SXSW Interview: Spookyland

spooklandAustralia’s Spookyland are a few months away from their release of Beauty Already Beautiful, but they’re hoping to continue building some buzz Stateside with their appearance at SXSW. We caught up with Marcus from theband for a few quick words on their visit. Props to him early on for his love of Robert Forster.

ATH:For a lot of bands, this is their first time coming to SXSW, Austin, or even the United States.What are you anticipating for your arrival into our town? Anything youre really hoping to do while youre here?

Marcus: Weve never been to Austin, I guess with these things you’ve got a find away to enjoy it, give it a bit of hell but stay level enough to maintain yourself. Id really like to see the key note with Tony Visconti and am looking forward to the inevitably of new bands in front of us.

ATH:For most SXSW sets, you get 30 minutes to leave a lasting impression. What’s your plan of attack? You have a set list mapped out yet?

Marcus: I guess were planning to find something that’s robust enough to speak through the potential hiccups, stick to songs that don’t require an attentive crowd or a good P.A. Some songs are riskier from time to time, I think you don’t know until you’re playing if the crowd will go along with them or not, so well keep the deeper cuts on stand by.

ATH:The festival caters to music fans, but food and booze are an important aspect of the fans and the bands. What’s your band’s food and beverage of choice?

Marcus: We are a mix bag of yeast allergic vegans and beer swilling meat eaters, I think we all share an affinity for the Bloody Mary though.

ATH: Describe the music community where you come from?Does everyone work together? Is there lots of competition?

Marcus: In Sydney you’ve got to kind of create your own community, the scenes a bit like shrapnel, there’s no magic doorway into a hub or something were everyone whose serious about music cuddles and collaborates, there’s microcosms of that but you cant just butt into anyones frat house, maybe its like that everywhere though, I couldn’t say.

ATH:What are a few bands we might not know about, being in the States, that should be on everyones musical radar?

Marcus: If you’re not already you should be listening to Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders, The Drones, Fraser A Gorman, the Tambourine Girls and Yeevs.

ATH:Let’s say your band has been booked an official showcase at a pop up venue somewhere in the middle of 6th street (where a lot of shows are set up).The lineup features thrash metal, hip-hop, spoken word, and you.The sound is horrible, the lineup is not your style, and the crowd seems angry at the world.How would your band deal with such a situation?

Marcus: Youve really just got to present yourself as pure as you can. Theres usually one person in the crowd whose listening carefully and wants to see what youre about. Were not really entertainers which is good in these situations, its more about establishing moods so we just do the opposite of adapting, we usually amp up our grating aspect when were on the wrong bill or the crowd seems to hate us. Sometimes friction gets a better show out of you.

ATH:What’s your favorite album to come out in the last year?What’s playing in the tour bus/van?

Marcus: Robert Forster – Songs to Play.

ATH:The digital age is upon us, like it or not.What are your band’s thoughts on streaming services like spotify, pandora, etc.?Blow em all up?Or embrace the future?

Marcus: I think the industry and music itself would be in better shape if people still paid for it, but I get hesitant in opinion on this kind of issue as it goes far beyond music, the popularity of streaming seems largely to do with freeing storage on your devices and the expectation that information should be instantaneous, all encompassing, affordable and convenient, which is some kind of shift in humanity at large.. who knows where all that will move next.

As hard as its getting, you cant blame a couple of big corporations for your failure as an artist, now more than ever its important to take full responsibility with what you give to the world, beyond superficialities its all worthless now except the work being good and containing the potential to enrich people. It is hard, but in the long run, what good has music produced by the untested ever been? Nina Simone wasn’t assembled with rubber gloves and the blues certainly didn’t come out of the lucky and wealthy.

ATH:Clearly coming over to the States to play shows is something a lot of bands are excited about, but what are some other life or musical highlights for you this year? Wed like to get to know you.

Marcus: We’re putting out our first album in May, its vague where that will take us, but adventure is certain. The prospect of making connections with people in performance, new songs coming out of thin air, unimaginable success or failure being in music is always something to be excited about.

ATH: This is important to us, although a lot of music people scoff at sports.Do you have a pick for the winner of this years up-coming Euro Cup? Also, is it rude for us to assume that everyone loves soccer/football outside of the US?

Marcus: Not rude at all! We got one soccer guy in the band, I know he follows Germany, but hes not around to tell me if they’re hot for taking the cup.

 

 

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