Go Fish   

For Brisbane troubadour Scott Spark, change is a good thing - “like changing the water in a fish tank”. Too bad he hates fish tanks.

“Fuck, I hate fish,” he confirms. “I really do. I have a fish tank in front of me right now. I mean, when I say, 'fuck, I hate fish', I'm not some animal-hating person. I just don't really understand the appeal. I like big aquariums. Not piss-ant fish tanks.
“I was probably scarred when I was in primary school,” explains the local songwriter, who made a splash last year with debut LP 'Fail Like You Mean It' after being Unearthed by Triple J.
“We took a classroom vote for who was going to take home these crayfish we had. I ended up having to take them home, and it was… yeah, it was not good. I don't think I was made for it.”

So if Scott hates fish tanks so much, why do we find him staring at one?
“It happens to be my boyfriend's, actually. God knows why… he was deprived as a child, maybe? I grew up with dogs. He never had a dog.”

Dogs are more interactive, to be fair.
“Yes! Thank you! Fish are like a really fancy, expensive plant!”

Or a really boring TV show.
“Yeah! They're either like a fancy, expensive plant or a really boring TV show. It's like what SBS used to do, in the hours when it didn't broadcast. The test pattern. Fish are a test pattern for life.
“Although I do have to say, there was a formative moment in my life where I went and brought two CDs… and this is embarrassing, it's not like I'm holding these up as the cornerstones of my influence… I bought Michael Jackson's 'History' and Alanis Morissette's 'Jagged Little Pill'. I went home with my Discman and lay on the floor with my headphones in and listened to them on repeat while I looked at the fish tank.
“You know that eerie, spooky, cinematic thing that happens in fish tanks at nighttime when they're backlit? That's what I was looking at. So, you know, I've got some background with fish. I'm not completely heartless.”

With that experience in mind, Spark's extraordinary anti-fish tirade begins to make sense. If you associated fish tanks with the music of Alanis Morissette and 'History'-era Michael Jackson, you'd probably hate fish, too.   
“Exactly, although you have to say… I think most people admit to enjoying the occasional tune from both those artists.”

For what it's worth, Spark would rather people approach his music as a cross between Randy Newman, Fiona Apple and ELO (although there's always room for Morissette and Jackson fans on the bandwagon). He prefers not to see himself as part of a Brisbane indie-pop 'tradition'.
“I certainly love a lot of the music that's come out of Brisbane,” he says, which is more than he can say for the fish. “I mean, Regurgitator and Custard are two of my favourite bands. Whenever I see them I just die… but I think it's really hard, when you've just released one record, to start thinking of yourself as part of a tradition. If I'm lucky enough to still be alive in 30 years, maybe someone else can make that call. I don't think I'd ever be comfortable with it… I just want to write songs.”

And stare at fish tanks?
“The most attractive thing about this fish tank is the snail. He or she or it, whatever it is, it owns the tank. It has this phallic display… when the tank is cleaned, you know it's clean, because right afterwards the snail displays its appreciation of the clean tank by growing this phallic thing out the front of its head that stretches halfway along the tank.
“It's massive. And it only does this when the tank is clean. It's like it's out of 'Terminator 2', where T-1000 has that silver blade that stretches from its arm. Its similar to that, but in fleshy, snail, phallic form. So, no, I don't get much joy out of looking at it.”

Scott Spark, The Rescue Ships and Tash Parker say Three’s Company at The Globe on Friday May 6.