Keeping travel dreams alive and setting goals has never felt more important. We can all agree that 2020 has been an unfortunate year so far, and almost every facet of daily life has been wrought by this ongoing global pandemic, the start of which now feels like forever ago. The arts has been one of the hardest hit areas, so The AU Review has kickstarted a Q&A series “looking past the pandemic”, encouraging creatives from around the world to share their travel hopes, dreams, and the thoughts or things that are getting them through 2020, while also highlighting essential experiences in their own country.
Grievous Bodily Calm (Perth, Australia)
You can always rely on Perth’s Grievous Bodily Calm for a complex, cerebral track like “Mosaic”, their new single born from experimentation during lockdown. Jumping from one high quality single, “Sync Step”, to this is a perfect testament to why these hardy musicians were recent nominees for WAM’s Song of the Year prize in the Electronic category.
We caught up with the band’s drummer and MD Alex Reid to look past the pandemic.
When travel opens up completely, the first place in Australia I’m going is…
We had a tour booked with shows in Sydney and Melbourne back in April. Hopefully once things open up again we can finally get over to the eastern states for some shows.
Three spots in Australia I think everyone should visit at least once in their life…
Darwin, Tasmania and Denmark in Western Australia. I couldn’t believe how perfect the weather was in Darwin in the dry season plus the outdoor food markets are amazing. Tasmania and Denmark for the nature and beauty.
Whenever I have a visitor in my city and I want to show them a good night out, the first place I take them is…
For food and drinks for sure Spritz in Mt Hawthorn and for live music there are plenty of great venues in Perth. I personally love The Bird and Barbes.
Most memorable thing I’ve eaten on the road..
Hommus sandwiches from Mamoun’s Falafel in NYC.
The one international venue I’ve always wanted to play….
Definitely hard to narrow down to just one but the Village Vanguard in NYC is definitely up there. It has such a rich history in the jazz world and it’d be a dream come true playing on the same stage where so many of our favourite musicians have played. Tiny Desk and Red Rocks [Amphitheatre] also spring to mind.
READ: What it’s like seeing a concert in Colorado’s legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
The one international destination I’m yet to visit but have always dreamed of…
I’ve always admired and wanted to visit India. I’d absolutely love to soak in the music, food and culture.
The three things or thoughts that are getting me through this pandemic…
I feel very lucky to have a studio at my house where I can practice my instruments and the band can continue working on our music. Through the pandemic we’ve been hard at work mixing and finishing off a future release. Other than that regular exercise and meditation for physical and mental well being.
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For more on Grievous Bodily Calm head on over to their Facebook here
