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Tom H, Tom R and Leon are Woollen Kits, three no-nonsense Melbourne dudes who write some damn catchy punk rock. After a couple EPs they recently released their debut LP on Sydney’s R.I.P Society, and are currently touring the US. Before they left, they spoke to TIM SCOTT about shedding their early Beat Happening-inspired sound, shooting budget DIY clips and their plans for a follow-up. Photo by DIMITY KASZ.

So you've just released your debut album. How long was it in the making?
Tom H: Ages! [Laughs] I realised 'Be Your Friend' which is on the album is our oldest song. That was the first song we wrote when Leon joined the band which was New Years Eve 2008/2009.

Has the song changed much since then?
Tom R: It's pretty much the same. The drums have improved.

One thing I've noticed with you is a growing confidence both as songwriters and performers. When you started it seemed like you were still trying to find your feet.
Tom H: It was difficult playing live in the beginning. It was something we forced ourselves to do. It was pretty intimidating but what really helped our confidence was when we first played in Sydney. I think when we play up there we feel a lot more confident because it seems like we just appeared there one day. [Laughs] We hadn't played 100 shitty shows before.

Tom R: There was no stigma or anything connected with us so since then we've taken the confidence that we built in Sydney. The people up there took us on face value not on our history or whatever.

Tom H: Also we are less shit then when we were at the start. [Laughs] That helps.

Tom R: When we started we were playing stuff that Tom had done on his own which wasn't bad but just over time we improved. The reality is – although you'd not like to admit to it – you get validation from other people which helps build your confidence. We played a show with the UV Race at the Royal Derby [in Melbourne].

Tom H: Yeah, not to say we were unhappy with the shows before, but UV Race are a band we've always loved ever since we picked up their first 7” so when they asked us to play – well, it was sick. I was thinking the other day that the three most important things that happened to the band in chronological order was: Tom and Leon joining, being asked to play that UV race show and meeting Nic Warnock from R.I.P. Society records.

Oh yeah, I was going to ask you about Nic and how much his support has helped.
Tom R: He is great and to be honest his support has been surprising. At the time I thought RIP were really cutting edge and only had the coolest bands. I never really thought we were like that – not that we were a bad band or anything, but Nic got behind us and he empowered us a lot. I think he saw the potential in us and was very encouraging.

Tom H: When I started I was really into that twee pop and middle-of-the-road indie stuff - all that Sarah records and Beat Happening stuff and that's what our first few self-released CDs were aping basically. When we became a band we were trying to distance ourselves from that. I was very conscious and second guessing it. Maybe it was a bit too twee and we were too much of a wimpy pop band? But the first time we played in Sydney Nic was the first person we ever saw fist pumping to our songs. [Laughs]

How do you feel about the Beat Happening comparison? It's still stuck but I think the new album will change that.
Tom R: I think it's just Tom's voice. Even from the start it would have been compared to Beat Happening but it wouldn't have been as much if Tom's voice didn't sound like Calvin Johnson’s. I mean, we are a rock’n’roll band with a lead singer that has a deep voice.

But I think Tom's drumming makes a difference. It seems a lot more punk than Beat Happening.
Tom H: Yeah that goes back to the confidence thing. As much as I don't want to be associated with them as much, I still think Beat Happening were a great band and a lot of that had to to do with the naivety and being ramshackle. We are not great musicians but we try to be confident in our playing and not purposely crappy or anything. In that way I think we are not particularly similar.

Tom R: We also have a bunch of new songs too which move away even more from that. You can hear a bit of it on the new record when we started getting into heaps of late-’70s, early-’80s powerpop. That production style was very confident and solid and slick. That influence too has crept into the band.

You uploaded the video for 'Out of Whack' the other night and within an hour people in the US and Sydney were putting it up on Facebook. Did you choose to film the video in Caroline Springs [Melbourne] on the windiest day of the year?
Tom R: My parents live in Caroline Springs so we went out there for dinner. We went for a walk down the road to this lake that is shitty but kind of nice and I thought we should film some shit.

Tom H: The first time we went there we were throwing some rocks at ducks so that's where the inspiration came from. This time we wanted to feed the ducks, which incidentally is a line from Marcus [UV Race], “Don't you know that Fitzroy sucks/Let's go feed the ducks”, but I think they remembered us throwing rocks at them. [Laughs]

Tom R: I was saying to Tom and Leon after we edited it that I don't understand why small bands don't make videos because it's actually a really entertaining way to listen to a song and it's so easy. You just get a camera and a shitty editing program and put it together really quickly. I have to give credit to my little brother Jordan for shooting our video. He's never don't it before in his life but was wearing a Steven Spielberg director’s cap. It fell off in the mud.

So you’re touring the US years. How easy is it to book a tour like that? Just get on the emails?
Tom H: We were really lucky. We knew a few people over there. I had contact with Rick from KDVS radio in California who does a show called Art for Spastics and Chris Berry in Baltimore who does a label called Fan Death.

Tom R: We sent them an email each and got a reply in the same day and we were like, “Shit this is really going to happen!”

Tom H: Rick put us in contact with a band with a similar name, The Woollen Men, who we are going to play some shows with. So the east coast happened and we got some shows on the west coast and for the cities, someone knew someone who knew someone. People over there are just wonderful.

Going back to Nic and R.I.P. Society, it must have helped that you could say that you are doing a record with him. If you tried to book a US tour five years ago it may have been more difficult.
Tom H: Yeah, we spoke to the Bed Wettin Bad Boys, Royal Headache, Taco Leg guys and, yes, the R.I.P. connection helps too.

The opening song 'Sloan' is about a guy that used to frequent a cafe that Tom used to work at right?
Tom R: Yeah I've not seen him a long time. It's a long story but this guy would come in towards closing time. It was a sleepy little cafe and it would be just me and him and he would tell me stories. He was American and he would tell stories – tall stories, I think. It was kind of sad though because he was an alcoholic and a junkie in his early-30s. He was a talented baseball player but if all failed because he got into drugs. The last time I saw him I could hardly recognise him because he had been so badly beaten up the night before. We went to a shoe store on Nicholson Strett and he bought a $120 pair of shoes and then stole three pairs of socks.

And Tom you wrote 'University Narcolepsy' a song about falling asleep in lectures?
Tom H: Yep. [Laughs] A combination of my two uni experiences. One was an arts course when I had glandular fever and was trying to stay awake in lectures but then I just dropped out because I couldn't stay awake. Then when I went back to uni I had terrible sleeping patterns. Self-inflicted.

Tom R: Yeah, you used to stay up until 3am watching The Simpsons!

“Maybe it was a bit too twee and we were too much of a wimpy pop band?”

So you recorded with Lachy Wooden. The assumption would be that Mikey Young would do it, or even you Tom, who has recorded in the past.
Tom H: I wasn't very confident at the time. I was happy to do a song here or there but for a whole album it was pretty daunting.

Tim R: We met Lachy one night at the King Khan and BBQ show we did at The Corner [Hotel in Melbourne]. He was doing the sound and he came up to us and asked how much money we made for the night. We said, “A hundred bucks”, and he invited us up to his new studio that he had just built. It's an amazing place. He has everything. He's recorded Super Wild Horses and done stuff for Total Control and Eddy Current.

Is putting an LP out and touring the US your measure of success?
Tom R: To us they are just added bonuses. If we were to go back three years ago and we had our songs we would be just as happy. It's still just about fun. It really is a hobby. It's an important to keep an integrity in how we manage things. We maybe getting a bit of hype at the moment but we hope it's one that won't just be here and be gone. We've been doing it for a while and we hope just to retain the same reason we are in a band.

Tom H: Our goal for this year is to get our second album out. We recorded this album in late 2010 and I'm glad people enjoy it but for us it seem a little old. The new songs involve all three of us. Tom sings more and it's more of a group effort.

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Woollen Kits’ self-titled LP is out now through R.I.P. Society.

Gasometer. Downstairs Step-Panther + Ross De Chene Hurricanes + Valley Girls (Matt from Chook Race and Jackson) Upstairs ScottDrakula + The Shards + The Fuses

Room 40 & Kakkle Tapes present

MARK McGUIRE (EMERALDS) RITES WILD ANGEL EYES

SUN FEB 26 8:30pm The Gasometer Hotel

**Mark McGuire **is one of the central figures emerging from the American underground music scene.

An incredibly talented player and songwriter, his work both in a solo capacity and with his lauded band **Emeralds **places him smack bang in the heartland of a great American sonic uprising. Creating incredibly rich and deep layered guitar works, McGuire has developed an entirely unique method of live looping, creating a network on tone, melody and freeform modulation that is both breathtaking and bewildering.

He's a master of his craft and comes to Melbourne for the very first time at the Gasometer. Joining him will be Rites Wild **fresh from a national Sun Araw tour and Not Not Fun recording artist **Angel Eyes.

$12. Door sales only.

Website

Check the site for this weeks gigs!

re reading this

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the iconic Big Day Out, but it’s hardly been cause for celebration for its founder Ken West. With his long-time business associate Vivian Lees opting out, he tells TIM SCOTT why he’s prepared to put his “lush life” at risk to keep it afloat.

It's been a rollercoaster 12 months for Big Day Out founder Ken West. Leading up to the 20th anniversary of the iconic national music festival he’s had to deal with a more competitive (some would say saturated) music festival market, a high Australian dollar, slow ticket sales, the near cancellation of the New Zealand leg, his long time businesses partner Vivian Lees walking out and Kanye West's ego. Little wonder he's back on the darts.

But with a new partnership deal with US-based C3 – the promoter behind Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits – the affable West is pulling no punches. Sitting in a site office at Flemington Racecourse, the festival site in Melbourne, the promoter was unblinking and strikingly candid as he chatted about the new business partnership, the challenges of running a music festival in 2012 and his emotional attachment to the festival he co-founded in Sydney in 1992.

What’s the deal with C3? Is it a partnership?
It's a partnership. I came into this year quite honestly and simply thinking: “No one can unravel this but me. I'm going to have to wear it holus-bolus. If I lose the home, lose the office lose everything, whatever. The Big Day Out has give me a lush life and I'm not going to just let it die like that.” The ridiculous pressure and confusion that went on because of the 20-year thing actually created, in a weird way, an exact parallel to how the first Big Day Out started: pleading with the artists and trying to work out all their insecurities and problems. We were trying to get across to a confused audience which back then didn't know what a festival was.

So why C3?
They know their strengths. They are really good at working fast, they are fantastically connected with all the artist management and the artists directly. They have a good relationship with the agents but they don't put up with any bullshit. They're Texan. They're not New Yorkers or LA types. They are not Australian.

Do they have much experience in touring festivals? Austin City Limits is in Austin and think Lollapalooza now is just in Chicago.
C3 got involved with Lollapalooza the year it got resurrected. The great thing about it is that they are in the resurrection business. [Laughs] They do lots of bands. They do 700 or 800 shows a year and the artists know that they are in safe hands which has always been the same with Big Day Out. But safe hands went out the window when people were leaving us to go to people and festivals that just paid more. That trust was the backbone of what we were about. But, of course, it was more than just that. It was also the collapse of the local music scene, record labels, independent stores, the growth of the internet, the growth of eBay, the scalping problems, the over supply of events.

You say C3 is in the resurrection business. Are they integral in keeping the Big Day Out alive?
They are integral in keeping me alive to be honest. [Laughs] They really see the Big Day Out as being important so therefore their passion is to fix the problem.

So Viv left and you needed them to step in?
Well, I haven't done the shows yet! There was two ways of doing it. The way I thought it was going to go is that no one would want to touch it until I had gotten through this year. Then after the shows I'd be able to say, “Well there you go. We've lost money. I’m a worn man. The shows are great. We've kept our relationship with the artists OK”, but this year’s slogan that I've been working with is, “Crazy but not stupid.” All I know is that I couldn't let it die like that. I didn't care if I lost everything, I still don't care if I lose everything because it's only transient. It's screwdrivers. It's food until you reach a certain age then it's screwdrivers. It's a Bunnings voucher and money is the screwdriver that helps you put the Ikea thing together. [Laughs] But I would be very handicapped without something like C3 because everyone would be very nervous about going forward. I accepted that and knew all the problems were going down when I was calling all my friends overseas and big bands and they weren't able to help this year. But now with C3 it comes back to the “safe hands” thing again.

Will the C3 relationship see more opportunities for Australian bands in the US?
They will be relying on our advice a lot. Also, they have the same thinking … I've been fighting for quite a few years now the idea of governmental special events. Things are really annoying because they only care about sports and the Grand Prix or V8s, and the music industry means nothing unless it hasn't happened before and somebody else can get the credit. Even if it's a disaster.

What do you mean by that?
Well they only put money into events that haven't happened. They don't support anything that already exists. I've seen the trainwreck coming for a while now. The thinking is that, “The big events can afford it. We'll charge this.” I just got a $130,000 user pay police bill just for the Gold Coast. $100-an-hour for police. That's not right. If the police [themselves] were getting a $100 an hour, maybe.

The economy for these festivals has been going ballistic though.
Yeah it's a bubble. Over supply. It takes 10 years for a band, if they are amazing, to become a headliner. We are overfished and we are being sold fish, but we are running out of tuna. The bubble has burst. It had burst elsewhere and it's the number one problem for festivals worldwide. I think something like 30 or 40 European festival collapsed in the last two years so therefore the agents are getting more concerned, but they don't know how to fix it because they want to look like they are getting the most amount of money for their acts. You have to make them think again back to trying to develop acts rather than just sell them off.

Were there problems this year between Kanye and Soundgarden closing?
It was never possible for Kanye to play before Soundgarden for musical reasons as well as status. Basically we had a problem with two acts who weren't quite perfect to close and neither would play second last and so getting that through was sold in a way that was very expensive. [Laughs] The formula is actually supposed to be quite simple. You get a bonafide headliner: Muse, Metallica, Chili Peppers, whatever, and then everyone falls into line. You can't say, “I want this much money because your headliner isn't strong enough.” But this year’s lineup got built from the ground up because we have been waiting all year for Prince to say yes. We were warned but we were like, “Oh come on, it's 20 years, he will want to do it.”

You are working to schedules too, right?
Exactly! That's the thing that people forget about. One of the amazing things when going through the process when this collapsed was talking to the Gudiniskis, and [those sorts of] people. They didn't quite get it. As a promoter you are used to getting the tour but not getting it the week you want it. So your process of negotiation is really difficult and if you don't have it all pinned down in enough time to say, “Stuff it, I'll get someone else”, then you are going down a very dangerous road. Sometime it has worked for us really well. This year we didn't have a Boiler Room closer or a Green Stage closer and the two main stage spots were still open a week out from announcement.

Do the slow ticket sales reflect both the lineup and the current economic situation?
Yeah the lineup stalled the momentum of sales. The over anticipation and expectation of what the lineup was going to be. The Chili Peppers were mentioned and talked about in the media as well. In the end of the day you either do the festival or you don't do it. You pay what you have to pay when you are in a spot like that, but you don't ever want to be in that spot again. People started buying things because they were worried other people would take them. Future has done the same fuck up as we have done. They took stuff because they were afraid we would take it, not because they wanted them. I really wanted Aphex Twin. I really wanted Skrillex. I wanted Fatboy Slim but they jumped in with a really huge offer in the middle of me talking to them and I was like, “I'm out!”

“If I lose the home, lose the office lose everything, whatever. The Big Day Out has give me a lush life and I'm not going to just let it die like that.”

Have you considered doing another more dance-orientated event that would allow you to compete with Future?
Yeah, I've considered all that before but I think genre-specific events are tough. [It has to be] the ultimate melting pot. It's got to be a platform for diverse acts to play to a diverse audience. So we get the best performance out of each act because they are playing out of their comfort level: they have to work harder. If you play a genre-specific festival nobody is happy. The audience gets bored. The bands are bored. I won't name names but there are some people who are like, “Oh Jesus, is he playing? I will have to speak to them again.”

It's got to be a good experience for the artists. That has driven the Big Day Out; artists wanting to play it. Björk wanted to play before Rage, and Neil Young wanted to be on the festival so he could play to a younger audience. Metallica wanted to do it because they were in the middle of Some Kind of Monster, having nervous breakdowns, and so Lars wanted to be at the Big Day Out so he didn't have to hang out with his own band. Chili Peppers in 2000 got on the show because they'd just found [guitarist John] Frusciante in the Chateau Marmont no teeth left on his deathbed.

In ’97, you were ready to walk away. Are you glad you didn't?
I'm really glad I came back. I'm really glad I stopped it. One of the problems here is that I've always wanted to have another years break but it's got to be a break when it's at a peak, not a trough.

Viv walked away because he had enough?
No, because it was too hard and I agree, but I couldn't let go because emotionally the Big Day Out owns me whereas emotionally the Big Day Out doesn't own Vivian. I created it so I got to bury it. Not accounting [Laughs] Death by accountancy is a horrible way to die.

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This year’s Big Day Out kicks off on January 20 in Auckland. Acts performing include Soundgarden, Kanye West and Kasabian. Tickets for all legs of the event, especially Adelaide and Perth, are still available. More details here.

He's playing Gasometer tonight. More info here

this record is great! check out the video they recorded in caroline springs today on what could have possibly been the windiest day in years

There’s something happening in Melbourne’s “live electronic” scene, and new collective //This Thing// are at the heart of it, writes TIM SCOTT.

Since forming in a North Melbourne backyard a little over 12 months ago the artist run collective and record label //This Thing// have been making strides with their parties, international tour promotion and free downloadable releases. Upcoming spots on this weekend’s Sugar Mountain and March’s Golden Plains is validation that the group – consisting of up to 20 local DJs and producers including Wooshie, Crumbs, Electric Sea Spider, Galapagoose, Baba X and Mike Kay – has grown into one of the more interesting and innovative, not to mention fervently DIY, music operators in Australia.

But Trent Gill (Galapagoose) and Dylan Michel (Wooshie) want it known that while //This Thing// is a bunch of like minded friends there's no rigid set of ideals that the group operate under. “It's not so much an umbrella but more of a platform that helps and supports getting music out and heard,” Gill explains.

What was the beginning for //This Thing//?
Trent: We planted the seed at the end of 2010. Just a group of us had been thinking of doing something on our own. To have some control over the music.

Dylan: A lot of it was born out of frustration but we could also see that there was this groundswell of different broadcasters, DJs and beatmakers and we all had this common ground ... We all wanted to do something in terms of either putting on regular nights or releasing things. There was enough of us that we knew that if we did something the power of numbers would make it work.

Were you all friends from the start or did people drift in?
Trent: We all knew of each other but it was a first time meeting for a lot of us. It started out as an excuse to hang out. Since then more people have come on board.

Dylan: We had a BBQ in Richard [Rambl’s] backyard in North Melbourne and that was the formation. We all realised that something was happening in Melbourne and we could all help each other out. We all had an appreciation of beats and electronic and club music but none of us came from a dub-step or heavy club vibe. It's weird for us in a good way as well as a strange way ... of playing in a club setting and playing live music that forces people to interact. It's that weird contrast of sound system culture but also trying to make it live.

It has a punk rock DIY ideal as well.
Trent: I think that was where a lot of us come from, especially Dylan and Nathaniel [N.P.C.B]; a real punk and hardcore aesthetic and approach to music. Of doing it ourselves in a more organic manner.

Dylan: It's also because we have other skills outside music. Someone may be a good poster designer or someone is good at mastering or mixing so there is that support network as well as slowing building an identity of what we are and what we represent. We kind of want to avoid getting booked as “This Thing Collective” unless it's something special like Golden Plains. We want to take a fresh approach and help empower and promote the individual artists involved rather than lump everyone into a group. When I first moved to Melbourne [from Perth] there were these amazing and respected DJs who had been around for years but weren't really playing together. Just working. Not to say that they were of an older generation but they had seen waves and scenes come and go and then there was a bunch of us younger guys ready to do stuff our own way.

What was your first party like?
Dylan: I was helping with the Buffalo Club [in Melbourne]. A few of us were helping build the place and I guess that was starting up at the same time we were forming //This Thing//. Although they are two different things we needed a home for what we wanted and the first party was the opening of the Buffalo Club.

Trent: It worked really well for both sides. It was a really good launching pad and it was really awesome to have a monthly and be able to create and show what we were about but it's not necessarily sustainable we want to keep going and moving on.

Can you explain as producers how you perform live?
Dylan: It's more about the context of club music but also we play music that is completely live and often improvised.

Trent: We are operating in a club environment and we are touching on that aesthetic and environment of people being able to dance. But in terms of writing we are doing it the same way a band does but then finding new ways to perform them live. There may be computers on stage but no one is just pressing a space bar and dancing around. It makes it more spontaneous. What makes something truly live is the possibility of it going wrong and it often does! [Laughs]

Dylan: I started making beats in my bedroom with analog equipment then made the shift to Ableton and using computers, but I didn't necessarily want it to be about the technology ... I didn't want to perform live as a glorified DJ – not that there is anything wrong with that – but there's a lot of people playing “live” when they are just triggering preloaded clips. So it's about people knowing that when you are playing that pad, it's live. That high hat, that kick drum the whole groove is controlled by you. You can play the same song differently every time and you feed off the crowd and what they are doing.

The word “abstract” is often used in describing this style of music whether it be Jonti or Flying Lotus. What do you think?
Dylan: I guess the only phrase that sits comfortably with me is “live electronic”. It often gets branded as “wonky”. It's actually weird in Australia you go to every different city and state and they all have different names for it.

Was there any other group or label that you took inspiration from?
Dylan: There are different clubs that are orientated to good dance music and sound systems all over the place. Plastic People in London is probably a prime example. It was a base for us with the Buffalo Club in terms of making the SoundSsystem a room with a feeling, but for a Melbourne audience you don't want to go “future UK”, and too ahead of the curve because people are just going to freak out. It can be a bit of a delicate balancing act.

Trent: What we are trying to do is show people what exists in their own city. There's a lot going on here and it's different to anywhere else in the world. There's nothing quite like Melbourne at the moment and, not to say it's better or anything, but it's just really different and it should be appreciated locally which is the hardest thing in the world. [Laughs]

Dylan: I think that whole, “Oh they are international we must go see them”, mindset is more true for smaller cities because they go there less often, whereas in Melbourne we are a bit more spoilt for choice.

“There may be computers on stage but no one is just pressing a space bar and dancing around.”

Trent: But then the Matthew David show we did in Adelaide was fantastic. I don't think it was necessarily because he was from LA it was more that people wanted to hear something a bit more different to what they were used to, and we had three local acts who were really good too. The smaller cities are good and supportive. I've played in Perth once and, even though there was not a whole lot of people there, people are asking me to come back as people talk and word gets around. In Sydney it's different too, at least the shows that I've been involved with. It seems people are really into the vocal stuff, but then again I live with some girls from Sydney and they are always talking about the warehouse, almost rave scene up there. I guess classic dance music. It's really hard to say what music [fits] where. You can't always base it on geography.

Oscar + Martin have been important especially in Melbourne in crossing over the indie/beats side of things.
Trent: I think what they are doing is quite impressive in the sense that they are combining a lot of the indie aesthetic like guitars and vocals and have it feature really prominently in their productions, but still having the electronic and beats element too. It's not that far away from what we are doing. There are actually quite strong parallels and maybe they are coming from a more indie direction but I guess that there is not that much opportunity to have that cross pollination. Younger crowd people 18 or 19 year olds come to our gigs all the time. They seem more open to the idea and the idea of feeling less self conscious dancing and stuff.

So far all three of your releases – Baba X, Thomas William and a Wooshie/Mike Kay split – have been free. Is that something you decided on from the start?
Dylan: From the beginning we kind of planned to have parties, and any profit from the parties would go back into releasing records or releasing mixes. But we are getting to the crossroads: we are a label but also this thing that helps artists.

Trent: We've put out everything free so far as a way to get established, and to put out things that are really good but not as formal, I guess. Thomas William is much more like an album, and I think that could do with an even bigger physical release. But the kind of approach taken so far is to keep digital releases free because a lot of times people are going to download them anyway. In our own minds, we highly value physical albums and vinyl, or a tape. It gives it an extra personal touch so in terms of releases we are headed to that dual delivery: a free or cheap download then the properly priced physical copy.

What do you have on the horizon?
Trent: We have two cassettes and a 7” coming out in the first part of 2012.

You are playing on some bigger shows this summer inducing Sugar Mountain festival this weekend.
Dylan: Yeah, Baba-X, Martin L and Mike Kay from // This Thing // will be playing the late slot at Sugar Mountain Festival. It should be fun.

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Sugar Mountain takes place this Saturday (January 14) at The Forum in Melbourne. Limited tickets available here.

Click here for the //This Thing// Soundcloud.