Mistress Mondays have an edgy, power pop style to them, reminiscent of great Australian bands from the past such as The Sunnyboys and international acts such as The Replacements and Big Star. During the month of February, they will be playing a Thursday night co-residency at Revolver Upstairs along with fellow local band Sherriff.

Band names. They have always been an endless source of fascination and discussion. One need only think of the infamous band fronted by local character Fred Negro, the name of which we probably can’t print here (Yes we can. It’s The Fuck Fucks – Ed). Mistress Monday lead singer Michael Staples explains where his band’s name came from. “It really didn’t come from anywhere in particular. The band was sitting down and we’re like, alright, we need a name. We were going through the lyrics of other influential bands we’ve all had. We were looking for a trigger word to give us ideas. We saw the word ‘mistress’ and one of the guys randomly said ‘Monday’. The name just stuck after that. It still makes me think of a strip club,” Staples says laughingly.

“I think that the best thing about the individual band members in Mistress Mondays is that we have incredibly disparate taste in music between us. However, at the same time, there is a lot of common ground in response to the music that we as a collective love. There’s that middle circle and everyone is changing on the outer. For me, bands like The Black Keys and The White Stripes that really inspire me, especially as a vocalist. Somehow, it translates completely differently with the music. Macca, our guitarist, loves his funk like Sly & The Family Stone and Parliament/Funkadelic. Our drummer loves a lot of 1970s progressive rock like Yes and early Genesis. That all gets thrown into the musical mix with the band.”

Lyrically, what inspires Mistress Mondays? “When I was young, even before I started playing and writing music, I used to be really into my poetry. Lyrically, I get inspiration from pretty much anything. I don’t really sit down and write for the sake of writing. If I have something on my mind, I just sort of go with it, mash it around a bit and eventually it begins to translate into a song.”

“It’s always been the dream to go as far as we can with the band. It’s a hard balance at the moment, a few of us are juggling real jobs and going to uni while trying to make our band happen. We are really starting to get on a good thing this year. We want to get better at what we do and take it as far as we can,” says Staples. “You’d love to give music a hundred precent of your time towards music. Who knows what you could achieve if the financial restraints and responsibilities of life weren’t a concern.”

“The best thing is when the band gets to that level when they can make a living solely off music. Only time can tell in regards to whether or not a band will succeed in the industry. Mistress Mondays almost stated off as a happy accident. It’s only in the past year we’ve really knuckled down and concentrated on making the band really happen.”

“As far as career progression goes, I think that we are really starting to hit our straps. We’ve recently recorded our debut EP. We are definitely in what could be best described as ‘young days’ at the moment.”

The band is looking forward to their co-headlining month long Thursday residency at Revolver with Sherriff. “We have played the band room at Revolver many times before. I don’t know what it is about that space, but we always seem to get the best sound there. It’s a bit like going home for us that place. I can’t really top the sound we get there. It’s one of those places that is so rustic and unpretentious and charming.”

Beyond that, “We’d love to play some of the bigger festivals over the 2012-13 summer,” says Staples. ”It’s a dream to do a sold out gig somewhere like The Corner. We want to give the band everything we’ve got.”

- Neil Evans

 Catch Mistress Mondays kicking off their residency with Sheriff this Thursday night at Revolver. 

“You know, I love all my songs. Every song that we play, I wanna love it and I wanna feel like playing it. What we sing about and what we play is an honest reflection of how we feel, and certain nights we don’t like playing a certain song and other nights we do.” He sighs, no longer able to avoid the song which surely has served as both a blessing and a curse.

“999 times out of 1000 songs we’ll play ‘Periscopes’, but sometimes we’re just not feelin’ it. [One] particular night was that there was a bunch of drunk dudes up the front just yelling out for ‘Periscopes’ during every quiet part of a song and in between every song, just right in front of my face the entire time…it takes you out of the vibe of ever wanting to play it. If you pay to hear a song, you’re probably entitled to hear it but if I’m not feelin’ it, then I’d be playing it half-arsed. That’s where I’m coming from…but it’s interesting to see everyone’s point of view.”

“The great thing about playing solo is that you lose all of those expectations. It’s like, ‘Maybe he’ll play this song or maybe he won’t.’”

For over ten years The Beautiful Girls has been a moniker under which Mat chooses to release his music. With a shifting lineup in that period, it has been Paulie Bromley (bass) and Bruce Braybrooke (drums) who have been brothers-in-arms with Mat in more recent times. Despite their longevity, popularity and opportunities as a group there have been varying degrees of success – and offers that had to be knocked back as they went against Mat’s, and the band’s, ethos.

“We turned down a lot of major record label deals because it didn’t feel right. It’s the way we’ve always been as a band and the way I’ve always wanted to do things. I like artists and musicians who I get the vibe of where they’re coming from and an understanding of what kinda person they are. For me it’s just a way of conversing back and forth with people.” To this end, McHugh is a fan of the immediacy that social networking can afford, and happily uses the platform as a way to share ideas with his fan community. “I’ll post something, 100 other people will post something and it’ll turn into this illuminating conversation. There are so many good people out there who have interesting things to say, so I think it’s as much a benefit for me as it is for everybody else. It takes away the middle man, who might not always be putting across an accurate portrayal of who a person is.”

It is this stripping back of layers that Mat is enjoying with his solo tours, after the growth of The Beautiful Girls created too wide a gap between the band and the audience.

“I feel a bit removed at The Beautiful Girls’ shows because there might be 2000 people there. Sometimes I feel you’re getting across one thing but losing another so at the smaller shows what you’re getting across is more musical and probably more emotional than what you necessarily get at a more raucous, drunken band show. For me, that’s what I love about music. I found I enjoyed every single one of the solo shows I played all around the world. For the last couple of years, that hadn’t been the case with The Beautiful Girls. So I guess it was a good way to sort of reset and get connected again.”

Despite the enjoyment Mat has been garnering from his freewheeling solo jaunts, he is thrilled to be joining his bandmates for a turn as The Beautiful Girls’ in the sublime setting of the Melbourne Zoo. At this point, he is not prepared to let The Beautiful Girls go, it’s just a desire to stretch his songwriting muscle; which means creating music that doesn’t necessarily fit with The Beautiful Girls much-love roots music personality.

“I have more creative urges than that and I think people have respected that enough and enjoyed it enough to sort of come along with me. And that’s how I feel about my favourite artists, from Neil Young to Springsteen to Leonard Cohen. They’ve done a bunch of crazy stuff and some people really hated it but then some people really loved it. You can’t try and please everyone the whole time and just do the same thing the whole time because it just becomes insipid and irrelevant you and not interesting.”

The Beautiful Girls will be joined by Fearless Vampire Killers this Saturday 11th Feb at The Melbourne Zoo as part of the Zoo Twilights series. Gurrumul Yunupingu and Lior are other artists to be featured in upcoming dates.

The Black Lips have a really interesting grasp of musical counterpoint. While sonically sounding, at times, quite sweet and charming, when one listens to the lyrics, they usually totally contradict what they are put against in a musical form, addressing some quite weighty issues such as juvenile delinquency(“Bad Kids”) and drug abuse (the rather self-explanatory “Drugs”).

The band have a wonderfully youthful energy and spark to them. Their profile has increased somewhat in the past eighteen months or so with some of their tracks being used in the rather wonderful and charming film (500) Days Of Summer and with the release of last year’s Arabia Mountain.

Musically, this is a band that throws everything but the kitchen sink into their sonic sound and vision. One can hear everything from punk and hip hop to doo wop and country in the rather unique sounds The Black Lips create. They have also become infamous for their highly unpredictable live shows, which can involve gratuitous nudity, vomiting, fireworks, chickens, flaming guitars and other provocative theatrics. It is true to say that no two Black Lips live shows are the same.

“The Black Lips has been pretty much inspired by fifty years of musical history,” says bassist and vocalist Jared Swilley. “Each of the band members has their own taste. We try to have our own take and perspective on music and try to express that in what we do.”

“Over the life span of The Black Lips, we’ve gained experience although I don’t think we’ve evolved that much with sound. We’ve always recorded everything live and analogue. To us, it makes everything sound raw and it’s most honest. Working with Mark Ronson was really cool. He was really cool with getting the best out of us, especially with how our drum sound. He had a great sensibility that clicked really well with what The Black Lips do,” says Swilley.

The Black Lips are perhaps best known for their striking and unforgettable live shows. Where does that energy and passion come from? “The people that I love musically, such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard, were absolute entertainers who really knew how to put on a show,” says Swilley. “That’s something that I’ve always really responded to with live music. The last thing that The Black Lips ever want to be is a flat and boring live experience.”

“Working with Vice Records has been a fantastic experience. They are incredibly supportive and pretty much let us do whatever we want. It’s a really different approach for a record label, as the record label is part of a broader media collective with Vice. They have a wonderful outsider philosophy that works beautifully with what we do”, says Swilley about his record company.

“Last time we were in Australia was as part of the Laneway Festival. It was a really fun experience in that not only were the bands playing together, but we also stayed at the same hotels and caught planes together. It was a really strong bonding experience as well as a chance to see other bands that we had a great deal of respect for,” says Swilley. “We’re happy to be getting back on the road for a multi-date tour. We have been off the road for a little while and are very much looking forward to coming back to Australia, as we have very positive memories of the last time we were there.”

The Black Lips tour Australia in March with an appearance at Golden Plains Sixx highly anticipated.  

Image © Pooneh Ghana

Before the release of Vulnerable, The Used cut ties with Warner Records and began working together with Hopeless Records to create Anger Music Group.

“We have been wanting to do things on our own for a very long time now. We were with Warner for way too long and things just got way too complicated. So when the record label started falling apart, we got this chance, we knew it was perfect timing,” explains front man Bert McCracken. “We thought about instead of just starting a record label in general, but we wanted to do something a little bigger, with more freedom. We started Anger Music Group which is actually an art Production Company which will deal with everything from physical art to fashion to film to food. Everything that has anything to do with creative art.”

This creation of Anger Music Group allowed them more freedom when it was time to write Vulnerable, allowing the record to have a new defined sound. “We kind of had the ability to do whatever we wanted to do. It sounds like a lot of different things that we love. It has some r’n'b, some serious pop influences, some hip hop influences, and a lot of different types of songs. It’s a really, really diverse record. I think it has strong emotional ties to the first record, you know being more than just who you are and daring to dream.  It is one hundred percent different from all of our records and I think it’s the best one.”

In previous years The Used have sold out Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion which holds crowds of 5,000 and have headlined the Australian leg of the Taste Of Chaos tour not only once but twice.  This year The Used are part of Soundwave Festival which has sold out in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. They are also playing a sold out Sidewave in Sydney with fellow American’s A Day To Remember and England’s You Me At Six. The Brisbane Sidewave is on its way to selling out.

“It feels great I can’t wait. It’s been a while since we have played an actual tour. We have been doing little ones offs in like South Africa, America, Malaysia and a few other places but it’s going to feel good being part of something, and the fact people are excited about it is epic. We have heard so much good feedback with our Twitter and our Facebook, we can’t wait. We are just as excited as you.”

One of the main factors in their success is their ability to dream and their willingness to try. When asked if they could share one piece of advice McCraken replies, “Dare to dream, this is what this whole record is about. At times that we are at our most vulnerable we are the most likely to dream big and go for it and succeed most of the time. Don’t give up on your dreams. I dunno. Life finds a way. It’s really cheesy and corny but it’s true; it’s what I believe and how I feel.”

When The Used first formed in 2001 McCraken knew it was meant to be and that they would be making music for years and years. To this day he still believes that they will making music for years and years to come.  With the release the awaited release of Vulnerable and already sold out shows McCraken exclaims, “Our time to shine now. We are going to kick arse in 2012.”

Vunerable will be released on March 30, 2012 via UNFD/ Hopeless records. You can also grab the single ‘I Come Alive’ from iTunes and check The Used live in action on the Soundwave Festival juggernaut. 

Van, now settled in Melbourne after his younger days in the countryside of Tasmania, is a prolific songwriter who has been influenced by Dylan and the classic sounds of the 70s. You will hear his influences as you peruse these tunes.  He had formed a band with his brother (The Swedish Magazines) in 2003, but at the same time began writing a catalogue of songs that is well into the hundreds by now. His music verges on that genre Americana, but in my mind, his music can fit under the label of  ‘pop’, whatever that may mean to you. To me, and to Van, it means that it is accessible. So where did all this music germinate from and why are we not hearing it? Van caught up with me from sunny Melbourne to give us the low down.

“Well, I first started playing guitar when I was 15 or so and I was really into Bob Dylan so I guess he was a big influence on my writing. He just sort of ripped everyone else off and just wrote and that is what I did.  It’s interesting that you say that you have not heard my music because I do more writing then I do promotion and that is why Fuse has put this Underneath The Radar compilation together. They said you make this all this music but no one is hearing it and they helped me stop writing for a moment and put it all on one album,” said Van.

So did Van come from a musical family in the hills of Tasmania playing around a roaring fireplace as the winter winds howled?

“There was really no music in my family. My Aunty and her boys were musical and got into a bit of metal and the like. My brother and I just got into this classic 70s stuff and we just loved it. We taught ourselves to play a bit. I think this is why I make American sounding music. I did not really have people around me teaching me songs and sitting around and playing as a family. It all comes from records and it was a huge influence on me. People like Neil Young too had a huge impact on me,” said Van.

Music, as stated earlier, can be overlooked.

“You can be hidden even if you are right there because you are not putting ads in the paper or going down the same avenues that everyone is on. A lot of people see me play, even people from Melbourne, like when I am interstate and ask me if I ever play in Fitzroy. I laugh and tell them I am down there playing every other day on Brunswick Street. It would be nice to have the wider reach of people hearing my music but it is a lot of wasted time when I could be writing music instead. I’d like to be able to do both but it is very hard for me to write and promote myself like others do,” Van said. As you  can see Van is a man who his dedicated to his trade, he does it for the love and what money comes his way, so he tends to live very carefully to be able to continue down this trail of songs and tales.

With this excellent compilation, Fuse is trying to make that a bit easier for Mr. Walker. His music, for the uninitiated, is hinged on folk, rock and Americana that leans towards that musical genius from Minnesota to that poet from Adelaide named Kelly who also moved to Melbourne to ply his trade. Van has released five albums, The Celestial Railroad (2008), The Last Record Store (2009), Greetings From Penguin Tasmania (2009), Love Fate (2010) and Bush League Bard from the same year. Prolific is the word and the words flow from him like water from a rambling stream.  But before you get too deep into Mr. Walker, check out this latest compilation and see if the groove and stories move you.

Van will be accompanied and supported on this tour by the very talented singer/songwriter Liz Stringer. These shows are bound to be magical in the tales that each will spin and will give you a chance to experience two very talented musicians who hopefully will warm your soul and make you smile from the inside out. Van has been under the radar for too long and this is his opportunity to shine for you. Go out and catch him while you can and while you got him in your sights. You won’t be disappointed.

The Underneath The Radar National Tour kicked off on Australia day in Hepburn Springs and runs until the 18^th of March where it winds up in Van’s homeland Tasmania.

“I’m in my little bed with the curtain around me so I can concentrate on this interview,” says a very tired but chilled Steve down a crackling line. He is currently on his way across North America on his Dead Meat tour to promote Wonderland.

Jam packed with collaborations with anyone who is anyone in the music scene today, Wonderland has been a labour of love for the DJ/producer. “God, it’s been years. I’ve been working on it for a real long time. In a way it’s more than an album to me. It’s more of a collection of songs that have inspired me in different styles and genres all combined in this album. As an artist I really wanted to show a diverse sound from all different genres and sub-genres of dance music.”

Surprisingly, trying to pin down artists to collaborate with (and there are a lot of them) was one of the easier hurdles to jump. “One of the most convenient things for me is that my studio is in Los Angeles. The album is called Wonderland because I live on Wonderland Avenue. A lot of the artists actually live in L.A so it wasn’t that difficult. Lil’ John has a place in L.A, Travis Barker, Rivers Cuomo, WIL.I.AM, Kid Cudi, LMFAO… for the most part getting them in the studio wasn’t too difficult as long as we had time to organise it. The rest of them would come through on tour and they would come to the studio to finish vocals or things like that or I would get sessions where people sent their vocals in to me.”

One of the most interesting collaborations on the album is with Weezer frontman, Rivers Cuomo. When asked about the collaborative process with one of geek rock’s most beloved front man, Aoki is unashamedly chuffed. “Rivers is incredible. I have been listening to Weezer since the first album; I have been a Rivers fan forever. He is just one of the coolest guys on the planet.” So how did this unusual pairing come about? “To make a long story short I remixed a Weezer song that Interscope managed to get me (“I Want You To”) and I was like, fuck yeah! In the fall Rivers wrote me back and said it was the best remix that he has heard of any Weezer song; that just blew my mind! We played a show together and I talked with him and said I’m doing an album and I would love for you to be on the album. The only problem was at the time I didn’t even have a song for him so I was kind of hoping and crossing my fingers. He was like, ‘Absolutely, send me the song tomorrow,’ and I was like holy shit, got back to my studio in L.A and literally wrote the song in a day (“Earthquakey People”). He turned it around in two days so we finished the song very quickly.”

The club kid favourite is also eyeing a potential Australian tour. “I would love to because Australia is one of my favourite places in the world to tour. I know there have been conversations but I don’t know how soon or when I will be coming down, hopefully as soon as possible.”

Considering the vast amount of talent on Wonderland, Steve still has his sights on even bigger artists such as Zack De La Rocha from Rage Against The Machine, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park and… Yo Yo Mar? “I would love to do some sort of collab with him,” he says without a hint of sarcasm.

It’s also a big year for Steve’s label, Dim Mak. Considering the somewhat disposable nature of electronic music, Aoki has outlasted many and the fact that he is actively involved in all aspects of the recording process is more than slightly responsible for his longevity. “I love being on both sides. 2012 is a really exciting year for Dim Mak. We have our first dub step artist coming out, we have Infected Mushroom’s album coming out as well. A lot of good albums and cool singles, my collaboration with Tiesto, the vocal version of “Tornado” is coming out; I did collaboration with Knife Party which will be coming out too. I’ve been running the label for longer then I have been DJing – about 15-16 years now. Before I was even an artist I was always behind the artist. I have been hearing two hats for a long time. I have been in the game for a long time and I have seen how the industry works.”

He also seems to have a freakish ability to pick what is going to be huge, his last big discovery being The Bloody Beetroots who went on to have huge success, especially in Australia. “We signed them in 2007 and I first heard about them in 2006 after a few remixes they were doing.”

While it may sound easy picking the next big thing is more intuition than a tried and true formula. ”You got to follow your gut instinct, like when I first heard Bloc Party in 2003, I knew there was something incredible there and in 2004 they sent me “Banquet”. I met the guys and they were such an incredible bunch of guys – it was the same vibe. You just feel not necessarily about their songs but about the whole deal and if you can support their direction and their vision. Having a label, it’s like you’re constantly gambling and taking these major financial risks on artists you just believe in, it’s like instinct. You’re not sure what is going to come out of it but believe that something incredible is going to happen and I am just so happy to see that the Bloody Beetroots were able to literally create their own sound and genre and kind of follow it and do something really powerful. It has to be one of the best feelings in the world. Like seeing your kid go to college.”

Aoki also assures us that there will be a reprint of the wildly popular “The Kids Want Acid” t-shirts, laughing hard he says, “I’ll have to do that then; I’ll have to reprint them. Let them know I’ll bring it back. Do they want the highlighted version or the black? That’s wonderful. I’m really happy to hear that.”

Love him or hate him, Steve Aoki is a truely smart and hardworking dude. Get used to hearing the name Wonderland because it is going to be everywhere, very, very soon.

Wonderland is out in Australia through Liberator on Friday 3 February.

Vocalist and riff master Max Cavalera spoke to Tonedeaf from his home in Phoenix, Arizona shortly before heading to Australia and New Zealand for the Big Day Out festival. I asked him what it was like to be sharing the stage again with brother Iggor and what around him influences his songwriting.

“There’s an energy that comes out when I play with Iggor,” he says through the static of the phone. “It’s very unique and it’s not like when I play with anybody else. I only have that with my brother and it’s something I’ve had with him from when we were kids, from when we formed Sepultura and when we first started playing music. That energy is still with us now and it’s something that’s been with us for 30 years. That’s pure energy that comes out of me and Iggor and that’s what you hear on the record, and that’s what you see when you go see us live. We give you that energy every night and it feels fucking great to just play live every night in front of the fans and share the songs with them. It’s the best feeling in the world.”

“When we got together after ten years of not speaking all the energy came back and we decided to work together and start writing new stuff and it all came very naturally. It felt great to write songs like ‘Inflikted Sanctuary’, ‘Blood Brawl’ and ‘Ultraviolence’. It’s a great record and it got really good reviews. A lot of people really liked it and I’m very happy we got to do a second one that’s even more intense. It’s heavier and more aggressive than the first one and I’m happy for that, I think it’s what people want to hear from me and Iggor.”

“We’re just going to keep on going and it feels great to do the Cavalera stuff. I’m glad to be taking it on tour around the world, showing everyone that the brother’s are back together playing metal and doing what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Both Cavalera Conspiracy records to date have been fast thrashy, hardcore records, far removed from Cavalera’s work with Soulfly. I asked Max if he has felt that these new songs have brought him full circle – to the heydays of thrash music.

“Yeah that’s what I started to play with Iggor and I mean that’s what me and Iggor do the best. When I made Cavalera Conspiracy I wanted to go back to that period of time. I wanted to shape our sound around the time of the Sepultura Beneath The Remains and Arise era which is more thrash, more direct with maybe a few more hardcore influences.”

“Cavalera Conspiracy has more of that energy and I like that. I think it’s killer to have shorter songs and just get your message across. You don’t need real long songs because you can say everything in a two minute and a half minute song and still have the same impact as a big song. This way it’s more direct, more in your face, harder, heavier and more aggressive and I like that about Cavalera Conspiracy.”

So what is it that helps him form this beautiful aggression? Max explains that inspiration lies all around him.

“Aggression comes from everything,” he states in his matter of fact style. “I get a lot of ideas from what I see on tour and from my traveling. I always keep a notebook with me and if I come up with a lyric or a name for a song I write it down and stuff like that. Other things come from the studio when we’re preparing an album. I love playing thrash, playing aggressive metal and fast music. In Soulfly right now we’ve got a new drummer. He’s an extreme drummer who plays more death metal and black metal who was playing with a Norwegian band called Borknagar. They’re very extreme so he used a lot of double bass and so I think the new album will be more extreme than the other Soulfly stuff. I feel very good about it and of course my stuff with Iggor is very metal and there’s no other influence allowed. We’re playing pretty much just strictly metal and it feels really good doing just that. I just love the fact it’s pure metal and no other influences in music are allowed in Cavalera Conspiracy. I wanted to keep it pure metal, just purely heavy and it feels good to be like that.”

It’s been well over a decade and a half since the Cavalera brothers have belted it out together on Australian soil and Max is anticipating something special.

“It’s fucking great man, I’m really excited,” he bursts. “I love the festival and I love the fact I’m coming with Cavalera Conspiracy because we haven’t been down there yet. We were supposed to go there with Judas Priest at one point but it got cancelled and now we’ve got the Big Day Out tour so it’s gonna be great.”

Yesterday marked the first day of Cavalera Conspiracy’s sideshows as part of the Big Day Out tour. 

CAVALERA CONSPIRACY AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2012

Tuesday 24th January Panthers, Newcastle
Friday 27th January ANU BAR, Canberra
Saturday 28th January Metro Theatre, Sydney
Wednesday 1st February Billboard, Melbourne
Monday 6th February The Hi Fi, Brisbane

It was way back in 2004 that D12 last visited, touring their second record D12 World. “Yeah, yeah,” intone two velvet voices before Swifty takes the lead: “2004 was great – we was able to do about four or five places but what’s so dope about us coming back is we get to hit places we never hit before.

2004’s Devil’s Night was a while ago. Where’s the new recoooord? “It’s on it’s waaaaaay,” sings Swifty. “We working, we working, we constantly working on the new album, trying to get it popping before this year’s out. Which it should be. We gotta do a lot of regrouping; working things out, you know, but we back recording and everything’s good. We happy and ready to come back out with new material. We ready to come back out here to take the country by STORM! YEAH!”

It goes without saying that it can be difficult to pin down Eminem for D12 collaborations these days. The fact that D12 press photographs feature only Swifty, Kuniva, Bizarre, Kon Artist and Fuzz Scooter is basic enough confirmation that Slim Shady is not on the ground for D12 albums like he once was.

“Well, Em, we work with Em – we let him hear songs,” says Kuniva. “But he’s very, very busy himself, you know, so we just let him hear songs and he vibe on ’em. If he done feel what we brought, he’ll jump on it, you know what I’m saying, and we just keep it rolling like that.”

Even so, getting five guys together – particularly when they are constantly working on solo works and other projects – should sometimes prove difficult. Right? Kuniva fields this one, too: “Well, we all got a passion for music and we always wanna be in the studio creatin’ so as soon as everyone’s ready we all on board. Unless we got something real personal to deal with, well, we can always make it. We can always find time to get together and do the do. All somebody gotta do is just say the word and we there.”

They are no strangers to work – they are barely getting a day off between shows for this next run. “Well,” says Swifty, “That’ what we like. We’re workaholics. We like staying busy and we like having fun.”

It’s a long way to come for just a few shows. “The flight down to Australia is worth it,” says Kuniva, with the sounds of Swifty agreeing in the background. Kuniva continues, “The whole vibe down here is outstanding, you know. We come down here any chance we get. It’s not even considered working, ’cause we love what we doing.”

Well, we must talk about Heatwave. Silence. Then, as Kuniva asks, “Which part about it?” Swifty hollers with a laugh: “We didn’t do anything wrong!” I give them the elevator speech on the ongoing festival overload debate and the overarching idea that hip hop promoters seem to have a tough time in the Australian market. D12 though seem to always have a successful, fun experience. Maybe it’s us? Laughter breaks out in the Gold Coast hotel room. “Oh man, I don’t know,” laughs Kuniva. “I mean, what happened with us, it was just workin’ with Immigration and getting the paperwork done and we were ready to go. We were here.”

And when they did get here, well, they’ve got nothing untoward to report about Heatwave: “It was pretty dope,” says Swifty. “It was a great crowd.” Kuniva agrees, “They embraced us real good. We had fun just like 2004, you know what I’m sayin’, everything went real well. It was fun. We were hanging out with Techn9ne, Obie Trice…it was good catching up all those guys, kicking it and having fun.”

Certainly, there were people who were disappointed to have missed the Detroit collective in Adelaide but the band are happy to take the heat off Heatwave for that incident. “We don’t have anything bad to say [about Heatwave]. It was just paperwork holding us up and once we got that all done, we was over here. That’s all that was.”

D12′s non-Heatwave, headline tour kicks off tomorrow in Queensland.

Contrive specialise in a hard and brutal old school type of metal that is reminiscent of bands such as Sepultura. In between outside interests and careers, the band has released two albums. 2005’s The Meaning Unseen and the more recent The Internal Dialogue from 201o also scoring some prime support slots for overseas touring acts including the aforementioned Sepultura, Mayhem, Opeth and Testament. Having toured one of the lesser known markets for metal last year, Vietnam, the boys obviously love what they do: spreading the word of heavier music.

“My first memories of metal was seeing the cover of the Kiss album Dynasty in my nanna’s record collection,” says Haug. “That’s where it all began for me. Once Paul and I heard the album, it pretty much went from there for us. Many people think it’s a fad that you grow out of, but the real fans know that it’s about more than just the music. Music deals with a lot of emotional themes and content you don’t hear in mainstream music. It’s a highly emotive form of music, and maybe that’s why we’re drawn to it. Metal really appeals to those who feel that they’re on the ‘outside.’”

“Making a working career out of metal is something that sprung from being a fan,” Haug continues. “I just fell into it. This is an industry where jobs aren’t advertised in the paper. It comes back to having good communication skills and meeting people and having respect. I never thought of this as a career growing up, it just kind of happen.”

“When Paul and I saw Sepultura live in 1992, that’s what really inspired us to form Contrive. I had never even picked up a pair of sticks before then, I was just a good air drummer but hopeless behind an actual kit. What’s influenced us musically has changed somewhat over the years, but Sepultura has always been a cornerstone of sound. The whole ‘brother’ thing of early Sepultura really attracted us, with Max and Igor Cavalera being the focus initially. Paul and I have become good friends with them over the years and are absolutely stoked to be playing side shows with them while they are here for the Big Day Out,” says Haug.

“We’ve been accused of being a Sepultura clone, especially in our early days. Contrive tried to take cues from them and different bands. We try to make what has been done into our own. Last thing we want to do is emulate what has gone before.”

Most famous as host of the Triple J, this association ended in 2011. “It was Triple J’s decision. Many people thought that I was retiring from the show. Why would I retire from something I absolutely love?” asks Haug. “Triple J felt it was time for them to do what they had to do. They made their decision. We’ve both made our peace with it and I’ve moved on. You don’t want to burn your bridges because you’ll probably end up working with them again in some form. I wish them all the best with what they choose to do with the show and the station. It was a phenomenal ride, but there’s no point staying in the past and stagnating. I’ve seen it happen to others and it’s not pretty and definitely not for me.”

Even though he has moved on from the program that made him a household name, at least among Triple J listeners, Andrew’s still going to be on the airwaves – in a fashion. “I still want to concentrate on radio. I’m doing the Soundwave Pirate Radio for the entirety of the festival. This is me basically chatting with all the bands touring as part of the festival. I’ve worked in radio for eighteen years all up and still love the medium. I still try to juggle the radio career and running the Century Media record label with that of the band. Paul works in nursing care and Tim works in JB Hi-Fi.”

“I want to keep supporting this kind of music any way I can. I love being involved in this scene. Triple J was the biggest platform for the show, but it hasn’t changed me that much. I still go to gigs and meet people. I tell people to keep in touch on Facebook. It definitely doesn’t stop here for me.” What words of advice would Haug offer to those wanting to work in the industry? “Stay passionate and keep your integrity. If you’re stating to get jaded, disgruntled and bitter, get out. This is a fun job and industry.”

“I just try to live day by day,” concludes Haug. “With Contrive, it’s crucial to continue to enjoy making music together. We still really enjoy making music together and like each other’s company. We’re working on a new record and also hope to tour Vietnam again next year. For myself, I just want to keep active in the media and keep spreading the word of heavy music any way I can.

Today marks the first day of Cavalera Conspiracy’s first sideshows as part of the Big Day Out tour. Full dates – including those supported by Contrive are below. 

CAVALERA CONSPIRACY AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2012

Tuesday 24th January Panthers, Newcastle
Friday 27th January ANU BAR, Canberra *
Saturday 28th January Metro Theatre, Sydney *
Wednesday 1st February Billboard, Melbourne *
Monday 6th February The Hi Fi, Brisbane

* Contrive play only these dates: on stage at 8.20pm

In a genre often snubbed by the mainstream music industry, blazing a trail can feel more like wading through quick sand. “Yeah, it took fuckin’ ages. I first started rapping when I was 14 or 15 and I only really started getting my name in there with the mainstream music industry when we did “The Festival Song” with Pez. Even then it didn’t keep growing. Until I started doing my battles and stuff and there was a bit more buzz and then when the album dropped it just took off.”

Sixty, one of many names he’s affectionately known as by his fans, isn’t shy about his ambitions for this year. “I’ve got heaps of goals I want to achieve this year. One of them is for Falling and Flying (360’s second album) to go platinum this year and also for my first album (2008’s What You See Is What You Get), which was an independent one and didn’t do too well, to go gold. I wanna buy my own apartment too. And take out the ARIA for best urban, that’d be good.”

2011 was a landmark year for the Melbourne artist. Falling and Flying was flogged on high rotation on Triple J, and he picked up Channel [V]’s Oz Artist of the Year – trumping 50 of Australia’s most prolific musicians including fellow rappers Bliss n Eso, Drapht and Illy.

For his second album, he’s looked outside the box to create a more layered and textural LP; blurring the lines between himself and Aussie hip hop and further cementing his position in what could be the future of this much loved, albeit anti-establishment, culture.

“I don’t really go into it with any rules. With Falling and Flying, I wasn’t trying to make a hip hop album and I wasn’t trying to make a pop album. There was no actual specific direction I wanted to take it in. I just got with the producers and said let’s just make music. If we find a beat, we’ll let that beat take us wherever. We won’t try to make pop songs and we won’t try to make radio hits. We’ll just go with it and let it all happen naturally. It’s good, I really like making music that way, not going in with any set rules or standards; just whatever comes out and that’s what you go with.”

Collaborating with the likes of Josh Pyke and Gossling doesn’t hurt, either. “We didn’t know who to get for “Throw It Away” and Josh really liked the song, the sound and wanted to get on it so he got in on the chorus. Hopefully we’ve brought Gossling a bunch of new fans as well who’ve never heard of her, ’cause she’s talented as fuck; a really, really good singer and a really good songwriter,” he says. “I think I’m going to continue to make music with Gossling, we did such good stuff on “Boys Like You” and with “Miracle in a Costume”, I reckon she killed that, too. I really want to get her to keep singing on some songs, that’d be really great.”

So if the tables were turned and Gossling needed a hand on one of her sweet and tender pieces, would we see 360 come to the rescue?

He chuckles, “I don’t think she’s got much stuff that suits hip hop but if she’s got anything with the right tempo or wants a beat box vocal, I would jump at the opportunity for sure. I mean, I’ve written heaps of stuff that I wanna give to other artists. If I can sing the parts we write, I would do it, absolutely. I haven’t got a crazy vocal range but if I write within my range then I’d be able to do it.”

Keeping up to date with 360’s movements is easy when you’re a follower on his social networking sites. You’ll be the first to know when things like this come about: “I’m doing a song with The Living End on Sunday at the QLD Big Day Out. I have looked up to those guys since I was 10. Oh, by the way the song is tough. As. Fuck.” His Facebook page is treated like his own personal profile (he has a mere 134,000 friends) and his Twitter is a more intimate setting (with 11,000) for his constant stream of thoughts and photos.

For the rest of 2012, though? “After this tour, we got a festival tour coming up which I can’t actually announce the details for yet and then a bunch of festivals and I got a heap of new songs I wanna get recorded and put out on the internet and hopefully by the end of 2012 have an album ready, it’ll be sick!”

It’s going to be a good year.

You might catch 360 onstage with The Living End at the QLD Big Day Out next week but he’s shortly heading off on his own Boys Like You tour. Get on board! 

 Here’s 360 getting into a bit of YouTube to and fro with those hair stands Short Stack. Scary