Stevie Easton

Tim Finn

Everything I had was in Split Enz for so many years and in the end it just wasn’t healthy.

“It’s been a very long journey,” says TIM FINN, looking back from where he is now compared to the early ‘70s when he was kicking around New Zealand in a little band called Split Enz.

Along the way he’s scaled the international charts and had more than a taste of success, in bands and as a solo artist, including with his brother Neil during a brief stint in Crowded House that produced the group’s definitive album, Woodface, featuring Tim on vocals in one of the group’s classic tunes Weather With You. But according to Finn, after all these years, he’s never been happier.

“I’m enjoying my life better than ever now,” he says. “I’ve got much more balance. I’ve got a family, got some kids. Everything I had was in Split Enz for so many years and in the end it just wasn’t healthy. I’m very lucky that I’ve developed a deeper sort of life now; something that’s just more real, more solid.”

And he attributes that new stability to love – something he says he had always been looking for, but didn’t truly find until 15 years ago.

In his younger days, he says, he was always drawn to the dramatic side of life, having grown up in the small New Zealand town of Te Awamutu. One way of experiencing that for the young performer was through a serious of “crazed relationships” with women which eventually left him feeling empty, and he withdrew from writing songs.

“I was down in the dumps,” he explains. “I just wasn’t inspired and I thought ‘maybe this is it, maybe this is how it all ends.’ And then I met my current wife and we clicked straight away; I knew that she was the one. She inspires me, she’s a great editor of my work and she’s a great mother to our kids. I’ve learned that you don’t have to be going through hell to write good songs.”

From this more stable, content place comes Finn’s new album, The View Is Worth The Climb, with a track co-written by Megan Washington, who he met on tour. “I just liked her straight away, invited her up on stage with us to play a bit of piano, and we had a good laugh in the van coming back from gigs and stuff; she’s pretty funny,” he says. “I’d had this song that I’d made a start on – I had the chorus but I couldn’t finish it to my satisfaction. She had a piece that she was starting on, that fitted in really well and all of a sudden we had an exciting song.”

He’s touring the old classics many of us grew up with, or came to later through recent cover compilations He Will Have His Way and She Will Have Her Way. At his upcoming show, Finn says he will just be doing what he’s always done – “trying to create a great feeling in the room”.

Tim Finn’s The View Is Worth The Climb tour comes to The Playhouse Theatre on Thursday November 3. Tickets are available from canberratheatrecentre.com.au .

Martin Buscaglia

GROOVES AND ROOTS

Among the tempting line-up of South American musicians coming out for the Pura Vida Latin Music Festival is a Uruguayan mastermind by the name of Martin Buscaglia.

The friendly and cheerful Buscaglia is a multi-instrumental one-man orchestra who goes his own way, blending Uruguayan and Latin styles with funk, hip-hop, reggae and pop to make something altogether unique.

And, he explains from his home in Montevideo, not only does he sing and play an array of familiar instruments along with some very cool retro electronic gear, he also creates his own instruments, through the obscure art of 'circuit bending'.

“You know what it is?” he asks. “It's like, interference in an electronic device or electronic toy. I make music with this too.”

But playing things with names like the Omnichord and the Stylophone, and making electronic toys squawk by doing things that voids their warranties doesn't make his songs sound at all like the background of an eight-bit video game, in case you're wondering.

These synthesised textures are just a subtle garnish among many ingredients he uses to whip up a tasty menu of rich musical dishes. And while recording them is nice, Buscgalia says, serving them up hot and fresh to a live audience is what really gets his blood pumping.

“It's a show with a lot of energy – the fact that I am alone on the stage doesn't mean that it's a songwriter, quiet, just playing the guitar and singing love songs. So I go on stage with some loop stations, and I construct the song live. I don't go with a laptop and just play, like karaoke. I really like the adrenaline, I really like to play live and I think that today, the stage is a place where you see if a musician has something to say and has something to play. It's not in their records."

Having never been to Australia, Buscaglia is excited about the opportunity to introduce himself to new audiences. Even if they don't understand all the words, he is confident the infectious grooves of his Candombe funk (a Uruguayan institution) can speak a universal language, especially when added to his take on more familiar genres like hip-hop and reggae, with a “natural Uruguayan touch”.

“I don't want to lose these roots that I have,” he says. “I'm not interested in making a super pure genre. [For example] I like reggae, and I know a lot of reggae songs but I will never do it like a Jamaican. So I want to do reggae, yes, but like a Uruguayan. I'm like this in everything.

Musically, I think the inspiration comes from everywhere. Not only from music; just being alive is inspiration.”

Martin Buscaglia will be grooving at the Pura Vida In The City festival, taking over Civic every weekend from Saturday September 17 to Saturday October 1. Buscaglia’s performance will be on Friday September 23. For ticket information and set times, head to puravidafestival.com.au .

LIAM FINN

IN LIKE FINN

Do you ever find yourself fighting off the creeping suspicion that everyone else is off somewhere having a great time?  LIAM FINN’s favourite term for that particular brand of social paranoia is 'fear of missing out', which he says he most recently felt during the recording of his second solo release, FOMO.

“A lot of the songs – not all of them – but a lot of them were coloured in by that kind of feeling,” Finn says, describing how he was affected by going from playing with superstars and touring around the world, to recording in the small coastal town of Piha on New Zealand's north island, a kind of 'spiritual home' to the Finns and the location of his legendary father's studio where the album was recorded.

“After working on heaps of different projects and touring – heaps of touring – and just getting busier and busier all the time, it sort of felt even more isolated than it really was.”

But of course you can't really be 'left out' when you choose to go it alone and strike out in a new direction, which is what Finn seems to be constantly doing. “I have this idea that every album should be like a first album,” he says. “It's really important to me, when I make music, to really try and make new music; at least that's what my goal has always been, anyway.”

And his second solo record is, once again, something new; the latest step in the evolutionary process that has seen Finn develop from a band member (Betchadupa, BARB), to a self-confessed one-man-band.

“I did pretty much everything myself,” he says of his first solo project, I'll Be Lightning. “But the difference with this album is that I worked with a producer so it was a much more collaborative process.”

According to Finn, the fresh sound of FOMO owes a lot to the influence of that producer, Burke Reid (formerly of Gerling), who seized on “half-formed ideas and fragments” to bring out the personal and steer away from the planned.

Also in a departure from his first solo effort, Finn sourced a small amount of outside input on FOMO, most notably Wilco drummer, Glen Kotche, who he describes as one of his favourite musicians, “like, in the world” and for whom he reserves “infinite respect”.

At the time of writing, still at home in New York, Finn was keen as mustard to get started on the tour and begin allowing the songs to “take on a life of their own”, having completed the hard yards in his secluded corner of the southern hemisphere.

Now, as you read this, that process is well and truly underway so he should have given the new stuff a good warm-up by the time he gets to our fair city.

Liam Finn will be crooning at ANU Bar on Thursday August 25. Tickets are available through Ticketek for a mean $25.65. Doors open at 8pm.

Spiderbait

Whenever I mention SPIDERBAIT lately, most people say they didn’t realise they were still together, but of course they haven’t gone anywhere. Vocalist and drummer Kram confirms this, and adds that since taking an extended break from writing new material, they still manage to get on stage regularly.

“We still play about four or five shows a year, mainly festivals,” he says. “Doing gigs is easy; you just turn up, say hi to each other backstage, go out and play your songs. Most of them we’ve been playing for years, so we know them back to front.”

As luck would have it, events have conspired to bring these 15-year veterans of Australian rock to this year’s Stonefest; among only a handful of appearances they’ll make in 2010. And Kram is pretty chilled out about exactly what they’re bringing to the University of Canberra grounds.

“I’ve got no idea what’s going to happen,” he says. “We don’t rehearse anything anymore; we’re like a jazz band, but not in the musical sense. So ask me after the show; it’ll be easier to explain what happened than tell you what’s going to happen.”

Kram says he doesn’t have much time for over-rehearsed performances by rock bands, like the disappointingly choreographed show he recently witnessed from fellow ‘90s outfit Green Day.

“It just wasn’t what I was expecting, that’s not really what it’s about for me,” Kram says. “It’s got to be spontaneous.”

In terms of new music, it’s been a long time between drinks for Spiderbait, their ‘latest’ being Tonight Alright way back in 2004. The following year they put out their Greatest Hits, which created the impression among some fans that things were winding down. According to Kram, that’s not the case. He explains that since bassist and singer Janet English became a mother, it hasn’t been possible for her to leave her child very often. The hiatus, however, has had other benefits for the man. “It gave me the chance to do a solo project that I’d been wanting to do for a while,” he says. “Being in Spiderbait is awesome, but sometimes it can limit your creativity a bit, being in one band for such a long time.”

In his work with Spiderbait, his side projects, and work as a solo performer, Kram is one of Australia’s great rock musicians and one of the few drummers who can sing at the same time. He says that he has enjoyed both ever since studying music in high school, and although it took a while to combine the two, it was worth the practise. “It’s pretty tribal,” he explains. “The arms are going, the feet are going and the lungs are going, all at the same time.”

That’s a pretty good summary of what Kram is all about and what he brings to Spiderbait; one of the biggest names from those glory days of Australian rock, the 1990s.

Spiderbait sidle up to this year’s Stonefest on Saturday October 30 alongside Pendulum, Bluejuice, Xavier Rudd and many more. Tix range from $94.40 to $171.40 from Ticketek.

Karnivool

Perth progressive rock outfit KARNIVOOL are out on their New Day tour at the moment, and they’ll be on the road until April, so fans can catch them performing tracks from last year’s epic release Sound Awake one last time. The band have a lot of experience playing live, having toured solidly for years, especially since the release of their stunning debut, Themata, in 2005.

Mark Hosking joined the group seven years ago, followed by drummer Steve Judd in 2004, and since then the band has rapidly achieved massive success across the country. “It’s definitely evolved a lot since I joined the band. I think it’s normal for people to change and evolve over time, and bands are no different. It all came together when we made Themata; we worked really hard until we were all really happy with it,” Hosking says over the phone from Perth.

Themata proved a masterpiece of the genre, and touring nationally with Cog was the perfect way to get their sound in the ears of just the right group of fans. Its US release came in 2007, backed up by shows on the Great American Rampage tour – the same year they walked away with five WAMI awards. Sound Awake came out mid last year, and on the national tour that followed, shows sold out around the country. Overseas touring helped Karnivool’s popularity spread to New Zealand, England and the USA.

Hosking says the songwriting process has become more natural over the two albums, and the band is looking forward to getting back to their new studio after this tour, and starting work on the next. “It’s a fairly dysfunctional process,” Hosking says. “We just get together and jam, try different things. Dysfunctional is probably not the right word, but it can take us a long time to work things out. We explore different ideas and just jam until we find a sound we all like.”

Karnivool’s profile is huge, and they are gaining momentum daily through a strong combination of touring, industry knowledge, social networking and an amazing sound that’s not based on trying to please anyone in particular. “We don’t think about popularity much, we just do what we do. I guess we’re not really into a lot of radio-friendly music, so that probably shapes the sound we have.”

The Perth music scene is close-knit, and Hosking says being a part of it is “really nice.” Karnivool are certainly one of its leading lights, having worked with other big names like Gotye and Pendulum.

Lead singer Ian Kenny also fronts Birds of Tokyo, but Hosking says Kenny and their hometown is the only common factor between the two bands. “Personally, I’d say we’re very close. Musically, we’re completely different. We’re all ‘Perthites,’ so we go way back. They’ve got a really great pop sound, and what we do is totally different, but we’re all good friends.”

Karnivool’s New Day tour comes to the ANU Bar on Saturday July 3. Tickets through Ticketek.

Mothernature Festival

Dub Dub Goose

Margaret Hellen King

Breezy local three-piece MARGARET HELEN KING (MHK) are another example of our awesome local talent, having emerged from Canberra’s arts scene about four years ago, but only settling into their current tripodal configuration about a year ago. Named after a family elder, Amanda Kim on bass, brother Simon Charles on drums and Nathaniel Robert on guitar together have a great indie pop sound, combined with intelligent vocal melodies, which they all sing at times.

Corinbank 2009 was a highlight for the band to date and their first show together as a three-piece. Back again in 2010, MHK are keen to show the festival a much tighter, more refined sound. They also loved playing the festival last year, which helps. “Corinbank has a great vibe. It’s really friendly, like the Canberra Music Club, but on a bigger scale.”

Having released an album and an EP and built up contacts playing interstate shows for the past few years, MHK have found success gradually, including some airplay on triple j. They also seem to get really good feedback through the Unearthed and Jplay websites, as well as on MySpace and iTunes. “The best thing about the web is you can have a band and still have a life.”

They’ve also just contributed their track to a quirky US design company’s Youtube advert for their stationary brand, and they seem to have fans popping out of the woodwork everywhere. “It was really funny [last year] when we started getting stopped in the street.” Later during the interview, someone literally asked Amanda for her autograph. So apparently MHK are kind of a big deal around here.

All members of the band are married and have children, and balance the band with other important things in life. “If we got signed to a label and got to make a lot more music, it would be amazing, but we’re not too stressed about it – we won’t sacrifice everything.”

After quite a few lineup changes in the band’s formative years, MHK are looking forward to keeping the current format, and honing their delightfully well-executed pop sound as a three-piece. There are also plans to record another album in the future, but in particular one that forms a single artwork, rather than just a collection of songs. “One of our main goals is to make an album that really flows together, from one track to the next.”

Margaret Helen King are at a great point in their career, and Canberra’s scene is all the richer for their presence.

Margaret Helen King are a part of the Corinbank Festival lineup. The Festival takes place over Friday-Sunday February 26-28. Tickets are available from Greentix.

Ash Grunwald

Stone Bros.

"My greatest dream - and actually, it happened - was sitting there with 500 non-indigenous people cacking themselves laughing, and they were laughing with us, not at us. It was just awesome, and we laughed together as Australians." Prolific writer, musician and film-maker Richard Frankland has just completed his latest feature-length film, the comedy road movie Stone Bros., and he is rapt with the response it received when it premiered at the Dungog Film Festival. 

A Gundidj man from Victoria, Frankland has worked hard over the years for the cause of indigenous Australians, artistically, professionally and politically. Frankland is enthusiastic about the film's potential to bring indigenous and non-indigenous Australians together. 

Stone Bros. features two young aboriginal lads, one on a spiritual journey to connect deeply with his culture, and his friend who just wants to party and have a laugh. They meet a host of other ridiculous characters along the way and hilarity ensues.  Nothing too serious, but a landmark in it's own way. "It's Australia's first indigenous full feature-length comedy, and really it's come about at a time when I think there's a lot of heavy films in Australia, whether indigenous or non-indigenous."

Frankland's script came about many years ago from jokes he used to tell about fictional characters. First and foremost, it's all about the laughs. "Make sure you go and have a good pee before you go into the cinema, because you'll wet yourself laughing. There's a message in the film if you want to take away a message but also, if you just want to go along and have a good laugh, you can do that as well." Frankland hopes the film will break down barriers between white and indigenous Australia, and further our sense of national pride.

"Laughter transcends any culture, laughter transcends any barrier, any type of discrimination, and it gives ownership. Another dream I have is that non-indigenous Australians are backpacking around the world, they see the film on and they say 'This is one of ours.' They claim us." 

As well as helping bring together white and black Australia, Frankland hopes the film will leave a lasting impression on young indigenous Australians. Fighting against an MA 15+ rating, that Frankland says is based on a scene being in the film that was never scripted or filmed, the director is keen to see the film accessible to as many young people as possible. "The benefit of this film is that it's an anti-drug film, it's a coming-of-age film, and it's important that young indigenous people see this film. It will give them an opportunity to choose culture and family over drugs and just having a good time." It should also give anybody who sees it an opportunity to laugh their head off, at the first ever feature-length indigenous comedy.

Stone Bros. screens at Arc Cinema at the National Film and Sound Archives on Saturday October 3 at 2pm. 

Blue King Brown

Having just returned from an overseas tour taking in Europe and North America, Melbourne's most socially conscious reggae explosion BLUE KING BROWN are back touring nationally, and will also have a new album out soon, featuring the single Moment of Truth. I spoke with singer, songwriter and frontwoman Natalie Pa'apa'a about recording their new album, touring globally and the power of music to connect people and support social change.

Blue King Brown's music reflects the band's campaigning on a wide range of social issues, and the first single from the new album is no different. "Lyrically, Moment of Truth is really about this shift in consciousness that we are witnessing everywhere we go," explains Pa'apa'a. "I think it's really powerful when people realise that they're not alone in that struggle for a better future."

With so many acoustic instruments in the band, making this album has been all about getting the band's huge live sound and energy recorded inside the studio. Anyone who's seen them live will know that Blue King Brown has a full-size sound and so much energy that it's easy to see how the task of capturing that in the studio could be a concern. "We use more electronic elements to fatten out what we do with the live instruments, so it still sounds like us - just maybe a little bit fatter in the bottom end and tighter up top," Pa'apa'a reveals.

Everywhere they go, the band seems to have praise heaped on them from all directions. A quick read of their bio shows some of their favourite tributes from artists they have supported and a search for them on Youtube reveals gushing comments from excited new German fans. The overall message of the band is, in the spirit of reggae, to get up and get involved in making society better and has been well received throughout the English-speaking world, where reggae has become a universal language. "We're all thinking the same way. We're hearing the same and thinking the same. Also, in those countries there's a very strong and long-standing history of socially conscious music and a big support network for that."

The message behind their music is also the reason that Blue King Brown work so hard on the way they communicate with every audience. They aim to convey some of that positive energy to the crowd and to inspire those people who are thinking about maybe doing something to make the world a better place, but need a shove. "We're all about the live show," Pa'apa'a says. "We really pride ourselves on our live performance and we really work on it. A big part of our show is to connect with the audience, not just musically, but also on that spiritual level. We like to get them involved and jumping up and down and if we didn't, then I guess we wouldn't be doing our job properly."

Blue King Brown play at the Bimbadgen Blues Roots Funk N Grooves event in the Hunter Valley on Saturday September 12. Tickets through www.bimbadgenblues.com.au.

Tomás Ford

Perth-based singer and digital musician TOMÁS FORD is embarking on a nationwide tour throughout August and September called the Bash Myself Pity Party, so I got him on the phone for a quick chat.

Tomás has been playing as a solo act for almost six years now, but his biggest break came only recently. While joining the Lilyworld lineup at this year's Big Day Out festivals brought his show to a massive new audience, Tomás is not surprised that it didn't lead to an instant army of fans. "You don't really expect the audience to remember you if you're playing at a festival early in the day," he says. "Everyone gets drunk and entirely forgets what happened before three o'clock."

What the Lilyworld gigs did do for Tomás was force him to lighten up his sound and develop a live set with a "peace, love and happiness" spin to it, to unleash on unsuspecting teenagers around the country. "I'd been touring a lot by myself and playing quite small shows, but with those shows it was nice to get in front of a mainstream triple j kind of audience and really freak them out."

Playing the Big Days Out also provides killer networking opportunities and in this case led to Tomás supporting Birds of Tokyo on their recent national tour. This let him play to larger crowds than ever before and consistently divide these audiences with his deliberately provocative live show.

For Tomás, audience interaction is definitely a major part of the act. "A lot of what I do is about confrontation and finding humour in that and different ways to engage with the audience," he says. "For some people it's very shocking and it's very hard for some to deal with, so it can be quite controversial at times." Perhaps it's just that most people expect stage diving and other similar onstage antics from punk and hardcore bands, not dance music acts. "I spend a fairly large percentage of the show in the audience - they're the main focus of the show. In terms of the live act, it's all about that interaction with the crowd and screwing around with people."

Tomás is well aware of how unusual his live show is for this style of music, which he makes mainly using a computer and his voice. "It's a little bit like watching a punk rock show happen in a night club, with a dance music soundtrack." At the same time, this intense audience interaction is enhanced by the costumes that Tomás and his mother create together for the act. "We sit down and figure out the most gaudy and glitter-encrusted things that we can possibly put together and make things as neon and hideous and shiny as we can. We draw inspiration from the most horrible places for costumes." Look out Canberra; prepare to be confronted by Tomás Ford.

Tomás Ford brings his Bash Myself Pity Party tour to Gangbusters at Bar 32 on Thursday September 3.

Irrelevant - Immaterial? Unrelated?

Irrelevant

Punk/metal band IRRELEVANT have been quietly plugging away for nigh on ten years now, doing the hard yards as any good band should. They’ve released three albums, evenly spaced over those ten years, with the latest New Guilt having just hit stores earlier this month. Drummer Mick kindly spoke to BMA about the recording processes used by the band this time and in the past, touring, their own attitude towards playing live, and even about having been a band since before the ‘Myspace Revolution’, as I will call it. See, when Irrelevant first started out in 1999, you worked your arse off to get your first album recorded (and sounding something like how the band actually sounds), and then you worked your arse off touring. That was it. Mick agrees that is what they did for about five years, and sure, now you can have a Myspace site and people can listen to your songs whenever they want, but I get the impression this band doesn’t see it that way. They want you to hear them live. They like working their arses off to create something special, and they like touring to show that to their fans, and metal fans in general. Although the members of this band aren’t trying to please all punk, metal and hardcore fans, just Irrelevant fans.

When I ask about who writes the songs, Mick explains that since former member (and apparently avid songwriter) Ben left the band, songwriting became more of a group exercise; in his words, this album is defined by “more diversity and different flavours” than previous releases like Ascension in 2005. In terms of ‘planned’ versus ‘organic’ writing and recording, Irrelevant are firmly on the ‘organic’ side of the equation. Mick thinks it’s “futile to try to steer the music in a certain way”, and that the songs the band plays should simply “satisfy the creativity of the band.”

It seems Irrelevant have come a long way since 1999, and are quite proud of what they’ve come up with on New Guilt. Mick sees these tracks as “the best they’ve written so far”, and it’s obvious he can’t wait to get on the road and play the shit out of them. What else can we expect at their live show? We can expect everything a metal gig should be, and nothing it shouldn’t. “We just get on stage and play, have fun, and have a beer with everyone afterwards.”

Irrelevant are coming back through town in December, as part of their tour to promote New Guilt. They’re really stoked about it, and so should you be. From what I heard on the band’s Myspace, it’s thoughtful, well-written and well-produced. How would I describe the sound? That’s a bit harder because you might not know what I mean, but I would say like Linkin Park could be if they stopped whining, lost the hip-techno-hop and wrote some good songs. Sorry Linkin Park fans, but how many of you actually read BMA anyway? Let’s agree to disagree and move on. Driving metal guitars, brutal, unrelenting drums and timing changes to make your head spin. Elements of punk, metal without the emo and a strangely familiar but ultimately unique singing voice. I’m going to the Tuggeranong Youth Centre on December 5, because that’s when Irrelevant are playing there, and I want to hear them. That’s the AA building, punk rockers.

Irrelevant will play at the Tuggeranong Youth Centre on Friday December 5. It’s an all ages show, so get along, you whipper-snappers!

Terra Firma - Terra-ist Alert

Terra Firma

Having just dropped a new album at the end of August called Music to Live By, Adelaide’s TERRA FIRMA are rolling into town on November 15 to headline Rhyme Intervention 4 at the ANU. As they prepare to take to the road with their new tracks, BMA tracked down MC Simplex to give us the status report from right inside one of Australian hip-hop’s most fertile breeding grounds. Simplex relates that after “five years on and off” spent working on the album, in many ways it’s simply relieving to get the finished product out there.

“It’s a weight off our shoulders, in a way.” I see what he means when I do the maths, and see that five years on and off doesn’t actually add up to that much when you subtract the other things he, Raph AL, Mic Lez and DJ Dyems have been up to over that same period. I could bore you with details of collaborations with countless other hip-hop artists, opening new record label Simbiotic Audio, and of course touring and playing loads of live shows, but I’m sure you get the picture. It seems that TF are in a great place at the moment; they’ve got a new album and they’re keen to get out on the road and promote it outside of Adelaide, where it’s already been received with enthusiasm. “With every group, it’s in the home city where you get the best response.”

Like many artists from the local music scene lately, Terra Firma have benefited from fairly rapid developments in digital recording equipment, making the production quality of this album the best they’ve had so far. Turning to the subject of the upcoming Rhyme Intervention gig, Simplex is very keen to step up with so many other acts, and of course occupy the headline position at the all-day indoor festival. “I’m keen… there’s a lot of them I haven’t seen play before.”

When it comes to their own live set, Simplex says they don’t dress it up too much, but suggests you expect a bit of everything, and that even some of our own local products might make their way onto the stage. How would he describe it? “Disorganised? Nah. We just like to keep it simple. A bit of beat boxing, scratching… maybe some sparklers, fireworks, and strippers…”

Looking into the crystal ball, does Simplex see recording, producing, touring, or just chilling out for himself and Terra Firma? “All of the above. I’m working on a solo album, and we’ve all got a lot on our plates right now. But it’s like we’re just starting to get the ball rolling, so I don’t think we’ll slow down now.” That includes more hard slog for one of Australian hip-hop’s leading lights, whose members plan to keep on collaborating and recording for years to come. “We’re not going to stop now, even though I need a holiday,” says Simplex. If you look at his resume, you’d see why.

Terra Firm play at Rhyme Intervention 4, Canberra’s largest hip hop charity event, on Saturday November 15. Joining them will be Dialextrix, Last Credit, Social Change, Mind Over Matter, Scott Burns & DJ Mathmatics, and a swag-load more. Tickets are $28 + bf from Landspeed Records , The Music Shop (Woden), the ANU Bar and on the door. Doors open 2pm.

Obese Block Party @ ANU Bar, Friday May 23

The fifth Obese Block Party rolled into town and brought with it a showcase of the talent that the label has to offer. For the Canberra show, this included Pegz, Muph and Plutonic, DJ Chasm, Hyjak n’ Torcha and Sydney newcomers Spit Syndicate. A late RSVP also saw local rap pioneers Ciecmate and Newsense from Hospice Crew join the party, and Newsense stay on to host the rest of the night.

DJ Chasm got it going early, followed by a solid performance from Hyjak n’ Torcha, featuring their new tracks and the awesome turntable skills of DJ Bonez. Bonez also put in a great performance on the decks elsewhere throughout the night.

It was a couple of relative newcomers to come on next, the highly anticipated Spit Syndicate. It seems like everyone is talking about them, and from the response they got at this show, it’s easy to see why. I was really impressed by their delivery, stage presence and in particular their lyrics. I hadn’t heard many of their songs before, but I could quickly pick up most of what they were saying in them. They also put their set together well, and finished it off nicely with a great track, Lost Boys. By now everyone was having a great time but the party was only half over, so Chasm came back on for another killer set before Muph and Plutonic - who had the place jumping straight away. Being the only MC on stage for the whole of his set was clearly difficult for Muph, but it didn’t seem to affect his flow too much - the man has lungs of steel. The front of stage area filled quickly as the pair went through all their well-known tracks, from Heaps Good early in the set to the new track Size of the Soul to finish. After that, it was Pegz supported by his mate Dialectrix.

egz was great as always, and the punters responded as always. His ability to come up with memorable lines and catchy hooks is undisputed, and plain to see; no matter what songs he chooses to play, they are sure to be well-known favourites of Aussie hip-hop fans. Overall, the night lived up to its name, having a fun party vibe right from the start, with a lot of variation, crowd interaction, combined performances and a quick turnaround between acts.
STEVIE EASTON

Faker / Grafton Primary / Violent Soho @ ANU Bar, Wednesday May 28

Faker are currently taking the This Heart Attack tour around the country, and they arrived in Canberra to play on a cold Wednesday night, the day after Kisschasy. Not that either of these things affected the size of the crowd, which nearly filled the ANU Bar, set up in its larger format. The first cab off the rank were Brisbane’s Violent Soho, an enjoyable new experience for myself, but an odd choice for this tour. All overdriven guitars, screaming vocals and spot-on power drumming, combined with all the moody, reflective moments that make up ‘90s grunge, they were a bit out of place here. Next up were Grafton Primary, who earned a lot of fans playing to massive crowds at festivals over last Summer. The first four rows erupted, and plenty of people were dancing and singing along, but on the whole the punters were still relatively reserved as they waited for the main event to kick off.

As Grafton Primary drew their set to a close, thanked us all and left the stage, much of the crowd stayed where they were, and many others began to move towards the stage. It was at this point that the relaxed weeknight atmosphere began to get a bit more electrified. People began to push past each other, craning their necks to see better, and the slightest movement of the curtains backstage sent a squeal of excitement through the front of the room. From these moments before they came out and played The Familiar to open, the room belonged to Faker, and they put on a great show.  The set list was designed well to satisfy the fans with all the most popular tracks.  Singer Nathan Hudson is clearly a major attraction, as he is a great live rock performer who puts everything into it, thrashing around the stage and working the mic stand. After around 45 minutes spanning both of their albums, the familiar strains of This Heart Attack died out, but the noise surrounding them did not, it got louder. Loud enough to score an encore song, Quarter to Three.

MIND OVER MATTER - Here comes the breeze

As the Australian hip-hop scene continues to grow, so do the opportunities for talented young MCs and DJs to get some recognition. One such pair of young rappers slouching along confidently into a music career just a couple of years after finishing year 12 are MCs Willow and Smiles Again, known together as MIND OVER MATTER . I spoke to Willow about their rapid success, their brand new album and the upcoming tour they are soon to embark upon.

While you may not have heard their debut recording, an underground mixtape available for download called For Our Hip-Hoppers, plenty of the right people in the industry have and they’re saying good things about it. The boys recorded it right after they finished school, after a chance meeting with fellow Sydneysider MC Fame (Overproof) in 2006. “It was really good because these were the first real songs we were making; we had no idea of what we were doing really, so it was good for him (Fame) to help us out in that way.”

Next, mixtape in hand, the boys went around to shows, handing it out to punters and anyone else who would listen, until they ran into Nurcha Records head honcho Shrek. “We gave a whole bunch to him, to put some out or just have a listen. He called us up the next day and was just amazed; he just loved it and wanted us on board from then.” Almost a fairytale, but it’s not just good luck that’s got Mind Over Matter to the prime position they now find themselves in. It’s clear from my conversation with Willow that he’s got the dedication, drive and work ethic to go far with whatever he chooses. “We really believe that if you put your mind to anything you can achieve it, and we’re not going to stop until it happens.”

The first such achievement is the album Keepin’ it Breezy, a collection of all new tracks they recorded with the help of the whole Nurcha Records crew. It includes the single Proud, which features both a primary school choir and a beat from international producer Stylez Fuego, who’s apparently qualified to drop names like Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg and Kelis. That’s right, Mind Over Matter are only two degrees of separation from the song Milkshake. Willow still sounds blown away by the man when he tells me about the day spent recording the track at 301 Studios, for which the only adjective he can find is “Crazy.”

Having been at it for just two years, the only plan now for Smiles and Willow is to keep working hard on their music. Amazingly, they are working on their next album already, before they’ve even launched their debut, and they’re ready to rock shows around the country starting with their official album launch in Sydney on June 26.
When they make it Canberra, expect to see the high-energy show that Mind Over Matter already have a reputation for. “We’re both kind of rowdy guys, we’ve got a lot of energy and love to put as much of that energy into our live set as possible. We try to get the crowd to have fun.”

Less than three years out of school and with their debut in the shops and a new one on the way, the future looks bright for Mind Over Matter.

Keepin’ It Breezy is available now from Nurcha Records. Mind Over Matter play at the ANU Bar on Friday July 25 for a three-way album launch with Drapht and 360, plus locals Alikeminds, House Of Reps and Wax Lyrical. Presented by State of the Art.

Agency Dub Collective - Agents of dub

After close to a decade of continual evolution spent exploring elements of rock, hip-hop, funk and Latin music under the influence of countless line-up changes, AGENCY DUB COLLECTIVE (ADC) are returning triumphantly to their home town to launch their newest album $O$. Guitarist Elrond ‘Rondos’ Vaness has been there from the start, so he volunteered to speak to BMA on the band’s behalf about how far they’ve come, and the exciting times the Collective now find themselves in.

$O$ is the first nation-wide release for the group, having signed up with brand spanking label Foreign Dub in March. Elrond is particularly excited about this because it makes their music much more accessible than it has been previously. “Signing up (to Foreign Dub) and getting this album properly released has been good because we’ve been doing everything independently for so long. It’s nice to just have the album in stores and be able to promote it.”

ADC have become a far more professional outfit over the last two years since they recorded the EP Insurgency, and Elrond assures me the new album is their most accomplished release to date. In fact, he himself was surprised at just how good the final mix, completed by the band’s singer, came out. “With this album, we feel like we’ve reached an excellent level of production, and we’ve really found our sound.”
ADC chose to record much of this album to analog tape first, because they liked the authentic sound that it gave them in the past. “We had the best of both worlds; we had that analog sound, but in a format we could mix in the digital realm.”

The album is definitely a new height of success for ADC. It represents the realisation of a dream that began in our cold little city in 1999 and found expression over the years in live shows at festivals and reggae nights around the country, and of course through their independent releases. After all this time spent exploring and evolving, in many ways the group has come full-circle. “We went through a lot of different directions and now we’ve come back to where we were in the first place, but we understand the (dub) style better, and our music is more refined.”

A key principle held by the original band members, and still present in ADC’s music, is a strong left-wing political message, inspired by the Jamaicans who started the dub style in the 1970s, but applied to modern problems. Listening to the album, it is clear that the members of ADC are not only influenced by their heroes, but also faithfully reflect a truly authentic combination of uplifting music and defiant grass-roots politics. “We rebel against consumerism, capitalism and all these huge global companies (that are) running everything now.”

ADC have remained a part of the Canberra music scene since moving to Melbourne and continue to build up the connection between artists in the two cities. In the past they were behind the dub/reggae nights called Fire Inna Capital and still maintain relationships with local folk they helped inspire like Capital Dub Styles, whose DJs Hieronymous and Brujo will lend support at the show. It should be a top night for ADC’s Canberra fans, who haven’t seen them around since March last year. They plan to play two sets, punctuated by the two local DJs, who’ll be “dropping the classic Jamaican records” in between. Elrond for one is predicting something big: “It’s back in our home city so I think the Canberra gig is going to be one of the best. Our Canberra gigs always go off.”

Agency Dub Collective drop da riddims and bring da rhymes at Transit Bar on Saturday June 28, supported by DJs Hieronymous and Brujo from Capital Dub Styles. As always, free entry.

Stupid Fresh - Fresssssshhhhh Attire

Ever heard of fidget house music? What about wonky? These are some of the names for sub-sub genres currently buzzing around the fickle and at times ridiculously pretentious UK dance music scene. It’s as if they’ve hit upon a cunning way to boost your own fame and ego - pioneer one of these dubious new fly-by-night genres within genres. Speaking to Tod, one half of underground electro producers STUPID FRESH , it would seem that he agrees. “It’s a weird thing in dance music these days that everything seems to need to be pigeonholed. The only benefit of that is you can organise your iTunes library a bit better.”

At the same time, they still find themselves within the scene, so they have to play the game to some extent. “We’ve never sat down and gone ‘Right, let’s be fidget house producers’ or ‘Let’s go for that wonky sound.’ I think ‘jazztronic ghetto wobble funk’ was one we came up with once.”

So, I could try to describe the Stupid Fresh sound, but what would be the point? As Tod points out, the best way to find out is to listen to their tracks, which are constantly evolving in the quest to escape the ruthless examination and classification of the UK music press. “Some of our things are fidget-sounding, some of it’s wonky - but at the end of the day we make it, it’s just Stupid Fresh stuff that we make. I think if you open up yourself to as many different styles as you want, then there’s nothing to say that you can’t dabble in other different types and styles of music.”

Certainly Stupid Fresh won’t be restricting themselves into the future, as they help to push electronic music back underground in the UK. Tod counts their two biggest influences as fellow Englishmen DJ Switch and Micky Slim, who has been trying to get his label Bomb Squad off the ground for a while now. The re-launch is later this year, and Stupid Fresh will be among it’s stable of UK electro producers trying to steer the scene away from the pop charts. “In this country, you have your generic electro records, and they get into the pop charts nowadays. The more underground stuff - he seems to have started that.”

Tod has a lot of respect for Micky Slim, and so is very keen to be a part of the Bomb Squad project. Tod becomes increasingly enthusiastic as he explains the way he feels about future prospects for Stupid Fresh, like he’s happy there is a place for them outside of the mainstream. “People like me and Chris, and everybody who’s into that underground kind of thing, they all head towards the light with regard to him (Micky Slim), because he’s breaking a few barriers, and it’s not on your radio.”

While it’s their first time in the country, Stupid Fresh have a connection to Canberra through The Aston Shuffle, for whom they recently remixed For Everyone.

“We absolutely love those guys, they’re brilliant! We were looking at videos on Micky’s page, going ‘What the hell is that track?’ and looked on their Myspace - all their tunes were absolutely wicked!”

No sooner had Tod clicked the ‘add friend’ button then they’d begun to work together online. “It’s people like that (the Aston Shuffle) you’ve got to thank for us even stepping foot in your country next week”

Pang! Presents Stupid Fresh on Saturday June 7 at Lot 33 with Beat It vs Sean Kelly, Kiz vs Fourthstate, Hubert vs Dave Norgate and The Aston Shuffle. Doors at 9pm, $20 entry.

Resin Dogs - Resinant Frequency

Late last year, Brisbane hip-hop producers RESIN DOGS released a new album, More, and they’re just about to step out the door to promote it. Having lost bass player Chris Bosley in 2005, the core of the group is down to just two members – DJ Katch and drummer Dave Atkins. It’s been a long time between drinks for fans, with the boys having released just one EP since Hi Fidelity Dirt came out in 2003. BMA spoke to DJ Katch to make sure it was worth the wait, as all long-awaited things should be.

Katch, AKA Andrew Garvie, puts the long wait down mostly to touring – at first locally to promote the last album, and then overseas to Europe in early 2004, where they spent the best part of three years “trying to get in the vibe, and to work with different people, to write and to collaborate with.” Important work for a group that relies heavily on hired musicians to build their tracks. “Basically, we hire a guitarist, we hire a keyboard player, we hire bass players and we hire MCs, because we don’t write any of our [lyrics] – we’re not lyricists or anything like that.”

Their time overseas certainly bore fruit – the new album has more international guests than local ones, particularly from the UK. These include co-producer Brad Baloo from The Nextmen, and several of the MCs: Mystro, Demolition Man and Yungun. When asked if there was a reason for this, Katch says it came down to quality. “There are a lot of artists in this country that we gave music to… but people from overseas came up with the goods.”

The evidence of that is there on the album, and in the acknowledgment it has received, with Fine Mess featuring Yungun reaching the semi-finals of the International Songwriting Competition. Aussie rappers N’Fa (ex-1200 Techniques) and Hau (Koolism) did come up with goods, however. “We approached Hau and his came out better than most people’s stuff, and that was written in an hour, after he’d just heard the beat.”
As for what to expect from the new Resin Dogs road show, the key word here is ‘refined’, apparently. “This is definitely a tighter, more ‘showcase’ sort of vibe.”

As they have in the past, the More live shows will be filled out by MCs enlisted for the campaign; this time Aussies DNO (Shin Ki Row) and N’Fa, but this tour is different – they have also sought outside musicians for guitar, keyboards and bass. They will be playing some old songs too, but in a new way, thanks to better equipment. “It’s definitely more refined. This time around, part of the show we’ll be MCing; there’ll be a few instrumental parts of the show where the band just plays stuff off High Fidelity, and then we even break it down to myself and the drummer, and we just do a couple of our old party tunes. It will sound a lot more like the album than any of our other shows.”

The Resin Dogs give you More at the ANU on Thursday June 5, supported by Diafrix and Digital Primate. More is out now on on Hydrofunk Records.

A-Skillz - Mad Skillz

Remember that catchy track Tricka Technology from 2003? It was by Krafty Kuts and A-SKILLZ (aka Adam Mills), and the latter will be in Canberra at the end of this month to safely slow down artificially accelerated heart rates at the afterparty for the massive Winter Warehouse Festival. As if the killer line-up wasn’t already enough to rock our modest town, we have one of the freshest underground hip-hop DJs in the world to kick on with - for those who possess the stamina, it could be the biggest night of the year.

He’ll be spinning funky breakbeats and hip-hop with some of his newer mash-up stuff, and plenty of “sample-heavy party smashers that are a bit too cheeky to be put out commercially.”

That’s what A-Skillz thinks about: not painstakingly creating an endless library of tracks with his name on them, but rocking parties worldwide, week in, week out. A lot of his underground recordings are made for that purpose. “The good thing about doing those sort of records is they’re always going to be winners for your DJ sets; you’ve always got party bombs up your sleeve.”

Not that the man has had much time lately for poring over new recordings. “I’ve been DJing loads all over the place, playing constantly in the UK as well as Europe, so from a DJing point of view its been very busy.” When he does get spare moments, the 24-year-old has been using them to perfect a new album that’s been a long time coming, “but that’s because it’s the thing that’s most precious to me - and so is getting it right.”

Things have been on the up and up for A-Skillz ever since he first met Krafty Kuts just after leaving school, and later teamed up with him to make the now classic Tricka Techonology album. While his own fame has been growing immensely in the UK and worldwide, helping him move out of the shadow of his mentor, Adam is just happy with the feedback he gets at every live show, and admits to still feeling nervous before playing in a new city. “Half the time you just turn up somewhere and think ‘I’m literally ‘round the other side of the world, do people really know who I am? Are people actually going to turn up to this club?’”

Adam has had encouraging signs in the past from our city and hopes for a good turnout of hardened Canberrans. From the sounds of it, he’s got quite a show prepared, and has only to stop off in Bangkok to road test it on his way to Canberra. “I’ve been going through my seven-inch collection of funk records and fattening up a few of them. I’ve got a ton a breakbeat monsters up my sleeve but I want to keep it with my funk roots as well, and also do some cool funk mash-up stuff.”

Adam seems genuinely excited about the show because, while he loves playing at afterparties, and it also means he gets to hang out with his mates the Utah Saints as well. Having played here twice before, he’s confident it’ll be a great end to the night. “I’m really pleased to be doing it because I like the afterparty vibe. It’s good to play at night, when it’s dark, and I think it’s good to let the festival die down and then come in fresh with a new thing. I’m really looking forward to it.”

A-Skillz plays the Warehouse afterparty at Academy with Utah Saints and many more. Tickets are available on the door.

Faker - Spot the Fake

Fresh from playing Triple J’s One Night Stand in Collie, WA, and as the band prepare to embark on a national tour, I spoke to FAKER singer Nathan Hudson about his past, the long road to success, and even the Beijing Olympics. With incredible nonchalance punctuated by short bursts of defensive laughter, Hudson is a lot more soft-spoken than his on-stage personality might suggest. When asked how he first got started, he explains how in his youth, travelling to and from the city gave him plenty of walkman time, which meant that music became like another form of language. “My day would be described by whatever I was listening to.”

Over time, Hudson says, this became his own language to express himself. Now, with the runaway success the band has been experiencing over the last couple of years, they are just getting to the point where they can call themselves full-time musicians. “It’s nice to have more time to do what I want to do,” Nathan says, looking back on the days when he worked three jobs, often on nightshifts. “If you want to do something, you find the time. But man, I lost a lot of sleep.”

On the topic of the future, Hudson says he hopes to just be busy doing what he does best – still losing sleep, but all for the band from now on. When I mention that he is beginning to sound like a damn hard worker, Hudson’s reply is candid and revealing, “Actually, I fear constantly that I’m really lazy.” I point out that only a workaholic would fear that. At this point, our discussion takes a turn for the weird. The clichéd question about the band’s name leads us onto David Bowie, who described himself as a ‘faker’, but is he? Or is change necessary for the expression of one’s true self? Nathan hopes so. Moving on from Bowie, I throw in a little current affairs:

Free Tibet? “Yes.” Would you play at the Olympics? “We actually were offered a spot and we turned them down.” Really? “Yes.”

Leaving the hard-hitting issues to Naomi Robson, I head back into more familiar territory – the upcoming tour, named after their massive single, This Heart Attack. “I think that going out on this tour will be a different thing entirely, because it feels like the rules have changed a bit for us, having had a single that’s done so well.” Using such a well-known name for the tour is sure to attract as many new fans as possible along the way, which should make for some big shows. In Nathan’s words, “It‘ll be exciting to see how people respond.”

On the subject of Canberra, “Two members of Faker are officially from Canberra, so it’s always a warm show.” Yes, despite the weather. “We always have fun in Canberra… oh, there’s that one time that Nic got electrocuted. That was not the funnest time, but we’ve had some fun times there.”

Faker’s This Heart Attack tour comes to the ANU Bar on Wednesday May 28, supported by Grafton Primary and Violent Soho. Tickets through Ticketek and the ANU Union. Faker’s album Be the Twilight is out now on Capitol.