Virgin

The soul drips from her lips, she takes another sip of her bourbon and I ask her what to expect from her upcoming gigs. Casually, she relates her desire to “just get up there and hopefully give y’all a great show.”

She carries herself with a classic elegance, time has not wearied her, as they say. The burden is always on her, however, to keep things interesting, new.

“Each year the pressure be up on you to do something different. I have a part in my show where I talk about my ancestors. I usually do that to a song from the first album, Work it Out. Maybe this year I might just figure out a way how to put it out there, still talk about my ancestors, do the thing but with different music. Just a little difference going around. But then again a lot of people still haven’t even seen my old show.”

I light a cigarette. Exhaling slowly, I break the news that I haven’t actually seen her perform. She looks somewhat surprised. All I’d heard was that they were some pretty wild times. People would tell stories of admirers rising to the stage and dancing alongside her.

“I just pick people out the audience who look like they want to dance. Some people are petrified, some people don’t and some times I get some crazy ones. Couple of times they’ve been too drunk.”

“Some of them jump on the stage and I have to sit ‘em down, you know, let ‘em know this is my stage. But it’s fun.”

There is a knowing touch to her words. She has a kind of comforting wisdom that I just can’t escape. What does a woman like this do in her downtime?

“My downtime really was for me to catch up on doctor’s appointments, getting scared half to death. It’s scary you know. I’m fifty two, and all these things start happening. I have to get myself checked. Yeah, so that’s what I’m going through now. I thought that I would have these weeks off, just relax, but no I’ve been running between doctors and we’ve also been rehearsing.”

Inevitability has plenty of time to wait. She isn’t distracted. She’s always working on something else. She keeps herself going. “When me and the Dap Kings aren’t doin’ our funk stuff, I’m doin’ some other stuff.”

“I wanna make sure I’m in good health. I’m even going to the gym, I’ve got me a personal trainer so I’m tryin’ to get my body together.”

An old Gladys Knight song starts playing on the jukebox in the corner. Smoke curls towards the roof. I take another drag and listen.

“We’re working on new songs for the album. And some of the songs will probably get thrown in while we’re on the road. I’ve got other projects. We’re doing something with some rapper, Doctor Dre or somethin’.” She palms the words off as if they mean little. It’s all in a days work for Sharon Jones.

“And Michael Buble. He came to DapTone studios and I did a duet with him.” She struggles for a moment for the tune, then starts to sing a Diana Washington song. “You Got What It Takes. I did that with him and also a Marvin Gaye song.”

I seem to remember reading in the local rags that the Dap Kings performed on most of that Whine-house album too. There’s no slowing down for this one.

“You know, everybody’s having their babies and doing their things and they wanna stay home. You know, I’ve gotta keep going. I’m getting’ old here. I keep tellin’ ‘em I can’t afford to be home two or three months. I can afford to be off a few weeks, but any more than that I gotta work.”

For more info, check this. And this.

Musicfeeds - Spanish for awesome!

We live in troubled times. Turn on the news, and all you seem to hear is how the world economic system is plunging further and further into recession. The news is bleak, but many independent musicians can at least take some solace in the fact that they have day jobs to subsidise their musical endeavors. Not so Sydney based artist Sui Zhen.

“I’ve actually just stopped working a full time job so I can concentrate on music.”

Perhaps somewhat intimidating given the current environment, this wasn’t an impulsive move. While Sui Zhen has been making her melodic folk music since at least 2003, it was several years later that she contemplated the pursuit as something of a career.

“Yeah, I’ve been writing for a long time but I guess I was always working and doing music as a hobby until about 2006. It was then I actually spent some money on recording my first Ep and started playing a few more shows.”

“I had finished uni and was about to get a job and started thinking about what I really wanted to do. I think I was just happy enough to do it for myself. But then obviously you start the whole kinda public persona thing, other people start getting interested.”

That public persona provided an opportunity to meet other artists and musicians who have encouraged her to continue writing, offering chances to collaborate and further develop her unique sound. It’s something that has surely helped to keep up the motivation.

“Yeah, I’ve gradually met a lot of really inspiring people locally. Like-minded people help each other out, and everyone’s different but you kind of find the similar minded people in the music industry. You work together, and get inspired by each other and that’s the whole reason you do it in the end.”

Still a daunting move to abandon a guaranteed pay check every week, Sui Zhen remains optimistic about her change of vocation. She has other things in mind too.

“It was good. It was a good move. It took me a while to adjust to the different lifestyle but it allows me to do all this other stuff that I want to do. I’m trying to do a lot of things with the visuals as well.”

“It’s just small kind of stuff at the moment. I’ve just started getting back into drawing and a bit of painting. I like doing small scale visuals, some animations and some drawing but I’m not sure how far I’ll be able to take it. I’d love to be able to make whole music videos but they take a very long time for the kind of style I have. I might work for months and months on one thing and it’d only be twenty seconds.”

While entire video clips might be too time consuming, she has already developed ideas for “projections behind the stage” as she performs live. Her upcoming tour involves a mix of solo performances and shows with a full backing band. Both incarnations will be playing the same songs, and hence keep the same name, but she tells me there are some significant differences between the two.

“With the band it’s more of a band experience it’s not so much a singer songwriter vibe. It’s kinda more like the recording because we can do all those different sounds and stuff but then a lot of people still really respond to the solo shows and I enjoy playing them too. Some people really enjoy just seeing the one person.”

The apex of this tour will see Sui Zhen bringing the whole band along to deliver her full atmospheric sound to the main stage at the Peats Ridge festival. It’s a gig that she looks forward to with a surprising lack of nerves, given she’s never played a festival before.

“Nah, it’s really cool. I’m really excited about that. A lot of my good friends are all playing and I think it’s gonna be a really great festival. It’s part of a festival too, so there’s people who are there anyway so you’ve gotta try and get them to come and watch you.”

That challenge, getting complete strangers to connect with her music seems to be part of the attraction of playing live for Sui Zhen.

“I really like that challenge. That’s probably one of my favourite challenges about performing is playing your first song and drawing people in. I really like watching people if don’t know who the hell you are and then you start playing and kinda getting a bit interested.”

Devoting her time to music, she is currently working on two albums of material. One is a Sui Zhen release, the other a little different.

“I’m writing for a Sui Zhen album which has kinda been a slow organic process but I’m also working with my partner Jamie on a collaborative album together but it’s a bit more experimental so we’re using lots of different sounds from all over the place.”

For more info, including upcoming gigs, head over to Sui Zhen’s myspace.
Musicfeeds - It’s Spanish for awesome!

“I think it’s a bit of a junkie mentality in a way. You’re constantly chasing a high.”

That’s not really as incriminating as it sounds. King Farook are toying with metaphors as they attempt to describe their enthusiasm for touring.

“Man you know what it’s all about? This is our dream, what we’re doing right now is our dream. We all work day jobs and to be able to just get on the road and play to a whole bunch of new people who have never heard us before is what I live for. I love it.”

Chasing the highs from gig to gig has even left these musical junkies unaffected by the inevitable lows that accompany them.

“You’re in a van with three other smelly guys for ten hours, but it all disappears the minute you hit the stage and you rock it. It’s about constantly trying to feel that way. It keeps you going. So far so good. Hopefully that’s what keeps happening.”

Besides touring manically, King Farook recently released the Four Piece Feed Ep.

“It’s available in all record stores actually. If they don’t have it they’ll order it in. We’ve got distribution through MGM. We’re selling it at gigs as well and just pumping it. A couple of stations have given it a bit of a run so it’s been alright, slowly but surely.”

While only out for five months, it seems this release is already starting to show its age as the band develops.

“Kinda looking forward to some new stuff but the Four Piece Feed is our thing for a little bit. To be honest, it’s not really the sound we’re going for at the moment because we’ve changed members again.”

Line up changes in the band have seen them shift from a five piece to a four, losing and gaining different members along the way. The Four Piece Feed even includes some guitar tracks, when no one in the band plays one any more.

“The reason it was a bit of a dead end is because we actually included guitar. I played guitar on there as well as the bass but tried to keep the guitar to a minimum so it wouldn’t be missed live and it’s something that I’m trying to produce on the bass as well as guitar.”

“So we kind of sound like that, but I think in the future it’s not gonna sound like that because we’re gonna steer away from that kind of sound. We’re gonna write more in terms of what we do on stage. We wanna try to get what we do on stage on to a record. That’s obviously become the forte of what we do as a band. The more people tell us that the more it makes it obvious that’s what we should do on the next album. Not necessarily a live album, but cater the album more to the dynamic of what we do.”

Translating the raw energy of a live show to record successfully is not without its difficulties.

“It is really hard to capture that in the studio. That energy level isn’t necessarily there that you get from a crowd being in front of you all dancing and losing their fuckin’ minds. That’s the challenge for us: to get that energy, that liveness while still having the polish of a nice studio recording.”

With this challenging new direction, King Farook have a positive outlook on their next release.

“We feel pretty confident that the next batch of songs, the next batch of Farookness is gonna be the real shit. Not that the other stuff wasn’t, but we feel a lot more comfortable now.”

“In saying that, I don’t think we’ve hit our stride yet. It’s gonna get harder and we’re gonna be harder working in time to come.”

The next couple of months will see the band working hard on finishing their tour before taking some time off to write and record. There’s no question as to their most anticipated gig in Sydney.

“Romp is the big one for the Sydney market. It’s the 5th December at the Factory theatre. It’s a mini-festival with nine bands on two stages. We’re gonna headline that.”

For more info, check out http://www.myspace.com/kingfarook

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Mikey Carr. Musicfeeds - Spanish for awesome!

Twelve years playing together has given Perth band Gyroscope a lot of time to grow as musicians. Guitarist Rob reflects on how they have developed.

“We’ve grown as songwriters and arrangers and as players, you know.”

Things aren’t always perfect, but Rob explains that this is all part of the process.

“If you’re serious about what you do you pick up little mistakes. It might not be noticeable, it might just be you but you pick them up and iron them out and promise yourself you won’t do them next time.”

“You learn, that’s the best thing. All your mistakes you learn from.”

And one thing they have learned is that touring is an integral part of being in a successful band.

“Coming this far, eleven or twelve years with the band we know that’s how it works.”

“Without that touring formula there’s nothing. We started as a touring band and we’ll end as a touring band. The studio and all the other stuff is kinda the fun stuff in between.”

Getting older has made it more difficult to head out on the road for long periods, but Rob maintains that it’s still a necessary part of the job.

“It gets harder with age ‘cause you get older and get more attached to home, your family and friends, but fundamentally it’s the same thing as when you started touring that first time, when you were bright eyed and bushy tailed. You really wanted to get out there and you know that you have to do it because it’s promoting the songs you’re writing.”

The band cut their teeth negotiating the vibrant music scene in Perth. The “sort of mentality where it’s very eager and keen and competitive but healthy at the same time” and an environment that pushed the band to work harder.

“There’s a whole bunch of quality bands that are gigging week in and week out over here. You don’t have an industry type that’s breathing down your neck. We tend to just go hard until we’re ready to show the rest of the country or the rest of our peers what we’re about.”

“There’s not a lot of venues. Everyone’s competing for that dream to get over east. The eastern state bands might take that a bit for granted because that’s something they can do easily. That’s essentially what it is. We know we’ve got it hard so we go harder.”

For the next couple of months Rob says Gyroscope will be busy working on new material and keeping the touring to a minimum.

“Just a few festivals here and there on the weekends but apart from that we’re doing some writing.”

“We’ve got about ten demos at the moment. That’s where we’re sitting at the moment and that’s where we’ll be for the next few months until we get in there next year and record the album.”

Any new album brings with it new ideas, but Rob is unsure how it will all sound when they’re done.

“I don’t know yet man. It’s hard to say. It’s all sounding good though, very happy with it all.”

For more info, check out http://www.myspace.com/gyroscope

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Mikey Carr. Musicfeeds - Spanish for awesome!

Dialectrix might just be one of the hardest working artists in Aussie hip hop. This album was written and recorded while the Sydney local toured the country and held down a regular job. I find it hard enough sometimes to find time to read the paper, and I don’t even tour.

The speed at which these tracks were put together give them a raw feel, an understated production that serves to make it all sound more genuine, more legitimate. Dialectrix has refined his art to a point, sounding Aussie but not too Aussie, spitting lyrics with the voracity of a well-established artist.

His turns of phrase are so interesting and the production varied enough that I wonder whether many of the guest vocals are really all that necessary. Far be it for me to separate an MC from his extended crew, but I’d have been just as compelled to hear Dialectrix on his own. That aside, they all add to the effect and The Takedown is an epic crew track that is reminiscent of the best of American hip hop collaborations.

This is a damn solid first release, and cements Dialectrix as an up-and-comer worth keeping an eye on. For more info, check out http://www.myspace.com/dialectrix
9/10

I’d like to call True Vibenation pioneers, but in truth what they’re doing is trying to resurrect the soul of modern day hip hop from what they see as “the ego and this whole idea of consumerism” and bring it back to its more organic roots.

“We originally started music just for ourselves really. I remember writing rhymes in the back of class, writing about how crap class was just for a bit of fun and then eventually as it got further we started realising that you can actually say quite a bit with rap. It’s the sort of medium that lends itself to expression and because we had that freedom we thought ‘why don’t we make it and start sharing it with people?”

“There’s a lot of hip hop that’s lacking in recent times. There’s no message anymore. It’s gone back to getting put up on a pedestal. Too many people are concerned with themselves and their ego. It’s really about conveying a message or telling a story. That’s sorta what’s getting lost in hip hop these days.”

That’s exactly what these guys seem to be about: delivering a message and actually saying something with their music.

“Hip hop as a medium is perfect for that. Rapping is so direct. With other forms the meaning’s maybe a bit more hidden but with rapping you can just say it straight out.”

“I think that’s one of the big benefits of hip hop. You can be positive and really say what needs to be said very clearly through music. It has the ability to bring people together as all music does, as well as express the thoughts and fears of the community which is where it birthed from. That’s where it came from and that’s where we’re trying to keep going.”

Their most direct vehicle for this is a regular night called On The Real that runs the last Monday of every month at World Bar. It’s here that the group is trying to spread their message and bring the art back to its origins.

“It’s trying to establish an outlet for proper hip hop where it started the way it was back in the early stages in America. In the late 80s and early 90s there was places like the Lyricist Lounge or the Good Life where Catholic Skills would just come down, jump on a mike and strut their stuff. There’s no real money involved, it’s more about the growth of hip hop and getting down.”

“And building on it. That’s the most important thing. Keep building so that other MCs can see the direction we want to take it and let it keep happening in a positive way and not let it get dragged down like America has, in the pop charts at least. Just being honest to yourself is the main thing.”

With extended freestyles after their sets, and beat boxers emerging from the crowd to drop their skills they assure me “the nights are really good fun.”

“One guy came up and did a rhyme last week and it was pretty cool. Later on he came up to us and said it was only the second time he jumped on the mike.”

The group plans to release a sampler soon “which we’re gonna start selling at shows, so that should be pretty cool” but for now you can see them peddling their craft every month at On The Real.

Check out http://www.myspace.com/themessageaustralia

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Mikey Carr. Musicfeeds - Spanish for awesome!

…And Then Tomorrow Came is an interesting album. I am tempted to think I could tire of the vocal delivery of Muph & Plutonic on their own, but this release manages to vary styles and accompaniment enough to create a satisfying long player.Yesterday’s Basement reminds me of the Herd remake of I Was Only 19. This time though the war in question is an internal one, accented by powerful imagery and accompanied by a subtle classical guitar track that adds to the emotive impact.

Today is well executed, showcasing four distinct approaches to rapping and vocal sounds that all come together to form a forceful track that deserves a second play right after the first.

This is an appealing album, boosted by the duos ability to push the envelope. There are other artists on the Obese roster with a more varied vocal range, but all would be well advised to take note of their ability to keep things interesting. Muph & Plutonic are at their best when they deviate from the established formula to mix up their sound and keep things interesting.

Check out http://muphandplutonic.com
8/10

Musicfeeds - It’s Spanish for awesome!

There is a clip on the Thundamentals MySpace page that quite conveniently sums up the underyling principles behind their musical philosophy.

DJ Morgs - “I guess Thundamentals to me has always been about fun. Havin’ my three best mates in my crew with me is like… probably the dopest thing anyone could ask for.”

Jeswon - “We just stay true to the music that we believe in and takin’ it back to the root of hip hop which was havin’ a good time and representin’ for your crew, representin’ with ya mates and not takin’ yourself too seriously.”

Having fun, having a good time. It’s a theme that seems to run through the conversation as I sit down to talk to the crew. There is something more significant to their rhymes than just the superficial party exterior, but the Thundamentals assure me that when they’re on tour it’s all about connecting with their audience.

“We’re not all blasé party raps. You know, we’re tryin’ to get a bit deeper than that but essentially when you come see a live show we just want to have fun, meet the locals and hang out with you guys. That’s the main objective.”

“There’s no fuckin’ wankerish bullshit about pretentious fuckin’ performers. We want to meet the people and fuckin’ get down.”

I get the feeling these guys are trying to connect on a personal level, despite their larger than life personas. There’s nothing controversial in their approach to music and it’s endearing to hear them talk about it.

“Thundamentals are all about peace, love and unity. It’s all about the music. People get in to whatever music they like to get in to. Hopefully they enjoy the stuff that we’re doin’.”

“We just came to rock the part-ee” another member chides in over the top, a common occurence throughout the conversation. The crew can’t help but drop in over the top of each other sometimes, removing any doubt that this really is a crew full of mates out to have a good time. Those good times have been committed to wax recently for their new release.

“We just got a seven track Ep out. That’s self titled, and then hopefully pretty soon we’ll have an album ready. We’ve got a coupla tracks up our sleeves. They should be well and happenin’ about mid next year.”

“Ready for all the good people out there to… cop.” A good marketing slogan to be sure - “Straight cop that shit.”

With a healthy hip hop scene in Australia, the Thundamentals admit to feeling the pressure to establish an identity in the midst of all the quality (and sometimes crap) artists out there.

“Yeah, we’re tryin’ to be as professional as possible. It’s a very cutthroat market at the moment. There’s a lot of talented people come out of Australia, let alone Sydney. There’s a fuckin’ thriving scene here as well so you’ve just gotta have your game on.”

“Hopefully what may stand us in good stead is our work ethic and just tryin’ to maintain and be as busy as possible and push all fronts. Any opportunity we’ve got to get involved and push our name out there we’re gonna be takin’ it. Hopefully that will set us apart.”

They certainly seem to be maintaining a healthy amount of activity, with MTV associate producer and ‘good mate’ James Bullock lending a hand to produce a video clip for the single off the EP, Storm Warning.

“We’re just busy workin’ on that and I guess just trying to make this long player as bangin’ and massive as we can get it soundin’ for its release halfway through next year so yeah, just always got music to write and always got things on the go.”

“The Ep is just a learning curve for us so getting it out and doing video clips and all that kind of stuff is just tryin’ to prop us up for the long play and the albums we have yet to write. We’re just makin’ it all come together so we have a real good firm idea of how to bomb the scene mid next year.”

I’m already looking forward to their next gig with Dialectrix after sitting down with the MC, so I ask the crew what their expectations of the night are.

“Should be large. These boys are doin’ plenty of promotion. We’re gonna promote the turd out of it and just try and make it the biggest night Sydney’s seen I suppose. The Tongue will be on hostin’ duties, and a little bit of freestyle action with ourselves.”

For more info on the band, check out http://www.myspace.com/thundamentals

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Mikey Carr.

Musicfeeds - It’s Spanish for awesome baby!

After Rage Against the Machine broke up in 2000, Zack De La Rocha entered into a kind of self-imposed exile for nearly seven years. Work with Trent Reznor and DJ Shadow produced very few tracks that saw the light of day. Now that the band’s back together it seems De La Rocha has regained his mojo, embarking on a side project as One Day As A Lion.ODAAL is a collaboration between the Rage frontman and onetime Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore, carrying on in the tradition of vitriolic protest music that makes Rage such essential listening. Replacing the squealing guitar work of Tom Morello with a keyboard plugged in through old 80s metal amps and guitar delay pedals De La Rocha manages to bring that very distinct Rage sound to more sparse arrangements.

One Day As A Lion is certainly a more minimalist approach but it’s just as appealing. As expected, the lyrics are littered with commentary on U.S. imperialism, inequality and injustice so anyone who tired of the rampant politicism of Rage Against The Machine might be turned off but that has always been what makes their music so relevant and compelling. It’s kinda the whole point really. 9/10

Check out http://myspace.com/onedayasalion for more info.
Musicfeeds - It’s Spanish for awesome!

Touring seems to be the most fun aspect of being a working musician. Heading out on the road for weeks at a time, neglecting concerns for personal health and indulging in excess at every turn seems to be part and parcel for most artists but as I sat down to chat with Sydney MC Dialectrix I started to realise that not everyone has it so easy.

“Whenever I tour generally it’s a Friday Saturday affair so they fly you out, they fly you back in and you have to make bread in between so all my experience of touring has been that kind of situation. Touring all weekend and coming back to work Monday to Friday. I was sick for eight weeks after the last time we toured. I got bronchitis.”

It can’t be an easy slog playing to thousands of fans on the weekend, then being confronted with the stark reality of a full week of work but Dialectrix seems resigned to the fact that passion and work go side by side. “I basically live to make hip hop, and everything on the side just makes me get fed and clothed and washed” he explains, before listing the myriad ways he’s endeavoured to “keep the hip hop lifestyle going.”

“I’m a roof plumber, I’m a cookie baker, I’m going to start helping out Soul Clap records. In the past I’ve been a sheet metal installer for air conditioning companies. I work to live, not the other way around.”

Already this year, Dialectrix has pushed his frantic schedule on tours with Chasm and the Obese Block Party. “Side by side, the two tours took their toll. I got to learn a lot about touring and got a feel for it. I loved it. Honestly, it was the happiest time of my life.” I’m starting to realise this is an MC that’s doing it all for the love of the music, not just chasing the duckets. “What can I say? Touring is great” he muses as a police siren echoes outside.

Somewhere between all of this Dialectrix has found the time to write and record his first solo Lp, Cycles of Survival, which he tells me benefited from a staunch deadline aiming for release this year. “I wanted to follow up on Chasm’s Lp and strike when the iron was hot.” Quite literally, the album was written over the top of his other commitments. “There were a lot of late nights when it came to the writing of it ’cause when I was writing it I was on tour so on the weekends I was away and when I came back I was working.”

This frenetic momentum has produced an album where “some parts are a bit raw and some things we could have come back and refined” but Dialectrix seems to think this helped the feel of the final product. “I think the fact that we didn’t go back and re-record and re-produce things gave it a rawness which I quite like.”

“For an album that I wrote so quickly I couldn’t have anticipated that I would have liked it so much. It gives it something that I probably wouldn’t be able to pull off if I sat there and scrutinized it for a year or two years which is what I dig most about.”

Reflecting on the nature of a solo release and the autonomy that brings, Dialectrix says “It’s quite a personal thing and quite an introspective album ’cause it’s the first time I’ve ever had total control over the music and lyrics.”

“After the last six months that we’ve put in to it I’m quite proud of it and we’re gonna tour and take it to the nation and hopefully everyone likes it.”

I can’t help but be impressed at the passion and enthusiasm Dialectrix expresses as he discusses his work as a hip hop artist, so I ask him when I can get the chance to see him spitting his lyrics on stage.

“The next Sydney show is with the Thundamentals at the Annandale hotel on the 14th of November and it will be hosted by The Tongue. It’s gonna be a massive show so I hope the people will love it.”

With three awesome acts on the same bill, I for one think I will.

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Mikey Carr

Musicfeeds - It’s Spanish for awesome!

Talking to some mates of mine who are in independent bands I get the feeling that it’s not always easy to book gigs in Sydney, let alone around Australia. This is obviously not a problem for Brisbane band the John Steele Singers, as the past couple of months have seen them touring with the likes of the Polyphonic Spree and The Grates. When I called to talk to keyboardist and singer Pete Bernoth, the band had just arrived home from the latter’s national tour.

“We only got back yesterday after finishing the Grates tour and so I’m still waiting for my sleeping patterns to return to normal. It’s been a really busy month, busy couple of months really.”

Reclining on his front porch “just chillin” Pete confides that hitting the road for such long stretches is not always easy, but the band takes it in their stride.

“I dunno, we’ve just been offered these amazing opportunities which are just to hard to pass up. It’s costing us a fuckload of money yet the experience we get and the fun we have is just like totally worth it. It’s definitely worth giving up a month of work to go out on tour with the Grates because you can just party for a full month and come back and you’re absolutely fucked and just get back into normal life for about a week and then go out again.”

Playing with such high profile bands has also given the boys a chance to establish a bit of a reputation for themselves, as well as solidifying contacts within the music industry.

“Yeah, totally we’ve met a lot of people and especially with this Grates tour. Just because they’re pretty high profile we’ve had a lot of attention and it’s done wonders for us. The exposure that we got from touring with those guys was probably like… uh, you can’t put a monetary value on it. But yeah, it’s definitely starting to get a lot more momentum for the band and we just can hopefully capitalise on it with the EP and our own tour and make the most of it and keep on movin’ on.”

Their new EP, In Colour, is slated for a November release but it’s not the first release for the band. Pete explains that they’ve previously recorded a ‘mini-LP’ called The Beagle And The Dove.

“We call it a mini-LP coz it’s like 8 tracks and 31 minutes and I think you need 32 minutes to call it an LP or something so we just missed the mark. We recorded that up in White Rooms studios which is up in Mount Nebo near Brisbane, just like secluded in rainforest pretty much. It was a really fuckin’ cool environment to record songs and for our first experience of recording it was amazing.”

“[For the Ep] We got to go down to Sydney for a week and stay in an awesome house in Darlinghurst and just record and then party on the weekends, often partying like on the nights after finishing recordings. I love getting out to new cities. We’ve been to Sydney a heap now and have a heap of good friends and just party on like motherfuckers, it’s great.”

The John Steele Singers will once again be loading up the van and hitting the road, this time on a headlining tour in support of the new EP soon. Once that’s all wrapped up Pete says the boys are keen to do some more recording.

“After this tour we’re going to have to get down, busy and start demoing some tracks for an album which is just in planning stages. We’ve got songs that we’d like to record but other than that it’s just a plan. We’ll have an album out some time early next year hopefully if everything goes according to plan which quite often, well most often with us it doesn’t but eventually we’ll have an album out next year. We’ll be able to tour that and hopefully get overseas for a few shows and just spread. Spread the love.”

Spread the love. I like it. One last thing springs to mind though. There’s no one in the band called John Steele, so I wonder out loud where the inspiration came from.

“Trim, Scott and I used to work at an undisclosed family restaurant back in 2004, 2005. John Steele was a kids toy that was left there by the previous owner and was adopted by the service staff as some sort of mascot. I don’t know where the name John Steele came from, I can’t remember for the life of me. The Singers aspect is well, there’s four people who can sing in the band so it has some sort of merit.”

For more info check out the band’s MySpace page.

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Mikey Carr.

Musicfeeds - It’s Spanish for awesome!

Sierra Fin’s favourite Eastern European language is Estonian. Not a particularly enlightening piece of information in and of itself, but after listening to the song ‘Blue Day Sun’ from their soon-to-be-released debut EP Shake Stare Sleep I’m quite lost for words. Fortunately, the band had a bit to say as they prepare to make their presence felt on record for the first time.

“Shake Stare Sleep is the first foray into the record world for us as Sierra Fin. Though we’ve each individually released music, it is a giant leap forward musically from our past projects. With each track, as in everything we do, we’ve tried to bring something new to the table, from sonic cacophony to sparse soundscapes all nestled around our simple melodies. We’ve explored lyrically the themes of love, death and society and how the three intermingle.”

Their simple melodies belie a rich tapestry of sound that is more than a little unique, reminding me quietly of the grander moments of Jeff Buckley, or Travis before they started getting all pretentious. Even the explanation of their name has a sublime quality to it.

“It came to me in a dream where I was falling off a mountain that looked like jagged teeth.”

To say Sierra Fin are unique is not to suggest their music is inaccessible, although they do admit initial reactions might be a little confused.

“Confused like an Estonian fisherman who’s just misinterpreted directions, but by serendipitous fortune, they lead him to the catch of the day.”

So what’s the key to building a following while you’re still an up and coming band?

“Play music you enjoy, ignore what the latest hipster tight jeans wearing trend is, and play every gig like you are on the main stage at Glastonbury.”

Their philosophy on music sounds as honest as their songs. I hadn’t even heard of Sierra Fin before last week, but now I’m starting to think their EP launch could be something quite special. The band assures me they have some surprises in store for others thinking of attending.

“This launch is the culmination of more than a years worth of work. Aside from our set, which we will be stepping up by our own standards, we’re making the entire evening a spectacle. From the moment you step through the door you will know this isn’t your average EP Launch.”

“In saying that we have involved an amazing classical guitarist, a quartet of lovely Saxophone ladies plus artists Heidi Elva and Kent Eastwood. All will be intermingling to present a memorable night. And at the perfect setting: The Vanguard sucks you into it’s deep red walls making you feel right at home.”

And then?

“It’ll be a busy time as we ride the promotional roller coaster on the back of Shake Stare Sleep. Our main focus will be organising an EP tour early in the new year. Thoughts of shows at regional schools are on the cards and then we plan to tour Estonia to study the intricacies of the Finno-Ugric languages.”

Catch Sierra Fin for their Shake Stare Sleep EP launch at the Vanguard, Newtown on 12th November. For more info (on the band, not Estonia) point your browser to www.myspace.com/sierrafin

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Mikey Carr.

Musicfeeds - It’s Spanish for awesome!

There must be something about the seclusion of a remote location that brings out explosive inspiration in some people. The Unabomber lived in a remote cabin in the wilderness of Montana, and Melbourne band The Drones adopted a similar dwelling to write and record their latest studio release, Havilah. Guitarist Dan Luscombe explains how it all came about;“Havilah. Yeah, it’s the name of the tiny little town we made the album in. We brought a whole bunch of equipment up from Melbourne and Burke who produced the album brought a whole bunch of equipment from where he works in Big Jesus Burger studio in Sydney. So we set up what turned out to be a rather state of the art studio in this house that runs off a generator where the nearest neighbours are several kilometres away, this big mud brick open plan four bedroom house.”

“We got a hold of some great mics and preamps, spent two days setting up the house and for the next two weeks we were there. Cooking meals in the drum room, which was also the kitchen, sitting around eating together and being very very free from distraction, at times almost too much really.”

Whereas the Unabomber embraced the seclusion of his log cabin for destructive purposes, The Drones have channeled their energies towards more constructive ends.

“It’s a great way to record because you can make that thing that you’re doing all that you think about. It’s great waking up in the morning and wondering about what you’re gonna do on a certain song, what kind of sound you want to get as opposed to all the other things you worry about in regular life.”

Never ones to do things conventionally (their last album was recorded in an old mill in Tasmania), the prospect of laying down new material in a tradtional studio didn’t really appeal.

“I don’t have anything against them as such, I mean they’re expensive for a start, but there’s this clock on clock off factor you know. You show up for work around 11, or well twelve and once you’ve sort of had enough you tend to go home. In the house we could wake up at any time and get straight to work, and if something dawns on you at some ridiculous hour you’re not too far away.”

With a busy touring schedule last year, singer Gareth Liddiard and bassist Fiona Kitschin took some time off to concentrate on writing new material before bringing in Dan and drummer Michael to rehearse and record the album.

“We didn’t start work on any new stuff when we were touring last year, it just doesn’t lend itself to that. We travel pretty frequently when we’re on tour, driving in the van, like on the European tour we did 52 dates in 63 days. You don’t really have time to rehearse and when you do have any free time the last thing you feel like doing is picking up the guitar, you’re just trying to get through the day and to get away from music for a second.”

The new album was written over two months and after four weeks of rehearsing the band was ready to lay it all down.

“The whole process really, from the writing to the mastering was done very quickly but with a lot of intent and a lot of excitement. It actually happened really smoothly, we didn’t get stuck on any tracks for too long and we kept up a good work rate, mind you Paul Burke who recorded and mixed it was up to 9 o’clock in the morning on the last day of mixing.”

“What’s the saying? Art is never finished it’s only ever abandoned. You don’t look back and say I’ve finished but I’ve still got a week of studio time, maybe my friends want to use it.”

If their earlier releases are anything to go by, Havilah will be a brooding mix of noisy guitars, howling vocals and ever so subtle melancholy that latches on to your eardrums and demands attention.

“If you’re taking a lot of different influences you’ll inevitably end up doing something different each time. There’ll always be common threads through your playing and approach. There’s always going to be a linear thing going through there.”

“I think the idea is just to enjoy yourself, and if you like a whole bunch of different music, you’re bound to try a bunch of different things. At the end of the day it comes down to what the song is, and if it’s a good song you can spend a lot of time and have a lot of fun dressing it up in different ways. “

With a new album plucked from the foothills of Mt. Buffalo, Victoria, The Drones are excited about presenting their newest creation to the world with another round of touring.

“It’s always great to have a new record out, it’s wonderful to go on stage with a whole bunch of new songs, and it’s been a while since we’ve done a show where we could do that. We’re really keen to see how the record is received because it’s a bit different for us.”

For this and much more on the live music scene in Sydney check out musicfeeds.com.au. And you thought Drum Media was the be all and end all of local independent street press… (btw It isn’t, check out the site and you’ll know what I mean…)

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Michael Carr

Let’s face it - live music in Sydney has been stifled for a long time. Recent changes to liquor licensing laws have made it cheaper and a whole lot easier for small, boutique style bars and clubs to host live music, and while it will still be a while before these kinds of venues start popping up everywhere, it’s worth noting that there are already a few little gems scattered around the city. The Brass Monkey is one of these; a small quaint Spanish-style restaurant nestled amongst the displays of crass commercialism that begun engulfing Cronulla in the mid 90s. It was here that Visionaries Of The 1980s tore up the stage, accompanied by some notable opening acts.

First to grace the small, somewhat cramped stage was Max, a solo singer-songwriter and ‘Shire’ local who blended a couple of his own compositions with covers of well-worn classics like a medley of the Beatles’ ‘Come Together’ and Pink Floyds’ ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ that was as much unexpected as it was impressive. Most endearing about Max was his between song banter, dropping obscene yet amusing diatribes about ‘hitting the mud button’ and pissing off Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was a nice way to get the party started and work the audience.

The second act, R.J. Chops, were perhaps the most surprising of the night. These guys were like The John Butler Trio but with a dark, intense edge. This is the direction Mr. Butler should have been heading. They’re louder, heavier and the influences of early 90s grunge acts Nirvana and Alice in Chains seeped through their sound to instil it with an urgency, a sort of manic inspiration.

Headline act Visionaries Of The 1980s are a compelling group. Their lead singer, Graeme, is from Sheffield, England, so their post-Brit-pop sound is automatically infused with a sense of authenticity. It was hard not to get excited about their refreshing take on the genre. They remind me a lot of the Arctic Monkeys, before everyone (and I mean everyone) jumped on the bandwagon and announced them as the saviours of Rock’n’Roll. These guys have been together less than a year, but the harmonies they managed to pull out of two guitars banging away to a solid bass and drum line were so mature you wouldn’t know it. It is perhaps more of an afterthought for them, but the juxtaposition of English lead vocals and Aussie back up really made them feel like Bloc Party and The Living End going head to head on the same stage. There’s something unique about that, and something that raises them above the level of competent genre proprietors to potential pioneers.

Check out The Visionaries @ http://www.myspace.com/visionariesofthe1980s
For info on RJ Chops, see http://www.myspace.com/rjchops

For this and much more on the live music scene in Sydney, head on over to musicfeeds.com.au. And you thought Drum Media was the be all and end all of the independant street press in Sydney (btw it isn’t… check the site and you’ll know what I mean…)

If you wanted proof that Australia was founded as a convict colony, look no further than The Mischief. If Ned Kelly were alive today he’d be listening to these guys.

They describe their sound as ‘electrofuzzcountrypop.’ That’s a bit of a mouthful, so let’s just say this; their sophomore EP release will leave you wanting to down a quart of whiskey, grow a beard, don some oversized novelty armour and rob a string of banks up and down the frontier lines.

When they let loose, on tracks like ‘Hollow Gold’ and ‘Tony Wilson’ you can’t help but get your head nodding along to their catchy riffs and unpretentious arrangements. ‘Self Made Sir’ is so almost a pirate ditty that I dare anyone to listen to it and not want to swig rum and force traitors to walk the plank.

There are some more tender moments on tracks ‘Let It Ride’ and ‘If I Weren’t Here’ that conjure images of frontier farms dotted on a landscape of eucalypts, but it all adds to the impression that they’re here to steal from the limy British overlords and give at least some of it back to struggling settlers on the way. The Mischief never seem to take themselves too seriously, but that’s exactly what makes this record worth a listen. Escapism at its best.

I had the pleasure of catching these guys live recently, and as new recruits to the MTV kickstart campaign you can expect to hear a lot more from them soon. For gig details head over to their myspace page @ www.myspace.com/themischiefmusic

For this and plenty more on the live music scene in Sydney, head on over to musicfeeds.com.au.

The most interesting music is often the most diverse. Some bands might be content to pigeonhole themselves in one genre, one style of music but that only really works if they can pull it off well. The true virtue of much music is the ability for it to be created and shaped as artists adopt, assimilate and experiment with different ideas to create something they can truly call their own.The vocal harmonies of New Zealand band Kora bring a uniquely Pacific feel to their music, but as lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Laughton Kora explains, it’s not easy to attempt to classify their sound.

“I couldn’t even begin to tell you. It doesn’t really matter what genre it is as long as it’s sick, and heavy. We haven’t tried to fuse them together, we just try out an idea and we go ‘oy yeah man, that sounds fat.”

“We’ve got five heads bouncing ideas together and I think that’s what makes the sound of Kora, you got five guys who all like different genres of music but at the same time we know what sounds fat and what sounds heavy and we just pick that out.”

It’s that kind of fluidity, that free-form thinking that has seen the guys try some pretty ballsy moves on stage.

“What we used to do was come up with a riff before we started playing. Never even rehearsed it before and we’d just get on stage and do it. If the audience moved to it, we’d go’ oh yeah it works’, and if it didn’t we’d go through and change things add new parts and stuff and try it again. An audience is a great way to sort of reference if something is working or not.”

Their traditional reggae influences flow through notably sometimes, while other times they scream more of a modern rock sound fused with spacey samples and a harsher, experimental edge. On stage, they have an eclectic mix of instruments and musicians.

“We got, a synth, a keyboard and MPC sample, drums, two guitars and bass and our drummer has sampling stuff as well, and yeah five vocals. There are so many instruments in certain songs we just swap. Just mix it around a bit and make it entertaining for ourselves you know.”

Two of the four related members of the band, Laughton and brother Brad began playing together in the early 1990s in a band called Aunty Beatrice.

“It was my dads fault, we didn’t really have a choice you know. He’d just crack the whip. We started playing pubs when we were really young you know, hiding behind the speakers and stuff, those were the real young days.”

It wasn’t until 2001 that Laughton began collaborating with the ‘token white guy’ in the band, Dan McGruer. By the next year, remaining brothers Francis and Stu were recruited to form the band proper but Laughton credits his performing origins as a strong influence on the bands sound.

“My dad was a real driving force about that, the way he saw it he didn’t want to limit us by just playing one genre. And growing up, getting work playing we had to play in a bunch of different venues. So you’d have to play at weddings, you’d have to play at pubs and every different venue had a different genre.”

The boys have had a pretty successful touring schedule as of late, travelling as far afield as the UK, although the first time around they had some trouble getting the locals to attend.

“The last trip we did our goal was to play to as many English people, people not from New Zealand as possible. It’s really easy to go over there and just play to a bunch of Kiwis. You know in London 80 – 90 percent of the audiences is from New Zealand. You know you don’t want to travel all that way and not play to English people.”

“But this trip was really good, we played to like crowds that were 80-85 percent English. And they’d never seen us before so that was a really good reason for us to go back in November and do the same thing all through Europe again.”

Their eclectic sound seems to have taken off with their newly found European fans.

“It’s been a really good response over there. The sound is so versatile you know, there’s something in it for a whole bunch of different people you know, people can just pick and choose what they like best.”

“I think it was the show itself that really blew a lot of people away. And these were people who’d never seen us before and by the end of the show they were sold.”

Their debut album shot straight to the top of the New Zealand charts upon its release in October last year, and the boys show no signs of slowing down.

“We’re going over to Bali on Monday for a little surf trip over there and then we’re coming over to see you guys [in Australia].”

For more info on the band, head over to their official site @ Kora.co.nz (where the band has been re-invented as Superheroes for the cover of their new album, among other things…)

For this and plenty more on the live music scene in Sydney, head on over to musicfeeds.com.au. Just when you thought Drum Media was the be all and end all of the independent street press in Sydney… (btw it isn’t… check the link, you’ll see what I mean)

Words: Dan Clarke, Interview: Michael Carr

By now you’ve probably already heard that the Great Escape festival, scheduled for the October long weekend, has been cancelled. Organisers site unexpectedly low ticket sales as the reason and I must say it’s probably because the festival was organised for the same weekend of Parklife, a well-established event in the Sydney festival calendar. The last three years have seen the Great Escape held over the Easter long weekend, but inexplicably organisers decided this year to attempt to go head to head with the dance and hip hop behemoth.

It can’t be a lack of top shelf performers that discouraged potential festival goers, with bands such as We Are Scientists, Supergrass and The Futureheads planned to tear it up at Newington armoury. It’s unfortunate it had to be cancelled, but eager music fans can at least take solace in the fact that most of the line-up have confirmed they will be proceeding with their sideshows. (Oh, and if you’re looking for my pick of the bunch I strongly recommend Black Francis at the Metro. Sometimes known as Frank Black, he was the driving force behind progressive punk pioneers The Pixies and his show is something I’m looking forward to with open ears.)

Anyway, the confirmed sideshows are as follows;

CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND
Saturday October 4 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
www.enmoretheatre.com.au
www.ticketek.com.au

JOAN AS POLICEWOMAN
Tuesday October 7 – Factory Theatre, Sydney
www.factorytheatre.com.au
www.ticketek.com.au

LADYTRON
Monday September 29 – Metro Theatre, Sydney
www.metrotheatre.com.au

MOUNT EERIE
Friday October 3 – Sound Summit, Newcastle
www.thisisnotart.org

SUPERGRASS
Friday October 3 – The Forum, Sydney
www.forumsydney.com.au
www.moshtix.com.au

THE FUTUREHEADS
Friday October 3 – The Gaelic Theatre, Sydney
www.moshtix.com.au

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
Sunday October 12 - Annandale Hotel, Sydney
www.annandalehotel.com

WE ARE SCIENTISTS
Monday October 6 – The Metro, Sydney
www.ticketek.com.au
www.metrotheatre.com.au

YEASAYER
Tuesday October 7 – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
www.moshtix.com.au

BLACK FRANCIS
Friday October 3 – Metro Theatre, Sydney
www.ticketek.com.au

In other music news, Aussie Grammy award winning band Wolfmother has announced the resignation of bass/keyboard player Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett. The band sites irreconcilable musical differences as the reason for the fracture. Singer/guitarist Andrew Stockdale has stated that he plans to recruit other musicians with a view to recording a sophomore Wolfmother release over the coming months.

Now, the band regrouped after an extended break early this year to record some new material and undertook a small tour to test out the material, culminating in their appearance at Splendour in the Grass.

I’m wondering, is there anyone out there who got a chance to see them in the past couple of months? If so, what was the new material like, and did anyone notice any animosity on stage? To me, the announcement seemed quite out of the blue for such an initially successful band and it’s a shame to lose them (at least temporarily) from the Aussie music landscape.

The fansite wolfmother.net has contributed to rumours heard on Triple J radio that some members of the supergroup The Raconteurs (Saboteurs for Aussie audiences) will be replacing the former members in a new line-up. This is all rumour as of now, but it should be noted that The White Stripes have confirmed they are working on a new album (thereby freeing up the other members of the band) and Wolfmother’s myspace page was recently updated to include ‘folk’ as one of their genres. This seems a confusing move given their classic hard rock sound unless Stockdale is looking further afield for new members.

Obviously, Wolfmother won’t be playing Homebake in December so that’s gotta be a bit of a downer for anyone expecting to see them there. Looks like lucky ticket holders will have to satisfy themselves with the likes of Crowded House, The Vines, British India and the many other great bands on offer (btw I really have no pity for you fortunate buggers that managed to secure tickets! =)

Well, Splendour is over for another year and with the wrap-up comes the news that a new venue will be used for next year’s festival. The proposed site at a place called Yelgun is of significant ecological importance, and some say the use of the site will have far-reaching consequences for endangered wildlife species in the area.

The proposed Yelgun site contains the Marshall’s Ridge wildlife corridor. This is a strip of habitat that connects several nature reserves in the area and provides a passage for endangered wildlife populations. It serves to moderate the effects of habitat fragmentation already brought about by rural development in the area, with approximately 26 threatened species that use the corridor.

The site also includes areas regarded as the highest quality habitats for koalas. It is estimated that there are only 100 000 koalas left in the wild, with local extinctions regularly occurring in areas where habitats are destroyed.

While the Byron council maintains this is a one-off trial of the venue, the infrastructure proposed to facilitate even one such large event will leave a lasting impact on the area including road upgrades, tree removal and a resource centre.

That the Byron council would approve a site like Yelgun for music festivals doesn’t necessarily surprise me. I don’t particularly trust any politicians. What concerns me is that the Splendour organisers would be prepared to risk long-term damage to an area that is obviously of environmental importance. It’s more than a little hypocritical when this year they offered ‘green’ tickets to those who wanted to neutralise their carbon emissions for the weekend, and pushed to achieve 100% recycling of bottles and cans.

A trial at the site can only be intended as a potential permanent venue for the festival. Given the number of festivals that grace Byron each year, this might encourage year round use, and further environmental destruction. In order to prepare the site for next year, construction will be underway soon, which means at least a year of loud construction, machinery and human intervention.

With the looming spectre of climate change constantly on everyone’s mind, there has been a significant push in the music world for more ecologically sound ventures over the past few years. Many big name acts like Coldplay and the Rolling Stones have begun striving to make their concert tours carbon neutral, as have most of the big Australian festivals. The success of the LiveEarth concert series last year again demonstrates the importance environmental factors have for musicians and music fans alike.

I doubt that many potential acts for next year’s festival would be too impressed if they knew of the conservation concerns related to the new site at Yelgun. Some music fans might not be too concerned either way, but the festival organisers have presented the event as an environmentally sensitive venture, so to embrace such a move without providing the public with assurances that the area will remain viable for the populations of native wildlife that live there would be terribly destructive to the reputation of the event. Environmental action against climate change involves both reducing emissions and promoting sustainable living as well as protecting in perpetuity the natural world that still remains.

For more information on the backlash to the new proposed site, check out the Byron Environment Website. We’ll have to wait and see whether there will be a response from organisers to these concerns.

With the relative lack of high calibre bands touring Australia in the last couple of months I’ve come to appreciate just how much good live local music there is in Sydney. On any given weekend the hard thing isn’t finding a band to see, it’s deciding which one. Club Blink is an alternative nightclub in the middle of the city that weekly hosts plenty of alternative rock and heavy metal bands. Recently, I dropped in to catch progressive rock band Superb Lyrebird.

These guys unleash hard rock hooks reminiscent of bands like Tool and the Deftones. They play impassioned, angry music that forces you to bang your head along. What makes them different to some others is their use of samples and synthesisers to create a brooding ambience in transitions that adds to the punch when the wall of chunky guitars and pounding drums is unleashed. It’s hard not to hear echoes of Maynard James Keenan in singer Dave Bleus’ voice at times, but it’s more of a subtle nod than it is straight out imitation.

Some might compare them to Aussie contemporaries Cog, but Superb Lyrebird achieve much more depth to their sound, infusing it with a dark, atmospheric edge. They have the kind of subtly sinister undertone that often gets produced away when hard rock bands sign a major lable deal.

That’s one of the exciting things about seeing local bands perform. They’re not under any pressure to produce their next big hit, and with that comes the freedom to manipulate their genre and experiment with more innovative sounds. Superb Lyrebird start with a solid approach to hard rock and take it that bit further with layered soundscapes that blend each song into an all-encompassing performance.

For more info (including upcoming gigs) check out their myspace page @ http://www.myspace.com/superblyrebird

Friday 1st August saw electro-rockers Hyrule Mafia tear it up at Kings Cross, Sydney venue Candy’s Apartment, sharing the stage with another local band The Mischief (stay tuned for a review of them soon.)

I was urged by a friend to check these guys out, and I was well impressed by their solid, unrelenting performance. There’s a lot more I want to find out about the band before I take a closer look, so for now here’s a short clip of one of their songs from the night. Enjoy!

(Hyrule Mafia have another gig this Saturday night, details of which can be found on their myspace @ http://www.myspace.com/hyrulemafia)