Little Red- Quang and Taka

NL: Your new album ‘Midnight Remember’ has moved from 60s Garage Pop to a more 80s feel. Why this change?

Quang: Well, when you finish an album it’s like breaking up with a girlfriend; you want to find a new one.

Taka: Wow! That was a good answer. Well, I invented the fast capacitor and I can get 12GW of electricity into the fast capacitor and we travelled to the future (simultaneously with Quang).

Quang: Yeah. We went into the future and listened to the music they were playing and we just ripped it off, same as Marty McFly.

NL: Yeah. Well I mean, you were back in time and you just travelled forward in time to the 80s and now, you’re still back in time. Next you’ll just be in the present.

Quang: Yeah. The next album we’ll be ourselves. Maybe we’ll be really primal.

NL: Everyone in the band has a very upright contribution to the band. Are there ever any fights about who gets to write songs or anything?

Quang: No not really, whatever song is good we want to play it. So that’s about it for our philosophy on that kind of stuff.

Taka: Well it’s just like lightning hitting a tree; whoever has the biggest lightning wins; it’s obvious.

NL: What are your thoughts on ‘second album syndrome’?

Quang: I don’t believe in that, I think it’s a myth created by people who can’t write second albums.

Taka: I have to sleep in my bed for about two years.

NL: Why did you agree to play at That Festival?

Quang: We say yes to pretty much any invitation.

NL: Did you ever hear about That Festival?

Quang: No, not this ‘That Festival.’

NL: What do you think about festivals that are supporting local acts and their music scene?

Quang: You’ve got to support it as much as you can because I think every place has it’s own mystique if you go deep enough and encouraging it to grow into something real is good.

Taka: Hopefully we can inspire some local acts or local people and just spread the word you know.

NL: I hear you’re going overseas very soon. What’s this all about?

Taka: Well, we are going to England pretty soon and we just got signed to a Japanese label called P-Vine, so they are going to take us there, take us to Japan. So yeah, next year is going to be a busy year.

NL: Major vs Independent labels. What’s your opinion?

Quang: My opinion is that these days you are better off just doing it on your own. If you need a leg up sign to a label, but make sure you have some kind of control over what you do.

NL: Why do you play music?

Quang: Because I believe imagination is the avenue to the soul and most lost and wandering people play music because they’re trying to figure out who they are and they’re just trying to tap into the recesses of their imagination.

NL: What’s next for Little Red?

Quang: I don’t know. We’ll take it as it comes.

Taka: We are going to Mars on a Space Project sponsored by NASA.

Quang: I do have a prediction of something that I might want to happen and the music I want to make is freedom music pretty much. So that’s the new thing I think. In my head anyway.

Little Red- Dominic Byrne

NL: Why did you agree to play at That Festival?

Dominic: Umm. I don’t even know if I decided, it just kind of happened.

NL: Have you ever heard about it before?

Dominic: Nope. I didn’t even know. I was confused when people were saying that we were going to play ‘That Festival.’

NL: Yeah, it's a bit confusing. Your new album ‘Midnight Remember’ has moved from a raw sounding 60’s Garage Pop to a more modern, fuller sounding production. What bought on this change?

Dominic: Yeah. It’s definitely different to what it was on the first one. It changed because we were listening to a lot of different music man and I wanted to make something that had a more broader style and I was really into producing something that sounded fucking rich, like big.

NL: Yeah. Your old album ‘Listen to Little Red’ had a very raw and unadulterated sound whilst your new stuff sounds as though a lot more time and production elements have been chucked into it. I dig it.

Why do you play music? What does it mean to you?

Dominic: I hope to try and get a connection with the crowd you know, just have an experience together because if you have that it is really fucking great. That sort of feeling is ideal. It’s great when everyone walks away from it with a special shared experience. I think music does that much more than any other art form; it is really communal and really connects people. So yeah, that’s probably why.

NL: Do you have to be depressed to write a sad song? Do you have to be happy to write a love song? Is a song better when it happened to you? Like ‘its Alright.’ What is this song about and why did you write it?

Dominic: That song was………..feeling good you know? Just like anybody my moods change, so some of my songs are sad and some of them are happy and on that particular day I was in a really fucking good mood; there was nobody at home and I was just running around the house singing this song.

NL: Well man, you’ve definitely communicated your feelings that day because honestly, that is one of the happiest songs I have ever listened to and I just sometimes listen to it laying on my bed and it just brings a smile to my face. No shit.

Dominic: That’s awesome man, that’s absolutely what I want. That right there is seriously what music is about; trying to give someone else the emotion you were feeling when you wrote that song.

NL: Is your song ‘Coca Cola’ literally about Coca Cola?

Dominic: Well, we’ve got this highfalutin idea of what it is sort of about. I don’t know if it really comes across, but it is about love in a commercial era pretty much It’s not about drugs if that’s what you were thinking.

NL: (Laughs) No, I wasn't thinking about drugs. So you’re basically comparing Coca Cola and ice to a lovely girlfriend like in the lyrics, ‘the taste of her lips’?

Dominic: Yeah, but you could have used an Ipod or something like that. But I do like Coke; I fucking love it. (Laughs)

NL: (Laughs) Thanks for that mate, have a good show.

Glass Towers: Round Two

Round two it is. Drunk chicks. Debt. "Add me on facebook!" Metronomy and, "Who the hell is that fifth guy?"........ Enjoy.

NL: Cameron, why did you come to That Fest?

Cameron: Well, for a local festival there were really good bands and we had a lot of people coming.

NL: In your set there weren’t many people arrived yet. But hey, what about the vibe out there?

Cameron: Yeah there was a great atmosphere; we still try to play our best even when there’s no crowd and get our own atmosphere sort of thing.

NL: Sam, why did you come to That Fest?

Sam: Ummmm……. because I think we’re getting paid. (Sarcastic laugh)

NL: Only for the money mate?

Cameron: (Laughs) It’s a party!

Sam: Yeah! It’s a party!

NL: What’s your EP called and when can we expect it out?

Cameron: I think it’s called ‘How To Grow Up’. It’s five tracks and I think it should be out next March/ April.

NL: Where can we find it?

Cameron: In EVERY CD shop.

NL: Tell me about how you scored supporting Metronomy. How the fuck did this happen?

Cameron: We just recently started hooking up a deal with a booking agent. He kind of just rang us up when we were on the way home from a band practice last week and asked if we wanted to play with Metronomy and we just said “yeah!” I didn’t really know who they were at the time but our singer Ben was a really big fan. I’ve been into them ever since that (laughs).

NL: You just finished school not long ago. The world is open to do what you want to do. After your EP, what’s next?

Cameron: Get jobs, make money and move to the city I think.

Sam: I think we’re touring a bit in January/ February because we’ll have a single out by then. Then obviously tour when the EP comes out to support it.

NL: What does That Fest mean to you?

Cameron: Free booze, Party on, drunk chicks.

The interview is then hi-jacked by our sharing of memories of two specific ‘drunk chicks’ at the front of Glass Towers’ set shouting out “add me on Facebook” non-stop for the majority of their set with their high- pitched voices and annoying dance moves. Good times.

NL: (Trying to regain myself) What do you think of local festivals like this that feature up and coming bands?

Cameron: Great. Great. It’s a great place to party. It’s not sending kids to the streets, I mean, they can do naughty stuff here really. And it’s fun man. It’s music.

Sam: And there’s good bands playing here man. You Am I, Little Red!

Cameron: It’s not like it’s a locally shit thing. There’s a lot of great bands playing here today.

NL: I’m so psyched for Little Red and You Am I.

Cameron: Yeah same! I’m even psyched for Miami Horror and I don’t even like them that much.

Sam: We just saw the Space Invadas dudes.

Cameron: We saw the black dude with the massive dreads. He just had an Iphone listening to music just walking around not even taking any notice of anything. Just chilled as.

NL: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Cameron: Washed up rock stars recovering from a heroin addiction. (Laughs) No! I have no idea really. I don’t know where the future is going to take us.

NL: Do you expect anything big or are you just taking it as it comes?

Cameron: Yeah we just have to take everything we can I think. We’re not expecting anything we’re just making the most of what we have.

NL: Yeah, well you’ve definitely made the most of what you have lately; scoring shows with Metronomy, opening Splendour In The Grass 2009, making your way onto the festival scene. How do you do it?

Cameron: I don’t know. We seem to make people like us. (laughs)

Sam: I think because it’s just really fun, happy music to listen to man. There’s also a lot of luck in it.

Cameron: Parents aswell. We wouldn’t be where we are without our drummer’s (Daniel Muszynski) parents. They’ve driven us around and stayed with us in cities and everything. For example, we are in debt $1000 to Dan’s father, so they’ve been really supportive that way.

Tim, Glass Towers ’quiet ‘on the road synth player’ and 'the fifth Glass Tower' is then put in the limelight.

NL: What do you think of Glass Towers buddy?

Tim: Aren’t they the greatest band alive?

NL: Umm? Yeah. I think so man.

Tim: They put on a high-energy show every time which is fucking awesome!

NL: I saw you getting in there mate. I saw you singing every word.

Tim: I was screaming every word. I was like on of those girls saying “add me on Facebook.”

Sadly, this is where it ends in an uncontrollable fit of laughter at the hilarity of Tim’s impersonation of the two ‘drunk chicks’ down the front.

Fin.

Funkoars

NL: Why did you agree to playing at That Fest?

Sesta: We always like coming to this part of the country, it’s nice moosty weather. Yeah, we like taking our clothes off and getting moosty.

Hons: I need to pay my electricity next month.

NL: Just about the money mate?

Hons: No. Not at all. I just like coming out and getting hammered and just partying a bit. Sick of being in Adelaide so it’s good to get out every now and then.

Sesta: We’re not in Queensland are we?

NL: No, we’re just shy of the border mate.

Sesta: Thank fuck for that ay.

NL: Fuck QLD!

(Laughs)

Hons: You can’t actually say that because there’s a law against swearing in public. We found out about that the other week.

NL: What do you think about local festivals like this that are supporting the ‘little guys?’

Sesta: Anything that is supporting local music is good. I mean, shit we need to do something too I guess you know.

NL: Yeah, I mean everyone has to play their part and by you guys playing here, being a famous band are helping out the local music scene.

Sesta: Well. We’re not that big. We’re semi-big. We’ve got a bit of swing but it’s not stiff.

NL: You’re not touching the ground yet. (Laughs). So, have you heard about That Festival before?

Hons: Yeah. I looked it up on umm………(laughs)

Sesta: (Laughs, mocking Hons) ‘I looked it up once I heard of it.’ (Laughs)

(All in a slurry of laughter)

NL: Did you google it mate?

Hons: I did google it, yes. No, I’m pretty sure I binged it.

NL: What the fuck is Bing man?

Hons: Some Microsoft shit, I don’t know. (Laughs)

NL: Can you describe your live show for people who haven’t seen it yet?

Hons: It’s pretty chaotic. Just running around going mental. It’s really a live, live set. It sounds close to what the album is like but we have extra added shit in and stuff like that.

Sesta: Theres always the element of improvisation. We just sort of get up and do it and have a great time. If someone fucks up you just try to roll it and make it into something good.

NL: What’s next for Funkoars?

Sesta: We’re working on an album right now. We are just doing a few shows here and there, this is one of them, in between going balls deep in an album.

NL: When can we expect this album on the shelves?

Sesta: Next year, January, February, March?

Hons: (Sarcastically) April? May? June?

NL: Between January and December?

Sesta: Yeah. 2011ish. We don’t really know.

NL: Cheers for your time.

Dead Beat Band

NL: Why did you agree to playing at That Fest?

Mikey: It’s local and amazing. You’ve got all these local bands coming together and you get to play with all these other big, amazing bands. It’s a good good feeling.

NL: What do you think local festivals like this do to the community?

Mikey: I think it’s great, especially on the Gold Coast because theres so many different genres of music and no one’s really copying each other or anything like that, everyone’s got their own little flair and it’s really good.

NL: The Gold Coast music scene is starting to amp up, and go big with bands like The Dead Beat Band (you) and Jack’s Harlot fronting it. What do you think of this?

Mikey: Yeah I think it’s great. None of us knew how to play instruments and we just gotup there and played and everyone is thinking, ‘fuck, if they can do it anyone can do it.’ So it’s great (laughs)

NL: Cheers for that mate.

Mikey: No worries.

Calling All Cars

NL: Why did you agree to playing at That Festival?

Adam: It’s always good to see new festivals emerging and we back them 100% and have a ball at festivals.

Haydn: In five years time when it’s the new Big Day Out we can go, ‘we were there.’

NL: What does That Fest mean to you? How was your gig today?

Haydn: Yeah, it was good. The rain sucked but everyone stuck around and rocked out so it was still good.

NL: Do you support festivals like this that give rise to up and coming bands?

Haydn: Yeah definitely. It’s the same as the Big Day Out, they still have up and coming local bands every year.

Adam: Yeah it’s a good way to get a start because it’s kind of hard to just jump straight to a main stage.

NL: How did you get to the place you are at now?

Adam: We just sucked heaps of cock dude. Blew heaps of big wigs.

Haydn: You got to do what you got to do. There’s a Regurgitator song about that, ‘I sucked a lot of cock to get where I am.’

NL: Well, all the cock sucking has obviously paid off. Cheers for that boys.

Glass Towers

thebandnextdoor.wordpress.com

This week from the wonderful world of Never Land I, Nick Leighton bring you Glass Towers. A band of four 18 year old friends from Byron Bay who’s sound is never stagnant and is ever-evolving. Drawing inspirations from Foals, Bloc Party and Pavement their sound is something that you won’t want to miss. So I give you some advice, jump on the band wagon before they become big. You won’t be disappointed.

I took some time to talk to them about all things Glass Towers and more. Enjoy.

Check their blog out while you’re at it. http://glasstowers.wordpress.com/

In the band we have:

Ben Hannam (Guitar and Vocals)

Sam Speck (Guitar)

Cameron Holdstock (Bass)

Daniel Muszynski (Drums)

N: Well boys, how was your show?

Sam: It was pretty alright. There was pretty much no crowd there.

Cameron: It was fun. There were about five people. Good show though.

Daniel: New songs came out. On the spot. First time they’ve ever been played.

Cameron: We were just jamming.

N: You were just jamming?

Sam: Well, there was no one there to listen.

N: Everything has been happening for you guys in the last 12 months. How have you managed this when you are so young?

Ben: Umm. We kind of don’t. We’re like bailing school, except for this guy. (All point to my right at Daniel)

All echo: Danoo (Aussie ocker accent)

Dano: (Yes I am now going to call him Dano) I’m Dano!

Sam: Well it hasn’t been that crazy, it’s just been gigs on the weekend really.

Cameron: It’s just been really busy.

N: What about Splendour in 2009?

Cameron: That was the upbringing.

Sam: That was so good. That was packed.

Cameron: Yeah. By the end of the gig, the whole tent was packed because we were on main stage.

N: Tell me about Triple J? About the Unearthed High competition. What have they done for you?

Sam: Well we got played on Triple J which was pretty good.

Cameron: We’ve been getting played all this week as the featured artists too.

Sam: And we won that Urthboy competition where we get to play with Urthboy when he comes to Byron on the 18th of this month?

I’m Dano: 29th of.............October (Laughs)

N: Triple J have basically just put you guys out there.

Cameron: Yeah. It’s so good. Triple J are so good.

Sam: Yeah they have been really good to us by playing our songs and supporting us.

N: Yeah well they have sure worked a treat on my area because you guys have become a familiar name around these parts. I can say “Glass Towers” to someone and they seem to have heard of you guys from somewhere. They don’t know you fully yet, but they know about you and I think that is a good introduction into the music scene.

Sam: Yeah in Brisbane it’s like that.

N: What about home? What does school do for you? Any support?

Cameron: Nothing.

Ben: Yeah. No one knows us at school and no one likes us either really.

Cameron: We played a show at our school once and all we did was noise like: (Makes noises from his mouth which seem to strike parallels with a chainsaw with an extremely high pitch)

We just like sat on the ground (Laughs) and everyone was like ‘what the fuck?’

N: So you don’t get anything from school at all?

Sam: Our school’s not really supportive. So not really.

At Never Land the first time they played in our corner of love.

N: Your sound is pretty unique. You describe yourselves as Indie-Jungle-Post Punk........Pop. Fucking everything.

Cameron: Yeah everything. We like a lot of genres. Whenever were into a specific genre or a specific band we just get inspired.

N: Where do you draw your greatest influences from?

Ben: Pavement, lots of ‘90s stuff, Bloc Party, Foals.

Cameron: We saw Foals at this years Splendour and they were amazing.

Ben: But yeah. Mostly Pavement and ‘90s Indie stuff.

N: Ok guys. Crystal Castles. I’m going to ask you guys. I know you fucking hate it. But did you ever consider your name against Crystal Castles? They seem very alike.

Cameron: Not really. We heard of them before we made up the name though.

Dano: I never picked up that connection. Ben made it up but I never really thought of the name in that much depth.

N: The word ‘Indie’ used to be a label that a band was given when they were signed to an independent label, or not signed at all and had a sound that was completely individual. The music scene in Australia has come to the point where Indie has become mainstream and the underlying meaning of Indie has become completely distorted. We are at the point at the moment where ‘Indie’ is now considered a genre with a set of requirements. What do you think of this?

Ben: I don’t like that because as soon as something goes main stream everyone loves it, but as soon as the phase is over, it is just sort of dead.

Sam: Inidie in the ‘90s meant that you were signed to an independent label and you just released all your stuff underground and no one even heard of you, but now you’re indie and you’re signed to Universal. Now it’s just a genre. So now all it has become is an attitude and a counterculture.

N: It’s kind of like “we’re all so indie and different but we’re all different together so we’re still the same”

Ben: That’s what I’m worried about it.

Sam: It’s like all the emos having the same black hair thinking they’re all individuals.

Ben: Now that is considered indie too. It’s just all fucked man.

N: Your EP. What can we expect?

Ben: They’re all old songs. They’re all written when I was 16. Ages ago.

Cameron: Me and Ben write together all the time. We wanted to get all our old songs out first so we didn’t have to do it later because people just chase up on your old stuff and don’t give up really. We still have people from the start saying “play this one” and we haven’t played it for like 3 years.

N: So it seems like you have a vague plan of the future, or are you just taking as it comes?

Ben: We hopefully have a good plan.

Cameron: We’re going to move to a city obviously, probably Brisbane because it’s so easy ,and then just work from there like get a hype coming out from that city, then move to another city after that and just tour as much as we can really.

N: What about ‘My School Act.’ What have they done for you?

Cameron: They were really good to us, we won that competition.

Sam: Yeah and that got us our deal with Sony. The $50 000 record deal. So that was pretty much the kick start I guess.

N: Where is that $50 000 going to get you?

Sam: That’s basically going to make our EP.

(Villains of Wilhelm Drummer and Guitarist interrupt with a “what are you cunts doing now?”)

The next 5 minutes is filled with talk of Villains of Wilhelm’s set and the utter craziness of the lead singer. He was like Nick Cave on steroids. Jumping off the stage only to trip back up it. Punching cymbals (which were unsurprisingly covered in blood afterwards). Hitting the guitarist’s fret board with beer bottles. Sweating profusely and making the stage into a look alike of the 2009 Big Day Out’s main theme. It was a very explosive performance.

N: I still really don’t understand how you guys have gotten so big so quickly.

Cameron: Yeah (Laughs) When we won ‘My School Act’ it got us to our A & R representative, then that got us to our manager.

N: Is that when you went into Unearthed High after that?

Cameron: Yeah we weren’t really thinking about it that much because we were already ‘signed’ sort of thing.

I’m Dano: It was still under ‘deal’ so we still had to sign the proper papers or whatever and we just thought ‘we may as well go in it, it’s still uploaded since last year, lets just do it’ sort of thing. Funnily enough we ended up becoming a finalist. The top four or five.

Cameron: I think we’re playing a show with all the finalists soon.

N: Who was the winner? Iotah or some shit? I didn’t really like them.

Cameron: Yeah. They were really bad.

Sam: They’re all girls and the youngest is 12 and the oldest is 20. Like she’s actually 20. I think the drummer is 12.

Cameron: Wow (Laughs) Holding a 4/4 beat isn’t that easy. (Laughs) I still can’t hold a 4/4 beat.

The ghost of Villains of Whilhelm’s lead singer comes to haunt us again as the next 5 minutes is again taken up by horror stories of rogue head butts and demonic whispers into poor Sam Speck’s ears.

N: So when are you guys playing around here next?

Sam: We’ve only ever played here (Never Land) on the Gold Coast.

Ben: We’re playing “That Festival” in Cabarita on the 20th November.

Cameron: We’re opening so if you want to get there early. (Laughs)

N: There’s really no good places to play around here. Never Land is the only really good place that plays good bands.

Cameron: This is good though, it’s better than where we’re from.

N: Yeah. But apparently they’re getting rid of bands here which is a shame.

Cameron: Oh really? Yeah that sucks so much.

N: Anyway guys I’m keen to go in and see The Demon Parade. Cheers for speaking. See you at That Fest.

Cameron: Thanks man. It was good to meet you. That Fest will be sick.