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/
