Define your genre in five words or less:
Piano songs.
Bearing the terrible clichéd nature of this question, what do you reckon people will say you sound like?
That guy who used to be in those bands with dumb names.
What do you love about making music?
You can lose yourself in it; you can dance to it; you can sing along with it; you can learn from it; you can get drunk to it; you can clean the house to it; you can stamp your tribe with it; you can make a statement with it; you can kick against the pricks with it; you can fall in love to it.
What’ve you got to sell CD-wise?
My solo CDs, especially Wake and some of the soundtrack CDs as well as a few Wantok label CDs from PNG from artists like Telek, Tha Feelstyle, Airileke, and Richard Mogo.
So, someone is walking past as you guys are playing, they then go get a beer and tell their friend about you… what do they say?
“That young man has potential.”
How long have you been gigging and writing?
Not Drowning Waving released its first single in 1983, but I played at my school social before that.
What inspires or has influenced your music the most?
Going to the Black Islands, writers and thinkers who I love and respect, punk, prison music, the Melbourne indie scene, community radio, stringband music, Island Records, electronica, the Valhalla cinema M squared, 4AD, Flying Nun, the West Papuan resistance movement, Rize of the Morning Star, going bush.
What do you think a band has to do these days to succeed?
Appeal to the majority of people, sound like their mum and dad’s record collection, have autotune vocals, play Appalachian music or white soul, have a beard, be an ex soap actor.
Do you have any record releases to date? What are they? Where can I get them?
The latest record is Wake – from all discerning record stores and on davidbridie.bandcamp.com
If someone made a movie about your life, who would play you?
Frank Thring.
What advice would you give to bands that are new on the Melbourne music scene?
Don’t put up street posters in a thunderstorm.
If you could go on tour with any musician or band, who would it be?
Spinal Tap.
How do you balance making and playing music with your other commitments?
Not very well.
When’s the gig and with who?
Wednesday July 2 at Melbourne Folk Club Bella Union with the wonderful Daniel Champagne. Also at the Yarra Hotel on Thursday August 21.
