Blood, Sweat And Beers
TREVOR BLOCK spoke to SixFtHick’s Geoff Corbett about band dynamics, crowd control and life on the road ahead of the band’s performance at CherryRock008. Toe-tapping live photos by TIM CHUMA.
The two front men thing is a kind of unique idea. How do you and Ben [Corbett] divide up the songs?
Basically whoever writes the lyric sings the lyric. We somehow wind up with half and half. It usually starts by someone giving [guitarist] Dan [Baebler] a few scribbled words on a serviette or something or maybe just humming him a few bars of a melody down the phone and then he gets the guts and feel of the song worked out.
We sit around with a few beers and screw around until we get an arrangement then we take it into the rehearsal room.
There are five people in the band, and one of them is your little brother. How do you all get on in general?
We hate each other with a passion, words can not describe the venom and abrasion between us. For the past 13 years we have been doing this solely for financial reasons.
Actually, we all get along just dandy apart from the occasional bout of drug-induced psychosis making the confines of tour van a little itchy.
How important is Loki [Lockwood – live sound man, studio producer and record label boss] to what you do?
To us, he is the grandfather bat. We have a great working relationship with him. Loki thinks that we’re a bunch of talentless hacks and feels sorry for us. His label is a charity and should receive federal funding for supporting disability within the arts. In return, we respect his opinion by not listening to a word he says.
It’s a great double act, with you and Ben upfront – is it surprising that that some people can’t tell the two of you apart on record?
Yeah it kinda does surprise me, I reckon we sound completely different. I sound more damaged I think … I know that I feel more damaged. For the past four or so years I’ve been only able to do half a day at a time on vocals in the studio before I start hacking up blood and squeaking like a poisoned rat.
You guys are all quite proudly Australians, and Queenslanders, but without being dumb bogan ockers. Do people often expect SixFtHick to be something different to what you are?
Yeah. People often expect you to sweat blood while playing a show that will bite their noses off then back it up with a night of solid drinking, followed by a morning of solid fucking. IT CAN’T BE DONE WITHOUT DRUGS!
Onstage, both you and Ben like to get out among it physically. How far can that go?
Ha! That’s the same answer as to the last question, maybe adding , “Or until something breaks.”
Is it confrontation with the crowd, or communication? Does it ever backfire?
Oh, yeah, all of the time. If it didn’t backfire, it’d just be theatre. But it’s rock and roll; there are so many variables that could fuck up. It’s surprising that we actually make it on stage really. It’s a type of communication I suppose. Have you ever had a complete drunk ramble unintelligibly at you? I suppose some parallels could be drawn there.
The band seems to have been lying low for a while. What’s the touring schedule looking like at the moment?
We’re heading back to Europe for the third time in September. Just for three weeks, and we’ll be playing a show pretty much every night. We’d love to go over for longer but we are really tight for the dollars at the moment. We’ve got another joint Spooky/Beast records release coming out over there so we are going to do a quick whip around, catching up with our frog mates.
We hate each other with a passion, words can not describe the venom and abrasion between us.
Why does the band concentrate on Europe instead of the US?
Two reasons. First is the money. It’s just so expensive to tour over in the US. In Europe you don’t really see any costs that can’t be covered by your day-to-day show incomes, excluding of course your flights to get there. In the US you can’t take a shit without taking out a second mortgage on your home and forcing your mother into prostitution to help recoup the losses incurred.
The second reason is that no American acts have really extended a welcoming hand. Sure, plenty have talked about it. But talk is cheap and touring the states is expensive, especially when you are towing the liability that is SixFtHick around with you.
Europe, on the other hand is the polar opposite. There are people there who would gladly take a bullet for this band … Granted they are extremely mentally ill individuals, but it’s the thought that counts.
The on-the-road lifestyle detailed in ‘La Galleon’ certainly rings true with my experiences from several (many) years ago – how hard is it to keep that up?
Once you get match fit you can just keep on going and going … unless you get a virus or something. That’s why I drink only spirits now. Some of those fruity Euro-brews give the old immune system a stiff rogering after cold night on the tiles.
How hard is it to go back to the day job after a tour?
Pretty hard. You get this thing called post-tour depression. Everything goes really slow. Your friends bore the fuck out of you. You crave the deliberate self harm of being on tour so you return to tried and tested coping mechanisms like drinking lots and boring passers by to death with that story about “this one time in Montpelier”. People hate you and you hate them, then you go back out on tour and the cycle starts again.
There seem to be some broad common themes across a lot of your songs – violence, sex, low life, breaking up, drink and drugs, and now travel. Is that a conscious thing, or just some natural interests coming out?
Well, it’s all great stuff, it’s gritty, and you don’t know what you are getting a lot of the time with subject matter like that. It’s like anonymous toilet sex, it can be all loving and touchy feely one minute and the next you’re tasting blood and someone has slipped a finger up your arse.
And all wrapped up in beautiful cover art, too …
Yeah, Dan Baebler, our guitar player does all that. He is a talented fuck.
And Cherry Rock is coming up soon. Will this be one of the bigger things you played at?
We have played some pretty big festivals but yeah Cherry Rock is certainly the biggest thing we’ve done in Melbourne for yonks. Looking forward to it as well. I think it could get a little loose.
SixFtHick play Ding Dong on Friday, April 18 with Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side, and the “not Cherry Bar stage” at CherryRock008 on April 20, 8.15-9pm.
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