forces and make music under the Set Sail moniker in late 2010 it was for one reason and one reason only - to fund a trip around the world. Mid-2012 finds Set Sail having gone a long way to achieving their ambitious goal of travelling the globe, having visited 40 cities across four continents on a self-funded, busking world tour. “We left Australia with $80 in our pockets and just busked in each city to make enough money to keep travelling,” violinist Josiah Willows explains.“For example, we got into Paris, played until we had enough money to get to Berlin – with about eight Euros to spare – and then we found this big festival in the heart of the city and played there. We just kept repeating that process.” band’s devout fanbase has expanded Jet-setting Sydney-based folk/pop trio far beyondThe their Sydney origins and Willows and his Set Sail drop anchor in WA for the first cohorts made the most of it on tour. “As soon as we announced the tour on Facebook we had all of these time later this week – playing shows people offering us places to stay,” he says. “We spent at the Rosemount Hotel on Friday, close to 100 days in Europe but only spent about seven of those days in hostels, the rest was just crashing with July 13, Saturday, July 14, at The Vault friends and fans.” The keenness of the band’s supporters was (all ages afternoon show), and Mojos proven earlier this year, when lead singer Brandon Bar; and Sunday, July 15, at Clancy’s Hoogenboom was literally forced to ‘set sail’ after being by Australian authorities for breaching his visa Pub in Dunsborough. In honor of this deported conditions. momentous occasion, violinist Josiah As Willow attests, without Hoogenboom’s there would have been very little chance Willows indulges JENNIFER PETERSON- presence that their new EP Hey would have seen the light of day WARD with some travel tales. this side of 2012. “We started writing in New Zealand and then as soon as we got back to Australia Brandon When university dropouts Brandon Hoogenboom, was deported. Not knowing what was happening for Joshua May and Josiah Willows decided to join a month-and-a-half was a lowlight – we thought we’d
SET SAIL
Whatever Floats Your Boat
Set Sail have to fly to LA and start from scratch.” Luckily for the trio, a Facebook petition, which attracted over 8,500 signatures of support within a day of its creation, successfully lobbied the government to allow Hoogenboom to stay in Australia. “We were told the support from fans and the media was one of the major reasons he was allowed back,” Willows says. “Finding out Brandon was allowed back into the country has definitely been a highlight of the year so far.” With their singer back on Australian soil, Set Sail were able to finish Hey and are now ready to showcase the new tunes on an epic 18-date national tour, which includes their first ever shows in WA supporting the Brow Horn Orchestra.“Expect a very fun, high-energy, very passionate show,” Willows concludes. “There’s quite a bit of camaraderie between our bands so it should be really fun.”
Mark Gardener
MARK GARDENER Ridin’ Dirty
With the year 2012 marking the 20th anniversary of the Ride album Going Blank Again, the band’s former singer Mark Gardener is dusting off his acoustic guitar for some Australian shows. While the next generation are strapping on electric guitars and a board full of pedals, the grandfather of shoegaze returns with his acoustic guitar at the Fly By Night on Wednesday, August 1. CHRIS HAVERCROFT reports. Mark Gardener concedes that there is a bit of numerology involved with his current tour of Australia with the 20 th anniversary edition of Going Blank Again being released. Gardener could have gone on mixing songs in his recording studio and had a quiet celebration by himself, but he thought it would be nice to share the anniversary with others. These shows aren’t just focused on that one album, but celebrates his whole 20 plus years in music. “Obviously Ride is a big and significant part of my history, but this is not me coming out and trying to be Ride because that wouldn’t be right either,” says Gardener of the upcoming dates. “I would be stupid to come out and think that people would be interested in only hearing the new music that I am doing and my soundtrack work. There will be a few crowd pleasers and that’s good. It won’t just be a Ride tribute act though.” The choice to play solo on this tour came about as Gardener doesn’t feel totally comfortable playing Ride songs in a band that is not Ride. As he feels more comfortable addressing those songs in the solo set, Perth crowds can expect a few more songs from the Oxford shoegaze quartet. “ S o n g s i s t h e k e y h e re, ” h e s ay s. “Shoegaze or whatever sound you do is only going to work if you have good songs whether it be reggae or whatever style you want to do. If the songs are good and you strip it back to the bare bones and it still works then you have a good song. This is the way that a lot of the songs were written – by using an acoustic guitar. The noise and the long hair were all places that you could hide behind, but I don’t have either of those any more. It is a lot more intimate in that way and it feels right for where I am in my life at the moment.” Gardener has his own recording studio in Oxford that takes a lot of his time and reduces his capacity to do strings of dates on tour. The role of studio producer is one that he has been working towards since his early days in music. During the Ride days Gardener was always keen to demystify the process of the studio and what factors are needed to makes good records. It is this growing knowledge of recording studios that has seen Gardener sought after for soundtrack work. “Soundtrack work is great because the brief is so weird sometimes,” he offers. “With the Upside Down soundtrack I had a director saying make it sound purple. I was thinking what the hell is that! People watch a film and don’t realise why they are being drawn in to the narrative, so it is good to working against people’s dialogue on a soundtrack. In a way it is something that you notice but you don’t really notice also. You don’t want it to be distracting but you do want it to draw people into the narrative. It is interesting then when you watch it in cinemas.” 14
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