1. Growing Up
I’m the youngest in a very big family, most of whom were deeply into music (think The Osmonds without great teeth or Mormon persuasion), so there were a lot of classic records in our household – Beatles, Creedence, Stones, Faces, Bowie, Neil, Bob, et cetera.
2. Inspirations
So many great groups and artists across the decades, from Joni and the Laurel Canyon set to The Jam, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, The Strokes – but ultimately Australian/New Zealand music stays with me the most. I wouldcite The Go-Betweens as my all-time fave inspiration. Send Me A Lullabytruly changed my world andevery record they did subsequently was superb. It was a career highlight for me to work withGrant McLennanproducing his solo album In Your Bright Ray (he says, sneaking in a humble brag).
3. Your Band
We started as a three-piece – Tracy Ellis, Nick Kennedy and I – but when The Fauves released their mocking single, ‘Everybody’s Getting A Three Piece Together’, we had to quickly add members. After a fairly large list of shifting members (including brief tenures by Matt from Decoder Ring, Sally Seltmann and Dave Orwell) we have had a stable lineup for over a decade with new boy Tim Kevin (La Huva,Hoolahan) and more recently Kristy Wilson (Morning Papers, World Champion). Generally we agree on a really wide sphere ofmusical influences butdisagreement may arise on whether or not to add synths.
4. The Music You Make
We have probably been around too long to have contemporaries! We cover a 3Ds song and havereleased a cover of a Josef K song.We are playing with Sounds Like Sunset at Hermann’s this week and our friendship/gig history goes back to some time before the turn of the century. We have maximum respect for Cloud Control, Ocean Party, Dick Diver, Hockey Dad, Flowertruck and many others. Our style can be summedup as‘reflective indie strum’.
5. Music, Right Here, Right Now
It’s still amazingly healthy in Australia (just working your way through Nick Allbrook-related projects can be reaffirming), but I notice that in the last couple of years, many bands are kind of slowing down and taking a long time to make an album – just kind of recording a song or two every six months. That’s a natural product of bands taking more controlthemselves, but it seems like people lose momentum very easily and there’s always a host ofothers coming through with at least one great song.
Catch Knievel, with Sounds Like Sunset and The Holy Soul, at Hermann’s Bar on Saturday July 18.
