Byron Shire Echo – Issue 29.21 – 04/11/2014 by Echo Publications

Win!

Issue# 29.21 November 4–11 Editor : Mandy Nolan Editorial/gigs : gigs@echo.net.au Advertising : adcopy@echo.net.au P : 02 6684 1777 w : echo.net.au/entertainment

WE’RE GIVING AWAY MULLUM MUSIC FEST TIX – SEE PAGE 33

Captain Kirk at the Beach

Hooroo! It’s the Yacht Club DJs!

Soul talent Shaun Kirk has come a long way since his debut Yacht Club DJs bring their eclectic taste in friends and mashup release in 2010. It’s been said he has one of the finest blues voices tapes to the stage at the Hotel Great Northern this week. Whats the mission for Yacht Club DJs? in the country. This explosive solo act is definitely someone Well we don’t really have one now. It’s mission well worth catching when he comes to Byron next week. accomplished because we have decided to put the project out to pasture. All that’s left is to come say hooroo to everyone and sink half the tins in Australia to celebrate.

What are the records you most love listening to? Anything from old blues cats like Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf, to hip-hop records, to soul and rock. Some of my favourites are Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run and Nebraska; Bob Dylan’s Slow Train Coming; Gary Clark Jr’s Black & Blue; Jurassic 5’s Power in Numbers; Jeff Buckley’s Grace; Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life. The list is neverending really. I currently have JJ Cale’s Troubadour spinning behind me as I write this!

Can you pick a mate by his mix tape? What does a mix tape say about a person? Definitely. You can even pick out the difference between Guy and myself within our mix tapes. Especially the last one. If you’re any good at it and have something to express you should be able to get it out in a mix; that’s what makes good DJs, look up the Avalanches’ Some People mix for a sample, quintessential mix; it’s an absolute bloody clinic.

How do songs turn up for you? What’s your ‘process’ for getting them down? It’s always different for each song. Sometimes it’s an idea sparked by something I’ve seen or heard; sometimes a chorus or melody will pop into my head as I’m driving; sometimes a riff or chords progression will appear as I’m casually messing around with my guitar on my bed or backstage before a show. There’s really no ‘one’ process for me. You’ve penned five records in five years. How has your approach to recording changed on each one? Well the first record Cruisin’ was super raw. I think we recorded the entire album with one or two guitars, a stomp box, harmonica and a few drums here or there. Then came Thank You for Giving Me the Blues, which was still a relatively small production recorded in a friend’s bedroom, but I began to experiment with some beats and different guitar sounds. The Wick Sessions was all done in a single day completely live once I had build up the one-man-band (vocals, guitar, harmonica and drums at my feet) idea enough to be comfortable to throw something down live. Tell me about the first song you ever wrote. I’d rather not – haha! It was horrible. All I’ll say is that I wrote it in a hospital bed after I had broken my ankle and was waiting for surgery when I was 17. What about the most recent one? I’m currently writing a song called Big Brother, which was sparked by a documentary I saw a while back about the government’s intentions to introduce facial recognition into security cameras all across the country and how closely they can already monitor us through our mobile phone

Could you love a woman with bad taste in music? If you’re into a girl just because of the music she likes, she mustn’t bring too much to the table. Or you’re a rubbish bloke. People’s quibs are generally something you should grow to like, right? GPS signals. Funnily enough, all I could think about while watching this doco were shows like Big Brother and the Jim Carey movie The Truman Show. Where did you record Steer the Wheel? Who produced it? What did you set out to achieve with this album? It was recorded at a wonderful studio in Melbourne called The Wick and produced by my good friend Glenn Scott and myself. Glenn has mixed a few of my albums now and I had always said I wanted to do a full-blown album with him at his studio, which is an amazing room. The goal was to step things up from my past records in both a songwriting sense and a production sense. We got Jeff Lang’s ARIA Award-winning rhythm section of Grant Cummerford on bass and Danny McKenna to come and play on the record as well as some other incredible musicians across the country. Surrounding myself with some great players with so much experience was a real learning curve for me. A highly enjoyable one. How did you feel about the results? I’m super proud of this record! It’s exceeded all my expectations and has been selling really well. It even got to #1 on the Australian Blues iTunes Charts, which was totally unexpected! Shaun will be playing at the Beach Hotel, Byron Bay, on Thursday.

Tell me how you go about sourcing tunes for your YC shows? I wasted my childhood. I grew up in a nightclub nicking drinks from the fridge and listening to techno on weekends and playing in punk bands at school during the week. That’s pretty much still the music I like; other than that I just let my mates tell me what’s good and I tell them whether I like it or not. Some where in the middle of that Yacht Club popped out. Stuffed if I know how. But it’s been sweet. What about ‘weird excessive nudity’? Will you deliver on your promise? It is Byron after all. This has been part of our press release forever. I’m not sure what constitutes weird or excessive nudity. Maybe it was just our publicist saying I look crap with my shirt off. I tend to agree, but they were probably just looking too hard. Look, there’s always a danger, probably somewhere between the first time a beer touches my lips and the point where someone is stabbing a blowup dolphin, but saying it’s planned would make me a bloody galah. How do you tailor a show to your crowd’s energy or expectation? Panic. And luck. A little bit of skill but mostly panic and luck. Fake bravado never hurts, but that’s mostly panic and luck as well. Has something ever gone horribly wrong at one of your shows? Do tell! Yeah, I knocked the sound out of phase at a

festival in Mackay when we were doing a live set. In layman’s terms we were on stage going off and thinking it was going great but all that was happening out the front was bass and nothing else. People started booing and throwing bottles and stuff. We didn’t realise till too late and it was pretty much the worst show in the history of music. But I’ll take it. How do you pick your collaborating acts? Do they have to be on the same musical wavelength? We tend to only work with friends. Makes life easy when they can just come around to your house and chill and something cool happens. Every time we have messed with this formula it’s usually ended up crap. What should we expect for the Byron Show? Who’s coming with you? This tour is basically just a big party to say hooroo and cheers to everyone who’s come and partied with us and supported us for the last decade. It’s been the best job ever and we’ve been able to get up to some ridiculous stuff. So yeah pretty much just saying cheers, having a few tins with all our legendary mates we’ve made around the country and having huge hangovers on the flights home. Think of it as a big going-away party that happens 14 times around the country. Byron is going to be massive as well with Surecut Kids coming along. They’ve been pals of ours since our first Queensland show and we couldn’t think of anyone better to come along. There might be others too if we can twist some arms. Then she’s of to Vegas, coupla days, Yiew! Friday at the Hotel Great Northern with Special Guests Surecut Kids. Tickets from www.moshtix.com.au or 1300 GET TIX (438 849).

coming soon WED 5

BETH LOWEN

14 NOV

KING OF THE NORTH

THU 6

JOSH HAMILTON

15 NOV

VIOLENT SOHO

SAT 8

TWIN HAUS, THE BADLANDS

21 NOV

THE RUMINATERS

22 NOV

THE ART

23 NOV

SAN CISCO

28 NOV

VELSEHUR

29 NOV

SEA LEGS

SUN 9

DAN HANNAFORD

MON 10 ZIGGY ALBERTS TUE 11 MARSHALL 30 November 4, 2014 The Byron Shire Echo

FRIDAY 7 NOVEMBER YACHT CLUB DJs, SURECUT KIDS, SAMMON DJ

HOTEL GREAT NORTHERN • thenorthern.com.au • 6685 6454 Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au