I nearly stopped after the Glide post, but decided to press on to get the Snout one up and also this one about Even, because of this week’s Xmas Even gigs.

I’ve written about Even before. They are a band I have been into since their first EP came out, at about the time this article appeared. It was in the same issue as the Glide interview, which dates it in the first half of 1995. Even are still going strong, with their sixth studio album of 60′s drenched, power pop, being released recently and available through their website. In addition, many of their records are available digitally, at your favourite download store.

Even’s Last.fm profile

Even’s website

My friend Al did the interview and the write up, but I was there at the Black Cat café on Brunswick St, during the interview and I took the photo that you can see below. It was the afternoon of launch gig for the In Stereo EP; their first record.

I am going to put up some more retro articles in 2012, including Rail, The Steinbecks, Snout – talking about pinball, The Meanies and You Am I. It won’t just be old school stuff though; I will be blogging about some more recent bands, as well

Happy Festivus.

Even

An Interview with Ashley Naylor from top Melbourne “groop” Even. By Al Marshall.

Ash Naylor. Fitzroy 1995

If you’ve seen power pop trio Even live, then you’ll know Ashley’s manic guitar wrestles demand your attention. If you’ve heard “24 hour cynic”, the four minute chunk of minor key magic that leads off Even’s debut EP, you’ll know Even demand your attention. If you’ve seen their EP In Stereo gracing CD racks, well it’s equally attention grabbing. So meeting Ash, the mastermind behind this barrage of in-your-faceness, was something of a revelation he’s a pretty regular, twenty-something, bashful sorta guy…

I love playing, and that’s the purest, and my only motivation.

“It’s very Pete Townshend of me to say this…” begins Ash in explanation of his doppelganger life “I have an alter-ego that controls my music that takes over. There are things I’d say on stage, or do on stage, if I did now you’d laugh. It’s the whole notion of letting yourself go, and feeling your music – fuck anyone who thinks being extroverted is to the bands detriment.”

He’s dead right of course, it’s too damn long since Melbourne’s had any proper rock stars. But the prospect of fame and fortune are hardly a motivation

“I love playing, and that’s the purest, and my only motivation – it’s not the promise of indie rock mega-stardom. People are too careerist about music – they lose focus. It’s an instinctive thing for me – the next step for Even is to put out a record that I think is better than this.” At the tender age of 25 Ash has been around a bit, he’s played in The Swarm, Pray TV for a spell, and for the last couple of years, as well as fronting Even, he’s played guitar in Fragment. He’s been around enough to know if your heart’s not in the music, there’s not a lot of point.

Never assume just ‘cos you’re in a band and you’ve got a pant load of talent that the scene owes you a living.

“I don’t want to sound cynical or jaded you know – but I’m 25 now and I’ve been playing since I was 17 – it’s a bit of a joke for me to be on the other end of the stick to be in a band that people give a fuck about, even if it is only ten people. Never assume just ‘cos you’re in a band and you’ve got a pant load of talent that the scene owes you a living.”

Ironically, the morning of our interview, several luminaries of the Australian music ‘scene’ are gathered in Canberra to discuss problems the industry faces. What problems does Ash see as facing Australian bands?

“Live, original music is grossly underpaid when you think of the money cover bands make, it’s disgusting. Money casts a pretty big cloud over the music scene – money’s not a motivation to this band.”

On the whole though Ash seems pretty positive about Australian music –

“You Am I and Snout rank among my favourite bands anywhere. It’s encouraging to know a band like You Am I have risen from supporting The Hummingbirds at the Tote in ’93 – it gives me faith in the listening public, whoever they may be, they can see quality. I don’t feel limited by the fact that I’m in a Melbourne band, or in an Australian band – no one should. If I wasn’t doing this here I’d be in a folk band in England or whatever – I’d be doing something under another name.”

I had to butt in at this point – a lot of Australian bands do feel restricted. The Go-Betweens, The Church, The Triffids, The Bad Seeds (roll on the canon of Australian rock!) have all felt the need to base themselves overseas at one point or another.

“Yeah . . . who doesn’t want to tour overseas. You’ve also got to remember that guys like Kilbey, McLennan and Forster are very career minded, they’re very forthright. They want to base themselves in London and have a crack at the big time. It does suck that a lot of people reading music papers wait for local band to make it overseas before they give them a chance. It’s stupid that a band should get credence just because they’ve done a toilet tour of Shitsville America. I toured America with Pray TV in ’93 – it’s just the same as here except you’re surrounded by a lot of “yes” people, and you’re playing in toilets smaller than The Punters Club. I had to go to America to experience it first hand – it’s such a romantic notion to go overseas and play. But when you look back at the Melbourne scene from L.A or New York it’s just a piss in the ocean. Music itself is bigger than any scene, If a band’s good enough then people will find out about them if not now, then in twenty years.”

So what book is Ash reading? “I’m reading the Syd Barrett biography, Crazy Diamond. I just finished a Keith Moon one too, so it’s sort of like going from fire to ice…I consider myself to be lukewarm water.”

Even’s EP, In Stereo is out now through Rubber records.

Even - In Stereo

After Snout finished in 2002, Ross went on to release solo albums. Most notably being nominated for the 2008 Australian Music Prize (equivalent to the Mercury or Polaris prizes) for Sympathy for the New World. Ewan drummed with Dan Brodie and the Broken Arrows, amongst others. While Greg put out a hip-hop inspired EP but then retreated from the music world.

This post is timely, as they reformed for a gig at The Tote on Melbourne Cup Day, in November this year, with perennial local favourites, Even. They have been persuaded to play with them again at one of Even’s Christmas gigs on Thursday 22 December at the Phoenix Public House. I’ll be there. I wonder what happened to Ross’ song “Stuntman”?

PS – Guess what? I have an Even archival article too.

PPS – If there are any typos, it’s the OCR software’s fault!

SNOUT – DEMOLITION MEN

Ross McLennan and Greg Ng signing CDs at the Big Day Out

There have been some pretty reasonable musical groups that have performed at the Evelyn Hotel over the years. When you get to read this magazine, it will have just been reopened after renovations. Ed speaks to Ross McLennan (bassist, singer and songwriter) who started the demolitions…while on stage.

“It was just the best. It felt great. Basically I was feeling very tired and dizzy and I was having difficulty standing up straight all night. Feeling really weird. Basically it was the strangest night out with someone fucking up the PA and we just soldiered on, thought it was going to be a fairly average sort of gig but it ended up really rocking out. And at the end, I was jumping all over the place! I nearly knocked my amp stack over earlier on. I wasn’t very sure footed…I just threw myself through the air, tripped over and I thought I was gong to stop when I hit the wall, but I just kept going. So I fell backwards, did a little bit of a roll) so I didn’t break my back and the bass was still feeding back everywhere and we were just sort of jumping around everywhere. It just felt awesome. I just wish we had it on film for a film clip or something, cos I’ve got this great song called “Stuntman” which it would go really well with.

 It was the best feeling. It was the most freakish ending to a gig, people were just going berserk. It’s amazing to see logical adults actually freaking out and getting really excited, it’s a good feeling. It was one of those gigs that could have went either way — it could have been the worst gig ever because of the way everything was fucking up on the night, but it ended up being one of the best gigs we’ve ever done. It was definitely an event.”

We’re sitting in the living room of Ross’ cosy pad. I’m drinking black tea; Ross has soy milk in his. I’m getting incredibly jacked off at the cassette recorder because of malfunctions, but you can’t help but feel relaxed when you’re hanging and listening to David Bowie covering the Easybeats and other sixties heroes.

“I love the sixties. You go through the stages of things that you like, as you go through life…I liked the Sweet, just because it was around, but there was never a point at any stage of my life when I didn’t like sixties music.”

This is evident when you listen to the latest Snout album, What’s that Sound?, a tasty Au Go Go records release that has increased their profile all over the country of late. This has meant a series of trips north to Sydney, one with the Popsicle bandwagon, to promote the album and then even more recently. a spot on Big Day Out bill

“After the (BDO) set. I got a bit depressed, then did the signing which cheered me up because people were saying we played OK, I didn’t think we did. It was a weird, weird day. I went to see You Am I and the sound was really bad so I was depressed cos you could see them going off on stage and you couldn’t hear it translated. Why couldn’t they have it together enough for a band of You Am I’s stature? That fucked the day up for me. I went away and then came back at the end of the day. I’d been away and I sort of thought that our impact in terms of how we affected people over the course of such a long day was well and truly over and I’d be very surprised if anyone would even notice me. But at he end of the day, shitloads of people were coming up to me for autographs and photos and stuff; it was bizarre. I thought we didn’t play very well but apparently we did. It gives me heart cos I was depressed. It saved the day from being a total bummer.”

Ewan McCartney

So he likes having fans come and say hi?

“It’s really good. I love It. Previously that used to happen, but I felt more insecure and I was a bit more unapproachable. Now it’s better, particularly at All Ages (gigs) where kids don’t give a fuck. They just want to come up to you and talk to you and if they want to they do. They don’t seem to get as embarrassed or are more prepared to embarrass themselves. I don’t know what the case is, but it’s good for me because they don’t seem distanced and you get first hand opinions about stuff which is really good. I like it”

So what does Ross do when he isn’t playing with Snout and doing other band related activities? Hang out?

“Oh most of my time is spent sort of like the Donellans (from a cheesy Melbourne tyre ad). I don’t eat tyres, but I eat, sleep and breathe music. It’s my biggest problem, I’ve gotta learn how to turn off from it and do other things. I do a lot of writing. I’ve got so many songs, it’s ridiculous. It’s almost like a pathological obsession. I’ve written enough songs that I never need to write another one again.”

Snout began life in 1991. Ross had just completed a stint in The Hybrid. New guitarist, Greg “Soul Train” Ng was cutting his musical teeth in ‘sonic noise popsters’, Afterglow, and drummer Ewan McCartney was in Ripe.

“Ewan was introduced to me by the lead singer of The Squad, a mod band, which was pretty cool. We just tried a number of people. We found Greg when one of the guitarists that auditioned for my ad suggested Dave, the other guy from Afterglow, so I rang their manager and he gave me Greg’s number to ring to make sure it was Dave’s current number. I said, “Does Greg play guitar too?”, and he said “Yeah”. So I said that I’d ask him. It worked out great, just the combination. Greg’s at a point in his life where he wants  to play some harder stuff. He’s done one thing and he wants to try something different and it’s worked out really good, and the fact he’s just a total retro head is great for me.

When Snout started I was sitting around without a band and Wally (Kempton of The Meanies) who managed the other band as well, without me even knowing about it really, sent a whole lot of tapes around. I just gave him one and he dubbed it down and sent it off. Half a Cow Records wanted to sign Snout, not that there was a name or anything at that stage of the game. We got a band together really quickly because they wanted us to support The Hummingbirds down here and Redd Kross in Sydney. It was in ’92. We just had to throw it together. I was still with Rob who was also in the Hybrid, got a guitarist (Hugh) and just threw it together and played the gigs down here and up there and we were on our way after that basically and up to the present day we’ve just kept working on songs and building stature and that sort of thing…

Sydney has just built so much, like we’ve hit some type of exponential curve. You just don’t notice and then… phew ….very similar to the destruction of the Earth the way it’s not so noticeable at the moment and then it’s going to go “Boom”. Which is amazing, because the first couple of times we just breezed through without a whisper of recognition but now it’s just awesome, people know us now and we can headline and play a really good gig and have a great response. It’s great. It’s just an awesome time.”

 So things have been looking up for Snout. They have a lineup which gels well together, a growing legion of fans and a reputation which builds by the minute, especially when feats such as the ‘demolition’ gig become part of local folklore. They are thinking about recording new material soon too.

“I started making my ideal album list and we’re bashing through new songs and they’re sounding pretty good. They are going to be different to the last thing, at least it sounds as if it will be, just because of different members.”

Watch out for them (Blast! Gig, March 10 Empress Hotel!) in the near the future. Oh, and by the way, he does have one other interest, besides music…

“On the song TVOD off What’s that Sound?, I talk about smashing my TV. I’d never smash my TV. Then I wouldn’t be able to watch the Simpsons…not that they’re that good anymore. It’s still got flashes of brilliance, but it’s just like it’s slopped together it doesn’t have that perfect kind of flow and the timing and the humour is spelt out in capital letters which is a bit depressing. It’s probably going to make it appealing to your average fuckwit. Which is bit of a shame. I consider myself to be a fuckwit, but not average.”

 Say a last thing for the tape Ross.

“Um…Don’t worry be happy ?”

Glide's Jason Kingshott and Marc Lynch 1995

Early in 1995, William Arthur (guitar, vocals), Marc Lynch (bass) and Jason Kingshott (drums), were good enough to meet with me over pizza, beer and a tape recorder on Brunswick Street in Melbourne. This was in advance of a gig at the sadly missed Punters’ Club, in the almost tropical heat of a humid Melbourne night. They chatted about their album Open Up and Croon, upheaval in the band and the coolness of Fonzie, amongst other things.

The original interview appeared in issue 3 of Blast!, a fanzine that I was involved with at the time. I’ve republished some of the articles I did for the zine on this blog previously, with only slight editing. However, rereading this interview, I wanted to rewrite the piece as it didn’t really seem to do justice to the music of Glide, so I didn’t want to republish my juvelinia verbatim, but to try and put more context to their story.

A Sydney based group, Glide formed in 1990 and released the Pretty Mouth EP in 1992. This record earned them decent radio coverage, with tracks such as “Bug” and “Thin Faced Man” being played extensively on Triple J. This in turn burdened Glide with the dubious honour of being dubbed a “Next Big Thing” band. With a lot to live up to, in 1993 they released another EP, Shuffle Off to Buffalo, which featured the outstanding song, “Waterfalls”, and then a single Wake 1994. After the hype surrounding Pretty Mouth, it was perhaps not surprising that the subsequent records didn’t whip up the same level of support, even though the music was still damned good. Later in that year, Glide returned with a single called Why You Asking? with a cover of the Lemonheads song “Ride With Me”, as a B-side. This was a taste of what was to come from their album, Open Up and Croon. The next recorded move for Glide was to put out a five track EP in late May 1995, featuring the track “Something”, from the album and also some bonus tracks recorded for a Triple J ‘Live at the Wireless’ session.

It was with this background that I, along with my friend Greg, met Glide on a balmy Saturday night on Brunswick Street in Melbourne. In advance of a gig at the sadly missed Punters’ Club, the tropical evening guaranteed that Brunswick Street was buzzing with diners, punters, musicians and buskers. At the time, it seemed to me that Glide were a fairly happy band, enthused about the prospect of working hard again, supporting a brand new album in which they obviously believed in. In hindsight, their banter and enthusiasm for their music hid a tension with trying to be an original, indie band and making it pay.

I started with, “Say something to Blast! Magazine readers, William.” To which the guitarist/vocalist replied in a faux monotone, “Hello. We love you. We love coming to your town.”

It had been their first visit to Melbourne as a three piece, as they had recently parted ways with guitarist Paul McDonald. At that stage, they had considered acquiring a new guitarist, however since then decided to continue as a trio, although they later returned to a dual guitar configuration. As Jason explained, “We’ve done a couple of shows as a three piece and they’ve gone all right, so we know (what to look for) now. People have been saying that you can hear the rhythm section more and so we know with the new guitarist, he’s going to have to pull back and just fill in the gaps and…”  ”Not over play.” interjected William.

Later on Jason said, “Things have gotten a little easier in the band since Paul’s left. There was too much competitiveness between Paul and William and Paul was going in a different way”.  ”He was going to eleven and wanted to go to twelve.” added Marc. “Exactly, he just wanted to get fucking louder all the time.”

“So what do you think of how the industry pendulum swings in and out of favour? Does it piss you off?” Jason replied, “I know which way it’s swinging now, and it’s going to stay that way…It’s just like flies to shit now for us at the moment. For want of a better analogy.”  ”For want of a poetic analogy”, added Glide’s frontman.

Jason continues,

It’s like the industry didn’t want a bar of us beforehand and now they know what we’re capable of. I mean, we always knew. We always knew we’d have this album coming out and that it was going to be good. But I guess other people didn’t know. I guess that if you don’t have material coming out, you can’t expect people to keep believing, and keep coming to gigs. You’ve got to put up or shut up.

We want to be a full time band definitely. You know, it’s cool with Marc; he’s got the best of both worlds. He gets to do what he wants during the day (graphic design) and what he wants to do in the evening. Whereas during the day, I have to drive a truck around for the old man. Sooner or later, if we can pay our way…I mean we still have to pay for things that we shouldn’t have to be paying for, rehearsals, beer. Well not beer.

The response the album’s been getting now, we’re going to be doing a lot of touring and stuff, we’re just gonna have to shift it around our jobs. When it comes to doing big tours and going overseas and stuff, the band has got to pay for it. We can’t drop our livelihood for that.

Kind of prophetic words, as within a couple of months of the interview, a further spanner was thrown into the works with the announcement of Marc’s departure. With a career in graphic design (he had created all of the Glide CD covers), he felt that he needed to devote his time to that rather than the rock and roll lifestyle. I called Glide’s manager, Joe Ryall, to ask about it and he said, “We’re obviously disappointed, we thought that he may stick it out a bit longer than that. But he’s made his decision and everyone’s still on good terms”

In retrospect, the response to my question “How long have you been in the band?” could have been seen to foreshadow Marc’s departure…

“About 4-5 years now, 5 years in…” says Jason.

To which Marc added, “Dog years.”

“…5 years in September.”

“Feels like dog years doesn’t it!!!”

Any unease was again camouflaged by some more band hijinks. Towards the end of the interview, William had to leave to meet someone, which was the cue for the rhythm section to run amok. “OK, now what can you say?” I asked them.

“That guy mate, that guy. How is his form? It’s all Jason, Jason does everything, he writes everything. William’s the puppet, the big head out the front. We tell him what to do! We started the band. We put an ad for a singer and guitarist…we put an ad in for William. Someone to play the guitar, because we were writing all the stuff at the time.” concludes Marc with both he and Jason dissolving into laughter.

Finally, I used one of my favourite end of interview clichés… “Any last thoughts for the tape?”

“Something memorable?” asked Jason

“Yeah, controversial.”

“Think of something memorable, Marc.”

“Skate to Hell! That’s skate as in S.K.A.T.E.”  the bassist replies.

“I like Melbourne.”

“That’s a drummer for you isn’t it?”

“You got another one?”

”OK, how about, Cool as three fuckin Fonzies!”

The photo at the top of this article show Jason and Marc holding a copy of Open up and Croon, the lens cap for my camera (as I had forgotten to take it off, initially) and a copy of the first issue of the fanzine. To my regret, William had taken off before I remembered to take a photo.

So what happened after that? Between our interview and the demise of the band, they released several more quality recordings but never really achieved the level of success that I think they deserved. Despite playing at South by Southwest, they didn’t manage to really expand out of Australia and then faced diminishing interest from their record label, that further led to strangling the band financially. The untimely death of William Arthur in 1999 was the end of Glide, despite the bombast, as to the leader of the group, of the rhythm section during the interview.

It now seems that Glide’s place in Australian music history, is of unfulfilled popular success (as compared to You Am I, for example) but extreme talent that has influenced  lyrical guitar bands and music fans since then but who few outside of those circles seems to have heard of. If you search for “Glide (band) “ on Wikipedia, you get redirected to Will Sergeant’s (Echo and the Bunnymen) entry, as it is the moniker he used for his foray into “experimental, ambient and psychedelic instrumental music“. If you Google “William Arthur Glide”, you get a series of articles about “the greatest band you’ve never heard of”; kind of like this one.

Whenever Glide came to Melbourne I would invariably make a point of going to see them. Still, I regularly listen to their music and am astounded at how good the songs still sound (somehow it’s not so surprising when you consider that Arthur was partly influenced by Flying Nun bands such as Straitjacket Fits) and wish it had turned out differently. It seems I’m not quite alone though, as a tribute to William’s songs and to mark the 20^th anniversary of the formation of Glide, was held in 2010. Jason and Marc combined with Tim Kelly (guitarist in Glide before the one mentioned in the interview), Andy Kelly (Marc’s replacement on bass) and Toby Martin from Youth Group on vocals for a show in Sydney and one in Melbourne. I would have loved to have attended but was living in the UK, at the time. Fortunately, their performance at The Annandale in Sydney is viewable on the Moshcam website. Martin doing a great job of showing how well Arthur’s songs still sound.

For more background, here’s a good interview with Jason K and Andy Kelly  via Mess and Noise, about the tribute shows. It’s interesting to read what Jason thought about the band’s career.

If you’re interested in hearing more, you can find the links to the reissued Glide back catalogue in the Australian iTunes store to and also listen to a few tracks on their website.