Mess+Noise feature: The Gin Club
A feature for Mess+Noise about Brisbane rock band The Gin Club. Excerpt below.
The Gin Club: ‘What We Do Is MOR Pop’
ANDREW MCMILLEN talks to Ben Salter, Conor Macdonald and Bridget Lewis from The Gin Club about recording in a 100-year-old cottage, their respect for one another and how they’re not all that different from English pop act La Roux.
Of all the paths my conversation with The Gin Club ventures down, I’m most surprised when Ben Salter defends one of 2009’s biggest pop hits. In recent performances, he’s been known to inject the chorus of La Roux’s ‘In For The Kill‘ into the coda of ‘Drugflowers’, one of The Gin Club’s best-known tracks. We’re talking about art, commerce, “crappy music” and a perception of privilege that some musicians seem to associate with, well, being a musician. I raise the La Roux cover in the context of “crappy music”, and Salter seems momentarily offended by my suggestion.
“I don’t know if that many people think that’s crappy,” he replies. “This is one of the many things I’m always raving about: people seem to think that because a lot of people like something, it must be bad. Which is just such bullshit. The only difference between popular music and indie music is a production aesthetic and a name.
“If you’re talking about avant garde metal or experimental noise music, that’s different,” Salter continues, “because it’s challenging peoples’ perceptions of what a hook is, or what an aesthetic experience is. But all The Gin Club do is really pop music. People call us indie, but what we do is MOR pop. It might be delivered with a certain honesty of intent, or honesty of conviction, but really it’s not that different from what La Roux is doing - except that she likes synthesisers.” He concludes his clarification with a wistful compliment: “That chord progression [in 'In For The Kill'] is beautiful.”
I don’t realise it at the time, but this statement cuts to the heart of why The Gin Club are so revered among the current generation of Brisbane rock acts: they can appreciate a wide range of musical influences, while still maintaining an unmistakable originality.
Full story over at Mess+Noise.
The Gin Club’s video for ‘Pennies‘ is embedded below. My review of their latest album, Deathwish, is here. It’s good. Buy it.
Filed under Published Writing | Tags: ben-salter, bridget-lewis, Brisbane, conor-macdonald, deathwish, feature, Interview, la-roux, mess-and-noise, Music, pennies, the-gin-club | Comment (1)The Big Issue story: Keeping Current
A story for The Big Issue #353 on Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Click the image below for full-size, readable version; story text is included underneath.
Keeping Current
Six hours is plenty of time to record a full-length rock album from start to finish, claims Mikey Young from Melbourne band Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Did you hear that? That was the sound of professional recording engineers, meticulous sound technicians and veteran major label marketing managers gasping in horror.
ECSR is beholden to no such middlemen. Instead, the band have cultivated a reputation as indie heroes, of sorts: their completely hands-on, DIY approach to all aspects of their career has resulted in a steady rise in the popularity of not only the band themselves, but of the lo-fi, old-school garage rock sound that they’ve played a large part in resurrecting for a new generation of Australian music fans. Young tells me that he spent three years listening to “teenage garage records from the ’60s” while working at Corduroy Records’ vinyl pressing plant, where he realised his fondness for the distinctive guitar tone that now characterises the band: warm and clean for the most part, though prone to occasional buzzing, abrasive bursts of energy.
None of the above would hold much weight if the band didn’t have an audience. Who cares about an indie band doing everything themselves, for cheap? But the band do have an audience, and many do care. In a transition reminiscent of fellow Melburnians The Drones in recent years, Eddy Current Suppression Ring can lay claim to a rare confluence of events: they’re lauded by music critics, and they’re popular enough to dent the mainstream (their third album, Rush To Relax, debuted in mid-February at #20 on the ARIA album chart). But most importantly, they’ve managed to keep most of their fan base intact, despite their rising profile and the inevitable backlash that occurs when artists outgrow their roots.
Though their lo-fi garage rock sound continues to attract more ears, the band’s production costs seem to be inversely proportional. The quartet were the recipients of the $30,000 Australian Music Prize (AMP) in March 2009 ahead of competition like The Presets, Cut Copy, and the aforementioned Drones. The album that won it for them, Primary Colours (2008), reportedly cost just $1,500 to make. Young - whose roles within the band include guitarist, keyboardist, studio recorder, mixer, and manager - claims Rush To Relax cost less and took even less time.
Where does it end, then? The logical conclusion is that they’ll record the next release in one take. Curious, I put the idea to Young. “I always thought about it, but I think it’s unlikely. I can’t see how we can do it much more quickly or cheaper than [Rush To Relax]. Definitely not any cheaper!” However, he feels that too much attention is paid to the length of time it takes for the band to record albums. “It’s not like we’re trying to prove a point. I have the recording gear, so it doesn’t cost us anything. We’re comfortable with doing it that way, and it sounds okay for what we’re trying to do. Unlike some bands who go into a recording session to write songs, we tend to have 12 to 15 songs written and ready to go.”
On record, ECSR aim to sound as close to their live performances as possible. Young elaborates: “I always thought if you can’t play the songs you’re trying to record well after three takes, you shouldn’t be recording it. We try a song a couple of times and hopefully it’s done. There’s plenty of room for bum notes and stuff like that. We’re not trying to achieve any kind of perfection.”
Young believes idiosyncratic singer Brendan Huntley “always seems to be quirky and out of time,” which, alongside his simplistic, honest lyrics, may influence the band’s broad-reaching popularity.
While keeping their career completely DIY might not quite result in the proverbial license to print money, self-recording their material is “a way of keeping costs down, that’s for sure,” says Young. What of the AMP cash they won 12 months ago, then? Besides securing their own recording space, Young laughs as he discusses the photograph that adorns the Rush To Relax album cover.
It isn’t Photoshopped: they really hired the plane that appears in the sky, high above the band, who are wearing masks (”Maybe we were just scared of our own faces on the cover,” he adds, before stressing that there’s no symbolic meaning behind the masks). The cost of this venture seems at odds with their DIY approach, until you consider the importance the band place on their artistic integrity. After speaking with Young, I’m convinced that faking the shot wouldn’t have occurred to the band at all.
“It was pretty hard to find a company that still does those old plane banners. I always used to like those banners as a kid and I always wanted one,” the guitarist says. “Our album cost nothin’, and our friends film our videos, and I guess we won some money last year,” - he laughs. “And I felt like we should show that we spent it on something. So we might as well get a stupid big plane.”
It turned out to be one of those we’ve-made-it moments: “When it came flying over, it was seriously the most exciting event. We were just jumping up and down going ‘yes!’ It was like, box ticked, I can retire now!”
by Andrew McMillen
Video for the Rush To Relax title track embedded below.
Filed under Published Writing | Tags: amp, australian-music-prize, conversation, diy, eddy-current-suppression-ring, feature, indie, Interview, melbourne, mikey-young, primary-colours, Published Writing, Rock, rush-to-relax, story, the-big-issue | Comment (1)Mess+Noise story: Faux Pas: Artist 2.0
An interview feature for Mess+Noise.
Faux Pas: Artist 2.0
Operating under the Faux Pas moniker, Melbourne musician and broadcaster Tim Shiel’s success hasn’t been played out among Melbourne’s live music venues, but online, writes ANDREW MCMILLEN.
“I owe a lot of people a beer.”
This is how Tim Shiel, also known as Faux Pas, jokingly describes his career so far. Unconfined by spatial constraints, Shiel’s success as an independent solo artist hasn’t been played out in Melbourne’s live music venues, but online. The beer-owing remark was a response to his experiences with community radio, which he credits, along with the internet, with disseminating his music to Australia and beyond.
“I don’t play live shows, so radio airplay and internet exposure are really the two main ways in which my music gets spread out there. And the thing with community radio is – and I know this is obvious, but sometimes it bears repeating – in the majority of cases, it’s the individual presenters who make the call about whether they are going to put your stuff to air or not. So there are a lot of individuals who I’m heavily indebted to.”
Full story at Mess+Noise. Visit Bandcamp to listen to Faux Pas - I highly recommended his work.
I also used Tim’s perspective when ‘road testing’ online music service Guvera for Mess+Noise a few weeks back; read that story here.
Filed under Published Writing | Tags: bandcamp, community-radio, digital, downloading, electronic, electronica, faux-pas, feature, guvera, Interview, mess-and-noise, Music, rrr, tim-shiel | Comment (0)Mess+Noise story: ‘Hundreds Protest To ‘Reclaim’ Brisbane’s Nightlife’
On March 11, concerned members of Brisbane’s music community turned out in force to protest a proposed 2am shutdown on all live music venues and nightclubs. I reported for Mess+Noise.
Melbourne had its march for the ages last month, though it was too late to save The Tote. Yesterday, it was Brisbane’s turn to take to the streets in response to proposed legislation that threatens to undermine its vibrant nightlife and culture.
While the Victorian SLAM rally was triggered by a “senseless and arbitrary” liquor licensing regime that tarred all live music venues with the same high-risk brush, the situation up north is a little different. The Anna Bligh-led Labor Government and Police Department Union last year launched an inquiry to curb alcohol-fuelled violence across the state. A proposed response is to close licensed venues at 2am, and enforce a “lockout” at 12am, thereby overruling the existing 3am lockout.
Ahead of the inquiry’s findings - to be released on March 18 – concerned punters gathered outside Queensland Parliament House, a kilometre south of the CBD and located on the edge of the Botanic Gardens. Pitched as a peaceful, strictly drug- and alcohol-free protest named “Reclaim The Nightlife”, the organisers’ expectations for 2000 attendees seemed ambitious as the clock struck 4pm.
Full story (and more photos) at Mess+Noise, published March 12 2010; above photo by Elleni Toumpas.
This was the first organised protest I’d attended. It wasn’t a particularly well-organised or memorable occasion. On the ground, I made the decision to report purely on the proceedings, instead of conducting interviews and collaborating those results into my story. I probably wouldn’t use that same approach on similar events in the future, but for this time, at least, I felt it was worthwhile.
Filed under Published Writing | Tags: Alcohol, australia, Brisbane, culture, elleni-toumpas, feature, live-music, locked-out, lockout, mess-and-noise, Music, nightlife, protest, queensland, reporting, slam, Society, story, the-tote | Comment (0)The Big Issue story: ‘Sounds Of Our Town’
Here’s my first story for The Big Issue, which is published fortnightly and distributed by a network of Australians experiencing homelessness and/or long-term unemployment. Half its $5 cover price goes into the pocket of vendors, who sell the magazine in capital cities across the country. Coincidentally, this is issue #350 of the magazine [pictured right], which has been published since June 1996.
‘Sounds Of Our Town’ is about an initiative called Brisbane Sounds, whose goal is to promote my city’s best independent music on the world stage. It was founded in 2007 by 25 year-old Blair Hughes, who is travelling to music conferences SXSW in Austin, Texas (this month) and The Great Escape in Bristol, England (in May) to promote a compilation CD of the best two dozen tracks chosen among 140+ submissions.
I’m passionate about the Brisbane independent music scene, so it was a joy to describe Blair’s goals and ambitions to a national audience. I look forward to many more stories for The Big Issue.
Click the image below for a preview of the story.
If you live in an Australian city, I urge you to buy a copy of The Big Issue from vendors on a fortnightly basis. It’s filled with compelling stories of real Australians. It’s fast becoming a favourite publication of mine, and it’s an honour to be involved.
Filed under Published Writing | Tags: blair-hughes, brisbane-sounds, feature, feature-writing, Interview, Journalism, Music, Published Writing, sounds-of-our-town, the-big-issue | Comment (1)