Primary school lunches, hypochondria, life after Custard. Former Frente frontwoman ANGIE HART plays journo with Dave McCormack ahead of the pair’s double headline tour of the east coast. In part two, it’s Dave’s turn to throw Angie some curly ones.

Angie: Are the lyrics to your songs clever tales disguising real-life events? Or is your life just too fantastic a tale to be believed?

Dave: I do like to celebrate the mundane in my songs ¬- feeling lonely in a shopping aisle, giving someone a pash next to a wheelie bin, meeting a man who repairs pinball machines - and my life can be pretty mundane sometimes. But that excites me.

Angie: Do you have any tics or compulsive habits, like the need to count all the ridges on the edge of a milk coffee biscuit before you can take a bite, or never brushing your front teeth with a sideways stroke of the brush?

Dave: I like to organise my time. I think it annoys my brother, but that is mainly because I try to organise his time as well. For example, I've allotted one hour (60 minutes) to completing this task. Is that long enough?

Angie: Any pre-gig rituals?

Dave: Simon Holmes [from The Hummingbirds] told me years ago to always shave before a show and never eat a big meal before a show. I try and stick to that credo.

Angie: What was in your primary school lunch box?

Dave: I reckon there would have been a vegemite sandwich and a frozen juice. For a while there I took to taking instant coffee to school. Of course, it made me rather excited. In primary school, my idea of a good time was drinking instant coffee and trying to stay up all Friday night. Suffice to say, I don't drink coffee anymore.

Angie: From the time you began making music professionally to now, what unnecessary things have you done away with, either in your beliefs or perhaps it was a keytar (or a keytar player)?

Dave: I don't worry about what other people think anymore. Of course, when you start out, you are very concerned about what everyone thinks. Does that sound guy like this song? Does the keyboard player think I'm cool or an idiot? Nowadays, whose got the time to worry about such things?

Angie: Do you have a favourite cultural icon in your neighbourhood, like the fresh pasta man, or an everywhere dog?

Dave: I've been moving around so much over the past decade I haven't really been able absorb too much of one area. If push comes to shove, I'd have to nominate a guy I call Sony Walkman who roams around Kings Cross. He has been there for years.

Angie: What are your golden rules to writing a positive song and keeping it savoury (I'm always spoiling the recipe with my need to add a rotten egg to a perfectly palatable cupcake of a song)?

Dave: I'm still looking for a reliable recipe for such a thing. I'm always burning the outsides, but it is pink and raw on the inside.

Angie: Are you clean or tidy (I tidy, but I don't clean)?

Dave: I think I'm tidy at home, but messy in the studio.

Angie: My uncle, Christopher Robin (my mum got to name him when she was eight years old) is a painter. He says he's been painting the same painting for 40 odd years. I feel the same way about my songwriting. What is your common theme or constant question that you are forever working on?

Dave: After so many years of writing and performing songs, a general theme must emerge. For me, it is simply this: eventually we are all going to be gone from this place, and most likely there is no next place. Try and enjoy yourself. Try to be nice. I think I have managed to make this message almost invisible in my songs, but I'm sure if you listen closely, you will hear it.

In the last 10 years I've learned the joys of internet banking. I'm relatively competent in a grocery store. I'm excellent at making the bed.

Angie: Do you have guilty pleasures or are you a flagrant cultural-cheese flaunter?

Dave: I like pretending I'm sick when I'm not.

Angie: We both toured extensively in our former bands and were subsequently away from home for long periods of time. While we learned skills and had unique experiences that could only be found in the topsy-turvy life of a touring musician, we missed out on some crucial mundane talents, such as the art of keeping a pantry shelf stocked or how to empty a vacuum cleaner bag. Is there something you have only learned how to do recently that was impossible for you to approach during the extended adolescence of life on the road, or do you still tour more than nest?

Dave: My heavy touring days are over. It is a young persons’ game. I still like popping out briefly and dipping my toes in the water, but I don't want to grow gills anymore. In the last 10 years I've learned the joys of internet banking. I'm relatively competent in a grocery store. I'm excellent at making the bed. I'm really good at avoiding conflict. I think if I'd had all those skills 15 years ago, my band would have gone a lot better.

Angie: Ever fallen out of love with music? If so, what did you do about it? If not, what has kept the love there (other than the obvious reason, being that music is so fucking great)?

Dave: If you ignore music, eventually you will both drift apart and start seeing other people. Music is a very attractive person and is always out and about at the best places, meeting new ears, being written love letters in music magazines. Sure, music has a promiscuous side, but if you take to the time to listen, you'll have a long and happy life together.

Angie: Lastly, choose from one of these incredibly formulaic e-mail questions and give me at least 25 words on the subject:

1. Favourite colour?

Dave: When I was young, my mum would always take me shopping to Indooroopilly Westfield Shoppingtown in Brisbane. Across the road was Keating Park, and in this park was a rather tall rocket ship/slippery slide/climbing thingy. One day, while I was over climbing on the thingy, I met a girl, older than me, probably around 10. We chatted briefly and she asked what my favourite colour was. I said purple and she said that was "cool". I don't really have a favourite colour anymore.

2. What do you look for in a woman?
3. Chocolate or vanilla?
4. Who would you most like to meet and why?
5. What would you do with a million dollars?

Continue to Part Two ...

ANGIE HART AND DAVE MCCORMACK:
EAST COAST TOUR

Friday, July 11
Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, VIC

Thursday, July 17
The Vanguard, Sydney, NSW

Friday, July 18
The Brass Monkey, Cronulla, NSW

Saturday, July 19
TrisElies, Blue Mountains, NSW

Sunday, July 20
The Heritage Hotel, Wollongong, NSW

Friday, July 25
The Troubadour, Brisbane

Saturday, July 26
Joe's Waterhole, Eumundi