1. What Do You Look For In A Band?
I’m kind of from the school of; bad tunes delivered well are better than good tunes delivered poorly. I nearly fell asleep at an Interpol gig once. Obviously, good tunes delivered well is ideal but a punter needs to be engaged by the performance otherwise you would just be at home listening to the CD/record/MP3/cassette/4-track/gramophone.
2. Keeping Busy
We bought a HK Monaro and took a drive to Geelong. It was a nice drive. We’ve also been busy organising the release of our debut album, Great Shakes, which is coming out on local label Psyche Ward. It’s a new label dedicated to local psychedelic flavours and we are very happy to be a part of it. The album has been three years in the making, so it will be good to get it over with and start the next one.
We made a video for the title track without having a clue what we were doing, and it’s turned out quite nicely so we are chuffed! We hooked up a couple of shows in Sydney and Brisbane with some pretty rad psych bands from up there, so we are looking forward to jumping on a plane and hopefully half the band doesn’t miss it like last time.
3. Best Gig Ever
Not sure if it was the best, but certainly the most interesting and stressful. Our drummer had a bender and went AWOL before a gig recently. These rad young dudes called The Fuzzbirds were supporting us and their drummer jumped on board, and we just jammed out five or six soundtracks in D for 40 minutes and even pulled an encore as it went down so well. [It was] nerve-wracking jumping into the abyss of the unknown but ultimately a fantastic voyage.
4. Current Playlist
Digital radio at work. There are so many psych shows out there! Vibravoid, The Seeds, The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Aufheben, Dead Can Dance’s Aion, The Cosmic Dead, The Citradels’ newie Our Lord’s Secret Service, Big Jim Sullivan’s Sitar Beat and Kaleidoscope’s Faintly Blowing.
5. Your Ultimate Rider
I would like a nice new pair of black suede winklepickers for every show I played, upon which I could spill the measly two pots of beer that most joints cough up for a rider these days. We played a show recently and got three slabs between three bands. That was rather a nice surprise. An art deco-themed green room with martinis on tap would be pressing the right buttons for me. Always drink reasonably responsibly, however!
See The Grand Rapids at Brighton Up Bar Friday October 18 and grab Great Shakes is out now through Psyche Ward.
