The BRAG #746

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contents what you’ll find inside‌

letter from the editor

ISSUE 745: Wednesday 5 June, 2019 EDITOR: Michael Di Iorio michael.diiorio@thebrag.media

Power. What is it? Who has it? Where does it come from?

Michael Di Iorio weighs in on these tough questions, as he struggles to not answer “me” to all of them.

ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant COVER ILLUSTRATION: Rosemary Vasquez Brown LIVE PHOTOGRAPHER: Ashley Mar

Welcome to the Power Edition of The Brag Magazine. It’s just like every

ADVERTISING: Steph Robertson steph.robertson@thebrag.media

edition we’ve made but more powerful. You can kind of just sense it on the pages. Power. Right? But what is Power exactly? Well first of all it needs a capital letter every time it appears. That’s how Powerful it is. But it’s also something that shines in our daily lives. We see it all the time, we feel it slip away constantly. There’s a beauty in elegantly displaying Power. There’s a

PUBLISHER: The Brag Media CEO, THE BRAG MEDIA: Luke Girgis - luke.girgis@thebrag. media MANAGING EDITOR: Poppy Reid poppy.reid@thebrag.media THE GODFATHER: BnJ GIG GUIDE SUBMISSIONS: gigguide@thebrag.media

strength in recovering from the depths of Powerlessness.

My Power? It comes from my family. Both my close family and my chosen family of friends. My two brothers, my mum and my dad. They’re my encouragement to keep going and keep pursuing my dreams. They’ve never relented in being by my side. (And I promise not to swear in this letter from the editor mum don’t worry.)

Just like many of the artists featured in this edition of the mag like Big Thief, Laura Jane Grace and Christine and the Queens, I too couldn’t have made it this far without my friends. I’ve been pulled up from powerless lows, and I’ve celebrated my most powerful highs with these people, and over time these bonds just get more and more… wait for it… Powerful (I had to). They’ve seen me at my worst and they’ve pushed me even further when I thought I had accomplished my best. It’s the best kind of support anyone could ask for.

A themed edition hasn’t been seen in a long while, but, this is Q2, The Power Edition, ready to impress. I hope you enjoy relishing in the creative Powers of the amazing graphic artists inside, indulge in the creative stories, and explore what makes some of our favourite artists feel full of energy and, well,

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Lars Brandle, Alita Brydon, Geordie Gray, Adam Guetti, John Ferguson, Tyler Jenke, Brandon John, Poppy Reid Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this NEW address Level 2, 9-13 Bibby St, Chiswick NSW 2046 ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Carrie Huang accountsseventhstreet.vc (02) 9713 92692, 9-13 Bibby St, Chiswick NSW 2046 DEADLINES: Editorial: Thursday 5pm (no extensions) Ad bookings: Last Wednesday of the month 12pm (no extensions) Finished art: Last Thursday of the month 5pm (no extensions) Ad cancellations: Last Wednesday of the month 12pm Deadlines are strictly adhered to.

Published by Seventh Street Media Pty Ltd All content copyrighted to Seventh Street Media 2017 DISTRIBUTION: Wanna get the BRAG? Email jessica.milinovic@thebrag.media

most of all, Power.

Shoutout to my Power, you guys are more Powerful than you know - Julian, Nicholas, Mum, Dad, Tom, Listy, Silvio, Joshua. All the artists whose work is featured in this mag (check them out, seriously), and all the people who gave me a chance - Jenna Price, Vicki Gordon and Poppy Reid.

PRINTED BY SPOTPRESS: spotpress.com.au 24 – 26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204 EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, editors or staff of the BRAG.

With editor’s love, Michael Di Iorio.

follow us:

@TheBrag

regulars 56-58 59 62-63 64-65

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Game On Parent Talk Snaps Gig picks

12-14

Abbey Road Live

40-41

The Amity Affliction

16-18

Christine and the Queens

42

20-21

Nilüfer Yanya

The Most Powerful Albums of The Year So Far

22-23

MØ

43

24-27

Big Thief

An Open Letter from a Woman in the Music Industry

28-29

The Japanese House

44-45

30-31

Laura Jane Grace

Incredible Quotes from Incredible Women In the Music Industry

32-33

Jägermeister presents Dark Mofo

46-47

Streaming: Spotify VS Apple Music VS Amazon Music

37-39

Alexisonfire

48-50

I Quit Watching Porn - Here’s What Happened To My Brain

51

Mental Health

52-53

Australia’s LGBT Wrestlers

54-55

5 Moments that Shaped Power Suit History

60

Short Story: Claws On, Baby

‘POWER’, an illustration by this issue’s cover artist, Rosemary Vasquez Brown.

This artwork was inspired by her interpretation of the word Power.

like us:

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POWEER ISSUE

Power: Living up to the legacy of Abbey Road

Following the Abbey Road

Bianca Davino debates with Australian supergroup ARC on the powers of Abbey Road, and whether it is truly the best Beatles album of all time

T

he year 1969 is romanticised for its triumphant authenticity, free love, and dizzying colours.

David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ elucidated every Cold War obsession with the wider galaxy with perfectly absurdist poetry of curiosity and fear. Woodstock defined a generation with its fearsome, gentle roars of peace amidst history’s most grim atrocities.

Bob Dylan emerges after three years of absence from the limelight. The Who unveil Tommy. Digging up milestones from the year is an endless task.

In 1969, music was transformed – as society evolved, musicians became ingrained with the psyches of the people fighting against a world on the brink of utter madness.

Bookending The Beatles’ decade of popconquering, Abbey Road similarly reflected the impending feeling of uncertainty that permeated society and wholly encompassed the lightningin-a-bottle genius in creativity that defined their career.

Its imprint on modern music is felt in every psychedelic rabbit hole spread across the album, every meandering guitar lick that sings in the sweetest of melodies, each string hauntingly beautiful in its accompaniment.

One of Australia’s most beloved supergroups, ARC, comprising Kram (Spiderbait), Mark Wilson (Jet), Davey Lane (You Am I) and Darren Middleton (Powderfinger) are hitting the stage to celebrate the album’s long standing legacy this August.

Just one listen of the record beckons the age old question – is it The Beatles’ best album?

Whilst everyone has their personal favourite, music fans and critics have pondered the almost impossible question for years now.

Not many artforms accrue such an incredible reputation like this.

As a self-confessed Beatles fanatic, Kram of Aus-rock icons Spiderbait’s connection with the world-changing record traces back to high school – and the rest is history.

“So when I was in high school, a teacher gave me a couple of tapes – one was Abbey Road and I was pretty much hooked from that moment. The Beatles made me want to sing and write songs and write really varied music you know”, said Kram, reminiscing on his introduction to the Fab Four.

ARC photos by Jay Wennington

▲

This year marks 50 years of the album. Half a century has passed and the world is still fixated

on the bittersweet nostalgia induced every time the opening arpeggio of ‘Here Comes The Sun’ begins to hum. We’re still engulfed in goosebumps over the jaunty, percussive ‘Come Together’ intro. The B-Side medley remains an instant tear-jerking emotional rollercoaster.

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COVER STORY

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COVER STORY

“one of the things about the

record is that it’s a

retrospective work and also futuristic piece, ▲

all in the one album” “I know we’re doing this record as the 50th-anniversary celebration but I still listen to this record all the time. It’s weird.

Not many artforms accrue such an incredible reputation like this. That’s one of the things I love about it, you can listen to the same thing over and over.”

Initially met with mixed reviews, Abbey Road was a blissful ending for the band who experienced a multitude of tensions in their later years – it’s a pastiche that marks the past, present and future of rock and music.

play in the show. I just really enjoy the record and just playing the music right down to every little tiny thing that goes on through your fingers or through your voice in the experience, throwing them to the magic that it is.”

“I guess one of the things about the record is that it’s a retrospective work and also futuristic piece, all in the one album. Listening to side one is like looking back on the band – ‘Oh Darling’ could’ve been on one of the first records, whereas ‘Come Together’ would’ve worked on The White Album. It’s almost looking at a microcosm of the band’s career and all the different shades they had.

Revisiting such an iconic record is obviously a lesson in musical excellence, with Kram admitting to taking on new perspectives on the record even after 30 years of listening.

“Then you get to side two and they do something that no one had ever done before. It’s almost a compositional work bordering on musical theatre and it has had such an emotional effect.” It just shows what incredible maturity they had especially after all that the band had gone through.

“It’s a bit like what can happen with the breakdown, you know the initial pain of the relationship driving you crazy, sometimes when you make a decision to break up you can actually fall in love with each other again and be friends, and that’s kind of what I feel like this record makes me feel.

Re-creating the magic of The Beatles is no easy task, but for ARC it’s all about giving the music the respect it deserves by pouring every inch of their heart and soul into the performance.

“I guess it’s a supergroup, but it’s also very much a great band and it’s been together, it works so well and there are no egos,” said Kram reflecting on the dynamic of the group as they prepare to perform the album in its entirety.

“We’re all really great friends. Musically it’s quite interesting, it’s different than any of our other bands and it just seems quite effortless you know, so when we play the songs we’re just going to try and play them as true to the record as we possibly can.

Clockwise above: A.R.C. are Kram (Spiderbait), Darren Middleton (Powderfinger), Mark Wilson (Jet) and Davey Lane (You Am I)

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“I keep saying that I just wish I could watch the show as well as wanting to

“What I’ve gained from the record recently and also initially is the mentality of a songwriter should be variation. You can write songs in all different styles, with different instrumentation, different lyrics, different concepts, different voices and it can all fit together.

“There still is stuff in it I’d never heard before. I’m hearing cramps and weird noises, and I’ve been listening to this record for years now, I’m like, “what the fuck is that I didn’t know that was in there?”.

Kram, like the rest of The Beatles’ adoring population, is still held up on the idea of choosing a 'best' record.

“I think it’ll be hard to say which is best because if you look at Sgt. Peppers, Revolver, The White Album and Abbey Road they’re kind of all treated equally.

But if we’re looking at side two of Abbey Road… I think that’s the part that defines it. I guess it’s a bit like the ‘Stairway To Heaven’ of albums where it’s such an amazing achievement. It was so revered.”

“But I mean is Abbey Road better than Sgt. Peppers? I don’t know it’s almost like comparing Brazilian soccer teams of history.

“You know there’s just so many amazing things, the fact is they’ve got I think four of the top ten albums ever made or top eight albums ever made and they are all pretty equal. Abbey Road is as good as any of them if not the best.” ■ Where: Enmore Theatre When: Tuesday August 20th

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Power: Blurring the lines of the gender spectrum. Being vulnerable in the face of scrutiny and an over analysing crowd.

POWEER ISSUE

Poppy Reid talks to Christine and the Queens about the power of becoming oneself, and the difficulties this entails in a world that pokes and prongs with speculation and sexualisation

Willing and Vulnerable

“W

hat if the obvious is suddenly so insane?”

This lyric from Christine and the Queens’ ‘Feel So Good’ is what it’s like to meet the French force that is Héloïse Letissier. Sitting at a cafe in Redfern, Sydney, she is beautifully open.

intertwinement of male and female. She used silhouettes and masculine choreography in her videos and shows; she wore buttonedup suits. “[It was] to cancel the information of femininity, which was a way to try and deal with the male gaze; but it was a failure,” she admits.

It’s a hot autumn day (“climate change?” she suggests), in the midst of a full day of press after wrapping up the Australian leg of her global tour; and yet… here she sits, willing to talk you through her art with the kind of welcoming disposition which, given her experiences, she could easily choose to not embody.

“I was naïve, I was like, ‘If I do that, I’m going to escape the male gaze because I’m refusing my body, right?’ Then the comments on ‘Saint Claude’, the first video, are like, ‘Is she fuckable or not?’.

Chris is the kind of person who gets bullied in high school and launches an anti-bullying campaign. She’s the kind of person who gets kicked out of theatre school, has her heart broken, and invents a persona so she can make the art she always dreamed of. (In fact, she has already done both of these things).

The second LP, Chris, is much more assured. Her music dismantles this expectation with subversive messaging across all that she does. Through music videos like ‘Tilted’ and ‘5 Dollars’, she chooses her physicality carefully to subvert the ideas of how she should be perceived as a woman.

Chris has a Diamond-certified debut album in Chaleur Humaine under her belt and two NME Awards, while her single ‘Girlfriend’ took out Song of the Year in Time Magazine. She’s performed live on Later with Jools Holland, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and The Graham Norton Show, and has effortlessly stolen the show at festival juggernauts Glastonbury and Coachella.

“I’m just a woman with short hair, what’s wrong with you?”

Chris has been berated by media both in her native France and internationally (one journalist asked if she thinks people want to know about her sex life).

Her appearance has been picked apart; discussed as you would an art exhibit on a conveyer belt – entirely objective and exploitative.

She was physically edited by Elle magazine, whose 2015 cover image left her hardly recognisable. And yet, she has the ability to suggest an entire psychology or societal reflection in one song.

“The core of it sometimes is, ‘How can I try to relate and how can I exist the way I want to. And desire the way I want to. And is it going to be possible?’ Sometimes it is,” she smiles. “In fleeting moments, and with some people.

“I remember writing about Christine and becoming Christine because I wanted to end this state of shame and of disappearance of myself. It’s always infusing the work because it’s still going.”

“I think I’m exploring things further on the second record; about my desire and my lust, my will to exist as [I am]. And I’m still facing resistance to that. So, there are still things that need to be pushed further.”

Before the media-defined ‘career moment’ when Chris cut her hair in 2017, she struggled to portray the character of Christine – this

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“So, I was like, ‘Oh you can’t escape that shit’.”

In ‘5 Dollars’, the video sees her expose her skin without an inch of ‘come hither’ sexuality, instead, her muscles are flexed.

She’s in charge, she’s flipping the gender stereotype, and she leaves the viewer questioning gender roles, and more importantly, what it is to own your sexuality.

“I don’t think the race is over, baby,” she sings.

“With embracing all the desires comes vulnerability and I think being vulnerable is still something people are afraid of. You know, understandably,” she says, her voice euphonious.

“But in my experiences with love and different partners, I always notice that it’s immensely erotic to just allow yourself to explore. It creates a really strong bond and you kind of,” she pauses, “let go of stereotypes that can cluster.”

There’s a moment in Chris’ live show where she’s alone facing away from the audience. She’s removed her blouse at this point and a single spotlight picks up all the dips and definition of her muscles as she rolls her body and accentuates each groove. This wasn’t always going to form part of the show, but a broken heart brought it to life one day.

“Someone broke my heart actually just before a rehearsal,” she offers. “I hung up and I was like, ‘Oh my god’. I couldn’t believe it was happening.

“I went to the stage and I wanted to find a way to express sadness, and it was just a pure emulation of sadness. It didn’t matter if I was a boy or a girl and it’s always like that for me when I’m on stage. Whether I’m Chris or Christine it doesn’t really matter. I have a female body and I’m glad to be in it but it’s not really shaping anything else.”

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Christine And The Queens photo by Jamie Morgan

FEATURE

“I’m not designed to serve your pleasure all the time.”

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POWEER ISSUE

“Being vulnerable is still something people are afraid of” Chris is consistently reminded of the constraints of her gender. She had to edit a video clip which showed her nipple in a two-second frame. On Instagram men leave comments like: ‘Smile’, ‘Why don’t you smile?’, and ‘You look angry’.

“I’m like, ‘I’m not designed to serve your pleasure all the time’. It’s that small detail that is amplified, and it’s constant in a woman’s life.”

Globally, feminism’s level of cultural relevance has hit a new peak. Since the early discourse of classifying women as actual human beings in the late 1800s, to third wave feminism in the 90s (which saw the emergence of riot grrrl groups in music), to now, where feminism means different things to different people – and Time’s Up for some of the world’s most powerful men. These days, there is a state of confusion surrounding what feminism truly is.

Post-#MeToo, women fill more boardrooms and public offices. The discourse is undeniably rampant; but it’s confusing for society as a whole. Women are asked what feminism is to them, while the same women are asking themselves how much of their own identity was created by men. At the same time, men are asking how much of their own identity was created by men who might now be seen as their detractors.

For Chris, she’s in a constant flux of outward speculation. She now prefers to be called Chris over Christine; it’s just a nickname to her but to others it’s associated with masculinity. When she cut her hair, it was her playful way of curating her own existence, for others, it marked something bigger.

“People were like, ‘Are you transitioning?’,” she’s surprisingly twinkle-eyed here, ready to laugh it off. “It was so extreme. I was like, ‘I’m just a woman with short hair, what’s wrong with you?’”

Chris is an enigma. The industry is unable to define and brand her. But it could be said that her self-imposed nuances have become so much a focus that it has steered away from the music, the intense work that weaves through every single note.

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“In France I spent hours talking about the haircut. People also made it psychological, like ‘She’s shedding away her femininity’. Oh my fucking god I actually feel more feminine now.”

But then again, the conversations around gender fluidity, femininity, feminism and ownership of sexuality and power, are precisely the conversations she hopes to evoke with her music.

Unfortunately, jabs in comment sections and in the media are what happens when an artist outgrows their own niche. No longer are they protected by the warm womb of their community. They are out in the open, under a microscope and subject to the kinds of criticism usually reserved for politicians.

No longer can her songs like ‘iT’ – where she essentially sings the lyrics “I’m a man now” for four minutes – be instantly understood by her peers. Instead she is subjected to ingrained patriarchal ways of thinking but on a much larger scale than any other person without her public profile.

Somehow, Chris is anaesthetised against much of this criticism. She is, of course, working on new music. She’s been writing since January, is even collaborating with Charli XCX, and she’s rethinking the LP as a whole.

“I’m thinking of releasing songs out of an album format; maybe a bit scattered, just as a small addendum to Chris.”

It’s fascinating really, against the narrow minds of those who need to box her in to understand her – and against her own anxiety which lead her to the stage as Christine and the Queens in the first place – Chris lovingly offers the space for us to question our own ethos.

Because what if the obvious, whether it be gender definition, power, or even success, is suddenly so insane?

“It feels like defining is another way to cancel the beauty of it,” she smiles again, pointedly. ■ What: Chris is out now

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POWEER ISSUE

Power: Perseverance under pressure, balancing being Heavyweight Champion of the year and Miss Universe all at once.

Universal Appeal Tyler Jenke talks with Nilüfer Yanya on powering through the pressures of hype with the grace and grit that comes with being a self-proclaimed Miss Universe

F

or a few years now, English musician Nilüfer Yanya has been one of the most exciting artists on the scene.

Writing songs from the age of six and playing guitar from the age of 12, it was Nilüfer Yanya’s uncle Joe, himself a producer and musician, that inspired her to follow her dreams.

Arranging her own compositions thanks to her high school music teacher, and eventually deciding to hit the stage as a teenager, it wasn’t until a few years ago that she felt comfortable sharing her music with the world.

Uploading a number of her original compositions to SoundCloud, these tunes soon caught the attention of esteemed London indie label Blue Flowers. Three EPs later, and Nilüfer Yanya became a name that was hard to ignore.

This year, after much anticipation, Nilüfer Yanya has released her debut album, Miss Universe.

To celebrate the release of this album, we sat down with Nilüfer to chat about the new record, growing as a musician, and the problems faced by citizens of the modern world.

Were there any specific musicians and artists that influenced you growing up?

I didn’t really have any idols, no, it was more just like various sounds. But I did have some really good people in my life like my uncle, who’s a producer, and I always just thought he was really cool with whatever he did with music.

who seems quite humble, were you surprised at all by the positive response to your work?

Was I surprised? Yeah, because you never know if it’s just… I mean, I felt like what I had written was worth people hearing, but you never know if you’re just – I had the confidence in it, but you never know if it’s all in your own head and that no one really cares.

So it’s like, so nice to see people responding to it. I couldn’t be more grateful for that, to be honest.

It does humble you as well because you notice that; ‘yeah, people like my music, but they might not like everything I do.’ You know, it doesn’t mean it’s the best music, but it just means that people like it, and that’s kind of all you need.

Over the last few months, it seems as though there has been almost constant praise coming your way from various publications.

Do you feel pressured by all the hype? Or are you just grateful for all the support?

I feel grateful for the support, but yeah, I think you do feel a bit of pressure because you do want to live up to what people are saying, in a way. But luckily on things like the album, I’d already kind of made it so people are just going to say what they’re going to say, and whether it’s true or not, I don’t know.

“you do feel a bit of pressure because you do want to live up to what people are saying”

I had a guitar teacher at school [The Invisible’s Dave Okumu] who was really cool, and I got to learn a lot. But kind of just like various people that were kind of dotted around, but I didn’t have like a pop idol or something like that.

But it’s harder, that stuff, when you’re writing it and in the writing process. Like, I found it quite hard to write the album because I knew that people were kind of expecting something so I wanted to be good.

It wasn’t like I was just writing away and no one was going to hear it, it’s like someone was going to hear it, and their opinion would mean if more people would hear it or not.

You’re not just kind of fantasising about things and thinking about them… You’re admiring someone for not only their talent, but the work that they’re putting into it, like their perseverance and the story behind it.

It was about five years ago you first started putting your music out there, as someone

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You mentioned that the attention has changed the writing process for you, do you feel the attention has changed your general approach to music as well?

Because more people will listen to my music, when I came around to do the album, I’m not just writing anymore.

I’m doing shows, I’m performing, I’m doing press, I’m like, busy, basically, and the time to write gets smaller and smaller and smaller because you’re away so much on the road and putting your music out there because people want to hear it, which is really nice.

Nilüfer Yanya photo by Molly Daniels

So yeah, I do feel a bit of pressure, definitely.

Having people like that in your life, was that the sort of thing that helped you decide to pursue a career in music?

I think I had already decided by that point, but it’s very reassuring to see people that have already done it.

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FEATURE

But, it does make it harder to write because everything is distracting.

So I ended up writing a lot in the studio and kind of creating songs there, and sharing my writings there while working with co-writers, producers.

And I guess the input from them has probably grown a bit more.

So in a direct way, yeah, because I’ve been collaborating more and my music, it sounds a bit different.

Your new album is such an interesting mix of genres and sounds. Was there a set vision or sound you were trying to capture with it?

No, there wasn’t. I knew the kind of sounds that I was already capable of producing and the kind of music I write, so I knew – from reference of what I’d done before – what I was capable of doing, and I wanted to push that, and push it in new directions.

Which is a good thing about working with so many different people, because everybody kind of has their own style of working, so I was able to do that quite well.

I kind of just wanted to be more expressive with my music. Also with so many people involved, I didn’t want people thinking, ‘Oh, you can only make this type of music.’ I didn’t want people to perceive it that way.

Working with different producers in the recording process, did that make it hard for everyone to share the same vision of the end product?

To be honest, most of the people working on it didn’t hear the other songs on the record, so I didn’t really give them a chance to… [laughs].

I was kind of just like, ‘yeah, this song’s probably going to be on my album’, or if we worked on a few songs together, yeah. It’s weird, because like the song dictates the music in a way…

Was there a specific place that these new tracks came from? I’ve noticed there appears to be a theme of anxiety running throughout the record, but was that something that evident in the writing process?

Yeah, I think I was thinking about those things. A lot of those things I hadn’t really felt before, like anxiety and paranoia, they were kind of… I don’t want to say ‘new’, but I’d never really been aware of them, I guess.

It was like I’d been made aware of all these emotions and feelings and also how much they impact you on a daily basis, living in a city like London.

But also like, travelling a lot and doing things that I do, you kind of go inwards a bit on your thoughts and yourself, and you can kind of be your own worst enemy in that sense. So yeah, I was kind of exploring those themes and trying to think about them in a healthy way, I guess.

“I found it quite hard to write the album because I knew that people were kind of expecting something so I wanted to be good”

Were all of the songs written especially for the new album, or were there any you’ve had tucked away for a while?

There were two, so the rest was all written basically for the album. ‘Monsters Under The Bed’ was really old, I had that since I was 15. I didn’t honestly think I was ever going to record it again, so it was a surprise, really, that it was on the album.

And ‘Baby Blu’, I started maybe like, three years ago? About 2017? Like, a while ago, and it was one of the first co-writes I did with someone.

It was more of an experiment, so again, I didn’t think I’d ever release it, to be honest. I just thought I was going to keep it as a file on my computer.

Did you end up revisiting ‘Monsters Under The Bed’ a lot, or is it more in sort of the same vein as it was when you first wrote it?

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It’s a bit different in terms of production, but it’s more or less the same, to be honest. This version is probably more stripped-back than the other version I did, it’s a bit more chilled.

More of a, ‘these are like normal things that everyone feels and thinks about.’ And we should be more aware of them I think, especially nowadays, so much of it has to do with the way we think about things.

Throughout the album there are some intriguing spoken word interludes, how did this idea come into play?

I wanted it to be like you’re on the phone, on hold.

You’ve been placed on hold and instead of getting through to anyone, they just keep playing annoying songs [laughs]. I placed them the way they are so it can sort of guide you through the themes of the album as well.

So if you want, someone can listen to it from top to bottom and hopefully it would make more sense with the interludes than without.

That’s what I did, because I felt like the songs were all quite different and I just wanted a way to bring it together and give them another context.

But yeah, it’s like a fictional health company, and you get through to them and they’re not very helpful. I just wanted to frame it really and give it kind of a story.

You’re obviously in high demand at the moment, with this trend obviously looking to continue, but have you got plans to bring your live show to Australia in the future?

Yeah, hopefully, I haven’t got any dates or anything in the calendar, but yeah, I’ve spoken to quite a few Australians this week, so hopefully it leads to something. That would be really cool. ■ What: Miss Universe is out now

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POWEER ISSUE

Power: Refusing to conform. Refusing to grow up. Working in the fight to save pop by 2020.

Never Say Neverland N

ot many 30 year olds can say they’ve toured internationally multiple times. That they’ve released songs with the likes of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, or Charli XCX. But, for this 30-year-old Danish pop wunderkind, this is the case. And she’s as humbled and poised as can be.

Meet Karen Marie Aagaard Ørsted Andersen, more commonly known by her stage name, MØ. An ex-punk singer, and a self-confessed ‘easily distracted’ individual who is killing it in every way possible.

Nathan Gunn chats with MØ on her latest album, Forever Neverland, and why it took so long to finally see the light of day

actually the core of this album?’ So, it took me a while to figure out what it was gonna be.”

It’s common practice for artists to write and record tracks that never make it to an album. For Andersen, this was no different, with the pop polymath managing to cull a ‘tonne’ of songs. “I wrote a tonne – so I got rid of a bunch [to make way for other tracks].”

Andersen is currently in the midst of a mammoth Groovin the Moo tour, whilst also leading an Australia wide tour with American rapper DUCKWRTH. Last October she also released her second album, Forever Neverland, which soared to the peak of the Danish charts.

For years now, Andersen has been touring relentlessly across the globe, hitting up festivals here, there, and everywhere. This year’s Groovin the Moo was the sixth time she’s been to Australia, which she then followed with a busy tour from here to New Zealand and then Asia.

On that album, she says: “One of the reasons it took so long, was because my debut album (No Mythologies to Follow), and the big hit with Major Lazer, (‘Lean On’), left me very confused. It had me thinking, ‘What sound is my next album gonna be?,’ and it took me a very long time to figure that out.”

One place she loves returning to is our very own Australia. “Right now, I’m just really enjoying travelling. I love Australia, because it always feels like such an adventure, because it’s so far away. Weirdly enough, I always feel so at home when I’m there.”

Andersen notes that the process behind the creation of her second album was totally different to that of her first.

Though, she knows there are times when touring isn’t all that fun. “If you’re on the road for a long time and it’s one of those tours where you don’t get enough sleep, it can be rough.”

“My first album was just me and my producer (Ronni Vindahl). With this album, I was working with all these different producers and artists and top-liners. So, it was just kinda like, an ocean of opportunities. And me being a kind of distracted person, I often go like ‘Let’s go this way, no let’s go this way,’ and all of a sudden, it leaves me wondering, ‘What’s

previously. “I think for a while, especially doing this album, I was very focussed on ‘I should be doing that and I should keep up with that,’ but it’s really important to focus not on what you should be doing, or what others are doing, but just feeling yourself and your creative energy.”

She adds, “I find myself actually writing much better songs and being much more creative, when I’m not so focused on what everybody else is doing. That’s gonna be my mantra for this year.”

“When I’m performing on stage, that’s where I feel the most freedom, but sometimes, away from the guise of MØ, things can change. If I’m having a bad day, or I’m just tired, and people wanna talk to me or something, it reminds me that some people maybe adore MØ, when I’m just a human having a bad day.

“But it always makes me happy and reminds me about what an awesome life I have. Of course it can be weird, that whole difference, like ‘wow’, when we’re all the same. In terms of pressure, instead of focusing on trouble and ‘I’m different’ and ‘this is weird’, I just focus on whatever I wanna do.

She continues, “You’ll start missing people at home, which makes life harder. But, most of the time it’s a lot of joy.”

“I hope I’ll be releasing new music at the end of this year. I’m so humbled and happy that I get to do all these things that I love doing.” ■

As for trying to release music regularly, without burning out, she’s struggled

What: Forever Neverland is out now

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“Instead of focusing on trouble…

I just focus on whatever I wanna do”

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POWEER ISSUE

Power: Absence of Fear. Unidentified Flying Object Friends in high places. A celestial and fluid bond between friends.

“Well,

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to be honest, a lot of these songs are about aliens”

Making Contact Michael Di Iorio coaxes celestial secrets from Buck Meek of Big Thief, as their new album U.F.O.F. (Unidentifi ed Flying Object Friend) lands in new space for the band

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ince their debut album in 2016, Big Thief have known no such thing as rest. After Masterpiece came Capacity the year after, all the while the band was travelling from city to city, touring their music across the U.S. Being in such close quarters with other people for that long leads to one of two things: you either hate each other’s guts afterwards, or you connect with each other on such an intimate level that you release one of your most fluid and immersive albums to date. Fortunately for Big Thief it was the latter.

The band’s latest record dropped only this May, and has already received critical acclaim across the board. Although the premise of the album may seem extraterrestrial in nature, the themes are definitely not alien. If anything, each song plays to the human experience in sharper ways than before.

I spoke with Buck Meek, guitarist and back-up vocalist for the band, on how U.F.O.F. came to be, and the unknown territory that was traversed to get to this point.

What was the inspiration behind naming the album U.F.O.F.?

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BM: The biggest evolution has been with our communication with each other as friends really. We’ve been travelling together for so long now, we’ve reconciled with so much of the discrepancies that come up with travelling with any group of people. Any idiosyncrasy that would come up has been fully embraced and just really communicated. We’ve got to the point of really trusting each other and I think that translates into the music.

The music is really just a result of our friendship, and it feels more fluid now and safer than ever.

I think that Big Thief has taught me a lot about being in a band. It’s really the first big band that i’ve ever been in, touring this much, and it’s taught me this doctrine of honesty and vulnerability, really just being open and honest about every little vulnerability with each other as friends and as travel companions, and I’ve seen how that intention has translated into the music in ways that i couldn’t have even imagined. Our music is much deeper.

When writing songs for a new album where do you draw your inspiration?

BM: There’s so many ways to go about the creative process, and I’ve played all kinds of games with myself to write, but the one that really stands the test of time is just trying to express what’s stuck inside your chest that is yet to come to form in words.

And in doing so, healing yourself in the process right?

BM: Yes, exactly. Healing or reflecting or trying to memorialise a feeling even.

Even if you have a really positive emotion, memorialising it through music can be a way to really keep that feeling and really revisit it and be able to share

U.F.O.F. photo by xxx

have created”

BM: Well, to be honest, a lot of these songs are about aliens. I showed (lead singer) Adrianne the movie Contact a couple years ago and it totally blew her mind, so she just instantly started writing all these songs about aliens. There was a lyrical foundation that seemed really celestial, and so we just decided to go all the way with it. We’ve recognised in the past that Big Thief has had this kind of polarity between something really earthy and guttural and visceral, and then this kind of more celestial space, so with this record we kind of wanted to just focus and surrender to that celestial side of things and really embrace it and explore it sonically with all the guitars and layers of abstract sound beneath the songs.

I really think you can hear that kind of ‘celestial’ sound in songs like ‘U.F.O.F.’ and ‘Jenni’. How do you feel the band has evolved since your last album Capacity (2017) and its sound?

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POWEER ISSUE

“Power can be fragile, but as long as it’s deep, honest,

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Broods photo by Dana Trippe

“There was a lyrical foundation that seemed really celestial, and so we just decided to go all the way with it”

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FEATURE

and truly vulnerable, then that’s the real strength”

it with others too. And of course if there’s a feeling that’s painful - I haven’t found anything that’s more healing than memorialising that pain through music, and coming to understand it through music. To me that’s the most healing process.

BM: Yeah, and they can integrate the messages to their own stories. That’s another big incentive for me, because I feel that I benefit from the music of others in my own healing processes and reflections of the human experience. I recognise that a lot of the songs that I write are in some cases very abstract, and maybe they have these threads of narrative or threads of definition, but often there’s a certain ambiguity at least in the balance there that allows me to project my own experience onto it and wrap it in my own story. It’s an incentive for me to create knowing that someone might benefit in some way from something I have created.

What would be your favourite song from your new album and why?

Big Thief photos by (previous page) Michael-Buishas and (this page) Dustin Condren

“Big Thief has been the currency with which we’re coming to understand our own individual creative identities”

And in memorialising pain, you allow people to listen to these songs and heal themselves and connect with the message just by listening.

BM: After recording, I think ‘Terminal Paradise’ is my favourite track on this record. I just feel like it’s the most lucid and the most direct and rich sonic experience we’ve ever provided. I think it really honours the organic nature of our band and also this more ethereal space.

That has to be one of my favourites as well. What excites you the most about this new era of Big Thief music?

BM: I think what excites me the most is just seeing everyone in the band really come into their own identity. We’re at this threshold of really blossoming into our own creative personalities individually, I’ve seen (bassist) Max just evolve so much as a musician and a bass player, and (drummer) James and Adrienne and myself as well. It’s been a really long story of unearthing our own instincts through this music, and the music of Big Thief has been the currency with which we’re coming to understand our own individual creative identities.

Our identities have even been shaped by the music of Big Thief if that makes sense. Nonetheless I feel like we’re all

coming into this real confident with our creative identities, and to see the alchemy of that, I feel like we’re at the beginning of this sense of freedom. Whereas before, it felt like shedding layers. I’m sure we will be eternally shedding layers and discovering new things, but nonetheless I do feel this lucid sense of confidence that I’m really excited to experience and to explore together on the road.

It feels like we have this mutual connection and sense of trust and fluidity but also this strength together that can really only come from playing music for thousands of hours together, and it’s a really beautiful place to start a new song from, or a new take. Every time we put ourselves in a room to make music together it’s really like our first chance again, it’s like being a baby again, but it feels like we always have this history to draw from after years of playing music together and that’s exciting.

It’s really cool that you guys are still able to learn things from each other after all this time, which is what ultimately makes the music better due to the connection you have with everyone.

BM: I’m really grateful that everyone in Big Thief is really committed to change.

To shedding old skin and never resting on our laurels, creative laurels or any laurels of comfort or systems that are reliable. I think we’re all really committed to just developing a sense of instinct and creating something new but with confidence. I’m really grateful for that.

And what is your definition of power?

BM: I think my definition of power in any sense, physical or otherwise, is just the complete absence of fear. I think that, for instance, a true leader who is truly powerful with grace and with good, is one who is fearless. In the musical sense, I think that if you can create from the place of fearlessness and complete nudity, then the reality is, if you can accept the vulnerability of being naked and fearless, to me that is the greatest power. I think it’s the most relatable and cathartic experience for everybody, becoming in touch with oneself. Power can be fragile, but as long as it’s deep, honest, and truly vulnerable, then that’s the real strength. ■

What: U.F.O.F. is out now

“I feel like we’re at the beginning of this sense of freedom”

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POWEER ISSUE

Power: Raw emotion and unabashed openness. Pushing Alt-Pop into the future. Being Good at Falling but better at getting back up.

“Imagery is so importa

A Sense of Direction Bianca Davino falls into the world of The Japanese House, and uncovers the raw emotions that fed her debut album, Good at Falling

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odern pop music is unabashedly intimate. Underneath rattling trap high-hats and haze-drenched production stylings are tales of love, loss, and growth that transport us to moments in time we’ve since passed off, illuminating new meaning.

“I think that’s kind of romantic, that duality of connecting with people. You write because you don’t want to feel alone, and we listen because it makes us feel like we’re not so alone. I’m writing these songs because I don’t really know what’s going on with my life and sometimes don’t understand anything, I feel lost quite a lot of the time.”

On Good at Falling, The Japanese House showcases her penchant for her highly sophisticated songcraft and ability to cut deep into the crux of longing.

Amber Bain is the mastermind behind The Japanese House’s ultra-moody, blissfully youthful dream-pop. Initially catching the ears of The 1975’s Matty Healy in 2015, to which he described her

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sound as being “some weird post-apocalyptic Alison Moyet”. Good at Falling is her highlyanticipated debut.

After crafting her unique sound and honest artistry through a string of EPs, the album is a mission statement that cements The Japanese House’s status as a modern pop luminary that beckons narrativehungry listeners to delve deeply into her personal life, uncovering new emotion within their own.

According to Bain, the album chronicles five years of songwriting – a growth showcased in the wisdom the album exudes both musically and lyrically.

“One of the songs was written when I was 17, so that was six years ago, but they’re all treated and produced now so, that’s why that I hope they sound cohesive. It’s hard for me to actually define the songwriting process, I kind of just do it differently every time.

“Maybe I’m in my room, come up with like a soundscape or something or come up with a guitar part, or sometimes I have lyric ideas. It’s all very random, I wish I knew how to write songs, I could probably do it more.”

Much like her alt-pop contemporaries, like Billie Eilish, Pale Waves and Sky Ferreira, Bain takes retro-soundscapes, wrapping them in hazy-eyed teenage fantasies that sing with the triumph of popping bass grooves and huge choruses – it’s

the ultimate soundtrack for the internet generation, thirsty for connection.

For those who came of age on Tumblr, aesthetic appeal is imperative for their favourite artists.

“I’ve got such a short attention span, I’m sort of all over the place all the time so I can’t actually fi nish anything unless I force myself. I listen to my music all the time because I have so much of it and I’m always listening like, ‘oh can I make something amazing out of this, can I do something with this?’ I kind of just have to catch the inspiration for a song when I hear it and then I’ll fi nish it.”

The Japanese House’s visuals encompass the overarching brooding, sentimental and bittersweet vibe the music presents. With millennial pink overtones and grainy, shadow-heavy film captured photos, Bain’s aesthetic puts the Coppola family’s directorial efforts to shame.

Bain has been open about her past relationships, with fans showcasing their appreciation for having an insight into who she is. Bain’s ex-girlfriend, the subject of the song ‘Marika Is Sleeping’ appears in the music video for the track ‘Lilo’.

“I’m not really holding back in any way and then as a result of that I was like, well, seeing as I’ve been so honest with this stuff I might as well continue that way of doing things. That’s why Marika’s in the music video because, what would be the point of getting some other girl who I don’t know to be in it?

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ant because it implicates the way that you hear things”

“It’s really important to me, if it wasn’t I wouldn’t be so obsessive with it. I think with all of the EPs I did all the photos for them. Imagery is so important because it implicates the way that you hear things, it’s just another way of projecting yourself and your image and that’s obviously something that I care about.

“The album cover, there’s a slight change in it because I’m on it. It makes sense because I am very much ‘in the album’ maybe more so than the EPs, because I’m speaking about myself so openly.

“I might as well truly represent my relationship. I think as a result people connect to that. It’s not really an intentional thing, I guess it’s a reflection of who I am now as a person.”

“An album cover is such a big part of how you perceive an album. Whether you like it or not, you’ll look down to your phone screen or vinyl sleeve or whatever you’re listening to it on, and there’ll be colours or scenery, and it’ll influence the way you hear the song.” ■

Much like her mentors in The 1975, The Japanese House’ artistic output places a heavy focus on visuals.

What: Good at Falling is out now

listen because it makes us feel like we’re not so alone” thebrag.com

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Power: Standing against rampant chaos in the world. Being a pioneer of Punk. Not giving a single solitary fuck.

POWEER ISSUE

Power: Standing against rampant chaos in the world. Being a pioneer of punk. Not giving a single solitary fuck.

How to Devour Corruption Bianca Davino and Laura Jane Grace discuss humour as self-defence, being chased by dogs, watching people at airports, and how they all tie in to Laura’s latest album Bought to Rot Laura Jane Grace has prevailed as one of modern day punk’s most important voices. With Against Me! as her weapon of power-chord induced destruction, she’s sparked horror in the eyes of scene-lifers by selling out, played alongside the world’s most enduring rock stars and, most importantly, she has continually penned tales of resistance, change and self-reflection along the way.

hungry to revisit simplicity and life’s most pure moments.

In recent years, the world has seen more of the perpetual rebel than ever before. Her blistering tell-all memoir Tranny saw huge acclaim, fresh off the success of Against Me!’s smash hit sixth record Transgender Dysphoria Blues.

It’s fair to say the world was undeniably captivated by her journey, swept away in her charisma, talent and fighters spirit.

Ahead of their Australian tour, we chatted with the iconic punk frontwoman, indulging in the path that led to her new side-project.

For Grace, it was time to take a step back from the noise. After studying Tom Petty, adjusting to living in Chicago and touring the world (again), Grace was

Thus, Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers was born - a vehicle for honest, Americana-drenched songwriting that cuts to the core of the human condition.

Against Me! are such an iconic punk act, and you’ve amassed such a huge acclaim over the last 20 years or so. How did you initially shake any expectation people may have had of the Devouring Mothers when going into writing the debut record?

LJG: It has all just been kind of happenstance, with kind of one part falling

“THERE’S FUCKING TWO SONGS ON THE ALBUM WITH HOTEL IN IT, SO IT’S OBVIOUSLY ABOUT TRAVELLING”

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“DON’T BE GREEDY,

BE HONEST, BE AS HONEST AS YOU CAN, AND JUST CONNECT WITH THE FEELING THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY MAKE A CHANGE OR EFFECT A CHANGE” into the next really. I was finishing up doing my book, I kind of reached a point where I was really sick of sitting inside on my computer so I had booked this week and a half long tour that [was] like a mix of playing songs and then reading the book and kind of telling stories. I asked Adam and Mark to come out and do the tour with me and to back me on it. The tour went really well and we had a lot of fun doing it and thought, ‘Oh well, this is something and it needs a name’, so that was when we gave it the Devouring Mothers name.

After that, the idea of an album was tossed around. Mark who plays the bass in the band, he recorded the record and had the studio in Michigan, so the summer after that we were like, ‘Let’s just get together and record some cover songs just for fun’. This was all while Against Me! stuff was happening around it and the summer after that I wanted to do a proper record, but I just wanted to do a quick record. So I was like, ‘Lets book seven days together in the studio and we’ll record these 14 songs.’

We had the 14 songs, so we just made the time, went in and banged them out and it was like ‘Oh we just did it, we just made the record’, we kind of surprised ourselves that it actually happened.

So it was like ‘Well what do we do with it now?’ Well, we put it out, then let’s play some shows’. It kind of coincided with needing a little bit of a break and time away from doing Against Me! stuff where Against Me! was kind of resetting anyways with Hector coming back and playing with the band and Inge leaving. So there was a little space needed and it kind of lined up with that and so we went for it. Now we have a record and now we’re coming to Australia.

That’s insane, 14 songs in seven days sounds super hectic, but it’s so cool, I feel like that sense of urgency and need to get something creative out there comes through on the vitality of the record.

LJG: I’ll tell you a related story, on the first day of recording I woke up early to go running and I was stressing because I wasn’t sure on what some of the guitar solos were going to be and hadn’t fully written them in my head. So I went running and I was running with my headphones, so I’m in the zone and running down this dirt road and I look down and there’s these two dogs chasing my feet running after me to attack me, and my natural instinct was I turned around and I yelled ‘Fuck you’ at the dogs and the dogs looked really startled and kind of like ‘What the fuck’? and walked away and in that moment I was like ‘Fuck it, I’ve got it, I’m ready.

Fuck the guitar solos I’ll figure it out!’

Laura Jane Grace photo by Bryce Mata, Laura Jane Grace live photo by Clair McAllister thebrag.com

One of the most stark things that stuck out on Bought to Rot and also your book, was how your writing focuses around humour and sarcasm as a way to deal with life’s more sombre and absurd moments. How important is it to you to find humour in moments of despair, that you talk about on the record?

LJG: I think that’s just how I naturally process things. I guess that’s an early defence mechanism that you develop as kid you know, to be ridiculed and made fun of, you develop humour and whether that’s making fun of yourself or fighting back with it and making fun of someone else, or a situation or just being able to laugh at it.

I guess that’s part of the nature of travelling, and a lot of the record is about travelling too, like ‘The Airplane Song’, ‘The Hotel Song’, ‘Amsterdam Hotel Room’, I mean there’s fucking two songs on the album with hotel in it, so it’s obviously about travelling.

But when you travel you observe, that’s what I love about being in airports, sitting there and watching people, and the experience of that, like all their idiosyncratic experiences.

Originally you shopped the record around to labels, and you were even told that putting out a solo record wasn’t a good idea from labels, and in your book you mentioned the tribulations Against Me! has faced with record labels in the past. With the music industry changing so rapidly, what part do you think labels and agents play in

the lives of up and coming artists as well as established artists?

LJG: I think one of the things I felt I was really missing with the total Against Me! experiences of doing our own label, was the feeling of being part of a team in that way. And labels are really important for that reason to connect to something greater than doing something on your own and to have a team of people to field creative energy with. That’s really important.

It often comes out that a songwriter feels isolated, having chances to work with other people is really important. So I wanted that going into it. We pitched them the idea - I said I wanted it to come out in November, and that we’re going to play a month of shows in Chicago. I’m sure people thought it sounded crazy and like, ‘I’m sure this record will never happen, and this record seems terrible.’

But Bloodshot got behind it which was really cool and I appreciated their faith. I’ve always written from the perspective of living in Florida so living in Chicago was a real adjustment. I’ve been here for six years, but still adjusting to it in a lot of ways, but this is the first time I’ve felt connected with like writing from the perspective of someone living in Chicago. I’ve been thinking a lot about the way your location and where you live and the buildings around you, even physically, play on your identity and on who you are and how you think and feel which is something I was thinking a lot about when writing the record.

You’ve always been super outspoken about punk and the role it’s played in your life. What part do you think punk plays in society now and how do you see it developing and transcending generations these days?

LJG: I think a lot of that is trying to be the opposite of what you see, the rampant corruption, the rampant cruelness in the world, you just have to be the opposite of that.

You know, like don’t be cruel, be kind you know? Like, look out for other people, don’t be greedy, be honest, be as honest as you can, and just connect with the feeling that you can actually make a change or effect a change.

What you can do with your own personal life and the way you conduct yourself and the way you live, can make such a big change - there’s a global crisis going on in general and global warming, that you know it’s a real moment of self-examination from everyone.

What: Bought to Rot is out now.

“THE RAMPANT CORRUPTION, THE RAMPANT CRUELNESS IN THE WORLD, YOU JUST HAVE TO BE

THE OPPOSITE OF THAT”

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JULY 16

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hink for a second about the average music festival. More than likely, the first thing that came to mind was that of summer anthems, long-haired musicians performing on-stage in the glaring heat, singing the chorus to a modern rock hit as their fans chant back their own lyrics.

Presumably, visions of an outdoor festival accompanied this thought, as memories of large crowds, excessive lines for food and facilities, and a need for copious amounts of sunscreen also flooded back.

To many, this is exactly what the phrase “Australian music festival” can bring to mind.

To most, it’s great musical memories tinged with those shortcomings that we’ve come to expect as standard for a music festival.

Dark Mofo

BREAKING THE

Sidd Finch takes a look at Dark Mofo 2019, and how the festival is defying the common expectations of live music

But what if these shortcomings didn’t have to exist? What if everything you knew about music festivals was open to reinterpretation?

What if one of these events could be delivered in a way that completely subverts all of your previous expectations?

MONA to the Rescue Back in 2013, Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) addressed this very question. As a winter counterpart to their annual summertime music and art festival Mona Foma, the museum launched Dark Mofo – a music and art festival unlike anything else in the country.

With a lineup so eclectic that it has boasted the likes of Laurie Anderson, Archie Roach, Electric Wizard and Einstürzende Neubauten on the same bill, it’s hard to believe that the musical side of the festival is far from the most normal thing about it.

Sure, any festival with a musical aspect is often remembered for its yearly lineups, but so powerful is the impact and legacy of Dark Mofo that its

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annual lineup is often considered inconsequential in comparison to what else is on offer in the city with the longest nights in the nation.

After the inaugural Mona Foma launched back in 2009, followed by the opening of the MONA in 2011, Dark Mofo was launched in 2013, and its arrival spawned legions of devoted followers.

With an understandable focus on the arts, this wintertime festival is a celebration of darkness, so the majority of its events take place after sunset (in Tassie midwinter, that’s around 4.30pm), and continue later into the night – a far cry from the events of average festivals around the world.

Brought to you by

Through a romantic notion alone, the festival curates an almost otherworldly personality for itself, presenting itself as an event that is so unique in its delivery that is has to be seen to be believed.

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FKA twigs It’s been a few years between drinks for FKA twigs, but this English avant-garde artist looks set to return to our lives in a major way.

Releasing a couple of singles since her debut record, LP1, in 2014, this critically-acclaimed musician recently returned with ‘Cellophane’, her first song in three years, and the first taster of her next record.

To celebrate, FKA twigs will be performing her first Aussie shows since 2015 when she appears at VIVID Sydney and Dark Mofo, in Hobart’s wharfside MAC2 cruise ship terminal for an evening of immersive music fans won’t soon forget.

When: Friday June 14th Where: MAC2, Hobart, TAS

Nicolás Jaar: Against All Logic Early in 2018, renowned producer Nicolás Jaar unleashed his latest album. Titled 2012–2017, the record was released with little fanfare, and 34 :: BRAG :: 746 :: 05:06:19

credited to A.A.L., which was later revealed to be none other than Jaar himself.

When: June 14th – 15th Where: Federation Concert Hall, Hobart, TAS

Now, set to return to Australia for the first time in two years, Nicolás Jaar will be bringing Dark Mofo fans the exclusive live debut of Against All Logic, performing these stunning tracks for his Aussie audience, and giving them a taste of his musical alter ego in the flesh, for the first time ever.

Anna Calvi

When: Saturday, June 15th Where: MAC2, Hobart, TAS

Jónsi (Sigur Rós) & Alex W/ Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Back in 2003, Sigur Rós’ Jónsi teamed up with his partner, Alex Somers, to create a visual art project. Within a few years, the pair decided to expand their sights to the world of music, releasing their debut album, Riceboy Sleeps, in 2009.

Since then, Jónsi & Alex have sporadically performed around the world, enchanting people with their experimental sounds that meld the ethereal with the intriguing.

Now, ten years on from their debut album, the duo are coming together for a rare live show which will see them team up with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra to perform their immersive debut album. To see Jónsi & Alex hit the stage together is something that happens rarely, so be sure not to miss the opportunity to catch this one live!

A nn a

So, what’s on offer at this year’s event? In addition to the countless art displays and public installations, the program features a number of stunning local and international acts, all of which will be performing some very unique sets.

C al vi

A Memorable Dark Mofo Five years on from her last visit to our shores, acclaimed English musician Anna Calvi is set to return to Australia, fresh from the release of her third album, Hunter, last year.

Working with big names on the record, such as Martyn Casey of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Adrian Utley of Portishead, Anna Calvi managed to deliver an album that resonated with fans all over the world, undoubtedly showcasing why her music is so critically acclaimed everywhere she goes.

When: Saturday, June 15th Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart, TAS

Costume Dark Mofo is an opportunity for music lovers, art lovers, and appreciators of the finer things in life to come out and experience new things, the likes of which have never been seen before. In June, this opportunity will arise once again, with Costume hitting up the event to premiere the live performance of their debut album, Pan (out now on pink vinyl and digital).

Described as an electronic, orchestral-infused art pop project from Hobart-based sonic and

literary maven Adam Ouston, Costume’s debut album was funded by DarkLab (the team behind Dark Mofo), and recorded in Reykjavik’s iconic Greenhouse Studios, which has played host to huge names like Björk, Sigur Rós, The xx, and Kanye West.

Needless to say, this is not one to be missed, a world premiere performance.

When: Wednesday, June 12th Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart, TAS

Dirty Three Dirty Three are undoubtedly one of the finest Australian trios in musical history, with the eclectic combination of Warren Ellis, Jim White, and Mick Turner making them renowned around the world for their delicate, crashing, and phenomenal music and live shows.

Following a self-imposed hiatus for a few years, the group is getting back together again for what is sure to be a long-awaited reunion.

Following on from a show at VIVID Sydney, the Dirty Three are set to hit up Hobart’s Odeon Theatre for a pair of performances which will explain to fans why they are so beloved by music lovers all over the world.

When: Sunday, June 16th, 1pm & 6pm Shows Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart, TAS thebrag.com

tw ig s A Va n

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When: Saturday, June 9th Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart, TAS

Sh ar on

Hobart Harbour photo by Jarrad Seng. Dark Mofo photo (below right) by LUSY Productions (below left) Jarrad Seng.

Dark Mofo

Since her last visit, she’s appeared on hit TV shows Twin Peaks: The Return and The O.A., released her new album Remind Me Tomorrow, and has performed critically-acclaimed shows all around the world. Now, Van Etten is set to bring her jagged, dreamy rock and brooding pop to Dark Mofo, hitting up the Odeon Theatre for a long-awaited performance that will undoubtedly be a highlight of the festival.

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Organisers have also teamed up with Jägermeister to oversee the addition of two special bars in the nocturnal neighbourhood party Night Mass.

Serving as the festival’s multivenue late-night event of choice, Night Mass is set to feature these

Night Mass

Despite being something of a frequent flyer on Australian shores, it’s been a few years since we’ve had the chance to see Sharon Van Etten playing live.

his year’s festival is also set to feature one of Dark Mofo’s most unique and memorable experiences to date, taking over nearly a whole innercity block – including the Odeon Theatre, DarkLab’s new live music venue Altar and its nightclub High Altar, plus sprawling outdoor areas, beer gardens, and more, with three street frontages, across two weekends.

two bars as a way for attendees to experience the refined taste of Jägermeister in some immersive locations, unlike anything they’ve ever seen before.

“It exists to allow you to witness live bands performing exclusive performances in unique locations, in the dead of night, surrounded by immersive and mesmerising art installations”

Night Mass

Sharon Van Etten

Curated by Sydney’s festival of radical performance art, sound and visual design Soft Centre, these bars are set to be connected by visual components, but existing to serve two different purposes.

The first bar provides large audiences a unique, energetic setting, bringing the communal nature of the festival’s ritualistic fun times to a head, and allowing attendees to enjoy ice cold shots of Jägermeister with their friends.

Meanwhile, the second bar will provide a smaller, more intimate experience, reminiscent of the labyrinthine layouts of global nightlife hotspots such as Japan’s iconic Golden Gai, offering a rare chance to enjoy the spirit in a cosy, cultured environment.

Made from 56 selected botanicals, matured in oak, and served ice cold, Jägermeister has quickly become one of the most suited beverages for an event such as this.

Night Mass is also set to feature live performances from the likes of Sampa The Great, Mallrat, Empress Of, and many more.

Taking place across a number of venues on June 14th and 15th, and June 21st and 22nd, Night Mass kicks off at 10pm, and runs until the early hours of the next morning.

Night Mass

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Night Mass is an 18+, ticketed event and tickets quickly sold out – but if you’re old enough to join in the festivities, join the waiting list for tickets on the Dark Mofo website, or try your changes with door sales ($95 per night, subject to capacity), and remember to drink responsibly.

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FEATURE

e th e d re th ts n co g ll i , a e in a s th at in e o br r, am t le te fl ou ce in ing y al w k ke iv an lic a st ni , sh ” fe ma ess an ing “A s n c be Ta ark y it ur d a o w fy o

What makes Dark Mofo so special?

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9 JUN These additions, mixed with the stunning live performances on offer, turns Dark Mofo into a festival that manages to reconfigure the boundaries of live music and art, to create an experience like no other.

WED

12 JUN

It’s the level of mythos and esoterica that is put into each and every decision that helps to turn the live performances of the festival into something you’ll remember forever.

In fact, a cursory look at the festival lineup will likely provide you with a list of names that might seem unfamiliar to an average music fan. It’s the curiosity inspired by these new names that helps to provide an experience for attendees.

While festivals like Splendour In The Grass or Laneway might be topped by the triple j favourites of today, Dark Mofo provides an eclectic lineup, curated to help deliver a musical message, bolstered by the idea of new discoveries that will take place throughout the festival period.

With performances held predominantly at night, these mostly-exclusive shows not only provide a sense of intimacy and uniqueness but also instill a feeling of necessity as well. Sure, you might not have heard of the band performing on Thursday night, but when are you going to get the chance to see them ever again?

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JUN

FRI

14 JUN THU

14 JUN 15

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It provides something that will never again occur, and something you can never find anywhere else – a festival celebrating the Tasmanian winter, in all its darkness, licking flames, and the way it can shake you to the core of your being.

Dark Mofo is a festival that turns an event from a lineup that’s got to be seen, into an event that needs to be experienced.

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SUN

16 JUN

Phurpa Where: Altar, 112 Murray St, Hobart Price: $39+bf

Fka Twigs Where: Mac2, Hobart Price: $99+bf Jónsi (Sigur Rós) & Alex W/ Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Where: Federation Concert Hall, Hobart Price: $69-$99+bf Night Mass feat. Mallrat, Sampha The Great, Empress Of, Ic3peak, Junglepussy & More When: 10pm – Late Where: Night Mass Neighbourhood Price: $89+bf

Dark Mofo doesn’t play by the rules. Perhaps it just plays to different rules. Dark Mofo isn’t here to provide a sense of security in your music-loving mind. It’s here to inspire you to live in the moment, embrace the unfamiliar, and see where the journey takes you.

It exists to allow you to witness live bands performing exclusive performances in unique locations, in the dead of night, surrounded by immersive and mesmerising art installations.

& Uf (Kerridge & Oake) Price: $89+bf

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15 JUN

Against All Logic / Nicolás Jaar Where: Mac2, Hobart Price: $99+bf

Liminal Soundbath (Members Of Sigur Rós) Where: Mac2, Hobart Price: $59+bf WED

19 JUN

Hymns To The Dead feat. Mystifier, Dragged Into Sunlight, Funebrarum, Zhrine & Heresiarch Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart Price: $89+bf

FRI

21 JUN SAT

22 JUN

SAT

22 JUN

WED

19 JUN

THU

Author & Punisher Where: Altar, 112 Murray St, Hobart Price: $39+bf

THU

John Grant Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart Price: $79+bf Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart Price: $79+bf

THU

20 JUN FRI

21 JUN

Laterne By Berlin Atonal Where: Mac2, Hobart Feat. Aïsha Devi Ft. Mfo Present, Labour Next Time

Augie March Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart Price: $59+bf

My Heart Swims In Blood: Van Diemen’s Band Where: Hobart Town Hall, Hobart Price: $39-$59+bf

20 JUN 20 JUN

Night Mass feat. Mallrat, Sampha The Great, Empress Of, Ic3peak, Junglepussy & More When: 10pm – Late Where: Night Mass Neighbourhood Price: $89+bf

Borderlands feat. The Sheer Frost Orchestra, Joe Talia & Eiko Ishibashi, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Lucy Railton, Kusum Normoyle & Stephen O’malley [sunn O)))] Where: Mac2, Hobart Price: $89+bf

Lucrecia Dalt: The Golem Where: Hobart Town Hall, Hobart Price: $29+bf

Anna Calvi Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart Price: $79+bf Lee Gamble Presents: In A Paraventral Scale, Silvia Kastel, Marshstepper Presents: The Sloe Seeding Of Eden: A Starlit Enfold, Second Woman

Die Consciously, Lucrecia Dalt Presents: Synclines, Vatican Shadow Presents: Media In The Service Of Terror & Puce Mary

Nicolás Jaar & Group Where: Federation Concert Hall Price: $59-$79+bf Dirty Three When: 1pm & 6pm Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart Price: $89+bf

Serpentwithfeet & Kelsey Lu Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart Price: $69+bf

FRI

For an average music fan, heading to a music festival and ticking your favourites off the bill is something that has been done to death. Plus, if you didn’t happen to see your new favourite indie band in the evening time slot, you can always catch their Sydney sideshow the next night.

Costume Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart Price: $49+bf Lonnie Holley Where: Altar, 112 Murray St, Hobart Price: $39+bf

THU

Dark Mofo 2019 line-up

Sharon Van Etten Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart Price: $39-$79+bf

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23 JUN

Roger Eno Where: Hobart Town Hall Price: $29-$49+bf Kiku feat. Blixa Bargeld & Black Cracker Where: Odeon Theatre, Hobart Price: $39-$79+bf Mary Lattimore & Julianna Barwick Where: Altar, 112 Murray St, Hobart Price: $29+bf

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POWEER ISSUE

Power: Refusing to rest on laurels. Being pioneers of Heavy music for over a decade. Refusing to submit to expectations.

Without a Trace of Fear

“You want to feel like you’re a current band.

You want to feel like you’re capable of making music again” Bianca Davino asks Alexisonfire the burning questions as the influential band return to prove that punk and metal are very much still alive

“If we’re gonna continue to play shows we don’t want to become this nostalgia act just playing the hits” thebrag.com 37 :: BRAG :: 746 :: 05:06:19

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he reverberations of Alexisonfire’s influence drip through almost every inch of modern heavy music.

It’s fair to say the world hasn’t spun on its axis quite right since the chorus of ‘Boiled Frogs’ reigned with a vengeance over a clergy of faithful worshippers, hungry for the wisdom spat by the mighty Dallas Green. Faces haven’t been melted quite as effectively since the spattering lead lines that cradled their excellent second record Watch Out! In 2015, the band announced their return onto the live circuit. Alexisonfire’s die-hard fanbase were sent into disarray, relishing the thought of witnessing the monolithic clan of musicians once again. Australia was treated to the band’s prowess in early 2017, with the band making their way to the Mecca of heavy music itself, Unify Gathering.

“I feel like in Australia we kind of stick to the major cities and it was cool to get out into the country a bit and it was just... sort of spectacular.

We had so much fun, that was a really positive tour. It just was a great time in Australia, it’s my favourite place to tour,” said historically ferocious screamer George Pettit, reminiscing on the band’s 2017 last visit to Australia, a constant hub of love and adoration for the legendary act.

Earlier this year, excitement bubbled in the Alexisonfire camp as the band geared up to

release their first single in nine years, ‘Familiar Drugs’.

Like all rock bangers, the song was birthed out a rollicking, driving and almost forgotten riff.

“I had almost no recollection of the track. It was Dallas that came with it and it wasn’t necessarily the track, it was like this riff. The story that Dallas told me was that he found an old phone in one of his drawers and he plugged it in and he was going through the voice notes and there was a guitar riff. He was like.. ‘Oh yeah. Yeah. That’s a good one. Let me play that.’

“It kind of got stuck in his head and he just kept playing it, and then we started playing shows and we have to do sound checks and after soundcheck, we’re all standing around all of our instruments, and Dallas starts playing the riff and Wade has a sister riff to that riff. That’s where the elements were put together and it just kind of rolls from there. Tthat’s kind of how Alexisonfire writes music.”

‘Familiar Drugs’ leans into the band’s strengths in every which way without having to rely on old tricks. It folds and rolls with groovy and mysterious emotion in every crevice. Dissonance drenches the off-kilter chorus that only provides some ease to the tension built in the bluesy verses. It’s built for arenas and festival mainstages, where the band belongs.

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POWEER ISSUE

“Punk music is still very much alive. Metal is still very much alive. It could be anywhere. It just might not be easily accessible”

“We don’t have all the time that we used to where we could just play. We don’t really have the luxury of scheduling any more studio time, so that’s kind of how things have been going lately. When we do get together it is productive.

‘Familiar Drugs’ is the first offering birthed from this.”

With nostalgia and throwback permeating the pop culture mindset of late, Alexisonfire as a collective felt the need to establish a new era with ‘Familiar Drugs’. After three years of playing shows, it was time to silence naysayers who may have gathered the idea that the band were back to ride on the success of their legacy.

“We’ve done a few years of just playing shows and I think we all enjoyed that. We were all still really enjoying being around each other and at some point it just felt like okay well if we’re gonna continue to play shows we don’t want to become this nostalgia act just playing the hits. I mean, as much as that is very fun to do, you want to feel like you’re a current band. You want to feel like you’re capable of making music again.”

Even Pettit admits to feeling both excitement and disappointment towards his own favourite bands who continue to ride off the hype of yesteryear, noting that he hopes Alexisonfire doesn’t fall into the same category.

“I’ve been there and I appreciate the bands that come back. I’ve seen the bands that come back to accept the festival slot, and then I go and see them and I’m so excited about it, but it’s just not what it was - it’s just purely a nostalgia sort of thing. But adversely I’ve also seen bands that comes back and it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

“So I’m hoping we can provide that experience as opposed to the former. I just don’t want to become that band that shows up, gives the crowd what they want to hear with the hits, and then moves on.”

“It’s so fun to reminisce on what was, b

In the early 2000s, Alexisonfire shot to the heights of post-hardcore fame, maintaining their status as scene leaders for over a decade. Their self titled debut distilled the schizophrenics of 80s skramz with the aggression and power of pummelling hardcore, whilst Watch Out! refined the formula to a catchy, Warped Tour-friendly product, placing them amongst genre heroes like Thrice and Thursday. Crisis is undeniably one of the greatest rock albums of the decade and Young Cardinals is pure anthemic gold.

However, despite years of total musical excellence and adoration, Pettit is more excited

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FEATURE

Power: Refusing to rest on laurels, Being pioneers of Heavy music for over a decade, Refusing to submit to expectations

for the future than ever – looking back can be fun, but the magic captured by the Canadian clan doesn’t just die out.

“I don’t know, it makes me feel uncomfortable to use the word legacy. But I guess that’s it. I like to look back positively on my time that we spent slugging it out. Everybody sits around and tells stories about the time we woke up in a van on the side of the highway in the desert and almost got baked alive.

“It’s so fun to reminisce on what was, but at the same time, I am feeling quite current. I’m excited about what’s next. You know I’m almost more excited about what’s next than to sit back and think about the past…that’s kind of where I’m at right now.”

Although ‘Familiar Drugs’ and new addition ‘Complicit’ were released as stand alone singles, according to Pettit, releasing more new music is at the forefront of the band’s mind.

“As of right now, there’s stuff in the banks. Every time we get together we write stuff. There’s a lot of music written. There’s going to be more music coming out. Probably sooner than later. We don’t have any hard dates on anything. But yeah, there’s got to be more music, that’s really all I can really tell you.

“Whether that’s an EP, new singles, or an album, time will tell. But as of right now, I can promise you there will be more music, but I don’t know in what shape or form it’s going to be.”

With a legacy that spans generations, and a fresh spark and undying energy, Alexisonfire are still rock renegades. They’re lifers, who’ll continue to fight the good fight, and gather those who need a fearless leader.

“Guitar-based music has always been there. It just might not be on the television. It might not be on the radio, but that’s good. The best of our culture happens in 200 capacity clubs, happens at independent record stores, and so when you hear someone like, you know, the singer of Maroon 5 say nothing’s happening in rock music it doesn’t make sense.

“Punk music is still very much alive. Metal is still very much alive. It could be anywhere. It just might not be easily accessible.”

What: ‘Complicit’ and ‘Familiar Drugs’ are out now

ut at the same time, I am feeling quite current” Alexisonfire photos by Vanessa Heins

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POWEER ISSUE

Power: Perseverance, Never once losing their edge or heaviness. Willingness to always evolve and change.

Your Doomsday from the Start Bianca Davino soaks up the Misery of The Amity Affliction, who refuse to relent or back down, never once resting on their laurels

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he Amity Affliction defined a generation of Australian heavy music fans’ coming of age. At the turn of the decade, they cut through a snooze-worthy conglomerate of American metalcore bands who seemingly cared more about whether their sweeping fringes were hairsprayed than their riffs and breakdowns.

With a heavy synth-helping, the most tattoo-worthy lyrics in the game and a unique charisma that reverberated between Joel Birch and Ahren Stringer, they were a dizzying, bleary-eyed phenomenon.

Now, The Amity Affliction have grown up. They’ve toured the Australian arena circuit several times over, conquered the ARIA Charts, and have cemented their status as undeniable icons – but they refuse to bask in nostalgia.

Although the exuberant call to arms chorus to ‘I Hate Hartley’ sounds as epic as it did in 2010, and

the riptide-force drumming of ‘Bondi St. Blues’ still pummels, The Amity Affliction will never rest on their well-earned laurels.

2018 saw the release of Misery. When lead single ‘Ivy (Doomsday)’ was unleashed, fans were divided.

The track was absent of a front-and-centre riff, Joel Birch’s screams took a back seat, and those waiting for a mosh-call or breakdown were left scrolling back through their Spotify library in search of ‘Geof Sux 666’.

Despite its sonic departure, it was still distinctly Amity – over 15 years of perfectly honed identity bled through in the undeniably anthemic, heart-onyour-sleeve track.

“Americans just loved it and it enforced our belief that we are doing the right thing by trying new stuff and keeping it fresh, because we don’t want to be one of those bands who fizzle out from doing the same thing over and over,” said Stringer on Misery.

“We’ve just grown gradually over the last 16 years, so it’s always been a blessing for us to be able to put out a new album and for people to like it more than the last one.”

With odes to Ahren’s burning poptimism and Birch’s developing vocal variety, Misery is a confident, experimental and mature statement. It displays a level of fearlessness that other bands who began conquering the heavy music circuit over a decade ago now fail to live up to.

Just over a year and a half ago, The Amity Affliction took to the stage of the hallowed Unify Gathering to perform a special “15 Years Of Amity” set.

Whilst fans relished the opportunity to embrace the chorus of ‘Youngbloods’ once again, it was clear the band’s more contemporary material was fi ercely taken to.

In the dawn of anniversary tours, throwback emo nites and unexpected reunions, there’s clearly no need for Amity to continually re-hash old flames to maintain interest from fans.

“You know, me and Dan and Joel really feel strongly about this, and when a band does that kind of thing to us, it looks like they’re giving up a little bit.

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“We’re not breaking up. We are not gonna take hiatuses.

We’re not doing a ten-year reunion set of a record or whatever.

To me personally, it looks like a band admitting defeat slightly when they do that kind of stuff” thebrag.com

“We’re not breaking up. We are not gonna take hiatuses. We’re not doing a ten-year reunion set of a record or whatever. To me personally, it looks like a band admitting defeat slightly when they do that kind of stuff.

huge Australian headline tour. They’re bringing metalcore legends Underoath, electronicore kings Crossfaith and nu-school Aussie heavyweights Pagan – Amity have a reputation for massive tour lineups, delivering a package that culminates different eras and facets of the scene perfectly.

“We have such an overwhelmingly positive response and I think there’s just more and more newer fans coming to see us rather than older fans, so the new stuff usually goes down better than older stuff. I think there have been a few shows in Europe and America where people don’t even really know stuff off Chasing Ghosts that well.

Having recently debuted material off Misery at Download Festival Australia to rapturous response, Australian fans can expect a reflection on their career during their upcoming tour, but don’t expect a full-on nostalgia fest.

“It was America who really took the new album on board and embraced it with open arms, so the new stuff we played just went off better than older stuff. I always assumed it is the vocal minority who are the whingers so to speak.”

“Every now and then we chuck in a different song from Youngbloods or something like that. We still acknowledge all of the all older fans. I think because we have been around for so long and we’ve got so many albums, it’s really easy to pick our setlist now.

I’m very excited to finally play a lot of these songs in Australia.” ■

Having recently wrapped up a huge U.S. tour, it’s quite clear what Stringer means when he describes a “vocal minority” who complain about setlists.

As they’ve evolved and grown, their ever-growing audience has entered their minds.

A few months ago, the band announced yet another

FEATURE

“It’s always been a blessing for us to be able to put out a new album and for people to like it more than the last one”

Where: The Hordern Pavilion When: Thursday September 12 And: Misery is out now

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POWEER ISSUE

THE TOP 4 MOST

POWERFUL ALBUMS OF THE YEAR SO FAR The Mountain Goats Solange

IN LEAGUE WITH DRAGONS

WHEN I GET HOME

BY TYLER JENKE

BY MICHAEL DI IORIO

On paper, the Mountain Goats’ In League With Dragons is a strange one. Drawing inspiration from roman noir and tabletop games, John Darnielle attacks the group’s 17th album with a different attitude than usual. Featuring a slightly more eclectic sound with the inclusion of Matt Douglas, the record is more downtempo than the group’s previous records (and features very few dragons), but with an increased amount of emotionally devastating lyrics throughout the piece.

With tracks like ’Done Bleeding’, ‘Cadaver Sniffing Dog’, and ‘An Antidote For Strychnine’ serving as standouts, their titles alone should tell you about the sort of record this is. Grandiose yet humble, emotional yet genuine, and powerful without being overbearing, In League With Dragons might be one of the Mountain Goats’ most exceptional records to date.

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Sigrid

SUCKER PUNCH

BY POPPY REID

When I was 22, I once fell asleep in a pool of my own vomit. Sigrid on the other hand, is a 22-yearold with a #1 LP in her native Norway and a Top 5 record in the UK, Scotland and Ireland. It’s not the dichotomy of our differences that has me so fixated on Sucker Punch; it’s the way it blindsided fans with just how consistent it was across the entire 12 tracks.

From the title track and opener, which sets the pace of heart-onsleeve confidence, to ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’, which features the self-aware line, “I can shake it off and you feel threatened by me”, Sucker Punch is what pop music should be; bright, infectious and utterly hedonistic.

When entering any Solange album only one thing can be certain, any expectations you have going in will be completely shattered.

Twerking for her phone camera and dipping low in cowboy hats in the albums accompanying 39-min fi lm, the Houston-born powerhouse unflinchingly makes the music she wants to, unbending to the fantasies of how an album should operate and sound.

The entire essence of the album is best captured in ‘Can I Hold the Mic (Interlude)’, in which she rhymes over in-time synths singing, “I can’t be a singular expression of myself, there’s too many parts, too many spaces, too many manifestations.” And Solange explores all of these aspects of herself without fear to create her most enthralling album yet; spinning pain into beauty in ‘Jerrod’, and celebrating black excellence in the spiralling beats of ‘Almeda.’

Billie Eilish

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

BY GEORDIE GRAY

Billie Eilish’s debut record was everything that it needed to be.

An edgy, brash, chaotic portrait of teenagerhood. Eilish is impossibly cool, but not in the way that makes you feel bad about yourself.

Perhaps the most admirable facet of WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? is the way that it has ushered in a new generation of music fans.

For so many young girls, this will be the first record that they wholly love and are able to relate to. It is a record that inspires young female music fans to embrace their weirdness and their quirks.

It is a souvenir of their angst that they will be able to revisit time and time again. Highlights include the devilishly addictive ‘bad guy’ and ‘ilomilo’, which disturbingly pulsates with equal parts charm and horror. ■

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POWEER ISSUE

an open letter from a woman in the Australian music industry - 2 -

- 1 -

Written by Poppy Reid on International Women’s Day 2019 “A woman is always accompanied, except when quite alone, and perhaps even then, by her own image of herself.

In the last 12 months: directors to ARIA welcomed four female its board ralian Sexual harassment in Aust through a led tack ng bei is workplaces -

“While she is walking across a room or weeping at the death of her father, she cannot avoid envisioning herself walking or weeping. From earliest childhood she is taught and persuaded to survey herself continually.

“She has to survey everything she is and everything she does, because how she appears to others – and particularly how she appears to men – is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life.”

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AHRC investigation ugural Women In Australia hosted its ina Music Awards (the AWMAs) Claudia Michelle Grace Hunder and Sound, Her Sangiorgi Dalimore’s ‘Her mentary on Story’ gave a powerful com music industry gender in the Australian ambassador of Missy Higgins became an a movement Tracey Spicer’s NOW Australi saw female The 2018 APR A Music Awards st one female) acts (or acts with at lea s take 53% of the nomination

This comment was made by a man. Art critic and writer John Berger said the aforementioned in an interview for BBC series Ways of Seeing.

While he was referring to the female figure in art and advertising, this is often what being a woman in the music industry is like.

c related – but even the Hell – it may not be musi ralia to be licensed to first female pilot in Aust Bird Walton, is about to carry passengers, Nancyr her! have an airport named afte

Today I even feel a sense of shame that it took me until now, the actual afternoon of International Women’s Day, to sit down and write this. At first, perhaps in a cloud of personal defeat at the work which must be done to reach gender parity, I recalled comments from some of my favourite industry women:

and recognition for the We need more positivity through walls, who have people who have punched ing, and who have let laughed at the glass ceil the mselves. their successes speak for

In 2015 during her time as Executive Officer at MusicNSW, Kirsty Brown told One of One: “Many times I heard the comment that only two types of women worked in the industry – starfuckers or dykes.”

inment’s Susan Heymann, People like Chugg Enterta in Music event inspired who at the last Women ve for leadership roles. those in the room to stri

In 2017, as we readied our first The Industry Observer Awards, a nominee who is as beloved in the industry as she is respected told me (actually, whispered) that she was concerned the accolade would make her a target. She feared that being seen to be successfully climbing the ranks could result in some people wanting to actively pull her down.

In 2018, Vicki Gordon’s Australian Women In Music Awards (or AWMA’s for short) was met with claims that it was tokenistic, and that Australia should do away with gendered awards.

In her interview with TIO, she said: “Gendered awards can’t be a thing of the past when we don’t have equality. If we really believe in a world where men and women are equal, in the home, in the workforce and in a country, then we need to acknowledge their contributions.”

Even now, in 2019, women from non-white backgrounds and non-cis women are heavily marginalised.

I slumped over my laptop. These aren’t the stories we want defining Australia’s International Women’s Day this year. How can we inspire young women and those from marginalised groups to enter this industry if we portray it as a vile place pregnant with glass ceilings?

Instead of tapping away aggressively about how far we have to go, would it not be more progressive to use this day to look at how far we’ve come? And more simply, celebrate our favourite music from our beautifully talented artists?

Yes, women and marginalised communities are still being left out of lineups, conversations, recording studios, and the rooms where decisions are made about them… but should we not also use this day to celebrate our wins?

manager to have all the “It’s not your job as a to know where to find answers. You just need the m,” she said. a woman who left her People like Mardi Caught; of Frontline Marketing role as General Manager her own company in The at Warner Music to start itted she suffers from Annex. Even Caught has adm r Syndrome. industry endemic Imposte gate and Esti Zilber And people like Millie Mill who selflessly and tirefrom SOU NDS AUSTRALIA, ralian artists here and lessly advocate for Aust often take for granted. overseas in ways that we about the women, the While today is undeniably e the largest role to men in our industry hav be where I am without play. Personally, I wouldn’t life; the negative and the male ‘teachers’ in my ed me for the path I’m positive experiences prepar currently on.

(Luke Girgis) who Right now I have a CEO which there are space for fuck-ups (of challenges the celebrates small wins, and s; inspiring me quo in everything he doe

offers many), status to do

the same. us, supported us, let To the men who have grown be masculine, let us be us be feminine, let us men who haven’t, it’s other… Thank You. To the not too late.

- END -

- P.T.O-

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FEATURE

Incredible

quotes women

from incredible

in Aus music

On Friday 8th March, 140 women gathered in Sydney for One of One’s International Women’s Day breakfast celebration for a morning of conversation, inspiration – and reprieve from busy schedules.

The morning featured three performances (including one from the goosebump-inducing imbi the girl) and three truly inspirational keynotes, including one by Koori Radio’s Renee Williamson, which Heidi Lenffer from Cloud Control perfectly described as “profoundly unsettling”.

One element of the morning which offered a true insight into the centralised hive-mind of intelligence our local industry harbours, was the projection of quotes from One of One’s many, many interviewees. From triple j’s Gerry Bull, to Wonder’s Niriko McLure, to AUM PR + MGMT’s Chryss Carr, Australia is rife with thriving women ready and willing to pass on their knowledge.

To celebrate them, to remind us why we do what we do, and to inspire those looking to get into the music industry, we’ve put together a few of our favourite public comments from incredible women in Australian music.

Jane Huxley - Spotify

“Ensuring that we are shining a light on things that are working well, and frankly being smarter in spotting women with potential and bravery in investing in it are things that we can all do to help.”

(Source: TIO)

Lisa Bishop - MusicSA

Tina Arena

“I’m interested in cultural exchanges, the fight for equality, and fairer distribution of wealth, child protection, protecting the arts – so much really.”

(Source: TIO)

“My two most adversarial career moments have been caused by women… there are quite a few scary ones out there!! But I reckon when faced with that sort of adversity it’s best to remain professional and not take things personally.”

(Source: One of One)

Jacqui Louez-Schoorl - Jaxsta

“It’s so important to support each other and be proud of each other.”

(Source: TIO)

Lynley White-Smith - Studios 301

“Keep selling your dream until the right people hear it.”

(Source: One of One)

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Jack River photo by Maclay Heriot

Esti Zilber - Sounds Australia

“A lot of mothers aren’t particularly good at asking for the help that we need. We think that we have to be seen as strong… I think we can do it and I think we can do it well, but I think we do it best when we’re able to say when we need help.”

(Source: TIO reporting at BIGSOUND)

Viv Fantin - Fantin Comes Alive / Next Act Coaching

“I’ve changed my relationship with stress. I still feel it, but I understand that it’s transient.

I’m pretty good at self-care these days.”

(Source: One of One)

Jana Gibson - APRA AMCOS

“Collaboration needs to be your default position – bringing in the intellect of others not only adds to the knowledge bank but the inclusivity it brings stimulates a feeling of engagement and capacity building.”

(Source: One of One)

Chryss Carr - AUM PR + MGMT

“When you come from a place of integrity you can play the game like there’s nothing to lose and when you do play it like that, not only is it more fun but it provides a stronger platform from which to negotiate etc.”

(Source: One of One)

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Holly Rankin - Jack River

“In an age where the strange, the authentic and the bold are excelling in music – it would be ridiculous to inherit the tall poppy syndrome that has tried to strangle so many great acts, and that is lethal to the health of art in general.”

(Source: TIO)

Vicki Gordon - Australian Women In Music Awards / Vicki Gordon Music Productions

“Gendered awards can’t be a thing of the past when we don’t have equality. If we really believe in a world where men and women are equal, in the home, in the workforce and in a country, then we need to acknowledge their contributions.”

(Source: TIO)

BRAG :: 746 :: 05:06:19 :: 45

FEATURE

POWER PLAYERS Lars Brandle pits the three biggest music streaming services in Australia against each other to see who comes out on top. Will it be Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music?

True story: streaming music saved the recording industry. There was a time, not so long ago, when the record business was dying uglier than nu-metal. iTunes provided hope, streaming platforms presented growth.

And if the prognosticators are right, the rewards will be rich for years to come.

Origins Spotify has been held up as the leader of the streaming brigade, the head of the recording industry’s white knights. It’s the best known global brand without a doubt, though it’s not the first all-you-can-eat platform.

Australians have a lot of choice, and a ridiculous amount of music at their thumbs.

Since Spotify opened for business here in 2012 (some months after the now-defunct JB Hi-Fi ‘Now’ platform), Australia has stepped up as a ‘mature’ streaming market, which is short-hand for a territory with cash to spend, smartphones galore and an appetite for listening to music right away.

Swede Daniel Ek launched Spotify in October 2008, a full six months after Danish telecommunications company TDC pushed out its Play unlimited music service.

Earlier this year, Spotify announced it had 207 million monthly active users globally and 96 million subscribers, a ratio of roughly 2:1.

Chances are, you’re already among the five million or so Australians plugged in. Perhaps, you’re ready to unplug and get touchy with another brand. And so, we are taking a closer look at three of the leading power players Down Under: Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.

Spotify launched in Australia in May 2012, though the company doesn’t break out its local subscriber numbers.

As the boss of streaming, Spotify routinely takes a hammering over the pittance it hands back to its music creators (though claims to have driven more than €10

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billion to rights holders as of October 2018). The publiclylisted company, however, isn’t alone in trickling down piddling sums to its content providers.

You’ve got to hand it to Apple. The world’s first trillion-dollar company makes sexy gadgets which talk seamlessly with each other.

And they know when to pull the plug.

Permanent digital downloads are about as cool as Fraser Anning. Apple saw what was coming for its iTunes Music Store and went about launching its own ‘Spotify killer.’

It came relatively late in the game, on June 30, 2015, with the on-point name Apple Music. It wasn’t a painless launch. Taylor Swift took the platform to task for its initial decision not to pay artists during the three-month “free” trial period, Apple changed its policy and shared the money.

We don’t know its subscriber numbers, though Apple Music is thought to be catching up, partly due to its deep integration in Apple’s iOS ecosystem. And partly because it’s Apple.

After months of stealth, behind-the-scenes prep work and licensing negotiations, Amazon Music Unlimited finally arrived Down Under in February 2018. It was late, yes, but the retail giant dangled a tidy saving to folks who’d already bought Echo smart speakers.

With its Amazon Music launch, Jeff Bezos’ company slammed its flag firmly into Aussie turf.

Just weeks earlier, Amazon opened its Australian fulfilment centre, a 24,000-squaremetre space in Melbourne’s Dandenong South.

The ABC recently had something to say about life in Amazon’s warehouse (it wasn’t all kind). Subscriber numbers for Amazon Music Unlimited aren’t available.

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FEATURE

Subs and Plans Australia’s streaming playing field doesn’t have any great bulges.

All three app-based platforms boast license catalogues of around 50 million songs (plus your entire iTunes collection, for Apple Music customers) a figure that’s constantly on the rise, with offline playback for Premium account owners.

Formats Per MacRumors, Apple Music streams 256kbps AAC files, while Spotify uses the Ogg Vorbis format and lets you choose the bitrate depending on how you’re listening.

On mobile you can elect to stream in Low (24 kbit/s), Normal (96 kbit/s), High (160 kbit/s) or Very High (320 kbit/s) quality.

Amazon is keeping mum on the streaming bitrate quality of its collection, though Pocket Lint took a punt and said it will be 320kbps, right up there with Spotify.

Freemium Apple Music offers a three-month, sans-ads “free” trial of its fullypaid-up offering, which switches to a monthly membership unless you diligently remember to cancel.

Spotify and Amazon Music Unlimited offer 30-day free trial period, after which time the big switch begins.

Back in the day, Spotify offered three-months (and McDonalds’ ads every 10 minutes).

Those days are done and dusted. There is a 60-day free option which, of course, has conditions attached.

Be warned: you can only use this free trial offer once, according to Spotify’s new terms.

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All three offer Premium access at $11.99 per month, while Spotify and Apple Music have options for students ($5.99) and family plans ($17.99).

Amazon rewards its users who forked out for its hardware. The music platform offers a cheap $4.99 monthly premium plan if you just want to listen via a single

Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Plus smart speaker.

If you’ve already made your audio purchase, Spotify works with Amazon, Apple and Google speakers, while Apple’s streaming service works flawlessly on its own platforms. Amazon Music’s compatibility is comparatively limited.

Catalogues, Offline Listening All three platforms offer a smorgasbord of licensed tunes when you hand over your precious details. Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited boast 50 million songs in their respective catalogues.

Spotify claims “over 35 million” songs. But, hey, who’s counting. It’s a ridiculous amount of music on offer.

Consider how far we’ve come since iTunes launched in Australia in October 2005 with “over one million songs from major and independent record labels.”

Listening offline has its limits, but thanks to the competitive spirit between Spotify and

Apple Music, those restrictions are working in music fans’ favour.

Late last year, Spotify fixed its download limit at 10,000 tunes, (up from 3,333). At the same time, Spotify increased the number of devices you can download to from three to five.

Apple takes a different stance, by allowing subscribers to bank as much music offline as long as there is storage on a device. Subs can be used across up to six different authorised devices.

Despite its name, Amazon Music Unlimited actually does have an offline limit: 100,000 songs and compatibility across ten devices.

N O K C SU IS

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Hot Tips We’ve all hit peak stuff, we want the best experience and we want our music now.

The teams behind Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music Unlimited aren’t dummies.

The bang-for-buck is roughly the same, the ease-of-use is nearly indiscernible though Spotify has greater compatibility with smart speakers and its tie-in with Genius gives you a behind-the-scenes look through the lyrics on its app.

Spotify and Amazon Music Unlimited apps have Chromecast compatibility, so you can at least cast and blast to a Google Home.

Apple Music is not natively supported by Chromecast, yet.

Importantly, all three let you try before you buy, and leave when you want (which means something. Ever tried to cancel an NBA League Pass subscription?). So turn on, plug in and tap away. With the competition being so tight, it all really comes down to personal preference. So whose side are you on? ■

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POWER ISSUE

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Disclaimer: This piece is NSFW and could be triggering to some as it touches on themes around pornography addiction, domination and physical abuse.

POWER OVER PORN Poppy Reid shares her experience with quitting porn, and explores the changes that happened to her brain as a result

I

thought I had a healthy relationship with porn. In helping to make up the 30% of women who watch internet porn, I had been regularly partaking in its usage since I discovered its anarchic powers; and its ability to get me exactly where I wanted to go, double quick.

My psycho-sexual routine began rather innocently, a curious exercise in testing my boundaries. But it soon leaned toward the perverse; my impulses became more niche and my satiety less placated.

I was definitely not alone (despite being, ahem, physically alone) in my obsession with the epic availability to watch pounded orifices on my iPhone.

A recent study conducted by porn website Paint Bottle (and thankfully reported on by Huffington Post) found 30% of all data transferred across the internet is porn. In fact, porn sites receive more visitors each month than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter, combined.

Not long into my foray into the depths of websites like Pornhub and XHamster, my taste in content changed. It became more difficult to climax over watching ‘vanilla’ sex between two people. I craved the kind of visuals that would make Sasha Grey blush.

I wanted to watch women gangbanged by a football team of hardbodied men with raging erections. I wanted to see double penetration; and I wanted to see women tied up and suspended in the air during intercourse.

Disturbingly, in all the videos I craved around male-to-female domination, I was searching for a specific moment in the clip, a particular vulnerable look that could not be faked – at least not by the type of actresses I had watched.

Porn Addiction illustration by Sarah Irner thebrag.com

It was when the adult fi lm star would unintentionally reveal her pain. She might move her hand to slightly push on her partner’s thigh, motioning for him to slow down. She might look him in the eyes with a look of terror at the unexpected pain she was in – all the while offering a disingenuous moan to mask her true feelings. Or she might actually verbalise it with an “Ow!” That was what excited me most. That was what sent me into sensuous oblivion. Odious, right?

Is there something wrong with me?

I sat down with Pamela Supple, who has a Masters of Health Science and 25 years as a Sex, Relationship and Wellbeing Therapist under her belt. At her Sex Therapy Australia office in Sydney – which is surprisingly not decorated with phallic statues and lotus flower paintings à la Netflix’s Sex Education – I asked her why my sexual cravings had darkened in such a way. How could an out-and-proud feminist – who understands the generational effects of the male gaze – gain pleasure from the pain of her sisters?

“It’s part of your erotic imagination,” she said. “And if you act out on it and you actually like pain in a controlled environment, you could be a submissive and you’ve got a ‘dominant’ (partner) because you actually like pain in some way, shape or form.”

However, Supple told me not to confuse my erotic imagination with my innate sexual desires though; because the former can even be suffused by porn-use.

“You’re creating this beautiful voyage,” Supple said of our imaginations. “You’re creating, right? But with sex you’ve got to create it. You’ve got to communicate and you’ve got to explore. So to explore, most people look at porn, and this is where they get their ideas from.”

Despite the obvious signs that my brain was crossing the line past adventurous and over to Patrick Bateman-sadism, it wasn’t until I attended a work Christmas party (of all occasions) that it dawned on me that I might have an unhealthy relationship with porn.

The epiphany In December 2017, a coworker was telling me about how he and his wife never watch porn, neither individually or together. “If you look into it you’ll realise how damaging it is to your brain and your sex life,” he quipped.

A memory popped into my head of a time when my husband announced he was about to head out for the day. My thought process went a little like this: ‘Sex now or porn after he leaves? Which is quicker? Porn. I choose porn.’

This wasn’t a rare occurrence, too often I was not only choosing porn over my partner due to sheer convenience and time efficiency, I was actually hiding it from my husband. But why?

Sex Therapist Pamela Supple said it’s entirely normal to hide your ‘alone time’ from your partner, and there are many various reasons why some people do.

Her clients who struggle with porn addiction are mostly men, and range from under 25s who have developed performance anxiety, to 30-somethings who forgo food and sleep to undertake two-day

porn binges, to the over-40s, whose comorbidities range from body dysmorphia and depression, to workaholism and chemical imbalances. “[Some clients are] workaholics with whatever type of work they do,” said Supple. “[…] It’s easy to come home and just watch porn, get off, and then go to sleep, ‘Because I have to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning and start all over again. And because I work so often I’m not eating properly’.”

I’m now 15 months ‘porn free’, and with the benefit of hindsight, I can now see the neurobiological effects porn had on my brain at the time.

“I was definitely not alone in my obsession with the epic availability to watch pounded orifices on my iPhone” The Research In the 70s and 80s it was illegal for people to even view a pornographic film – this wasn’t too long before the advent of streaming porn in the mid-2000s. Even in the 90s Playboy magazine still involved using the imagination for the younger eye. And for those who may have encountered their first view of the naked female form in a sexualised way via a porn magazine, their imaginations probably didn’t conjure up the kinds of experiences displayed in porn now.

In fact, as soon as someone views an erotic image, the reward system in the brain activates and begins releasing dopamine.

A 2016 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of porn viewers showed elevated activity in the ventral striatum when male participants viewed an erotic image; AKA the brain was releasing dopamine. What’s more, participants of the study who reported signs of porn addiction experienced greater degrees of ventral striatum activity (dopamine release) when they viewed porn. > CONTINUED…

“I wanted to watch women gang-banged by a football team of hard-bodied men with raging erections. I wanted to see double penetration; and I wanted to see women tied up and suspended in the air during intercourse” BRAG :: 746 :: 05:06:19 :: 49

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POWER ISSUE

POWER OVER PORN CONTINUED…

It should come as no surprise then that a study undertaken by Duke University Medical Center in 2005 found that male monkeys will forgo food in order to view images of female monkey bottoms.

But perhaps this statistic will come as a surprise: Using data from six studies in the last three years, the rate for erectile dysfunction has increased from 2% 20 years ago (before the advent of streaming porn), to around 27-33% for men under 40.

One study on men aged 16-21 found 54% had sexual dysfunction, 27% had erectile dysfunction, and 24% had low libido. These are the average rates of men in their 60s and 70s.

In all my research, I found this 2014 study out of the UK to be the most harrowing regarding porn’s

“Too often I was not only choosing porn over my partner due to sheer convenience and time efficiency, I was actually hiding it from my husband”

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conditioning of adolescent brains: it saw a high rate of anal sex in adolescents but found that neither gender enjoyed it. The study by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – which collated interviews about the practice with 130 16-18 year olds – found males expected it but didn’t enjoy it, and females felt coerced into doing it.

However, a cursory glance at publicly available research will tell you that science is largely at odds over the risk-to-benefit ratio of watching pornography. A blog post on Psychology Today calls findings around the negative effects of porn on your brain “fear-based arguments”.

David J. Ley Ph.D. writes: “The problem is, there has been extremely little research that actually looks at the brains and behaviours of people using porn, and no good, experimental research that has looked at the brains of those who are allegedly addicted to porn.

There’s a sub on Reddit called /r/ Pornfree It’s a community of over 82,000 which exists “to help people of all ages overcome their addiction to porn.” I asked them what kinds of positive outcomes they noticed after their own experiences with abstinence.

One Redditor wrote: “I have more drive and my mind is clearer. Before everything seemed dull and my head was like it was filled with fog.

“Also I realised that I am lonely and that I crave emotional connection more than sex.

Before, all these emotions were sort of brushed under the rug.

Also, sex is so much more intense and really more of an emotional thing.”

Another said: “For me, cutting out pornography takes away the (extremely) brief high, but it also takes away the crashing low. It always left me feeling worse afterwards.”

This Redditor’s reply might be my favourite: “I had higher confidence and self esteem. I was much more sure of myself, like I didn’t second guess myself and made decisions quicker. Overall happiness was higher, I was super cheerful all of the time. I would appreciate many different types of women other than the super attractive ones.

“Extra attention from women, now I know that whole ‘super powers’ thing is nonsense but I did notice more women looking at me.”

“So, all of these arguments are theoretical, and based on rhetoric, inferences and applying other research findings to try to explain sexual behaviours.”

However, 15 months without porn in my life and I am one living example of the benefits of exercising abstinence. Almost immediately I found my partner more attractive – hell, I even found myself more attractive – and my orgasms were longer. My sexual tastes have changed and my arousal template no longer includes watching other women in pain, obviously.

Pamela Supple said, “There are underlying reasons why we do what we do.”

“Everybody’s addiction is different and we’ve got to look at that too; what is addiction?” she added.

“Whether it’s mental, whether it’s chemical or whether it’s family of origin stuff. There are different reasons why people do different things.”

Expert Insight Sex Therapist Pamela Supple’s advice? “Everything in moderation.”

“Just have a break every now and then,” she said. “And try [masturbating] without porn.

Because you’ve got this erotic imagination intelligence happening.

“Sex starts in the head: our thoughts, our processes, our connections, our sight, our smells… everything is associated with the brain. It’s everything.”

Personally, once I ‘unhooked’ I realised I don’t actually want my husband to tie me up and gag me, but I did realise that even his smile or his hand accidentally brushing against mine can turn me on. ■

If you’re currently struggling with pornography addiction there are many treatment options in Australia. For example, sex therapy, or Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, or SLAA, which is open to anyone who knows or thinks they have a problem with porn addiction.

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THE POWERS OF

TRUE SELF CARE

Katie Kendall explores her journey with mental illness and self care, and how she discovered the beauty and strength of taking time for oneself

L

ast year when I was in a psychiatric clinic I started making my bed in the morning for the first time. Every Sunday I would strip the standard issue hospital sheets from my bed and bundle them into the laundry bag I was given by the cleaners. Then I would pick up fresh sheets, bleached white and stiff, from the trolley at the end of hall. There was no fitted sheet, I learned to fold a top sheet around the mattress like the pressed corners of a wrapped gift.

About two weeks into my stay - when the sharp current of my mind in crisis began to soothe at the edges, I started making my bed each day. It was part of contributing to my own care. Paired with it were the fresh, hot, healthy meals I ate in the cafeteria, the walks I would take with the women on my ward, the four hours of group therapy I attended each day, the thrice-weekly meetings with my psychiatrist, the new medication, the pills that allowed me to sleep.

Rewind a decade to my first year of high school, where I was beginning to learn the language that existed to define the fears that kept me up at night for all of my life, words to explain my unbearable sadness when I grew out of clothes, or books, or toys that I loved. Not only was there something wrong with me, as I had always suspected, but something that could be pathologised. Something so grotesque, and unsightly, and abnormal that I could be singled out for it and judged.

It would take a decade for my diagnoses – Major Depressive Disorder, Generalised Anxiety, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – to be formalised and properly treated. It would also take a decade to begin to wean myself off such a cruel and loathing perception of myself. In the meantime I coped the only way I knew how, by pushing myself to be impressive. To top my classes, be beloved by my teachers, never move an inch towards trouble or out of line. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Or die trying.

“IN A LIFE OF CHRONIC ILLNESS, IGNORING YOUR PROBLEMS, OR TRYING TO PROVE THAT THEY DO NOT EXIST, ONLY MAKES YOU POWERLESS TO ENJOY ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR LIFE” thebrag.com

“PERFECT, PERFECT, PERFECT. OR DIE TRYING” By my university years this way of protecting myself from criticism was crystallised into my view of everything. I had to be a High Distinction average student, the Editor in Chief of the student paper, the acting manager at my retail job, the President of a society. Even while my father died of cancer, even while the world inside of me crumpled. There was no room to be caught out for what I was – ugly and stupid and sad and struggling.

And when the attrition of that neglect for my own needs began to wear me too thin, I would care for myself in the only ways I knew how. Hot chips from the uni food court, a cheap bottle of wine, six cups of coffee a day, sitting down on the floor of the shower while Tegan and Sara bit angrily through my tiny iPhone speaker. Treats and indulgences and distractions that would soothe me temporarily or allow me to wallow.

When I was very small, younger even than when I had words to define anxiety, I would lie in my bed terrified of the dark and the things the dark concealed. I would obsessively pick at the scabs and scrapes on my clumsy little legs. This would distract me, soothe me. In the morning I would get up and go to school leaving my bed unmade, a crumpled shame of sheets speckled with tiny flecks of blood.

For so long the concept of self-care that wasn’t temporary, distracting or destructive was outside of my realm of imagining.

A lot of my inpatient treatment was about pulling me back from the brink - I had arrived in a state of catatonic distress, vacillating between paralysing anxiety and crushing suicidality. Years of neglect and mistreatment of myself, seasoned by trauma, grief, and abuse, left me a shell of a human being.

The ways I had been coping no longer came close to working.

This was the first place that I was really introduced to the idea that I not only had a right, but a responsibility to care for myself.

That framing my illness as a personal or moral failure was literally killing me. Chronic mental illness is like existing your entire life in a lake of quicksand. We are taught by the world around us that we ought to be ashamed of the place we have found ourselves in, that we have to push and push to fight our way to the surface. You

Disclaimer: This piece contains mentions of Mental Illness, Depression, Anxiety, Therapy and Use of Medication.

cannot fight your way out; you have to find a way to slow down.

So I learned that in a life of chronic illness, ignoring your problems, or trying to prove that they do not exist, only makes you powerless to enjoy anything about your life. I am limited by my illness. But I am also given skills, insights, and awareness about myself that other people do not have access to. My mental illness limits me and this is not a failure.

This is simply a fact.

I don’t have a choice in whether or not I’m sick.

Abusers and traumas and genetics and the structure of our society have taken that out of my hands. What I have learned in the last year is the agency that is available to me in the decision to care for myself.

So I take my medication, I go to weekly therapy, I quit my retail jobs, I dropped out of uni, I got a therapy cat, I eat my veggies, I exercise every day, I set boundaries, I practice coping skills that don’t harm me, I make room for my feelings.

“SELF-CARE FOR ME NOW IS THE FUNDAMENTAL TENET OF MY SURVIVAL. IT PAVES THE ROAD TOWARDS SELF-COMPASSION, SELF-ACCEPTANCE, AND SELF-LOVE” Self-care for me now is the fundamental tenet of my survival. It paves the road towards self-compassion, self-acceptance, and self-love. I am not in some wildly subverted place now where I embrace and celebrate my illness every day. But I am in a place where I can prioritise the act of looking after myself in almost the same way I used to prioritise proving myself.

I make my bed every day now so that in the midst of a world that is not too kind to the mentally ill, I have a small piece of generosity and love towards myself to come home to.

If you are currently struggling with any form of mental illness, there are multiple services in Australia available such as Beyond Blue, ReachOut and Mental Health Australia, which are open to anyone who knows or thinks they are suffering from mental illness. ■

If you are currently struggling with any form of mental illness, there are multiple services in Australia available such as Beyond Blue, ReachOut and Mental Health Australia, which are open to anyone who knows or thinks they are suffering from mental illness.

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POWER ISSUE

Straight to the Top Michael Di Iorio talks with Nikki Van Blair, Jason Dewhurst and Silvio Milano, the faces behind Australia’s uprising of LGBT wrestlers Silvio

Silvio Milano, Wrestling Go! Fire

However, beneath the revered performative iconism of WWE’s most obvious American legends, professional wrestlers are climbing the ranks right here in Australia.

Living in the shadows of WWE’s over-encompassing reaches are independent wrestlers with unique characters and stories, fighting their way to the top.

While female wrestling duo Billie and Peyton (The Iconic Duo), Australia’s latest exports, are making waves for aussie female wrestling overseas, back at home, three wrestlers have been making moves, and in just a short amount of time, have been climbing the ranks with their character, charm, personality and most of all, badassery.

I spoke with wrestling duo “The Plastics”, consisting of Nikki Van Blair, the vain and spoilt provocateur also

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known as “Daddy’s Little Angel” and Jason Dewhurst The Samoan Wrestling Diva, who performs in fierce drag inspired by the likes of powerful women such as Cardi B and the City Girls. I also spoke with Silvio Milano, a fashion icon with a penchant for flying face kicks who makes the word grandiose seem small.

All three of these aussie wrestlers share very similar traits. They’re unabashedly themselves, they’re flamboyant, they’re undeniably the best dressed in the room, and on top of all that, they are all openly gay.

Currently in WWE and other leading wrestling groups there are no openly gay singles champion wrestlers, a fact that comes down to the people who decide makes it forward in a career as ‘masculine’ as wrestling.

However this fact, while a hindrance at times to these three wrestlers, has not stopped them in their tracks at all. In fact, it has pushed them to keep on going even harder, as they all vie for the spot as Australia’s first openly gay export to the big leagues overseas.

“It’s hard to ignore someone in bright pink tights”

Nikki Van Blair, Wrestling Go! Ironman

How much of your real self would you say is imbedded in your character?

Jason: I’d say I’m myself, just elevated to 100.

Nikki: I would say about 120% of me is in my wrestling character. It came so naturally to me that when I started to get in the ring to develop my gimmick, there was literally no question about it. I have a very close relationship with my father, and the fact that some people are astounded by how much he does for me even though I’m a grown adult really solidified the “Daddy’s Little Angel” persona.

New Photography Studios, Silvio Milano shot by Lauren Moulton

U

sually when people hear the word wrestling, their minds go straight to the obvious choices that have been iconic in mainstream culture. Your John Cena’s, your Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s, your “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s, hell, even throw in The Undertaker for good measure.

“It’s important to not take things so seriously”

As an LGBT wrestler, why do you feel that there are very few openly gay wrestling’s at higher levels of wrestling?

Silvio: People are always scared of being scrutinised and put under direct spotlight to try and be used as that token of a minority group. Especially now with social media, anything used to put you even more under the microscope is avoided. Additionally, wrestling seemed to always be a masculine environment and especially where money and lifestyle is concerned, you don’t want to give people a reason to reject you or be scared to give you a push because of the fear that fans won’t respond to it. Especially with wrestling, once you say something you have to be fully committed, so if you come out, you have to be fully prepared to push and carry that title with you and work twice as hard to prove that you deserve to be there.

Jason: We’re starting to see big representation of LGBT wrestling now with the likes of Sonya Deville, Sonny Kiss and Nyla Rose. It has taken a while, but times are changing throughout wrestling for the greater good.

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special in interest terest

“If I can touch someone’s life like that, or inspire them to be their best selves, then that’s way more than I thought this dream could ever be”

The Plastics, Wrestling Go! Golympic Games III

Have you faced sexuality-based discrimination as a wrestler?

Nikki: Yes, I have, but that’s not to take away how inclusive a majority of Australian pro wrestling is. I have heard that a certain promotion won’t book me or any other LGBT wrestlers, which is entirely up to them. But you have this one promotion compared to all the other promotions that gladly opens their doors for me and want to push me regardless of my sexual orientation.

Silvio: You prepare yourself for it when you become open. It’s usually, “we want the flamboyant you, but not the gay you” obviously not told so upfront but that’s the general gist of it. Promoters also get scared of pushing or using you seriously (for titles and feuds) because they believe the crowd won’t get behind or take you seriously as a threat to someone’s reign as champ.

Phoenix, were all great, amazing, athletic, feminine and capable women who kicked ass and that was just awe inspiring to me.

Nikki: My number one inspiration in wrestling is Sable. To me personally, someone’s wrestling ability isn’t going to keep you hooked to the program; it’s someone’s presence. And when I started watching wrestling in 1998, every time Sable would walk into a room, or smile, or wave, I was just completely enamoured.

Along with people like Kurt Angle and Stacy Keibler, I strive to have that same presence that when I walk into a room, all eyes are on me, so that I can entertain you to the best of my ability.

Jason: I’d say Melina. We’ve become such good friends she’s a true LGBT ally. New Japan’s Toks Fale who I trained with over in New Zealand with Fale Dojo too, he was the one who actually helped me and gave me the drag queen gimmick.

“Most people underestimate me because I’m a drag queen, but once I’m in the ring they see I hit hard like an NRL player”

For “The Plastics”, not only do you represent yourselves, but you perform as an LGBT duo. How did this come about and what inspires you the most about being a tag team?

How do you feel about representing LGBT people so wonderfully, and being one of very few to do so?

Nikki: I love when anyone chooses to look up to me, but I didn’t realise the impact my wrestling career could have until I received a tweet from a fan in the USA saying that me and a couple of other LGBT wrestlers across the world have inspired him to become a wrestler. That was one of the most moving moments of my career so far. If I can touch someone’s life like that, or inspire them to be their best selves, then that’s way more than I thought this dream could ever be.

What do you hope to achieve with your wrestling career either for yourself or for the LGBT community at large?

Nikki: “The Plastics” came together originally because Jason and I had a very similar style, and when APWG had a tag team tournament, it was only fitting that we were paired together. And we’ve been nearly unstoppable ever since. The funny thing about the Plastics, is that while there is an obvious Mean Girls reference, being called a “plastic” in Polynesian culture is kind of an insult, which Jason and I were aware of when we named ourselves and thought we’d poke fun at ourselves. It’s important to not take things so seriously. There’s nothing that will stop us from spreading awareness through our wrestling and our character work.

Jason: Nikki and I always knew one day we would tag eventually, and eventually we did. Didn’t know we would blow up this fast though.

“When I walk into a room, all eyes are on me, so that I can entertain you to the best of my ability”

Silvio: I just want to inspire people to be confident in themselves and not be scared about how audiences, wrestlers or anyone else will view them. I want someone to be able to look to me and see me on a show or on TV somewhere and think “if he can do that and get to where he is, then I can go to a show, or sign up to a school” or literally anything under that idea. I want to get to the point where I’ll be a major LGBT wrestler on a big promotion and make a success out of that because I’m willing to carry the stress and burden that it requires to become a representation of the LGBT community. I just want to do well, and inspire other people to do the same.

Nikki: Selfishly speaking, I want to be featured on the bigger platforms of wrestling. I love what I do, and if I could do it full-time and still maintain my luxury lifestyle, then I’ll be happy. For the LGBT community, I want to show that all walks of life can be who they are and kick ass at what they do.

Who are your wrestling icons/inspirations that drove you to wrestle?

Silvio: I was drawn into wrestling by the Undertaker. He was my absolute favourite as a child. His presence, aura, storytelling and iconography just inspired me and made me think, “Wow, if he can make people believe and want to believe in HIM (a dead man essentially), I want to be a part of that”. As I started training though, I turned to more female icons that could represent my style of wrestling better and my now favourite would have to be Awesome Kong. Women like her, Manami Toyota, Akira Hokuto, Bull Nakano, Aja Kong, Melina, Trish Stratus, Beth

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How important is character and looks to you in wrestling and do you feel that your character has received scrutiny from more close-minded individuals?

Silvio: I feel like people have tried to reject or not be involved in my character, but it’s hard to ignore someone in bright pink tights. When I first started lots of the audience and wrestlers would look at me and watch me like “who is he” and “why is he here” but once other people caught on and started booing or cheering, people couldn’t help but join in.

Nikki: Character and looks is very important, and to some extent, it’s more important than wrestling technique. If you’re an outstanding wrestling technician, but you’re as bland as white bread, then no one will go home remembering who you are; if you’re an over-thetop character who people can easily identify with, but you may not possess the same wrestling ability as the aforementioned person, then I know who I’d pick. As far as receiving scrutiny, again, I have received some from a small percentage of close-minded individuals, but I don’t want that to take away from the vast majority that praise my character work and push to see Nikki Van Blair exposed to new audiences across the country and internationally.

Jason: Character and looks is very important. You need to engage with the crowd and have that connection where at least someone can resonate with you. Most people underestimate me because I’m a drag queen, but once I’m in the ring they see I hit hard like an NRL player. I mean I’m Samoan, wrestling is in my blood. ■

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POWER ISSUE

5 MOMENTS THAT SHAPED

Geordie Gray looks back on the stunning history of the power suit, basking in all of its gender-defying glory

1.

Grace Jones, Nightclubbing Armani Suit

No one in history has worn a suit better than Grace Jones. The androgynous revolutionary has been redefining beauty and skewing gender norms her entire career. The Armani suit Jones sported on the cover of her career-defining 1981 record Nightclubbing perfectly encapsulated her power and defiance. Sharply structured, over-padded shoulders accentuated her impossibly sculpted decolletage.

Collaborator and photographer Jean-Paul Goude: “It was about extremity, playing on her masculinity. Grace simplified to the maximum.”

2.

Lady Gaga, Marc Jacobs Suit, Women in Hollywood event

Last year, Lady Gaga received an honour at the 25th annual Women in Hollywood evening. Gaga took the stage to deliver a poignant, personal speech, detailing her experience with sexual assault, mental health, and discovering her inner strength. The speech was an important cultural marker of female resilience in the postWeinstein era.

Gaga has always used fashion as a vessel for didacticism. During the ceremony, she detailed that she tried on dozens of dresses, all of which filled her with unease. It was the Marc Jacobs Spring 2019 suit that she felt acted as a visual cohort to her message.

4.

Le Smoking Suit

Janelle Monáe

When Yves Saint Laurent introduced the tuxedoinfluenced Le Smoking Suit to the world in 1966, it reshaped how society viewed sexuality in a way that still permeates runways to this day.

Janelle Monáe established herself a suit-donning juggernaut from day one. It was her 2010 music video for ‘Tightrope’ that first showcased her penchant for sophisticated and perfectly tailored suits; the cropped leg tuxedo, bow tie and impossibly voluminous pompadour have been etched into my mind’s eye forever. Monochromatic suits very quickly became synonymous with Monáe’s brand.

Le Smoking Suit was subversive, divisive and rejected by critics upon its debut. New York Times critic Gloria Emerson described the collection as “lumpy” and “outdated”, professing that Saint Laurent “strains too hard to convince the world he is hand-in-hand and eye-toeye with the very young.”

“As a sexual assault survivor by someone in the entertainment industry, as a woman who is still not brave enough to say his name, as a woman who lives with chronic pain, as a woman who was conditioned at a very young age to listen to what men told me to do, I decided today I wanted to take the power back. Today I wear the pants.”

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3.

Despite this, Le Smoking Suit resonated with generations of It Girls and has been sported by everyone from Emma Watson and Megan Fox, to Catherine Deneuve and Betty Catroux.

Perhaps most famously, a white interpretation of Le Smoking Suit was worn by Bianca Jagger when she married Mick in May 1971.

New York socialite Nan Kempner perfectly encapsulated the rebellious spirit of Le Smoking Suit after she was refused entry into Le Côte Basque in New York for wearing the tuxedo.

In protest, she removed the bottom half of the suit and swaggered into the restaurant wearing the jacket as a thighlength mini dress.

Le Smoking remained a core fixture in Saint Laurent up until the close of the couture line in 2002. When reflecting on the success of the suit, Yves Saint Laurent famously said: “For a woman, Le Smoking is an indispensable garment with which she finds herself continually in fashion, because it is about style, not fashion. Fashions come and go, but style is forever.”

Back in 2013, Monáe explained that her decision to wear these monochrome suits was a homage to her working class roots.

“My mom and dad wore uniforms, whether they were janitors or post office employees. They worked hard to make sure we had clothes on our backs and food in our mouths. I never, ever want to forget them, so I always wear my uniform — a jacket and pants in blackand-white — to pay homage to them and to remind myself I have work to do.”

5.

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn was a trailblazer in the truest sense. The Hollywood heavyweight chose to don menswear-inspired suits in an era where women were arrested if they wore pants in public, and detained for “masquerading as men.”

Hepburn was often considered “too masculine” and “too rough” and directors found her too difficult to cast opposite men. This did not sway her from dressing in her signature epicene manner.

“I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man,” Hepburn shared with Barbara Walters in 1981.

“I’ve just done what I damn well wanted to and I made enough money to support myself, and I ain’t afraid of being alone.” ■ 1. Grace Jones’ album Nightclubbing, 1981, Island Records; 2. Catharine Deneuve in Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking Suit, 1966; 3. Lady Gaga wearing Marc Jacobs Spring ‘19 to ELLE Magazine (US)’s 25th Annual Elle Women In Hollywood Event.; 4. Monae performing at the Austin Music Hall during SXSW, March 2009; 5. Katharine Hepburn at the Hotel Australia, Sydney, 1955

Le Smoking Par Yves Saint Laurent - 1966 © Jean-Claude Sauer - ; Lady Gaga @marcjacobsintl Facebook; Janelle Monáe wikipedia, Katharine Hepburn at the Hotel Australia, Sydney, 1955 / Australian Photographic Agency (APA) Collection, State Library of New South Wales

Power Suit History

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Power Suit illustration by Alecia John thebrag.com

BRAG :: 746 :: 05:06:19 :: 55

Gaming news and reviews with Adam Guetti

HANDS-ON WITH THE

Added left Shoulder Button

Added System Buttons

Larger D-Pad

Nintendo Switch PowerA Wireless GameCube Controller

Added right Shoulder Button

GameCube Button Layout

Octagonal Gated C-Stick

When Super Smash Bros. Ultimate released for the Switch late last year, so too did a bevy of controllers hoping to win your affection. But while the Smash Bros. faithful will insist on hooking up a GameCube adapter and old-school controllers, our pick of the litter is without question PowerA’s Wireless GameCube Controller.

It goes without saying that PowerA’s unit looks and feels exactly as you’d expect. Button and stick placement have been replicated exactly like the original, except for the D-pad, which has actually been made larger for easier use – a common criticism of the 2002 original. That means pulling off combos and specials during any Smash Bros. brawl will feel just right, but the controller is great for almost any other Switch title as well. We, for example, exclusively used it during our playtime with Cuphead. The shell admittedly has more of a plastic feel and lacks the proper weight you’d expect in your hands, but they are incredibly

minor concerns once you factor in the peripheral’s biggest selling point – wireless play.

Yes, thanks to Bluetooth 5.0, the controller thankfully does away with the chaos of cords, allowing you to do away with pesky adapters.

Setup is simple enough too, taking no more than a minute or so. It’s worth pointing out that the controller does require two AA batteries for power, but in an unexpected move, your first set will be included in the box - providing you with up to 30 hours of gameplay. We’ve been putting the unit through its paces and have yet to receive any sign of a required changeover.

Truly hardcore players might lament the lack of HD rumble, IR, or Amiibo NFC support, but for a relatively cheap investment (you can pick one up for $79.95 in a variety of colours), the Nintendo Switch PowerA Wireless GameCube Controller is certainly worthy of both your time and money.

reviewroundup

By Adam Guetti

Cuphead (Switch)

Mortal Kombat 11 (PS4, XB1, PC)

Cuphead might give off a childlike, Steamboat Willie-inspired vibe, but it’s the stuff of nightmares. This collection of multi-staged boss battles and platformer levels will test your twitch reflexes and video game abilities, forcing you to get better with each inevitable death. But the amazing thing about this gem is that you’ll want to – such is the addictive nature of 5 its gameplay. It’s also beautifully animated with a raft of memorable characters. A must-buy for Switch owners.

Considering the Mortal Kombat series has been steadily chugging along for over 25 years, it’s downright impressive that Mortal Kombat 11 is as enjoyable as ever – packing one of the best campaigns in recent memory.

It’s well-written, funny, wonderfully self-aware and worth the price of admission alone. Combat is equally satisfying but pesky 4.5 microtransactions do threaten to slightly underpin the positives.

Falcon Age (PS4)

Katana Zero (Switch, PC)

Despite the fact that the game can be played with or without a VR headset, there’s arguably no other way to play Falcon Age than with a PSVR. Interacting with your falcon and developing that bond over the five-hour adventure is something special indeed – leading to a mustplay experience that is equal parts charming and endearing. An 3.5 impressive achievement for first-time developer, Outer Loop Games.

A stylish, neo-noir action-platformer, Katana Zero is fast, chaotic and not afraid to shed… well a lot of blood. Thanks to a clever time manipulation mechanic, there’s a fair bit of trial and error at play here, allowing for some truly brutal strategy to take on foes. Working out the best approach to each situation creates a great hook that’ll keep you chugging along 4.5 even when the narrative starts to lose a little focus.

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What to expect from E3 2019 Get excited, because it’s almost that wonderful time of year again where the video game industry’s biggest companies unite in Los Angeles to show off their latest and greatest offerings.

Here’s a handful of announcements we think are pretty darn likely for 2019…

A new console from Microsoft With Sony bowing out this year, Microsoft has the perfect opportunity to make a splash and show off its next-generation hardware, especially after Sony dropped a wealth of information about its successor to the PS4. We almost certainly won’t get a price or release date, but expect to learn about the horsepower behind the system, whether or not there will be all-digital and physical iterations, and maybe even some gameplay footage of Halo Infinite.

Footage of The Avengers Project Back in January 2017, Square Enix and Marvel announced a “multi-game partnership” that would include an Avengers game crafted by the teams behind the recent iterations of Tomb Raider and Deus Ex. We haven’t heard a peep about the project since then, but with Endgame blowing up the box office, now would be the perfect time to assemble the team.

Xbox and Nintendo teaming up Microsoft has proved its no stranger to sharing of late, with Cuphead’s recent Switch port and the tease of Xbox Live making its way to the Nintendo console. The next logical step would be including the Switch in Xbox’s Game Pass – the popular subscription service that grants access to a wide range of titles. Will you soon be playing Halo on a Nintendo system? Will Master Chief be coming to Smash Bros.? Only time will tell…

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POWER ISSUE

A Guide to Powering Through Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

By Adam Guetti

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is not an easy game, we know. Oh boy, do we know. Thankfully, though, there’s a few tips and tricks that will make your time in Japan a little less bloody.

Don’t be afraid to run It’s easy to let pride take over, we know, but being successful in Sekiro is knowing when to retreat.

Whether you’re on the last slither of health, or choose to revive yourself after dying, it’s always a smarter option to run back to the nearest idol, replenish your health and try again with fresh eyes and more knowledge than before.

Visit the Dilapidated Temple often The Dilapidated Temple might be one of the first areas you visit, but it is also one that you should certainly swing past multiple times throughout your journey – particularly to visit helpful NPCs. The Sculptor will provide your prosthetic limb with essential upgrades while Emma can help cure Dragonrot and increase your health. Then there’s Hanbei the Undying, who is perhaps most helpful of all, allows you to utilise him as a living punching bag to hone new skills, abilities and moves without draining valuable health.

Stealth is always best Although it’s made by the team behind Dark Souls, if you treat Sekiro like that series, you will be crushed early on.

Running headfirst into battle is rarely the best plan. Instead, use the environment to your advantage and quietly take out a few foes before making yourself known. Thinning the herd will be crucial to staying alive until your next checkpoint.

Try not to avoid mini bosses Aside from a handful of boss encounters, most enemies can be avoided – including a range of minibosses that require multiple deathblows. A word of advice though: skipping them will actually be a disservice to your progress and stunt your learning of Sekiro’s combat mechanics.

If you aren’t capable of handling a minor boss, there’s a large chance you’ll struggle by the time you reach one that has to be beaten to continue onwards.

The Dilapidated Temple

Heave Ho & The Power of Cooperation

By Adam Guetti

FEATURE

The Mikiri Counter

Devolver Digital has certainly made a name for itself over the last few years, especially after publishing breakout hits like Hotline Miami.

But while a lot of attention is being focused on the publisher’s upcoming My Name is Pedro – a quirky slowmotion-heavy third person

shooter – an unassuming party title from independent French developer Le Cartel is equally worthy of your attention.

Heave Ho isn’t an easy game to describe in words, but the elevator pitch is simple: grab up to four players to take control of small, roundish blobs and together, make your way across 2D levels without falling to your perilous death.

The catch, on the other hand, is slightly more complex. In order to move, you must make use of your character’s arms and hands – controlled by your two analogue sticks and triggers and respectively.

Each hand can grab onto surfaces as well as other players, allowing you to fling yourself across environments

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Purchase the Mikiri Counter Levelling-up in Sekiro allows you to unlock new skills. One of the first ones you should aim to unlock is the Mikiri Counter, which grants you the ability to counter enemy thrusts. Its usefulness won’t be immediately apparent, but trust us, it won’t be long until you run into a foe with a truly terrifying spear that packs a hell of a punch.

Find the Young Lord’s Bell Charm Tucked away in the Ashina Outskirts, right before you encounter a brutal ogre, you’ll find an old lady who gifts you a crucial item – the Young Lord’s Bell Charm. It mightn’t seem like much, but offering the charm to the Buddha Statue in the Dilapidated Temple will unlock a hidden memory of events that transpired at the Hirata Estate, three years prior. Miss it and you’ll blow past a huge area of the game that also contains valuable items that lead to upgrades for your Prosthetic. ■

or create links like a Barrel of Monkeys.

What follows is level after level of chaos, dangling limbs and a whole lot of yelling.

There’s a slight awkwardness in coming to terms with each arm and how to control them, but it’s in this awkwardness, and the failure it creates, that leads to much of Heave Ho’s joy.

This is a game that forgets bleeding edge graphics and engaging narrative for a simple hook that is just damn good fun.

You’ll definitely want a full four players, as well. While some of the levels can be tackled individually or with a friend, it will be a long road filled with trial and error.

With a complete team, the game’s physics really come into play as you attempt to use momentum to your advantage by swinging smaller groups (or the entire team) into the air in the hopes of achieving a moment of pure glory.

Strategy and cooperation will be the key to your success.

Some levels even throw a coin to collect into the mix – adding an extra layer of strategy to your team dynamic as you formulate plans to skilfully launch it from halfway across a level or bring it along for the ride.

Heave Ho should definitely be on your radar when it launches on Switch and PC later this winter. ■ thebrag.com

parent talk James Fouche offers a father’s perspective in this guide to getting back up after losing everything as a father and fighting against depression

T

he stress of losing everything can break you.

Hitting rock bottom. Crash and burn. Down and out. Dead in the water. Up in smoke. Hitting the skids. In dire straits. There are many ways of saying that you have found yourself in stormy seas. No matter the severity of the storm, it could bring your entire world crashing down.

It happens so fast that it is practically unavoidable. Let’s say a mountain of debt arrives where once there had been a moneytree sprouting bills. Any business man will know that a couple of bad decisions can quickly lead to financial ruin.

And it doesn’t need to be finances that dispatch the depression.

It can be a rancorous divorce, a lengthy legal battle with in-laws, retrenchment or unemployment, a bad business deal, an online scam, a dreaded disease, or an unexpected death in the family.

A meltdown comes at you like a freight train and always catches you off-guard. Things spiral out of control. Every effort to stop it, simply makes it worse. While you run to catch up, you damage trust relationships with mates, colleagues, and family. Your tale of woe reaches a level of Jobian proportions.

Where your partner looked to you for guidance, now she feels quite prepared to do everything on her own. It’s like she has ticked over to survival mode and you didn’t get the memo to do the same.

Before you know what’s happening, you cease to matter.

Things sort of carry on without you. You shuffle things around, prioritise and try to adapt, but nothing yields fruit. It seems impossile to weather the storm.

HOW DO YOU FIGHT YOUR DEPRESSION AND GET BACK UP AGAIN? Whatever the situation and however it came to be, you are in it now. It’s a dark and lonely pit – and you need to get out of it. Depending on your willingness to accept the magnitude of the task which lies ahead, you can get out of it within a year, or wriggle out of it a decade later, alienated from your loved ones and looking like you’ve been mauled by a bear.

ENEMY NUMBER 1::

ENEMY NUMBER 2::

THE BURDEN OF SHAME What exactly do you have to be ashamed about? Were you once the entrepreneurial stalwart others admired? The community leader and businessman of the year? So, what? How will it benefit to hang your head in shame and to coast through the remainder of your life without giving it another go? The only way out, is through. And that will take some effort.

Warning, here comes a Branson quote: “Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”

HAVE YOU REACHED THE END OF THE LINE? If you keep asking this question, you are in trouble. You have NOT reached the end of the line. The end is not even in sight. You are allowing circumstances to dictate your future.

This type of thinking could drive you to a catastrophic result. It is no coincidence that suicide rates in men normally spike during a recession. Don’t even go there. Your family needs you.

5 STEPS TO FIGHTING STRESS AND GETTING BACK UP AGAIN Be selfish

Photo by Gabriel on Unsplash

For the sake of your family, stop sharing yourself with people who rob you of your spare time. If you can avoid them, then do so. Your personal space is of paramount importance now. It’s not quite as tragic as rediscovering yourself (though, that might just be the case.)

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You are chasing solitude for the sake of evaluating your situation. You are seeking clarity. This is how you obtain it. It is not complete isolation, just a momentary avoidance of noise and rush. This will also help separate friends from acquaintances or leeches.

You need to take care of your body, your mind and your soul, not always in that order. You need to be a good husband and an even better dad. I say again, your family needs you! Here are the five most practical things to help get your ass into gear and escape the hole you are in.

Get fit

Think Rocky 4, where our hero escapes to a cabin in the woods. He begins a rigorous training routine to defeat the formidable Ivan Drago. I’m not saying bulk up and try to fight a pissed-off Russian with biceps the size of tree trunks. Your fight is a different fight. Get your life back. You need to be fit to do that. A good fitness routine clears the mind and gives one purpose and direction.

Despise negativity

80/20 your problems

This is easier said than done. Negativity will find you. Read positive things about inspirational people.

You must become the enemy of negativity. Read books that hold a positive tone. Not Moby Dick or Grapes of Wrath. Leave the classics until you are back on top of things.

This one I am borrowing straight from Alexander Heyne because it just makes sense. In business, the Pareto Principle (known as the 80/20 rule) states that roughly 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes. Somehow, I found that this is applicable to life as well. Roughly 80% of your stress spawns from 20% of your problems. If this is true of your circumstances, then get cracking on that 20% of your problems causing the most stress.

Get social Join groups or communities for dads who might be facing similar trials. The DILF (Dad I’d Like To Friend) Club is a fantastic example of what you are looking for. This is a community for men with young children. From social gatherings where the kids have a play or just discussions within the groups, this is what you need. There are areaspecific groups already set up across Australia.

While you are down, this is the type of social safety zone that could protect you from doom prophets or from furthering your depression. ■

Powered by

If you are currently struggling with any form of mental illness, there are multiple services in Australia available such as Beyond Blue, ReachOut and Mental Health Australia, which are open to anyone who knows or thinks they are suffering from mental illness.

BRAG :: 746 745 :: 05:06:19 06:03:19 :: 59

SHORT STORY CONTENT WARNING: Graphic sexual descriptions, r*pe, self-harm, blood.

Claws On, Baby

BY P O P P Y R E I D

S

S

On the other side of the door, listening intently to her fractured hyperventilations, is her girlfriend. The person she had planned a whole life with. The person who had come into her life as an unexpected burst of blue sky. The person who, on her birthday one year, had planned a South Parkthemed surprise party for her and invited only the people she loved. Mel remembers how Billie had sat on the edge of the bathtub and smiled as she changed into a Kenny costume. They laughed and laughed as they wrangled the big orange hood over her face. She thought she had found her forever.

Moments ago, Billie held Mel down on the bed and despite the surprised screams, the flailing arms and tears, Billie forced her hand inside her and pumped her bitter, unresolved hate into a body that soon turned limp, a body that had given up.

Billie pushes her ear against the door and traces the M she carved into the side of her wrist.

“Mel,” she pauses and her resentment hangs in the air. “You need to clean yourself up now.”

Billie’s voice doesn’t sound like her own. It has lost its sing-song trill and upward inflection. She sounds severe but calm, two traits she’d never really had before.

Mel pushes her head back into the wall behind her, wishing it could just envelop her. She looks up, and whispers a prayer; her first in years.

It went something along the lines of: “God, please, please, please, get me to a safe place. Make her go away. Make her fall asleep so I can run.”

A year ago, Mel and Billie were on a train, wrapped in each other's arms after a New Found Glory concert. They should have been finished with the infatuation and butterflies that come with the honeymoon stage, but four years in and they were inseparable.

What had started as a friendship in high school, when they would dismiss their boy crushes at parties just so they could be alone, soon turned into more than either were ready for. It started gradually, from holding hands on the bus, to spending all their savings on presents for each other that were so secret, so esoteric, that they further crystallised their impenetrable enclosure.

Then one night Mel awoke to feel Billie’s face so close to her's that if she pursed her lips they would be kissing. Mel imagined turning her head away and laughing if Billie got closer, but instead she waited, and waited; her heartbeat pounding through her ears.

The kiss wasn’t weird or repulsive, it was exactly the opposite. It was two women unlearning everything they thought love was meant to be, and opening a new door in their hearts.

ix months ago, they were at a party on the coast when Mel had walked off with a boy. Billie caught them kissing and when she smashed her own head against a brick wall in a fit of rage, she needed six stitches.

Hours ago, they’d rented a cabin just outside the city to see whether the relationship could be salvaged.

“Come like the whore you are,” Billie spat through bared teeth.

And in the screwed-up way that a woman’s body can betray her when triggered with medical precision in exactly the right spot, she orgasmed into her own stifled cries.

Minutes passed, then hours. Mel had to be sure Billie had fallen asleep before she allowed the click of the lock to sound down the hallway. She opens it carefully but stands tall to prove to herself she’s resilient.

Billie isn’t in the bedroom. Instead she’s sat at the kitchen table nursing a glass of water and staring at nothing in particular. Mel briefly imagines taking that glass and smashing it against Billie’s head. She’d like to see Billie fall to the floor as a small pool of blood spilled out behind her like a forming halo. Just like in the movies.

Billie looks up at Mel with a menacing smirk; again, completely unrecognisable. She takes in the sight of her blood-stained thigh pressed against her denim shorts, her backpack slung over one shoulder, her phone in her hand. She considers what Mel’s next move might be and she hopes it’s violence. She’s already dead anyway.

Mel slowly walks over to Billie. It’s an awkward seven steps, but they feel deliberate and each one seems less threatening than the last. She puts her hand on Billie’s shoulder.

“I forgive you,” she says, already feeling her power return to her limbs.

Billie’s face changes and she starts crying. She seems to be getting smaller and smaller as she hunches forward and buries her wet sobs in her hands.

Her dank, blackened spirit had turned almost sickly. She’s no longer threatening or strong, she’s a little girl who looks like she’s woken up from a nightmare, only to find it’s her reality.

After removing her hand from Billie’s shoulder, Mel turns and walks out the door.

If you or someone you know is impacted by rape or sexual assault, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.

60 :: BRAG :: 746 :: 05:06:19

Illustration by Janey Li

he’s sat on the floor next to a locked bathroom door, terrified. A mix of blood and her own climax has coagulated into a slick line down her inner thigh, as if a wounded snail has crawled out of her and vanished right above her knee.

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BRAG :: 746 :: 05:06:19 :: 61

s n a p s

What we’ve been out to see this fortnight. See full galleries at thebrag.com/snaps

Clockwise from top: 30:04:19 :: Billie Eilish @Hordern Pavilion by Ashley Mar 28:01:19 :: Slash @Qudos Bank Arena by Ashley Mar 16:05:19 :: CXLOE @Oxford Art Factory by Ashley Mar 09:04:19 :: Middle Kids :@ The Metro Theatre by Ashley Mar 22:04:19 :: Hozier @Sydney Opera House by Ashley Mar 27:05:19 :: Maggie Rogers @Enmore Theatre by Ashley Mar 30:04:19 :: Superorganism 24:07:18 Billie Eilish @Hordern

by Ashley Mar Mar @The Pavillion Metro Theatre

by Ashley 08:12:18 :: Wu-Tang Clan @Sydney Opera House by Ashley Mar

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s n a p s

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BRAG :: 746 :: 05:06:19 :: 63

gig guide ARC

BLACKPINK

THU

13 JUN

PICK OF THE ISSUE TUE

20 AUG

Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Kram from Spiderbait, Mark Wilson from Jet, Davey Lane from You Am I and Darren Middleton from Powderfinger have joined forces to cover one of the Beatles greatest albums, if not the best.

Abbey Road has been a cultural and musical landmark for decades, undeniable in its impact and genius. Come together to catch the legendary album being done absolute justice by Australian alt-rock icons, for a performance that will be Something that you do not want to miss.

WEDNESDAY 05 JUN

THURSDAY 06 JUN

SAT

13 JUL

Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Whether you’ve cured yourself from 2018’s Disease or not, Beartooth don’t care. They’re back to dig in for another bite and the taste of blood has them addicted. Be sure to witness the carnage up close and personal.

64 :: BRAG :: 746 :: 05:06:19

Grizzlee Train + Kristen Lee Morris Slyfox, Enmore.

Heads Up Live The Vanguard.

John Maddox & Friends Sappho Books, Cafe and Bar, Sydney.

Kingdom Brothers The Basement, Sydney.

The Schizophonics Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

FRIDAY 07 JUN Ball Park Music Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill.

Deadlights The Chippendale Hotel, Chippendale.

Dragon Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill.

Horace Bones Slyfox, Enmore.

Jack River Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Jen Cloher Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

Kim Churchill Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

On Repeat: Billie Eilish Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Rat!Hammock The Bank Hotel, Newtown.

Sisters Doll The Basement, Sydney.

Sly Withers Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

The Kite Machine Art Gallery of NSW. The Mersey Beatles: Four Lads From Liverpool Rooty Hill RSL. The Original Wailers Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

West Thebarton Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

SATURDAY 08 JUN Billy Ocean Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Blues Brothers Brass Monkey, Cronulla.

Caoirne Ward Bridge Hotel,

Rozelle.

Chicago Dime Slyfox, Enmore.

Clowns Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville.

Curve Ball Carriageworks, Eveleigh.

Elani Butler UOW UniBar, Gwynneville.

Ezekiel Ox The Vanguard.

Graham Bonnet + Alcatrazz Manning Bar, Camperdown.

Haken Max Watt's, Moore Park.

Jason Owen UOW UniBar, Gwynneville.

Jen Cloher Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

Jimeoin - Result!

Rooty Hill RSL. Kim Churchill The Lansdowne, Sydney.

The Hard Aches Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

The Night Is Ours The Argyle, The Rocks.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

SUNDAY 09 JUN Crooked Colours The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West.

FKA Twigs Carriageworks, Eveleigh.

Make Them Suffer Max Watt's, Moore Park.

Quix Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Shin Dig Irish Music The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks.

Sisters Doll Lazybones Lounge Restaurant & Bar, Marrickville.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

MONDAY 10 JUN Herbie Hancock Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

TUESDAY 11 JUN Injury Reserve Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Jónsi & Alex Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

WEDNESDAY 12 JUN Make Them Suffer The Basement, Sydney.

Serpentwithfeet The Lansdowne, Sydney.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

THURSDAY 13 JUN BLACKPINK Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park.

Blasphemy The Lansdowne, Sydney.

PLTS Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Peta Caswell & The Lost Cause Slyfox, Enmore.

RÜFÜS DU SOL Carriageworks, Eveleigh.

The Clouds Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney. ÁIne Tyrrell The Vanguard.

FRIDAY 14 JUN APIA Good Times Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Alex Lahey The Basement,

ARC photo by Jay Wennington; Beartooth photo byNick Fancher

An Evening With Don Was Venue 505, Surry Hills.

Kingdom Brothers Brass Monkey, Cronulla.

Max Hex Sappho Books, Cafe and Bar, Sydney.

Okenyo Art Gallery of NSW. Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

Beartooth

Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park.

Blackpink are in your area. Expect nothing but dance breaks, tight choreography, and absolute bangers as this superstar girl group make a rare appearance down under.

THE BEATLES’ ABBEY ROAD LIVE

Beartooth

BLACKPINK

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Sydney.

All Eyez On Troy Max Watt's, Moore Park.

Bomb Threat The Chippendale Hotel, Chippendale.

Clowns Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

Honest Crooks Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst.

Lisa Hunt Carriageworks, Eveleigh.

Patrice Baumel Cafe del Mar Sydney, Sydney.

Rob Snarski Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

RÜFÜS DU SOL Carriageworks, Eveleigh.

Sweater Curse Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

The Lo Down Valve Bar, Sydney.

The Whitlams Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

Triple One Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville.

Wo Fat The Vanguard.

SATURDAY 15 JUN Alex Lahey Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Amber Lawrence: Spark Album

Launch Rooty Hill RSL, Rooty Hill.

Anthony & Cleopatra Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Blasphemy Max Watt's, Moore Park.

Bloom Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst.

Dragon The Vanguard.

Horace Bones Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville.

Jeff Duff + Steve Balbi Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

Lil Mosey Max Watt's, Moore Park.

Majun Bu The Vanguard.

Mansionair The Lansdowne, Sydney.

Murder By Death Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

Paul Dempsey Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Polish Club Manning Bar, Camperdown.

The Fauves Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

The Squeeze Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

The Young Folk + Inyal Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham.

Thrones! The

Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

SUNDAY 16 JUN Bill Chambers + Ap D'Antonio Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

Karen Lee Andrews Lazybones Lounge Restaurant & Bar, Marrickville.

Mansionair The Lansdowne, Sydney.

Mellow Curiosity Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst.

Murder By Death Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle.

Polish Club Manning Bar, Camperdown.

Reece Mastin Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

Shin Dig Irish Music The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

MONDAY 17 JUN Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

Architects

SAT

09 AUG

SUN

10 AUG

Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

WEDNESDAY 19 JUN Dream Dali Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Empress Of Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Lucki The Lansdowne, Sydney.

Luke Carman The Vanguard.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

THURSDAY 20 JUN Amberyse Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

Imbi The Girl The Lansdowne, Sydney.

Nelipot Golden Age Cinema & Bar, Surry Hills.

Pat Carroll Slyfox, Enmore.

Rings Of Saturn The Basement, Sydney.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

FRIDAY 21 JUN

24 JUL

Childish Gambino

Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park.

It’s hard to believe Gambino’s last album was in 2016. He has become a critical centrepiece to modern music with every move he makes.

On top of this, he’s a rare catch who puts on an absolutely unmissable performance. Get your tickets now.

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The Big Top, Milsons Point.

Much like the name of their 2018 album, you too will be saying “Holy Hell” once you leave this concert. Architects are no strangers to ripping the world to shreds.

Question is, are you ready to raise hell with them?

TUESDAY 18 JUN Murder By Death The Basement, Sydney.

Thrones! The

Childish Gambino

WED

Architects

John Kennedy Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham.

Luke Heggie Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Mild West The Chippendale Hotel, Chippendale.

No Label Necessary Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Shaun Kirk Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

Triple One Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

SATURDAY 22 JUN Alpine Theatre Royal, Sydney.

Batts The Vanguard.

Clowns Max Watt's, Moore Park.

Dekleyn Slyfox, Enmore.

Joel Fletcher The Star, Pyrmont.

John Grant Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Juke Kartel The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

Kink Goodbar, Paddington.

Kira Puru Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Layton Giordani Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst.

Methyl Ethel Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Radio Birdman Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

Rings Of Saturn Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

The Aints!

Kingscliff Beach Hotel, Kingscliff.

The Mars It Up Experience The Northern Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

Tiana Khasi Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Why Not Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

SUNDAY 23 JUN Chasin The Train The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

Incantation Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

Rock Orchestra • Plant 4 Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Shin Dig Irish

Music The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks.

The Tea Party Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Thrones! The Musical Parody Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

Trio Anima Mundi - 2019 Series Melbourne (3 Concerts) The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

Z-Star Trinity The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

MONDAY 24 JUN Born Of Osiris & Chelsea Grin Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

TUESDAY 25 JUN Born Of Osiris & Chelsea Grin The Basement, Sydney.

WEDNESDAY 26 JUN Girlschool The Basement, Sydney.

Julianna Barwick + More Red Rattler, Marrickville.

Peta Mai 1933 Booze House; Kitchen, Woolloomooloo.

The Sydney Moth Grandslam Metro Theatre, Sydney.

THURSDAY 27 JUN Jack Gray Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Lotic Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Mental As Anything Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst.

The Hideaways The Vanguard.

FRIDAY 28 JUN (Hed)P.E Max Watt's, Moore

Park.

Bobby Alu Venue 505, Surry Hills.

Girlschool Manning Bar, Camperdown.

Little May Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Pist Idiots Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

Smoked Oats Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Then Jolene The Vanguard.

Underminer The Basement, Sydney.

SATURDAY 29 JUN (Hed)P.E Manning Bar, Camperdown.

Allways Castlemaine Theatre Royal, Sydney.

Björn Again State Theatre, Sydney.

Def FX The Lansdowne, Sydney.

Fleetwood Mac Tribute The Vanguard.

Grim Rhythm Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

New World Sound The Star, Pyrmont.

Strike Anywhere Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

SUNDAY 30 JUN Junglepussy Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Shin Dig Irish Music The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks.

The Clouds Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

Underminer Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

WEDNESDAY 03 JUL Little Mix Qudos Bank Arena,

Sydney Olympic Park.

THURSDAY 04 JUL Boo Seeka Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Ecstatic Dances Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Emerson Snowe Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Lastlings The Lansdowne, Sydney.

Nick Oliveri Metro Theatre, Sydney.

FRIDAY 05 JUL Conkarah + Rosie Delmah Max Watt's, Moore Park.

Eliza & The Delusionals Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard UNSW Round House.

Marz Leadbelly, Newtown.

Ronny Chieng Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

SATURDAY 06 JUL Conkarah + Rosie Delmah Max Watt's, Moore Park.

Death By Denim Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Graace Low 302, Sydney.

Horace Bones The Eastern, Bondi Junction.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard UNSW Round House.

Skegss Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Sumeru & Mental Cavity Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

Sydney Cabaret Festival: Jennifer Holliday

BRAG :: 746 :: 05:06:19 :: 65

gig guide For our full gig and club listings, head to thebrag. com/gig-guide.

Sydney Town Hall, Sydney.

The Decline Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville.

SUNDAY 07 JUL Shin Dig Irish Music The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks.

WEDNESDAY 10 JUL Love Is A Drag Tim Draxl Seymour Centre, Chippendale.

Terrey Hills.

James Reyne Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

New Rock Syndicate Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville.

The Bennies Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville.

Thy Art Is Murder Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

SATURDAY 13 JUL

THURSDAY 11 JUL Alpine The Lansdowne, Sydney.

Beastwars Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

Circles Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Eliott The Vanguard.

Los Scallywaggs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

FRIDAY 12 JUL Alison Jiear A Centenary Celebration Of Ella Fitzgerald Seymour Centre, Chippendale.

Bench Press The Chippendale Hotel, Chippendale.

Body Type Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Dragon Terrey Hills Tavern,

Arabesk The Star, Pyrmont.

Beartooth Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Circles Max Watt's, Moore Park.

Lucille Croft The Star, Pyrmont.

Salmonella Dub Soundsystem Max Watt's, Moore Park.

The Weeping Willows The Star, Pyrmont.

SUNDAY 14 JUL Lany Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Shin Dig Irish Music The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks.

Voyager + Chaos Divine Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

TUESDAY 16 JUL Russ Hordern Pavilion,

Moore Park.

WEDNESDAY 17 JUL Foals Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park.

K.Flay Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Maribou State Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

THURSDAY 18 JUL Dave Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Garden Quartet Sydney Album Launch Django Bar @ Camelot Lounge, Marrickville Jess Ribeiro Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

The Midnight Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

FRIDAY 19 JUL Hybrid Nightmares Max Watt's, Moore Park.

Local Natives Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

SZA Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park.

Senses Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

The Streets Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

SATURDAY 20 JUL Disentomb Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

Esi Manning Bar, Camperdown.

London Calling

half•alive

Max Watt's, Moore Park.

SUNDAY 21 JUL Fidlar Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Jacob Banks Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Shin Dig Irish Music The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks.

MONDAY 22 JUL Catfish And The Bottlemen Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park.

Friendly Fires Metro Theatre, Sydney.

WEDNESDAY 24 JUL Childish Gambino Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park.

Livenation James Blake Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Phony Ppl The Lansdowne, Sydney.

Sam Fender Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Tycho Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

FRIDAY 26 JUL Belle Haven Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Circles The Basement, Sydney.

Crowbar Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

Forge Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

FRI

16 AUG

half•alive

Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Shooting like an arrow right to us, half•alive are here to do us the service of making us feel fully alive. Infectious grooves and snappy drums are an absolute guarantee. No matter what mood you’re in, you will leave with an infectious smile.

Skyscraper Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

Steve Balbi The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

SATURDAY 27 JUL An Orchestral Rendition Of Dr. Dre: 2001 Max Watt's, Moore Park.

Dragon Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Kian Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Soft Parade The Basement, Sydney.

SUNDAY 28 JUL Shin Dig Irish

Fleetwood Mac

Music The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks.

THURSDAY 01 AUG Alvvays Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

FRIDAY 02 AUG Dope Lemon Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Odette Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Skinlab + Pissing Razors Max Watt's, Moore Park.

SATURDAY 03 AUG Gloc 9 Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Jess Ribeiro Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

Mondo Rock Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath The Basement, Sydney.

Skinlab + Pissing Razors Manning Bar, Camperdown.

SUNDAY 04 AUG Shin Dig Irish Music The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks.

FRIDAY 09 AUG Architects The Big Top, Milsons Point.

Kiki Dee City Recital Hall, Sydney.

T.S.O.L. Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

SATURDAY 10 AUG

TUE

27 AUG THU

29 AUG

Fleetwood Mac

Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park.

It would be a disservice to the legacy of Fleetwood Mac to describe who they are. By now, you should well and truly know. The legends are back to put on an unmissable show in Australia, with tickets that need to be pried from dead hands if you missed out on the sales.

66 :: BRAG :: 746 :: 05:06:19

Architects The Big Top, Milsons Point.

Crusty Demons Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

Hein Cooper The Basement, Sydney.

Kissteria + Poizon'Us The Bridge Hotel,

Rozelle.

SUNDAY 11 AUG Shin Dig Irish Music The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks.

Snow Patrol Sydney Opera House, Sydney.

Max Watt's, Moore Park.

Devildriver The Basement, Sydney.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

Tom Walker Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

FRIDAY 16 AUG

SATURDAY 24 AUG

Ciaran Gribbin The Vanguard Half•Alive Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Allday Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park.

Chris Holmes & The Mean Men Manning Bar, Camperdown.

Crusty Demons Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Graveyard Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

Static-X Metro Theatre, Sydney.

WAAX Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst.

SATURDAY 17 AUG Down For Tomorrow Slyfox, Enmore.

Dragon Slyfox, Enmore.

Harrison Storm The Vanguard Kirin J Callinan Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Polaris Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Slowly Slowly Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

TUESDAY 20 AUG Chicago Capitol Theatre, Haymarket.

Hot Mulligan + Columbus Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

THE BEATLES’ ABBEY ROAD LIVE Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

WEDNESDAY 21 AUG Jordan Rakei Metro Theatre, Sydney.

THURSDAY 22 AUG Devildriver Metro Theatre, Sydney.

Maren Morris Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Tom Walker Max Watt's, Moore Park.

FRIDAY 23 AUG

TUESDAY 27 AUG Fleetwood Mac Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park.

THURSDAY 29 AUG Ainslie Wills The Lansdowne, Sydney.

Fleetwood Mac Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park.

FRIDAY 30 AUG Kenny Broberg Manning Bar, Camperdown.

Metal Church Crowbar Sydney, Leichhardt.

The Butterfly Effect Metro Theatre, Sydney.

SATURDAY 31 AUG Hayden James Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

Hilltop Hoods Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park.

Chris Holmes + The Mean Men

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FRI 8 NOV CANBERRA AIS ARENA WED 13 NOV SYDNEY ICC SYDNEY THEATRE SAT 16 NOV HUNTER VALLEY BIMBADGEN A DAY ON THE GREEN SUN 17 NOV MT. COTTON SIRROMET WINERY A DAY ON THE GREEN

Tickets and Info livenation.com.au | robthomasmusic.com