David Chesworth's Raucous Minimalism

I CAN NEVER REALLY TELL if the sun is shining in the morning, due to a serious lack of window in my bedroom. Instead, a hole in the roof which emits an eternal grey aura alerts me of night and day. In response to this ecological inner-city setback, I’ve developed an intuitive knowing - like a naked mole rat, sensing it’s that time again to get up and thermoregulate. Except I wear clothes and I don’t eat my own shit. (Naked mole rats eat their own shit. It’s scientifically deemed Coprophagy, which I think would be an awesome band name).

I sheepishly burrow outta the Fitzroy hole and pull up on my Apollo Tourista at Eddy Gardens. Posted out the front of the bowlo with the sun in my eyes, I await the arrival of my interviewee - jack of all trades and mountain bike champion - David Chesworth. Migrating to Melbourne from the UK as a young hustler, Chesworth attended one of the first electronic music courses developed at La Trobe University, naturally cultivating a palette for all things synthesiser and all things minimal. Chesworth was also involved in forming Essendon Airport, a post-punk group emerging in the 80's that would become an unrelenting name stay within the more unconventional sub sects of punk. Inviting us to stroll over moonbeams and waltz over clouds, tuning in to this band is like lowering yourself into a warm bath of unbridled saxaphones and merciful chaos. To understand this collage of musical references and time signatures, I get the nitty gritty of Chesworth's influences, as we talk drunk hecklers, euphoria and DIY's endearing incompetence...

DC: ...How did my stuff come into your orbit? I can ask the questions!

FD: From a friend, I’m fortunate to have friends -

DC: With taste…

FD: *laughs* In the punk scene, he was really into Essendon Airport and sent me some albums when I was first getting into post-punk. You have these preconceived ideas of what punk is, angry guitar, angry drumming, loud noises - yours is clearly quite different.

DC: Yeah, we fall under the banner of post-punk… I think post-punk started to reference things, and sort of take apart other structures and mess with stuff. I’d never identify as a punk, I kind of observed all that from a distance - but I was right next to it! 

At that time I was a student, and a bit of a dabbler in music and then I got together with Robert Goodge, the guitarist… I was influenced a lot by minimalism - I was studying that at La Trobe university, the first experimental music course. I was interested in new practises and processes of making music - for eg, additive processes… where complexity builds. 

*church bells start ringing at the nearby parish*

DC: Oh, thats nice! Another influence of mine, was bells. I grew up in a town where they practice ringing the changes twice a week. 

FD: What a happy coincidence!

DC: I would listen to these permutations and combinations. You’d have a particular set of notes, say white notes on the piano, but that order would continually change so that you’d start a pattern… you’d play through all these different patterns… that trained my brain to really enjoy repetition and permutations and things like that. 

FD: You know Tiktok?

DC: *excentuates old timey British accent* Yes, the kids have told me about that!

FD: It’s interesting how it can really influence society in terms of what music people are listening to. Do you think there’s still a counter-culture in response to this? 

DC: I think things are not so defined now… there’s so many subsets of subsets, people are not geographically bound to being into things - things are immediate. Looking back, its hard to believe that things were so layered into zones. There was high culture, and there was low culture… which was commercially exploited through records - with incredibly rich pop music which I loved. Then it was all about striving for a number 1, now, you’d have a very eclectic grouping that would be serving many diverse interests…. A lot of stuff [in the past] didn’t make it, which is why shows like NTS are so amazing, coz its playing all the other stuff which didn’t cut the mustard back then. 

… The whole rock music sensibility has sustained and morphed and sort of hovers there are wont go away. You think we would have gone onto something else… I’m surprised people don’t give up on music and go “we’re sick of this music thing, lets find another way to do things!” 

FD: I know! I give it about 20 years, there’ll be something else goin’ on. We’ll be listening to stuff like 4,33” - it’ll just be silence.

DC: I think music is a concept. It never becomes a daggy thing. The toughest dudes getting interviewed and they’re talking about the music they make… it transcends… its not fashionable, rather a solid term - tough guys can use the term ‘music’! *laughs*

FD: Do you consider yourself a tough guy? On your bike I think you’re a pretty tough guy…

(David had pulled up to Eddy Gardens on a pretty serious mountain bike)

DC: Yes indeed!

FD: Rightio! Did you ever experience any kind of reluctance to embrace electronic/experimental music? 

DC: Reluctance, now that's an angle! No - because I didn’t train as a proper musician, so I didn’t learn the piano or anything. The synthesiser, when I was taught it, didn’t even have a keyboard. You just had one series of voltages talking to another serious of voltages - they’d interact, sometimes producing melodies and sometimes other things. That became my tool. This turned into two records - the first one - "50 Synthesiser Greats" was self-released in 1979 [and has since been re-released by Chapter Music]. "The Unattended Surge", which was quite different, was made at the same time but first released 15 years ago [by Italian label PLANAM]... it wasn’t really setting out to be experimental though. In a sense, I am driven towards catchy rhythms and poppy things, I have to confess. 

FD: You’re only human!

DC: Thats right! [the time of the albums release] was when lack of competence was an endearing quality of music *laughs*. So those two channels - experimental and abstract, VS one that was playing off the melodies around us and the world that we live in… I’ve always had those two sides of the scale talking to each other… I guess I’ve enjoyed the tension, I don’t like giving people exactly what they want.

FD: You’re like Bob Dylan trying to give people a concert…

"...I think I do like antagonising people through the form of things, but that can be the context or alluding to something… Doing the right thing in the wrong place, and the wrong thing in the right place" 

DC: Is that right! I think I do like antagonising people through the form of things, but that can be the context or alluding to something… Doing the right thing in the wrong place, and the wrong thing in the right place. 

FD: Excellent - words of wisdom!

DC: Well, someone else said that…

FD: Better not write that one down then.

(oops) 

FD: The next one is a little bit random, but do you feel more recharged by the sunlight or the moonlight? 

DC: Oh well - that’s interesting - definitely sunlight. I’m not a moonlight person really. Have you asked other people that question? 

FD: No, but I’m interested. Considering some people put their crystals out by the window and charge them at night, by the moon… I dunno, I think I’d be more recharged by the moonlight. 

DC: If i was kind of goth, or was totally pretentious, I would have said moonlight… 

~

FD: Have you heard of Make It Up Club? I live a stones throw away from there… 

DC: Yes! I’ve performed there.

FD: There’s something about the ritual of returning to this space each week. I feel as if theres a constant state of creative flux alive in these walls that's constantly in a cycle [of being renewed] - which is fantastic. But, do you think theres further opportunity for new ideas in more open spaces? As a listener who attends somewhat regularly, you know exactly what to expect visually. You also know the sounds, the drips that’ll come from the pipes, you know it’ll be a bit too warm… whereas attending performances in a brand new location - I feel as if there’d be more opportunity for new ideas for both the audience and the contributor. 

DC: Well, this is just like you coming to see me here, to talk, coz I could see you at my place, but I’d be in my familiar environment, and so you’re not stimulated… most of the world is a world you totally understand and know. To be in new spaces where the world is made slightly unfamiliar to you definitely makes you receive any content in a new way. So yes, I think venues that put things on time and time again, becomes sort of like a scene. You’ve got your friends - a whole lot of factors come in. I think that shifting the context of the music is paramount really. Music is context dependent, for me anyway, it cant happen without the circumstances around it. It’s that cliche of if you’ve got writers block you’ll go somewhere else and have a new stimulating environment. Having said that, I can also talk about the continuities of these spaces. I was the coordinator of this thing called the Clifton Hill Community Centre - will I send you the link to that?

FD: Absolutely - yes please.

DC: I just designed a website for it.

FD: Jack of all trades!

DC: Someone had recorded 4 performances on binaural microphones forty years ago that sat on a shelf… so I thought I’d make those available for people. Clifton Hill was exciting because different people would turn up every day, so rather like Make It Up Club… except we were not into personal expression - “we don’t wanna see people emoting” and using all these cliches, coz that belonged to mainstream music making… Make It Up Club - early days - all of a sudden it all came about sound again. In my view, because computers and new devices allowed incredible new sonic worlds to be made - a whole lot of people starting playing synths, deconstructing drums, rattling things and banging things and it all went back to personal expression… Things can get samey, when people are trying to show each other how clever they are, so, new circumstances… It is better.

FD: Next one is another random one. We were watching the archery last night and there was-

DC: So you actually found something that was watchable? 

(a skater rolls past us) 

DC: Better than the bloody skateboarding. Did you see any of that? What’s normally on public infrastructure is now in a stadium - most of it’s just them falling off!

FD: It’s all a simulation… Anyway! The winning bullseye - it gave us all collective goosebumps. There’s crying, there's jumping, there’s glee. Have you ever experienced euphoria like that before, and where do you find it in every day life? I imagine [your daughter’s] arrival into this world was pretty euphoric.

DC: *laughs* You’re putting words into my mouth! Yes, her beaming eyes looking out from a caesarean… um, that was good! I do find musical experiences I am super affected by… I’m a bit weird in personal life - but I do enjoy performing on stage - I get the adulation of people. My stuff is appreciated by a thin spread of people, but when someone does comment back and says something to me, thats very pleasing! I’ve done experimental performances, operas… So you’ve put this thing on thats almost killed you doing it and the next day feeling - you’ve just done a fucking massive thing thats seemed to have gone down ok - that’s euphoric. But then the next two weeks you lose all that, you get into this chasm of nothingness… euphoria is making something that comes together - when all of a sudden for you, there’s a sense in sensing. That “oh my god! Thats amazing! I wonder if anyone else will think so…” 

"Euphoria is making something that comes together - when all of a sudden for you, there's a sense in sensing. That "oh my god! That's amazing! I wonder if anyone else will think so..."

FD: I feel the same when I put a blog post out and I get a comment back - it’s nice - it’ll put a smile on my dial.

DC: I’d take that as a euphoric win! 

F:D absolutely. We need more of those. One of my fav songs of Essendon Airports, is definitely "I Feel A-

DC: -Song Coming On… *light sigh*

FD: Sue Me! It’s a great one. I wanna know what’s behind this track? 

DC: I’m gonna disappoint you…

FD: Please! Go ahead! 

DC: Palimpsest is actually being re-released soon. We’ve been doing gigs under that guise.

FD: I was at the Hope St Radio one! Brilliant. 

DC: Oh lovely! You didn’t say hi?

FD: I was a bit inebriated. I also remember taking my shoes off and smelling my own feet and I was insecure the whole night. 

DC: Wow. Too much information. Did you hear the heckler? I knew who he was. He was drunk, and trying to be ironic…. We played our first or second song and he goes “BORING!!” It was totally bizarre!

FD: Haha we were very confused, but it was certainly memorable!

DC: So Palimpsest - we build our music on older forms - and so a lot of the songs titles, and some of the forms of the songs are taken from these cheat books - songs of the 30s, 40s and 50s - little guitar songs. I Feel A Song Coming On is… Wizard of Oz… whats her name? Judy Garland! One of her movies she sings “I feel a song coming on” So I literally just sing that song…. We do a slightly different spin on it as you can hear. 

FD: Would you consider your stuff with Essendon Airport more maximalist? 

DC: I’m not sure what it is! … I guess the sincerity factor is hovering and moves around. 

FD: There’s an intensity there. In songs like Re-Funkt, there’s a lot of percussion and chaos. 

DC: Yeah - theres a couple of electronics in there that are very sort of cheesy… As the keyboardist, I have to make my minimal notes count coz I cant do a lot. Often I hit the bass notes which gives a harmonic shift… We just wanna make fun things that work together! Paul has just got this nutty style. He’d never played a set of drums before, and he just sat down and went crazy - he knew that every 16th note had to have a hit on it. He became our drummer but didn’t necessarily keep our rhythm - the guitar kept the rhythm, and Paul hung on. 

FD: But it’s that unique quality that people adore - what were talking about before? 

DC: incompétence? 

FD: That’s it! It’s loveable isn’t it?

DC: A lot of the famous singers are not great vocalists, because people like the sort of damagedness… Nick Cave is obvious… people like the slightly broken element. We will it along, we want it to be complete - maybe audiences complete it a little bit?… The imperfect is the best, it suits me! I’ve found ways to put my imperfect qualities to good use!

David's bandcamp: https://davidchesworth.bandcamp.com/

Essendon Airport: https://essendonairport.bandcamp.com/album/agua-por-favor

Clifton Hill Community Centre: https://www.listeningtothearchive.com/

Drain, Shame, and Prop Record's Omnipotent Reign

Shame… 

It’s Baby’s 1st Birthday for Ashfield’s beloved Prop Records, and I’m straight skipping to the 96 to return Sydney-side and bare witness 2 dis shit. To mark this special occasion, Prop have prepared their party bags for the talent that is GIFT EXCHANGE, PIOUS FAULTS, FULLY FEUDAL, CARNATIONS, OPTIC NERVE, G2G and HERNIATED DISCS (who’s invitation musta got lost in the mail…). I’m sloshing Skepta’s Ignorance is Bliss into my frozen ears under the winter sun when I see something glimmering outside a gentrified Fitzroy bagel shop… an Italian gold bracelet that’s just tooooo big for my soft (city) paws. When I touch down in torrential Sydney, I backstroke straight to Marrickville to hug my bezzie and cash da loot at the nearby Money Lenders. Behind the trustworthy man sizing up the treasure, is a gigantic and scary sword hung dutifully on the wall. 

He tells me and Mimi that 

“Arnold Schwarzenegger used this in movie. It’s very heavy.”

 
I get 200 big ones, but it’s not enough to buy the blade. I’m too blinded by my own good luck to chew long enough on the immoral nature of this affair, but for now, I will use my apparent blessing to alleviate overpriced beers and overpriced airport freddo frogs. 

When I finally shake myself off at the bowlo entrance, PIOUS FAULTS are busy shutting people up. I’m giving my friends the “sheeeeeeeeeeeet!” eyes, because it seems that Brisvegas have lined up another three cherries and cha-chinged a hardcore adjacent jackpot. It’s kind of like if Joaquin Brewer and Caractacus Potts from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang fused into one, coz the band suddenly transforms into a beautiful tenor choir for what I think is the shiny two-part track, Worship the Surface. This sporadic injection of acapella is fresh, coz it’s unconventional but fits so well - like chilli chocolate or Faye Webster and Lil Yachty. Me and the other punters are starting to itch under this QLD spell when the main fella hops off the stage mid-song, and charges with a stiff-arm fend for the bar. He later reemerges on the small stage with a drink in his hand and an ill-chay look on his head.

Football game…?

I make haste for the bathroom to lap up some gatorade and stretch my hamstrings before second half. I am standing next to Elmo from FULLY FEUDAL when an older punter looks us dead in the eyes and asks

 “do you guys actually like this music?”

I grapple tackle her to the ground and cling on for a bit, but the ref’s whistle pulls me straight back up again because my morals have all at once returned to me. Reluctantly still, we shake hands and put our mouthguards back in. When I emerge back onto the pitch, I see Zoe oggling the caesar salad burger on her plate with engorged cartoon eyes, but unfortunately it’s too dry. There’s not enough sauce! There’s never enough sauce… 

I’m practically choking on deze dusty chips, but the sonic power of FULLY FEUDAL Heinrich manoeuvres me so I can breathe again and it’s all eets (iykyk). These guys dispense a gentle ferocity through their music, it’s hard to explain, but it just floats around the bowlo like noxious gas and guides its patrons into a pleasant stupor. Their set is unassuming and weirdly tranquil - I am tapping my feet under the table and looking around at my surroundings as the rain pelts down  and floods the city. I’m pretty sure they play Crown in a Rosebush, which is making me feel like a knight in shining armour with disparate drums and unidentified jangling sounds. I’m thinking the whole band would look really sick in medieval drip - especially the bass player. They should swap that fender for a lute. 

CARNATIONS haul us out of this squelchy smoko like we’re yellow-finned tuna and they’re an illegal fishing trawler - there’s no choice but to swim upstream… It’s my first time hearing their new stuff after my time away, they sound goth-ier and perhaps more mature - despite Marianna and Naomi’s synths perched upon their cherry red high chairs. The Cleaners From Venus cover makes us fish fully squirm, and I reckon if Mr Newell were here himself, he’d tip em’ his top hat and then tell me to fuck off. A little while later, Gi crawls up on stage and informs the crowd that Optic will be selling dexies after the show, which makes the man in a full white suit in front of me hee-haw like a donkey. OPTIC NERVE are a common odds on favourite, because statically, they are unable to fall from the ladder. They’re so in sync with each other, and surprise me with some slower paced new tracks that launder the dirty dawgs in the mosh at a more environmentally friendly setting. Leash riles me up as it’s chanted around the pitch, in between the thumps of feedback that pour out of the amp at Gi’s discretion - “One hand, on the leash, walkin’ the dog, down the street….”.  Zoe ritually applauds them with a few hard barks. Joel shoulder charges off the stage to catch the end of the Raiders game, and I see the older punter from earlier is sent to the sin bin for trying to hijack the aux to play Foreigner. Time and place lady! 

Drain…

It then comes time to cash out my dividend when G2G roll up and unleash the beast and make the last of us shake a leg. My incline walks at the gym are doing fuck all coz I start sweating through my thick purple sweater and white suit guy nearly slips over on my sweat puddle. Perhaps more importantly, it appears the divide between Drain Gang and Prop Records is finally beginning to close, as someone in the crowd tells me that G2G’s bass player shared the stage with Yung Lean the night before… You cant make dis shit up! - I wonder If she told Jonatan about the laws of attraction, or vice versa? G2G are just so effing cool, because they got dat diligaf?, where am I? who am I? effortless kinda spirit. And just when I thought I couldn’t <3 them any more, they cross the try line when drummer Danny starts belting Dirty Old Town from behind the his cymbals. My harp tattoo starts stinging like Harry Potter’s scar, and I watch as the crowd throw down their blue and maroon jerseys for green ones. Again, the sweet sorrow of Irish diaspora arrests me under the intense glow of the “Live @ The Bowlo” neon sign. 

And so, I spend my dwindling shame currency on some stale wannabe smarties from the lollie dispenser. They taste like shit, and I know this marks the early onslaught of my incoming bad karma! I say bye-bye to my Sydney friends, and wade back out into the torrents, keeping my ears pricked up for sirens. Prison cells are tooooooo small for this (country) dog!

(I do NOT condone gambling, violence or letting your moral compass get all mixed up even if you're as skint as I am)

Passin' The Time with Cloud Ice 9

Good Friday, 2024.

ONE THOUSAND, NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY SIX YEARS AGO TODAY, Jesus was crucified on the cross. His last words to his apostles, according to the bible, were “make sure Farmdog gets that fresh ass Cloud Ice 9 interview”. And so I did…. for on a selection of various colourful chairs, on a lovely kempt front lawn somewhere in smellbourne, sits 3/5th’s (guitarist Reese, drummer Miles, and singer Jordan) of Cloud Ice 9. I hand them a sad Foodworks easter bunny, as the big guy in the sky would have wanted. In return, I am proffered a quick tour of their vast backyard. I see a pool, and hear of future plans to procure a ball pit for a party - but it’s time to get to get down to business. Under the shade of a friendly tree, we undertake a search for the theistic truth about toxoplasmosis, vegetables and artistic authenticity.

Listening to this band’s repertoire is like walking down a sticky dark alley, only to trip over cow bells, drum machines, a clarinet and a some devious licks of sax. Amidst the freaky   music videos, as well as their poignant and objectively beautiful album artworks, Cloud Ice 9 have cultivated something entirely original and free from any kind of constraint of genre… fresh out of a parallel universe. Distinct personalities don’t crash here, they collide - and in turn rip new black holes into the milky way of the Melbourne scene. It’s light-hearted and leaves one in a “general disorientation”, but is still wholly fuelled by a resolute purpose - to churn out a body of work that’s raw, refined and uncompromising. 

And pesticide-free.

~

FARMDOG: If you could describe your life as a subreddit forum, what would it be?

REESE: r/thingstodoinmelbourne. Just like, Luna Park.

FD: I’ve never been to Luna Park. I’ve been to Sydney’s Luna Park…

R: The one on the harbour? We went there…

MILES: If I’m honest with you, it’s like, r/whatdidtheymeanwhentheysaid? r/whatdoyoudowhentheydontreply?

FD: Yeah. Let’s lay it all on the table.

M: Thats a bit vulnerable… It’s like getting relationship advice from the internet, but then it being real bad.

JORDAN: Do you ever talk to chat GPT as a therapist? Its actually pretty good. It really lays it out for you. Real objective, sensible, robot advice. 

MILES THE ROBOT: “Communicate clearly and respect everybody’s emotions involved” 

R: AI is the daddy we never had.

FD: I used it to write a cover letter, but thats about it. I should treat it more like a human though.

J: Thats what they want though… 

R: What was your answer again?

FD: Mine? Oh. r/profusesweating. 

J: So you’re known for your sweating? That’s like your main thing?

FD: Maybe in my own head, yeah. 

*laughs*

R: Brain sweat! I can feel a few beads dropping right now… 

FD: This ones a bit silly. Is it just me or does everyone in Melbourne have a Schnauzer?

R: There’s a lot of Germans in Melbourne that have bred them like, hectically. Big German Schnauzer community. 

J: There’s a lot of like, rescue greyhounds and stuff. I haven’t seen heaps of Schnauzers. I wish I’d seen more. They’ve got like a kind of regal attitude for how ridiculous they are. Are they the ones that look like the end of the broomstick ran away from its duties?

FD: Yeah! With legs… and a tail.

R: I reckon its got something to do with how many Nazis fled after WWII. Maybe they relocated here, started breeding Schnauzers. 

FD: OK! I like the album title Hocus Pocus - it’s cool - what kind of spell does the band want to cast upon those who listen to it?

*Collective hmmmmm*

M: It’s a funny question, coz it might be different for all three of us - which is part of why the bands fresh - everyone has a different vibe, a different energy and a different spell.

J: All five of our individual spells combine into a very confusing spell…general disorientation. 

M: I think its like an invitation into a world… it’s a portal - You get kind of caught in a trance, and some of the songs are composed in that way, wheres it’s the same musical motif over and over again… A lot of the music is playing with dynamics - getting quiet and then loud - the composition is quite the same every time… the trance is like, “come in and get immersed in it”… 

J: It’s like, really bad hypnosis… “come! Join us!” Then they’re like “mmm I don’t really want to” - “Please!” - then they’re like “All right, I guess. Coz you’re trying so very hard”… It’s like the lion the witch and the wardrobe. We build a big door, it creaks open a bit and a tentacle pops out…

R: Because we made that record in such strange iterations - it’s like a compilation of voice memos of us playing together, it does kind of feel like a portal to a different time, a different place and a different group of people playing on different instruments. I think it is, at least for me, very transportive to a specific time and place each song.

J: … The easiest way to make a record out of it, was to construct this soundtrack to some really bad sci-fi movie. Yeah, it is kind of transportive in that sense - the theme songs for a sci-fi movie that should never get made.

M: On a more realistic level, all of the recordings… are literally just us hanging out - just being silly and having fun… a lot of the album is just that… its like straight improvisation. I didn’t even think this was gonna be an album. Have you heard the other album? It's like, very much ~ an album ~.

FD: Yeah - well thats my next question kinda, both of them are quite outwardly different… but do you think theres any underlying currents that connect them? Like a feeling or an emotion? 

J: I think they are their own episodes in the greater Cloud Ice 9 universe… the first two records are their own studio, more clinical kind of meticulously constructed things - and then collectively we wanted to do something like Hocus Pocus, because we did have material with so many different people. I guess we’ve been told the records are chaotic as they cross a lot of different genres - maybe the connection is how disconnected and broad it is…

M: They’re part of the same world, but one’s just more raw. Hocus Pocus is just us kickin’ it not thinking about it. The others are a lot of Jordan’s writing that we’ve really perfected to play. It’s refinement, and then its rawness.

FD: Good - that’s straightforward! Chat GPT would fuck with that answer. 

R: When you listen to the record do you think theres a connection? Can you hear that its the same people? 

FD: Yeah, I can kinda hear it’s the same people… They’re all kind of trance like in their own regard. But maybe in the last one it’s more amped up. I was listening to it last night - just floatin’ - floatin’ away.

J: Ha, that’s nice. Yeah they’re all kind of different - but we’re all really different as we were talking about before. We don’t wanna do anything that’s too constrictive… we wanna keep it as broad as possible. 

FD: Beautiful! All right, so you’re all very different, but who is the best looking member of Cloud Ice 9? 

R: Well, Joe kind of looks like Clark Kent…

*They all laugh*

R: He’s definitely like our Frodo - he’s like our main protagonist - the main character syndrome.

FD: Is he saving the world right now? That's why he’s not here?

J: Yeah thats probably it. He makes some time for us, but we’re probably just NPCs in his superman world. 

FD: Weird is kinda similar to cringe sometimes, so I was gonna ask you, do you think it’s punk to be cringe?

R: Depends on what you think of as cringe.

FD: I would say cringe is not really giving a shit, and doing what you wanna do.

M:… I would say cringe is when someone sparks some kind of traumatic response in yourself based on your past. Like, you think something is ehhh coz of something that’s happened to you.

J: Both craaaazy definitions of cringe! If something is cringe, it’s like uncomfortable or awkward because someones doing something thats daggy, or a bit inauthentic. I think sometimes people really nail it - that tongue in cheek really ironic shit can be cringey, but then theres also a level of not really giving a fuck that really works. It’s like a celebration of dagginess. I feel like a lot of cringe feeling comes from copying something that already exists… if you really don’t give a fuck, then you kind of get away with it… Punk can be cringe. Cringe can be punk.

FD: Cringe has a deeper meaning than I had first realised!

M: I do some cringe shit, that I’m just gonna keep doing. I know what you mean - I think inherently I’m pretty corny. 

FD: It’s a beautiful thing. I’m thinking like, falling over the bus in front of everyone. Is that just embarrassment?

*laughs* sooooo cringey. 

R: I feel like in order to get to a place of authenticity in whatever art you’re making, you have to let go of a lot of self… ideas of your social standing or what you think the way people perceive you is. You have to work through the cringe - you have to be cringey to get to authenticity. 

Brief interval as Jordan is gifted a tiny miniature cat by his friend. It has a phat ass. He happily accepts, and vows to add it to the collection of toy cats in his room

FD: It’s cute. Does it have a name?

J: Uhhhhh - Little Larry.

FD: Is everyone a cat person or a dog person?

J: … By the powers above me I’m forced to be a cat person. Toxoplasmosis has me brainwashed to be obsessed with my cat.

R: Have you heard about toxoplasmosis?

FD: No…

R: It’s a type of fungus that grows in cat poo that makes people aggressive and obsessed with cats. 

J: Aggressive???? 

FD: Fuuarrrrrk!

R: Yeah. It makes people statistically more aggressive.

FD: Dream retirement home location?

J: Ooh. I love these questions. 

M: Cuba or some shit like dat. Our friend the other day said that people just unsolicitedly just make out with each other out on the street, for no reason. 

J: You wanna retire in Cuba coz you wanna randomly make out with people on the street?

M: Yeah.

FD: Just doing loads of Cuban coke in your retirement.

M: No.

FD: *laughs* True. Just making out then. A more natural rush?

M: Yeah, natty rush. And cold plunges. 

FD: Shit. Album title? 

R: Natty Rush and Cold Plunges!

J: … Probably the coast. I’d like to be close to the crabs, and the ants… Out of town. Not as wild as Cuba, but somewhere down beach ways… I’m gonna need a very cold body of water to constantly flail in, in order to feel awake. What about you Reese?

R: Somewhere in Australia, somewhere cold. Tassie maybe. 

J: Where would you retire?

FD: I really like the South Coast of NSW, like Pambula…

M: I’m going there next week! It’s so beautiful, like rainforests on the beach. 

FD: watch out for ticks. My mum had one in her head.

R: I’ve gotta bounce.

The others collectively reprimand Reese for rightfully wanting to leave my very professional and insightful interview (he has another band practice)

J: Reese has a flighty vibe… He needs like, a smoke bomb… 

FD: Where do the characters in your songs come from? For EG, Officer John… 

J: I guess just like, real life. They’re just all metaphors and symbols for real dudes… I feel like we’ve all encountered an officer John once or several times. It’s a lot of fiction tied in to represent things in real life… It’s the only way I really operate actually - I can only write a fictitious story to represent an idea that represents things in real life. I like a lot of word play… Like Crabifornia is just a kind of dumb spin-off of that OC song… I was like “Crabifornia here we claw - that’s funny” - and then just from that, [i’ll] write a whole crustacean post-apocalyptic world take over kind of story. 

R: Making the personal impersonal. That’s the trick.

FD: Damn. We got a philosopher sitting over here… smokin’ his darts. The Silent Philosopher - with no time for interviews.

*laughter* 

J: I do find it funny with songwriting… the minute you use metaphors and similes and all that stuff - it allows you to make a connection. 

"The people in our generation don’t have many strong links to a cultural identity. We’re all from all over the world and grew up in an internet age. If you listen to really great folk singers, your Paul Kellys and Kev Carmodys, that are writing about their lives that are so entrenched into a specific culture - that’s not as relatable to us. As much as we appreciate it… we’ve created our own culture"

R: The people in our generation don’t have many strong links to a cultural identity. We’re all from all over the world and grew up in an internet age. If you listen to really great folk singers, your Paul Kellys and Kev Carmodys that are writing about their lives that are so entrenched into a specific culture - that’s not as relatable to us. As much as we appreciate it… we’ve created our own culture. 

M: It’s not like African American music like jazz, where it’s born out of a struggle.

J: Yeah - like not really having a culture, feeling like an alien - it’s a different kind of deal.

FD: You’ve gotta look elsewhere for your inspiration. Do you find it hard to be authentic in your music? 

R: Authenticity… is like the idea of potential. You know it exists but you can't grasp it - I think to even play a guitar you have to concede a small amount of authenticity - because you are standing on the shoulders of giants… 

J: It depends on what you’re doin’ it for though. I never feel like I struggle being authentic, coz I make music for myself and nothing else - if I was making music for some other gain, that’s when you start dipping your toes into inauthenticity…

M: That’s the other thing… This comes up a lot. It would be easier to make a song not about Officer John, or whatever, and it would maybe make some money… It’s like nah - we wont do that. We’ll make a video clip thats about two aliens that have popped out of a fridge. Every fork in the road we talk about, it goes more towards what feels more fun and interesting, rather than what might help us progress. I don’t know if that speaks to authenticity - but I don’t think it would be as fulfilling if we weren’t doing that. 

J: It’s also about ones idea of progress - and about the commodification of art. Progress to me, is making different kinds of art that yeah, has connections to a cultural dialogue, but is kind of offering something a little different or nuanced… I don’t really see a sense of progress in doing things that are more marketable - in order to gain some sort of capital. 

M: Yeah - it is a money thing as well because we do this shit for free. We do this because we want to. We just get together and do this because we fuck with it.

J: We all have real jobs, so this might as well be the most uncompromising and free world of expression that we can make it - which I think is authentic! 

FD: Last question. Whats everyones' favourite vegetable? 

M: Tomatoes… I like capsicum, the red one… crispy. Sharp. Can eat it raw.

J: Potato. It’s solid, it makes sense. It’s simple. Gets the job done. Versatile. It rolls real good. A jacket potato? In tin foil? Straight out of the fire? Are you kidding me? Get some corn kernels up in there… 

(a jacket potato?)

FD: With tuna?

J: You could, yeah…

FD: You could, or you should… 

J: Well you can…

FD: Well you should. 

(corn)

J: Sounds like you would!

FD: If only I could!

R:… barbecued corn. It’s everything… 

J: You could survive solely on corn - it has all of the necessary nutrients.

FD: Really? Damn. I came out of this interview with more than I bargained for. 

J: That’s facts and that’s true. 

(capsicum)

R: … Corn is crazy. 

https://cloudicenine.bandcamp.com/