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It's great having a girl in your band. I don't think we'd still be around if the band was all male. Or all hetero male. Girls are good at reminding you that you're acting like a dickhead, which is most the time when you're a chap. -Gareth Liddiard |
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I read that you said Havilah has a more positive message and is easier to get through than The Gala Mill. Can you elaborate on that?
It's not clinically depressed like Gala Mill. Our records have always been a grind, not that there's anything wrong with that. We just wanted to do something different. This one lets you in a little more, whereas our past efforts seem [to react] shitty with you for sticking them on the turntable.
The Drones' music is generally pretty dark, full of sharp edges, not easy fair but at times tempered by more delicate acoustic moments and pretty passages. What can you tell me about the general operating principles of the band? Any sort of concept or mindset or meaning behind the vibe you create?
In a very general way we work by a shared premise which sort of goes like this: Fun House or Electric Ladyland are pretty much as good as rock 'n' roll is going to get, right? Good, stop listening to fucking stupid rock 'n' roll and listen to something good for once. It works really well. It means you actually learn something. Like what Nina Simone says: "I only listen to the masters." That makes perfect sense. Maybe not to George Bush but it works for us and a lot of other people, too. Trust the experts and you'll be ok.
Do you tend to play similar sets night to night, or do you switch things up – both how you play the songs and what songs you play?
Usually we'll switch around a lot for a few nights until we find a set that really works, then we'll stick to it until it drives us nuts. It's funny talking about sets. It always makes me think of tennis and tennis is so un-rock 'n' roll. Tennis players are really creepy. I reckon they don't have any genitals.
What's your favorite aspect of playing live?
Just playing. My favorite thing is when you do heaps of shows in a row. You get really good. You're match fit, like in pro tennis. You don't have to think about what you're doing so much and you end up kind of chasing a song downhill. It feels really great. It's like being Kelly Slater in the green room, dude. Then you get to go home and pork Gisele or whatever her name is. It's exactly like that.
Working with your life partner can be both a blessing and a curse. What are the best and worst aspects of creating music with your partner/lover?
I'd like to think I'd always be getting laid after a show regardless of my marital status, so we'll leave sex out of it. Firstly, it's great having a girl in your band. I don't think we'd still be around if the band was all male, or all hetero male. Girls are good at reminding you that you're acting like a dickhead, which is most the time when you're a chap. But as far as working with Fiona goes, it's actually really nice. We get along about 90-percent of the time. We're very lucky. She's very funny and I'm always amazed at how well she tolerates the three of us. The worst part is that when we're all having an argument and I'm in agreement with Fiona - the guys think I'm pussy whipped. But, I would now like to say to them, in public, using this interview on the Web, this: How does it feel to be fucking homeless, you stupid retarded fucking cunts?
"Luck In Odd Numbers" [off Havilah] is a long, weird, cool-ass song. What can you tell me about how it was written and the inspiration behind it – both musically and lyrically?
It's based around a whole tone, diminished type scale. It was written with the rest of the tunes down in Havilah. I was reading about this ridiculous Pythagorean theory about uneven numbers being lucky. I had always been under the impression that this guy was smart. He must have been going through a breakdown or something at the time. Anyway, the first half of the song is about good fortune. It's all based around where we live back in the old times, as is the second half, which is all about bad luck. The last half has this guy in it, Joe Byrne, who was a member of a much mythologized gang of Australian outlaws called the Kelly Gang. He used to roam around our part of the world and much has been said about the fact that he was quite well educated and could speak Chinese pretty well. It's always interested me how no one cottons onto the possibility that rather than being a smart, liberal and tolerant guy, he was probably only after the opium that the Chinese folks were selling. The Kelly Gang was a bunch of impoverished thieves, bank robbers and cop killers and hard drugs were readily available right in their neighborhood. Why wouldn't they use them? Nearly every other impoverished criminal desperado these days does. The Kelly Gang has been canonized to a point where it's all just bullshit; but that's just part of the song. What happened to Joe Byrne was pretty sad. He wasn't any older than 24 when he was killed. It has to be the most convoluted song ever written. Not something to be proud of.
 The Drones |
What can you tell me about "I Am The Supercargo"?
That one was written in Mexico before we went home to start Havilah. We were the only foreigners in our area due to the drug violence that was going on around there at the time [and still is]. It was anarchy when we got there and martial law when we left. 12 or 15 people were shot one day in our little town while we were there and the horror stories just kept coming. So, we did what anyone would do and stocked up on booze, Xanax and fireworks and tried making lemonade out of our lemon. That song reared its head sometime during all of that. It's sung from the point of view of John Frum, who probably never existed and who unwittingly started what are now known as the cargo cults in Tana and Papua New Guinea. It's a long story and probably best left Googled. Really fascinating stuff, and again, a totally pretentious and convoluted song.
What artists/bands would you consider to be your biggest influences?
Hmmm...lots. Early on it would have been stuff like Led Zep, Hendrix, The Doors. Then, Einstürzende Neubauten, Suicide, Black Flag, Bad Brains. Australian stuff like Beasts of Bourbon, X, The Surrealists, Birthday Party, The Dirty Three, The Bad Seeds, Tendrils. I was always into jazz. Free jazz and the captive stuff, too. Bela Bartok, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and tons of other classical stuff. Stuff like Toumani Diabate from Kenya. And flamenco. Guys like Sabicas and the Montoya's and Niña de la Puebla. Shitloads of different stuff. The great singers like Karen Dalton, Ella Fitzgerald and Edith Piaf. There is too much music. Sabicas is my all time favorite musician though.
What's the most rewarding aspect of this life you've chosen?
Getting paid for it. That sounds stupid but the day we quit our job cause the band was making money, I felt like Elvis. That's always been my idea of success. It still blows my mind.
The Drones are on tour now, dates available here.
JamBase | Down Under
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