INTERVIEW: HUYEN ON HER SINGLE ‘CAN’T TRUST’ AND UPCOMING EP ‘SAD BOY’

Melbourne is always thirsty for a new artist and Huyen is a strong contender to capture attention. The Melbourne based musician and producer is primed to release her EP ‘Sad Boy’ and has given us a taste with her single ‘Can’t Trust’. Tori caught up with Huyen to find out more…

So tell me about you, is this your first big music thing or what's led up until now?

I have a degree in Audio Engineering. I went to Collarts and did all that for a couple years, which was pretty fun. Growing up, I played piano, I was a part of Young Australian Broadway Chorus. I've always been writing music for producers and other artists and helping them record their stuff. It's taken me a really long time to get in the space where I wanted to release my own music. I was really nervous about everything… I wear my heart on my sleeve. I feel like when I put something out there, I give too much vulnerability out to everyone. I had the roughest year last year…. I decided this year to not care and just be like, alright, just do it!

Throughout our conversation, it was clear Huyen isn’t letting anything get in her way, she is dedicated to her art

I'll do my nine to five, and then straightaway, I'll be in the studio, or stuff at home. I don't get to bed till 2:00am most nights. Then you have to get up and do it all again, to make sure things are done. But it's a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it, the whole process of writing everything and putting everything together.

With your audio experience, did you record, produce, mix and master everything yourself?

What I tend to do is start an Ableton session, and just be like, that sounds fun and if I have something that I've written that suits that vibe, then I'll try to incorporate that in there. Sometimes, you write a completely fresh song off of a new session that you've made. I find the best way for me anyways, I'll have my lyrics, and then I'll try to make something to that. But most of the songs that I've written so far have been completely fresh. I've got a whole box of lyrics that I haven't produced yet, because it's just too difficult.

I have a specific mindset for the music to the words, but I'll get the groove down and one of my really close friends, Christopher, he'll fix it up. I'm not the best producer. I won't lie. But he has an ear, and he knows exactly what I need and what I want. This was mastered by my friend, Cash. He’s a lot better at mastering than I am to the sweetest person ever. It's nice to have like a team of people with you that support you. I've learned so much from them.

Tell me more about the EP

Im excited. It's called “Sad Boy”. I'm hoping to get it out by June. I'm excited for that to come out and and be my first. This single is an introduction to who I am. I hope that the EP is a little bit more of an open book for everyone. I'm really excited for that.

You mentioned you have a more formal and classical background. How did that influence what music you made here, which is sounding more modern?

With my grandad, I grew up listening to The Carpenters, Doris Day, Lauryn Hill and then started rebelling against him a little bit. I would say “We should listen to Britney Spears, you're taking me the Britney Spears concert!”. The 90s era influenced me heavily, 90s r&b, which was great. I guess growing up listening to a combination of alternative rock and pop, I love Broadway, I cannot stress enough how much. I picked apart little alternative pieces from all these different genres and then thought, How can I put that all together and I remember listening to Banks's album for the first time. I listened and it was perfect. It was the perfect amount of r&b, perfect amount of lyricism, poetry, everything like that. She's a heavy influence for me. I think that my music is a mixture of everything.

Are there any artists or producers you hope to work with in future?

I would love to work with Social House. I'd love to work this producer called Derek Taylor, who did a lot of Banks album. He's got an ear for for everything and it's so nice. Finneas would be good to work with as well. Yeah…Finneas call me….

You can stream 'Can’t Trust’ now!

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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: 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: A CHAT WITH DAL SANTO ABOUT NEW SINGLE ‘FALL IN’

Our writer Tori caught up with Dal Santo to chat about their new single ‘Fall In’ - and we’ve got the exclusive premier! Read through to the end to find out all about their inspiration, who they’re listening to right now, and what to expect coming up from the band in the future.

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When Dal Santo guitarist Gaurav wrote ‘Fall In’ he could never have imagined the global pandemic we are now facing;

“This song came at an interesting time. We wrote it just before this was all kind of happening and we had a lot of gigs lined up and a lot of awesome things happening, like every music lover and every muso in the world really” 

Dal Santo were scheduled up for a big year of gigs with two strong EP’s behind them and the addition of their new drummer, Sunny whose name reflects her impact on the band.

“It’s interesting because when you get a new member in a band, they come to you and say I really love that song, and you think, we don't play that live. Sunny’s favourite song is Radio, but we haven't played that live for a couple of years actually. On top of that you have a whole new feel because you have a new member who adds their touch on it.

We had a few friends EP launches and album launches lined up this month. We had a gig with our friends Catholic Guilt which has been moved to August. Postponed, not cancelled which is great and playing with our old friend, Late Nights. That was lined up for a couple of weeks ago but unfortunately cancelled”.

Given Dal Santo were regulars to the pubs and bars of Melbourne, like so many of us, music is a religion and we can’t go to church.

 Which venues do you miss or want to get to?
“I’ve gotta say the Gasometer is probably one of my favourites. We did a residency there last year and it was the end of summer. They would open up the roof in the big main band room, so when the support acts were on, the sun was sort of still glimmering through and its kind of light in that room. Then it gets a bit darker but has that open air, open festival - you know like when you do a stadium show when they have the open roof feel which is more intimate? So I would say its one of my favourites”

 So, tell me, inspiration, where did this song come from?
“Yeah, so this is an interesting one. We wrote it pretty recently, just before things started getting pretty grim, but it’s kind of like a pessimistic view of when good things happen and they are always bound to get a bit shitter again, until you can see thats just what life is. So, it’s kind of a bleak view on things. You kind of go, this is great, but if you are looking at the world glass half full. The themes are a bit more optimistic - when I was younger I had this starry eyed view of the world. As you get older, it’s not that you are more pessimistic or cynical it’s just you kind of, you've lived a bit more, the world might have beat you down as well and you kind of learn from those experiences.” 

The new single is coming out, does this mean there is an album coming this year?
“We are working on an EP. We jumped in, we got in just in the nick of time. We jumped in the studio in January and smashed out a couple of songs going on the EP that we are hoping to release by the end of this year. Luckily, one of them got finished which is this single, Fall In. That was the one that, especially given everything that has happened, really stood out to us. A relevant song. It’s not a sad song, but it does have that sort of ‘arm around your best mate’ feel about it.” 

Leave the Light On is my favourite!
“Funny story about that one, you can hear traffic in the background. When we were recording the album we were doing it at Laneway studios and we would work on it on a Saturday night when the venue was closed to the public so we had the place to ourselves. One night, I reckon it was about two or three AM. We thought it would be a good idea with our producer, Will, to lug out all these mics literally on to Hoddle Street. He was like, I want to get this busking feel to it so he set up all these mics with cars revving past us, probably wondering what these guys are doing in the middle of the night. So we actually recorded it on Hoddle Street. You give it a listen, you can hear a couple of beeps towards the end.”

What is the last thing you listened to?
“Last thing I was listening to was a band called Pandamic, ironically. From Queensland, we played a gig with them last year. It was the 420 show, with The Bennies headlining. These guys were on the bill and they were super fun.”

Dal Santo are hoping to be back touring again soon, but to keep us going in the meantime, here is their new single with our own exclusive premiere - Fall In.

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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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