I would like to recommend the music of my friends from Melbourne, Even
Back in the day, I was co-founder of a printed fanzine known as Blast! Magazine. I answered some type of ad that I saw somewhere on the campus of the University of Melbourne, my alma mater and thus I became the music contributing editor and general jack of all trades for this publication.
I learnt a lot by putting out five editions of this fanzine in the couple of years of its existence, including design layout “skills”, image manipulation, marketing and promotion, article and review writing…amongst others. In a way, I wouldn’t be where I am now without Blast!
At this time of my life, I spent a lot of time hanging out with and going to see musical artists of the Australian (and New Zealand) independent variety such as Snout (I was their de facto tour manager once…to Adelaide!!), You Am I, The Fauves, The Steinbacks, Rail and Even. I had a reasonably firm ambition to be involved in the live/recorded music industry in some way.
Therefore one of the activities that enjoyed the most while working on Blast! was writing articles about bands, reviews of their recorded output and organising launch parties/fundraising gigs that involved some of the bands that I wrote about in the pages of the zine.
Even were introduced to my by my friend Greg, a sometime member of the aforementioned Snout. It’s a bit hazy but I think it was at a Student Union night. The photo below is of Ash Naylor, singer and guitarist of Even, taken when I interviewed him at the Black Cat Café, Melbourne the afternoon of the launch gig of their first EP In Stereo at the sadly now defunct Punters Club.
In 2002, Even played some shows in the UK as well as recording some songs that ended up on their Free Kicks album. Ash, Wally and Matt were nocturnally recording tracks in London, going to gigs and generally carousing as far as I can tell.
One of the shows was at the Bullingdon Arms in Oxford. They jumped in a van for the 100km trip up the M40 and arrived in Oxford a little bit fatigued. Luckily for them, I was in tour manager mode for the evening because the time for their set was rapidly approaching but the band were nowhere to be found. I went looking for them and found the trio in their van behind the Tesco supermarket on the Cowley Rd, fast asleep.
How rock is that!?
More after the jump…
