Without any hesitation, Justin Heazlewood (aka THE BEDROOM PHILOSOPHER) recounts the strangest scene he’s witnessed while travelling via public transport. “A man crying,” he says. “I don’t think you’ll see anything that slices through your mental screen saver like a man in that level of distress.”
It was a scene that cut to the core of this talented satirist, always on the lookout for the unique in the everyday. “It was tragic, and kind of fantastic. Like a gentle reminder from nature that we’re all just organic alien super freaks doing our best, and beneath our rock hard exteriors we’re giggly little cups of care jelly wanting to be loved.
With a rich vein of similarly odd experiences aboard the 86 tram in Melbourne, Heazlewood set about adapting some of the characters he’d witnessed into a comedy set for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Incisive, hilarious and poignant, the Songs from the 86 Tram project has grown into Heazlewood’s third full studio album, with a subsequent national tour underway in support.
By depicting a diverse range of characters from different demographics, Heazlewood has stepped out of the introspective quirk-cult comedy of hits like I’m So Post-Modern and Golden Gaytime to something a little more ambitious. “I was interested in taking on demographics that are rarely satirised in any way,” he says. “Indie musos, wanky artists, middle-aged women and refugees all get a mention. My last album Brown & Orange was all about me and delving into my own strange mind, so for this project I was keen to basically not be in the show at all.”
A lot of the frivolous and biting satire that marked earlier Bedroom Philosopher work remains on the Songs from the 86 Tram album, and current single Northcote (So Hungover) is a typically hilarious depiction of a slacker-scenester talking overloudly and overconfidently on a mobile phone, punctuating his too-cool drawl with plenty of ‘uh’s, ‘ya’s, ‘like’s and ‘whatever’s.
Though a sharp character assassination of the modern hipster, Heazlewood says he can’t swear by the authenticity of the character. “To be honest I can’t say I’ve ever met the guy, yet I know he exists. My god, people say ‘like’ a lot. We’ve all been slowly yet completely brainwashed by American television culture. It started with Sesame Street and ended with Gossip Girl, but whether we like it or not we like, say like a lot, like, uh, ya, whatever man.”
This ride aboard the 86 tram is likely to take audiences to some very odd places. “I’m pretty keen on depicting characters in a comedic way that goes far deeper that the average kind of thing you’d see on TV,” Heazlewood says. “People are damn strange and dark and idiosyncratic. This isn’t something to be shied away from and edited – it should be heralded.”
With a host of new, challenging and hilarious characters under his belt, Heazlewood will be playing material from his new album at an intimate solo gig at The Front on Wednesday April 28. Tickets are $12 on the door.
