++

+ 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.

+ I think the album will sell itself.

> Conrad: You heard it?

+ Yeah, remember I bought it at your show in Melbourne?

> Conrad: Oh yeah! I remember that.

+ Well I’m glad the shoot went well, too.

> Richard: Yeah it’s perfect! With the whole volcano thing – they either exist on islands or in science experiments.

> Brent: Or there are secret science labs under the volcanos.

+ How long had you been working on the album?

> Richard: About two years, sort of. But about a year and a half, proper. There was a bit of conceptual-I-don’t-think-we-knew-what-we-were-doing at the start, trying to just figure it out, and it really wasn’t until we decided that we were going to mix with Brent that it was suddenly, ‘Cool, we’re making the album.’ And we went into the studio and mixed a few songs, and that’s when we did ‘PS I Love You’ and we did heaps of other ones that we weren’t that happy with, but we spent tonnes of money. And that doesn’t equate, when you spend heaps of money and you’re not really happy so Brent said, ‘Hey you guys can tie me up and use me as a slave for a year for next to nothing and come and drink my coffee,’

>Brent: I was thinking more like a month and it kind of stretched into a year. Mainly because I think half the time we were meant to be doing stuff we just kind of went and had steaks and beers. It was a good year.

> Richard: If you can’t just go and have steaks and beers at any point, why even get into music?

+ Brent, did you just really want to work with them?

> Brent: Yeah, ever since I first heard Richard In Your Mind… I judge a good band out of how jealous I am of them and I was very jealous. You hear a good band and think, ‘I want to make that music. I want to be involved with that.’

+ So you just did it.
> I just went, ‘Alright I’m gonna do it.’ I made a call, I got my agent in there.

> Richard: [Laughing] His people talked to our people…

> Brent: I just said, I just bought a gun, it’s loaded, let’s do this record. Like that guy in jail…

> Jordy: Phil Spektor?
> Everyone else: Who was that guy? What was his name?

> Conrad: Phil Spektor!

> Brent: Yeah! But like a reverse Phil Spektor.

>Jordy: [Mumbling] I said that ages ago.

> Richard: This is Jordy’s role in the band. To come up with three million ideas until we think we’ve made it up ourselves.

> Brent: I was just liking the band a lot and we just became mates, somehow. It’s a mutual love society, I think.

+ What’s the concept for the album?

> Richard: At some point, maybe even after ‘Candelabra’ it started having this weird island-tribal-holiday-lounge-nightmare vibe. I think it was quite early on that I thought maybe the first album was in space and this one was on an island. And the island is a holiday destination but they’re also rugged, barren – not barren, they’re lush – but there’s unknown mystery, Bermuda triangles and stuff.

> Brent: So realistically the next album has to be in the core of the earth. Going in, three steps.

+ It’s quite a lot of songs on the album.

> Conrad: We are more prolific than most bands around, I’d say.

+ How do you write, do you write together?

> Conrad: Nah, Richard does most of it.

> Richard: I generally come up with what the song sort of is from beginning to end but then we – well it’s quite different for lots of the songs. For some of them I just do it all on the computer and record it and there’s nothing more to do, but for others often I like doing a solo show every now and then because Conrad comes along and watches it and I always try to do new songs. And he’ll say, ‘We should do that song, but instead of strumming, we’ll go dupdupdupdupdup’ [making guitar movements] and I don’t know how you’d write that down.

> Conrad: It would be more boring if you’d said ‘So instead of lengthy strummed barre chords we’ve decided to do simple staccato notes on the A string, like so.’

+ I think my favourite part of that is that Conrad comes along and I have the idea of you playing to Conrad in the crowd.

> Richard: Most of my musical process if for Conrad, basically. I’ll put stuff out there, and even if I know it’s not good, I know it will be good if I haven’t done it quite well enough yet if I’m not in to it, and then Conrad will hear it and be like ‘Wow! When did you do that?’ and I’ll be like, ‘I did it ages ago!’ I trust Conrad.

+ You don’t care about Jordy’s opinion?

> Brent: Jordy’s magical.

> Richard: But Jordy’s just so nice, he’ll tell me everything is great and I’ll say, ‘Thanks, that’s what I need to hear, but sometimes I need to hear the ‘Meh’ so I can be all, ‘Fucking Conrad, I’ll show you!’

+ When did you all start playing music together?

> Conrad: When I moved in to Richard’s house, years ago.

> Richard: We met sort of when we were both at the end of high school and for years Conrad was saying we should get together and do music and I agreed, but he had his sort of projects and I had my things and they didn’t really match up and we had our successful first venture with the Sex Doodles which was our psychadelic folk duo. Still some amazing material there that needs to probably be heard by more than the sixty or seventy people in the history of time who ever heard us.

> Conrad: We even had our first big Sex Doodles gig once but Richard had just got his wisdom teeth out and we had to cancel it because he was too puffy-headed.

> Brent: Richard only likes to play with a small head.

+ What about this performing troupe you were in with your dad?

> Richard: Stormboy? I was just out of high school. Actually, I’ve just got to say, did you hear that cop that walked past then? His ringtone was a siren.

> Conrad: It’s just like Richard’s ringtone, which is a psychadelic synth noise.

> Richard: Stormboy. So out of high school Bell Shakespeare put together a stage version of Stormboy and I was focused on being an actor for the last few years of high school and the last few years out of high school until I decided music was better. But it was this cool thing where we did 111 shows in 54 towns for like a five or six month tour around Australia and my dad was an actor until he became and English teacher but he didn’t become an English teacher until he was over fifty so that’s my inspiration to make me do whatever I want until I’m over fifty before I have to become a teacher. He played my dad. The thing about playing 111 shows is that you get over it by about show 67.

+ I guess you’d get over stage fright pretty well too?

> Totally. We started even playing tip on stage so the actors, while we were on stage and we would say ‘Seeya,’ and touch each other before we were offstage and then get offstage and be all, ‘Who’s it?’ It was acting in our sleep, but it was a quality production.

> Conrad: Is that when your other amazing story happened on that tour?

> Richard: It was actually on that tour that we were in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast. We’d gotten a bit drunk, and it was in the middle of summer, so it was December, and we had a hotel and I had my own hotel room and I was sleeping without any clothes on because it was really hot. And we were a bit drunk and I swear that I must have just sleepwalked or something because I woke up as the door to my little apartment was closing and I was there in the hallway suddenly naked and I was a bit disorientated going, ‘What the hell?’ Maybe I had gotten up to go to the bathroom or something and had gone through the wrong door. Anyway I couldn’t get back in because it was locked and you don’t have any pockets when you’re naked. And everyone else was on a lower level so I got in the elevators but it was one of those elevators that once you went down you couldn’t get back up without a thing. So I went down two levels and started smashing on everyone’s door but they were had all got drunk with me so they were all out like a light so I didn’t know what to do so I went eventually down to the foyer to see if I could find someone but there was no-one there. But the lights were on so I was the only person in this massive foyer, totally stark naked. So I sat on the couch there wondering what to do and there was no phone I could find so I just didn’t know what to do and I wasn’t content to just sleep on the couch and wait for someone to come out and find the naked man so I went out the front door but that meant that I couldn’t go back in so I was on the streets of Caloundra, completely naked.

+ Why did you keep doing that?!

> I wanted to find help! I couldn’t find any help!

+ Wouldn’t it have been better to just stay in front of your door, nakedly?

> It was too weird. I couldn’t get in. And I would have had to sit there for five hours.

+ But better there than on the street?

> It was a beautiful evening! But I’d got it into my head that I needed to call somebody on a free number like the cops so I went looking for a public phone. So I went walking for like a block and a half and went down to the beach and called the cops and said ‘I’m naked in your town, come help me.’ And they said, ‘OK,’ and they were a bit confused but they said ‘We’ll be there in fifteen minutes or something,’ and I was right near the beach so in that time I went and sat on the beach in the moonlight, naked, with the breeze, and it was really awesome. It was crazy, it was like I was tripping or dreaming and I had this moment there. And then I saw a car coming and I thought it must have been the cops but it was just a security guard, and he was like ‘Ah! What’s wrong! Are you OK?!’ and I was like ‘Ah yeah I’m fine I’m just locked out and naked,’ and he gave me his bomber jacket. But bomber jackets are only like come to your butt so I was like an onion on a toothpick. And eventually the cops came so there was the security guard and the cops and they were like ‘What happened?’ and I was still pretty disorientated and they woke up the hotel manager and i had a very long lift ride up to my hotel room with the guy’s bomber jacket around my waist, and the hotel manager, and it felt like ten minutes into the lift he said, ‘So… what happened?’ and I think I said ‘I just got locked out.’ And then I went down and had breakfast with everybody the next day and I didn’t tell them and it was like the weirdest thing. At the end of the tour we all got together and had dinner and I told them and they thought it was amazing. It was weird because it was just a little secret between five people that would never meet again.

+ I remember you telling the story about how you made the name for the band to that crazy blonde journalist in Melbourne. Tell it again?

> Richard: I was trying to get my email to be ‘Richard’s Mind’ but Yahoo said I couldn’t have that – I was probably 18 or something – and I can’t even change my name on it now because every time I email someone it comes up as ‘Rajiche Sandwich’ but I swear I can’t change it. So they wouldn’t let me have it but I found ‘Richard In Your Mind’ [richardinyourmind@yahoo.com.au] so the first show Richard In Your Mind ever had was a solo show at the Mandarin Club that Levins booked and he said ‘What’s your stage name?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know,’ and because I’d been writing to him on email he said, how about it could be ‘Richard In Your Mind’? and I said that it sounded fine so it was that. And then the next show I didn’t want to do solo so I got Conrad to help, and eventually it became a band and no-one said yes to changing the band name to something else.

> Conrad: It doesn’t have to be this Richard.

> Richard: There are lots of very psychadelic Richards. Richard Alpert who became Baba Ram Dass is a cool guy, Richard Linklater, the director, Dazed and Confused and also Waking Life… there are other cool Richards. Little Richard. He’s not psychadelic. There was a Richard in Pink Floyd, Richard Wright, who died on my birthday two years ago. And there was a Richard in the Beatles… actually, it is cool that Pink Floyd had Richard Wright and I’m Richard Cartwright.

> Conrad: He died on your birthday?

> Richard: And then the next year Patrick Swayze died on my birthday so this year some kind of moderately well known person will probably die on my birthday.

> Brent: A friend of mine bought the Wheel of Fortune game and then Adriana died. It’s because Richard played the game.

> Richard: I have voodoo for blood. Shumshummmmaaaaahhh…

+ How has the tour been with Cloud Control?

> Conrad: There’s still a little bit left, Byron, Brisbane and Adelaide.

> Richard: The tour’s been amazing. Cloud Control are all really nice people and we’ve had superfun with them and they’re a really popular band so there’s heaps of people at the shows so it’s been cool.

+ How have the crowds been responding to the new stuff?

> Really well I think.

> Conrad: They lose their shit.

> Richard: Heaps of people like our song, ‘Birds’. It’s also been really cool because we’ve had to figure out how to play the album songs live and they’re quite different.

> Conrad: It’s all electronic on the album but live it’s like tribal drumming and funk bass. It’s wicked.

+ The live shows are usually pretty exciting.

> Richard: The launch is going to be amazing.

+ What’s going to happen?

> Brent:  It’s going to be in a space shuttle.

> Richard: I was thinking I was going to wear some furry pants, some beads and maybe five painted lines on my chest, representing each one of us, and then in the middle of the tribal jam of ‘Flower of the Heart’ I’ll put on the lion’s head which is photographed here. And we’ll be like shobachobajobajah! [tribal chant sounds]. So if I don’t that and you write that we’re going to do that…

+ You could re-enact the naked story. With some cardboard props.

> Richard: Each of us could play a different aspect of my nakidity.

+ Nudity?

> Brent: Bags being the bone zone.

+ Streamers? Smoke machines?

> Richard: There’ll be confetti, laes-a-plenty…

> Conrad: After the show there’ll be plenty! I love you Lily.
> Richard: Jules and Vicki are going to the prop shop tomorrow so hopefully it will be a decorated vibe. And we’ve got We Say Bamboulee and Kyu on board so it’s going to be super fun.

+ The design of the album is really beautiful. Greedy Hen?

> Richard: Greedy Hen except for the booklet.

+ Who did the booklet?

> Richard: Ben Shackleton designed it all but I took all the photos.

+ Really?

> With my cameraphone. But I did it through a crystal.

+ What do you mean you did it through a crystal? What are you talking about? You’re a crazy man.

> I put a crystal in front of my phone and took a photo.

+ What crystal? Where is it?

> I don’t have it on me.

+ Why not?

> Because it’s a conceptual crystal. Hey, that’s a new band name.

+ Is it an iPhone?

> No it’s just a vaguely crappy Nokia one. I just use the crystal to refract the image. It looks like a big expensive diamond but you just get it from the markets. And then they edited the pictures to make them extra-kaleidoscopy.

+ I was wondering who had done the booklet. But it turns out… are they sloths?

> They sure are sloths.

+ How do you feel about sloths?

> I think they’re cool and it’s cool how they can swim. If you ever see footage of them underwater they look rad, too. I think they move faster under the water than they do in dryness.

> Brent: Did you ever see the one that washed up on the beach with no hair, all bloated and hairless, and it was kind of alive and all these kids beat it to death with sticks.

> Richard: That is a symbol for our compassion for life.

+ And also kind of a weird segue back to Richard, naked on the beach… So you were talking about Pink Floyd, etc, but what contemporary music are you listening to?

> I actually just got a Boards of Canada album and I’ve been listening to that for the past few days. We’ve listened to the Tame Impala new album and that’s cool. We’ve been listening to a boatload of Cloud Control.

> Jordy: We listen to Cypress Hill a lot.

+ I’m kind of not that surprised.

> Richard: Look at our van. You can’t not listen to Cypress Hill while driving that van.

> Brent: Can we just announce that we’re supporting Cypress Hill?

> Jordy: Oh yeah, we’ve just got the support for Cypress Hill. And when I say we got the support I mean they got the support for us.

> Richard: So make it happen. If everybody thinks – OK, so we’re supporting Cypress Hill. People will think, ‘They know what’s going on. Cypress Hill don’t.’

> Conrad: I heard some new Cypress Hill and it’s bad.

> Richard: That’s OK. We’ll blow them out of the water!

> Brent: We could be better than Cypress Hill.

> Richard: The next album we do will be called ‘Better Than Cypress Hill: Cypress Mountain.’

+ Volcanos. What do you think of Iceland, just putting it out there?

> Richard: I don’t think much of it, that’s why Rice Is Nice paid a lot of money to explode it with a giant volcano.

+ Ah, so it’s just a media frenzy, marketing thing.

> As long as nobody died too much I think it’s really good timing.

> Brent: We thought we’d get in before it.

+ Can you tell me about the famous living room garage parties you used to have?

> Richard: We used to have a thing called Magic Theatre, which was like an open mic night with no mic. My mate Phil and I started them and we had them every two weeks on Sunday night but two weeks was too often so it went to a month for about three and a half years and people would come and do music or show films because we had a projector, weird experimental stuff, it was just this big party and people came to our place and it would be as small as twelve or as big as seventy people. A few Richard In Your Mind gigs were played there. Jonno’s band, the Magnetic Heads played there heaps. That’s how we know Pat, our drummer, who is our neighbour. Bedroom Philosopher played there. There were some really crazy, experimental things like when a guy, Fabien, from Germany, came along and made use of the garage by opening the garage door, driving a car in to it and gaffa taping himself to the front of the car, pouring water on himself, and then the car drove away. That was his artwork. My friend Mark did a cool show called Emergence at the Opera House with big projections and stuff, he did a bunch of stuff like projecting a face on to the egg, so it was like the egg was talking, and then he swung a hammer which eventually just smashed the head. So it was really great but it was like having a party every month and on a Sunday. It was also because we didn’t know where to play or how to get gigs or do the weird things we wanted to do so we thought we’d just do it at our own place. But after about three and a half years it started to become a little bit of, oh another one? And sometimes people wouldn’t turn up and you’d have gone to all of this effort and we all had to go to the work in the morning.

> Conrad: At the end of it we were getting good gigs and everything so we might have played the night before and been all hungover and we’d think ‘Oh no we have to do this thing…’

> Richard: I was really hoping it would start the revolution and everyone would be having magic theatres in their garage across the country and we could go visit other peoples’… I think rent was a bit more affordable then and now if you have a garage it’s like, how much rent are you paying? But we’re still in the same house and luckily the rent hasn’t changed much, although the house is falling down a bit.

+ How long have you been living there?

> Nine years. I had my twenty first birthday there. But our roof caught on fire once because the circuits were old. I remember we cooked a veal with white wine sauce or something in the dark. I think it was that night. It was winter. There’s still a circle in the ceiling in my room where the fire was and carpet is charred. But yes, we do have a garage, so we could do that funky thing called Magic Theatre.

I’m thinking about moving to the Blue Mountains. I need to have my own studio and Katie needs her own room of vintage clothes. And that’s too expensive to live like that in Sydney unless you find a cool place.

+ Tour highlights?

> Conrad: Perth. We stayed at a resort. It was supercheap but it was amazing. It was like five star – well I like to stay it was five start because I’d give it five stars. We got up in the morning and Cloud Control called us up and they were like ‘What are you doing? We want to hang out with you!’ and we were all like ‘We party heaps more than you… OK come over,’ and then  they came over and we went down and got some amazing food. We had this big breakfast beside the pool and went back, got heaps of Cornettos, went down to the beach. Sixteen packs, so some people doubled up, and then we had a couple left over so Jordy was like, ‘Hey look, there’s a little child who looks like he could really appreciate an ice cream.’ Jordy gave the little child a Cornetto. I’ll never forget the look on that little kid’s face. Then we had a bit of fun at the beach and we thought we should get some Bacardi and Coke and go back, and so we went back and Richard was like, ‘Hey I found the spa!’ so we had Bacardi in the spa. Later we had to do a show so we went into town. So we’re in town and we’re like ‘Woah, a Japanese restaurant that’s really cheap!’ so we had really cheap Japanese food and then we played the best show of our lives.

> Richard: It was a great show. And the Cloudies talk about it too, it was just the perfect day. We’ve gotta go back, they treat you the best in Western Australia. It was pretty fricking amazing. It was our happiness montage day.

+ What are the tiny volcanos made of?

> Papier mache with a bit of wire coming out the top with a little speech bubbles about the release date of the album.

+ Film clips?

> Brent’s deep inside the ‘Candelabra’ clip at the moment. He’s meant to have it finished by tomorrow.

> Brent: That’s not going to happen. It will be finished… very soon. You’re on tour and then you’re home and you’ve got a day of catching up on shit and then you’ve got one or two days so you spend about eighteen hours working on ten seconds and then you kill yourself so you go to bed and then you wake up….

+ What’s the concept of the clip?

> Richard: Everything. It’s going to be pretty much a Brent Griffin extravaganza psychadelic super-voyage.

> Brent: It starts with Dracula in the jungle. On an organ, with smoke.

> Richard: Jordy’s Dracula.

> Brent: A lot of jungle parties, a lot of driving through rainbows. There are guitar solos on Rainbow Road out of like Mario Kart. I made a Rainbow Road so Jordy and Richard can do solos on it. It’s basically inside Richard’s mind.

> Richard: That will be amazing, and we’ve got ideas for other clips which haven’t happened yet and there’s also our mate Toby Petersen who did an animation for Thirteen Stingrays off the first album and he’s doing one for This Face that will be done some time and there’s actually a guy who did a film clip for lightning eyes which we really loved heaps of the footage of, but it was for an assignment he had to do and he filmed and edited it within a week or something so he said you can have the footage. So we’re going to re-edit that and make it a bit more bitchin’. There was a bit too much slow-mo with soft lighting. So there’s a bunch of stuff and nothing’s finished but it’s all work in the pipeline with its organisationalness.

+ What’s the date of the launch?

> 3^rd July, at Spectrum. I got really excited about it last night. My brain decided it was time to start thinking about it.

++

And then we looked through tour photos for ages. Buy the album. www.richardinyourmind.com

++

When I sit down to talk to Alister and Heidi from Cloud Control, I’m struck suddenly by a memory of the first time I heard their charming melodies at an intimate Sydney Uni Night Markets show on a makeshift stage alongside Cuthbert and the Nightwalkers. Like any Sydneysider interested in the indie music scene, I’ve seen more than a few magical Cloud Control shows.

“Woah!” exclaims Alister happily. “Out the front of the bank?” I nod. “Ah, I really enjoyed that show,” Heidi says. “I wore a good dress that night.”

You’d think that a band that have toured with the likes of Leader Cheetah, Yves Klein Blue and not to mention Vampire Weekend wouldn’t be caught dead doing such a show these days, but Al and Heidi both agree that they probably would. They’re both down to earth, unpretentious lovely people who are proud but humble in the face of the phenomenal success of Cloud Control and the release their debut album, Bliss Release on the 14^th of May.

It’s been a couple of years since that little show, and Bliss Release is finally a definitive recording of some of Cloud Control’s classic hits, along with some fantastic new material. But it’s been a long time coming. “We spend ages on songs,” explains Heidi. “Really long times, months and months and months. When songs first start getting worked on we usually work on getting them up for the next live show. We often end up writing and arranging to suit a live sound.”

And with so many shows over the years, the songs have come together over that long time. But recording the album opened Cloud Control’s minds to a whole new realm of sounds. “When it came to the recording process there was a lot of re-jigging to do to figure out how it would translate with lots of layers, layers that we can’t achieve live,” Heidi says.

“There are so many extra little things that just all add up to give it another layer of goodness that we just can’t play live,” agrees Al. “We’re getting there now, though. We’ve bought some tricky tricks like little boxes and things.” Heidi laughs and explains: “Boxes that replicate Alister, really. And this is the first time we’re going to be touring with two guitar amps, which means there’s more sounds that Alister can produce, which is good. So we’re slightly changing our live sound, of late.”

I’m interested to know how much they’ve been involved with the techy ins and outs of production after all this talk of tricky tricks. “We worked pretty closely with Liam,” says Al. “We worked at his house, his parents house actually, and I was going up there quite a lot. I was just kind of doing mixes and stuff to kind of show him the ideas we were looking for and he’d go in and do his thing. And then… results.”

Al and I are reunited in this interview after hanging out the Friday before with his younger brother and my friend, Doug, who fronts indie-electro-pop three piece We Say Bamboulee. The Cloud Control kids are often found at other Sydney gigs, supporting the scene and their friends in other bands.

“There’s definitely some really cool bands in Sydney at the moment,” says Al. “Bamboulee, obviously, I really like. And I really like WIM as well.” Heidi gushes over WIM also, but mentions she hasn’t managed to hear a recording yet. “Oh my gosh, their recordings are so cool,” says Al excitedly. “What’s that one song that kicks ass? Diamond? Oh my god, that’s awesome. I really like Danimals, and Seekae, too, and Belles Will Ring. They’ve got a new single coming out too.”

On their album tour, Cloud Control are taking Sydney friends Richard In Your Mind around with them on their exciting 15 date national trip. “RIYM are really great,” says Heidi. “We’ve played with them a few times. They’ve got a different thing going on now. Richard kind of raps a bit in the songs, which he did a little before, but now it’s got a fuller sound because that guy [Brent/SPOD]’s on the synth bringing the beats in. It’s really enjoyable seeing little Richard rapping away. He’s got some real solid beats.”

But with some big local names like Philadelphia Grand Jury going overseas recently, Al and Heidi have to think about what happens to Cloud Control after this tour. “I think what bands do in Australia is they seem to do the national rounds, supporting people for a while, and then hopefully they’ve got enough fans for a headline tour, and then they just pack up and go overseas,” says Heidi. “Once you reach that, there’s nothing much else to except go overseas and come back and play the Enmore. “I ask if they’re going to disappear overseas too? “There’s no specific, logistical, organisational thought, but there’s dreams. I think we’d love to…”

“We’re going to London in a few months,” Al says, with a look at Heidi. “ But it’s depending on if we get a grant, and hopefully we will. I mean, we’d better, because we have shows booked and a festival.” Heidi adds, “They can’t tell us ‘til the end of May and the shows are in July. It doesn’t give us a lot of time to buy tickets!”

They’re reticent to defect so quickly though. “Australia’s pretty great,” smiles Al. “I love Sydney. There’s lots of good bands here.”

++

Cloud Control are on tour, and after just playing at the Oxford Art Factory on the 14th of May, they are touring around the country. Check out their myspace for more details.

Richard In Your Mind are one of the best, cleverest, glittery-est bands in Sydney, and their Summertime EP, released in 2009 was a kickass Beck-esque psychadelic adventure, featuring ‘Make It Chill’, the best local white hip-hop-influenced indie laid back rock track every to grace the stages and loving ears of Sydney.

Richard In Your Mind in 2010 are officially joined by SPOD, who is the dude in the baseball cap popping into the background of this press shot, even though he teamed up with the for Summertime. What SPOD adds to RIYM is (aside from magic), some sweet production aesthetics and a love of synthy dream pop writing.

This track, however, isn’t synthy at all. It’s a track that a man wearing a hat and shirt in the picture above might make. Richard’s voice echoes down as if from a dream, but this could be a Crayon Fields song if it weren’t for the electronic drum sounds which make me feel like it’s been made on a Napoleon Dynamite-style midi keyboard, which I have absolutely no objection to, let me put that on record.

The track leisurely strolls along, with a happy little wood block sound in there, and is completed by sighing and adorable harmonies towards the end. There’s no string section, no Dap King horns and no big synth battle – it’s RIYM stripped back and bare, with the attitude and humour that makes them great still there. It’s proof that they write good songs, without bells and whistles. Or maybe it’s proof that the bells and whistles aren’t distractions, but well-chosen ornaments. I don’t know, but it’s damn catchy, and if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go prance through a meadow now.

Listen here at Rice is Nice.

As the premier indie band night in Sydney, Throw Shapes is proud to have Mum on board, and they’ll be running a column interviewing some of the bands Mum hosts every Friday. For now, we’re going to help celebrate Mum’s birthday by introducing you to the bands that will be celebrating with her on April 30th, where you will also find Throw Shapes DJs spinning some nice little tunes. Eliza Reilly is here to teach you about the ways of Sydney indie bands Richard in Your Mind, Megastick Fanfare, Howl, The Laurels, We Say Bamboulee, The Frowning Clouds, Guineafowl, Hancock Basement, La Mancha Negra, The Salvadors, Psychonanny and the Babyshakers, Convaire, WIM, I Like Cats, Decorated Generals, The Walk On By, The Go Roll Your Bones, Brown Bear Black Bear and The Whipped Cream Chargers- who they are, what they’re like, and why you’ll like them.

++

Richard In Your Mind
Richard In Your Mind’s Summertime EP release was the soundtrack to the 2010 indie summer, and now the 5-piece from Sydney are getting ready to share their newest LP, a collaboration with SPOD, released through record label Rice Is Nice. Their debut album The Future Prehistoric had critics wetting themselves with excitement back in 2007 when the band first won Triple J’s Unearthed and appeared at The Big Day Out, and the newest project is set to do the same.

http://www.myspace.com/richardinyourmind

++

Megastick Fanfare
When a scenester sits down with a tab of acid after a hard weeks work, they hit play on Megastick Fanfare. Their hypnotic live shows lead the new wave of psychedelic pop coming out of Sydney and Melbourne. After being exposed at the Sydney Uni Band Comp the band have just completed a tri-state tour releasing their joint 7-inch with Kyu, ‘Braintooth’ and are getting ready to finally release a full length album later this year.

http://www.myspace.com/megastickfanfare

++

Howl
Plucked from relative obscurity of a Ballarat High School, Howl won Triple J’s Unearthed High Competition in 2009. They’ve since played along side Art Vs Science, British India, Bluejuice and The Scare and graced festival stages at Stereosonic, Field Day and Queenscliff. The debut EP has created quite a stir with every track receiving favourable airplay on radio and rave reviews.

http://www.myspace.com/thehowlmusic

++

The Laurels
It would be hard to describe the Laurels without the sentence “coolest upcoming band in Sydney right now” in there somewhere. Career highlights so far include taking out the 2007 Sydney Uni Band Comp, getting special attention from Parlophone Records and recording with Magnetic Recording Council (Jon Hunter, Holy Soul). On the cusp of their debut release, bands like You Am I, Tame Impala, Cloud Control, Richard In Your Mind, Belles Will Ring have been lucky enough to play along side them before they inevitably change the world and forget they ever met us in haze of psychedelic success.

http://www.myspace.com/thelaurels

++

We Say Bamboulée
Deriving from the picturesque Blue Mountains, We Say Bamboulée’s sound is most definitely influenced by the echoing landscapes of their childhood, much like mountain kid siblings, Cloud Control. First coming to our attention at the Sydney Uni Band Comp in 2008, they’ve been keeping us waiting for their debut EP which is being recorded in their home studio. They’ve promised us they’ll finally be releasing it later this year, probably as soon as they stop procrastinating with their tie-dye t-shirts…

http://www.myspace.com/wesaybamboulee

++

The Frowning Clouds
Five 19 year old mod boys from Geelong with the Rolling Stones in their hearts and screaming teenage girls at their heels have ridden all around this country, spreading 60s garage gospel. Their debut EP was put out as a 7-inch by Spanish label Monterrey Records in 2009 and the new LP Listen Closelier with its ice cream chords and scratchy rhythms has just been released though Melbourne garage label Off The Hip.

http://www.myspace.com/thefrowningclouds

++

Guineafowl
Late last year the solo artist Sam Yeldam aka Guineafowl grew from one man with a laptop into half a dozen talented musicians to create a full live experience that has seen rave reviews and a cult following develop and is on top of every Sydney hipster hit list. The video for their single ‘The Botanist’ was made by NIDA student Kip Williams and featured in the Rage top 50 clips of 2009. The new Guineafowl single, ‘In Our Circles’ is out now through Major Label.

http://www.myspace.com/guineafowl

++

Hancock Basement
2009 was a big year for Canberra natives Hancock Basement. With relentless gigging in their hometown and Sydney with the likes of Bertie Blackman, Bluejuice, The John Steel Singers and Tom Ugly, Hancock Basement also won Triple J’s Trackside Unearthed Competition and released a 7-inch, ‘Hey Kids/Don Juan’ and they show us no signs of slowing down in 2010.

http://www.myspace.com/hancockbasement

++

La Mancha Negra
La Mancha Negra formed from their original shred skating skills, but do not confuse these boys with your classic skate punk band, these guys take pride in their rockabilly quiffs and 60s surf garage rock musical influences, with raspy vocals and distorted guitars that will ravage your ears. LaMancha Negra; meaning “the black spot” have been compared to garage forerunners The Sonics and The Stooges.

http://www.myspace.com/lamanchanegra1

++

The Salvadors
The Salvadors have established themselves as a standout Adelaide indie band to keep on your radar in 2010 with Triple J loving their single ‘Atacama Disco’. Triple J expressed a bit more of their love for The Salvadors by awarding them the Adelaide Unearthed slot at Laneway Festival early this year. The breakout single recorded at BJB Studios shows flares of Hungry Kids of Hungary and Vampire Weekend. The perfect weekend BBQ Soundtrack.

http://www.myspace.com/thesalvadors1

++

Psychonanny & The Babyshakers
Forming in 2007, Psychonanny & The Babyshakers have recently released their debut EP after what seems to be ages of showcasing and gigging all around the country. Their live set is loud, frantic, harsh and will sting your ears. Imagine Johnny Cash on crack, chasing eight ether cats around a room of crash symbols and flannel shirts, but fronted by sultry songstress Sonia Z.

http://www.myspace.com/psychonanny

++

Convaire
Sydney indie-pop 4-piece Convaire of John Towey on guitars, sisters Liz and Jane Slattery on keys and Dan Talbot on bass, combine male brashness tempered by the subtleties of youthful femininity. Inspired by the music of Talking Heads, Friendly Fires, Phoenix and other pop-friendly artists, Convaire’s March release Hey Say Hey of some of their older tracks on German net-label Modularfield will be followed up by the band’s official EP available later this year.

http://www.myspace.com/convaire

++

WIM
Glam-folk-pop rockers WIM have been building a local buzz turning their shows at regular indie clubs into an outrageous musical/visual/theatrical experience with front man Martin Solomon in leathers and feathers, denims and glitters. WIM are recently back from LA after recording sessions and showcasing gigs all around the city of concrete strips and geared up for a big year back in Sydney, with an album release planned for later this year and a single to come out in June.

http://www.myspace.com/wimtheband

++

I Like Cats
I Like Cats only formed a mere year ago and they’ve already released a stunning debut (‘Attack Me’) and headlined the Menagerie Festival in 2009. Their eerie dissonance of cellos combined with guitar chords ripping through the bone-warming atmosphere in dark little venues has been kept a nice secret in Sydney, but for how long that secret will be kept is yet to be seen…

http://www.myspace.com/ilikecatstheband

++

Decorated Generals
For the last 18 months the Decorated Generals have been tucked away in a home studio recording their debut, The Colonial EP. It captures the unique energy of their live set with ambient sounding melodies and progressions sounding like all the elusive Radiohead instrumentals you love topped with infectious rhythms and some brass.

http://www.myspace.com/decoratedgenerals

++

The Walk On By
Hailing from the decrepit punk depths of the Sydney, The Walk On By have been staggering around the inner west since mid 2008. With one successful tour of Spain under their belts the band have new plans to go back in 2010 with more shows and more countries. The Walk On By have a 7-inch (‘Delilah’) out now which can be found at Red Eye Records.

http://www.myspace.com/thewalkonby

++

The Go Roll Your Bones
The ‘Bones consist of just two guitars and four boys yet they somehow manage to create a noise extravaganza. Since forming early in 2009 they’ve been ravaging every Sydney club and pub they can get their glory stained hands on with psychedelic garage punk riffs and sexy hair, including the MUM 2am residency in February.

http://www.myspace.com/thegorollyourbones

++

Domeyko/ Gonzalez
The planned chaos of experimental duo Domeyko/ Gonzalez can only be described as pleasurable mayhem. Their intricate compositions are improvised, yet thoughtful and refined. They take you on a blissful journey twisting and curving out into space. After playing only a handful of gigs the delicate indie pop music has made a big splash into the Sydney experimental pool. Read the full Throw Shapes interview with the boys here.

http://www.myspace.com/domeykogonzalez

++

Brown Bear Black Bear
MUM’s 2am residency for April hosts Sydney newbies Brown Bear Black Bear. The group is set to make waves with their debut EP later this year. Formed in March last year by Dave Novak and Zeyd Natio (ex-Bird Automatic) the band’s pure indie sound resonates deeply in the fine electric syncopation and multiple layered beats. It’s like Whitest Boy Alive, but turned up to eleven.

http://www.myspace.com/brownbearblackbear

++

Whipped Cream Chargers
This self-proclaimed “post-coital punk” band takes inspiration from the likes of Olivia Tremor Control, Jesus & Mary Chain, Hawkwind and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. The six piece made up from cut aways of Atrocities and Warhorse came together to make waistcoats and turned up moustaches seem as cool at the band themselves. Now with added burlesque dancer “Whippettes”.

http://www.myspace.com/whippedcreamchargers

++

The Mum Birthday Party will happen on Friday, the 30th of April, at the World Bar.

But really guys, really, collage can be pretty kickass and not just school-locker kickass, either. Presser, who was in Gerling, who’s not in Gerling now because Gerling went on a massive hiatus, has transposed his mix-and-match skills from the decks and beats to the scissors and page. He takes old magazines from the 60s to the 80s and turns them in to kind of super-transformer-looking things – he takes all kinds of awesome and remixes them in to super-awesome. MART Gallery, who are devoted to showing art that crosses over with music in some way, are showing Presser’s newest exhibition ‘Life Dust‘. His last show got people all hyped up and sold out in one night.

The show opened on the 26th of Feb and runs until the 13th of March at MART gallery.

The album can be filed under ‘Postal Service’, ‘Aphex Twin’, ‘indie-pop-electronicawesome’, and ‘the best music in the world*’; and the launch is at Curious Works on August 22. You’ll hear more about that later, but it’s time for the music now: the first single is ‘Absolute Truth’, but another track has been reserved specifically for the internets to get their interpaws on before the rest: ‘Oh, Reality’.

—++—

It is the perfect weather for this music today. Click to play:

Shady Lane :: ‘Absolute Truth’

Shady Lane :: ‘Oh, Reality’

Here We Go, Down The Black Hole is out this Saturday through the conveniently local and delightfully independent label Rice Is Nice, who have the third benefit of enjoying the best roster in the world* – they also have Spod, Seekae, Talons, Traps and more and you can check them out right here. It’s pretty much the best album in the world*, and if you don’t trust me trust FBi, who started calling it Album of the Week on Monday and, if things go the way we imagine they will, will continue to do that right up until the end of the week!

—++—

* judgement potentially tainted slightly by aforementioned disclaimer.