“You’re kidding me?” he says excitedly. “Yeah, I’m definitely going. But the problem is that because we’re in such a politically correct era, that she probably won’t be able to smoke a cigarette on stage!” Stewart laughs.
The genesis of Total Control came a few years ago, when Stewart and Mikey Young (Eddy Current, Ooga Boogas) decided to put together a recording project that differed substantively from their existing musical direction. “Because we met through Eddy Current and Straightjacket Nation, we were both looking to start a band that wasn’t similar to either of those bands,” Stewart explains. Initially, Total Control was a bedroom project, with progress dependent when the protagonists could find time. “We’d sit around on the weekend, watch the footy, listen to records and then try and write songs,” Stewart says.
An early, and significant inspiration, was Devo, a band that both Stewart and Young held in very high esteem. “Devo was pretty integral to us when we started out,” Stewart says. “In fact, it was one of the first things that we really talked about, and one of the first songs that we played was a Devo cover. One of the things we really love about Devo is that they’re heavily song-based – and also how strange it was hearing Devo for the first time. You really have no idea where they were going – they were stuck out in the backwoods of Akron, Ohio, doing their own thing.”
Total Control evolved quickly into initially a five-piece band, and subsequently into a six-piece, twin guitar outfit. “We’ve now played more shows as a band then the time we spent just doing studio recording,” Stewart says. The evolution of the project into a full-blown band has brought with it a substantially different dynamic. “When it was just Mikey and I, there was no real sense of a band dynamic,” Stewart says, “but now there definitely is, certainly as far as the songs are concerned.”
Total Control’s debut album, Hedge Beat, was released in 2011. It’s an eclectic record, ranging from electronica to post-punk, to Devo-inspired garage rock. With Young now having a separate musical outlet for his electronica interests, Stewart says he expects the Total Control sound to refine in time for the recording of the band’s next album. “Because Mikey and some of the other guys have started doing stuff as Lace Curtain, which is more electronic, dancey stuff – when we started we didn’t really know where to put that, but now it’s got somewhere to go,” Stewart says. “I can see the next record being rock-based.”
In 2011, Total Control also undertook its first overseas tour when they were asked to play at All Tomorrow’s Parties in England, at the invitation of curators Les Savvy Fav. “I’ve got no idea how they’d heard us, but I believe it was something to do with their label, French Kiss – someone in the label apparently heard our music and got a copy of the album to play to Les Savvy Fav,” Stewart says.
The show was a success, and provided the opportunity for the band to play a few shows on the continent after the conclusion of ATP. Two years later, and Total Control will be appearing at the ATP Release The Bats event in Altona in late October. “We’d been in touch with [ATP organisers] Deb [Higgins] and Barry [Hogan],” Stewart says. “They were excited by our show in England for ATP. They treated us really well, and the ATP gig at Mt Buller a few years ago was one of the greatest weekends of music I’ve ever been to. This time around, I’m really looking forward to seeing Television – I try not to be cynical about old bands reforming, so I’m pretty excited about seeing those guys.”
Stewart will also be appearing at Release The Bats in his role as drummer in garage band UV Race. Stewart says the ever-resourceful and effervescent UV Race are edging toward a new album – though the band has made a decision that this will be no ordinary album. “We’re working on a new film,” Stewart says. “We’ve decided not to do any more albums that aren’t soundtracks. A friend of ours shot our last film, and he wanted to keep working with us. So this next film is going to be a sci-fi film.”
UV Race’s decision to embrace a multi-media future is, Stewart says, a consequence of financial necessity and artistic ambition. “If there’s one thing that defines that band, it’s ambition, and the fact we have very little resources to realise those ambitions. But it’s great to be surrounded by talented people who want to help us. So in the future we want to be a bit more of a film-making company than a band,” he laughs.
BY PATRICK EMERY
