Rohan Williams
17
May
Hungry Kids In The Pink
Brisbane's own Hungry Kids Of Hungary have finished recording their second album, and they're headed to Europe to celebrate.
They've been recording the sophomore LP at Albert's Studio in Sydney with acclaimed producer Wayne Connolly (Josh Pyke, The Vines, You Am I, Silverchair). It's the follow-up to 2010's Escapades, which has experienced remarkable success in Europe's Benelux region. It's because of that success that they're about to make their first major international festival appearance at Pinkpop in the Netherlands.
Pinkpop — headlined by Bruce Springsteen, The Cure, Soundgarden, The Wombats, The Hives, Miike Snow, Bombay Bicycle Club, Linkin Park, Mumford & Sons and more — opens the door to a full European and UK tour for the boys, which will include their first shows in Paris, Germany and Belgium (and a return visit to the UK).
While overseas, they'll be spending time in Berlin, where they'll mix the new album with Simon 'Berkfinger' Berckelman (fittingly enough, HKOH's first national tour was alongside Berkfinger's defunct outfit, Philadelphia Grand Jury). When that's done, you'll finally have a new HKOH record to hold in your sweaty little hands, and that's just good news for everybody.
Hungry Kids Of Hungary will play Pinkpop Festival on Sunday May 27.
They've been recording the sophomore LP at Albert's Studio in Sydney with acclaimed producer Wayne Connolly (Josh Pyke, The Vines, You Am I, Silverchair). It's the follow-up to 2010's Escapades, which has experienced remarkable success in Europe's Benelux region. It's because of that success that they're about to make their first major international festival appearance at Pinkpop in the Netherlands.
Pinkpop — headlined by Bruce Springsteen, The Cure, Soundgarden, The Wombats, The Hives, Miike Snow, Bombay Bicycle Club, Linkin Park, Mumford & Sons and more — opens the door to a full European and UK tour for the boys, which will include their first shows in Paris, Germany and Belgium (and a return visit to the UK).
While overseas, they'll be spending time in Berlin, where they'll mix the new album with Simon 'Berkfinger' Berckelman (fittingly enough, HKOH's first national tour was alongside Berkfinger's defunct outfit, Philadelphia Grand Jury). When that's done, you'll finally have a new HKOH record to hold in your sweaty little hands, and that's just good news for everybody.
Hungry Kids Of Hungary will play Pinkpop Festival on Sunday May 27.
16
May
The Jezabels: On The Road
In case you haven’t been paying attention, The Jezabels have blown all the way up. Just a few years removed from being unknown Sydney uni students, they’re now based in London and well on their way to world domination.
“Well, sort of,” laughs keyboardist and pianist Heather Shannon. “We don’t really have homes at the moment, but we’ve got a rehearsal space here. We come back here and rehearse on the days we’re not on tour, and then we... go back on tour.”
Surely all that drifting leads to some degree of anxiety? “That’s a good question,” Shannon says, “because anxiety is the word, yeah. I do get anxious sometimes, being on the road, but I think you start to lose that and get used to it. It’s just hard... you feel like you’re not doing anything, because you’re just sitting in a car and going into a venue every day, and that’s it. But you start to find pockets of time where you can do other things. You get used to not having a routine.”
Drummer Charlie Watts once described his first 25 years with The Rolling Stones as 5 years of playing and 20 years of waiting around. Shannon can already relate. “Yeah, that pretty much sums it up! I have this guilt embedded in me, I don’t know if it’s from uni or something, but I hate sitting around doing nothing. So I try to take stuff on the road to work on.
“At the moment I’ve got this book on counterpoints [a classical music technique popular during the Renaissance], and I’m trying to teach myself how to write them properly. I learnt a lot about that stuff at uni, but I just want to get really good at it. It’s kind of annoying not having a teacher to help, but I just try to do it myself. I’m probably doing it completely wrong.”
All that touring has resulted in a devoted British audience for the band, even if the UK music press hasn’t embraced them as wholeheartedly as their Aussie counterparts. “Actually, it’s strange,” Shannon admits. “We’ve sold a lot of tickets here — at our last show in London, we sold 1200 tickets — and our fans are amazing people, just like in Sydney. The challenge here, though, is convincing the media, because it’s much more intense and they’re sort of hot-and-cold here.”
“[Being Australian] is sort of a mark against you, in a way. It’s weird. You have to prove you’re not just an Australian band that’s going to be here for a few shows and then leave; you need to show them you’re in for the long haul. In all the stuff people have written about us here, they always mention Crocodile Dundee or Fosters or something, just really lame stuff, just because we’re Australian.”
Not that Shannon is completely immune to Aussie clichés, of course. “I do really like Vegemite, actually. That’s a cliché, but I haven’t seen them write that one yet!”
For Shannon, her band’s journey to the top has been slow and steady. For those of us on the outside of the tour bus looking in, though, it’s been an absolutely meteoric rise, capped off by winning the 2011 Australian Music Prize and their insanely popular set at last year’s Splendour In The Grass. Bluejuice frontman Jake Stone has been quite vocal about his jealousy of the speed of The Jezabels’ ascent, and he’s not alone.
So how does Shannon feel when critics say she hasn’t ‘paid her dues’? “I don’t agree with them at all, obviously. But Jake’s a really great friend of all of ours. He’s just an intense person, and we all love him. I don’t know... some people like to say different things. Everyone has an opinion, and that’s fine. It doesn’t bother me. “I know how hard we’ve worked, and I know we deserve this. That’s all that matters.”
‘Prisoner’ is available now. The Jezabels play the Brisbane Convention Centre on Thursday June 7.
“Well, sort of,” laughs keyboardist and pianist Heather Shannon. “We don’t really have homes at the moment, but we’ve got a rehearsal space here. We come back here and rehearse on the days we’re not on tour, and then we... go back on tour.”
Surely all that drifting leads to some degree of anxiety? “That’s a good question,” Shannon says, “because anxiety is the word, yeah. I do get anxious sometimes, being on the road, but I think you start to lose that and get used to it. It’s just hard... you feel like you’re not doing anything, because you’re just sitting in a car and going into a venue every day, and that’s it. But you start to find pockets of time where you can do other things. You get used to not having a routine.”
Drummer Charlie Watts once described his first 25 years with The Rolling Stones as 5 years of playing and 20 years of waiting around. Shannon can already relate. “Yeah, that pretty much sums it up! I have this guilt embedded in me, I don’t know if it’s from uni or something, but I hate sitting around doing nothing. So I try to take stuff on the road to work on.
“At the moment I’ve got this book on counterpoints [a classical music technique popular during the Renaissance], and I’m trying to teach myself how to write them properly. I learnt a lot about that stuff at uni, but I just want to get really good at it. It’s kind of annoying not having a teacher to help, but I just try to do it myself. I’m probably doing it completely wrong.”
All that touring has resulted in a devoted British audience for the band, even if the UK music press hasn’t embraced them as wholeheartedly as their Aussie counterparts. “Actually, it’s strange,” Shannon admits. “We’ve sold a lot of tickets here — at our last show in London, we sold 1200 tickets — and our fans are amazing people, just like in Sydney. The challenge here, though, is convincing the media, because it’s much more intense and they’re sort of hot-and-cold here.”
“[Being Australian] is sort of a mark against you, in a way. It’s weird. You have to prove you’re not just an Australian band that’s going to be here for a few shows and then leave; you need to show them you’re in for the long haul. In all the stuff people have written about us here, they always mention Crocodile Dundee or Fosters or something, just really lame stuff, just because we’re Australian.”
Not that Shannon is completely immune to Aussie clichés, of course. “I do really like Vegemite, actually. That’s a cliché, but I haven’t seen them write that one yet!”
For Shannon, her band’s journey to the top has been slow and steady. For those of us on the outside of the tour bus looking in, though, it’s been an absolutely meteoric rise, capped off by winning the 2011 Australian Music Prize and their insanely popular set at last year’s Splendour In The Grass. Bluejuice frontman Jake Stone has been quite vocal about his jealousy of the speed of The Jezabels’ ascent, and he’s not alone.
So how does Shannon feel when critics say she hasn’t ‘paid her dues’? “I don’t agree with them at all, obviously. But Jake’s a really great friend of all of ours. He’s just an intense person, and we all love him. I don’t know... some people like to say different things. Everyone has an opinion, and that’s fine. It doesn’t bother me. “I know how hard we’ve worked, and I know we deserve this. That’s all that matters.”
‘Prisoner’ is available now. The Jezabels play the Brisbane Convention Centre on Thursday June 7.
11
May
Stylin' Up Returns
Stylin' Up, the long-running Indigenous hip hop and R&B event, will return to Inala's CJ Greenfields Sports Complex on Saturday May 26.
The drug and alcohol free event, presented by the Inala Stylin' UP Community Crew and Brisbane City Council, will feature performances from The Last Kinection, Kayemtee, Dizzy Doolan, AKA, Dem Fellas, Sacha Fearless and a slew of emerging artists.
Stay tuned for updates, and visit stylinup.com.au for more info.
The drug and alcohol free event, presented by the Inala Stylin' UP Community Crew and Brisbane City Council, will feature performances from The Last Kinection, Kayemtee, Dizzy Doolan, AKA, Dem Fellas, Sacha Fearless and a slew of emerging artists.
Stay tuned for updates, and visit stylinup.com.au for more info.
09
May
Iron Sky: Review
Christopher Kirby, Julia Dietze, Peta Sergeant. Directed by Timo Vuorensola.
Nazis on the moon! If that sentence doesn’t do anything for you, then you can stop reading now. If, on the other hand, ‘Nazis on the moon’ is exactly the sort of thing you go to the movies for, then you might be interested in ‘Iron Sky’. A Finnish-German-Australian production shot partly in Queensland, it’s an intentionally schlocky sci-fi comedy that wears its cheese-flavoured heart on its Schutzstaffel sleeve. The special effects are incredibly impressive when you consider what director Timo Vuorensola had to work with, and leading man Christopher Kirby brings buckets of charisma to his role. It’s a shame, then, that the story is too muddled and the ham-fisted attempts at political commentary are too weak for the film to really work, even on the ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ terms it sets for itself. It’s a textbook example of a film’s reach exceeding its grasp, but then, those are the most interesting failures, aren’t they?
2.5 stars.
Nazis on the moon! If that sentence doesn’t do anything for you, then you can stop reading now. If, on the other hand, ‘Nazis on the moon’ is exactly the sort of thing you go to the movies for, then you might be interested in ‘Iron Sky’. A Finnish-German-Australian production shot partly in Queensland, it’s an intentionally schlocky sci-fi comedy that wears its cheese-flavoured heart on its Schutzstaffel sleeve. The special effects are incredibly impressive when you consider what director Timo Vuorensola had to work with, and leading man Christopher Kirby brings buckets of charisma to his role. It’s a shame, then, that the story is too muddled and the ham-fisted attempts at political commentary are too weak for the film to really work, even on the ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ terms it sets for itself. It’s a textbook example of a film’s reach exceeding its grasp, but then, those are the most interesting failures, aren’t they?
2.5 stars.
02
May
Review: Cabin In The Woods
It’s difficult to review ‘The Cabin In The Woods’ without spoiling something, given that it’s the sort of film that subverts your expectations from the opening reel. Director Drew Goddard and co-writer/producer Joss Whedon have created a horror film that both mocks and revels in the conventions of the genre, often at the same time. It makes prior attempts at metacommentary of this type (‘Scream’, anyone?) seem about as ‘self-aware’ as Matt Newton. And just when you think it’s over, just when any other slasher flick would roll credits, the real fun begins.
In many spoiler-filled ways we can’t get into here, ‘Cabin In The Woods’ is the ultimate horror movie — and, believe it or not, Roadshow Films have decided not to grant it a theatrical release in Australia. Sign the petition at change.org, wait for the inevitable DVD, or just screw them back and download it — whatever you do, just don’t miss it.
Rohan Williams
In many spoiler-filled ways we can’t get into here, ‘Cabin In The Woods’ is the ultimate horror movie — and, believe it or not, Roadshow Films have decided not to grant it a theatrical release in Australia. Sign the petition at change.org, wait for the inevitable DVD, or just screw them back and download it — whatever you do, just don’t miss it.
Rohan Williams
If it feels like we just did this, that’s because, well, we did. Just five months on from the last Gold Coast Film Festival (the date has been changed to tie in with the Supanova Pop Culture Expo), an eager crowd gathered again at Australia Fair to laugh at Chairman Richard Featherstone’s jokes and watch a buzzworthy international film. This time around, it was ‘Iron Sky’, a Finnish-German-Australian production (partly filmed in QLD) about Nazis from the moon.
It’s every bit as fun as it sounds, and though the script occasionally feels like it was written by an excitable child, the special effects gloriously showcase what can be done with a limited budget and unlimited ingenuity. Certainly, it was the perfect choice to herald the festival’s reinvention as a celebration of pop culture, and it was great to see charismatic leading man Christopher Kirby in attendance at the screening (and at Stingray Lounge’s swanky afterparty).
It’s a shame we’ll have to wait a full twelve months to do it all again, but luckily, there are a number of gems still to screen this weekend.
Highlights include:
‘Blackthorn’ (Thu Apr 26, 6:30pm) — A full-blooded Western adventure starring Sam Shepard as an ageing Butch Cassidy.
Irvine Welsh’s ‘Ecstasy’ (Fri Apr 27, 7:15pm) — A dark romantic comedy from the author of ‘Trainspotting’.
‘The Cabin In The Woods’ (Fri Apr 27, 9:15pm) — Joss Whedon (‘The Avengers’, ‘Serenity’) reinvents the horror genre.
‘Safe’ (Sun Apr 27, 8pm) — Jason Statham does what he does best and brings the curtain down on the festival.
For more info, head to gcfilmfestival.com. Read our Supanova review on page 9.
18
Apr
BIGSOUND First Announce
Held across a variety of Fortitude Valley venues from September 12-14, BIGSOUND is Australia's biggest music industry conference — and if this year's first announcement is any indication, it's about to get a little bit bigger.
The following artists have been announced:
Kate Miller-Heidke
Violent Soho
Eagle & The Worm
The Paper Kites
King Cannons
The Cairos
Oliver Tank
Kia Puru & The Bruise
The Trouble With Templeton
They'll be joined by the following speakers:
Ben Lee
Ben Swank (Third Man Records)
Rene Chambers (Spotify)
Aly Ehlinger (C3 Presents)
David Jimenez-Zumalacarregui (Primavera)
Mark Poston (EMI)
Charles Caldas (Merlin)
Nick Findlay (Triple J)
Jessica Ducrou (Village Sounds)
Ian Haug (Powderfinger)
Nicky & Ben Berger (Berger Management)
Richard Moffat (Way Over There)
Lisa Hresko (CMJ)
David Bridie (My Friend The Chocolate Cake)
Stay tuned for further announcements!
The following artists have been announced:
Kate Miller-Heidke
Violent Soho
Eagle & The Worm
The Paper Kites
King Cannons
The Cairos
Oliver Tank
Kia Puru & The Bruise
The Trouble With Templeton
They'll be joined by the following speakers:
Ben Lee
Ben Swank (Third Man Records)
Rene Chambers (Spotify)
Aly Ehlinger (C3 Presents)
David Jimenez-Zumalacarregui (Primavera)
Mark Poston (EMI)
Charles Caldas (Merlin)
Nick Findlay (Triple J)
Jessica Ducrou (Village Sounds)
Ian Haug (Powderfinger)
Nicky & Ben Berger (Berger Management)
Richard Moffat (Way Over There)
Lisa Hresko (CMJ)
David Bridie (My Friend The Chocolate Cake)
Stay tuned for further announcements!
30
Mar
Sam Sparro: Paradise Found
Four years on from his debut LP, idiosyncratic pop maestro Sam Sparro is back with Return To Paradise. Heavily inspired by the soul and funk music of the late '70s and early '80s, it's the product of two and a half years work in Los Angeles, London and New York.
I caught up with Sam to talk happiness, fashion, LA, identity, homophobia and why he's not afraid to be derivative.
Hey Sam, how’s your day been?
Good, thanks, how are you doing?
Pretty good, thanks. Everybody’s psyched for Return To Paradise. Between the album title and the single, ‘Happiness’, it kind of sounds like a guy who’s forcing himself to be happy again. Is it autobiographical?
Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily use the word ‘forcing’, because it sounds like I’m faking it. But it’s definitely about overcoming some personal things and realising that happiness is a choice that you make. It’s not something that just happens to you. Does that make sense?
Yeah, sure. If happiness is a choice, I guess the obvious question is… why don’t more people choose to be happy?
I think it’s the ultimate human trial. Life is a big question mark, and the path to enlightenment, if you will, is an individual’s journey to discovering what life is about. Some people realise sooner than others that they have the power within themselves to create the life they want. Some people never realise that, and I think they suffer a lot. But human suffering all comes from within ourselves, I think.
How did you go about flicking that switch and choosing to be happy again? Did you just wake up one day and go, ‘hey, things aren’t so bad’, or was it a process?
It was a process. It’s still a process. I mean, I’m a human being. I’m not some Zen Buddhist that never has any problems. I still need reminders all the time. For me, it’s just trial and error. Learning by making a lot of mistakes. I’ve made a lot of personal mistakes, just like everyone else in the world, and I’ve learnt through that what works for me and what doesn’t. When I’m really at my happiest is just when I’m accepting where I am and what’s going on in my life, and not trying to control everything.
Were there particular things that, once you accepted you couldn’t control, things got easier? Mmm-hmm. One example is the creative process. I really thought this was album was going to be done and ready and out quite a long time ago. I had put a lot of pressure on myself to make this record a certain way, and it wasn’t really happening. I felt really blocked and I wasn’t doing my best work. As soon as I really stopped putting this pressure and expectation on myself, I started to feel creative again.
I think the best things in life happen when you just let them happen. If I’m trying too hard, it’s because I’m resisting something that’s meant to be natural.
Yeah. It seems like the album is heavily influenced by ‘70s and ‘80s soul and funk records. Was listening to a lot of that stuff part of the process of cheering yourself up?
Definitely! I love that era of music, and I feel like there’s such an optimism about it. Even the album title, Return To Paradise, has a notion of returning to a sense of innocence, as well. That music in the late ‘70s captured a sense of optimism and hope about the future and humanity that I feel has withered a bit, because we’re just so aware of how challenging life can be through all these different media outlets. We’re constantly being reminded of how shit the world is.
It’s funny. In the ‘70s, the rebellious thing to do was to be angry and rail against ‘the man’. But it seems like now, the most subversive thing you could do would be to be happy and not stress about things.
Totally! I absolutely agree! I think the most punk thing you could possibly do nowadays is to choose to be happy and ignore all the crap. Which is really hard! There are so many things in the world today that want you to feel afraid, overwhelmed, confused… it’s all just coming at you non-stop. It’s crazy. Even the last three years, just how much the internet’s changed…
I was going to ask about that. You’re 29 now; when you last put out an album you were 25. Have you noticed a change in the industry because of the internet?
Definitely! I mean, the internet was a big part of how I got my career started in the first place. It’s just sped up a great deal, and I think it’s gotten a little bit meaner. It seems like the internet is a place for really frustrated people to air their grievances and frustrations. It can be quite hostile. It’s sort of like a microcosm, or a macrocosm, of a high school playground. There’s just so much bullying and so much bitchiness on the internet.
But the great thing is that we get our news more directly from where it’s actually happening, and it’s harder to have the wool pulled over our eyes. If there’s something happening on a street level, and it’s on their phone, everyone can see it and see firsthand what really went on, rather than waiting for the 6o’clock news to tell us what happened. It’s changed the way people communicate.
As someone who obviously relies on developing a groundswell of support on the internet, people’s default position being 'snark' must be something that annoys you. Have you had much attitude directed at your new stuff?
The majority of the feedback that I’ve seen online has been really positive. But there’s always some nasty comment. It’s mostly just childish… if you go and look at YouTube comments, which I don’t recommend you do, because you’ll always read something you don’t want to, most of it is really childish stuff like, ‘he’s gay, that’s gross’. I think it’s just young people that haven’t developed a mature enough view of the world yet.
When you first started hearing comments like that, when the first album came out, did they ever bother you? Was there ever a point where you were like, ‘maybe I shouldn’t be so open’?
No. I’d heard those comments since I was really young, and I’d already dealt with it. I’m quite comfortable with myself and I’m proud of myself and who I am. I don’t have any problems with myself in that way. It rolls over my back, but I guess it’s a reminder that the world is still the same place it always was. There’s enlightened people, and there’s ignorant people, and there’s nice people, and there’s mean people… they’re all out there!
Speaking of nice people, mean people, enlightened people and ignorant people... you’ll find all of them in LA. ‘The Shallow End’ is a song about LA; how would you describe your relationship with that city?
I love LA. I really do. I find it to be a really safe place to be, and I feel really supported here. I also feel free to do whatever I want to do. It’s quite spacious. It’s not like New York, or even Sydney, where I think people are up in your business all the time. You can just isolate and do your own thing and make your own rules here, which I really like. I also like the pace of it; it moves really slowly.
Yeah. Do you think people are happy to let you do your own thing because there are so many famous people in LA, so people just stop giving a fuck after a while?
I think so. People are mostly preoccupied with themselves here, so they’re not that interested in what you’re doing. But there’s also a lot of great people to collaborate with here in different mediums. I just shot a new video and I got to work with a lot of dancers I’ve been friends with for a long time, a great photographer who directed the clip, a stylist I really enjoy working with, lighting people I really respect. There’s a big pool of talent here and everybody works to achieve excellence. I like the work ethic here.
Yeah. You’ve been moving between LA and London for a while now. You left Sydney when you were 10. When Australians describe you as our Sam Sparro, ‘Aussie Sam Sparro’, does that still ring true to you?
Yeah, I definitely identify as Australian and I think being Australian has shaped me in a lot of ways. But so have all the other experiences and places I’ve lived, too. So I always feel a bit more ‘of the world’, but I’m more than happy to be Australian and to be claimed as Australian. I like it. I mean, you’ve gotta be from somewhere, and if I wasn’t from there I’d be from nowhere!
Exactly. Something else that’s interesting about ‘The Shallow End’ is it seems like you’re embracing superficiality, if that makes any sense. Basically embracing your status as one of the beautiful people. Is that something you’ve struggled to embrace?
I think so! I think it’s more of a poke at what people think about LA, as opposed to what LA really is. I think there’s actually a lot of substance here, and a lot of subversive thinkers and creators and doers and interesting characters, as well as all the other fluff you read about.
It’s such a diverse city. There’s a lot of amazing Mexican culture here, all different sorts of people, and great food… it’s like a melting pot of ideas. You’ve got the mountains and you’ve got the ocean; it’s an hour to the snow… it’s more multi-faceted than people realise. So I think it’s definitely playing into the stereotypes but poking fun at them, too.
Yeah. In the clip for ‘The Shallow End’, and just a lot of your promo material that’s been out lately, it seems like your personal style has matured a lot since your last album. Do you think that’s fair to say?
Yeah, totally! It’s definitely matured. I’ve always been a chameleon. I’ve always changed my appearance a lot throughout my life. There’s a lot of awkward pictures of me as a teenager trying out a lot of different looks that didn’t work. I think, just as I’ve gotten more comfortable as a man and as a person, I’m less interested in the pomp and circumstance of clothing and more interested in the sophistication and subtle nuances of style. I think that’s reflected in my appearance now.
I’ve also become really fascinated with classic menswear, which is something I always shied away from as a younger person. I was always wearing leggings or tights or some sort of coat or something over the top, and now I really enjoy putting on a suit.
Do you have particular inspirations, in that regard?
I think it started with me being invited to more fashion events and becoming more a part of that community, and going to shows and becoming a bit more knowledgeable about fashion history. Seeing how the silhouettes change over the decades, and how one decade influences another.
I’m also interested in the zeitgeist of fashion and trends, and how the silhouettes all seem to reoccur over time. There’s a definite movement in fashion reflecting strong, bold silhouettes, like baggy trousers, which were sort of ‘in’ in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, which really were inspired by the 1940s. And I became inspired by old film stars who were wearing those clothes back then. I don’t know, it’s this trail of connecting the dots which interests me.
It’s the same with music! The style of the music I’m doing is so different to the style of the fashion, but it’s been another process in making this record of connecting the musical dots. Of going, well, the music I listened to as a kid in the early ‘90s was inspired by this music from the late ‘70s, which was inspired by rock’n’roll from the ‘50s… it’s interesting how stuff is so cyclical.
Are there almost too many influences to take in? Musically, if the stuff from the ‘50s leads to the stuff from the ‘70s to the stuff from the ‘90s, does that make it hard to develop your own style? Or are you good at tuning a lot of the shit out?
I don’t know… I don’t mind being derivative at all. I don’t have a problem with that. I like having a point of view that’s clear, and I think so much pop music today is so self-referential. So much music that’s on the radio now is referencing itself and music that happened a year, two years ago. The cycle is so short, it’s almost like we’re in a vacuum. I also think time is such a great illusion that nostalgia for me is like… there is no present without the past. I don’t mind being a musical historian, or being referential in that way.
When you debuted, I remember people lumped you in with this new genre, ‘wonky pop’. What happened to that?
I never really understood that and I don’t know what that really means. I get asked about that a lot, and… I don’t know. I think some A&R man tried to make something happen and it just wasn’t even a real thing. I never claimed to be ‘wonky pop’.
Did you like…
No! I hate that word! I think it’s absurd!
Did you like the other artists that were grouped in there?
I definitely liked some of them. Who else was grouped into that? It was Alphabeat and Mika and Robyn and…
Yeah, those are the only ones I remember, to be honest.
I don’t know what it was, but it didn’t really stick. I don’t like being classified in that way. I think over the course of my career, I’m going to continue to break down any boxes that people put me in. I’m so much more… I’m more interesting and widespread than one thing like that.
Yeah. We’ll leave it there, but thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. Best of luck with the album.
Thanks a lot! I appreciate it. Bye.
Return To Paradise is out May 25.
I caught up with Sam to talk happiness, fashion, LA, identity, homophobia and why he's not afraid to be derivative.
Hey Sam, how’s your day been?
Good, thanks, how are you doing?
Pretty good, thanks. Everybody’s psyched for Return To Paradise. Between the album title and the single, ‘Happiness’, it kind of sounds like a guy who’s forcing himself to be happy again. Is it autobiographical?
Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily use the word ‘forcing’, because it sounds like I’m faking it. But it’s definitely about overcoming some personal things and realising that happiness is a choice that you make. It’s not something that just happens to you. Does that make sense?
Yeah, sure. If happiness is a choice, I guess the obvious question is… why don’t more people choose to be happy?
I think it’s the ultimate human trial. Life is a big question mark, and the path to enlightenment, if you will, is an individual’s journey to discovering what life is about. Some people realise sooner than others that they have the power within themselves to create the life they want. Some people never realise that, and I think they suffer a lot. But human suffering all comes from within ourselves, I think.
How did you go about flicking that switch and choosing to be happy again? Did you just wake up one day and go, ‘hey, things aren’t so bad’, or was it a process?
It was a process. It’s still a process. I mean, I’m a human being. I’m not some Zen Buddhist that never has any problems. I still need reminders all the time. For me, it’s just trial and error. Learning by making a lot of mistakes. I’ve made a lot of personal mistakes, just like everyone else in the world, and I’ve learnt through that what works for me and what doesn’t. When I’m really at my happiest is just when I’m accepting where I am and what’s going on in my life, and not trying to control everything.
Were there particular things that, once you accepted you couldn’t control, things got easier? Mmm-hmm. One example is the creative process. I really thought this was album was going to be done and ready and out quite a long time ago. I had put a lot of pressure on myself to make this record a certain way, and it wasn’t really happening. I felt really blocked and I wasn’t doing my best work. As soon as I really stopped putting this pressure and expectation on myself, I started to feel creative again.
I think the best things in life happen when you just let them happen. If I’m trying too hard, it’s because I’m resisting something that’s meant to be natural.
Yeah. It seems like the album is heavily influenced by ‘70s and ‘80s soul and funk records. Was listening to a lot of that stuff part of the process of cheering yourself up?
Definitely! I love that era of music, and I feel like there’s such an optimism about it. Even the album title, Return To Paradise, has a notion of returning to a sense of innocence, as well. That music in the late ‘70s captured a sense of optimism and hope about the future and humanity that I feel has withered a bit, because we’re just so aware of how challenging life can be through all these different media outlets. We’re constantly being reminded of how shit the world is.
It’s funny. In the ‘70s, the rebellious thing to do was to be angry and rail against ‘the man’. But it seems like now, the most subversive thing you could do would be to be happy and not stress about things.
Totally! I absolutely agree! I think the most punk thing you could possibly do nowadays is to choose to be happy and ignore all the crap. Which is really hard! There are so many things in the world today that want you to feel afraid, overwhelmed, confused… it’s all just coming at you non-stop. It’s crazy. Even the last three years, just how much the internet’s changed…
I was going to ask about that. You’re 29 now; when you last put out an album you were 25. Have you noticed a change in the industry because of the internet?
Definitely! I mean, the internet was a big part of how I got my career started in the first place. It’s just sped up a great deal, and I think it’s gotten a little bit meaner. It seems like the internet is a place for really frustrated people to air their grievances and frustrations. It can be quite hostile. It’s sort of like a microcosm, or a macrocosm, of a high school playground. There’s just so much bullying and so much bitchiness on the internet.
But the great thing is that we get our news more directly from where it’s actually happening, and it’s harder to have the wool pulled over our eyes. If there’s something happening on a street level, and it’s on their phone, everyone can see it and see firsthand what really went on, rather than waiting for the 6o’clock news to tell us what happened. It’s changed the way people communicate.
As someone who obviously relies on developing a groundswell of support on the internet, people’s default position being 'snark' must be something that annoys you. Have you had much attitude directed at your new stuff?
The majority of the feedback that I’ve seen online has been really positive. But there’s always some nasty comment. It’s mostly just childish… if you go and look at YouTube comments, which I don’t recommend you do, because you’ll always read something you don’t want to, most of it is really childish stuff like, ‘he’s gay, that’s gross’. I think it’s just young people that haven’t developed a mature enough view of the world yet.
When you first started hearing comments like that, when the first album came out, did they ever bother you? Was there ever a point where you were like, ‘maybe I shouldn’t be so open’?
No. I’d heard those comments since I was really young, and I’d already dealt with it. I’m quite comfortable with myself and I’m proud of myself and who I am. I don’t have any problems with myself in that way. It rolls over my back, but I guess it’s a reminder that the world is still the same place it always was. There’s enlightened people, and there’s ignorant people, and there’s nice people, and there’s mean people… they’re all out there!
Speaking of nice people, mean people, enlightened people and ignorant people... you’ll find all of them in LA. ‘The Shallow End’ is a song about LA; how would you describe your relationship with that city?
I love LA. I really do. I find it to be a really safe place to be, and I feel really supported here. I also feel free to do whatever I want to do. It’s quite spacious. It’s not like New York, or even Sydney, where I think people are up in your business all the time. You can just isolate and do your own thing and make your own rules here, which I really like. I also like the pace of it; it moves really slowly.
Yeah. Do you think people are happy to let you do your own thing because there are so many famous people in LA, so people just stop giving a fuck after a while?
I think so. People are mostly preoccupied with themselves here, so they’re not that interested in what you’re doing. But there’s also a lot of great people to collaborate with here in different mediums. I just shot a new video and I got to work with a lot of dancers I’ve been friends with for a long time, a great photographer who directed the clip, a stylist I really enjoy working with, lighting people I really respect. There’s a big pool of talent here and everybody works to achieve excellence. I like the work ethic here.
Yeah. You’ve been moving between LA and London for a while now. You left Sydney when you were 10. When Australians describe you as our Sam Sparro, ‘Aussie Sam Sparro’, does that still ring true to you?
Yeah, I definitely identify as Australian and I think being Australian has shaped me in a lot of ways. But so have all the other experiences and places I’ve lived, too. So I always feel a bit more ‘of the world’, but I’m more than happy to be Australian and to be claimed as Australian. I like it. I mean, you’ve gotta be from somewhere, and if I wasn’t from there I’d be from nowhere!
Exactly. Something else that’s interesting about ‘The Shallow End’ is it seems like you’re embracing superficiality, if that makes any sense. Basically embracing your status as one of the beautiful people. Is that something you’ve struggled to embrace?
I think so! I think it’s more of a poke at what people think about LA, as opposed to what LA really is. I think there’s actually a lot of substance here, and a lot of subversive thinkers and creators and doers and interesting characters, as well as all the other fluff you read about.
It’s such a diverse city. There’s a lot of amazing Mexican culture here, all different sorts of people, and great food… it’s like a melting pot of ideas. You’ve got the mountains and you’ve got the ocean; it’s an hour to the snow… it’s more multi-faceted than people realise. So I think it’s definitely playing into the stereotypes but poking fun at them, too.
Yeah. In the clip for ‘The Shallow End’, and just a lot of your promo material that’s been out lately, it seems like your personal style has matured a lot since your last album. Do you think that’s fair to say?
Yeah, totally! It’s definitely matured. I’ve always been a chameleon. I’ve always changed my appearance a lot throughout my life. There’s a lot of awkward pictures of me as a teenager trying out a lot of different looks that didn’t work. I think, just as I’ve gotten more comfortable as a man and as a person, I’m less interested in the pomp and circumstance of clothing and more interested in the sophistication and subtle nuances of style. I think that’s reflected in my appearance now.
I’ve also become really fascinated with classic menswear, which is something I always shied away from as a younger person. I was always wearing leggings or tights or some sort of coat or something over the top, and now I really enjoy putting on a suit.
Do you have particular inspirations, in that regard?
I think it started with me being invited to more fashion events and becoming more a part of that community, and going to shows and becoming a bit more knowledgeable about fashion history. Seeing how the silhouettes change over the decades, and how one decade influences another.
I’m also interested in the zeitgeist of fashion and trends, and how the silhouettes all seem to reoccur over time. There’s a definite movement in fashion reflecting strong, bold silhouettes, like baggy trousers, which were sort of ‘in’ in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, which really were inspired by the 1940s. And I became inspired by old film stars who were wearing those clothes back then. I don’t know, it’s this trail of connecting the dots which interests me.
It’s the same with music! The style of the music I’m doing is so different to the style of the fashion, but it’s been another process in making this record of connecting the musical dots. Of going, well, the music I listened to as a kid in the early ‘90s was inspired by this music from the late ‘70s, which was inspired by rock’n’roll from the ‘50s… it’s interesting how stuff is so cyclical.
Are there almost too many influences to take in? Musically, if the stuff from the ‘50s leads to the stuff from the ‘70s to the stuff from the ‘90s, does that make it hard to develop your own style? Or are you good at tuning a lot of the shit out?
I don’t know… I don’t mind being derivative at all. I don’t have a problem with that. I like having a point of view that’s clear, and I think so much pop music today is so self-referential. So much music that’s on the radio now is referencing itself and music that happened a year, two years ago. The cycle is so short, it’s almost like we’re in a vacuum. I also think time is such a great illusion that nostalgia for me is like… there is no present without the past. I don’t mind being a musical historian, or being referential in that way.
When you debuted, I remember people lumped you in with this new genre, ‘wonky pop’. What happened to that?
I never really understood that and I don’t know what that really means. I get asked about that a lot, and… I don’t know. I think some A&R man tried to make something happen and it just wasn’t even a real thing. I never claimed to be ‘wonky pop’.
Did you like…
No! I hate that word! I think it’s absurd!
Did you like the other artists that were grouped in there?
I definitely liked some of them. Who else was grouped into that? It was Alphabeat and Mika and Robyn and…
Yeah, those are the only ones I remember, to be honest.
I don’t know what it was, but it didn’t really stick. I don’t like being classified in that way. I think over the course of my career, I’m going to continue to break down any boxes that people put me in. I’m so much more… I’m more interesting and widespread than one thing like that.
Yeah. We’ll leave it there, but thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. Best of luck with the album.
Thanks a lot! I appreciate it. Bye.
Return To Paradise is out May 25.
29
Mar
Short Stack Break Up
In news that will make some people very happy, punk poppers Short Stack have called it a day.
A statement from the band, which may or may not have been plagiarised from another band, reads:
"Dear friends,
As you may be aware, stack is no more. To everyone who has supported the band in any way, i cannot thank you enough. From the ones who told their friends about us to the ones who camped out before shows. For me, since the band started when I was 15, it's always been about the music I wrote and how it effected people. The greatest feeling was you singing my words back at a show, livi...ng with the albums and letting something I created be a part of your lives. These times will be some of the best of my life with the boys/the crew and we still remain the closest friends.
But the show must go on. If you try to recapture yesterday you will only lose tomorrow. I am starting work on my next project which is honestly the best thing I have ever done. I'm falling in love with music all over again, feeling a fire I haven't in years. I'm heading over to LA / NY mid year to write and do music, working with artists I love & enjoying life but most importantly i feel it's time to START something again.
See you on the road soon
Diviney"
We'll leave you alone with your grief now.
A statement from the band, which may or may not have been plagiarised from another band, reads:
"Dear friends,
As you may be aware, stack is no more. To everyone who has supported the band in any way, i cannot thank you enough. From the ones who told their friends about us to the ones who camped out before shows. For me, since the band started when I was 15, it's always been about the music I wrote and how it effected people. The greatest feeling was you singing my words back at a show, livi...ng with the albums and letting something I created be a part of your lives. These times will be some of the best of my life with the boys/the crew and we still remain the closest friends.
But the show must go on. If you try to recapture yesterday you will only lose tomorrow. I am starting work on my next project which is honestly the best thing I have ever done. I'm falling in love with music all over again, feeling a fire I haven't in years. I'm heading over to LA / NY mid year to write and do music, working with artists I love & enjoying life but most importantly i feel it's time to START something again.
See you on the road soon
Diviney"
We'll leave you alone with your grief now.
28
Mar
Bluejuice: Vitriol
You'd think Bluejuice frontman Jake Stone would be on top of the world right now.
The band's third (and best) album, Company, has been a critical and commercial success, and they're about to embark on their first national tour in support of the album.
But when I caught up with Jake, it'd be an understatement to say he was in a bad place. In this confronting interview, the 32-year-old talks ageing, life after Bluejuice and his belief that he's a "dead man walking".
Hey Jake, how are you?
Not too bad, Rohan, how are you?
Pretty good, thanks. First off, congrats on the success of Company. Now that it’s had a few months to sink in, what did you make of the response it got?
Everyone’s asked me that this morning, but I honestly have no real idea. I think the way people look at this band is out of my understanding. I either feel negatively about it or I don’t really have any opinion, so I can’t really answer that question in any way that’s going to make sense to a reader.
No one else has as much invested in this band as I do, so it’s pointless for me to even try going into how I feel about that and how they feel about it. I can’t really be bothered. I hope they like it, but beyond that, I just can’t talk about it. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah.
I hope it’s good, but whatever.
Fuck those other guys, then. You’re a music journalist – if you had to review Company, what would you give it?
I don’t know. Three and a half [stars], I guess. It got four from the Sydney Morning Herald. I still think it’s a three-and-a-half record, but I think it’s a strong record.
Where do you think it loses one and a half stars?
Too many songs. I think we could have dropped two songs.
Do you know which two songs they would be?
‘Kindaevil’ and ‘Do You Will?’ I like ‘Kindaevil’, it’s fun, but it’s just a 'Cheap Trix' B-Side, really. That’s what I think, anyway. ‘Do You Will?’ is well-intentioned, and it’s got some nice moments, but it just doesn’t stack up next to the rest of the tunes.
I thought they were good, anyway…
Oh, I like them too, but sometimes you get down to the point where there’s 12 songs or 10 songs, and 10 songs is always better than 12 in my opinion. Those two… when you listen to the album without them, it has an amazing flow. It’s very succinct.
This band is a good band if it’s a succinct band. If it says what it needs to say and gets the fuck out of there, it’s a good band. If it hangs around and endlessly goes on, you quickly see the relative depth of the material. Anything can have depth and meaning if it’s delivered quickly and carefully, but pop music of this variety doesn’t tend to… as I’ve said multiple times this morning, we’re not The Jezabels. We can’t pull off a five-and-a-half minute epic ballad. It’s better for us to just move on quickly from things. Say what we have to say and get the hell out of there.
Are most of the songs you like at the moment three-minute pop songs?
Here and there, yeah. While I love and respect The Jezabels as people and as a band – and, actually, I really like their music – I haven’t sat down and gotten married to that album. It’s obviously brilliant, but my ears aren’t into brilliant things anymore. I just like trash. I like Hall & Oates. I spent half of last night singing ‘Out Of Touch’.
I listen to a bit of SBTRKT. That new record has some really nice moments; it’s not particularly great overall, but there are some really, really great moments on there. I like Chairlift, I find them really interesting. I like Geoffrey O’Connor. Yeah. You know, I like… bands. I don’t know. I don’t really care.
I’m 32, I’ve had a really hard year, I’m a bit of a negative cunt anyway, I’m probably over the hill, and my girlfriend, now my ex-girlfriend, left me and got in contact with me last night out of the blue, fucking up my entire week, for no apparent reason. And then, just then, she told me not to contact her again, because I was upset that she contacted me. Not upset in an angry way, just upset. So at this point, I just don’t give a fuck.
If people like it, I don’t care. If they don’t like it, I don’t care. I figure it’ll all go badly at some point anyway, so who gives a shit? If there are other bands around at the moment who are doing good stuff, great. If there aren’t, great. Whatever! It’s not just about the ex-girlfriend, it’s just… fuck it.
I’m 32, man. I’ve seen a bunch of bands come and go. Some of them are exciting, some of them aren’t. I’m cynical, I’m tired, I like making music and I get inspired to do good work, but do I have any good work left in me? Who knows? Probably, on the balance of probability, not. It’s unlikely, at this age, that you will do good work. Or will you? Maybe you will. I can’t tell. I’ve gotten past the point where I know what’s going to happen.
Did you just hit 32 and suddenly start worrying about this stuff?
I was always worried about it, but it just feels like I really am over the hill now. I’ve made permanent mistakes that can’t be come back from. The band’s achieved all it’s going to achieve. I’ve done my best work. My pessimistic personality is no longer charming.
My ex is doing great stuff in New York. She’s a TV producer there. She’s obviously really successful. She gets up and goes to the gym every day. I’m assuming she’s seeing someone else. She’s going to have a great life, Because that’s the attitude you have to have to be an adult and to survive as an adult. But I don’t think I’m a survivor.
I’ve always had a bad attitude, I’ve always indulged bad feelings and been lazy. If these are the outcomes of that behaviour, then it’s only fair, I guess. It doesn’t make it hurt any less, but, you know… that’s the way I feel about things now. I don’t have that optimism and energy anymore. I think we still put energy into the band, and I still put all my guts and emotional energy into the things that I do, but am I just tapping a dry well? I don’t know.
It doesn’t sound like you are. The record sounds like… it sounds like you guys could just pump out these incredibly catchy pop songs forever.
I don’t think so. It was written with her around, and maybe without her I don’t have that drive or something. I don’t know. I really don’t. I know this all sounds pretty self-indulgent, but I genuinely don’t know what’s going to happen. I do know that if I stay in bed for the whole day I’ll probably be disappointed in myself. But I probably will stay in bed all day, because I can’t see a reason to get up anymore.
You mentioned ‘the adult world’ before, this idea of your ex doing what she has to do in the adult world. It seems like that’s something you were thinking about on a track like ‘Act Yr Age’…
Yeah.
Are there things you like about the adult world?
Not really, no. No, not really. It’s not a place I feel at home. There’s things I like about it, in the sense that I respect other people operating within it, but it’s not for me. I’m not a mature person, so I fit better within the late teens, early 20s. That’s where I think the type of person I have become sits best. In my 30s I feel alienated and out of place.
Is being in a band a way to extend that bubble, to avoid those responsibilities?
I guess so. It’s just all I know how to do. I guess it is. It must be. It must just be an attempt to stave off real life responsibilities. But the more you stave those things off, the more they come crashing down on you eventually. The transition will be a great deal harder for having put it off so long.
Do you think you’ll need to, though? I mean, the band seems to be pretty successful, and you’ve got your writing. What makes you think you have to embrace adulthood?
To be honest, and this is going to sound way morbid but I don’t mean it like this, I don’t really know what’s going to happen after the band. I hope I’m not even alive past that. I don’t really want to be around past that. If I have to go get a bar job again, fuck it, I’ll just hang myself.
I don’t give a fuck. It’s all… that stuff is just beyond me. I can’t even imagine it. I don’t think I’ll be working in a normal job. I can’t see it happening. I don’t have any skills. I probably won’t. And also, you kind of have to be bold and do bold things. You know? I can’t just be in some band that never quite got there and then just limp off and do some fucking shit job that I hate, like the hospitality jobs I was doing ten years ago. I… I can’t.
If that’s the way it’s going to be, I will fucking hang myself. If it’s some miserable life, why would I wanna try to even live that? So I don’t know what’ll happen, but I’ll tell you what. If it’s not any good, I’ll certainly be making an effort to get the fuck out of it.
How do you define 'making it'?
I don’t know. There’s always levels, you’re right. The Jezabels have done very well, bands like The Presets have done very well. ‘Making it’ would be being able to buy a house with the money we got from the record, or having a strong enough fanbase that we could play a big stadium, that kind of stuff. But I only define that as ‘making it’ because we’re never likely to do it.
I guess any band would define making it as the next level up from where they are currently at, which they will never achieve. That’s what I think of it as. In my mind, we’ve done nothing, you know? We’ve done nothing at all, really. We’ve tried very hard, but we’ve done nothing at all.
I’m assuming your living comes entirely from the band at this point. Do you have any reason to think that won’t be the case anytime soon?
No. You’re right, it does come from the band, and that’s good. We’ve made an effort to make some money by doing corporate gigs and stuff like that, so there’s some money in the bank, which is good. But… I don’t know, man. My ex leaving really just fucked with me. I thought things would be different, now I don’t know what my life’s supposed to be.
When did she leave?
Ten months ago, I guess.
Oh, right.
A long time ago. She moved to New York. So I just don’t know what’s supposed to happen now. I really imagined… up until I was this age, up until maybe a year ago, I knew what was going to happen. I had a plan and I was driven and ambitious and would stop at nothing to achieve that plan. Now? I don’t give a fuck.
And the worst part is, when you don’t give a fuck, it’s not like you’re in a better position to do well. You’re far, far worse off. If you care and are driven and you have a vision for something, you’ll achieve that vision. If you have no vision, you can’t work towards anything, it’s all just an accident, you know? That’s where I’m at now. I feel worryingly without direction.
I’ve tried to fix it. I’ve tried to do little things. I’ve failed a lot. I smoke a lot of pot, and I’m not supposed to be smoking pot at all. I don’t get up as much as I should, I don’t exercise or whatever. I tried, in my own way, to get things together by setting up my own studio, but… I obviously didn’t try hard enough, because I don’t feel any different. You know?
Yeah.
I feel like a dead man walking, in a way. I feel utterly without context or point, really.
Sometimes you don’t realise what you’ve done until you stop and think about it for a second. Where the band is now, compared to where you were two or three years ago... you have to be happy with that.
It doesn’t feel any different! That’s the thing. Nobody seems to show us any respect anyway. It’s not different. I’m still having to rationalise our failure to myself.
What do you mean by ‘respect’, when you say that nobody shows the band respect?
Oh, it just doesn’t… I mean, we got a four star review from Bernard Zuel. When that happened, I was like, oh, that’s actually amazing. That was my goal for the record, to try and get a good review for once. Try and actually make a record the critics would like; that I would like, if I was a critic; that had content, you know? When that happened I was proud. Everything else is the same as it’s always been.
People come to the festivals and… I’m really trying not to take it for granted, and I can’t take it for granted. Big Day Out was great, there was a lot of people there. I feel very lucky to be in the band and lucky for it to be in the position it’s in, but it’s not luck! We worked really hard! Many bands work really hard, and they don’t have that thing that makes some bands do alright or not alright or whatever.
It’s been a long uphill battle with this band. It hasn’t just happened. If you look at The Jezabels, or Kimbra, or any of those acts, they only… I mean, they’ve worked at it for a long time, but it’s been less than a year or two years for those guys and they’re playing The Hordern and The Enmore. I worked for ten years to play The Metro. Forgive me for not being bowled over by our success.
Does success have to come within the band? Could you be fulfilled by doing solo stuff?
Would anyone care?
I think they would.
Well, I hope so. I don’t know. I mean, I’m doing it now. I’ve got this home studio and I’m writing songs in it and stuff, but I just don’t expect anyone to give a shit. I’m just doing it because I don’t know what else to do. If I don’t do it, I’ll just go completely crazy. I’m so grief-stricken with this breakup and everything, I just don’t know what the fuck else to do. I don’t know, man.
Well, our time's up, but I hope people do give a shit about the solo record. And this sounds super cheesy, but… don’t hang yourself. Have a good day, man.
You too.
Company is out now. Bluejuice play The Hi-Fi on Saturday April 14.
Information to help combat depression can be found at Beyondblue (beyondblue.org.au).
The band's third (and best) album, Company, has been a critical and commercial success, and they're about to embark on their first national tour in support of the album.
But when I caught up with Jake, it'd be an understatement to say he was in a bad place. In this confronting interview, the 32-year-old talks ageing, life after Bluejuice and his belief that he's a "dead man walking".
Hey Jake, how are you?
Not too bad, Rohan, how are you?
Pretty good, thanks. First off, congrats on the success of Company. Now that it’s had a few months to sink in, what did you make of the response it got?
Everyone’s asked me that this morning, but I honestly have no real idea. I think the way people look at this band is out of my understanding. I either feel negatively about it or I don’t really have any opinion, so I can’t really answer that question in any way that’s going to make sense to a reader.
No one else has as much invested in this band as I do, so it’s pointless for me to even try going into how I feel about that and how they feel about it. I can’t really be bothered. I hope they like it, but beyond that, I just can’t talk about it. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah.
I hope it’s good, but whatever.
Fuck those other guys, then. You’re a music journalist – if you had to review Company, what would you give it?
I don’t know. Three and a half [stars], I guess. It got four from the Sydney Morning Herald. I still think it’s a three-and-a-half record, but I think it’s a strong record.
Where do you think it loses one and a half stars?
Too many songs. I think we could have dropped two songs.
Do you know which two songs they would be?
‘Kindaevil’ and ‘Do You Will?’ I like ‘Kindaevil’, it’s fun, but it’s just a 'Cheap Trix' B-Side, really. That’s what I think, anyway. ‘Do You Will?’ is well-intentioned, and it’s got some nice moments, but it just doesn’t stack up next to the rest of the tunes.
I thought they were good, anyway…
Oh, I like them too, but sometimes you get down to the point where there’s 12 songs or 10 songs, and 10 songs is always better than 12 in my opinion. Those two… when you listen to the album without them, it has an amazing flow. It’s very succinct.
This band is a good band if it’s a succinct band. If it says what it needs to say and gets the fuck out of there, it’s a good band. If it hangs around and endlessly goes on, you quickly see the relative depth of the material. Anything can have depth and meaning if it’s delivered quickly and carefully, but pop music of this variety doesn’t tend to… as I’ve said multiple times this morning, we’re not The Jezabels. We can’t pull off a five-and-a-half minute epic ballad. It’s better for us to just move on quickly from things. Say what we have to say and get the hell out of there.
Are most of the songs you like at the moment three-minute pop songs?
Here and there, yeah. While I love and respect The Jezabels as people and as a band – and, actually, I really like their music – I haven’t sat down and gotten married to that album. It’s obviously brilliant, but my ears aren’t into brilliant things anymore. I just like trash. I like Hall & Oates. I spent half of last night singing ‘Out Of Touch’.
I listen to a bit of SBTRKT. That new record has some really nice moments; it’s not particularly great overall, but there are some really, really great moments on there. I like Chairlift, I find them really interesting. I like Geoffrey O’Connor. Yeah. You know, I like… bands. I don’t know. I don’t really care.
I’m 32, I’ve had a really hard year, I’m a bit of a negative cunt anyway, I’m probably over the hill, and my girlfriend, now my ex-girlfriend, left me and got in contact with me last night out of the blue, fucking up my entire week, for no apparent reason. And then, just then, she told me not to contact her again, because I was upset that she contacted me. Not upset in an angry way, just upset. So at this point, I just don’t give a fuck.
If people like it, I don’t care. If they don’t like it, I don’t care. I figure it’ll all go badly at some point anyway, so who gives a shit? If there are other bands around at the moment who are doing good stuff, great. If there aren’t, great. Whatever! It’s not just about the ex-girlfriend, it’s just… fuck it.
I’m 32, man. I’ve seen a bunch of bands come and go. Some of them are exciting, some of them aren’t. I’m cynical, I’m tired, I like making music and I get inspired to do good work, but do I have any good work left in me? Who knows? Probably, on the balance of probability, not. It’s unlikely, at this age, that you will do good work. Or will you? Maybe you will. I can’t tell. I’ve gotten past the point where I know what’s going to happen.
Did you just hit 32 and suddenly start worrying about this stuff?
I was always worried about it, but it just feels like I really am over the hill now. I’ve made permanent mistakes that can’t be come back from. The band’s achieved all it’s going to achieve. I’ve done my best work. My pessimistic personality is no longer charming.
My ex is doing great stuff in New York. She’s a TV producer there. She’s obviously really successful. She gets up and goes to the gym every day. I’m assuming she’s seeing someone else. She’s going to have a great life, Because that’s the attitude you have to have to be an adult and to survive as an adult. But I don’t think I’m a survivor.
I’ve always had a bad attitude, I’ve always indulged bad feelings and been lazy. If these are the outcomes of that behaviour, then it’s only fair, I guess. It doesn’t make it hurt any less, but, you know… that’s the way I feel about things now. I don’t have that optimism and energy anymore. I think we still put energy into the band, and I still put all my guts and emotional energy into the things that I do, but am I just tapping a dry well? I don’t know.
It doesn’t sound like you are. The record sounds like… it sounds like you guys could just pump out these incredibly catchy pop songs forever.
I don’t think so. It was written with her around, and maybe without her I don’t have that drive or something. I don’t know. I really don’t. I know this all sounds pretty self-indulgent, but I genuinely don’t know what’s going to happen. I do know that if I stay in bed for the whole day I’ll probably be disappointed in myself. But I probably will stay in bed all day, because I can’t see a reason to get up anymore.
You mentioned ‘the adult world’ before, this idea of your ex doing what she has to do in the adult world. It seems like that’s something you were thinking about on a track like ‘Act Yr Age’…
Yeah.
Are there things you like about the adult world?
Not really, no. No, not really. It’s not a place I feel at home. There’s things I like about it, in the sense that I respect other people operating within it, but it’s not for me. I’m not a mature person, so I fit better within the late teens, early 20s. That’s where I think the type of person I have become sits best. In my 30s I feel alienated and out of place.
Is being in a band a way to extend that bubble, to avoid those responsibilities?
I guess so. It’s just all I know how to do. I guess it is. It must be. It must just be an attempt to stave off real life responsibilities. But the more you stave those things off, the more they come crashing down on you eventually. The transition will be a great deal harder for having put it off so long.
Do you think you’ll need to, though? I mean, the band seems to be pretty successful, and you’ve got your writing. What makes you think you have to embrace adulthood?
To be honest, and this is going to sound way morbid but I don’t mean it like this, I don’t really know what’s going to happen after the band. I hope I’m not even alive past that. I don’t really want to be around past that. If I have to go get a bar job again, fuck it, I’ll just hang myself.
I don’t give a fuck. It’s all… that stuff is just beyond me. I can’t even imagine it. I don’t think I’ll be working in a normal job. I can’t see it happening. I don’t have any skills. I probably won’t. And also, you kind of have to be bold and do bold things. You know? I can’t just be in some band that never quite got there and then just limp off and do some fucking shit job that I hate, like the hospitality jobs I was doing ten years ago. I… I can’t.
If that’s the way it’s going to be, I will fucking hang myself. If it’s some miserable life, why would I wanna try to even live that? So I don’t know what’ll happen, but I’ll tell you what. If it’s not any good, I’ll certainly be making an effort to get the fuck out of it.
How do you define 'making it'?
I don’t know. There’s always levels, you’re right. The Jezabels have done very well, bands like The Presets have done very well. ‘Making it’ would be being able to buy a house with the money we got from the record, or having a strong enough fanbase that we could play a big stadium, that kind of stuff. But I only define that as ‘making it’ because we’re never likely to do it.
I guess any band would define making it as the next level up from where they are currently at, which they will never achieve. That’s what I think of it as. In my mind, we’ve done nothing, you know? We’ve done nothing at all, really. We’ve tried very hard, but we’ve done nothing at all.
I’m assuming your living comes entirely from the band at this point. Do you have any reason to think that won’t be the case anytime soon?
No. You’re right, it does come from the band, and that’s good. We’ve made an effort to make some money by doing corporate gigs and stuff like that, so there’s some money in the bank, which is good. But… I don’t know, man. My ex leaving really just fucked with me. I thought things would be different, now I don’t know what my life’s supposed to be.
When did she leave?
Ten months ago, I guess.
Oh, right.
A long time ago. She moved to New York. So I just don’t know what’s supposed to happen now. I really imagined… up until I was this age, up until maybe a year ago, I knew what was going to happen. I had a plan and I was driven and ambitious and would stop at nothing to achieve that plan. Now? I don’t give a fuck.
And the worst part is, when you don’t give a fuck, it’s not like you’re in a better position to do well. You’re far, far worse off. If you care and are driven and you have a vision for something, you’ll achieve that vision. If you have no vision, you can’t work towards anything, it’s all just an accident, you know? That’s where I’m at now. I feel worryingly without direction.
I’ve tried to fix it. I’ve tried to do little things. I’ve failed a lot. I smoke a lot of pot, and I’m not supposed to be smoking pot at all. I don’t get up as much as I should, I don’t exercise or whatever. I tried, in my own way, to get things together by setting up my own studio, but… I obviously didn’t try hard enough, because I don’t feel any different. You know?
Yeah.
I feel like a dead man walking, in a way. I feel utterly without context or point, really.
Sometimes you don’t realise what you’ve done until you stop and think about it for a second. Where the band is now, compared to where you were two or three years ago... you have to be happy with that.
It doesn’t feel any different! That’s the thing. Nobody seems to show us any respect anyway. It’s not different. I’m still having to rationalise our failure to myself.
What do you mean by ‘respect’, when you say that nobody shows the band respect?
Oh, it just doesn’t… I mean, we got a four star review from Bernard Zuel. When that happened, I was like, oh, that’s actually amazing. That was my goal for the record, to try and get a good review for once. Try and actually make a record the critics would like; that I would like, if I was a critic; that had content, you know? When that happened I was proud. Everything else is the same as it’s always been.
People come to the festivals and… I’m really trying not to take it for granted, and I can’t take it for granted. Big Day Out was great, there was a lot of people there. I feel very lucky to be in the band and lucky for it to be in the position it’s in, but it’s not luck! We worked really hard! Many bands work really hard, and they don’t have that thing that makes some bands do alright or not alright or whatever.
It’s been a long uphill battle with this band. It hasn’t just happened. If you look at The Jezabels, or Kimbra, or any of those acts, they only… I mean, they’ve worked at it for a long time, but it’s been less than a year or two years for those guys and they’re playing The Hordern and The Enmore. I worked for ten years to play The Metro. Forgive me for not being bowled over by our success.
Does success have to come within the band? Could you be fulfilled by doing solo stuff?
Would anyone care?
I think they would.
Well, I hope so. I don’t know. I mean, I’m doing it now. I’ve got this home studio and I’m writing songs in it and stuff, but I just don’t expect anyone to give a shit. I’m just doing it because I don’t know what else to do. If I don’t do it, I’ll just go completely crazy. I’m so grief-stricken with this breakup and everything, I just don’t know what the fuck else to do. I don’t know, man.
Well, our time's up, but I hope people do give a shit about the solo record. And this sounds super cheesy, but… don’t hang yourself. Have a good day, man.
You too.
Company is out now. Bluejuice play The Hi-Fi on Saturday April 14.
Information to help combat depression can be found at Beyondblue (beyondblue.org.au).