1. Growing Up
Paul Kelly, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, Creedence, John Prince, ABBA and Leonard Cohen were on high rotation and I hated it. It mortified me. I was listening to a lot of Limp Bizkit and Eminem. Dad would pick me up from parties and pump ‘Born In The USA’ and I’d be dying. Thank God good sense prevailed and I moved on from the Bizkit and started listening and loving [my parents’] CDs.
2. Inspirations
The Vasco Era are a big one. The only one. For a thousand reasons… the songwriting, watching ’em live, their general juju. You just meet so many dicks, endless dicks, and they are not. I saw them at my first Falls Fest when I was 17 and I was blown away. They played after Modest Mouse and the place was heaving and Sid comes out and plays a solo cover of an Elvis song. We got to play at their last gig in February and that was real bittersweet. A very sad reflection on the state of things.
3. Your Band
I met Simon, the guitarist, at high school and we would go to the music room at recess and play love songs and Jack Johnson covers – but ’cause we were in high school, we were in a constant state of embarrassment and would sort of just look around and strum chords. We got over this just after school and recorded some love songs which are fucking classic to listen to now. They were pretty sad. No idea what we were sad about. We did acoustic gigs for a while and all our mates came, but the Vasco Era fire burned deep in my giblets and eventually we got Jono to play bass and Will to play drums and begun the slow journey to making music that didn’t make us cringe. A couple of years later we’re getting there, but not really.
4. The Music You Make
We recorded the [Mash] CD with Alex Markwell. He did the last one too. He plays guitar for The Delta Riggs. I guess the music is a bit of a mixed bag. I think it’s just ’cause we all like different bands. I think [having] fun is the main thing. Musicians taking things seriously is the funniest thing in the world to me. Press shots. Fucking press shots. Gimme a break. Why do people look so sour and unhappy in press shots? Emotional film clips that are impossible to follow ’cause its just light flaring and slow motion. All that shit is nonsense to us. So we just try to make it fun.
5. Music, Right Here, Right Now
[The] music scene’s great … I saw Palms play the other day in Melbourne and it gave me a stiffy. He’s a jet, that Alex Grigg bloke. I think that’s his name anyway. Bad//Dreems are bangin’ too. And The Mess Hall.
The Pretty Littles play Landsdowne Hotel on Friday December 6 and Upstairs Beresford on Saturday December 7. Mash out now.
