I think we’re all getting a little bored of going to the same venues all the time in Sydney. Oxford Art Factory, The Annandale, World Bar, you guys are really great but when your doorstaff all know me so well I start to feel like maybe I should stop going out to these venues and take up a hobby like macrame  or something.

Enter: Joe Hardy, who seems to have felt the same way, and who solved the problem by turning his North Shore back yard into a venue. It’s called The Gate, and I asked him some questions about it, because what a rad idea, and what a cool guy for making it happen, right?

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+ What are the biggest problems with venues in Sydney?

> This is an interesting question to ponder. First, let me say I’ve got a lot of respect for the operators of conventional venues, and I’ve spent a lot of time enjoying their hard work!

Obviously venues in Sydney come in all shapes and sizes, so their problems vary depending on the scale of their operation. I do think financial viability is one of the biggest concerns for nearly all small-to-medium size live music outlets at the moment. Whatever you might attribute this to, I think now is probably a good time as ever to be experimenting with different approaches to running viable music venues, especially seeing the primary income model the live music industry relies on at the moment (sale of alcohol) seems to be biting us in the bum right now.

+ What other cities have solved these problems and how?

> I’m not entirely sure there’s one “big” solution I’ve seen for these problems! For some venues, the answer is to cut costs, but that just means that quality is lowered and less risks are taken, which probably also means that less people turn up to shows and so on….

I think every city is different, both in terms of problems faced and solutions invented – I think even across different parts of Sydney we’ve seen different reactions and counter-reactions to the challenges the live music scene faces. The warehouse scene in the inner west is one key example – that whole DIY culture has thrived as emerging bands have struggled to find gigs in normal venues, but then it also seems to be facing its own new wave of challenges as well. Read more for the full interview…

Posted by amelia in Features, Music

Tags: betty airs, border thieves, DIY event space, DIY venue, gerling, joe hardy, ryde, the ELF, the gate, yae!tiger

Surfing on the crest of the reverberations from his last hilariously named single, ‘Bindi Irwin Apocalypse Jam’, Dan Kelly cruises back to our shores with the release of a brand new single ‘Hold On, I’m Coming On’ and with the promise of a new album Dan Kelly’s Dream coming out Jul 16^th.  Natives rejoice! To calm our minds from islander hysteria Dan himself agreed to talk with us about the new album and the method behind his tropical madness.

After the much deserved hype behind his last album Drowning In the Fountain of Youth, it is fair to say that critics and fans alike are eagerly awaiting Dan’s third installment Dan Kelly’s Dream. His jangled guitar has the most hardened drug dealers dancing recklessly outside their meth labs and his lyrics could even bring a smile to Vladimir Putin’s face. The density of each verse alone warrants several listenings, as you trawl the insert wondering, Did he really just say ‘stole an Indonesian General’s waterproof humvee’? Of course he did. “When you’ve only got three verses of what is a quite involved story then you can’t really waste a word otherwise you’ll make it drag or you’ll stuff it up. And plus it’s got to rhyme too… That’s a bastard.” Read more for the full feature…

Posted by Max Mison in Features, Music

Tags: augie march, dale packard, dan kelly, dan kelly's dream, dan kelly's dream band, dandenong station, dave williams, ground components, indra adams, kiernan box, leonard cohen, sonic youth, swimming caps, the alpha males

I tell Simon Degroot that I’m calling him from the lobby of a giant circular office building where I briefly worked because I’m hiding from completely insane rain, and he’s concerned for my safety. A “Can they hear you?” is whispered conspiratorially, and he readily endorses my strategy of saying “TORTS” loudly if anyone looks suspicious. And then we are, ahem, on to business. His upcoming show at Blank_space is called “All in again sometime,” a title that refers to his return to showing artwork after a year as a stay-at-home Dad but also works as an indicator of his artistic method. 

Degroot’s pictures have a mixture of graphic and abstract, gestural and delineated forms. My immediate points of reference are paste-ups and Paul Klee, and I like that the different media and styles he uses share a kind of energy? Dynamism? Robustness? Something that you clench your fist while describing, anyhow. Read more for the full article…

Posted by Bethany Small in Art, Features

Tags: blank_space, Simon Degroot

We held this poster competition and we found a winner and it’s all happening. The posters will be up very shortly. But for now, please admire the amazing submissions we received. These are the finalists, and we are proud to say we love them all like our own children…

Posted by amelia in Art, Features

Laurence Pike, like most misunderstood drummers is pretty tired of answering three questions: describe your sound, what can we expect from your live show, and how was London. So we’re going to talk snacks. “Sorry I’m just eating a sesame snap, that was a really inappropriate thing to eat while I’m talking to you,” he says, or at least attempts to. “Ah, how I do love sesame snaps.”

But hold up munch boy. You seem to be missing a few vowels.

Forming in 1999, the Sydney-by-way-of-London-based experimentally progressive trio Pivot (Dave Miller and brothers Laurence and Richard Pike) recently had a nasty run-in with a US metal outfit of the same name, who challenged the Sydneysiders to a duel if group titles didn’t start a-changin’. In a subsequent statement, Richard claimed, “It was frustrating and kind of ridiculous, but it became quickly obvious that it was a legal battle in the US we may not even win, and one we just couldn’t afford to lose. So in the end, we weren’t fazed by it.”

Nor should they be. With a new album and feet back on Australian soil as PVT, a few missing letters are hardly going to dampen the spirits of this electronic three piece, as the small change will surely not lower the volume of their amps. As Richard had to add, “Altering the name just seemed to be another step in the process for the record to come out and be heard.” Read more for the full article…

Posted by Bridie Connellan in Features, Music

Tags: church with no magic, dave miller, Jack Ladder, laurence pike, Pivot, PVT, richard pike, smirmoff, Warp Records, window

This is one of the best interviews I have ever done. I spoke to Richard In Your Mind about their new album, which was released two days ago on Rice Is Nice records. It’s called My Volcano and we talked about why, and other things, like magic theatres and crystals and sloths and Patrick Swayze and Cornettos and look, it’s hilarious. They had just done their photo shoot for the Brag – and the feature article version of this interview is in that fine publication. But this is it all – pretty much unedited.

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+ How was the photo shoot?

> Richard: It was really cool. We dressed in lab coats and I had a bird.

+ Was there a volcano?

> Vicki, who is the intern at the moment is making 30 [model volcanos]. She’s going to take them to Surry Hills and Newtown and cable tie them to busstops and stuff and they’ve got little things on them that say the album’s coming out. We’re hoping that people will see them for a bit and then people will steal them as souvenirs. Hopefully after someone’s seen them.

+ You should put little tags on them that instruct people to do that.

> ‘Steal me on this date’. Yeah she was even talking about getting a website started, asking people to take photos and list all the Richard In Your Mind volcanos, and even do it in Melbourne and stuff. Grand schemes.

> Brent: “Social Media”

> Richard: Twelve points out of ten for enthusiasm and effort and concept. Read more for the full interview…

Posted by amelia in Features, Music

Tags: baba ram dass, brent griffin, caloundra, Cloud Control, conrad richters, crystals, Jordy Lane, little richard, magic theatre, patrick swayze, perth, richard alpert, richard cartwright, Richard In Your Mind, richard linklater, sloths, SPOD

Ross Jenkinson is a photographer and a writer, so he’s in this exhibition and has also written about it. He interviewed the man behind it all, Oliver Bryce Yates, before it opened, and now just before it closes Ross has also interviewed Pedro Ramos, an amazing photographer from Portugal.

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+ You’re originally from Portugal, right? How long have you been in Sydney, what brought you here, and has it changed your work with photography in any way?
> I was born in Madeira, a small portuguese island in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Northern Africa. This is my second time in Sydney, so I’ve been here for almost a year and a half combined.

I’m still not entirely sure why I came here and I don’t think it has directly changed my work. However, it has presented me with new opportunities in fashion and commercial photography, and that has been a good thing so far. Read more for the full interview…

Posted by Ross Jenkinson in Art, Features

Tags: black scabbard research centre, Oliver Bryce Yates, Pedro Ramos, portugal, Ross Jenkinson, sixteen, Somedays Gallery