Taking a moment away from his recording studio in Coffs Harbour, Johnny Mackay from Melbourne’s Children Collide had a chat to us at the AU review – speaking on the bands recent USA tour, the state of the Australian live scene, and how he doesn’t mind Children Collide becoming a “Video Game Band”.
Read to the end of the interview to find out how you can win a t-shirt and one of two double passes to catch the band at the Annandale Hotel for the Jager Uprising Christmas Party, on December 9th!
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So you guys are playing the Annandale on December 9th, headlining the Jager Uprising Xmas Party, not long before the venue closes its doors for a while. How important has the Annandale, and venues like it in Sydney, been to Children Collide?
I actually wasn’t aware they were closing their doors for a while, that’s really sad. Amazing venue, one of my favourite places to play in Australia – I have to say that one of the pivotal gigs we ever did was at the Annandale, too – we played this Sunday afternoon, I think it might have even been a Jager thing, and it felt like a really pivotal moment in our careers – there was just a great vibe. I love playing there, and I’ve seen quite a few bands play there over the years as well. So yeah, pretty excited – but wasn’t aware it was closing. Hopefully it’s not a permanent thing?
Thankfully not at this stage, it sounds like they’ve got to do some work to the building to fit regulations… something like that.
Sydney’s always had to battle with that hasn’t it? I remember years ago, wasn’t it the Sando that closed? And it’s always been a battle with the certain newer pubs with all the pokies, that seem to get away with anything, and it’s the band venues that always seem to struggle.
Luckily, your hometown of Melbourne seems to provide a better atmosphere for bands?
Yeah, I don’t know what it is – the regulations must be a bit more conducive to the culture, where as they seem to go the other way in Sydney, which is sad – because I love playing in Sydney. And maybe that’s why it’s great playing in Sydney, too – because the crowds are really grateful… a bit spoilt in Melbourne.
Indeed! But looking to Melbourne, you’re playing your final show at the Corner Hotel on January 15th, before you start recording your 2nd LP. Are these hometown shows always ones you look forward to?
The headlining shows are the ones we definitely look forward to. Melbourne was, traditionally, sort of tough for us. I think it’s tough for a lot of bands, for a lot of people to get it up and going in Melbourne – and we were getting better responses in Sydney for a long time. But the last few headlining shows we’ve done in Melbourne have felt great – yeah it’s weird, as a band you start out playing cause it’s your friends, and then you hit a point where your friends have come to 30 or 40 shows, so you stop hassling them to come, but then suddenly we’d play Melbourne and there’d be no one in the room.
But it’s at a point now where we can sell out a venue like the Corner, hopefully, and yeah – it’s a fun vibe. I think any gig you play where it’s a whole bunch of people who are there to see you is fun.
Are you looking forward to getting back into the studio – it must feel like you’ve been on the road forever!
Oh, definitely, can’t wait to do the new record. I mean, I’ve been in and out of the studio recording for other stuff, but to be back in the studio recording a proper new Children Collide record is going to be really fun – I can’t wait to do that. We’re really happy with the songs that we’ve got ready. And yeah, we’re really excited about it, and excited about people knowing those songs, touring them and all the rest. It’s gonna be a fun adventure. We’re gonna be touring on the back of it overseas which will be fun, too.
Speaking of which, you recently toured the U.S. – can you speak a little bit about that experience?
Yeah it was funny – we went over there and toured the whole country in a big RV/Winnebago type deal – which was fun trying to park – but yeah, when we went up the west coast, the band we were touring with dropped out of the California leg. We were supporting them because no one really knows us over there, so we did the Californian leg without them. LA was fun – and then we did Portland and Seattle and they played. In Seattle, though, the girls voice was going again, and I could see her spraying her throat in the middle of songs – and I’m thinking uh oh – and then they pulled out of the rest of the tour. So we had to headline our own tour around the States.
It was a fun experience, we went to some weird little towns. After Seattle we went to this weird little town called Spokane (also in WA), where I bought a nice hat off an old hippy, and we drove through the mid west – and I got called a fag in a service station in Wyoming because I had tight jeans… I guess they haven’t made it to Wyoming yet. It was an adventure, we made it through a lot of the country, drove up to Detroit, Chicago and then Canada for a show, which was great. It was awesome.
Philly was probably my favourite show. We started playing, and there was hardly anyone there, but because the stage was backed onto the street, people could hear us really loud out there – so we started playing, and after 3 or 4 songs the room was half full – and then by three quarters through the set, the room was packed and people were going nuts. It was really cool to have that reaction from people who had never heard us before. Then at the end of the set, we got one of the loudest encore chants we’ve ever had – but we didn’t do one *laughs* – yeah that was really fun to win a crowd over like that.
Oh I bet – and in general, how did the American crowds compare to those in Australia?
I think people are pretty similar everywhere, it’s hard to compare – but I must say that Americans are a bit more enthusiastic from the outset. Like Australian crowds get to know you and get into it, but Americans can be seeing you for the first time and go nuts sometimes.
It was weird, we were playing Denver, and everyone was standing up the back, confused as to who we were – but there was one girl right up the front, singing along to every word. And that was the case at quite a few shows on that tour – there’d be one person up the front singing along. It just shows you how powerful the internet can be when you get that sort of stuff happening.
Could they have just been the token Australian?
No, they weren’t! They’d always be the person out of everyone who’d come and talk to us after the show. One guy had seen us on an iTunes sampler the day before and then bought the record and then googled us, finding out that we were playing in San Diego.
In general, do you think that the “Myspace / Pirate Music Age,” which many bands understandably dislike, has worked to your advantage?
I certainly don’t see the point in complaining, unless I had a time machine – but it’s definitely worked to our advantage in someways, and to our disadvantage in others. That’s the just the nature of it. You can look at bands from Melbourne in the 70s and 80s who wouldn’t have gotten the global exposure that we’ve got now. There was no internet. But at the same time they probably would have sold more physical records. So I dunno, there’s always half a dozen one way and six the other.
But yeah, there have been some great things that have happened to us via the internet. Our first overseas release was a 7 inch in the UK, and that was all through someone hearing us on Myspace. I reckon we’re getting to travel a lot more because of the internet, and I love travelling much more than I love money, so I’m happy to be poor and travelling.
I couldn’t agree more. But moving back home, many people are saying that support for the local live scenes in Australia is dwindling – but as a band who travels over the entire country on a regular basis, how does it look from your end?
It looks great. And you know, there are a lot of shit bands out there, and people are losing interest in shit bands – but there are a lot of amazing bands out there too, so I rarely see a good band here with a crowd that isn’t getting into it, or enjoying it in some way. It’s possibly a bit tougher in the more regional areas of Australia, depending on the type of people that go out. But I think in the city, everyone knows what to expect when they go to a gig. And if they go there with that attitude, and it’s a good band, they get into it.
So it doesn’t feel like it’s dying in any way to me, it feels like it’s getting stronger if anything. But I guess it all depends on what night of the week you’re out.
In 2008, you had your first entry into the JJJ hottest 100 with the brilliant “Farewell Rocketship” – What was it like finding out you’d been given a spot?
It was surreal – we were on the BDO tour, I think we were on the Melbourne leg – we were sitting around backstage for some reason – so we were already doing our job for the day, so it was weird to already be in that mindset and have something related to it happen. It all didn’t really sink in until a month later. It was a great honour, that people actually bothered to vote.
It’s probably one of those things where we should have gotten on ourselves and voted a bunch of times, so it’s awesome to know that people who we don’t know voted as well.
And looking over the time since then, things seem to have only gotten better, with “Skeleton Dance” not only remixed by Ladytron, but appearing in FIFA 2010. How did that come about?
I’m not completely sure actually, but I think that someone at EA liked the band and wanted to work with us. I think that “Social Currency” is going to be on the new Tony Hawk as well – so I think we’re going to end up becoming a video game band. But I’ve got on problem with that.
It’s pretty funny to see the effect that it’s had already – I looked at YouTube the other day, and people have uploaded the song with the FIFA logo – and you see 5,000 hits on it and it’s funny how powerful a thing like that is.
Yeah, I remember the very first Tony Hawk game on the Playstation, which was quite revolutionary in how it introduced people to a lot of bands they hadn’t heard of – so it’s great to see they’re still showing off lesser known bands from around the world in their product.
Yeah it’s amazing when you look at the FIFA tracklist, just how many different countries are represented – African bands and such – It’s great they do that.
Are you a FIFA fan yourself?
I am now! I hadn’t played it in years, but we got given Playstations which was nice of them, and EA obviously gave us some games, and my housemates right into soccer, so he and I have been playing it a lot. I’m kind of addicted to it now. But when we first started the band, actually, our original drummer had a Playstation – and we used to get stoned and play Tony Hawk together in between rehearsals.
Haha, Awesome! What do you guys do to kill the time when you’re on the road these days?
I’ve been writing a lot of music on my computer while we’ve been travelling. And we went and saw Niagara Falls while we were in Canada … I like to try and do some recreational activities, but it doesn’t always work out.
Are there any albums that are getting a beating on the road of late?
I’ve been deep into making my own music lately – I’m actually in Coffs Harbour at the moment, I’ve been in this empty house making music by myself, so I haven’t listened to any other music in weeks – just been making my own. Plus, I don’t wanna pull anything out of the hat right now, because some of it’s a bit dorky. *laughs*
Looking onto your other projects – can we expect any Amazing Philip Sisters shows anytime soon?
Yeah, well I just finished a record with those guys, I think we’re changing the name of this particular project that we recorded – I think it’s called Electric Smile Band, and you’ll probably see them around in January. And then hopefully more later in the year when everyone’s back in Australia.
Well that just about does it Johnny, so I’ll let you get back to the recording! Thanks so much for your time and speaking to us today.
No worries, thanks a lot!
