At the risk of invoking the obvious pun, Blu Tac came unstuck, and some years later Smith, Shortal and Blach reconvened in the psychedelic-blues outfit The Murlocs. Smith, the son of Australian songwriter, performer and founding member of The Dingoes Broderick Smith, had grown up surrounded by music, particularly his father’s blues influences. “My dad had heaps of stuff around – I used to brainwash myself with his blues stuff,” Smith says. While many of his contemporaries gravitated to guitar and drums, Smith’s interest was drawn to the harmonica. “I really wanted to play harp because I was really into that sound,” Smith says. Smith says his now sharp harmonica skills are “largely self-taught.” He started off by himself, he says, “and I gradually realised how to hold and bend a note, and one day I finally got it.”
Initially The Murlocs built on the rudimentary jam sessions between Smith and Shortal. “These days it’s a bit different,” Smith says. “I try and play rhythm guitar against Cal’s guitar – he’s an absolute freak!”
They released their debut EP earlier this year with negligible fanfare, and a second EP made up songs left over from the band’s initial songwriting efforts has just been released. “When we did the first EP we put down the five tracks in just one afternoon, and we did those songs because we were comfortable with them,” Smith says. “The songs that are on the new EP we just wanted to get rid of them before we get sick of playing them. I think we’re already getting sick of them, so it’s good to get them out.”
One of the tracks on the new EP, Bogan Grove, has an obvious local reference point. Smith, who was born in country Victoria before moving to the city, and then down to the surf coast says the idyllic beaches – which have undergone significant demographic transformation in the wake of the ‘sea change’ migratory phenomenon – has its share of sub-cultural boils. “Bogan Grove was meant to mock Ocean Grove,” Smith says. “There’s a lot of macho crap that’s going around the town. The lyrics of that song are about not wanting to be left with a bunch of losers – expressed in the nicest possible way,” Smith laughs.
The new EP was recorded at Smith’s grandmother’s 1950s house in the leafy suburb of Ivanhoe. “I’d been living there with my mum and my sister, and I wanted to record there before it was too late,” Smith says. “It’s a really nice house, and it hasn’t been renovated into some five story bullshit place. We did the recording out in the spare room out the back where my twisted aunty was living for a while. It was a really cool setting – we thought it suited the vibe.”
After spending seven years living on the surf coast, Smith has now moved up to Melbourne permanently, though The Murlocs can still be found regularly playing alongside surf coast contemporaries The Frowning Clouds, The Living Eyes and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. “More and more these days we try to look for other bands in Melbourne that we like,” Smith says. “But often it’s easier to go with your mates from Geelong.” Smith admits he “weaselled his way into Gizzard.”
“I always wanted to play harp in a band, and Gizzard is a great fun rock band,” he says. “I’ve been balancing both – it’s been busy, but it works out.”
Earlier this year The Murlocs achieved arguably the band’s highest career moment so far when it was invited to play on the bill at the inaugural Dig It Up! festival. “That was really cool,” Smith says. “I think one of the guys in the Hoodoo Gurus chose us. We’d already been looking at getting tickets to see bands like The Sonics who were on the bill, but then we didn’t have to.” While the temptation to get the autographs of the members of The Sonics was strong, that was left to The Frowning Clouds. “I think those guys got a heap of stuff signed,” Smith says.
Not surprisingly, The Murlocs haven’t drawn up a five-year strategic plan for world domination. “In this business?” Smith says rhetorically. “I’ve always just kept persisting and things have kept evolving. But I can’t afford to stay this poor forever,” he laughs.
BY PATRICK EMERY
