I’m Sashi Dharann, bass player, speaking on behalf of members of World’s End Press. We’re here promoting our upcoming single ‘Second Day Uptown’ and its accompanying tour. It all starts on June 29th at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne, then hits Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney. You can already buy the track though, so do that….don’t spotify it, it makes our lives much harder.
What’s your earliest memory of performing and who inspired you to start?
Don’t know about the others, but my first performance was in year 1, a kid wanted to do a duet with me in which we danced to ‘Heal The World’. I was too scared of the ridicule that would arise from a slow dance to the weirdest track on Dangerous, so instead I opted for a comedy routine. My mum took work off and everything to come watch me wear underwear on my head and make fart jokes….she wasn’t impressed, although the ‘Heal The World’ kid was a social outcast by year 2… phew!
You must answer this question honestly or we steal your rider. What and where was the first gig you went to?
I honestly can’t remember which was my first concert, but my first pub gig I snuck into as an underager was The Smallgoods at the North Melbourne Town Hall. Legendary lineup: Ben Mason up front, Ben Browning on bass, Shags on keys, Lach and Gus Franklin filling the rest out, piece of history right there. I’m sure you’ll read about it in the Melbourne Magazine in 20 years.
It’s taken you guys a long time to release your debut album, is there a reason you’ve held off for so long?
These things take time. Co-ordinating the right producer, dealing with labels etc. has a lot of behind the scenes work that is required. You’re not there for the unglamourous process of email chains and negotiations… there’s a reason why that’s not covered in ‘Classic Albums’. Plus, we’re trying to prove the age old proverb wrong, that yes, you can polish a turd…
How was recording with producer Dan Whitford?
Dan is great to work with. The team of Dan and his engineer Mirko Vogel made for some great chemistry we could feed off. We all got along initially based on our affinity for similar music, and many a session was spent breaking down Brian Eno, Sly & Robbie and so on – and that mutual appreciation came out in our recording processes.
What’s on heavy rotation on your iPod right now?
John [Parkinson, vocals/guitar] got us all back into Visage recently, which was great as I’d forgotten about them! John and Rhys [Richards, synth], I noticed, have been going back over the Spiritualized back catalogue, while I’ve been digging back through those late 70s Sly & Robbie projects; like Gwen Guthrie and Grace Jones. Disco-Dub is pretty much the reason we’re a band.
You guys have jumped from festival to festival over the last couple years, which one has been a standout?
We always have to say Golden Plains. We had a great slot, and the crowd was bigger than we could imagine, and they were all willing to participate. It really helps when an audience is willing to follow you on your journey, for us that involves dancing. There was a lot of that at Golden Plains.
If you could curate your own festival, where would it be, who would be on the bill, how many people would you let in and what features would it have ?
Small festivals are great for vibe, but really, you can’t help but salivate at some of those mega lineups overseas. Coachella seems to do it well. Radiohead, Prince, McCartney, Gorillaz, Dre & Snoop as succesive headliners is pretty solid. If this were a boutique festival on Mars it’d be perfect, but it’s not gonna happen, so I’ll just make sure my festival doesn’t charge $20 for a hotdog and beer combo.
How do you guys find the difference between your live band and DJ sets? Which do you prefer?
Obviously the live set is better. It’s what we spend our lives preparing for. The DJ sets are a nice break for us though where we get to show people where we’ve come from musically, most notably the moments on the dance-floor that have had a profound effect on us. We like to share this with our fans.
Because it’s more fun to do things together, which living Australian artist would you most like to collaborate with? Tell us why?
Barry Humphries is one of Australia’s most intelligent and important artists/thinkers. I don’t know how we’d collaborate with him, but it’d be great. I’d like to be a producer on that INXS talent show, so I could cancel it and save their legacy!
What is your band’s music the best soundtrack for?
Not really sure where we would fit, so we’d have to split up and do our own projects. I’d go back and rescore ‘Coming to America’ with Nile Rodgers – my favourite movie and favourite producer -but I always felt the score needed a bit of work. The others though, would probably prefer to score a Herzog film, but I know he’d just turn it down! (We’d all settle for a Hong-Kong era John Woo flick though)
What surprises can fans expect on your “Second Day Uptown” tour?
We’re playing songs from the album that we’re then leaving the week after to go record. We’ve been working hard on these songs, so they’re essentially ready to go. That’s the suprise, it’s really an advance preview of the record, with lights. So bring your mini-disk recorders and get an advance copy! (Please, don’t actually do this.)
Second Day Uptown by World’s End Press
World’s End Press’ head out for their “Second Day Uptown Tour” at the end of June on the following dates:
Friday June 29 – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 30 June – Rocket Bar, Adelaide SA
Thursday July 5 – Alhambra, Brisbane QLD
Friday July 6 – Good God, Sydney NSW
