Define your genre in five words or less:
Republican/Conservative-influenced folk rock.
When’s the gig and with who?
Single launch is Saturday October 27 at John Curtin Hotel with Great Earthquake and Matt Glass.
What do you love about making music?
Making music is like unlocking lots of little puzzles. It’s as if the whole song already exists in the back of your mind and you have to work out what it looks like. Because you’re working with looser concepts you can explore things that are difficult to think about and unravel your own thoughts.
If you could assassinate one person or band from popular music, who would it and why?
I think I’ll save my rare instances of assassination for political purposes.
If you could travel back in time and show one of your musical heroes your stuff, who would it be and why?
Hmm, I think I’d stay in this era and play with Jay-Z. I’m not sure that he would be interested in my rhyming couplets-inspired emo-folk, but I could show him how well I can rap to his songs. I think we would have fun.
Do you have any record releases to date? What are they? Where can I get them?
Two EPs; The Universe Is An Opponent and Charles Baby Has Quiet Choruses. You can get them on iTunes.
Name an interview question you wish someone would ask you, and answer it.
In what way does your new record parallel the re-imagination of the television series Battlestar Galactica?
Wow. Good question. I think that Battlestar, aside from the exciting, well-scripted battles, is about determining what it is to be human. And to be able to do that you need to create parallels to compare and contrast what humanity does. It creates a morally ambiguous framework where there are no rights or wrongs, only lesser evils. Similarly the record has no songs about myself or real life events. Choosing a framework separate from myself has allows a clearer analysis. A comparison has allowed a greater insight into my own humanity. Both these songs and those episodes and are influenced by the constant looming spectre of death. Whether mentioned and witnessed directly or by being conspicuous in its absence, the fact that we will one day not exist is a factor that is so incomprehensible that we go to extreme lengths to try and define who and what we are, while we are here.
