Pete Sotiropoulos and Claudia Schmidt are sitting in their car, chasing reception. “Can you hear us OK?” Sotiropoulos asks.
“There’s shitty signal in our house so we had to go and drive somewhere where it’s better.”
It’s a fitting way for the two halves of Betty & Oswald to begin an interview – without fanfare or pretence. After all, their unmanufactured quality has been the key to their sound since the beginning, and though the pair have never stuck to a single genre, they’ve certainly always stuck to themselves.
“We’re not worrying about what comes out [when we write],” Sotiropoulos explains of the band’s transition from gypsy folk to a newer, surf-rock-indebted sound. “We’re not trying to fit it into what we were doing before. We all found it really fun to write these different songs that we wouldn’t normally write.”
Schmidt and Sotiropoulos are only just returning to music after what feels like a lengthy absence – their upcoming gig at Newtown Social Club represents the first time they have properly taken to the stage since Newtown Festival last November. Real life got in the way for a little bit, and the duo find that their day jobs can sometimes interrupt what they really want to be doing. Schmidt works in a café, whereas Sotiropoulos is a little luckier – he teaches guitar in a self-proclaimed ‘rock school’.
“It’s nice being at work and being able to think about music,” Sotiropoulos says.
“Better than thinking about bread and coffee,” Schmidt chimes in.
Sotiropoulos laughs. “All these jobs are just kind of jobs for now,” he says. “I mean, it’s fun to have a job you don’t take too seriously. But when you do that for more than four hours, it definitely starts to drain on you.”
Nonetheless, the humdrum mundanity of daily life has provided the spark for some of the band’s recent tunes. Along with Patti Smith’s Just Kids (“A beautiful book,” Sotiropoulos says), Betty & Oswald have found inspiration in normality. “Mostly [our songs] are just about being stuck in the city,” says Sotiropoulos. “Driving ourselves a little crazy. And the absurdity of everyone working so much, and how that is what our lives revolve around these days.”
The band isn’t some diversion for Schmidt and Sotiropoulos – making music has been their fantasy for a long, long time. “For me, I’ve definitely always wanted to make music,” Schmidt says. “I think I had dreams of being Britney Spears. And they never died.”
“Bring Britney back,” Sotiropoulos laughs.
“I’d have to kill her first,” says Schmidt.
In those early, Britney-centric days, Schmidt was so confident that she performed without the threat of nerves. “I think I got nervous later,” she says. “When I first started performing I was 11 and I had no fear. It was later [when] I realised there’s a world out there watching you.”
Though stage fright has recently begun raising its ugly head, Betty & Oswald are driven more than anything else by a deep love for what they do. “Looking out at the audience, I just feel euphoric,” Schmidt says. “Just looking out and seeing people listening and enjoying it – that’s the thing I need to keep going.”
“It’s been months since we’ve played live and got that immediate response from people,” Sotiropoulos says. “You spend so much time squirrelled away writing, but then you see people getting into it and you’re like, ‘Oh good, this is great.’ In the lead-up, when you’re not [performing], you forget what that connection is. That’s why it’s so much fun. You forget how normal it is.”
Photo: Rahela Nardella
Betty & Oswald playtheNewtown Social Club 2nd Birthday, withRichard In Your Mind, Slumberhaze, Mario Speedwagon and The Spectacles and more, at Newtown Social Club, Sunday June 5.
