INTERVIEW: THE NYLEX FACTORY CHATS INSPIRATION, EVOLUTION AND SOLO ENDEAVOURS

First time BackBeat writer Kayla debuts with us by interviewing one of our own - Dan with his act ‘The Nylex Factory’.

Did you find that “If I never make a profit” came quite easily to you or would you describe it as an arduous task, something that required labour and extensive thought?

It came really naturally. I wrote it as they were announcing the new easing of restrictions. I'd been up eagerly waiting for them to say one thing or another but at around 8am decided I should do something else and then spent the next five hours in the garage. By the time I was finished I barely noticed that now be able to get a haircut, let alone play golf... (I did neither of those things). I hadn't had any intentions of 'going' for any particular sound; it sort of just happened to be what I was feeling at the time.

The cover art is super intriguing considering on previous single releases you’ve used your own artworks. (super cool ones might I add!) What is the concept behind the cover art for this single and what appealed to you the most about using someone else’s artwork in this instance?

The amazing artwork is by @geraniumthief. To me it represents someone communicating through a fake/sterile environment in order to get a message across to new ears. Just like the song, the message might not be conventionally 'pleasant" but it's certainly important to hear it because it comes from an honest place. Also, I think my art has a very particular style that is immediately recognizable as its own, and since this release marks the start of something new, I needed an artwork to play against what people have come to expect of me both visually and sonically. This isn't to say I won't use my own artworks again in the future but I needed some separation to really establish this sound as a new and concrete path. This wasn't another sound experiment, rather a bold new world for The Nylex Factory to dig into.

It seems as though this upcoming release has underlying tones of resisting the need to make a profit off things we’re passionate about, for them to be considered worthy pursuits. Would you care to elaborate on this concept for your listeners?

It's about whether or not you'd continue to do something even if it never gives you any long-term economic relief. And of course, you never know that for sure but I think this is a common source of anxiety for creatives so I wanted an entire song dedicated to that energy. As artists we're told our entire life to look for other career paths and this is a response to that with a very blunt and cathartic execution (and a slapping 808 kick). Beyond wealth, local artists need to realize their reach extends beyond their own beliefs of how popular they are. People will dig your work if you're honest, even if it's just for those three minutes. If your own biases get in the way, send your draft mp3 to somebody and get some energy back. You'd be surprised how empowering and rare a compliment can be.

Is there any advice you wish to give new creatives out there hoping to experiment with their sound?

Go for it. I think vulnerability (which comes through experimenting with sounds and taking chances) has always played an important role in music and it may just be the next big thing that people want, especially as human connection dwindles, live/human sounding releases are comforting to hear. Seeing someone take a chance is inspiring and energetic. As releases get more and more expected and cliche and perfect everyone's eventually going to want something new and raw and by experimenting with your sound you give the audience exactly that. If you think it surprises you just wait to see what somebody who isn't you might think.

It’s often understood in the music industry that evolution is integral to the growth of Artists. Taking note of that, do you foresee The Nylex Factory venturing further into new forms and genres?

I expected that at some point I'd put vocals into the songs but I always assumed it would be purely singing as opposed to the rapping you can hear on the track. So, with that logic I'm pretty open to exploring anything and everything under the Nylex moniker assuming that it is electronic. Otherwise I may need another name. For me the deep dive into garage dnb and hip hop was a natural way for me to give the project a life of its own. Isolation has been extremely hard on inspiration lately so I've had no choice but to look for new and strange places to find it.

Can you identify any influences or thought processes that really pushed you to create this new single?

My thought process for the song came after hearing a few artists such as Jk 47 and Nerve on triple J the night before. It was the first I'd heard of both artists and I dug them but I started to wonder where Nylex Factory existed or fitted in the Melbourne cultural landscape. And I wasn't sure it did as of yet, so I turned the radio off and started writing in the car and that's where the chorus developed that cathartic self-defeating kind of energy, which is the headspace of an artist in modern times. The song was a response to finding the balance between trying to please people while attempting to maintain one’s own innocence and purity in the process.

The Nylex Factory really appears to be a passion project and starkly different to your other releases under Tall Relatives. As someone who also plays in a band, how have you found the creative process during the switch to solo endeavours?

There's no gigs so I have a lot of time on my hands. I wouldn't say I spent much if any time on Tall Relatives since March up until after I wrote this song as a sort of vocal warm up to meet the demands of the next Relos single 'State of Disaster' (coming soon) which I recorded shortly after. It's a garage studio set up that I've recently made for myself so it lends itself to either of those vibes whether it be rock, edm or rap. It was actually art I had to temporarily stop doing at the time (which I'm back to doing daily at @millkman) to have enough energy to approach the song writing and beat making for this single.  

Have you found quarantine has had a profound impact on what works your creating and the processes in which you create and form such works? Is there anything you wish you could change on this release particularly, that quarantine made impossible?

For art, yes. I've made over 250 pieces this year since March. For music, no. Quite the opposite. It's taken me eight months since I've presented myself as a musician so it's safe to say there's a lot of pent up energy here. If that's good for the songs then great but it doesn’t mean I had fun or enjoyed myself from a musical perspective for a very long time. I think the single has a certain rough energy to it that makes it work in the context of what it represents; a sort of anarchic setting of tone for the ep that's to come after. I could change a million things or record it at a studio but then it wouldn't be what it was; released. I'm too much a perfectionist to really give into that sonic kind of scrutiny. I prefer to ask myself whether or not an atmosphere is created and if it is it then to me it means it's ready for release.

The Nylex Factory is an Argentinian experimental dance + electronic producer based in Melbourne.

Currently making Dark Progressive Electronic House and Techno, his upcoming single sounds like a filthy mix of Bauhaus and the Avalanches.

Very dirty.

The Nylex Factory is Dan Blitzman.

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INTERVIEW: PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS TALK TALLY HO AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS, AND A LOT OF OTHER MUSICAL ARTISTS AND THEIR BEST BITS

Fair warning: it’s a long one. Dan chatted to Jack from Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, for an in-depth convo about the creative process, their latest release ‘Tally Ho’, visual art inspo, and a lot of other musical artists and their best (and worst) bits. We’re talking The Beatles, Oasis, Queen, Ariel Pink, King Gizz, the lot.

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Dan: Let’s talk about the single first. I read that Tally Ho is a song that springs from Pseudo-ground-breaking late-night conversations, ideas that seem great in the heat of the moment but aren’t quite that solid later. On that note, what's the most 'Tally-Ho' idea you've had on a night out?

Jack: Man we’re always coming up with them. We had one the other day wanted to create a football fantasy league for bands. Went into like the whole thing how it could be paired with Spotify streams and get Taylor swift up front, Kanye in defence or something. Then we were like, but people would be competing on music and we were like should we make music competitive? We passed on that one. We wanted a voting app idea, so every morning you wake up, rather than having parliament, which is like fifty people to do it, whatever goes through parliament that day you’d have to basically say yes or no to which bill you’d want to go through. You can’t start work without doing like five…I reckon that one would work.

D: To me the song sounds like a hybrid between the vulnerability of 'high visceral' and the classic rock and roll of 'whatchamacallit'. What influenced the song from a sonic perspective?

J: We listened to a lot of t rex on the road, a lot of Creedence as well. It started off kind of cheesy and then we just started getting hell into it. We put together all these playlists, after a while we listened to all of the albums of Yousef Gamal, Flying Lotus, and we couldn’t show each other any new music so we were like what old school bangers have we got? And then it just went full zeppelin, t rex, kinks. So that kind of chuggy beat, the triplets, we listened to that for a while, so as soon as we got home that was just drilled into my head about writing an old school rock record but adding some modern elements to it, getting kind of glitzy with it on Ableton, get those guitars sounding strange enough so it doesn’t kind of relate to those bluesy records.

D: What inspired the digitally abstract cover for Tally Ho?

J: This guy was called Sergeant Slaughter Melon. He’d done some stuff with Sam and Matt designs as well, they’re really cool. They look new age; it’s almost got this style that feels contemporary. You watch it on sports now, all the players will come on and do their pose and it’s almost mainstream? It’s hell weird. I was playing around in Ableton and sort of randomly ran the guitars through the DJ patches at the bottom. You can transpose it up a few octaves, but you leave it in beats rather than keep it in complex. I just ran with that and made an album of it. Rather than be like that sounds bad I thought let’s use that as sort of the main instruments, like the guitar tone. It sounds like spaceships a lot of the time, almost like a Mario kind of style. Had a real arcadey vibe to it, going back to old school games like Atari and stuff, the eight-bit kind of tone. Got really carried away with that probably more than I should of.

D: who are some visual artists that you enjoy?

J: I watched that Van Gogh documentary, Loving Vincent? That things so sick.  I really liked Scanner darkly and Richard Linklater when he did Waking life. But actual artists? oh man diving deep, jean Michael Basquiat has his old head crashing’s on art and stuff, but also like Alfonso Mucha, I think he’s French? He had all those old women on cigarette tins, has that cool style that flows really well…I follow those Instagram pages that are like abstract (@minute6) so many people on there that are doing weird stuff. It’s gone back to paintbrush strokes which I suppose is the same idea as what a guitar distortion is. Rather than having one paintbrush it’s like let’s add this to it or that, it’s like a pedal I suppose. Also the collage art, Winston hacking, I think he did Andy Shauf the magician and I think he did one for flying lotus as well. So that kind of vibe.

D: Did you record the entirety of the upcoming album in iso? If so, what effect did doing that have on the overall project?

Allows us to develop on it more. There was a point basically were we had to hand over all the finished stems and get the mixing and mastering done by either April or May. And the album at that time, I don’t think one song that is on that record now was on it…. We had all this heavy music. I was listening to loads of Korn and slipknot, and there was so much Nine-inch nails. There were all these heavy guitars and fucked up sounds. But then there was also like Mr prism, so I had to go back and sort of find what the album was about and run with it that way. It’s almost worked out now that I’ve got a couple of different projects on the go. Rather than working on it for one record, it’s like I put it onto this bank, rather than make the one album sound so all over the shop, it needs that flow, it needs that sort of theme.

D: As artists it’s what we leave out as much as what we put in. Hardest lesson I‘ve ever had to learn.

J: Still trying to learn that. You’ll hear all these guitars fighting for places and I’m like why did I leave them in?

D: What's the best place you've played, and if you’re feeling it, the worst?

J: Oh man…All the ones we had in Melbourne were really cool. The early shows seemed to be really good, when we were just sort of coming up and getting our name out there. Over in England we did one at electric ballroom, 1200 people which was so sick…Japan was so sick. We got told they don’t clap or cheer or anything and then as soon as we went there the fans were like, mate, it looked like an apocalypse zombie movie. They were crowd surfing, just a wall of people, and no one would of heard of us there and it was like eight thousand people in this huge stadium.  The worst? We played a gig in phoenix were we were all sick and it had taken us 20 hours of driving to sort of make it to the middle of America and we rocked up to this pub and we were so dead. All of us were on antibiotics and we got there about six hours too early for load in, so we were like fuck it let’s have one beer which turned into the messiest we’ve ever been. All of us on antibiotics. All of us so drunk. I couldn’t even remember a word or how to play my guitar and it turned into one of those Jim Morrison sort-of moments. It was bad and I felt really bad for the 30 people in the room. Frankie and the witch fingers probably played the best set of their tour and then we went on after them so it was just like, oh god…yeah I still have cringe moments about it aye.

D: It’s always either when someone’s sick or when you’re playing to like three grandmas in the back isn’t it…do you find that playing a show is just as exciting as when you started or has that feeling changed?

J: Definitely...we just played a run of shows here. Did Badlands bar. It’s a 400-cap room and I think the last time we played there was like three years ago. It almost felt like being a band again (this has been the longest time we’ve ever had without touring or playing). When we came to it we were so keen. The nerves came back…even though we sold it out we were still nervous no one would show up and it was just some elaborate prank that our parents were pulling, that it’d get to there we get to the point where they really think they’ve made it and they’d be like ‘surprise, you’re actually shit’.

D: You guys just keep getting bigger and bigger. Is there a pressure to put out a certain kind of sound?

J: I thought that for ages. There was sort of a moment when I was writing whatchamacallit where I was like do you chase what people wanted and I was like nup. I record the music and then we learn it as a band so sometimes there’s a strange sort of mix over part when we’re like shit this doesn’t sound as good when we play it. Cause recording you can go so many different ways of being like just basically drums fill the room but when you’re jamming they don’t at all…now I just really want to focus on the heavy music side again rather than writing slower stuff and getting into that kind of mode. Even though I do like writing those kinds of pieces I still don’t feel I’ve cracked really good psych rock yet. Rather than being like I’ll change now I might give it five years to find that perfect riff and then we can go off. I feel like we’ve got more to explore in that genre before we move on.

D: What made you become a musician in the first place?

J: I always remember playing guitar. There’s not really a memory I have without playing music. Even at year five at school in England we had a band, and I was playing bass. My parents would go to the pub and then their friends would have kids my age that I would go to school with…and we were pretty good for like nine years old. Did a song called Peterphilia. It was a riff man, it was a big riff, at the best of our abilities on one string. But it was about this paedophile that was chasing kids and we had this thing where we were like “you gotta ruuuun” and it was so hectic. I’ve listened to it sometimes and I’m like what the fuck was going through our ten-year-old brains.

D: Have you ever thought about doing a cover of that song?

J: oh man...it’s a definitely a positive song?

D: What would you do if you weren’t a musician?

J: I did graphic design at uni, so something art based, I think. But even then, I was working on a building site as well, so doing all sorts. Bit of carpentry. My brothers a sparky, we were just basically doing the groundworks for a lot of stuff. I managed to make a surveying degree from my graphic design course to get myself a surveying job. Then I was like from there...I dunno, I was working at a bar. I think something with beer would be good, maybe starting a brewery.

D: A lot of celebrities do that. Matthew McConaughey has a bourbon.

J: He’s always on the whiskey, isn’t he? I have no idea. I would always do music though. It was a hobby; it’s always been my sort of escapism. Now it’s almost ironic that that escape is almost becoming a job, well it is a job I suppose, but I don’t think about it that way cause it’ll just lose its fun.

D: Was there a point specifically where you said okay, now, I can sort of not work bar or carpentry, and when was that?

J: It kind of coincided with me getting fired from indie bar

D: Generally does…

J: It was kind of serendipitous. Yeah, I basically got kicked out of an open mic night for trying to trying to sing Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody and they just turned the mic off and I was like fuck no! I was so sloshed. You know when you wake up in the morning just like fingers in eye sockets…I had that and I was like well I’m not going to look for another job I’m going to really try and do music now. I just gave myself the time to sort of write. Doing that I was like sweet this is what I’m going to try to attempt to do at least.

D: Would you recommend that to other aspiring musicians? Maybe not with Queen?

J: I was pretty poor for a long time. Yeah if you really wanna do it though then you’ve gotta give yourself a chance. That’s what someone said it’s like there’s no point taking a safe option and failing at that so you might as well take the hard option and fail at that and then go back to whatever.

D: A lot of people are focused on a sense of security but even now with Coronavirus and how it’s affected the workforce that security is less than it ever was before. If there ever was a time to be creative, it’s now.

J: The bar I worked at everyone was at uni there was like lawyers and whatever and we were like we’re all working at a bar, what’s going on with the world?

D: Do you think that as a musician you have a certain responsibility on how you influence your audience?

J: I dunno I think on one hand if you think about what you’re saying or what you’re doing or what you’re writing it’s almost not worth saying? If you’re thinking about it too much. It’s way better I think just being like here’s the song and then think about it, that sort of train of consciousness or stream of attacking a song will sort of lose its grasp and you’re always thinking in the back of your head about how people will perceive it before you’ve finished it. Muse is a great example. What a solid band doing music for the first two or three albums, but they’re kind of going back through their catalogue going like ‘that works’ and re using this and this and this…It’s cheap, it’s not honest. Me and Sam (the guy at tone city) we were talking about honesty in music and it’s something like maybe if you’re like ten you can’t hear it but as soon as you start getting older and you listen to a lot of music you can really hear how honesty kind of comes through. As soon as we had that it all made sense it was one of those opening moments where I was like that’s it that’s exactly what I need to do, just write honest music.

D: I was writing my own stuff and thinking well I need to shred this way or rap that way or do a certain thing, but what sort of came down to what a good song really was, at the end of the day, was honesty. If someone’s being sincere or being themselves even if they’re wacky, it works. Plenty of artists are weird and strange until they become commercial.

J: It’s like when everyone heard Conan Moccasins first record and it was honestly strange. There’s so many Conan Moccasin rip off bands where it’s like you’re doing it cause you heard Conan.

D: Same with Ariel Pink, some songs you never would have expected it to become commercial.

J: I don’t think anyone expected psych rock to become mainstream. We started making it six years ago when we were recording at home, and it was almost because it was the underground thing not many people were doing it, I think there was like Oh sees, tame impala, king gizzard was sort of getting into it but even before then it was like Wolfmother was the last rock band. It was a weird time where rock music had hit a strange stagnant wall. And it really was almost like Kevin parker that was like ‘and here’s this ep and here’s this record’ and it opened the door for really honest rock again, even though now what he might be making is the complete opposite to what he first did. And from that you’ve got the entire L.A psych scene with Wand, fuzz, Frankie and the witch fingers, levitation room, Vinyl Williams, Morgan Dealt. Even here king gizzard have their little group, but then was babe rainbow and orb, bits and pieces. I suppose Melbourne had a lot of bands coming up. Now (in Perth) it’s gone back to jazz and hip hop.

D: Sort of like we’re going back to the eighties now in 2020; everything goes in cycles.

J: It does go in cycles.

D: I guess if you’re thinking about the audience…I guess it’s about putting that aside and giving them something pure otherwise you might not release it. 

There’s so many tracks we’ve recorded where there’s like one tiny bar phrase of word of a four minute track and it’s so good until this one little shit part but you can’t change it because it’s almost like you enjoy that change. Music’s weird. if you keep it to you, like you’re saying, if you keep it sincere and honest then it’s gonna work. We sound like Hemmingway talking about it.

D: Good.

J: I saw him on what do you call it? Midnight in Paris.

D: Do you think those small intimate and vulnerable parts, that leaving them is essential despite you thinking okay it needs to sound perfect? That leaving them in is what gives you character, right?
J: Yeah for sure. I think that now it’s funny. If it wasn’t the fact the record has been pressed to vinyl and it’s sitting there waiting to go I’d just keep working on it man. There’s bits I just wanna do this and this and this, but I don’t know if that’s because I’m at a point where I wanna make it perfect and you just almost have to…I remember there was a time where we finished it and I was like that’s it. And I probably didn’t listen to it for a week or two. When I bought different pairs of headphones, I’d been switching around my headphones, so the left pan was in the right ear and I was like this oh god this is so different now! That’s why I was like maybe we should release these really bad headphones with all the vinyl so I could be like listen to it! It sounds good through these headphones!

D: Have you ever achieved perfection? Now I’m wondering have you ever sat down, given it a week or two and then said; ‘I wouldn’t change a thing?’

J: I don’t think that’s ever happened.

D:  That’s a very comforting thing for our readers to find out, I think.

J: The closest I got to that was when we had about three months to mix, we spent a month and a half working on Mr Prism to the point where I wanted to re-record all the drums again and Danny was like well you two are going mad, it’s fine, it’s absolutely fine. And now I can’t listen to it anymore. It was 99% there. I’d get home and listen to it and be like alright that’s the song that’s it and in the morning we’d be like no we’ve got to put cymbals in, oh god, we gotta change it all around. It almost got to the point where I didn’t wanna record guitar anymore…I think that’s with everyone. Sometimes I feel you get a happy medium. Ty Segall I always go back to. He’s brilliant. But do you think he realized he was aiming for lofi or do you think he happily wandered in there and that’s the way the song sounded good and that’s his first attempt at recording it?

D: Yeah well, it’s garage. There’s a whole different set of ‘rules’ that go into making that kind of music.

J: It’s almost better to find something that you’re good at doing. Some people are aiming for Rick Ruben-esque production on everything and you’re not going to get that. You might as well be like I want my record to sound like Ty Segall because you probably can do that in your bedroom cause he did it in his bedroom.

D: I realized recently with my band and our budget that we needed to look at bands like GIzz and the way they did 12 bar-bruise among other low budget recordings. That really helped us.

J: It would just be so cheap. I’d say he gets someone to mix it but then they’d probably just be like nah chuck it all back through like, the master’s an iPhone.

D: Garage sounding records are back in fashion.

J: I think it’s always been there. Lofi just got swept under the rug for ages. There’s always been like Fugazi or whatever. Even modest mouse’s first couple of records, all kind of diy stuff and it sounds great. Every band finds their sounds through that but then they go back through or get better. If you’re not learning or trying to progress, then it is going to be more difficult. It’s probably why bands first records are the best they just didn’t think about it and they were like ‘sweet that’s what I can do.’

D: Those bands as well probably think fuck, if they can’t listen to their fifth record they certainly can’t listen to their first.

J: I was listening to Deerhunter talking about how they can’t listen to micro castle. And I was like that’s one of the best albums ever, start to finish it’s amazing.

D: Just goes to show how different our perception is to our audiences’ perception.

J: Exactly. I don’t know what you can do. There’s nothing you can do

D: Release whatever? Do something I suppose…What's your view on the current state of music?

J: Man, it’s the best it’s ever been to be honest. Every festival we go to there’s always ten bands I wanna watch, usually not on the main stage. We went to desert daze when we played there in 2019 and every single band was a bucket list band, it was insane. Stereo lab, wand, flying lotus, black angels, temples…krrum played, so many bands that I’ve wanted to see forever playing on two stages and I was like, maybe it’s cause I grew up recently with that kind of style of music like tame Umo king gizz or whatever but this is like for me this is the best music’s ever been cause they’re taking on an older artist and making it contemporary.

D: It’s a resurgence.

J: Exactly. And even If I had the choice of watching king gizz or grateful dead or something I’d go watch king Gizz. Pink Floyd are obviously brilliant but because everyone’s sort of ripped of their sound over the years it’s almost like that twelve minute extended jam thing they do you’re almost just like come on boys…It’s not dated well. But there’s bands like Beatles and shit…that music doesn’t age, it’s so weird. There’s nothing else like it’s horrible. The Beatles are like what the Simpsons are to all other animators.  

D: Yeah except The Beatles didn’t suck towards the end.

J: Exactly they got better.

D: Who’s your favourite Beatle?

J: All of them combined apart from Ringo..

D: Do you ever watch someone on stage and find it affects your recording because you start to compare yourself to someone else?

J: I definitely find people inspiring. When I watched tool recently, I was like oh man…it just made me want to go back, drop d again and get back into all that sort of heavy music. Probably more so when I was younger like now, I have the opposite where I watch someone and I’m like oh god I hope I don’t look like that. Even though that’s probably a bad way to go about it but you kinda get cringed out sometimes. People doing something that you know doesn’t work. Even if they’re not whole heartedly into it, it’s gone kind of gimmicky when they’ve got a four year old bass player, do you know what I mean?

D: It can sort of bleed into your own work

J: Just a really misplaced band that are there for the wrong reasons. Not that there’s anything wrong with that if they’re getting together and playing live but they’re always like ‘we’re the best band in the world’.

D: Are you a fan of Oasis…

J: Dude…I  never used to be. I sort of went back into it. It came almost from nostalgia cause it wase everywhere in England. They are absolute dicks but I dunno I love them for it. I reckon Noel Gallagher would be a great night out.

D: I loved the Claymation in Mr Prism. What are some of your favourite animations, and can we expect to see more of this?

J: Yeah man we just got the trailer for the new one from Ollie, so that’s coming with tally ho. It’s like a movie. It’s literally like Wallace and Gromit ins pace. Wallace and Gromit meets star wars. It’s fucking nuts! Claymation is something you don’t see a lot of people doing, one it’s kind of time consuming but also I had a point ages ago where I kind of wanted music videos to be scrapped altogether, like unless they’ve got a sort of budget or whatever, telling a band, especially when they’re up and coming it’s like sweet, you’ve got this really great song then no money to put together a music video and then everyone judges you your shit music video. Why is a music video still a thing? It shouldn’t be. It should be once you have a thought or something and you want to release a music video-cause there’s no such thing as MTV anymore or V where you used to go and watch great videos…When we first started out I was like don’t need do a music video, and then obviously everyone’s like you have to. It’s a thing; you’re literally throwing five grand at something. But then as soon as we got a bit bigger and there was budget for it we could afford to be like sweet we have this idea to do this animation or something that then it became more interesting.  We can actually afford to do Claymation or pay like Mike who did the cornflake video and it’s just like fuck that’s actually movie worthy. It’s sick. Now we’re at that fun stage where we can create what we want whereas before it was budget oriented and a bit annoying. I’m not really a fan of bands in the music videos. When they’re like playing guitar and strumming.

D: Well I can already hear the song and I know what you look like…

J: Exactly. It’s almost like a chance to put a movie together or something.

D: Do you write the script or a bunch of ideas and give it to the Claymation guy?

J: We usually have a skype or a zoom and throw together ideas. The last one with prism me and Ollie we were back and forth about how it should go, It’s a lot easier when working with someone that creative to let them go to town on it. If he’s got an idea and he’s really excited we rarely say no. When someone is in that mode it’s gonna be a lot easier for them to work till eleven/twelve at night when they know it’s their idea rather than being like oh now I’ve gotta do whatever jack wants and all these changes…you’re gonna pretty quickly give up because you’re not enthusiastic anymore. It’s much better if you work with people to let them do what you know they do and you just stick to being like ‘sweet’ and when it comes back in the end say it’s shit! Nah…

D: Yeah if there’s too many cooks in the kitchen it can cause issues. What’s your fave animation? (besides Wallace and Gromit)

J: Tim burton was kind of cool…He had a style going. Now animations got to the point where it’s fucking nuts like Pixar or whatever the studios creating it. There are some really cool independent stuff on YouTube. I really don’t like the cartoony side of it. There was a Claymation one where it’s the Simpsons and they’re at home and they get hacked up by the bullies, have you seen it?

D: Can’t say I have…

J: that’s where we got the idea for prism. The Simpsons are like Claymation cows and I think like moonlight sonata is playing in the background and it’s hella dark. All the bullies are there in Halloween masks and machetes. They literally hack off homers hands and marge ends up with a rifle and just scalped...it’s so gnarly

D: Very happy tree friends.
J: Yeah all that cartoon gore. it was terrifying but funny as fuck. So we were like we gotta try do that with prism…but now It’s with almost like with dog the bounty hunter. But he’s old now and he’s got this beer belly hanging out, so that’s the new video.

D: What hobbies do you have outside of music?

I literally do everything. I love sport, like football, soccer. We were able to watch the local league here cause that was the first thing to come back up and they do beers and they got a stand. I was like why does no one go and watch the local teams anymore? It’s brilliant. The level of football is pretty good the beers are exactly like they are in the pub but they’re cheaper. You go and sit in at three o’clock and you can go out afterwards. Going to play golf tomorrow, enjoy playing a game of golf.

D: Yeah it’s back up. I’m trying to get a golf membership just to have something to do.

J: Golfs sick. It’s like the most annoying sport.  And then I kept thinking about it too much I’m going to get really good at golf and the only thing I could potentially do is get to the point where I’m like good enough to beat someone else? I can’t be professional anymore…I have this thing where if I can’t get to the stage at being the best at it then sometimes I don’t try, but I play it as a hobby?

D: Have you heard of John Daly?

J: Yeah. He is good. I mean it’s funny watching all the old 80s opens and they’re all drinking and smoking. But yeah I like all sorts of things, also movies, beers…

D: Finally, what’s something u can tell us about the next record that you haven't told anyone else?

J: The whole idea of it was it to the be the same time as a line of coke. It starts slow, gets to the point where it’s like aaaah! and then it comes down again just at the end. It was supposed to be Shyga the sunlight mound, but the album cover was just a giant mound you know like with jack black when he’s in tropic thunder? We had the other labels like you probably shouldn’t do that and we were like alright…. It’s a Coke and alcohol record where it’s just gonna be fast paced and kinda back down. I really like the intro track cause I haven’t wrote anything like that before and it’s fucked up. I don’t know if I should have put it at the start. It’s almost like a weird nursery rhyme with a really scary guitar tone

D: Well people who have never heard of you guys before are in for a treat

J: I love how they’re gonna put it on and it’s just gonna be this weird like…There’s a Russian simpsons with that song at the start, it’s like all these weird soviet sounds, it’s nuts. So if everyone can get past the intro track and onto Tally Ho then sweet, we’re away.

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INTERVIEW: BLONDE TONGUES TALK SONIC INFLUENCES AND ART

Dan caught up with Cal Mateer of the Brisbane Dreampop band ‘Blonde Tongues’ to talk about sonic influences, band life and the importance of cover art!

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How did you first get into music?

 Initially I think music came to me through Rage and my mum’s CD of the Cure’s “Greatest Hits.” That CD was especially important in developing a love of music. Songs like “Lullaby” had sounds I was immediately drawn to, and I don’t think have ever really left me.

Who are some of the artists (not exclusively musicians, creatives in general) that have influenced you?

Some artists that we were into while making the albums were obvious to some extent. My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Swirlies and stuff like that were always on high rotation, but we were also listening to Karen Dalton, Bob Dylan, Slint, Drive Like Jehu and Beat Happening as well. We were heavily focused on music at that point in time, but even poets like Frank O’Hara and Marina Tsvetaeva made their way into our thinking and definitely had an influence on the content of the songs (lyrically). Our song about Paula E. Sheppard (again lyrically) was 100% influenced by her films “Liquid Sky” and “Alice, Sweet Alice.” Definitely check them both out if you haven’t seen them.

What’s the best thing about being in a band? And on the flip side, what’s the hardest?

Best thing is feeling free to express yourself. That was what drew me towards writing songs in the first place. The hardest part might just be me being lazy – I hate loading in and out for gigs. But it might actually be trying to find a time that worked for everyone so that we could practice or record regularly, but life finds a way of getting in the way sometimes.

I can’t really interview you without mentioning your atmosphere drenched single ‘Hey Good Looking’. What was the inspiration behind that song?

Funnily enough we’d started writing the chords for the song and developing the vibe and I was in a Ralph Bakshi phase of my life. So I was watching films like “Fritz the Cat”, “Wizards” and another called “Hey Good Lookin’”. That was where the title came from and that kind of fed everything that you heard on the record now. I had been listening to a lot of the Smiths, Husker Du and Felt as well, so some of the lyrics were reminiscent of some of those bands. But I think the song was about a break-up… who’d have guessed? But it was also me airing out some broader concerns about the world and the existential view I had at the time about things.

How important is good cover art to you? Do you think there’s a correlation between presenting a strong aesthetic or is this something that’s overlooked now?

It’s an essential part of a record for me. There are great records with terrible covers, but the great ones always have something special. The cover of My Blood Valentine’s “Loveless” and Beat Happening’s self-titled are some of those great covers. I feel like all the sounds on those albums sound like how their covers look. I don’t know if it’s overlooked, but I think everyone has different priorities when it comes to covers and sometimes, they get pushed to the side and just get done as a necessity. Which is fine as well, good music doesn’t need a good cover. During the recording of the first record we were listening to Girls heaps and that was us trying to put our spin on those album covers. And the second is just a really special, personal photograph. It was taken in Barcelona or Florence and captured a lot about how I felt at the time making that album. Maybe as long as the image holds meaning for people who created the music is all that matters. But it is a really important part of the process for me.

 If you had to pick three things that make a song great, what would they be?

There’s got to be a vibe, something that feels like the band is having fun with what they’re doing. Lyrics are essential for me as well, perhaps the most important (in terms of my listening). Though even if they’re bad, a fantastic vocal melody can save even a terrible song from obscurity and make it a favourite.

Did you get a chance to play any shows outside of Brisbane? How would you compare those with gigging back home?

We actually never played outside of Brisbane. We played mostly in Fortitude Valley, sometimes in the city, and occasionally in West End. That wasn’t because we weren’t offered outside opportunities, we just never found or maybe never made the time to explore further options.

Do you think comfortability affects creative output? If so, positively, or negatively?

I think having a set-up available/close-by really helps, so if that’s comfort, I think it’s important. But, as far as a mind-set goes, I think the negative moments in your life (at least for me) really become important in creating, but that can only ever really happen once you’re in a more positive space and you can look back at things objectively and say what you want to say.

What have you been working on/getting up to Post-Blonde Tongues?

Everyone’s all over the place. Some still live up in Brisbane, others in Melbourne and even the UK. Everyone still makes music from time to time, but mostly just for personal listening and having fun. We’ll sit and drink and listen to music. Not much has changed in that regard, we just haven’t put any of it to use.

And finally, what are you excited for in 2021?

Being able to go to gigs again for sure. But also getting out and exploring more than I have. If COVID taught me anything it’s not to take things like walking around outside without a mask on for granted. I’m keen to find some new things, sounds, etc, that inspire me.

                            Thank you to Natalie Jackson for setting this interview up!

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PHONER CHATS WITH MIKEY FROM GLOOM IN THE CORNER

The Gloom In The Corner are a concept band exploring the depths of human melancholy through a vessel of their own creation. The past few years have been a meteoric rise for the band, where they performed at Bigsound 2019, at Unify Gathering 2020, won the triple j unearthed competition to play Download 2020 Melbourne (which was unfortunately cancelled), and then took out a spot on The Faction’s Hardest 100 of 2019 with their song Misanthropic.

I was lucky enough to score an interview with The Gloom in the Corners vocalist Mikey, on the launch of their powerful new single ‘Violence’.

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 Dan:  So, to start things off; where does your new song ‘Violence’ fit into the Gloom catalogue and which aspect of it are you most proud of?

Mikey: Which aspect? Okay, we’ll do the easy part first. It fits in right at the start. The best way to think of violence is like a theme song for a TV show, or a theme song for a movie. It introduces the band and the story at a pretty face value that people can mosh along to. As far as the aspect I’m most proud of…fuck! I mean the artwork is definitely up there…. Sam smashed it. I think the breakdown too…because of how ignorantly heavy it is. I remember when we got the mix back from Jeff and I’m just sitting in my car and it just shakes because it can’t handle bass or anything below 80 hertz.

D: That’s how you know it’s good…

M: One hundred per cent.

D: You have such a rich lore and a heightened sense of world building within your songs, does that come from a love of books and if so what are some of your favourite authors?

M: It very much comes from books, but not just books but also TV shows, comic books, video games - we try to implement subtle little nods to them throughout our music. Favourite author? I’m looking at my shelf now…I think the Scarecrow series by Matthew Reilly. And Skulduggery Pleasant; Sherlock is my love note to Derek Landy from that series. I think, definitely if I was going to point it at one book I would definitely say Skulduggery Pleasant. I think everybody else in the band would agree with me.

D: Everyone likes the same book?

M: It’s more so they all know I cherish the series. Punisher as well…especially the Netflix series, especially characters like Jay. I wanted them to be able to relate him to somebody like Frank Castle or Sherlock with Skulduggery. Our recent Australian and American markets, not many people are too super familiar with Skulduggery pleasant. I’m one of three people that I know who’ve actually read it.

D: It was a very specific time in Australian books.

M: It just kind of fell under the radar, unfortunately.

D: When you first started the storyline that has continued throughout the years, did you expect it to be where it is now? And if so, did you have it mapped out?

M: Look, yes and no. It’s a complex answer, about as complex as the lore.

D: Let’s hear it!

M: I had an end goal, more or less. I had an ending to where I wanted this story to end up, it’s just the journey that kind of gotten me there. For example; when I originally wrote Fear Me, the original plan was, at least in my head, for it to jump into the next arc. I kind of expected Fear Me to be its own thing and then we’d move on from there. Then we kind of realised, okay we wanna do an EP and I can talk about Ethan, James’s brother and that’s what became of Homecoming. And then we decided again that we were going to push back the record and so I was like what are we going to do here, and that’s where Sherlock came up. So, even though Sherlock has been in the story for a long, long time (since Fear Me started), he didn’t actually have a name until Flesh and Bones became an idea. I was very careful in the way that I implemented him into the story and kind of wove him in to make sure that nothing contradicts or retcons itself or anything like that. And then here we are again with the three singles coming up; we’ve pushed back the album again so I’m like, okay cool I think we can finally end this arc before we move on to the next arc.

D: What made you want to take a conceptual or narrative approach to music even from an early stage?

M: I think it comes from a mixture of my love of storytelling, and storytelling in general. On top of that, around the time we started doing Fear Me, I was kind of just sitting there like, so many bands doing stuff like Villains or Sworn In or down tempo heavy bands, etc. and I thought how could I make this different to everybody else….I’d already semi-written the story before when I was in high school. I used to write short stories so I kind of just picked and chose characters and events that I wanted to incorporate into the story and kind of completely rewrote it. And so it came from a mixture of my love of story telling and also being like, cool I want to do something different here and something that people are going to go “Oh okay, this band is different for this reason”.

D: Now, ‘Violence’ is one blood-soaked ride into the history behind The Glooms.  What events inspired the writing of the track?  

M: Me playing a fuck load of Doom 2016. I mean if you couldn’t hear that in the influence then like you need to go play that game…I’m not biased against saying that Mick Gordon’s writing definitely influenced the track, as some people have picked up on (thank you Music Feeds.) We had thrown around ideas for how we wanted to start these three tracks and I said ‘fuck it let’s just do something absurdly heavy’, and to me one of the heaviest records came out in 2016-and still to my opinion holds up as one of the heaviest records in later years--was the Doom soundtrack. Violence was kind of a little love sonnet to that game; I’d been playing Doom for years and years even before 2016 came out… It’s my little love note to that.

D: It’s so cool you can weave all these creative outlets into a song.

M: I try to do it as subtly as possible. The Witch Hunt breakdown is the time warp code for Futurama. The tabs for the guitar is that time warp code. I’ve got a few subtle game quotes, etc. hidden throughout songs as well. It’s my little way of giving the nod to those games that have very much so inspired me growing up. Same thing with TV series’ and books and movies, etc. As far as stuff that actually influenced Violence, I think I just sat down and said ‘fuck it, I’ll write something as heavily as possible’ and that’s what came out of it.

D: What was it like working with Jaime Marino (whose worked with bands such as Alpha Wolf) and what does he bring to the table as a producer?

M: He’s basically there to make sure we’re not doing anything dumb-

D: As all good producers should.

M: It was awesome working with him. He understood what we wanted to do from him being in his old band Sentinels, which was a concept band too, so he understood what we were trying to do and why we were trying to do it, so it was refreshing. He made sure if anything didn’t fit--or if anything stood out that he thought was weird--that we’d go back and revise it. Thankfully, not to toot our own horn, I mean this in the most modest of ways, but I feel I don’t actually have to do that much to these songs which is so refreshing to hear because all the way throughout the process we’ve been told ‘you need to change this, you need to change this and this’, and I feel like this time around we did something semi-right? He was awesome to work with.

D: What are the main differences from working with a label (I know you guys have signed to Collision Course) on this record as opposed to self releasing?

M: It’s interesting. Collision Course came about because we went to Tim for marketing. He’d been wanting to work with us for a while and we’d been wanting to work with him and he said I’m starting a record label and I’d like you guys to be the flagship of it to get things started and that’s how that deal came about. I can’t speak for every record label but Tim has been super flexible to work with and it’s been an absolute pleasure working with him for this release. He’s been super encouraging of our ideas and understands what we’re trying to do and how we’re different to other bands that are doing heavy music in the aspect of the story and everything. And he’s fully on board; he’s a huge nerd too and he gets it and loves what we’re doing. I can’t speak for every label like that, some labels will be like ‘you need to rewrite songs like this’ or ‘you need your marketing to be like this’ etc. etc., but he’s been super flexible and understanding and it’s been super awesome working with him.

D: What can you tell us about the cover artist?

M: We’ve consistently had Sam Mayle from the U.K. He’s done everything since Homecoming and if we ever re-did Fear Me I’d love for him to do Fear Me well. The art is the first piece of the three singles, so you’ll get three standalone pieces of artwork that make up one big picture. If people haven’t picked up on it already it’s basically our recreation of the last supper. It’s going to include old characters, new characters, and it’s our nice little way of finishing up the story and showing everybody’s characters that haven’t had proper artworks done for them before and everything, as well as bringing back a few old ones and showing people like ‘Oh yeah I recognise that character, that’s cool’ and that kind of thing.

D: Gloom In The Corner has been around for a few years now. Have you noticed any significant changes to the Melbourne music scene (prior to the pandemic, of course)?

M: I mean some of my favourite bands have come and gone. It’s kind of hard to pinpoint one defining thing. You’ll find this in every music scene wherever you go, there will always be bands that try to emulate other bands in the scene. But that’s going to happen with every scene. Not going to pinpoint that to just Melbourne. My main take from it as well is that all ages shows have dropped off, which is sad to see, but from my understanding, a lot of the demographic who would go to all ages shows now all go to 18 plus shows. So, there’s not enough entry level all ages shows for kids who were my age to go to. And so they just say ‘fuck it, we’ll just wait till we’re eighteen’ and go to eighteen plus shows…which sucks. Hopefully after Covid-19 it kind of revitalises because all ages shows are a hell of a lot of fun to play.

D: What is the craziest thing that you’ve witnessed as a front man?

M: After a show I had a kid come up to me, say hi and proceed to do a death core scream in my face and walk away like it was nothing and said ‘Thanks man’ and I’m kind of standing there like what the f*ck just happened. I also saw someone eat sh*t real bad at that same show, that was a real bad one.

D: What’s in store for Gloom in the aftermath of the pandemic?

M: Hopefully touring and hopefully we get to do the full length as well!

D: Well it’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you.

M: Thank you for having me, it’s been awesome.

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Thanks so much to Mikey for his time and words.
Be sure to check out the new release ‘Violence’ and give em some love. 

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