guy Davis

T

echnology has become so intrinsic to the way we live — our commerce, our communication, our everyday organisation — that there’s sometimes a tendency to view the people who dream up and deliver the next leap forward as geniuses, even gods, rather than people with a knack for arranging ones and zeros. (I know, I know, that’s a reductive way of describing the tech industry.)

This seems to be an area of interest for writer-director Alex Garland, who examined it in his 2014 film Ex Machina and delves deeper still with the eight-episode miniseries Devs. In his first venture into television, Garland’s precision as a stylist and rigour as a thinker are as evident and sharp as they have been in his big-screen projects. He’s at the helm of all eight episodes, however, the pacing verges on glacial and the storytelling is a little opaque at times, so patience and focus are recommended.

In the early stages of the series (two episodes were made available for review), it’s not made clear what kind of technology the Silicon Valley company Amaya actually develops in its top-secret ‘Devs’ division, a compound as ornate as a palace and alien

as a spacecraft, but rest assured it’s cuttingedge enough to drive to tears those people exposed to it.

Within a day of being recruited for the Devs team, Sergei (Karl Glusman) is dead.

His lover and fellow Amaya worker Lily (Sonoya Mizuno) is told he died by suicide, and even shown video footage confirming it, but she’s sceptical and suspicious enough to start investigating on her own, which puts her on a collision course with Forest (Nick Offerman, who is excellent), the Amaya boss whose mellow benevolence runs parallel with his messianic ambition.

A somewhat conventional industrial espionage plot is the engine driving Devs from the beginning, and it’s engaging enough, but it’s clear that Garland is far more interested in posing questions and exploring ideas about the junction — and possible collision — of technology and human nature. Everything the Devs team is working on hints at something transcendental, even mystical, and the series is clearly so intrigued by its world and characters that its fascination can’t help but rub off on the viewer. This is an alluring and disquieting peek behind the curtain.

Queen & Slim

HHH In cinemas 12 Mar

Reviewed by Anthony Carew

W

hen Bokeem Woodbine pronounces Queen & Slim’s titular characters “the modern day Bonnie and Clyde”, he’s speaking the obvious aloud. Melina (Beyoncõ¿‰’s Formation) Matsoukas’ beautifully photographed debut feature — which moves through surreal-social-realist, Edward Hopperesque neon/nocturnal wastelands and along sun-scorched highways — sets Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya as a pair of outlaws on the run, road tripping across an equally blighted and beautiful US South as their celebrity grows.

They’re not lovers, at least not initially: in fact, the film opens with them on a Tinder date, making diner-booth small talk, the air between them notably chilly.

That thaws as they hit the road and head south, on the lam after shooting a racist cop, in self-defence, at a routine traffic stop. They’re unlikely honeymoon killers: she’s an attorney, he’s a gentle soul. “I’m not a criminal,” Kaluuya exhorts, even with police blood on his hands. “You are now,” Turner-Smith rejoinders; Queen & Slim written — by Master Of None’s Lena Waithe — in the knowledge white Amer-

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ica views Black men as guilty until proven nnocent.

Waithe’s episodic, at-times-clunky screenplay makes for a handsomely mounted powderkeg of a film. Within its narrative, the leads become mythical, almost folkloric figures. They are subjects of media hysteria and social media lionising, at once reviled and celebrated; made symbol and talking-point, heroes and villains. Hoping to anonymously escape to their freedom — Cuba or bust — they find that everyone they encounter, on the road along the way, knows who they are, and has an opinion on what they’ve done.

Queen & Slim’s strength, and resonance, comes in the conflict and complexity of these conversations; the way their Bonnie and Clyde status is depicted without moral clarity. Of course, complexities be damned, the audience is primed to cheer for their escape, knowing all too well their inevitable blaze-of-glory fate.

AN AUSTRALIAN HIP HOP DOCUMENTARY

“Hip Hop’s a mind state, not an area code...”

TTHHEE MMUUSSI ICC • •

AM PA RR I LC H

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THE MUSIC

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MARCH

Pic: Maclay Heriot.

Twilight At Taronga Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Twilight At Taronga has been powering along since the end of January offering not only live outdoor entertainment, but the best backdrop to a stage going around with harbour and city skyline views. The shows are also supporting the Wildlife Crisis Appeal, which provides funding for the unprecedented amount of displaced and injured wildlife impacted by bushfires. We’re in the home stretch for the season and to round out the series this month there is Bjorn Again, Meg Mac (pictured with Mali) and a Comedy Gala finale featuring Kitty Flanagan, Luke McGregor, Randy and The Stevenson Experience.

Mad as a…

It’s not just the ides of March you’ve got to be wary of. The year’s finally in full swing and the whole month can get a little hare-y. We suggest you hide out somewhere with a stiff drink, or if that’s not your thing, stay in with a nice, calming cuppa.

Chalice in Wonderland Joe Dolan rabbits out Australia’s secret bars.

W

e all need a little escape from reality every now and again, especially when it feels like everyone around us is mad as a hatter. Our solution? Head down the rabbit hole and find something that says ‘Drink Me’ in these hidden bars around the country.

Pinball Paradise

Downstairs@lab

Employees Only

For as long as there have been secret rooms, there have been secret rooms hidden behind bookshelves. The nondescript library at the back of Island Somewhere, a little hidey-hole on Melbourne’s Franklin St, houses the entryway to Pinball Paradise. A bona fide pinball museum and drinking spot, the bar is a living tribute to old-school gaming at its finest.

The best part? All the machines are playable.

By day, Little Lonsdale St’s Games Laboratory is a hub for Warhammer enthusiasts and Magic The Gathering players alike. But, by night, the downstairs room becomes what was formerly known as The Alchemist’s Refuge — a melting cauldron of bubbling brews and fanatical feeds, where a weary traveller can drink away his sorrows with a fresh pint of ale. The bar is open Wednesday through Sunday, and regularly hosts games nights, trivia, and large-scale Dungeons & Dragons campaigns.

A blaring neon sign flickers the word “Psychic” onto Sydney’s Barrack St, but head downstairs and past the requisite tarot reader to find Employees Only. Part of an international franchise with humble beginnings in the Manhattan bar scene, this spot boasts countless signature cocktails and a world-class food experience. The chain is often ranked as one of the best bars in the world.

Level 1, 213 Franklin St, Melbourne

328 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne

9a Barrack St, Sydney

Uncle Ming’s

Legends Speakeasy Bar

The Boiler Room

Walking into Uncle Ming’s you’d think you were in a tailor’s shop. Head downstairs, however, and you’ll be in a Chineseinspired drinks den that goes all out on the decor without ever feeling kitschy. Bathed in red light with terracotta warriors and incense, the bar is a hidden gem in the plain sight of Sydney’s York St.

The secretive allure of 1920s prohibition has inspired a slew of password-protected bars and speakeasies far beyond the origins of ‘86’ in New York. With no signage or discernible features from its Ann St facade, the password-protected tavern Legends Speakeasy Bar is keeping this flame alive. Not only is it a challenge to find, but the password changes every week — accessible only on the bar’s social media pages.

It’s a bar inside a bar. It’s bar-ception. It’s The Boiler Room.

Heading to Fortitude Valley’s Tomcat on a Friday or Saturday will promise a great night out in of itself, but the Brisbane hotspot is holding a delicious little secret. Head through the door obscured by a mural of Bill Murray, and find a cocktail bar that is guaranteed to keep patrons from being lost in translation.

Basement, 49 York St, Sydney

Cnr Ann St & N Quay, Brisbane

Level 1, 210 Wickham St, Brisbane

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To a tea Complete mug Sam Wall’s top tips for your next tea do.

Alice in other lands Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland is unequivocally one of the most important pieces of literature from the 19th century. While we’re on the theme, here’s where you can see its influence today.

Jam tart jams Aside the obvious candidates of Jefferson Airplane and The Beatles, Alice In Wonderland has been the bedrock for a number of famous tunes across the years. Perhaps the most surprising in the list goes to Radiohead’s Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors. A staggering blend of industrial drums and autotune vocals, the song reportedly takes heavy inspiration from the depiction of an endless corridor and infinite locked doors in the clas-

T

here are so, so many guides to throwing a tea party online. This is probably true of everything. If you’re reading this article it’s a good chance you know how to wipe your own arse — gripping a sturdy piece of paper is half the battle — but there’s probably at least 20 dudes with blogs happy to explain the process.

Still, there are endless videos and articles, and those articles have comment sections and those comment sections have questions — and there’s a portion of the populace struggling with their own tea troubles. We can’t abide that. A nice cup of oolong with some mates shouldn’t be cause for stress. We want you to be able to tea it up like the Hatter himself, so here are our answers to some anonymous questions that have been legitimately asked at least once.

How many guests are invited?

This feels like it’s less about tea and more finding your centre. What is the sound of one hand clapping? How long is a piece of string? When’s dinner? These questions have no meaningful answers. Don’t let the things you can’t control, control you — it’s not the destination that you seek, friend, it’s the journey.

Should I make the food myself?

We hate to answer a question with a question, but are you any good at cooking? Because it’s not that you ‘should’ make food, but if you’re a dab hand at homemade scones and have the time then we’d very much appreciate it. If you’re someone Gordon Ramsay would scream at on the telly then store-bought’s fine, please and thank you.

Where can I throw a tea party that’s not in my home?

It’s hard to explain why but this question is deeply unsettling.

sic text.

What should I do if the tea is spilled?

This is a complex situation and we highly recommend you refer to the five Ws and lonely H: who, what, when, where, why, and how. We know the ‘what’ is tea, but your reaction should be heavily dependent on these other factors if it’s going to be appropriate. If your lovely gran’s just jostled her mug of Earl Grey because she’s got nickel-thick cataracts and the shakes, go get a tea towel. If you’re an agent of the British East India Company and some Yankee’s just tipped your shipment in the Boston Harbour, maybe drop the musket and talk it out. The Revolutionary War does not go well for you.

Playing cards Whether it’s the psychedelic imagery or the constant threat of beheadings, Lewis Carroll’s creation has inspired an onslaught of

Is it possible to have a tea party without tea?

Absolutely not.

horror-themed reincarnations - particularly in the video game world. Most notable in the genre is Alice - the first in a series created by US game developer American McGee. The slash-fest was first released in 2000, with

How much does it cost to throw a tea party for 25 people?

Good, solid question. At the time of writing, a hundred pack of Twinnings English Breakfast tea bags is on sale for $6.60 at Woolies and six-packs of hot cross buns are going for $3.50. Nobody needs more than four cups of tea and cut 12 of those buns into quarters and you’re laughing. So that’s your bottom end — $13 and change for the event of the season. Premium Da Hong Pao tea from the Wuyi Mountains on the other hand can reportedly go for up to $US1.2 million a kilogram. Decide how much you’re willing to spend and then bend your elbow not your budget.

music by former Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna.

Carroll’s cameos Throughout pop culture history, other Wonderland characters have shown up in the most unlikely of places, from the allusive

So do you prepare the water in a teapot then let the teabag sit in the kettle?

We’re pretty sure that’s back to front. Go with your gut though. If it feels right then who cares what the world thinks?

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“white rabbit” in The Matrix to an episode of Star Trek which brought that same character to life. More recently, the classic Batman villain Mad Hatter was brought to the small screen in the Fox series Gotham - portrayed expertly by Aussie actor Benedict Samuel.

For the latest live reviews go to theMusic.com.au

Fire Fight Australia @ ANZ Stadium. Photos by Josh Groom

Pulled together in about a month in response to the bushfire crisis, the massive nine-hour benefit

gig Fire Fight came off a treat. It featured topline international

acts alongside a massive line-up of locals including John Farn-

ham, Olivia Newton-John, Delta

“Fire Fight well and truly exceeded the expectations of organisers and fans alike, with the stars aligning for a day that will take some digesting for those lucky enough to be there.”

– Alasdair Belling

Jessica Mauboy

Goodrem, Jessica Mauboy, Baker

Baker Boy

Delta Goodrem

Boy and many more.

Laneway Festival @ The Domain. Photos by Simone Fisher

Laneway Festival returned to Sydney at a new home in The Domain, where even a late arvo downpour

couldn’t dampen the spirits of the crowd. The festival featured exclusive performances from Charli

XCX and Earl Sweatshirt alongside a strong line-up

of locals and internationals including Benee, Jess B, Tones & I, Ruel and many more.

“It’s not easy to maintain your place in the hierarchy of the Australian festival calendar, but Laneway has proven that you can change it up and still stay on top of your game.”

JessB

Benee

– Mick Radojkovic

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REVIEWS

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This month’s highlights Great escape

Zenele Muholi

San Cisco. Pic: Pooneh Ghana

With his new album making waves across the country, Jeremy Neale is setting out for record stores all over Aus to showcase the new tunes. He’ll be at Red Eye Records on 5 Mar to celebrate the release of We Were Trying To Make It Out.

NIRIN far Jeremy Neale

Beginning 14 Mar and covering four months, the 22nd Biennale Of Sydney, NIRIN, is a cross-cultural festival of arts across a huge variety of mediums.

The huge number of guests at the festival includes visual activist and photographer Prof Sir Zanele Muholi showcasing three bodies of work.

New single Shiver has Ngaiire fans champing at the bit for new music from the neo-soul artist. She’ll be at Oxford Art Factory on 21 Mar, promoting the single as part of her Take Over tour with support from Ziggy Ramo and KYVA.

Icehouse @ Zoo Twilights. Pic: joshua Braybrook

Shake it out Garden variety University Of Wollongong’s annual Garden Party is heading to UOW UniBar once again this 21 Mar. The 17th edition of the gig features tunes all day, with Aussie outfit San Cisco taking the headline spot.

Brand awareness Igloos The 2020 Anthems music festival is taking over Commonwealth Park this 28 Mar, for a day of legendary Aussie music from across the decades. Among the bands breezing their way onto the stage include Eskimo Joe and Icehouse.

Amyl & The Sniffers. Pic: Ellen Virgona

Russell Brand. Pic: Ki Price

Ngaiire

Russell Brand — one of the biggest names in the history of stand-up — has gone from a life of addiction and destruction to one of love and spiritual wellbeing. Recovery plays at State Theatre this 3 Mar, and details Brand’s journey into enlightenment.

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YOUR TOWN

Smells like victory Pub-punk Melburnians Amyl & The Sniffers are heading up north to set the Factory Theatre stage alight with their unparalleled and chaotic energy. Head on down 13 Mar to check it out.

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MARCH

the best and the worst of the month’s zeitgeist

The lashes Front

Back Pic via SiriusXM’s Youtube

Pic via Braulio Amado’s Instagram

Pic via Quaden Bayles’ Instagram

#MeToo

Croc’n’roll

Good as hell

Time’s up

Chill out

Be kind

A moment for the women

Forget the February fashion

Break out the yarn, the

The system has once

Grimes, babe, we need to

Words matter. From the

who testified in the Harvey

week schedule, there’s only

friendship between Lizzo

again failed women. Han-

talk. We get those “Global

deeply distressing video of

Weinstein case. Your brave

one event of sartorial signifi-

and Harry Styles has

nah Clarke and her three

Warming Is Good” billboards

nine-year-old Quaden Bay-

actions in speaking out at

cance we were concerned

reached adorably whole-

children were brutally

are all part of an elaborate

les pleading with his mother

great personal risk mean

about last month: the KFC

some peaks. From the duet

slaughtered and we still

marketing campaign for

to end his life to Caroline

some justice was seen and

and Crocs collaboration.

at the start of the month to

have media referring to the

your new concept album.

Flack’s tragic death, it’s clear

you have done an immense

Move over Christopher Kane

Lizzo knocking back Styles’

murderer as a “star” and

It’s cool. Let’s just remem-

our society has a systemic

public service for sexual

and Balenciaga, the new

glass of straight tequila at

“dedicated family man”

ber your BF and future

problem with bullying. It’s

assault survivors. We stand

clogs feature charms that

the Brits (drink responsi-

while reporting what the

baby daddy is Elon “Horny

time to stop tearing each

by you.

smell like fried chicken.

bly, kids), maybe the real

victim was wearing. Gen-

For Space” Musk. Give us a

other down.

Engage sports mode (aka

treasure was the friends we

dered violence has

heads up if he’s planning

strap the fuck in) and

made along the way.

become normalised in our

something we should be

country Enough.

aware of, alright?

run, don’t walk to buy a pair immediately.

The quiz 1.

Which two very famous Pauls did Thelma Plum collaborate with on her album Better In Blak?

2. Which Qld singer-songwriter born in 1969 had their first three full length label albums reach number one on the ARIA charts?

Cartoon by Tayla Colley. Curated by Chris Neill

3. In one year, Pharell Williams had three number one songs in Australia — what were those songs?

4. What was the name of Linkin Park’s first album?

With guest quizmasters from Not On Your Rider!

7. Which two artists have both had a top ten hit in Australia with different songs called Maneater?

8. Which song from the ‘60s is referenced in Salt-N-Pepa’s Push It? 9. What is the first woman’s name mentioned in the song Mambo No. 5?

10. Which Australian song from 1998 begins with the line “I don’t go to parties baby, ‘cause people tend to freak me out?”

Not On Your Rider! runs monthly at Brisbane’s The Triffid.

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THE END

Answers:

6. Which car brand is mentioned in The B-52s song Love Shack?

1. Paul Kelly, Paul McCartney 2. Pete Murray 3. Happy, Get Lucky, Blurred Lines 4. Hybrid Theory 5. Rhiannon 6. Chrysler 7. Hall & Oates, Nelly Furtado 8. You Really Got Me – The Kinks 9. Angela 10. ! (The Song Formerly Known As)

5. The first Stevie Nicks-sung Fleetwood Mac song to hit the charts in Australia was named after a girl – what was it?

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