Interview - Regurgitator

With the help of drummer Cameron Potts (Cuba Is Japan, Baseball), Regurgitator’s core creative duo of Quan Yeomans (guitar, vocals) and Ben Ely (bass, vocals) are back in action. Previously, the ‘shock pop’ band – stable for most of the last decade with Peter Kostic (Front End Loader, Hard-Ons) behind the kit, and up until recently, Seja Vogel (Sekiden, Seja) on keys – were responsible for some the most interesting sounds to emerge from the burgeoning Australian alternative music scene of the mid-1990s.

Now that Yeomans and Ely have left Brisbane for Melbourne, Vogel is pursuing a solo career, and Kostic is geographically removed in Sydney, Regurgitator’s music will be released in an unconventional manner for the foreseeable future: Yeomans states that the band will “eschew the stock-standard album release/record label scenario for a ‘take it as it comes’ approach more in synch with current trends of the listener”. TheVine got in touch with the singer/guitarist in late August 2010 to discuss these trends (and others) in depth.

–

Before we talk about the new material, I’d like to go back a few years to talk about Love & Paranoia (2007) briefly.

Oh, do we have to?

I’d like to know what you took away from that album release. How do you feel about it now?

I don’t know. Slightly embarrassed, I guess. I don’t really feel anything for that record, to be honest. I remember all of the things we did to get through it, in Rio [de Janeiro, where the band recorded the album], which is kind of funny. And it was fun having Seja there and being in that strange apartment in the middle of Rio de Janeiro. It was kind of interesting, but musically, [blows raspberry] - it means nothing to me in particular.

You’re embarrassed by it?

Oh, well, I wouldn’t say embarrassed. I don’t think about it. No-one comes up to me and goes, “What do you think about that record?” I don’t really feel embarrassed on a regular basis, but I felt a twinge then when you asked me about it, so maybe that’s a realistic understanding.

Interview - John Butler

It’s a pretty safe bet to name John Butler Trio as Australia’s biggest independent act. Since their humble beginnings with the 1998 LP John Butler, the singer/guitarist and his regularly-rotating musical partners released Three to wide acclaim in 2001 and have continued to grow in stature ever since.

Butler [pictured right] owns Jarrah Records, an independent label created to release his band and The Waifs; in 2005, he and his wife inaugurated the JB Seed grant program to support artistic expression and encourage social, cultural and artistic diversity in Australian society. In the last five years, Butler and his supporters - including Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins and Blue King Brown - have given away somewhere in the vicinity of $500,000 to Australian musicians, managers and social activists through (the recently-renamed) The Seed.

Above all else, though, John Butler is known for his music, a heady mix of blues, roots, rock, and - more recently, with the release of April Uprising - pop. When TheVine reaches John Butler, he’s on a tour bus somewhere in France, having just played at a music festival. He and his current band - drummer Nicky Bomba and bassist Byron Luiters - have spent much of 2010 overseas. The trio completed their most successful US tour thus far, which included their biggest headline show to date at the sold out, 8,500-capacity Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. Ahead of his biggest Australian tour since the release of 2004’s Sunrise Over Sea, there’s a lot of ground to be covered. Butler is up to the task; he speaks with TheVine for over 40 minutes.

–

Andrew: It’s been interesting to follow you over the years, because it seems your outspoken nature and what you and your name stand for are all ideas that many Australians can identify with. Besides your music, which obviously resonates with people, I wonder if this idea, that people feel like they can identify with you, speaks to why you’ve achieved so much as a public figure. What do you think John Butler stands for in the eyes of the Australian public?

John: Wow, what an introduction. That’s great. A real journalist, this is refreshing. Well first of all, who I am and how I define myself is a work in progress. And in another way I think it would be kind of pretentious to think of what I stand for to people. It would be almost a little bit too self-concerned to presuppose what anybody thinks about me.

I think to some people I’m a loud-mouthed fringe hippie who hugs trees. I think other people think I’m a blues artist. Some people think I’m a sensitive new age guy who writes songs about his children and his family. Some people think I’m somebody who’s lived in Australia for 24 years, and is Australian, and loves Australia but still has an American accent. [laughs] I think I’m many things to many different people. I think some people hate me and some people love me and there’s probably a lot of people who don’t give a shit and that’s probably a healthy thing.

Bigstrongbrute - We Can Sleep Under Trees In The Morning

Written partly between “a brutal Brisbane summer and a bitter New Jersey winter”, this EP from Bigstrongbrute - musical alter ego of Paul Donoughue - is the successor to his self-released album, Gardens In The Gutter (2008, now out of print). What began as a solo project has blossomed into a group effort, both on stage and within this release: friends lend bass, trumpet, flute and piano to augment Donoughue’s frail guitar tone. Besides a contribution from Jessie Warren (aka Carry Nation), who provides guest vocals on ‘In My Own Mind’, it’s Donoughue’s deep, distinctive voice that dominates the mix. His songs are meticulously crafted, yet the end product is played loosely enough by the band to impart a sense of spontaneity and charm.

Although the middle tracks are populated with guests and musical bluster - Fergus Hill’s trumpet on ‘You Were Always Right’, a jarring, distorted electric guitar solo by Andrew Ford on ‘Supply & Demand’ - the EP begins with Donoughue alone, backed by acoustic guitar and piano. These six songs are kept intentionally uncomplicated and lo-fi (though Todd Dixon’s recording is clear and warm). They’re the sounds of loneliness forced into social interaction, before again seeking solace.

Drawn From Bees - Fear Not The Footsteps Of The Departed

Beware artists who tag themselves “art rock”. Which is exactly where Brisbane quartet Drawn From Bees positioned themselves with the release of their first EP, The Boy And The Ocean, in late 2008. They’ve since adhered to an admirable work ethic that’s seen them write, record and self-release material every six months under their own label, Bonefinger Records. Fear Not The Footsteps Of The Departed is their first full-length.

Drawn From Bees aren’t short on ambition, nor willingness to experiment with different songwriting styles. This isn’t amateur hour: every sound here is calculated almost to the point of sterility. As a result, what they achieve with polish is offset by an absence of warmth and humility. The songs are damned good, but it’s a record largely devoid of personality.

Mr. Maps - Nice Fights

Never a band to care for conventional wisdom or industry standards, Brisbane-based instrumental rock act Mr. Maps have limited this double A-side single – a teaser for their debut album, due later this year – to just 250 copies, and printed the cover on antique pianola paper to offer each payer a unique design. From the hammered-on clean guitar motif to the stomach-turning tempo changes and the subdued, cello-led midsection, the title track is immediately representative of the group’s vision and ability. ‘Nice Fights’ meanders organically, taking its time to unveil the beauty within.

The momentary pause toward the end of ‘Fly You Monumental Mistake’, however, is this EP’s dramatic apex. Everything before this point seems like padding for this money shot. In the one-second window that bucks the trend of streaming guitars and tumultuous drumming, Mr. Maps shine.