8 August – Brisbane
Good times! That pretty much sums up the whole tour, so thanks to everyone involved. Sound Travellers and Joanne Kee for the tour support, Alex Fregon for the wonderful poster, and everyone who booked shows, shared bills, did sound and were otherwise accommodating and friendly.
Brisbane – One final show of tour, to finish off things in hometown of Brisbane. Jumped on a great bill at the wonderful Burst City show at late notice. Things were a little quiet when I first played, but a steady stream of people came in to see a set I really enjoyed playing. It all got a little crazy from there, with a killer vibe, party audience and great sets from Naked On The Vague, Slug Guts, Blank Realm and Kitchen’s Floor. Such a fun night.
29 July – Brisbane
Really, haven’t forgotten about this at all. Last show for a while tomorrow, and in the meantime – lots below.
Sydney – Fairly early flight to Sydney, managed to avoid excess baggage somehow (?!), and had an exit row seat. Good omens. Dropped my bags off (thanks Estee!) and caught up with Joanne from Sound Travellers to discuss the tour and to catch up. Had lunch at Cafe Giulia, and went to a wonderful gallery in Chippendale. From there, took it easy, had drinks with a friend, chilled out at a bowls club then went to The Red Rattler in Marrickville for the New Weird Australia show. Instant friendly faces, and new friends, a long soundcheck and a solid kebab had me pretty relaxed. Great crowd (despite all the other events on that night) and wonderful people. Emily McDaniel unfortunately caught a case of the tech gremlins (hope I didn’t pass them on!) and wasn’t able to play, but soundcheck material was sounding great – so a big pity! TR-10’s interactive audio-visual display was a delight, Ambrose Chapel’s set was heroically epic, and Eraser’s jammy pop was really well thought out, particularly for such a new group. I was really happy with my set, weird tech gremlins aside, and had some lovely conversations afterwards. Thanks to Stu, Gina, Romy, Red Rattler and all the other acts for a great night. Rest of Sydney was a blur of meetings and being on the verge of tour sick, interspersed with relaxing and fun times with my hosts/friends Daniel and Kate. As always, Sydney, it is a pleasure!
Adelaide – I hadn’t been to Adelaide in about four years, and their airport is still as great and as futuristic as ever. Upon arrival, I shared a wait for baggage with an American hip hop/krump/something dance crew, and I think members of The Drones. Collaboration in the works? The delightful Jason Sweeney (who organised the gig) picked me up from the airport and dropped me to my hotel, where I had a rest and a gander at spreadsheets before meeting up with Jason, Marcus (of Scissor Lock, who also was playing), Travis, Tristan, and his partner for dumplings in Chinatown. Luminous, refreshing and filling! The gig was at Headquarters Studio, an artist run space just out of town that has started putting on events – beautiful space. The night was a complete success, with wonderful sets by Jason Sweeney and Scissor Lock, and my personal favourite Anonymeye set of the tour – and of a long time in general. A pity to only have the one night in Adelaide, but will have to come back.
Melbourne – Album is done! Eight tracks, just under fifty minutes. Sounding really good – currently looking for a label home – labels, get in touch if you’re interested and I can show you what it’s all about, etc. Had a day off on Saturday, which was lovely. On Sunday I did a video clip for a track off the new album with Patrick and Sean from Reunited, which was heaps of fun. Really interesting shots in Footscray along the Maribyrnong River, in the pouring rain and in bits of sun. Will let y’all know when it is done. The shows! First up, Monday night at the Emergency Room at East Brunswick Club in East Brunswick, two blocks away from my old house. Great pub, great dinner, great friends, wonderful vibe and outstanding performances. Really solid crowd for a Monday night, and the sets by Eastern Grey, ii, and Automating all blew me away. I’ve enjoyed ii and Automating many a time, and Eastern Grey, even a member down, were just so awesome too. Super kudos to everyone involved, and particularly to Kody and Morgan. Tuesday night was a duo set with Sasha Margolis (Automating, Constant Light, and formerly of Y35.3, Spitfire Parade and Salivation Army) at Make It Up Club. Hadn’t played together before, but we had a strong knowledge of each others work, so it turned out well. A mixture of our sounds, with vuvuzelas thrown in for good measure. Actually the first time I’d played at MIUC, and good to finally do. Thoroughly enjoyed the Bile Worship (brutal Melburnian noise) and The Bznzz (crazy Sydney drums/bass mathematic spazzy genius), and catching up with Sean Baxter for the first time in too long. Wednesday night I was back at Stutter, in performance mode this time. Shared a fantastic bill with Blankface Distortion (infinite piece dreamy instrumental pop), The Bznzz (who were as great as they were at MIUC) and Fabio Umberto (hairy metalhead plays note perfect Italo-Disco – brilliant). My set started well, ended up with epic guitar/leads failure, but hopefully it all was salvaged. Some weird/wacky/wonderful shots later with the various friends who were lovely enough to put me up (Adrian + Nevena; and also Miyuki + Ben), a decent sleep, a big brekky and chat about the way of the world and politics with an old friend, and I was back at Tullarmarine.
24 July – Sydney
Haven’t forgotten about this! Things have been hectic. Will update for rest of tour in due course.
15 July – Melbourne
Have been hanging out in Melbourne for about half a week now, has been great to be back. Spent the past four days (with one to go) working on some new material, creative development, etc with Cornel Wilczek (of Qua, Magic Silver White, lots more) at Electric Dreams Studios in South Melbourne. The sessions have gone really well so far, a combination of reworking older material, plus a few spontaneous ideas whilst there. Its all been really inspiring so far, Corn’s a total whiz and I’ve had a really enjoyable and productive time playing around with various guitars, electronics, synthesisers and pianos. Has been really enjoyable having some downtime with Corn, Mark, Jojo and James as well – and everyone else in the building too. Have mainly been hibernating at my hotel since I arrived on Sunday, working on things for Sound Summit festival (part of This Is Not Art in Newcastle, early October), sorting out my live patch for shows next week and catching up on the cricket and Tour De France. Aside from that, DJed last night at Stutter / Horse Bazaar, which was enjoyable – always love going there.
Just under a week left in Melbourne, with a couple of shows, a video clip shoot for one of the new tracks with Reunited, and otherwise catching up on some quality food, drinks and shops time with Melbourne.
11 July – Canberra (via Perth)
Busy times! Am currently hanging out in Canberra Airport, catching up on some technology. Melbourne soon, very soon, but in the meantime…
Canberra – After a long redeye flight and a nice quick zip, was good to touch down in Canberra. I’m a big fan of the city, but it’d been almost three years since I’d last played despite a number of holidays there – so time to make up for it. After hanging out with my friend Sarah who put me up at her lovely digs in Barton and took me out for some coffee to alleviate my post-flight/gig/flight braindeath, popped down to the Street Theatre for soundcheck/etc. It’s all too rare to play in a nice sounding room with heaps of soundcheck time… which was all too important, as I’d had some major tech issues happen somewhere between Brisbane and Perth. Long story short, my Audiomulch patch I’d been using fucked up, which scared the hell out of me. Fortunately I had a slightly out of date backup, but a bit stressful nonetheless. My set was a bit of a rough one with the tech gremlins (patch, some weird earthing issue creating hiss), but musically I really enjoyed it – and am in lots of debt to the wonderful Street Theatre and hellosQuare staff for helping me get through the issues, with complete professionalism on their part. The other sets by locals Cat Cat and Sydneysiders 3ofmillions were both outstanding and inspiring in their use of melody and sound. Had some enjoyable chats with various new and old friends, and really enjoyed the class act evening Shoeb put on. The last day or so I’ve been here in Canberra have been really relaxing and enjoyable, with some good Japanese food, tasty snack Mexican, and a trip to Old Parliament House.
Perth – After a few dramas with check-in/excess baggage/etc, was on my way in a middle seat (wooh?, hmmmmmmm, etc) across the country to Perth. That happens. Nice to be in Perth though after a long day. After a few more bus/etc delays, checked into my hotel for the first evening, which wasn’t too bad, despite the amazingly thin walls (fortunately, heard nothing wrongtown) and hilarious carpark “view”. Walked around Perth, and managed to find a great little Asian place that didn’t have “Perth tax” prices for dinner before hanging out and working on my set a bit more. Wednesday caught up with my host/promoter Greg, who took me to a couple of pubs and a burger joint for a low key and chilled afternoon and evening. Thursday (show day) took the opportunity to have a couple of drinks and some pizza down at the Little Creatures brewery, before heading back to Perth and heading out to the show. Played the Velvet Lounge room at the Flying Scotsman in Mt. Lawley again, a nice little room with a good vibe. Supported Pacific By Rail for their final show before all the members moved up and away around the world. Great set by them, interesting melodies and top-notch musicianship. My set wasn’t the best, a bit inconsistent and had a few problems being able to hear things properly, but ended up getting some pretty noisy sounds by the end; which I don’t usually push as much, but enjoyed doing regardless. Pacific By Rail were playing their final show, after working on some recordings – which had them in top form for their set. After that, more airport delays, but slightly less excess baggage… but it all worked out.
4 July – Brisbane
A couple of days until I head off – looking forward to heading everywhere. Have been working on sounds for five days of collaborating on new material at Electric Dreams Studio in Melbourne later this month, and preparing for the live show. A bit more prep tomorrow, then packing. Have uploaded a bit of extra music online too on this site and on soundcloud, I was going to try and put together something quickly for the tour but I think mp3s are more suitable.
30 June – Brisbane
Kind of weird to start a tour diary a week before going away, when in ones hometown, but whatever. Started the Anonymocracy tour in Brisbane, playing a duo set with Ambrose Chapel as part of the ‘Almost Invisible’ mini-festival at Browning Street Studios.
Doing a duo set with Ian Rogers/Ambrose Chapel was great, we’ve known each other for years, and found a lot of crossover between our ‘signature’ sounds that us, and others, wouldn’t have necessarily expected. We kept it pretty short and sweet at just under 15 minutes, starting out pretty brutally and ending up very sparse, fingerpickery and minimal. We recorded the set, its sounding pretty rough, but between that and some other jams we did a few days earlier we’re hoping to maybe put out a cassette or some MP3s online or something.
The rest of the night was great too – I enjoyed all the other bands (Feathers, Do The Robot, Ghost Notes, The Entire Asian Population), and am much happier having seen them after missing lots of previous sets due to circumstance. Many thanks to Cam and Ian for putting it all together!
Right now it is about five days later (FNYE, wooooh), and I’ve got a week at home to continue to work on a live set, as well as getting ideas ready for a week at Electric Dreams Studios in Melbourne. Really excited about everything!
Anonymeye 