Ahead of their visit to Australia for the Groovin the Moo festival, Graham Walsh of Holy Fuck chats to John Goodridge about the festival, electronic music and much more… Read on!
Hey Graham, how are you?
I’m all right.
Good to hear. Are you looking forward to your trip out to Australia?
Oh man, yeah, definitely. After the winter we’ve had here it was fucking brutal. It’s getting warm now but its been really shitty so I’m really looking forward to seeing some warmth. I know your winter there is not too bad.
Yeah it will be still warm enough, in the twenties or so.
Perfect.
You’ve released a 7” single for the tour – Sabbatics.
Yeah we’re pretty stoked, we’re going through the album artwork now. It’s all coming together slowly but surely and yeah we should have a 7” ready to sell at our shows when we get down there.
It seems to be getting a lot of good love on the Internet.
That’s good – it’s all you can hope for I guess.
I’m curious about the sounds behind it. What instruments or whatever went into making it?
Ummm, nothing too whimsical, just making electronic music the way we make it. I don’t even really remember. The song just started out with Brian and I just messing around one night together just coming up with loops and we did a full band studio session just shortly after and kinda went through all these little scraps of sounds and what not and coupled some together a little bit. Yeah drum machines and synths and we slowly pushed the song along and kept defining it and went to a proper studio and laid down the version that everyone is hearing now.
I wanted to ask about the recording process in itself, how you develop songs. Do you start with an idea and build it up from that or start with a sound and work around that?
The beautiful thing about the music that we do is whatever. Like the songs on the 7”, one song we were just screwing around. You just record and jam a half hour long song then you just end up going through it and picking out the bits that are cool and you play it to the other guys and we touch things up based on that. Other songs we have just a one bar loop and we all just jam around that. I guess because it’s not typical song writing – it’s both liberating because there’s no rules, you can do whatever the fuck you want, but it’s also not liberating because it’s like “what do you do?” It’s not like writing a song for Guitar Hero, coming up with a verse and writing a chorus with a little bridge in the middle there and then go back to the chorus. I don’t know, we make songs in all different ways, usually just experimenting and messing around. It could be a chord progression and we’ll build something around that, so yeah.
I’ve noticed that if you do use vocals in your songs they tend to be used as another instrument rather than a traditional vocal.
Yeah I don’t know, yes you’re right. Stuff we’ve been working on lately has more kind of vocal things. The other song on the 7” that coming out has more sort of vocals on it. I think it just lends itself more to the music I’m using rather than having a crooner. Brian has songs where he does that but not Holy Fuck. Maybe it will come out more slowly but surely but for now I definitely like to use vocals as instruments, that’s how I think of them. When I’m writing lines and when I’m performing them I like to hide behind washes and delays and reverbs and blending in to become a wash of sound that I’ve created.
So when you do a live performance, does that give you more of an opportunity to work on a song and develop it, or do you stick fairly well to what was recorded?
Oh yeah it’s always evolving. It’s kinda funny. We evolve it to a point. There’s some songs where we have two or three versions that we’ve recorded and we’ll record a version of it and then we’ll play it at shows then we’ll go back and re-record it again. Then we’ll put out the record and then we’ll tour it and we’ll push out the song further and then we’ll go it’s done somehow. But yeah the songs are usually evolving. It’s been like that for every record. Even the old songs that we play now. I mean, within reason. They’re not like completely different but we’re always changing yeah. We still try to hold onto the idea of improv. I mean I do anyway. It’s all subtle changes. You’re still gonna recognise the song.
To me, that’s the advantage of seeing a band live, to see a fresh interpretation of a song.
I hope so. You try to create an album and make it the best sounding album you can make on record, so people will listen to it in the context of the record. When you go to the show, you try to make the show as best as possible and try to make the music work as best as possible in that arena or whatever (we don’t play arenas.. but that’s the context), but we try to treat each day separately.
I’ve seen some shows where they go out and play the record. Sometimes that’s what you want to hear but sometimes you get really bored: “Hey I can’t believe I spent forty bucks on the show they weren’t doing their thing on stage. They were just playing the record.” I like it when you see a band just jamming out having fun.
Yeah I totally agree. For me, I like to see a band where the performance is different to what you hear when you put on the music.
I think the only show I saw where they just played the record was Roger Waters when he played The Wall – that’s the only time it ever worked.
That’s a special example I suppose.
Yeah that’s a special case.
So your instruments are not standard instruments. Do you bring in new ones and retire old ones? How do you choose?
Yeah, we just try to embrace anything. We’re not necessarily trying to make that a gimmick for the band or anything. I think it’s just been our nature to explore and trying different things. Early on in the band, when we were starting, we were embracing those limitations of using really shitty gear like remedial drum machines and things that had less options and we were stretched to sound possibilities by other means. Like running a crappy Casio keyboard through all your guitar pedals but it was pretty limited in a way.
I don’t know, I don’t want to become the Blue Man Group where that just becomes the feeling of the whole band, because we do use synths and regular drum machines, we’re just into anything, not necessarily doing one thing. So yeah we do different stuff. Whatever. Like a shitty toy keyboard or a crappy D9 and try to manipulate it as much as possible and try to turn it into something that’s really cool.
What about your influences? Who would you say would be the bands that have influenced you?
That’s a tough question. Again, anything when it really comes to music. So if you come on tour with us we’re listening to Slayer or Chet Atkins or old country, jazz, anything really. Metallica singing while driving along, I don’t know, we’re influenced by accessible experimentation and things that make you happy and dance and freak out. I mean there’s obvious people though – there’s legendary people like Brian Eno. He’s an influential guy. I get inspired by different songs all the time and there’s flavour of the month that come and go.
You guys seem to tour a fair bit and you’ve been in China recently I believe. How was that?
That was in December right before Christmas we were in China. Yeah we haven’t been as busy the last couple of years but still managed to keep out there and do stuff, which is fortunate because we haven’t had a record out in a while. That’s one of the main things. We’ve been a band since 2005 and the only way we’ve survived is by playing and touring. That’s important for the band to just get out there and play as much as possible, because that’s how you get good and that’s how you stay good and keep on your toes. Hopefully we can still tour. Three of the four of us have just had kids so we’ve got children to think about so I think our touring schedule will change a bit but hopefully we can still be out as much as possible.
So you been around for about ten years now?
Just about – I just realised it when I said it.
That’s a decent amount of time for any band. What would be some of the highlights of your career?
There’s been a few. We’ve been fortunate enough to play some really big festivals. Playing Glastonbury – we played that twice which were both big highlights. Laneway Festival – one year we played Laneway – that was a huge highlight for us, it was one of the most fun tours I’ve been on. Everyone was awesome so that was super huge highlight. Yeah there’s been a few things along the way – there’s been ups and downs.
So you’re coming here to Australia next for the Groovin the Moo festival. Any ideas about what you might expect from that?
No. I’ve learned over the years not to have any expectations, and then you’ll be pleasantly surprised. What I’m most excited about is just seeing the towns in Australia that I’ve never been to. Because we’ve been there a few times and seen the major cities and I love going there and when this opportunity came up to play on this tour and these places and I’ve never been to these places before – I’m intrigued because I’d like to see this. The “real” Australia and we’re going to Tasmania as well which will be good. So I’m most excited just to go to another part of the world.
Yeah the Groovin the Moo tour is more in the “real” Australia and not just another city. There’s quite an eclectic mix on the bill too – Disclosure, Dizzy Rascal, Robert de Long – Architecture in Helsinki is quite a good Australian band. There’s quite a range of music to keep you interested.
Yeah I’m stoked. I’m yet to see Disclosure. They’re on the list of bands that I want to see as I missed them in Toronto. Especially when you playing a traveling festival like that I hope to see bands every night. I mean it was like Harvest Festival as well, you meet other bands you’re traveling with.
And you get to hug a koala.
I have yet to hold a koala. That’s the one thing I want to do. Maybe I will.
To finish up can I ask you about the Festival of the Fuck. That seems like an intriguing festival to be at.
You know what? Did you read that on Reddit?
It was on Wikipedia actually.
That never happened. There was a post on Reddit about that. I was gonna post on it but I didn’t. I read that and was like “what are they talking about? We never played a Fuck Festival”. Maybe I’m ruining someone’s joke but that never happened. I mean it would be awesome to play at but no it’s made up. Sorry.
Okay – one Internet story busted.
You can’t always trust what you read on the Internet these days, even good old Wikipedia.
Yeah so I’ve learned. Hopefully you have a good time in Australia and that it’s warmer than where you are.
Yes it will be.
Thanks for the chat.
No problem. Have a good one.
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Don’t miss Holy Fuck at Groovin’ The Moo or their sideshows:
Thu 24 April – The Zoo, Brisbane
Fri 25 April – Groovin The Moo Oakbank, SA @ Oakbank Racecourse.
Sat 26 April – Groovin The Moo Maitland NSW@ Maitland Showground.
Sun 27 April – Groovin The Moo Canberra @ University of Canberra.
Wed 30 April – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne.
Sat 3 May – Groovin The Moo Bendigo VIC @ Prince Of Wales Showground.
Sun 4 May – Groovin The Moo Townsville QLD @ Murray Sports Complex
Wed 7 May – Goodgod Small Club, Sydney
Thu 8 May – Rosemount Hotel, Perth
Fri 9 May – The Odd Fellow (formerly The Norfolk Basement), Fremantle
Sat 10 May – Groovin The Moo Bunbury WA @ Hay Park
More details at http://www.gtm.net.au/
