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certainly very influenced by certain immersive
theatre productions I've seen recently and the
one thing that struck me about those is that the
'fourth wall' is utterly destroyed. It's not there.
And so I wanted to incorporate that theory
somehow into this album.
Q2/
You’ve done something odd to your
voice on that main background melody
in
Mary (Reprise)
; is it a vocoder? It cracks very
weirdly, it’s amazing.
My voice naturally cracks up at a certain register...
years of not learning how to sing properly and smoking
will do that. But I believe there's a small amount of a
distorted effect on the vocal in that song. That's actually
one of my favourites. It was really fun to weave together
the four different vocal parts. We approached that song
almost like a hip hop song. There's a sly reference to Elvis
at the end too. Another reason the album had to be called
KING
.
Q3/
Woyzeck
[the play on which
KING
is based]
was an unfinished script – did you tinker with a few
ideas for how to conclude the narrative?
I have a very clear picture in my head of what happens
to Jack and Mary... but I'm keeping it to myself! Ha-ha!
Only I will know how the story
really
ends! I wanted to
keep it open to the listeners' own interpretation, rather
than the ending being just plain 'happy' or 'sad'. It's
purposefully quite surreal and yes, enigmatic at the end. Is
the last song all in Jack's head? Is Mary still alive? Or was
the whole
album
in Jack's head and the last song is the
only 'real' moment on the whole thing? I leave that to you
to decide. Good luck!
13
NEWS
MUSIC
Q1/
Your choices with the narration are really
interesting. The Narrator’s voice starts off very
separate, as an outsider to the story, but then he
turns up in all kinds of places. What were your ideas
behind this?
I wanted to use Noah [Taylor] in various different ways.
Although he does play a lot of 'characters' on the album
– Jack, Mary, the DJ on the radio – in a broad sense he
is 'the devil' or 'Jack's demons' if you like. He's guiding
us through the story and at the same time weaving in and
out of it himself and popping up in various guises. I was
INTERVIEW
MIKE NOGA
I
n addition to those three lions to the
right, here are the other acts we want to
see: hypnotic folk man
William Crighton
;
adorable and talented girl-next-door
Alex Lahey
; emotive and super smart
Melbourne
duo
Oh Pep!
;
atmospheric slayer
of hearts
Ainslie
Wills
; irresistible
pop cats
Dorsal
Fins
; intriguing
weirdo
Mossy
;
the ethereal and
gritty
Gabriella Cohen
; melodic punk boys
Ceres
; the stirring and stunning
Gawurra
;
needs-no-introduction
Harts
(see our
interview on page 8); dirty-pop and psych
man
Jarrow
; fiery
post-grunge vocalist
EccaVandal
; the
dynamic
Olympia
;
powerful pop
foursome
TigerTown
;
astonishing MC
Tkay
Maidza
; the powerful
electronic beauty of
Vera Blue
; boogie-funk-soul-disco-with-
sick-beats duo
GL
; jangle pop-rock darlings
LooseTooth
; post-punk jammers
Terrible
Truths
; the eerie, thumping electronica
of
RebelYell
;
and awesomely
talented New
Zealander Jess
Cornelius, AKA
Teeth &Tongue
.
MORE TO LOOK
OUT FOR
The annual Big Sound festival and conference
–
sometimes
referred to as the Aussie SXSW
–
is upon us this month. Over
three days, industry professionals, musicians and media
gather to forge new relationships, discuss the industry and
hear the newest music our land has to offer.While we can't
wait to hear the conference keynote speakers (Kim Gordon!),
here are the names punters can look forward to catching on
the various stages of FortitudeValley over September 7-9.
You can’t stop, won’t stop, Tash Sultana. The
Melbourne multi-instrumentalist’s grand ascent to
notoriety began with busking, then a few filmed bedroom
recordings featuring her electric guitar and loop-station
(and all the signs of life a sharehouse will exhibit, such
as a pooch running through the room and housemates
peeking around the door), and on to an enviable
management deal and a scramble for interviews. She’ll
be playing the triple j Unearthed Stage on Wednesday
September 7 at 10.30, and we predict it’ll be one of the
most sardine-squished events of the festival.
TASH SULTANA
BIGSOUND
2016
Ex-The Drones drummer Mike Noga returns
with another fascinating solo album. Set in
small town 1950s Australia,
KING
tells the
sad and macabre story of couple Jack and
Mary, and utilises the voice talents of actor
NoahTaylor for narration.
KING
by Mike
Noga is out now
via Cooking Vinyl.
SAMPA THE GREAT
A maestro of graceful beat poetry, fascinating rhythms,
inventive melodies and self-reflexive lyrics investigating
personal and social themes, Sampa The Great has deftly
grabbed a bunch of comparisons to Erykah Badu. Her
debut album
The Great Mixtape
dropped in July this year,
and made a big fat stir with brilliant tracks like
Black
Dignity, Blue Boss
and
F E M A L E
. Soon you'll get to hear
her feature on REMI’s upcoming release
Demons & Divas
(out this month), and we are champing to see her play the
triple j Unearthed Stage on Thursday September 8.
Oh Pep!