Kitty Zine Vol. 1
Sprain: Interview with Alex Kent
Written by Thomas Katsaras
I originally got pointed onto Sprain through a conversation with a friend, discussing slow core music and our love there of, they sent me a link to the band’s self titled EP from 2018. A short 5 track release, the EP was a hallmark of the genre, with hushed vocals, stilted drums and meticulously built swells of guitar. In 2020 the band released their debut album ‘As Lost Through Collision’, if the self titled EP was built upon the foundations of slow-core established by bands such as Duster & Codeine, the debut album see’s Sprain destroying the template, rebuilding their own style with the rubble and debris of what stood before.
Talking about the difference between the two releases, vocalist and guitarist of Sprain,
Alex Kent says “it’s just closer to what we actually want to do or some tangible real life
thing, more than the EP which was just kind of like a fluke.”
Consisting of 5 songs each as devastatingly loud as they are quiet, Sprain weave in and out of each composition with such confidence and commitment that it is impossible not to take notice. Whilst to some it may come as a jarring transition between the two bodies of work,
Kent adds “that was who we are the whole time, it just doesn’t necessarily show chronologically if you were to just look at the release
dates on Spotify”
In songs such as “My Way Out” and “Everything”, structure is stretched and pulled to a point where the only discernible marker of time is as sparse as the snarl of a snare drum or a whispered bated breath.
“It is high commitment music. It's not always like a very comfortable music to play, or to perform , to record or to rehearse” says Kent, an understandable statement, listening to Sprain can be challenging, songs explore emotions of the extreme; anxiety, depression and life's monotony are composed within the lyrics, the instrumentation which is made to match.
Whilst poetic lyricism is often ignored in heavier noisier genres of music, the lyrics within the album hold the same level of integrity and importance as the band's instrumentation. This is a crucial part of what makes Sprain work so well, with each song being a fully realised work of artistry, both feedback and lyrics existing together and sharing the same purpose.
Lyrics such as “Life is an ant, in the palm of time's cruel hand” in Worship House, would comfortably sit in a Bill Callahan song, with the same level of imagery and depth being present, painting ideas both vivid and obscure. Talking in regards to Mr Callahan, Kent states “ Bill's lyrics are very bravely singing from a perspective of someone who isn’t necessarily a sympathetic character… it's refreshing to hear someone portray the bad guy whilst still being able to point out the problems but still putting themselves in a vulnerable position as the singer.”
Squeals of feedback and guitar noise are littered throughout Sprains debut, with the new found aggression akin to Post Hardcore stalwarts of the 90’s such as Unwound and lowercase. However, it would be amiss to simply write off the band as a reissue of said bands. Sprain is a shining example of a band taking influence from these luminary musical figures, but continuing to pave a path entirely of their own.
“It feels like if you're a band and you're a body of water, and you just like sit, like the water becomes intoxicated and mosquito infested, all this shit. But if you're like a flowing river of water, you're always going to change and move on to new things.”
A body of water is in fact a great analogy for the band and the music they make, with some songs bursting out from the get go like a violent white water rapid, and others silently flowing along like a placid trickle of water. There are great distances and differences embued within their music, delving much further into musical contrasts and tension that are deeper and more considered than simply being quiet to loud.
On ‘Slant’, the opening song of ‘As Lost Through Collision’ the band constantly plays with dynamics and depth, shifting from sharp jagged guitar lines to soft shuffled drums, the song shifts constantly, weaving between incoherent pathways, much like the albums cover of an impossibly designed building would. There is no simple payload of the song reaching its loud peak, with increased volume and heaviness not played to serve as the final conclusion, rather shifting along and becoming the impetus for the next stage.
Whilst there is no explicit requirement for bands or artists to evolve and develop, there’s much to be said about those who don’t. When discussing the recycled output
that many bands (who will not be named) have, Alex puts it perfectly as “fucking
bullshit.”
For inspiration, Kent highlights artists such as Nick Cave and Scott Walker, both categorically different, but who share the same focus of constantly evolving with each new release. “ I really admire those who continue to push, even through old age when the traditional ‘rock career’ is over, people like Nick Cave, Scott Walker … I would like to emulate that within my musical lineage, not paying homage to the past but continuing to like fuck around ”
Having seen small snippets and poorly filmed live clips through social media of the newest material Sprain is working on, I can’t help but be overly excited to see what comes next for the band. Keeping within the band's outlook of always moving forward Kent says that they no longer play any of their old material live. Focusing only on the new material, live performances pose the only opportunity to see what is to come next from the band.
When asked about how the new material and the approach to writing it is different to their previous work, Kent assuringly says “It’s totally different” with the band now experimenting with “detuned guitars” and orchestrating their work from the outset to not “pay homage to guitar music.” Whilst alternate tunings are by no means revolutionary in songwriting practices, utilising new tunings seems like a clever way for the band to avoid falling into cliches and the many references littered across a standard tuned fretboard. Hinting at a much more orchestral approach the new music might sound like a bad marketing idea if presented by the wrong artist, however Sprain have already proven their ability to make noise and sounds malleable in their previous work. “There’s sections that pay homage to the 60's wall of sound, Phil Specter kind of production… there’s also something like 60 to 70 different instruments being played on the album… the pieces don’t necessarily read like rock music, or like music that has just been influenced by the same rock albums, but in saying that at the core of it all we still play it like an extremely intense fucked up rock band”
Experimentation seems to have and continues to remain at the core of Sprain, with the band members seemingly never satisfied with falling into old habits and work. “Every single element that we had existing prior to this record in the band, we’ve twisted it, mangled it and experimented with and then added a bunch of other stuff too”
Safe to say it is with bated breath that we await new material from the band, and whilst any new released music seems to still be a ways off, it is fitting for Sprain, as the long period of silence is sure to pay off with a snarling and explosive eruption of new noise.
Year Of The Gay: Interview with Kate McGuire
Written by Ziek
Conceived in 2019, Year of the Gay is a brand focused on supporting, growing, and
contributing to the queer community in Australia. Founded by Kate McGuire, Year of the Gay aims to be a creative collective, with Kate’s recent focuses including t-shirt design, carabiners, and participating in queer lead events around Meanjin (Brisbane).
“The premise of it was, here are all of these queer people; some of them are musicians, some act, some do art, some put on gigs, and I just wanted to showcase all these different things in Brisbane, and then get queer people from across Australia to be involved, and that’s what
I’ve always wanted it to be.”
With hand drawn stars, collage work, and a DIY approach, Year of the Gay’s branding and design work has always captivated me. Anytime there’s a new YOTG drop, the principles within the design work are always the same, which gives YOTG a strong sense of identity.
“I’m not the best at drawing, so I really like the collage aspect because I didn’t have that much skill. I was really into printing out a bunch of stuff from my computer, cutting it out and just putting it together to see what looks cool.”
“There’s never really been that much inspiration from another design, or another artist, I think it was more that it was the only tool I had to design. But I do like a lot of 90’s band merch. My favourite’s are probably old Deftones, and Sonic Youth shirts.”
The same way Kate has been inspired by queer icons such as Elliot Page, Grace Jones, and Kim Gordon, I can see YOTG as something that will certainly encourage and help young queer people who are finding themselves, to feel comfortable and confident with who they are.
“A lot of people have messaged me, and said that they like my clothes because it’s kind of like a subtle way of coming out, and I think it’s a really cool thing that people can be eased into it if they’re not ready just yet.”
“When I started YOTG I wasn’t like, oh I wanna do this to solve everyone’s problems, I didn’t really realise that it would be helpful in that way. Queerness is just a big part of my life, and it made sense that if I made a store or brand then it would be about being queer. And so I never realised how much of an affect it would have helping people, at first I was just happy putting queer branding in the spotlight, and celebrate queer culture, even if it was just a t-shirt store.”
YOTG is such a unique concept and something that’s really missing in Australia specifically. YOTG is designed to represent and support queer people all across Australia, and I think the work Kate is putting into it is really showing.
Recently Kate released a new product. A carabiner, that doubles as a multi tool. And after only a week, it already sold out. With this success, Kate’s plans for the future of YOTG have shifted to bigger drops.
“For the past year or so, I’ve just been doing one-off shirts or designs, so I’m kind of building up to do a big drop that has a bunch of stuff all at once.”
I know that personally, my experience as a queer person has been a rather closed off area of my life, or just something that I never fully understood while I was growing up. So to now look to a brand like YOTG, and know that there’s a space for all queer people, and a way to represent how proud you are to be yourself is such an amazing accomplishment by Kate. And I think this confidence that YOTG provides queer people, is so strongly summed up by the YOTG shirt that reads, "No defines your identity, but you."
Here Was Then - Mouse: Interview with Caleb Anderson
Written by Ziek
Mouse, released Here Was Then in 2022. An Album full of emotion, passion, and noisy guitars. With Caleb Anderson’s main inspirations coming from bands such as Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur Junior, this album gained national attention, receiving Album of the Week from outlets such as FBi Radio, and 4zzz Radio.
However, I think the most exciting award may have come from an experience Caleb
had at their local record store, when someone walked in, bought Here Was Then in front of them, and they didn’t realise that it was their record. I think this beautifully displayed to me how important writing an album is to Caleb, and how well the album is able to connect with people.
“Writing an album for me is something I’ve wanted to do since I was like 15. It was
my goal, I wanted to hold a record, that I’d created”.
I’ve listened to this album probably twice a week since its release, and every time I
hear it, I still find myself consumed by the nostalgia it’s able to evoke, so obviously
when Caleb asked me to do this interview I already had so many questions that I felt
like I needed answers for – especially lyrics.
“Being in another band before this, things were so different, it was way more of a democracy, and everyone had an even say, I was singing and writing lyrics for it, but never felt like I could be myself, so I had to just say stuff I didn’t really care about, or wasn’t putting much of myself into it. Whereas this time, starting Mouse, I could say whatever I wanted, I didn’t have to answer to anybody, and that gave me a lot of freedom. All of this stuff from my childhood kind of just came out, which I think I’d written about in the past but nowhere near to this extent.”
“So much of this record is just about being a kid, and the influences you have around you with your parents and stuff, the other main theme is mental health, and trying to improve it through choosing the simple things that will help me, like repeating a sentence – “I’m gonna rebel, look after myself”
It was like Caleb read my mind, because the main lyric that stood out to me was, “I’m gonna rebel, look after myself.”
When my friends and I first listened to the record I think we all gravitated towards that line. To us as teenagers, it was almost a direct juxtaposition to say you’re going to rebel by looking after yourself. We couldn’t quite figure out what it meant to us, and I couldn’t figure out why it stuck with me. So, when Caleb explained that line came from his decision to be sober, it made sense that the two parts to this sentence, meant the same thing.
“Am I gonna rebel, fullstop, I’m gonna look after myself, fullstop, are they two different things? No, they’re the same.”
“I can’t really remember exactly where it came from, but I feel like it was definitely inspired by something Ian MacKaye, or something J Mascis might have even said. I think I watched something with him as he was saying, where and when he grew up, it was a big drug town, and that the only way to rebel against that was to not do it. I just thought that was such an interesting way to look at it and so true, and it was just sort of exactly how I felt about Australian drinking culture.”
“I think I’ve always grouped the culture of men and beer in my head as such an unnattractive thing and to me the only way to not be that is to just not do it and completely remove myself. But, I know that before I did it I thought “Oh you can’t do that, you can’t not drink, you can’t go to a show and not drink, like what would be in my hand? Nothing? That doesn’t make sense”. Making that decision to just do it and get away from that culture I kind of quickly realised that a lot of the people that I look up to are actually completely sober.”
When I look at people in music that I idolise, I guess that main attraction has always been that idea of rebelling, and being yourself. So for Caleb to tie this idea of youthfulness in the record to his own perception of rebelling by looking after himself, a whole new context can be applied to the album, which only elevates it.
Another example of these mantra style lines, that Caleb uses to repeat to themself is “I was always what I wanted, now I’m here it’s not too late,” in Pinned To An Avalanche.
“It’s sort of the same, like choosing to look after and care for yourself.”
The chorus from Superimposed and Motionless was what stood out to me as the catchiest chorus on the album, and I think the lyrics contributed to that more than the melody did.
“The ‘Ramona touched my hand’ line, I had just gone to this collectorama, which is a collectables fair in a town near where I live, and I went there and they had the whole Scott Pilgrim series as comic books for $20, and they’re normally like $30 a book, and so I bought that, and Ramona is the female lead in that story, so I think I was just fanning out over that book, so that line kinda has nothing to do
with anything haha, I’m just talking about Scott Pilgrim for a second.”
“That chorus was sort of like a little thing for my partner to say “hey here’s this literal chorus that relates to us specifically.” She grew up very differently from me and so I think that don’t listen to your brother line was probably, ‘don’t listen to your mother’ at some point.”
“Superimposed verse was kind of about me having panic attacks and Ash, my partner is definitely someone that’s very comforting in those situations, and if I’m not with her than it’s very easy to call her and she’s a good support person in those situations.”
A rather raw cut on the record is Petal. When I first listened to the record I assumed Butterfly Net (Song Against Men), was the end of side A, but just as I went to stop it, that big, open, natural sounding piano came through and I was thrown off a little. An album that up to that point, had a heavy focus on strong guitar tones, shoegaze euphoria, and heavy hitting 90’s era rock, Petal opened a sonic experience to listeners that splits the record in half as a moment for the audience to breathe, and prepare themselves for the more intense works such as Don Napier and Kill Yr Step Dad.
A song that can be interpreted as such an uplifting memento to the concept of killing your past self and learning to grow and move forward, Caleb’s motivation behind this track was a lot more literal.
“At the time I was living with my mum, and her partner at the time, and I would always have these dreams of just actually killing him, it was so wild, and I really did hate him, and it was honestly pretty intense living there. I guess I was just a kid, and I was really
scared myself and my mum, this guy was a really wild, there was always this threat of violence and chaos, it felt like anythign could happen at any moment.”
When I think of a melody from the record, Petal is the one that I can always think of immediately, and for Caleb it seemed to be the same.
“This is the oldest song on the record, I probably wrote it around six years ago. I used to go back and forth between my mum and dad’s house, week on, week off, and I would always bring my guitar back and forth, and I think I randomly walked into my bedroom one day just playing that. So when we were making the album I thought ‘oh what if I do it on a piano’ and tried making it like Fugazi’s, I’m So Tired, and I think it’s just a really good way to end side A, on the record.”
“It was a case of writing it, thinking one thing and then after, you realise it can mean something else completely, and I find that’s the case with a lot of what I write. Exist In Me is a similar vibe in that regard, started off as an attempt to write a love song but kind of
ends up mainly talking about the relationship between love and depression”
Exist In Me is the first track from Here Was Then, and I think it’s kind of perfect. The lyrics depict a very real experience of falling in love, and the inevitable changes that people go through whilst in relationships, whilst begging to never change. To imitate this,
the instrumental is able to mimic this chaotic frenzy of thoughts, whilst caressing us with captivating, yet fleeting moments of bliss.
“It was the first time I really tried to write about one thing specifically, and I just wanted to write a song about the first time I met Ash. The first verse was about meeting her, and the second verse is like the middle of the relationship, and the third is the rest I guess.”
A song that quite clearly states its anger towards men and toxic masculinity is Butterfly Net (Song Against Men), through themes of family, anxiety, and anger. However a song that I did not realise was in a similar field thematically, is Don Napier.
“Don Napier is sort of just me, as a 17 year old. I was so confused, but I just did not want to be a man, mainly because I just despised men so much, which I think came from similar experiences to that of Petal but I was like ‘fuck, I am one, and I don’t want this.’ I would just be constantly embarrassed by it. I think I’m ok with it now, but at that time I was so against it. I was scared of finding myself and doing that in front of people because I didn’t how far it would go, I thought it would be alienating for me.”
Here Was Then had around 4 of the songs completed and demoed before even finding a full band. Caleb was able to use the demo for Mouse’s debut single Cars to Concrete that he and drummer, Jamie recorded, to get Kate on vocals and guitar, and Riley on bass.
“We recorded the whole album ourselves in our rehearsal space, and when it was done we all just sat down and I was like ‘I think that’s a demo’ haha, we just demoed our whole album, but we treated it like we were recording an album the whole time.
For my friends and I, this record came at a very odd time for us, and somehow it brought us all back to life. We all of a sudden had this new exciting thing to be infatuated with, and those conversations still haven’t ended. Here Was Then pinpoints a moment in time, where you learn to grow, and move on, whilst also exploring how difficult and traumatising these moments, and feelings can be, by transporting you back to these moments in Caleb’s life and in your own life, serving as a means of retrospective reflection on the people we are now, versus the people we once were.
For bands such as Sonic Youth with albums like Daydream Nation, that inspired Caleb or the art and sonic genius created by Daniel Johnston, that helped reignite Caleb’s passion and need for music in their life, I have no doubt that this album will find its way to someone, who is heavily inspired by it and learns to love themselves through it, the way me and many people around me have been.
Alongside a very professional release plan, and setup, the one-page sheet inside the vinyl cover, I think perfectly encapsulates the youthfulness explored in Here Was Then, via Tony Hawk comparisons to Stephen Malkmus, Nintendo 64 speed runs, Pavement,
vegan cookies and a link to a YouTube video that Caleb describes as,
“Bear sits next to guy. All-time best video on YouTube. We put that on there because we were like, you know what, this is essential.”
Old Home: Interview With Old Home
Interview by Caleb Anderson
With the release of Never Die, Old Home’s second LP, Kitty Records was very proud
to be involved in its release. Also coming from the Sunshine Coast, Caleb was very
keen to ask Dylan about the record, and find out more.
How was writing this record for you?
Writing this record was very special for me but it was also challenging. I was
struggling to write. I was depressed. I was having panic attacks every day. I was working
full-time in a job that wasn’t rewarding. I was at times extremely unsure whether my
contribution to the band was helping or hindering. I had (and still have) a lot of doubt
in myself and my creative output. I wonder about its worth in a world so full of darkness
when people need to dance and to be happy.
Having said all that, I am extremely proud of what Mark, Rohan, Kai and myself achieved. I genuinely like these songs and feel that they deserve to exist, even if it is only in some small corner of everything.
Could you describe how the band works together writing?
Usually we just jump into the studio and the boys will jam. I’ll be in there too with a handful of poems and I’ll just read them over the music. Everything is recorded so afterwards we’ll go through and say “that was cool let’s work on that” and then we play it over and over until it resembles a song.
I originally got so excited about Old Home seeing live videos y’all really reminded me of everything I love about post hardcore and hip hop, you had a really captivating presence each word had a reason and the pauses in between were equally powerful, everyone in the band really seemed to know there place which brought extra maturity to the situation.
Y’all have a few drummers? How’s juggling shows/writing music with multiple members etc?
I could write about how frustrating it is to organise shows and rehearsals with multiple different drummers but instead I’m going to remind myself how lucky we are tohave 3 incredibly talented and wonderful friends to play with and who give their precious time to our band. It is humbling. I wish all these guys could be in the band full time, which unfortunately isn’t a reality, but it feels like a nice balance at the moment.
Did you grow up on music? What kind of stuff were/are you into?
I know this sounds obvious to say, but I fucking love music. I am obsessed with it. Growing up was weird for me just like it is for
everyone else and listening to punk and hardcore and emo music was a haven for me. Going to shows, researching records online, long train trips listening to the same 30 second part of an O’brother song that hammers me in the heart over and over for 3 hours, trying to find whatever truth is lurking in the chords. Showing people music that I love. Everything about music feels essential to my existence. I find it really difficult to narrow down the bands that I love into a sentence so I’m just gonna list ten records that have changed me over the course of my life.
1. The Used – The Used
2. The Devil and God – Brand New
3. Catch For Us The Foxes – mewithoutYou
4. Sour Soul – Ghostface Killah and BBNG
5. Ants from Up There – Black Country, New Road
6. The Hawk is Howling – Mogwai
7. Panorama – La Dispute
8. Nevermind – Nirvana
9. Garden Window – O’brother
10. Disambiguation - Underoath
Have you got a favourite track off the record?
I think Traffic is my favourite song off Never Die. I am most proud of the lyrics in that one.
5:30 in the morning was a brutal opener, and set the scene for me really well.. idk if that was the theme for the record but I felt the importance in the panic to try.
5:30am was the first track we wrote for Never Die. It was like a 20 minute jam that I think we called The Necromancer that we narrowed down to the five and a half minutes you hear on the album. It has a special place in our hearts I think. It pushed the boundaries for us of how big and heavy we could go and also how soft and gentle we could be. It did somewhat inform the lyrical themes on the rest of the record I think.
You guys record everything yourselves too? Always nice having control and time!
We have recorded everything ourselves so far in Mark and Rohan’s studio. It has been a luxury for us as well as a monkey on Rohan’s back. Him and Mark both worked extremely hard to make this record sound as good as it does. We have spoken a bit about potentially bringing our friend and sometimes drummer Brad into the studio to help us produce the next record which would be really fun and should take a little bit of the pressure off the boys to do everything themselves.
Any epic stuff happening in 2023? What are the plans for Old Home?
More shows. More songs. More cuddles with our friends. Maybe some interstate shows if we can afford it.
Dancing Fevers: Interview with Cameron Heavener
Interview by Ziek
What’s your name, and where are you from?
My name is Cameron Heavener and I’m from West Palm Beach, Florida. I currently live in Baltimore, Maryland.
When creating art, do you usually have a specific goal in mind before
starting, or do you find it grows as you’re creating?
I feel like initial goals always fall away once I get to it. You can have a plan for anything but things tend to go the way they’re supposed to. I like to let what I do grow and breathe on its own.
You show interest in multiple platforms such as illustration, tattoos, and fashion. How did each of these facets come about? Did one lead to another, or did you always know you wanted to do each of these things?
I’ve never been good at making decisions! I want to explore everything that’s possible. I started with a drawing background and my interest in tattoo work budded along with that. I did my first tattoos at 15. The concept of having art on my body was always exciting. Fashion became important to me when questions regarding gender started being prominent in my life. I felt my physical body and
how I adorn it was a part of the conversation.
Who are some of your formative artistic influences that lead you to the work you do today? Are you still influenced by them? Do you have any people you appreciate or find influence from artistically, currently?
My biggest influences have always been my maternal family. My Mama (grandma) was an artist and she always pushed me to create. As far as other artists, I look at the works of Frances Waite, Sasha Gordon, and Daniel Johnston. I also have a heavy appreciation for endless people in the DIY tattoo scene.
Are there other factors in your life that you find directly contribute to your work?
Grief and loss are the main contributing factors to my work. I’ve seen many people leave my life far too soon. Themes of sentimentality, expiration, and the joy that comes with recognizing how precious our time is are central to my process.
From how I’ve interpreted your work, you have a way of evoking feelings of nostalgia and growth through your work. Are these intentional for what you’re making? Are you trying to evoke other feelings or topics?
Yes absolutely! Everything is an attempt to preserve memories and feelings I know will eventually fade with time. I try to relay a celebration of what I was lucky enough to have in the past and what I’m lucky enough to have now while recognizing the difficulties. Taking heartbreak and turning it into a new appreciation for life is central to what I’m making.
Who's the coolest person (in your opinion) that you’ve tattooed, or done work for?
Hahaha I like this question. I think anyone who trusts me to mark their body permanently is inherently special to me. I did get the opportunity to do an album cover, shirt design and a tattoo for the lead singer of the band Wednesday which was pretty sweet.
Twine: Interview with Thomas Katsaras
Interview by Caleb Anderson
With a masterpiece style track such as Same Old Problems, Kitty Records is unbelievably excited to see how Twine grow and develop in the future. With a fresh approach to Australian post-punk, Twine are on their way toward a bright future.
With an album in progress, Caleb spoke with Tom about band dynamics, song writing
processes, and the new album.
What is the band dynamic like? After seeing y’all on the weekend it was really
cool to see such a diverse band. It can be so brutal to just see like 4 dudes on
a stage sometimes
Yeah I know! It’s such like an old thing
When I saw you playing I just thought it was the coolest because you all worked together so well
Yeah I’m so happy with what twine is at the moment. Twine started because I had been trying to start a band for years and could never get anything off the ground. And then I just had these two dude friends, that ended up being problematic so I kicked them out. Alicia and Ricky joined the band just because they were friends I knew that were into similar music. And then Thea, I didn’t really know but she was the only violin player I knew, and she ended up being the perfect fit because her style of violin playing is super discordant which works really well
They play in heaps of different bands right?
Yeah they’ve become a bit of a mainstay for the Adelaide music scene, with like a golden touch, where every band they’re in is just good. The line-up now in twine just works really well, on a playing and writing level it works really good, and then on just a hanging out level it’s just a really good group of people to be around. Everyone understanding and looking out for each other, everyone wants to be there, and everyone cares and it’s a good feeling. I’ve had line-ups before where it’s an effort to get anyone to do anything and it’s just not enjoyable.
It’s super important with longevity and being on the road hey
Yeah it’s like living with them for a couple days at a time. Without a solid group that doesn’t get along it would make everything so much more difficult.
Yeah If you don’t gel super well then everything outside of the music just becomes super annoying.
Yeah and that ends up affecting the music, people will just bring in grudges and little things into the writing and playing.
Listening to Same Old Problems originally I just thought “oh yeah, cool song” and that was all I thought, and then the more times I listened to it, it just turned into a masterpiece song, and then you sent the demo for My God and I was like “oh, cool song” and then I kept listening and went oh shit you’ve done it again.
Yeah for a while we just thought Same Old Problems was like the best thing we’d ever done and it was gonna be hard to make that happen again, but at a certain point I don’t really want every song to be that heavy in subject matter, that’s personal and specific. With newer songs I’m trying to shift it to be a view point outside myself and make it less issue centric to something I’m going through.
Yeah those writers that are just able to write about something completely away from themselves, I always think that’s wild and I have no idea how they do that.
Just going back to Same Old Problems it just reminds me of a good film where it’s like every time you go back and watch it you just notice a new extra thing each time, and to me it’s the same with your music and every time I re-listen there’s small parts that come up and throw me off guard
Yeah, thank you! I’ve always thought when writing that each song needs to have like a cool little bit in it, but I’ve stopped thinking about that as much recently, and just been trying to let it happen naturally. When we’ve written recently everyone sort of has
like their own cool bit. With My God it was like the first song that we all sat down and wrote together. We just sat down for a session and I just had my guitar part and we structured it out together and it was a really exciting experience, because usually I would have written a bit more of the song before bringing it to the group but this one was different and I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much.
How does Thea normally write? Are you coming in with melody ideas or just saying do whatever you want?
Definitely just a do whatever you want vibe, and then if someone else says like to try it differently than we do that, but usually it’s just Thea, because she just has a really good ear, and good taste in violin melodies
Epic! When watching y’all it seemed like it was like a do whatever situation
Yeah I mean for ages it was like Twine was my thing but in the setup now it’s definitely more of a whole group thing where everyone’s on the same page. There’s still some things where it’s just me, like with lyrics. I think everyone either just trusts me with them or they’re accustomed to it but there’s definitely understanding that I get to create the lyrics.
Do you normally write the song and then put lyrics over it or do u start with them?
My way of doing it seems pretty disjointed, but I guess I won’t really make lyrics until there’s a bit of a set structure. I’m really bad at sitting down and getting through a whole song so I guess I have a song idea for a couple months and then just write little notes and piece it together at the end.
Yeah I figured everyone would just like sit down and write a song but I guess I write pretty similar to you where I just have a bunch of notes and take whatever. And I think when I was younger I saw like a Jeff Buckley thing where he was like yeah I write pages and then just take like 3 lines.
Yeah I’ll do that and then sometimes read back and go what the fuck is this haha
Haha yeah definitely, sometimes you’ll find some gold there.
Yeah it’s such like a making a good hook kinda thing, and like filling space just to go back to the good thing. It can even be the same with guitar riffs. Like my voice memos are full of old riffs and like unless the riff makes me excited and has like that part that makes me want to work on it then usually I won’t do anything with it for the same reason I didn’t do anything with it when I first wrote it
Yeah a lot of the time I need to hear things with drums and if it’s still bad with drums then I throw it out straight away.
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What are some things that you wanna say about the album y’all are recording?
We’re redoing Cleaner which is kind of cool. Got same lyrics similar structure and it’s a bit slower and it sounds much better now I think.
Yeah I guess that current version of Cleaner is difficult to listen to back to back with the others
Well yeah when we recorded that song I think the person recording might just not have got what we were going for with it, and I think that’s what’s exciting about the new stuff and the people we’ve been working with for it is that they get it now and they know it’s supposed to be a bit noisy. We’re working with Alex Farrar for it, and they’ve worked on stuff with MJ Lenderman, Wednesday, Snail Mail and bunch of other really cool projects.
They Are Gutting A Body Of Water: Interview with
Douglas Dulgarian | Written by Thomas Katsaras
Mysticism is not something that can be forced. Try too hard and you’ll lose all
meaning, don’t try at all and you’ll end up being as transparent and obvious as
a folk punk band. Existing within the spheres of shoe gaze and slow core, They
are Gutting A Body Of Water, may already be inclined to invoke the notion of
‘mystery’ with hushed vocals and vague lyrics being a mainstay of both genres.
However, the big point of difference between TAGABOW and other acts is how they uphold the mystique, providing music that’s veiled with just enough
information for the listener to dive in and having enough depth to keep them
submerged.
“I think that if something isn’t being so obvious like "hey this is what it is" It
just makes it way cooler, that's why I'm drawn to movies by people like Harmony Korine or whatever.” Says Douglas Dulgarian
It’s apt for TAGABOW front man Douglas Dulgarian to mention filmmaker Harmony Korine, throughout our conversation influences remained a common point of discussion and rightfully so. With so much music being distilled from the same source, the final products can become a repetitive bore. Contrary to
that, TAGABOW is a band that continues to evolve, from the slowcore ‘Duster’ inspired album “Gestures Been” to the Shoegaze Drum n Bass cacophony of “Destiny XL” each new release encroaches and succeeds on new territory in an effortless fashion.
Future releases have been touted as being inspired by the soundtracks of Nintendo 64 games of the 90’s, a bold move, and one that in the wrong hands could come off as nothing but a gimmick.
In the capable hands of TAGABOW however the prospect is exciting, with Alex G being a consistent reference, an influence that shines through, with both artists being able to make music malleable, contorting and shaping their respective genres into a world wholly of their own.
So with this zine, we're just wanting to do some interviews with cool bands, and so you guys are one of them haha
Haha thanks, I mean, I love zines and I love zine culture and I think it's super important that there is still like, fucking music zines. You know what I'm saying?
Yea for sure, I mean, for ages, there's been nothing. I mean, I don't know about the US but in Australia, there's like nothing over here. I think when I was growing up that used to be a bunch of like, zines or just even just like magazines, or online music blogs that we're consistent with good recommendations and also had a good level of quality control
Yeah, like now it's like straight up like pitchfork. I wanna say like in the states, like, post trash still does stuff. That's Dan Golding's thing from Exploding in Sound. But yea there's a couple of ones but they're far and few between now.
Yeah, totally. It's funny, because like, I don't know if you guys have the same thing over there, but whenever I've put out music, you get like, hounded on the email. There's like this, magazine called Happy mag, and they have this dog shit shtick where it's like, they offer to write you like an article or do an interview. But then they want you to pay so they expect you to pay like 100 bucks to get like
an interview
Oh, fuck that, that's so insane.
It's so shit.
Yea it totally like kills culture. It's like when you have bands doing this same release schedule on a Friday, the same band pictures like what are you doing, it just like destroys the culture, money and success like completely destroyed culture. Like that's such a bummer but it's like too real.
Yeah it's like I hadn’t played a house show ever, and there’s no longer like a scene for it in Adelaide, but played one on the weekend and it was actually better than most venue gigs haha
Yea Dude, fucking love it! That's like on any given tour, we're definitely going to play three or four houses, like beyond any reasonable doubt. Because that's where the culture like originates from and it does originate from zines and it originates from printed things that are like handed out or sold at shows. That kind of shit is slowly dying out and I as much as I like love the internet. I think that it has a lot to do with the availability of the internet.
Just to kick things off, how did the band get it's start over in Philadelphia?
So my first band was this band called Jouska. And at that time, that was like a fully collaborative project. And it was like, real like indie which was fun in that I really enjoyed making music with those people. But it was so fully collaborative that I didn't really have the opportunity to like fully do what I want. And then in like 2015/2016. I was hell into Duster and like Teen Suicide and shit like that. So I really just wanted to start doing my own thing. So I started recording a bunch of shit to tape. And there are two records that are just like, like tape machine projects that aren't really in like the canon anymore. But you can like find them on the Internet or whatever. But that
was like the first two things and then I moved to Philadelphia because like all the music here is just so good and has always been so good. At that time, when I moved here, it was like, Blue Smiley, Pill Friends, Euphoria Again, fuckn Cold Foamers , and Alex G was just like just starting to pop off
Oh is Alex G from Philly?
Yeah. A lot of people didn't really know him at that time. He wasn't this like cultural zeitgeist yet. It was just like, if you were into good music, you knew Alex G
I love how he has blown up bigtime, like it's so well deserved. I saw him do an acoustic show in Paris early this year, there was like 70 people there and he got the audience to yell out and request songs and you could just tell he's such a chilled down to earth sorta guy
That's like the best part about him is that he hasn't yet been removed from just being like a person, And in his songs and stuff, he talks about such real stuff, like the lyric in 'Runner' "I have done a couple bad things". That's so real, because it's like we're all fucking people and we all hurt people and I think just in the cultural climate of DIY, how there's an expectation of musicians to be like politicians. He's just this guy that’s sincere and just talking about his problems in his songs ... idk he is just truly the songwriter of our generation
Yea all of his new tracks, even the unreleased stuff that you can snipe off of youtube are just lyrically always so good
Yea dude! So Good! You know what always happens with me and Alex G, is he'll put out new music. And I'm like, "Oh, this is okay", and I'll listen to it a little bit. And then, two weeks later, it'll just get stuck in my head. And I'll go back and revisit it. And then I'm like, this is fucking genius. I don't always get it at first but then it will always click big time for me like 2 weeks later haha, like one of his newest songs "Cross The Sea"
Yea! I was bout to say, it's always with his songs that are heavy on the autotune that I sort of blow off on first listen, but it's always a couple weeks later it just does something to me haha!
Yeah! And the thing about him that's crazy is he's always been like that. It's always been genre pushing. He took indie rock and made it real, it kind of sounds like children's music in a way. In a way that's like really relatable and makes you feel like a little kid when you listen to it. Just, I don't know, so good! But either way, so 2015/2016 That's what was happening in Philly, so I moved here. And then I started playing with Ben, who now plays in TAGABOW, and then we've just made a couple of records since then. But it really didn't like take off until after like Destiny XL I think that we put that out and then like COVID hit, and everybody started getting into like
electronic music. And that record has a lot of like, electronic influence and shit on it. I think people started to see it for what it was worth. So it’s like, only recently have we been seeing any amount people caring about it, 3 years ago nobody fucking cared about it haha!
I really love the album "Gestures Been". Is that your first album as TAGABOW? or is it just the first one that's up on Spotify haha
It’s the first Spotify album. It's the third (TAGABOW) album. But it's definitely like as I said, I was listening to like hella fucking Duster and hella fucking Horse Jumper Of Love, who have always been really good friends of mine, ever since I was in my first band Jouska just like huge influence in that way. So it's definitely like a Horse Jumper worship record ya know haha. Thanks! that's such a weird one haha,
True! I honestly love it!, I love the more slowcore heavy influence on alot of the songs, especially the last track calories! It's great and I feel like alot of people think it's really easy to write a good slow sad song, but it's actually really hard to do it right! It's like with country music, a lot of people think that country is super easy and just simple chords but it actually takes a lot of skill to use the basic simple stuff and make something good out of it!
I totally agree. I think that a genre like that, like a genre like country or shoegaze or slowcore, lend itself to having all this bad music in the genre because people think it's easy and they're like, "Oh, this is the cool thing to do, so i'm just gonna make this" and it's like that's, that's one of the Idk I was just watching this video with my girlfriend about what the term 'butt rock' means and what it comes from. And there was this one argument in the video where they were talking about how like, butt rock is the answer to what is called 'head
rock'. And 'head rock' is like when people are taking a genre, it's like relatively new or taking elements of an old genre and making it pretty new and doing things that are like experimental and kind of pushing the boundaries. And what happens from that is people
emulate it in a way that's like, more accessible. Like what happened with like, grunge you know what I mean? Nirvana, Pearl Jam, that's all like amazing music, like it's still genre defying and then like Nickelback came out of that.
Haha yea it's like distilling the worst parts of a genre
Yeah, so I think now we're starting to see like, all these like just decent shoe gaze and slowcore bands and it's hard to say anything bout it idk but also I think there's alot of like, really, really good slowcore happening at the moment. Which is really sick. You know what I mean?
I mean I have always felt like slowcore is one of those things, where the best bands that i've found in that genre are always under 90 monthly listeners on spotify
Yeah, absolutely. That's how duster used to be. It was like, if you knew about it, it was like, kind of weird, and they were just this obscure band, and at that time, they were definitely weird. There was like, nobody else who sounded like that. And then you listen to like Alex G and his music as it's like, developed over the years. Like, you know, 'Race' & 'Rules'. And he was borrowing from that heavily like the chord shapes and everything.
Yea the Duster chord!
Yea! the Duster Chord of course. Yeah. I use that chord frequently. Haha I love pinpointing out the duster chord in a band's song, you can always hear it, it just sticks out haha yea its very specific you just go like 'Oh Yea that's the duster chord'
Did anything sort of happen between Gestures Been and Destiny XL, like going to the more shoegazey stuff? Was that from a big influence or did you just find it developed like that?
So I think when I had initially moved to Philly, my thoughts on it were that like slowcore would be like the prevalent thing. But the prevalent music in West Philadelphia where I live was like soft singer songwriter stuff, which I like to a large degree. But also I was just kind of getting sick of it. And then I found this whole other world of music. Blue smiley, which is like, my favourite band of all time. They are genius. It's truly the best man. But like Blue Smiley, Spellbinder, Horse Cops, Cooking, all those bands were doing this heavier, harsher sounding thing that I just found myself like drawn to over and over and just started kind of like writing more and more of that. And it just kind of fell into place that way. At that point, I was listening to like, a lot of Lily's and a lot of Astrobrite, and a lot of the shoegaze classics, Swirlies and MBV. So I was like, oh, this is, this is where it's at. Because that in my mind was like, very genre pushing, like what they were doing, in like a blue smiley song or a swirlies song. Any given song, you'll be listening to it and in the middle of it, it'll just change. I love that shit.
Oh totally, I think it's the best thing when you have a "holy shit" moment the first time you're listening to a song
Me Too! I think that that's like a defining characteristic of genuine art, when something is not afraid to be multifaceted and have all these different elements to it. Like, if you listen to Blue Smiley, they do that, like every song is like five songs, and like I had always tried to do that with Jouska. Like, to a large degree, to the point where like, Jouska was almost kind of Prog in a lot of ways. But it was like, indie rock, and it just didn't feel right, like, it didn’t feel like what I really wanted to create Oh yea, I definitely think that the louder you play and particularly playing in heavier guitar genres, it gives way to super great dynamics where hectic stuff is so intense but softer moments can hit so much harder because of the contrast Oh yea dude, I totally agree
I was watching the TAGABOW Audiotree the other day, really loved it and loved the electronic jungle style interludes, is it Jungle? or something else I don't really know my electronic music that well haha
Yea man it's like jungle and it's like drum and bass.There's like a difference between Jungle, drum and bass and like, breakcore. Breakcore is something that I've been saying like, a lot of the time, that it's really not necessarily what we make. We make like drum and bass. But that whole thing's come from like ... so you got to know, I am very, very into, like, video games from the 90s. Specifically, like anything from the N64. That's like my shit
Oh like Mario 64 is the best
Yeah, yeah. So that's what like, draws me to Alex G. And, like, a lot of the music that happens in Philly, because it like kinda sounds like that. But yeah, essentially, at the beginning of pandemic. Um, we're really good friends with this band Full Body Two And I was starting to get into like, breakcore a little bit. Because also, you know, at the begining of COVID You're just deep on your computer and holed up in your house, I just kind of got more and more into it. I also really hurt my arm at that time. Like, three days before we released destiny XL, I like fell on my arm, and it was numb, and I couldn't use it for like 8 months, so I was like, I'm not gonna make guitar music now, so I just started doing like breakcore and getting into that and I had already been into that. Like in Destiny XL, I did like, all that stuff with like a little MIDI looper. So that was all like 404 Jam shit, but I got more into breakcore and then we've always
done this thing where we don't talk between songs when we play. Yeah. I just feels like ... like do you do that when you play?
Haha nah my recent thing is I bought like an extra delay pedal and I just loop them both so it goes nuts and it's just so much better, like I don't have to fill the air with dumb shit between songs
hahah yea it can ruin a whole set. There's something about like seriousness with music that I think is like really important. I think that's why people were like drawn toDuster at the time, because it was so mysterious
Oh yea totally, I mean you have vocals thatare always pretty hushed and mixed down, is that something that you like because it makes it more mysterious having it more difficult to discern the lyrics?
Yea totally! I think that's it is fully intentional I think that if something isn’t being so obvious like "hey this is what it is" It just makes it way cooler, that's why I'm drawn to movies by people like Harmony Korine or whatever. He said this about Trash Humpers it's like not a movie that you're supposed to even really watch. It's just this like, thing that you're supposed to be like randomly buying this VHS tape and when you watch it you go like "Oh, this is like the weirdest" Like I just think that's something that really draws me into that.
Yea! I remember watching Gummo when I was a teenager and I thought it was gonna be something similar to kids
Yea it's not at all like kids, like, he only did the screenplay for kids.
Yea! oh true! Anyway I thought it was going to be the same sort of straight forward film, but I just didn’t get it and I thought it was so weird, It wasn’t until I watched it again later when I was older and I thought damn this is actually sick!
It's wild! And it’s supposed to make you feel that way. I feel like when I was 15, when I first watched it, I was drawn in because of how absolutely bizarre it was. And I think that something that confounds people has the ability to draw them in. And so when I play, when I play tracks in between our actual band songs, when we're like tuning, that's to, like, take the human element out of it. You know what I mean? I don't want to open my mouth and sound stupid.
Yea totally! It also just makes the whole set one big continuous thing, rather than it being so distinctly broken up into each different song
Exactly. And it's like the music should always first and foremost, should always speak for itself, good music will always speak for itself. You know what I'm saying? Like, you don't need to back it up by being the funniest person on stage or anything like that, you know, so that, that just translated over into the audio tree in a way where it's like, I had the sampler and they were like, Hey, we can put these on Spotify. And I was like, these breakcore songs have never been on Spotify. So we might as well just get them recorded. Put them up so that worked out in that way. But yeah, it's just like it. I just really fell in love with Drum and Bass just wanted to mash em.
Yea and I just think it's heaps cool like being able to bring together two styles of music that are never really seen together
Yeah, yeah yeah, because I feel like there are elements of the same thing. Shoegaze started in like Ireland and Scotland as this reaction to like raves that were going on. Right. So like, people that were going to, like My Bloody Valentine shows in the early early 90s. Were like ravers, and they were like taking ecstasy. And at the same time, what was occurring was drum and bass music and jungle music in the clubs. So I think they're kind of born from the same thing. They were born from the same, like, healing. And I think that that's why they translates well, do you like Full Body 2? Do you ever listen to them?
I haven't.
That's like one of my favourite fucking bands.
With the new album coming out in October, in your mind like how do you feel it's different from previous stuff you've released
Yeah. Dog it sounds completely different. it sounds like an N64 soundtrack. So like, either people are gonna really like it or they're gonna really hate it. But I don't know. It's like, one of those kinds of things that's just been like, a long time coming and something I've always really wanted to be doing, and I'm really excited about it, I think it sounds really good. It sounds very Philadelphia.
Yea sick! Is it more like a video game soundtrack or is it still got a big guitars presence
Yea there's still guitars but it's also a lot of those Super Mario 64 synths. Yeah. And like, it sounds kind of wacky. Sounds like children’s music, It definitely borrows from, like, Alex G and shit like that, too. I mean, like, you know, he's like a huge influence. I think he's completely changed the game. And a lot of people over here, I don't know about over there in Australia. But a lot of people over here kind of hate on him for that.
Oh what it's like a Tall Poppy syndrome sort of thing
Yeah, exactly. Where it's like people love to hate things that are good and successful, but I’m like high-key an Alex G dick rider, I will always love Alex G, I think it has to do with the fact that he's just such a cultural zeitgeist that a lot of people base their entire character on. Yeah. You know, and like, which is sick in a lot of ways, but I can understand why people are sick of it. But yea I'm definitely here for it though. I think it's great. I think he deserves all the love.
