COME OUR WAY FOR THIS WAY NORTH

We caught up with Renowned Duo ‘This Way North’ who released Debut Album 'Punching Underwater' 

Indie pop-rock duo This Way North, comprising Cat Jungalwalla and Leisha Leahy, is gearing up for the highly anticipated release of their debut album, 'Punching Underwater,' set to hit the shelves on February 8th, 2024. This musical endeavor is a collaborative masterpiece between the award-winning artist Ainslie Wills and accomplished engineer-producer Jono Steer, promising a blend of creativity and expertise that fans have eagerly awaited.

The journey leading to 'Punching Underwater' has been a fascinating one for This Way North. Having traversed various landscapes across Australia and beyond, the duo found themselves amid the serene Dhudhuroa country in north-east Victoria during the pandemic. Here, amidst ancient trees and high-country valleys, they exchanged the nomadic lifestyle for a temporary home, allowing a pause that became a haven for creative expression, shaping the essence of their forthcoming album.

This Way North has steadily climbed the ladder of recognition, previously honored as Music Victoria's Best Regional Act. Their repertoire includes three EPs, and they've gained prominence not just in Australia but also in New Zealand and Canada, sharing stages with notable artists like Vika and Linda Bull, Ash Grunwald, and Kate Ceberano.

The debut single from 'Punching Underwater,' titled 'My Love,' made its debut in October 2023. Featuring the mesmerizing sounds of Christine Tootoo's Inuit throat singing from Iqaluit, Arctic Canada, the single quickly gained national rotation on Double J and secured a top-5 position on the AMRAP charts, resonating deeply with their dedicated fan base and setting high expectations for the album's release.

In 'Punching Underwater,' This Way North showcases their peak songwriting and performance abilities, weaving together musical and lyrical elements that highlight their creative prowess. With Ainslie Wills stepping into the role of producer for the first time and collaborating with long-time creative partner Jono Steer, the album reflects a synergy that allowed Cat and Leisha to delve deeper into each song, refining them to showcase their exceptional talents.

Recorded across studios in Melbourne and Romsey, central Victoria, each track on the album radiates lush, dynamic sounds, standing out both individually and collectively. Cat Leahy's vibrant, powerful drumming and Leisha Jungalwalla's intricate guitar tones and slide guitar chops are meticulously crafted, forming the backbone of the album's sonic landscape. Additionally, guest vocals from Xani, Little Wise, Tuckshop Ladies, and Ainslie Wills, along with contributions from Jono Steer and guest bassist Brett Langsford, add layers of depth and richness to the musical tapestry.

'Punching Underwater' delves into introspective themes, addressing insecurities, imposter syndrome, and self-doubt while also celebrating the journey of self-discovery and personal growth. From the struggle to avoid falling in love to the highs of building confidence and contentment, the album encapsulates the myriad emotions of a woman's evolution. Ultimately, it leaves listeners on a positive note, embracing the highs and lows of life's journey with resilience and grace.

With compelling harmonies, robust melodies, and a profound exploration of the human experience, 'Punching Underwater' is poised to be a standout debut album for This Way North, solidifying their place in the indie music scene and captivating audiences worldwide. Fans can look forward to a musical journey that is introspective, uplifting, and undeniably authentic.

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INTERVIEW:

Can you tell our readers about your new Album 'Punching Underwater', and a little bit about who you are?

Hello! We are a band called This Way North, I'm Leisha, I play guitar and sing and there's Cat on drums and vocals. We are based in Yackandandah (yes, it's a real place!), in the high country in North East Victoria. We are a drums and guitar duo who often get mistaken for a full 5-piece band, we love blending indie rock, pop, blues, roots and folk with a little bit of psychedelica thrown in! 

We've just released our debut album 'Punching Underwater'! 

Who did you work with for this single, and what does the name of the album mean?

We worked with Ainslie Wills and Jono Steer as co-producers on the whole album and the lead single 'Punching Underwater'. The name is about how when you try to punch under the water everything is slow moving there is a lot of resistance. There were a lot of challenges for us to get this album and the songs together and out into the world, the song is about how you can be too hard on yourself and make yourself so slow by not believing in what you're capable of. We co-wrote this song with Bobby Alu.

How do you put music together, or do you work with a Producer, if so who?

We write all of our own songs by either writing them separately and bringing them to each other to finish or writing them completely together. We then worked with Ainslie Wills on each song in pre-production. She really brought them out to be the best they could be with her incredible ear and song writing sensibilities. We learnt so much from her and how she crafts her songs. 

Who's on your greater team?

We have our awesome booking agents Abby and Bec from Onya Soapbox, our album team was Ainslie Wills, Jono Steer (Co-producers plus some keys and vocals), Brett Langsford (bass), our publicists Stuart and Jonny. But the rest is all us! We're an independent band and work bloody hard to make sure we hustle and create opportunities for ourselves. Oh and our dog Messy.

What are some of your go-to records to listen to, when you're either chilling or working on new music?

We both love Bahamas, Khruangbin, Tami Neilson, Bonobo but there's too many to list! 

Anything exciting coming up over the next few months?

Yes! We have the next leg of our album tour throughout South Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales! 

What other artists and or creatives are from your community, and who should our readers get across?

We're super lucky to live in a very creative area! There's amazing artists from all mediums: sculptors (check out Ben Gilberts creations), visual artists (Kirrily Anderson), black smiths (Toadhall forge) and of course musicians!

Check out Sal Kimber, Liv Cartledge and DJ Jane Doe. 

We also have amazing whiskey distilleries (Backwoods Distillery), recycled wool and leather workers (Stonehill View), furniture makers (Indigo Woodworks). It's a really inspiring place to live with lots of amazing people doing cool and inspiring things! 

What do you like to do, outside of writing, recording and playing music?

We both love being out in nature, camping in our van with our dog Messy! Cat is a hatter, so she spends a lot of time in her shop making glorious hats (check ou Feather & Drum Hat Co.). I love surfing when I can get to the coast. 

Do you have any shows coming up?

Catch us here:

Sun April 28th supporting Ash Grunwald at Star Hotel Yackandandah

Sat June 15th Melbourne Album Launch Show w East Bound Buzz, Liv Cartledge and DJ Jane Doe at Stay Gold, Brunswick

Fri June 21st Brisbane Album Launch Show at the Cave Inn with special guests TBA

Sat June 22nd Full Moon Party, Verrierdale Sunshine Coast QLD

Sat August 3rd The Stone Pony, w Parvyn Willunga, SA

Sun August 4th Adelaide Album Launch Show at Trinity Sessions w Parvyn Adelaide SA

Fri August 23rd Wauchope Arts, Wauchope NSW

Sat August 24th Sydney Album Launch Show at The Great Club with Monstress and Juanita Tippins Marrickville NSW

Sun August 25th The Fun Haus, Gosford NSW

 Any last words?

We can't wait to hear what you think of the album, don't forget to check out the film clips for the first two singles 'My Love' featuring Inuit Throat Singer Christine Tootoo, shot up in Arctic Canada and 'Punching Underwater' filmed at the Old Beechworth Gaol in an empty 100 year old pool! 

INTERVIEW FEATURE: JULIA STONE - YES, THAT JULIA STONE…

In what may be one of our biggest interviews to date - Tori spoke to Julia Stone on her upcoming album ‘Sixty Summers’ and it’s a ripper-

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In my early teens I had begun the exploration into my own music taste. Dad introduced me to Sting, INXS, U2 and The Killers, while mum was more comfortable with the softer sound of Diana Krall and Nora Jones. One of the first songs that resonated, independent of anyone else’s influence was Mango Tree by Angus and Julia Stone. The sweet melody and lyrics were nothing like I had heard before, and so their music became a staple on my CD mixes and playlists.

It wasn’t long until everyone seemed to agree, as ‘Big Jet Plan’ let Angus and Julia Stone fly to the number one position in the 2010 Triple J Hottest 100. This cemented them as Aussie favourites for many years to come, even after parting ways to explore their own projects. Angus saw success with Dope Lemon while Julia released The Memory Machine (2010) and her second studio album, By The Horns in 2012.

In between releasing another outstanding collaboration with her brother, Angus in the form of their 2017 album Snow, Julia was working behind the scenes to develop her upcoming album, Sixty Summers. I had the privilege of meeting with Julia to talk about where Sixty Summers came from, her answer was bittersweet;

“this period of summer in my twenties when I would come back from London and spend summer in Australia…..this particular friend of mine, we’d spend those summers together and we go to parties and go the beach and it was just really a beautiful time and really memorable but, what I do remember about it was that it would just come so quickly all of a sudden it was summer again. I’d be back in Australia, and this whole year of touring and living in London had just gone by. On the third summer of this period of time we’re at a really fun party and were on the dance floor, we’re having this beautiful night, it was just one of those magical nights where it’s all flowing and you know, celebrating love and life and she turned to me in this moment of urgency and grabbed me by the shoulders and said can you believe we’ve only got 60 summers left. It struck me as not very long and I had this feeling of the urgency and immediacy of needing to leave the 60 summers in the best possible way….to actually make your 60 summers worthwhile and valuable”

The limited approaching summers, filled with friends and family was evident, but Julia wasn’t going to rush through things. Sixty Summers was constructed between 2015 and 2019, with one track dating back further,

“I am no one, I had that song for years and I always loved singing it, but I never had the right feel for it… it was nice, it was very folky, very fleet Fleetwood Mac, I guess in a way out of all of the tracks on the record it’s probably the one that is the most folk. A tip of the hat to that traditional singer songwriter acoustic guitar playing world that I’ve come from”.

Julia remains a folk artist at her core, she is pushing forward and breaking new ground with her talents, but she still has inspiration from her past;

“I grew up playing the trumpet from when I was five or so. I think my love of horn and wind instruments has always been there and I love it used in pop music. I think naturally as we were working, in writing that was something that I was gravitate to”.

The horns are strong in her title track, Sixty Summers and create contrast to her soft vocals. When recording vocals, the progression in music technology gave freedom to both the equipment and locations used to record the album;

“when we started making Snow, I realised that the recording vocals for me was getting a lot easier to do if I recorded myself. I felt like I had enough skills on Pro Tools and running a studio that I could do it myself, it wasn’t anything to do with engineers not being good enough, it was just that I knew what I wanted to get to. When I had control of the desk, I felt like it was a much easier process for everybody. During the recording of [Sixty Summers] I would take myself off with the microphone and my preamp and stuff and do a lot of writing and developing hooks. I try for lead vocals to do them through a really beautiful microphone in the nice studio Thomas [Producer, Thomas Bartlett aka Doveman] has got an amazing $20,000 microphone that sounds incredible but sometimes the vocals you do or the parts that you create at home, because of the relaxed nature of it I also think and sound really powerful. I’m a fan of whatever works, that sounds good - it is good”.

Her vocals and melodic flow lend themselves to remixes or covers in other genres. Previous songs like Big Jet Plane and Chateau have been mixed and born into new forms. Julia noted this was something loved and was keen on exploring in future;

“I really love remixes and I think where I’d like to go is to go even more dancey. I just loved getting sent dance tracks and padding right into it and so I’d like to make a whole record like that actually, use more stuff that I write as the foundation and then build them up with different DJs. I’m a huge fan of clubbing and I love dancing and so to go more down that road… who knows I mean, we’ll see, I would love that album”.

Me too.

“I’ll keep you posted it might be the next one!”

Julia, as with most musicians expressed her longing to return to tour life. She has been on the road most of her adult life, and clearly misses the connection with her fans. Like many of those in the arts and music industry, she expressed her disappointment at the government covid response;

“I think historically when it comes to government and politics, the arts are in general forgotten about and I’m not saying that’s across the board, there have been governments that have understood the intrinsic value of supporting the creative arts. I think all civilisations that thrive have a really well-supported out artistic industry. I think the fact that you know there’s been such disparity between things like sports and music and dance and all of that kind of being is it’s really disappointing. I definitely see the value in sports, I am a huge fan of sports and I think it really brings people together but in the same way that festivals, music and dance”.

Julia is working hard behind the scenes for her album tour to hit the road. COVID has made her cautious, waiting until they can be sure lockdowns or border closures won’t cause cancellations or the dreaded re-schedule.

While we are waiting to see Julia in person, you can enjoy her cover of The Partisan by Leonard Cohen that she recently recorded with Paul Kelly here. Julia was shocked to discover she and Paul share around the same monthly Spotify streams;

“oh wow I didn’t know that….he’s such an incredible musician and such a hard worker, that’s a huge compliment”.

Who are your most recent songs?
- All of the light, Kanye West
- The Partisan, Leonard Cohen

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INTERVIEW: BOB EVANS TALKS TOMORROWLAND

Our writer Suze caught up with Bob Evans re. ‘Concrete Heart’ from his upcoming record ‘Tomorrowland’ and more!

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You have a new song out?
Yes. I have a whole new record called Tomorrowland that comes out on April 16th.  The most recent single is called ‘Concrete Heart.’ 

It’s a great tune.  The sound is almost like The Beatles meets Jebediah. 
I guess there used to be a real gulf between Bob Evans and Jebediah but that has narrowed somewhat over the years. The Beatles thing is undeniable. In previous times I have been directly influenced by Beatles stuff and you can hear it over previous records.  This time around I wasn’t really listening to or being inspired by The Beatles, but they still managed to sneak in there because the artists that I was listening to a lot were inspired by them! For me when I was trying to figure out how I wanted to present this song, I was listening to heaps of Tom Petty, particularly Full Moon Fever. It is probably his best-known record and I really fell in love with it. Obviously a few of the songs I knew very well because they are such massive hits, but I had never really listened to the whole record properly and its now one of my favourites. There are a few songs on that record that are just power pop songs, guitar power pop. I thought that was the angle I could take with this one. 

I read that you had used a bit more electric guitar this time around on the album.
Loads. I mean this really feels like the first traditional rock album that I have made as Bob Evans. Not just because of the instruments we used but also it’s the first time where I have recorded live with my band in a room. Very minimal overdubs, minimal edits. There was just five of us in the room and we smashed out all the songs in like six days. I’ve never done that before. It was important to do because  I wanted this record to have its own unique feel and to be a real point of difference to previous records. I had to look at things that I could do differently. A few years ago I wouldn’t have had the confidence to make a record like that. I would have been worried that it wouldn’t be good enough to pull it off. So it’s pretty awesome to be in a band where you look around and you go these guys are great musicians and we can totally do this. And we did. 

I also heard a whisper that you are touring.
Yeah. Well, the tour is definitely happening. I’ll be going all around the country. We just have to hope that everything remains open. Obviously, as everyone knows, this year is going to be pretty volatile but at the moment, the way things are going in Australia it looks pretty good. 

I reckon things should stay pretty safe in Adelaide.
I’ve just been in Adelaide.

I was just about to say I came and saw you do Club 27 at The Fringe a few weeks back.
Cool, what did you think?

I absolutely loved it. 
It was a lot of fun. So I’ve been to Adelaide twice because I did a Jebediah gig there earlier in the year as well. Look everywhere in Australia seems to be doing pretty well, I think there is reason for us to be optimistic. Certainly more so than last year. 

Absolutely. So back to ‘Concrete Heart’. I liked where you kind of got the inspiration from. That whole putting stuff up on social media in a discussion that is important to you and having someone call you out for being a ‘bleeding heart’.
What it specifically refers to is when you weigh in on some kind of debate that is political in its nature, you know it might be something to do with immigration for example or perhaps indigenous Australia. You put forward an opinion or a comment that is sympathetic and a lot of people who disagree with you use the term bleeding heart as a dis. I have always found that really fascinating and kind of funny because it’s like the criticism from the other side of the debate is pretty much like ‘Oh you care too much'. Is that really a bad thing? I like the idea of taking this bleeding heart thing and wearing it like a badge of honour and making a bit of fun out of that whole term. Concrete Heart is the opposite of that. I mean at its essence it is serious, but I tried to approach it the song in a light, fun way because it is a little bit funny as well. 

It is, because you never get a comment to back up the diss. It’s just you’re a bleeding heart. There is no actual discussion or reasoning why.
Yeah, I don’t even understand what somebody means if they use that term against somebody. What are they really trying to say? I guess they are trying to say that you are too emotional and you’re not rational or logical. Maybe that’s what they are trying to say.

It’s because you are passionate about something. That is why you enter those discussions in the first place. 
Having said this, I rarely weigh in on social media debates. I try really hard not to read comment sections around issues that I care about. It can get really depressing when you see the things that people write. It can be a very toxic environment. So yeah it’s not something I do very much. 

I just can’t anymore because of that reason. And the more you read those comment sections the angrier you get.  Some of them just aren’t going to change their opinions. It’s better to just bow out.
That sentiment is in the song as well. There are lyrics in the song that pretty much say exactly what you just said. I’m the same, you just have to back away because it is not really doing you or anyone else any good. 

No, it doesn’t.

Back to Tomorrowland. Are all the songs that little bit more rocky than normal Bob Evans?
I think so.  I suppose it’s a lot to do with the attitude with which they were recorded. Like I said with the band recording them live I think it just gives the songs a real kind of electricity and a character.

You get that vibe off of each other being in the studio together. 
That’s right. There is a character that I can’t recreate on my own. It really is its own unique thing. I’m really proud of the guys playing on it and what we were able to achieve. And Steve Schram who produced it, it’s a really good sounding record. It’s definitely going to be one of my favourite ones that I have done. 

Is there an underlying theme or is it just a collection of 10 songs?
Well, actually there are 11 songs on this record. We were only planning on doing ten and we got up to day six and we only had two songs left. Steve was like “You know we are going to finish early should we try and squeeze one more song in?” I had to go back to my demos and in a very short amount of time I had to choose one. Of course, the guys had to learn it on the spot. All the other songs we had spent rehearsing before we went into the studio. The second to last song on the record is called ‘Fits and Starts’ and it came out great, it sounds awesome, but the guys were literally learning it as we recorded. It’s one of my favourite songs. 

Tomorrowland is out 16th April. 

INTERVIEW: ALEXANDER BIGGS AND THE FEELINGS BEHIND ‘HIT OR MISS’

Melbourne creative Alexander Biggs has released his debut album ‘Hit or Miss'. The album is about hanging onto the idea of someone after they’ve left the room like you’re hanging onto their ghost or a husk like a cicada—all the insides gone, taken off, old here and new somewhere else—like an outline of dust in a roadrunner cartoon. Our girl Kayla chatted to him all things Biggs.

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You’re quite well known for these incredibly distinct, almost poignant emotive songs - ones of which resonate deeply with many people. How do you find that your musics ability to touch so many people has influenced the manifestation of the themes present within your songs?

I try not to think too much about anyone else’s perception of my music. I remember a time when I was like, 19, playing the first kind of iteration of my project, like the very raw, beginner phase of figuring out what you’re going to sound like, and how to write songs, and someone telling me I reminded them of Death Cab, and I didn’t know any of their music, except that one song, so I looked it and then found myself emulating them, and I don’t even think I was the biggest fan at the time. I’m not saying I’d do that now, but I know that feeling now, and I know how you can take your own agency away when you worry about what others think about you, well-meaning or not.

Do you find you often write to appeal to the emotions of your listeners or are these songs truly written on the basis of your own experiences and emotive forethought?

I write solely to explore what I want to explore and to channel what I want to channel. I think there is a desire to connect with people, maybe offer a feeling of our shared experience, but I don’t let that come first, that comes after the fact. I write the songs because I’m compelled to, and they resonate second. I can only write from that experience.

In a 2018 interview - you’re quoted as saying “Melbourne is an inspiring place to live” have you taken inspiration for your new album release from any local talent, locations or occurrences that your listeners mightn’t have caught in your album’s musings?

Nah, I don’t look out at people like that. I appreciate Melbourne artists, any artists, for the unique things they bring to the table, their voices. I think Melbourne is imprinted heavily in my songs, but maybe more in just a personal sense. Songs translate to many locations, but in my mind I see where I was, or where I’m singing about. The new stuff I’m writing has a lot more of a city feel to it with a hint of northern suburbs. The stuff on Hit or Miss feels 90 percent northern suburbs, 10 percent NYC.

You have been a support act for some incredibly talented artists like Stella Donnelly and Julien Baker. If you could pick anyone in the industry to support (past artists included) who would absolutely make your lifetime if they asked you to support them?

I’m really hoping Ruby Gill takes me touring the world with her when she gets famous.

Your discography has a really consistent sound and tone - often as listeners we assume that your album release has direct connotations to your emotional state at the time of writing and it definitely has an almost cathartic feel to it - talk us through the process and feelings behind ‘Hit or Miss’.

The process was a whole bunch of recording, a whole bunch of feeling things, and a whole bunch of stressing about it.

How does it make you feel as a musician to know that people all over the world are listening to your music?

It’s neat to think people around the world are listening to my music. It’s a privilege, but one I don’t think about too much.

If you could think of any scenario or location in which you think your album is best listened to what would that look like? (for example I could definitely see myself crying into a tub of ice cream listening to ‘mostly i feel nothing’ haha)

I think it’s a headphone-walk kind of album. Walk around your neighbourhood at dusk. That’s the mood.

What can we expect from you in future? Are you ever tempted to produce collaborations or experiment with new genres?

Ummmm, I’m really interested in synths and euclidean rhythms but I’m not sure how much they’ll feature in the next stuff. Still exploring. Well, synths are involved a little, but I’m not going full radiohead or anything. They have such distinct characters and feelings, which I feel helped a lot when used sparingly in the last stuff. I’d like to turn it up a notch maybe.

Writing an album can be quite the process - did the songs on ‘Hit or Miss’ come to you over a length of time or did you smash it out and work on the production side of things more?

Hit or Miss was an ever-evolving process. It had so many different iterations, and a lot of songs got bumped out for others. I think it took a lot of time because it hadn’t yet arrived, and then one day it did, and it felt right.

Do you fear being pigeonholed to one type of genre or do you feel as though your current releases are the most authentic reflection of your past, present, and future self?

Yeah, I mean, most artists in my experience don’t like that. The amount times I get put in some, surf chill coffee strum playlist is a little annoying but I’m also grateful, and at the end of the day, you can’t choose who listens to you. I think any of the people I look up to or that my ego would want to be validated by would think my record was trash or trite or something haha

Music often provokes a feeling of nostalgia or provokes emotion tied to events in one’s life. Do you find that performing songs consistently stops this from occurring for you, or if anything does it make you remember events, feelings etc more vividly?

Maybe at first. I get tired of songs sometimes, but I’d say the feeling just develops and evolves into something else. It’s like looking at old photos—they still do something to you, but it’s not the same as being there. Probably for the best.

How has the response to your new album been so far? Is this what you expected or has it exceeded your expectations?

It’s been nice. I didn’t really know what to expect so I just take it day by day.

Congratulations on a super great album it’ll definitely be getting a ton of listens from me!

Thanks :)

'Hit or Miss' is OUT NOW

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INTERVIEW: PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS TALK ’SHYGA! THE SUNLIGHT MOUND’

Kicking off her first interview for 2021, Tori caught up with Psychedelic Porn Crumpets frontman Jack McEwan to hear about their new album, SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound. Jack talked about the impact of COVID on the album, the highs and lows of touring and the battle of the aux cord.

PPC were finishing up a tour of the USA and South America, jumped straight into the Australian Summer Festivals and squeezing in a couple of months to write and record their next album when COVID-19 pulled out their plans.

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Was the whole album recorded during covid or pre covid?

It was a bit of both. I started working on it late last year when we got back from America, we got home about November and then we had a couple of months in between Falls Festival and Laneway before we were meant to go on tour with Ocean Alley, which was scheduled for I think last April, so the album had to be finished before that cos we were going to use that as a boost, then swing back into Europe. We had South America and stuff, but obviously that all got cancelled. I was actually so happy, like thank god I could become a human again and write and feel like a musician rather than some hungover Contiki traveller just being like, where am I. It was a chance to sort of reflect a bit and we wrote a lot of that material; I spent a lot of the time writing and didn’t finish the record until about the end of July. I gave myself an extra couple……actually four or five months of writing. It was definitely more of a covid album than the others, definitely a covid record.

It was a blessing in disguise then?

Oh yeah, it was a game-changer, It was the first time I ever felt like time had stopped. Do you know that show Bernard’s Watch? It was sick, it was good.

Speaking of shows, did you have any tv shows or movies that were inspiration?

I have always been a huge fan of Mighty Boosh and Monty python, that kinda like, strange, satirical world where everything is comedy central. A good time. Thinking laterally rather than give you a drama piece. Rick and Morty as well, I absolutely binged that when it came out as well. It felt refreshing, like something that had a twist on something that’s already solidified as an idea or a concept. Like Wes Anderson, he always kind of parodies his own movies. If you can get the joke, with Porn Crumpets, we are the most serious, non-serious band, just living in this mean world, so I was like, well let’s have fun with it and see where we can go rather than kind of take it seriously and be the butt of the joke, it’s like, of course we are. Let’s move on with it and have fun with it.

After listening to the album, I have to ask, Jack: What is a tripolasaur?

A tripolasaur? A friend was in a band called bipolar bear, so I thought rather than call it bipolar bear I’d call it tripolasaur, so it’s a man with three brains, or three personalities? Is bipolar multiple or two? I don’t know? If bipolar is two, then tripolar would be a three headed dinosaur. All the lyrics are about waking up feeling rough but you’re carrying on the same way of drinking each night and the audience kind of understands, and its easy to gather why he is feeling rough. Everyone keeps calling it trip-olasaur cos they’re like, this band is a ‘trip’ band, like trip-olasaur and you’re like try!

I also need to know, Is it Shy-ga? Or Shyg-a?

It’s Shy-ga. [Like tiger?] Shyga like tiger! There you go. I was listening to a lot of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They had an exclamation mark in their name, and I was like, that’s fantastic, it already evoked an emotion before you even listened to it. I knew I sort of wanted an exclamation mark, and I was trying to think of an uplifting word that was like Eureka. I was throwing bits, Shyga, that sounds like something you would say if you get a hole in one! SHYGA! It was too interesting and ridiculous and stupid not to use it. I kept looking at it on my phone and thinking do I take the serious approach or the wonky way? But I’ve gotta do it, I gotta call it SHYGA!

I feel with a band name like yours you kind of need to say f*ck it and do it?

That’s it. I feel like we paved the way to be absurdist’s. But then if we ever tried to be serious, everyone would be like where’s the joke? We kind of ruined both angles now.

You have always been related back to Tame Impala or King Gizz, is that the same inspiration or have you been listening to anything different?

We spent a lot of time when we were touring, passing around the aux cord was a big privilege and everyone trying to outdo the other person with some strange thing they heard. After maybe a year of passing bands that we had all known, we started going back to 70s rock, like T-rex, David Bowie, all those sorts of zingers who are dad rock now. It feels quirky, but funny, but I love this. So, we all started being dads on tour, on the tour bus. That 70s style. Something about it still felt so fun and vibrant and interesting. We wanted to, or at least I did personally, write a 70s rock record that kind of reflected that but kind of put a twist on it into now. So as I was writing, there was meant to be an album called ‘The Greatest Hits of Sir Norton Gavin’ and that was originally going to be a fictional character in the 60s and 70s who was really big in Margaret River or down south and his music got lost but folklorist. I dunno, be funny trying to do that as more of a spinal tap thing. I scrapped the heavy stuff and the folky stuff, we had Pukebox, Mr Prism and Mundungus and I really liked that flavour. So instead of doing it as a ‘greatest hits’, what if we did a 70s record? You know, Google ‘deep dream’, like deep fake where AI is predicting things. What if we could do that, but predict a 70s rock record. So, all these glitched-out guitars would be in there and sound more sort of like, technological and emulate guitars and real drums and real band. That was the sort of idea of Shyga, that with tour diary inserts. What’s my life? With supercomputer picking up synths.

You have been off for a while; how do you feel about touring with Ocean Alley if it *fingers crossed* goes ahead this year?

Yeah - I love those guys. We first met them in Hamburg of all places at a festival and they did our light show, because we played a gig at like, 12 at night, I think. It was sort of like Big Sound, but the European version. They came and watched us and we didn’t have a strobe light so they kept turning the fader on and off, really quickly. It looked great, it was hilarious. We became good friends, then obviously did Laneway together. I feel like that was one of the best Laneways, for me. I just watched King Gizz for five days or whatever it was. It was amazing.

King Gizz and 1975 every day is not at all terrible!

They actually pulled out of one of them, they got sick. Might have been the Sydney one? One of them got sick, so Gizz were like, we’ve got to headline so they did a two-hour set which was OH MY GOD! It rained too so it added to this, I don’t know, it was such a wicked night.

What is the biggest thing you guys have missed from touring?

Nothing at all. I like being safe and comfortable at home. I don’t know. I think having a good yarn with people and catching up, finding the strangest people in the cities that usually seem to be attracted to a Psychedelic Porn Crumpets gig. I would love to do more sightseeing rather than being hungover in the day. I think, not drinking as much and be planning to do something, but then everyone has to be in agreeance so it’s hard. It’s weird. It’s like being on a strange holiday but it’s not. I would like to go to a festival again though. When we are playing early and get the rest of the day off, I miss that. That’s a great day.

A few big artists have come out of Tik Tok and social media in the last year, do you think you still need promoters, labels pushing things for you? Do you think that’s still important or needed in the music industry?

Well, it’s always changing, isn’t it? I think some people find it easier doing the old school bits and pieces and I think for the younger artist or whoever sort of growing up on tik tok, I mean I would have no idea who they are but if they can pack out a venue, they are going to get big eventually and make people pay attention. I think if you can do all of it, it would be amazing. Try and utilise every angle. I am still the worst on social media, I am so glad we have a manager who deals with it. I can’t do it. I feel like an old soul. I feel like I need a Guinness by the fire with a border collie and I’m happy for the rest of my life. I don’t want to keep up appearances.

One of the songs remind me of a song Hocus Pocus by Focus.

I have heard of that song! I love that Hocus Pocus Focus! That’s so ridiculous. I was going to put it on, have the rest of the interview just Hocus Pocus Focus on. That’s great.

Did you have any special equipment or things you used when recording?

Not so much physical hardware, but I got really heavily involved in sort of the software and like how to warp a guitar and just working out how Ableton and all those features I hadn’t used before. All the glitch guitars and basically every single part and vocal is manipulated, warped or pushed up like an octave or even sometimes two or down to give it this strange visual sort of sound. I got so hooked on it I made it the whole flavour of the record but in hindsight I probably went way too overboard with it.

What can people expect from you this year?

I am working on the follow-up. I kind of have it finished, but I want to take my time. Having a month off to see, is this what I want to release or am I just writing for the sake of writing. But at the moment I am enjoying, it’s sort of different elements which is different to what I did with SHYGA!. SHYGA! was one sound and try and write as much in that frame whereas I am sort of going opposite of that now, how many different styles can I put into one record. I think hopefully more enjoyable. I am stepping up production again.

SHYGA! The Sunlight Mount is now available on all good streaming services. Check it out!

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INTERVIEW: ODETTE HERALDS A NEW OMEN WITH HER SOPHOMORE ALBUM

Image: Odette explores a deep soundscape with her sophomore album Herald Photo: Giulia McGauran

Sound the bells and raise the bugles, 23-year-old Georgia Odette Sallybanks, Odette, one of Sydney’s most talented singer-songwriters, has released her sophomore album Herald after dipping and diving through the last five years of her adolescence.

Herald has explored new sonic depths as Odette herself went through a transformative period with grace and maturity, navigating a world of complex emotions. Combining two worlds, her sophomore record is adorned with instrumental intricacies which tie in to the natural world. 

“There’s two worlds that sort of co-exist, so the lyrical world which is very much centred around me, my emotions, or almost self-absorption, and then there’s the instrumental world which is very much a phenomenon of natural environments,” she said.

“While I’m navigating these complex emotions which I’m not really sure how to navigate, these instruments act as sort of a world and also a safe space which creates a grounding texture.” 

And with a new record, comes a newfound sense of confidence for the 23-year-old Sydney song-writer. After a late name change from Dwell, Herald represents a coming-of-age period for Odette.

“When I changed it to Herald it was mostly just because I really really wanted to bring about something new,” she said.

“I wrote that song because Herald means – it’s kind of like an omen – like something’s coming and it has a tone of anticipation and that’s sort of the tone of the whole record.”

The record also features a collaboration with Australian electronic duo, Hermitude, on her track ‘Feverbreak’. The track honours her debut single, ‘Watch Me Read You’, as it intertwines her signature spoken word poetry stylings with delicate electronic undercurrents from Hermitude. 

“I write songs like that when I have a lot to say and not a lot of patience, and the Hermitude guys were so great with that, they just totally got it... it was such an amazing experience,” she said.

“That was the point of the record, to just say everything out loud and hopefully just use that as a launchpad to launch myself out of that headspace – I think it’s working – we’ll see.” 

Late last year Odette reimagined Australian rock band ACDC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ for Triple J’s Like A Version segment, where she mentioned in an interview how much she had grown out of the pressure to ‘sound pretty’ and felt more herself since her first Like A Version cover in 2018.

“[In the first record] I still had this mentality of like it needs to be ethereal, it needs to be pretty and light, and as I’ve aged my voice is getting deeper, you know?” 

Whilst there was a high degree of praise for her cover, a few comments criticised Odette’s interpretation of ‘Thunderstruck’, which perhaps speaks more loudly to the degree of tone policing which is inflicted on some women in music in Australia. 

“There seems to be this weird intense policing of female tone, if you’re not beautiful sounding and perfectly articulate, you get a lot of hate,” she said.

“I just noticed it a lot, especially with female artists and non-binary artists.” 

If COVID-19 vaccines are successful, Odette is keen to get back on the road and tour rural Australia, especially Tasmania. 

“I want to do rural Australia, and I really am desperate to get to Tassie,” she said.

“On my last tour Tassie was always left out and I hated that so I’m so excited. I love Tassie so much, if I could close my eyes and be there I would in a heartbeat.” 

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Odette today releases her second studio album Herald along with a new music video for the title track, and announces a string of national dates in support of the release.

ODETTE - NATIONAL TOUR DATES

6 May - Altar Bar, Hobart

7 May - 170 Russell, Melbourne

8 May - Volta, Ballarat

9 May - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne [U18]

14 May - Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide

21 May - The Triffid, Brisbane

22 May - The Northern, Byron Bay

23 May - HOTA, Gold Coast

4 June - Factory Theatre, Sydney

5 June - The Cambridge, Newcastle

11 June - UniBar, Wollongong

12 June - Fiction, Canberra

18 June - Rosemount, Perth

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THE GROGANS GIVE US THEIR BTS VISUAL DIARY FOR ‘DAY / TO / DAY’

The Grogans have given us a sneak peek into their BTS lives for the making of their latest release ‘Got A gIrl’ and their upcoming album ‘Day / To / Day’ - coming out this Friday November 13th!

This picture gives a little look into the gear we use. Quinny’s a master with all this stuff but we all love experimenting with different gear. This was taken when we were recording the guitar track for ‘Graveyard Sleepin’’. We recorded most of this song through an old tape machine. We’ve been thinking about doing a track through tape for a while and thought this would be the perfect track for it as it’s got a really 60’s sound.

Taken just before we started recording “Got A Girl”, I was just trying to get a bit of ring out of my floor tom by whacking some moon gel on the top and bottom of it, not really sure why I was lying underneath it, probably a bit worn out from the day prior. This is a pretty floor tom heavy so I had to make sure it was sounding alright. That sheet of paper had the song structure on it so that I wouldn’t forget, and the beer was so I didn’t get parched. 

This photo is a nice one to look back on. I think we are doing some group vocals for the track ‘Like You’. Group vocals are always fun for heaps of reasons, there’s nothing like belting out some lines with your best mates but group vocals are usually one of the last takes we do for most of our tracks. You really hear it all come together when you lay down the final touches like group vocals. It was probably past 2am in this photo and we’d been recording all day but were still so keen to keep adding to our works and keeping the smile on our dials.

It’s always super important that we have a break from recording every few hours or so. If you’re in the studio non stop it can get pretty tiring so we make sure we get some fresh air and chill out before we get stuck back into it. When we’re recording at Ocean Grove we usually go for a surf or skate to break things up or even just some lunch and drinks on the deck and we’re good as new!

While having a lil lunch break, our manager Cousin Will wanted to get some pics to use for posts and what not. I think it can be pretty hard for us to take serious flicks most of the time, and I think it shows. Gus and I were probably (definitely) trying to push Quin onto the wet grass or something, plus we’d just been recording inside for hours, gotta get some energy out ya know. 

Be sure to check out the album ‘Day / To / Day’ out this Friday, November 13th!

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INTERVIEW: SUZE CHATS ‘ABSENCE’ WITH INFINITE ILLUSION

Infinite Illusion have just dropped a new single ‘Absence’ and the boys have definitely taken it up a notch. Liam McDonald filled me in on what has been happening with the band.

How heavy is this new song!!

It’s funny because it’s our heaviest but also our lightest at the same time and I don’t really know how that ended up working. Dynamically it is so different to anything else we have ever done. We like it.

Me too. When I first heard it I was like Wow that went next level!

A lot of it has to do with the fact that our first lot of stuff was written by Sam when he was 15. We are all mid-twenties now, so Sam wrote that nearly a decade ago. We’d all been doing our own thing and when it came around to release it was a joke. We were all just hanging around and were like ‘hey do we want to release some music?’ and it just spiralled from there. And then we just kept going. This is the first real song that we wrote as a band now.

It wasn’t what I was expecting

I don’t think even we were expecting it. We got a new member at the back end of last year and we completely changed everything. We didn’t really have any intention of releasing any other music to be honest, we were a bit stale and then we got a kick to keep going. This is the first song that came out of it. We’ve got a few more coming after this. We are actually going into the studio the day before Absence comes out to start recording another couple of songs. I think after that we are planning to do an album, I’m not 100% sure. We’ll see how we go.

What’s the story behind the song?

The story behind the song is pretty interesting actually. Dan hit me with a concept, I write the lyrics for all of our stuff, but the concepts are somewhere I have always struggled I guess. Well not struggled but I tend to box myself in to certain topics and that kind of thing. It was really good Dan hit me with a concept of PTSD and reclaiming a loss of identity. Which is actually something I resonated quite well with but didn’t put a lot of thought into. It’s a personification of that kind of feeling, of being trapped and trying to come back and overcome depression, anxiety, PTSD, whatever it might be. It’s a very metaphoric story behind reclaiming who you are before mental health kicks in, as opposed to who you are after. And that’s were if you listen lyrically as it goes along it’s very much a song that literally tells a story. It starts off you’re being held back, you’re falling apart. This thing is attacking you. As it gets further along, the chorus tells the main story. As it gets closer to the breakdown, the breakdown hits in the song “I’ll break your fucking jaw myself” is literally a line about turning around and throwing back. Just fighting and getting out. I remember when I sent the boys that lyric, I loved it and I remember writing it and going that’s really cool. I honestly didn’t think I would get away with it, I thought the boys were going to come back and be like you can’t do that its ridiculous. Instead they were like no that’s staying. A lot of the song built on that lyric, that pre breakdown lyric stayed and I edited everything else on the side to really create that story of a reclamation identity. Fighting back against something that I think a lot of people in our scene deal with.

Dan wrote this song at a time when he discovered he has PTSD. Through 2019 he definitely had this big breakdown. He was in a couple of other bands as well and he overwhelmed himself and it broke him. We bought him in as a fill in drummer. I’m good friends with him so I asked if he wanted to fill in for a couple of shows. It was like an instant click, between me and him especially with these concepts and lyrically. And really translating that into music as well. I thought everything kind of clicked and he’s got these incredible experiences, he’s older than the rest of us, that we can write about and really tell some cool stories. This is the first one where we are really focused on the story telling of the song. Even though the music is important I think for us playing this live, when we get that chance, will definitely be a little bit more emotional than anything else we have done. I honestly think it comes across in the track as well.

Like I said when I listened to it I was like what the hell happened between Ill Intent and here?

We took a break to reinvent ourselves in all honesty. We took that break intentionally and everything fell into place.  We have been sitting on this song since January, obviously with a few things kicking in it pushed it back a bit further than we would have liked. But it gave us time to really think about who we were as a band. I think above anything that is a positive. We weren’t being forced to play shows, we had time to pull back and just think “What are we doing here? Who are we? Are we just another metalcore band? Do we want to attach ourselves to politics or mental health? What do we want to do?” We all have different political views so that was a big no, but the one thing we all absolutely resonated with was mental health. Having someone who has had such heavy experiences, my best friend died when I was 16 and Sam has lost a couple of friends, To The Grave losing Josh. We saw all that and we were like this is where we need to be. I think this is the one where we can actually help give people, not so much a space, but give them a soundtrack to that space. And just really focus on doing that. I think that is why lyrically we are pushing this content so much. Lyrically, above anything else, its quite a powerful song and we are really proud of it. I’m proud of the lyrics that I came up with, they came so naturally as well which makes it better.

It wasn’t forced, it came from an experience. It’s not something that you guys have just thought ‘Oh I’m going to write about this cos I can’

Pretty much that’s exactly it. Experience tells those stories better that anything. I think as well when we were writing it we had a big discussion: do we censor it or do we just make it violent. I’m not a big fan of censoring things, I don’t think it’s ever a bad thing to feel uncomfortable. I feel being uncomfortable is a huge part of growth. Obviously people are scared to feel like that, scared to face those truths. We made the song vivid for that reason, if it does make people feel a little uncomfortable that’s okay. It could be good; it might not be good and that’s a risk we had to take.

There is no point writing a song like that and not being real about it.

Definitely. We did get a lot of push back from quite a few people being ‘Guys this is a little bit graphic, you could really trigger some people with these lyrics’ We pulled them back a little bit, but it ended up being like what we had written to start with. The guy that we produced with was just like nah don’t pull back, just do it. You’re not going to make an impact if you are being safe. We were just yep that works let’s just do it.

I would totally back him with that one. If you want something to have an impact on people, don’t water it down. It’s not going to have the same effect.

Exactly. This song is all about that impact for us I think. Our last record wasn’t bad, I’m not a huge fan of it, I would never listen to it. That was the big one for me. This album we really wanted to make that impact. We want people even above anything else to just know out name. Even if they don’t listen to the song, that ok. I just want people to get used to seeing our name around because we have every intention of keeping it there.

You only have the one single ready to go?

In terms of all our demos, we have about 7 or 8 that are being recorded over the next 3 months. The plan is 3 stand alone singles, reinventing our sound and image off the back of those. Then we will do another record. Whether that is an EP, or an album remains to be seen. That depends on a lot of factors.  We are just playing it by ear, one single at a time. None of the singles that we release will be on that record. The record will be totally stand alone as the new version of us. Ill Intent gave us a start but it’s definitely time that we left that behind and really focused on the new version and sound that we have. Except for maybe Afterthought, that’s the only one that will stay around for a little while. We really like that song, and we think it’s a lot more modern than the rest.

I liked the EP!!!

I don’t think it was bad, it just wasn’t anything special. Musically it was good, technical, heavy breakdowns, big riffs. It was cool but there was nothing new about it. It was good if you liked it, but it didn’t hold people. I think it didn’t give people a reason to stay.

This one will if the first single is anything to go by.

I’m a lot more confident with this one. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been listening to it by myself for the last 6-8 months! I took a break of listening to it then I came back to it. I was like yes this is good. Its really hard a musician to sit there and praise yourself, questioning could you have down stuff better. But coming back to it, I actually took this lesson off Mikey from Gloom, come back to it and if you still like it, its good.

I’m a classical piano player. I have been my whole life. So for me to join a metalcore band is kind of unheard of. I remember one of my old conductors from an orchestra I played in a couple of years ago was like ‘What the fuck are you doing? How do you make that noise, it’s disgusting’. I was like yep it is but its fucking sick!!

It’s a cool genre to be in. I think as a small band above anything else, its really really cool to be in metalcore. I’ve been in other bands over the years, nothing heavy. Blues and rock and one cover band that I don’t talk about! I’ve played big blues festivals and stuff.  But there’s nothing quite like the support I have experienced in metal. There is nothing quite like the community, it’s so amazing to see a community that is so supportive of each other.

So there will be no touring with this!

There’s nothing in the pipeline. Collide, we have had to push back twice now. Unify is looking like it’s not going ahead as well. It’s shit but at the same time at least we aren’t dead. You have to take the positives. I think it has given a lot of us time to grow as well. Time to reflect. I was working stupid hours, and I know the other guys in the band were the same. We had no time for ourselves. We can either use this time to loathe in the fact that everything has been taken away, or we can use this time to become better. Really reflect on past practises, how we do things and who we are. Make time for other things in our lives. Take the positives out of being forced to do nothing.

I started Recurrent Verse at the end of April and it’s just gone crazy. I’ve already posted 60 articles and I’m getting more everyday

That’s mental. That’s so good. It’s good to see some new publications around.

I only do Australian bands because there is so much happening here. Aussie metalcore is my passion.

That’s the cool stuff. I don’t know what it is about Australian metalcore but far out there is something in the water here. Jesus some of the bands that are coming out like Elision and Inertia. Deadlights, I’ve always been a huge fan of those guys.

I am so keen for new Deadlights. Mesma is in my top 10 all time albums.

It’s such a good record. Elision’s new stuff has been incredible. The technicality in those boys is amazing. They are a very talented bunch of dudes. I have so much respect for them. Inertia as well, they are one of those bands that I think has the ability to blow up. Outloved have just announced a record. I was like omg this is like listening to BMTH but not listening to BMTH!! It had that impact on me. It was like listening to one of my favourite bands. It was so good to hear. There is just so much good stuff out at the moment.

There’s so many new cool bands coming through too like Ghost Complex, Canyon, Tides Collide, Dweller, Wake the Blind so many good bands

And Lune. I forgot about them. Then you look at the big boys and what they are releasing. Alpha Wolf’s record I thought was really good. There’s more coming from other bands. That 2 year cycle has now reduced to 1 year. To see so many bands releasing stuff is so good. I honestly don’t think I have heard a bad release this year.

I haven’t either. Someone said to me that everything I write is always so positive, do you just not review bad bands! I said to them honest to god there had not been a bad release this year.

I think album of the year has to be Make Them Suffer or Currents. They are my two.

I would say at the moment mine would be Alpha Wolf, Make Them Suffer, Saviour and We Set Signals.

Saviour’s was sick too. It means everyone has to step up or you are going to get left behind.

Diamond Construct is another one! Who would think adding a DJ would work… I’m loving all this experimentation in the scene.

It’s super important to do that metalcore has always been such a non-accessible kind of genre. It’s always been you like it or you don’t. That is definitely changing now, metalcore as a genre is changing with bands like BMTH leading the way. Whether you like AMO or not, it has set a standard for what you can do in metalcore. I personally thought it was their best record.

I personally think that 'Absence' is Infinite Illusions best release so far! After talking to Liam I think we are about to see big things come from the boys. Bring on 2021 when hopefully gigs return, and we can see 'Absence' played in a live setting..

‘ABSENCE’ - OUT NOW

CHECK OUT SUZE’S REVIEW OF ABSENCE HERE

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INTERVIEW: THE JENSEN’S NEW ALBUM CROSSES SCI-FI WITH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND WE’RE HERE FOR IT

The Jensens have had a pretty turbulent year. After their slots at Pineapple Music Festival and Splendour in the Grass were postponed and their first single of the year was dropped the same day Australia shut down, the band felt pretty down in the dumps. With their brand new album ‘Hammer and Blush’ pushed back a whole year from its original May, 2020 release date too, the year of 2020 has not been kind to the Brisbane five-piece. Despite this, the band have come out the other side in pretty good shape according to the band’s front-man Joe White, as the band gear up to support their most recent single ‘Paper Walls’ on a tour around Queensland. 

‘We're pretty much back to normal,’ says Joe. ‘We played a gig last weekend...they were all dancing and having a good time, there was definitely an excitement in the air and everyone felt like this was the start of normality’

For Joe, normality has been the farthest thing from what he has felt throughout the quarantining process of 2020. Finishing and mixing an album left him feeling pretty chuffed however and the 15-track album aims to project these feelings into a three-act LP extravaganza.

‘At the start of the album we're a bit more optimistic, there's a few like call to arms songs,’ explains Joe. ‘And then as we get towards the end of the album it's really just processing the world around us and how relationships have changed due to online communication. We get a little bit sci-fi with it, but it's mainly just commenting on how weird it is to be alive in 2020.’
Joe also explains that this three-part structure reflects three distinct musical styles with the latter third reflecting this theme of living in a digital age.

‘The start is up until River of Gold. There's more 70s influence there. Late-70s Fleetwood Mac-style. And then it gets more abrasive with Paper Walls towards the middle. The last third is more experimental, very experimental. Half of the songs on the end don't have a real drum kit and don't have any guitars,’ says Joe. 

Abrasiveness is just what the band were hoping to reflect with their most recent single ‘Paper Walls.' Rough and harsh is intentionally what the single reflects in both sound and lyrical content. According to Joe the song’s lyrics and general theme weren’t even written during the year’s COVID-19 quarantine, but he felt the lyrics coincidentally reflected the harsh truth of isolation. 

‘I think that the lyrical themes apply to many situations of taking stock of your life and being like 'well, I don't have to keep doing things I'm doing them, if I'm not happy with that,’’ explains Joe. ‘People could definitely have developed bad habits, or developed just even unconsciously the feeling of hopelessness. One of the things that's really been hard is the inability to plan anything. It definitely fits in with that.’

Reflecting further on what the metaphor behind what exactly a “paper wall” is, Joe suggested a paper wall is an empty promise you make to yourself, a fairly recurring feeling in isolation. 

‘A paper wall to me and in the song is sort of like a new year's resolution that you never follow through with, so you've built a wall and you're like 'yeah, this is a sick wall, this is great, I've done what I needed to do,' but there's no stability to that wall and it's going to broken over with the slightest push, says Joe. ‘You're gonna start something, you're gonna change something, but really you haven't put enough thought and effort into it.’

‘Paper Walls’ is one of the first few singles to be released off of the band’s next album Hammer and Blush, which is presented with a confusing and intriguing album cover. Working with artist Uncle Chronic Bone, the band was presented with a numerous array of potential covers but just knew this one was the one. Being an image that seems to morph and change the more you look at it, Joe was adamant to not let too many details slip. 

‘I don't want anyone to know what that is, says Joe. ‘I love how it looks like it's in outer space...it was shiney, glossy, confusing, abrasive, it really seemed like it summed up the album for us.’ 

With laws expected to change from November 1st allowing punters to dance and drink at the same time in Queensland venues, Joe is hoping that the upcoming ‘Paper Walls’ tour will be exhilarating and thrilling. With the new album dropping in May of next year, the Jensens are hoping with crossed fingers for a national tour as well. 

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KEV CARMODY: OUR PILLAR OF SOCIETY

Pictured: Kev Carmody holds tradition dear with the 2020 edition of Cannot Buy My Soul Image: Supplied

It could not be a more appropriate time for the re-release of Kev Carmody’s 2007 album, Cannot Buy My Soul. Produced by Sian Darling, Cannot Buy My Soul encapsulates the essence of Kev Carmody and more, as the tribute album is adorned with Australian artists such as Paul Kelly, Bernard Fanning, Missy Higgins, Alice Skye, Electric Fields, Courtney Barnett, and Mo’Ju. 

In June 2020 the world saw the rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement following 46-year-old African-American man, George Floyd’s death, serving for us as a reminder of our very own black history. 

Whilst the BLM movement may have been no surprise to Carmody, the re-release of Cannot Buy My Soul still stirred within him passion and purpose to fight a seemingly familiar battle. 

Talking to Kev Carmody is like chatting with a long-lost friend: despite us only meeting for the first time, it’s as if we’d picked up where we’d left off the last time we spoke, possibly due to Carmody’s incredibly friendly nature.

“Crikey, I reckon it involves us all, Selin, it’s global now!” he said. 

“The thing is it’s connected with Black Lives Matter, because musically we’ve been talking about this for 40-50 flaming years, and it’s still relevant, like 438 deaths in custody, [and] nobody’s been charged in Australia, it’s a hidden tragedy.”

Since the 1991 report of the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, over 430 Indigenous deaths in custody have taken place. 

First Nations people account for just over three per cent of Australia’s population, however Indigenous children are, on a national average, 17 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous youth, a study released by the Sentencing Advisory Council of Victoria found. 

It’s this passion which Carmody hopes to pass on to future generations through the notion of storytelling, with young First Nations artists such as Alice Skye, Electric Fields, and Mo’Ju, all performing unique renditions of his tracks on Cannot Buy My Soul.

“And that’s what I love, Selin, the old Indigenous tradition of oral storytelling,” he said. “Passing it on to the next generation, and the generation after that, as we’ve done it for thousands and thousands of years.” 

A track which encapsulates Carmody’s remarkable storytelling abilities is one which he wrote with fellow Australian musician, Paul Kelly, From Little Things Big Things Grow, which tells the story of the fight for land rights by the Gurindji people in the Northern Territory, led by Vincent Lingiari. 

First Nations indie-electronic duo Electric Fields re-interpreted From Little Things Big Things Grow, incorporating excerpts of Lingiari’s voice throughout, with the duo also singing in language. 

Excited, Carmody expressed his appreciation for the glimmering rendition performed by Electric Fields. 

“It’s blown me away because it’s all globally connected now… the transformation and evolution that’s happened with the genre of music, as an example, Electric Fields, goodness me, hearing that old mans – they got permission too off the Gurindji people – they got permission to use that old man's voice,” he said.

“And it’s like his spirit is re-lived, he’s become alive again, in that video. To hear that, it just floored me.” 

Electric Fields:

Another track which Carmody holds dear is one he wrote when he was only 22, called I’ve Been Moved. The year before he wrote this song, First Nations people had only just won the right to be counted in the National Census, with 94 per cent of Australians voting “yes” in the 1967 referendum. 

“Young Dan Kelly did a beautiful version of it – Paul’s nephew. That was done in 1968, and it’s the only song really that I’ve ever done the lyrics first,” he said.

“What moved my spirit outside the things which were happening around me, I tore off some cardboard off a cereal packet, wrote it down… I’ve been moved, by the crying of a newborn, because our son, our eldest son Paul was just born in 1967, and he’s in the second verse.”

“It’s just that whole concept of energy is born, that I thought was precious.” 

Carmody’s 1988 powerful debut protest album, Pillars of Society, gained critical acclaim with Rollingstone Magazine describing it as, “The best album ever released by an Aboriginal musician and arguably the best protest album ever made in Australia.” 

Since, Carmody has had a remarkable career with accolades to show. 

In 2007, Cannot Buy My Soul won the Deadly for Best Album. 

In 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Southern Queensland (formerly the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education) where he studied. 

Shortly after, in 2009, he was inducted into the ARIA’s Hall of Fame. 

And, despite it all, Carmody manages to maintain his love for songwriting and storytelling, with his infectious optimism felt throughout the re-imagining of Cannot Buy My Soul. 

“Let’s hope the music is going to be uplifting, let’s hope we can be optimistic my friends.”

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INTERVIEW: SYDNEY RAPPER TUKA PERSONIFIES HIS SOUNDSCAPE WITH HIS NEW ALBUM ‘NOTHING IN COMMON BUT US’

Pictured: Sydney rapper Tuka breaks genre boundaries with his new album, Nothing In Common But Us
Image: Supplied 

For those who are accustomed to the Australian hip-hop scene, the name Tuka would almost be synonymous with Blue Mountains hip-hop trio, Thundamentals. Iconic moments for the hip-hop group like their 2012 cover of Brother by Matt Corby for Triple J’s Like a Version segment (amassing over 4.9 million views) may also spring to mind, as well as their popular light-hearted tune Sally. Tuka is one third of that trio, and is hoping to define himself as a solo artist with his new album, Nothing In Common But Us. 

In the last five years, Tuka had a semi-hiatus from his solo career, making two albums with Thundamentals and subsequently touring those albums. A major defining moment in that five year period for Tuka was a relationship which influenced a large part of his work. 

“Nothing In Common But Us is from my perspective, it’s about personifying a relationship into the one character,” he said.

“I definitely got the idea for the album from spending a lot of time with someone and them uprooting a lot of things that I didn’t know about myself.” 

Listeners are greeted by tracks such as the first single from the album, Wish I Knew, which was co-written with The Presets’ Julian Hamilton, and premiered on Triple J’s Good Nights. Tuka is renowned for his warmth when it comes to hip-hop songwriting, however this track finds him experimenting with deep house influences and breaking down the barriers of conventional genres. 

“I guess the sonic soundscape was a victim to whatever I found exciting, that didn’t put me in the box of being a hip hop artist - I wanted to be an artist in general for this one,” he said.

“Dropping a genre or trying to create my own genre was the objective, there really weren't any rules.” 

Nothing In Common But Us expands upon hip-hop more broadly and invites the listener to sit with a wide spectrum of emotions, with Tuka including spoken word poet Anne Casey to explore these feelings and as an ode to his relationship with poetry. “When I saw Anne perform it just hit me right in the head because it’s what I was writing about, and she actually coined the phrase ‘Nothing In Common But Us’, within that poem,” he said. 

“...and so afterwards I talked to her on the side of the stage and we had big chats, and I asked her if I could use that line and she was so cool about everything I asked her.” Oftentimes, you can catch Tuka heading to Glebe in Sydney to share wine with friends and listen in adoration to poets who grace the stage.

“You just watch all of these people come out of the woodwork, they’ve had this whole life of experience, and they’ve put a lot of effort into writing a piece of poetry about their perspective and a lot of the time it’s just so beautiful,” he said. 

Tuka also collaborated with rising Brisbane indie-pop star Sycco (the brainchild of Sasha McLeod), who features on his track Click Bang. 

“Oh my god, she’s a genius! When I sent it to her I didn’t send her any harmonies or anything, but I just sent her a lead,” he said. 

“She got it first try, I didn’t even give her any notes. She just came back with her own take on it and I loved everything about it.” 

It’s hard to tell what’s in store for the rest of the year for Tuka, as the live music scene is on halt due to COVID-19, but Tuka assured us that it’ll be full of the thing he loves most: writing music. 

“All I have to do is write music, and if I told myself that when I was a 17-year-old kid when I started this, I would have been elated! And I am, I am very happy - I’m in a super privileged position where I can wake up and I write a song and that’s my responsibility for the day – and that’s absurd.” 

“I’m using COVID to just do a proper reset and hopefully write some of the best music of my life that will be relevant when I go to play it live, whenever that is.” 

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INTERVIEW: ASHENMOON’S GARRY BEERS - NEW MUSIC, THE CURRENT WORLD CRISIS, & LIFE AFTER INXS

I had a wonderful chat with Garry Beers, bassist of world-renowned Australian rock band INXS and now, Ashenmoon!
Personally, I grew up listening to INXS and handfuls of other classics, some of which are also thrown in throughout the interview, and this might just be the biggest interview I’ve done. Garry was a wonder to talk to and I can’t wait to see what else Ashenmoon has in store for us.

We covered the new releases and the writing process, the effects of the current COVID situation, environmentalism and dog rescue, his high school dance featuring AC/DC, life during and after INXS, and a bunch more.

It was a phone interview so I’ve culled sections down to what makes most sense, but my appreciation for this experience is astronomical. Thankyou to Garry, Toby, and Jimmy, and everyone else involved for bringing this new project to life, and for Garry’s time chatting to me from wherever he may be at the moment!

Enjoy!
-Jahmiele

---

JAHMIELE:
So Ashenmoon started as a ‘passion project’ between you and Jimmy and Toby, and ‘passion project’ is a kind of a favourite term of mine. Was there any deliberate intention going into that to make it a fully published act or was it sort of just ‘let's have fun and see where this goes’?

GARRY:
We were already in a corporate covers band called Stadium so it was already fun. We just really wanted to see how we’d go with original material, so we just sort of played together and hung out more. We listen to each other's bits of music and songs and, and um, and then beginning of last year was just in my little home studio which is where we started everything. Yeah. Just spent the whole year just putting together the songs, honing them and rewriting them and starting all over again and talking about just, just taking our time. There's no one watching the clock. It's just made the record that we really wanted to make, all 3 of us.

J: Yeah. Awesome. I think, I guess that's probably the best way to go about it. No pressure,

G: Exactly! There’s no record companies breathing down our neck, the no deadlines, and yeah obviously no real touring schedule to keep in line with. I think we'd all been looking for someone to write once in a while. I know I had.

J: Okay. Amazing. And the debut for Ashenoon came out as the double single. Was there any kind of background between each of those tracks? Like I know a lot of songs aren't necessarily written with a particular dramatic meaning behind them, but was there anything like that with these ones?

G: Yeah. It just all this happens to be pretty indicative of what we wanted to say about, y’know looking after the world, looking after each other and look what happened. I mean, it just seemed to be a pretty bit of a no-brainer to get that one out now. And Mosquito, you know, Toby's Australian, he’s from Melbourne, and he just had the big fuzz bassline and my little singing, and that all came together and sounded a bit like a mosquito, someone actually commented saying it sounded like Cartman from South Park! He just grabbed the acoustic and started writing the song and it became Mosquito. We wanted to write a song about, a metaphor for mosquitos.

And we keep using the word ‘organic’ but it really was that way. I produced it and recorded it, and Toby at that time was living just up the road, and Jimmy was always here with a bottle of red wine anyway. We just sat in that little room, day and night and had fun, recording guitars here and there, laying down keyboard. A friend of mine owns a studio up the road, we got an English fella called Jason Gamble in to play drums on the majority of the album, so you know it just really grew like good music should grow. I mean, there's no deadline no pressure, the songs just came to life by themselves

J: Yeah. That's amazing. And I take it that you previously knew Toby before all of this. How has it working together on something like this? Do you prefer working with someone or on your own when it comes to song-writing and putting things together?

G: No, I'm definitely a working with someone kind of guy. I mean, I do write a lot of music but as far as you know, vocals and melodies and lyrics, I'd much rather leave it up to a real singer, a real composer. I met Toby 3 years ago at a party so the friendship is still pretty new, but became pretty much best mates. I met Jimmy at a party when I first moved here 14 or 15 years ago, so I’ve known him forever but we never got around to playing in a band together, so I asked him to join Stadium my corporate band. And then he joined and Toby joined. We wanted to see how far we could take it, and rename it because we wanted it to be different again, so we became Ashenmoon and here we are!

J: All right! And knowing so many names, like you would have worked with a lot of people over the years, and coming into the new ‘modern era’ of technology with the different ways of promotion we have now and all that kind of thing- what is it that you've seen change over the last, what is it, 30-40 years, something like that?

G: Yeah, it's been a while. Um, you know, it's funny you look back and you miss the age of CDs, and CDs replaced vinyl. I’ll always complain about downloads, seeing how the qualities isn’t great, and you don’t get the visual. Like I remember vinyl records as a kid, sitting there and pouring over every word and every image on the album cover while listening to the music, and I feel like it’s a forgotten art in many ways so, you’re hearing the first few singles but when you hear the whole album later in the year it’s a journey just like the good old, you know, Zeppelin records, Queen records, every song had its place. You know, we worked out which song goes to the next song and their running order and then it’s got side 1 and side 2 just like the old-fashioned records. When it’s out and you hear it on vinyl you’ll get the real idea of what it’s all about.

J: I'm sure you've probably been asked this already, but is there any kind of meaning behind the band name, Ashenmoon, where did that come from?

G: I think it's just an interesting visual image, really lending itself to artwork, but it's also got a really big sorta quality to it, and then also we wrote Dustbowl about how we know we abuse the planet, we abuse animals, we abuse each other, and what we’ll be left with is pretty much just a barren planet, so I guess it's a bit of a downer way of what describing it, but I think ultimately it's just, it just sounded cool. And then we did all this stuff ourselves. We found an artist when I went to our Facebook page, and Toby did a lot of the artwork, and then I did the graphics for the actual name, I used to do graphic design at school. So, it’s been a real, at home kind of project. And a friend of Jimmy’s, that he played in a band with at school back in Massachusetts, mixed the album so he's been a really strong part of the project as well. So, it's been a really good team and a really good time.

J: So, you've mentioned a couple times now the whole environmental effect that we're having and things like that. Is that something that you're personally passionate about?

G: Yeah, I am. I mean I'm more into my life and particularly more into dog rescue and finding homes for dogs. A real big issue is humans just don't get it. I mean, they just don't get it that the planets gonna give us a big kick in the ass that’s what it’s doing right now. You don’t eat bats, you just don't abuse animals. Mother Nature is just gonna, y’know, take you out. I mean, that's, what's going on now. It's taken an interesting turn. I mean, you see the planet’s actually recovering a bit because people aren't driving, industries are shut, the planet’s kind of having a bit of a breather right now. So, maybe there's a good side yet.

J: Yeah. There's a lot of things they've already seen, you know, positively changed since we've been absent.

G: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No one knows what the future's going to hold, I don't think you can ever get back to normal. We just have to see what, what we have to adjust to in the rest of their lives. I mean, it's interesting I have 8-9 year old twins and like there obviously not in school, we're failing miserably at the home-schooling thing. But it's just, it's just interesting time for that. I mean, they’ll look back at their second-third grade as the weirdest time in history, so I'm just really intrigued to see what's going to happen as the world tries to get back to what we’d considered as normal, you really can’t go back to what was normal anymore.

J: Yeah. I think there's a thing going around at the moment that was, uh, comparing what our, our prior our previous normal was and that we shouldn't go back to that because that's gotten us where we are.

G: Yeah. I think, that’s totally it. Totally. Ultimately, they’ve been talking about it for years that there’s gonna be a super-virus. Here it is and you have no idea what it is, what it’s going to do and where it’s gonna go and I mean, it seems like it’s a lot better in Australia out here, and that's just phenomenal.

I’ve been saying I’m just happy to have music out at this time because I've always thought music is a good healer. Music is always there for people when they’re happy or sad. So I'm just hoping Ashenmoon can help with that and maybe take people's minds off what's going on a bit.

J: And you’ve been quoted as saying that ‘not since your days with INXS, have you felt more connected to music until this’, this record and this band, I guess. What is it about this particular project that you feel so much more connected than your previous supergroups and things like that?

G: Well INXS was a six piece, um, you know, Andrew and Michael were the predominant songwriters ofcourse , that's just the way it is when we got two of the best songwriters in the world in your band.

Absent Friends with Wendy Mathews and Sean. Um, was just, that was just a fun band, you know, party band, that was a fun project too. And then the other time I tried to get a project I was called Mudhead, but they never released the album. It got a 5 star review but just didn’t release it, it became too hard.

I haven't really found the right people to write with and that I believe in. And that gives me the confidence to put all my time and effort into something that I know is going to be worth it, and that's what happened here. Toby has become one of my best friends. He's a good Aussie guy. Jimmy, I've known him for 15 years. He's one of my best friends. He's from Boston, he's a character. He's always got his bottle of red wine in his back pocket, and he’s just there to play. It's just kind of the same ideals that I've always had. I just want to play, I've always wanted to, so it's great to find like-minded people that still love music. A lot of people lose the passion for it. I couldn't imagine not being passionate about it and not playing, so, it’s great that I’ve got a new outlet and I’m loving it.

J: Fantastic. I guess that's a little bit more difficult to come by these days, is the genuine passion for it.

G: Yeah. And think I'm very lucky. When I was growing up deciding which Zepplin album to buy, you know, Zepplin, Deep Purple, and Queen were all releasing records and The Beatles were still releasing records. So I was really lucky to grow up in that time and be completely surrounded by amazing and also Australian bands. I mean, AC/DC played at my school dance so there's really, there's no experience like that. I just think having had that experience, I can't not be passionate about music and I think Jimmy's the same.

Jimmy did this beautiful thing, he started writing a big piece of paper with all these names and songs and I was like ‘What’re you doing?’ and he said ‘I'm just writing down which guitar player is gonna play on this record’ and it did a list of all his favourite guitar players, which considers that they all influenced him and taught him how to play, you know all the Jimmy Page’s and Jimmy Hendrix’s and he wanted to give them credit, so he sat there and wrote down all the names. I thought ‘that’s really cool!’ because you gotta remember where you came from and that's what we're all about too. We're just trying to put out a record that the people that inspired us would like to hear. And I know that if another band put this record out, I‘d love it just as much, but just because it's mine and I’m writer, producer, you know, I'm very connected with it and very proud of it.

J: Well, all of the acts that you've been a part of - I've had a quick listen to Absent Friends and things like that - they all definitely seemed to have a particular sort of cohesive similar sound to them, and so does Ashenmoon, I think. So, who would you say are the primary inspirations and influences that you've had that have added up to these creations?

G: I guess it changes. I mean, I'm really kind of boring in the fact that it's very rare that I hear something new that is, that inspires me or doesn't make me just go back to wherever we originally came from. I mean, it's kind of sad, but I mean the last artist that really, really changed my world was Jeff Buckley, and that was a long time ago now. So, I always go back to the Zepplins and the Queens and all the bands that you still would be hearing in 50 years’ time. And I don't know if you’ll be hearing many of artists on the radio now in 50 years time, but you'll always be hearing the Beatles and queen and hopefully Ashenmoon. I mean, we just want to make a record that was like, that was a good old fashioned record that just takes you on a trip. So I think we've done that.

J: And you mentioned, I think right at the start, something about, in terms of putting together your records and not currently having to keep to like a touring schedule or something like that. Does that mean that we are to expect some sort of tour from Ashenmoon or anything like that?

G: Oh yeah. We'd love to play it. I mean, we’ve actually we've actually taken this time. We've all been tested (for Covid-19) we all trust each other, you know. So we did a video of Dustbowl on Toby’s rooftop last week. And yesterday we set all of the gear up in my garage, we're going to start doing live broadcasts onto our Facebook pages and stuff. We just spent the day doing that. We're setting up our PA and sound we’re gonna start working that out and start trying to get ourselves out live to people as best we can. As soon as this clears up, if it gets back to any sort of normalcy as far as heading out to play we’ll be there, cause yeah, we got together to play together, we’re not answering ads in the paper or getting drunk at the bar, we just love playing together and we are a really good band live. I mean, I think we're actually probably better live than on the record to be honest.

J: Well, I think that's a good thing.

G: It is. Yeah. I mean, nothing more disappointing than seeing a band that can’t play. I ended up with one of the best rock singers in the world and I'm in a band with one of the best rock guitarists in the work so I'm pretty happy.

J: Well, to be perfectly candid you are, you are all clearly to a certain extent, you know, famous and very well-known and incredibly talented musicians and individuals. So, what is it like having that background/reputation behind you and knowing that there's going to be people waiting for your next thing and knowing that it's got to be, you know, to a certain standard?

G: I always second guess. We really pride ourselves on our performance. INXS was the same, we sort of critiqued every show, that made us better, and Ashenmoon is no different. I mean we love playing and we love playing well and we love playing properly and you know, we’re not one of those bands are gonna stagger out with a bottle of Jack Daniels and not want to give people their value for money, and we obviously also make them come back. And it's not just a side project, we’ve just signed this two-album dissolution deal with Golden Robot Records, we’re just going to keep going. We can't wait to get some more recording done. So even though we just got our first record out we just, I just want to get out there and play. I can't wait to bring it to Australia.

J: Well, that's, that's fantastic. That's the best thing to have, I guess that's exactly what you want.

G: Yeah. I'm pretty happy right now. I mean, as far as an album, I mean I still sort of sit there with a glass of wine still going ‘wow, this is pretty good’. And I’m not being egotistical, I just got the right team because I had the right circumstances and we just pulled it together. We made what we think is our statement, and in the process, we became a band. We had a first proper band meeting today. It’s like being back in school again. I was setting up the garage I was hanging, like cellophane paper behind the band so it looked cool, and it all fell down when I opened the garage door, but yeah, we’re just having a good time.

J: Ah good ol’ days!

G: I mean, yeah, these are the days. These are the days.

J: Well, it's good that you can know that you're creating something that you're proud of.

G: Yeah. And I get caught up with all my critics and my wife, my kids, the whole. It's just funny, because like my kids, they’re growing up. This is ‘Dad’s band’, Ashenmoon, and every now and then they hear and sing INXS and they’re like ‘oh that’s right, Dad’s other band!’ They haven’t really discovered INXS yet, I haven’t really had the time to show it to them.
In fact I'm just discovering all these YouTube sites that have all our videos and all this stuff from live performances I've ever seen before. So, you know, it's just interesting. Actually Toby's the one that does all our social media stuff so he’s the one that’s been sending me the links. In fact, he sent me a link to this, I didn’t even know it existed but Andrew and Michael did and interview on a rooftop in London I think it was. They play a bit of The Stairs, acoustically, and we just latched onto that because I've always wanted have Toby sing The Stairs, that I always thought was one of Michael's best sets of work. So, we did an acoustic version, as per the way Andrew was playing it on the rooftop. So we've just finished that, that’s just been finished now, so that'll be coming out cause we've been getting you could say bored, so we’re doing acoustic versions of all our songs just to give you, but as it turns out we’ll have a heap of original material to put out as well, so, we just can’t help ourselves.

J: And what was life actually like, during and after the INXS era?

G: During was obviously massive. It was my life. I mean, we’d make a record with all our time and we live and breathe that and then we go on tour for sometimes 12 - 18 months, just keep touring the world over and over again, that’s how we lived. And then we have a bit of a break and then do it again. I didn’t have much of a home life. I still managed to have a dog, but I didn’t see much of her. And we did that from high school, so, you know, it was a pretty massive part of my life and I was and always will be very proud of INXS. When that stopped, obviously it was a horrible way for it to stop with Michael, but that was out of my control. I had no, I had no say in it. So me personally, I just sort of went into that ‘she’ll be right mate’ mode.

And Michael’s still around, I still dream about him all the time. He turns up like nothing happened and we start playing again. So, I know I have a guardian angel as well, I think maybe it’s Michael, maybe my dad, but he's still around. That sorta spirit isn’t gonna leave. I've just been kind of concentrating on my, on my personal life since all that happened. Moved to America, fell in love, got kids, you know, so I'm just trying to do that, but then as luck would have it, I meet the Australian singer that I’ve always wanted to meet, at a party in Los Angeles, it’s very L.A. y’know, the whole story.

And we tiptoed into it, we didn’t rush straight into making a record, we got to know each other better and - I'm sitting, watching my dog chew up my kids toys…

Yeah, it's cool. Life. You just take it as it comes around and adapt. It was a horrible way for INXS to end, but also I enjoyed the time of JD Fortune. I mean, that was a pretty good incarnation of the band. We made a great record called Switch, went platinum in America, sold a million records. So, I mean, it wasn't too shabby. Then that stopped so y’know. So, and I remember touring Australia with JD was great. Yeah.

Life’s a journey and I’m just happy to be on it. Above ground, still playing.

J: Well, that's awesome. That's amazing. That's, that's really nice to hear that you've gone on regardless of whatever setbacks and you're doing the best you can, sort of thing.

G: Yeah. You know, my legacy is always gonna be just making music, whether I do it in my garage or I do it on a laptop. I'm just happy to have a band that I can get out and play with.

J: Yup. Okay. Well, I only have one more question... What we try to ask every single person that we interview is; what are your top current top three Australian artists at the moment - they can be old. They can be new, but just Australian artists that you're really in love with right now.

G: No, I'm really out of, out of the loop. As far as Australian bands down there, I spent the last year just concentrating on my stuff. So, I’m probably the wrong person to ask, but I mean,

J: It can be old school stuff!

G: If I'm homesick, I just put on Chisel. Yeah. I play Circus Animals to death. I play Letter To Allen endlessly to all who’ll listen. I was actually was actually in my studio, just the other day with a tech, and I put on Ariel, a band I grew up with when I was a kid and he just thought it was the most amazing thing he’d ever heard. I just always go backwards. I mean, as I said it's hard for me, I'm a bit of a music historian now, I’m a bit anal that way. And I think when I hear something, I go ‘Oh, that's a rip-off of so-and-so’, which I shouldn't say that, I’m sure people would say that about Ashenmoon ‘well Ashenmoon’s a bit of a rip-off isn’t it?’. I just tend to listen to what I listened to and just get on with my day. But yeah, it’s hard to figure out when you’ve got half an hour to listen to some music, it's just hard to not put on old Genesis or…

J: For sure, go with what you know.

G: It’s like pulling on an old pair of jeans.

J: You pick what's comfortable.

G: Yeah. Australia's got some, Billy Thorpe, Richard Clapton and you know, obviously I said Chisel, and Oil and all that stuff, all the bands that influenced us, taught us how to play, you know, some good stuff.

J: Yeah. Okay. Well I think I've already gone over time technically but thank you so much.

G: Oh, you're welcome. It's really nice to talk to you.

J: Yeah, you too. It's great. It's a bit of an idol moment for me, so thank you so much.

G: Can’t wait to bring the band to Australia and be down there and play.

J: I'll definitely be there. Okay. Well thank you. Um, have a nice day!

G: You too, stay safe, see you down the track!

Once again, a huge thanks to John from Golden Robot Records for the opportunity, and to Garry for the fantastic chat. We’ll be waiting for what’s coming next - ‘See you down the track’!

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PHONER WITH BUTTERFINGERS FRONTMAN ‘EVIL’ EDDIE

Butterfingers frontman “Evil” Eddie Jacobson answered the phone and his laid back nature oozed through. For a newbie to doing interviews I was nervous to be talking to a guy whose lyrics I have sung hundreds of times, but after a warm greeting it felt like chatting to an old friend. From its first release in 2006, Butterfingers classic FIGJAM cemented the boys as an iconic Aussie hip hop group that I rate up there with the likes of Hilltop Hoods. The Brisbane locals smashed onto the music scene in the early 2000’s with two songs making it into the top 50 of triple J’s hottest 100 of 2003. 

It’s been 14 years since their last album release and Eddie is aware of the changes in how music is consumed. His last album launch was primarily distributed on CD’s and boosted by a promotional team. It was controlled by the promoter and out of his hands. This time is different, “I’m doing a lot more trips to the post office! You’re so in touch with the way people are responding to content on social media. You can see how it affects streams. Before you just sent it into the void”.

The album is aptly named “Bad News” which is quite ironic given current events. It has a mix of genres which is not often seen. Eddie noted ‘Dancing to the beat of my own drum’ features on a rock playlist. See our album review by Selin! Despite having to reschedule the album tour due to the coronavirus pandemic and the arts and entertainment industry being turned on its head, Eddie seemed to take it in his stride “Its not that weird for me, I work from home anyway. I don't go out a lot unless gigging”. He noted most bands are struggling, having to push back tours, delay release of music and contemplate what the music industry is going to look like when the chaos dies down. “We have pushed the tour back to the end of the year, gives the album a chance to breathe before we tour. It might be helpful that people have more time to listen to it…..people have more free time to enjoy entertainment” 

It was an album over 10 years in the making, closing track ‘(I Just Wanna Play) Music’ “musically and chorus are all the same, the thing that changes the most is the raps/verses. I have written at least seven or eight different versions.” Eddie described the approach to the album as more “big picture” than previous work which came through as a “stream of consciousness”.

We started to compare notes on favourite venues and those he has chosen for his tour, “All the venues are booked for the tour later in the year. I am excited to play at the The Triffid in Brisbane - I have played there before in my punk band days but not as a headline act, so thats pretty cool.” Eddie’s passion was palpable when describing the infamous Badlands Bar he is due to play in Perth. “This was one of the coolest venues I have ever played. It used to be a hell themed restaurant. They sprayed concrete n everything so it looks like caves. The walls are curved. The vibe is cool and acoustically there is no horrible resonance frequencies. Sounds really good, I’m excited. 

Leading up to the new album, Eddie talked about his influences, “I studied trap stuff…Post Malone, through the process of breaking down Post Malone, who I didn't particularly care for before, but found myself going wow, this is more interesting than I thought it was. Melodically I compare it a lot to Kurt Cobain writing style. The scale would change from the verse to the chorus. Made me appreciate it.” When I questioned what he is listening to right now he chuckled “its really obvious and cliche but the Queens of the Stone Age desert sessions record” and between the band they have been sharing some old favourites “a lot of old school performances of faith no more and Pantera in ’94”.

“Bad News” is out now! My favourite track is without a doubt ‘Dem Billz’

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Jahmiele: "What This Is Actually About"

Photo Credit: Bree Wallace

So we’re just over 1 month into our official debut of The BackBeat - and it’s early days, I thought I’d take a moment to delve a little deeper into what it is we hope to achieve here, and what you can expect from us.

The Big Picture

We want to create a resource for everyone in the music industry, put together by everyone in the music industry. While this is definitely a passion project for the both of us, this is also something that we hope will turn into somewhat of an entertaining educational tool for all aspects of the community. Whether you’re interested in live events, booking, recording, touring, management, publicity, performing & actually creating music and/or entertainment, or anything else, we aim to dig into it and find out what makes those cogs turn.

Why?

Originally, this project was (and technically, still is) a project for my final trimester of university at Collarts, and like anything else I do, it’s go big or go home, so here we are.

But seriously.

Ideally, the world would be a pure, transparent, honest, and kind place where everything is fair and justified and true - unfortunately, that is often not the case, and the music industry is no different. Don’t get me wrong, I love the industry. I love being a part of it, as both a consumer and a creator. I’m grateful that I’ve been born into a generation where we are so lucky to have the things we do have, including the modern music industry. I am. However, there’s just a lot of…well, dodgy sh*t. Everywhere. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors and misinformation. There are people struggling to get by because they can’t keep their head above water - financially, mentally, the list goes on. There’s also a lot of amazing things. There’s sometimes so much to learn and do and see that sometimes it all seems a little too good to be true - sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t and you’re truly blown away and blessed by your experiences, but sometimes…just sometimes, you gotta learn the hard way that not all is as it seems in the land of dreams.

…What?

Sorry, nevermind.
My point is - there’s a LOT going on out there, and sometimes you can feel lost in the current and genuinely not know what the heck is going on. I’ve been lucky enough thus far to (more-or-less) know what I want, and what I want to do with myself and my life. I am painfully aware, however, that that’s rarely the case for many people. I want to bring together everyone who has (again, more-or-less) figured it out for themselves and can pass on their wise words, to help the newbies who’re coming into it blind.

Photo Credit: James Proctor

Thinking about it, I felt like there wasn’t really something that pulled that all together in one place; there are plenty of mentor programs out there (like The Push’s Music Industry Mentor Program, which I was lucky enough to participate in myself), and there are a few random forums and a bunch of courses out there to help you specialise in whatever it is you choose to do - but the problem there is…what if you don’t know what you want to…choose to do?

What I’m Trying To Say Is…

I want this to be an entertaining yet informational support hub of sorts; for music fans, for those who are even just slightly interested in entering the industry, for music and industry pros, and everyone everywhere and in between. I want this to be entertaining and educational. I want this to provide knowledge, comfort, assistance. I want to ask the questions that everyone really wants to ask, find out the things you really want to know - and maybe even the things you didn’t know you wanted to know - and do it all in a space that is safe, comfortable, and real for everyone involved, without all the bullsh*t. Most of all, I want it to be honest.

So, Thanks In Advance.

Thank you for reading, liking, following, listening, sharing, whatever it is you may have done or do for us while we get things rolling. Thank you for supporting Australian music and arts, whether that be through buying an album, streaming a song, sharing a local band with your friends - whatever you do, keep doing it. This could very easily flop on its face - but we’ll do our best. We at least owe ourselves that.

Stay hydrated, and keep streamin’.

-Jahmiele