INTERVIEW: Hammocks and Honey

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Ethereal, airy and bewilderingly good, there's something about dreamy two-piece Hammocks and Honey that makes you sink into a cloud of bliss. Classically trained cellist and synth addict Prudence Rees-Lee makes up one half of the duo, and is completed by the experimentally electronic inclined Alex Nosek of ii. This dazzling and unexpected equation results in music that's partly baroque-inspired (trying really hard to hold my tongue and not name a certain Yngwie Malmsteen song), orgasmically electronic and so dreamy that you'll be pinching yourself to check if you're awake.

When it comes to talent, these kids have the Midas touch, and it appears that have it when it comes to manufacturing as well with their debut EP Spellbinder also available amazingly as a solid gold "vinyl".

Paper-Deer daydreamed about clouds, synths and classical music while talking to Prudence, the female half of Hammocks and Honey.

We have to say that Hammocks and Honey is a lovely band name. Is there a story or meaning behind it?
It was a phrase in a book, Ada or Ardour by Nabokov, which is a story about two young cousins discovering their sexuality together, among other things. It doesn’t really have much of a baring on how the band sounds though, just a coincidence that I was reading that book when I started writing music.

So how did the pair of you end up where you are now?
Alex and I met quite a few years ago playing in another band, but only started playing together in Hammocks at the end of last year. Special Award Records got involved in February and since then we’ve just been really lucky. Blogs and community radio picked up the demos we’d made we’re releasing on EP which is available digitally already, and on vinyl which is coming out on the 22nd of November.

As a classically trained cellist, is it sometimes hard to loosen up and turn to dreamy, electronic pop?
Yes, it was initially hard initially to loosen up. Writing and playing something like this is very far from what I’d imagined I would be doing while I was studying. I value the classical education I’ve had very much, and it’s given me a great base knowledge about music theory and music history, but in a way I had to forget most of that when I was writing these songs. It’s such a different approach to making music. I think lots of electronic musicians have classical backgrounds though. Programming beats and samples on a computer is very similar to working on an orchestral score.

Many writers use words like “dreamy”, “surreal” and “otherworldly” to describe Hammocks and Honey’s sound. What would you call it?
I’d agree with those descriptions, I think they suit Spellbinder well, although they probably make us sound a bit wishy-washy or aimless, when the music definitely isn’t and the stuff we’re working on now is a bit darker.

Tell us all about Spellbinder. What was it like working with Morgan McWaters (The Emergency) and Casey Rice (Tortoise, Pikelet, Dirty Three)?
They were both really amazing to work with. We spent a lot of time with Morgan, first recording everything and then mixing together as well. It was really fun, but he was great because he’s so skilled at what he does and could quickly translate the kind of sounds we had in our heads into the tracks.

Casey was great too! I didn’t know much about mastering and what’s involved, but he explained everything he was doing and did it really well, he seems to really care about artists and music, and is actually very affordable! Everyone should ask him to master them!


Spellbinder is really… spellbinding, for lack of a better word. How do you create such a timeless piece of work?
Thank you! I take timelessness as a huge compliment. I guess we’re not interested in doing what’s particularly fashionable at a given time. I want to write good songs with interesting arrangements regardless of trends, although it is hard not to be influenced by them in some ways. I guess that makes it timeless, we have a very wide range of influences from all the classical stuff I grew up with to more experimental things, and also lots of pretty mega pop.

Was recording at a beach house just an excuse to get sandy?
We couldn’t afford to hire a proper studio, and none of us lived anywhere that would make a good home one. The beach house was a good place to go where we wouldn’t be disturbed and it would be quiet, it was kind of a last resort but it worked out to be the perfect place.

We’ve heard that Spellbinder will also be available in solid gold vinyl. Where did this idea come from?
It seems kind of crazy to me that people still make CDs, as a format it’s really unreliable and commercially not solid either. I think digital, vinyl and cassette releases are going to be much more relevant in the future of music distribution, so the decision to release on vinyl was kind of an obvious one. As for the gold… the option was there, why wouldn’t you?

How much will the solid gold vinyls cost, and where can one pick them up? Will postage be a bitch since it is solid gold?
They’ll be in independent record stores and available via mail order (probably the best way) from www.hammocksandhoney.com. In shops the price will vary slightly depending on where you go, but they should be retailing for around $19. We’ll be selling them at the launch for $15.

UPCOMING SHOWS:

• Saturday November 27: Bouverie Studios, 1/81 Bouverie Street, Carlton [EP launch with AOI and Isle Adore]

LINKS:

• Hammocks and Honey official website 
• Hammocks and Honey MySpace 
• Hammocks and Honey on Bandcamp (purchase music here) 

INTERVIEW: Saskia Sansom

We have moved! Our blog is now at www.paper-deer.com. 

Intoducing Saskia Sansom: one of Melbourne’s most hidden musical gems. Tim Burton is apparently a fan of this beautiful songstress, and Jim White of Dirty Three collaborated with her and it isn’t hard to imagine why, with her haunting voice, heart breaking songs and intense personality that exudes loneliness and loveliness all at once. Saskia is not a diva or celebrity – there’s no clever persona created by a marketing team or any bratty pop star behaviour. Everything about this songbird is sincere, genuine yet otherworldly.

Paper-Deer discussed muses, growing up in a creative household and being lonely onstage with Saskia.

You have a beautiful voice. When did you realise you could sing?

I’m really shy about my voice. Up until recently, I found it nearly impossible to sing in front of people. I don’t have a big voice, and, it can be really nerve-racking playing after people who are naturally gifted singers. I guess the closest I’ve come to realizing I can sing, is realizing that I don’t have to have a big voice, that it doesn’t matter if I can’t sing like anyone else. That I can be different. 

In Melbourne especially,  I’ve felt as if a lot of musicians have been trying to revive a particular time or channel somebody else. I’d see five Bob Dylan’s one night, three Gillian Welch’s the next, maybe a young Nick Cave, The Rolling Stones and a few Willy Nelsons around the corner. I’d get excited by some of these acts when I first saw them, sometimes I’d think I had to sound like that too, but soon enough the charm would wear off, and I’d be left yearning for something sincere.

Do you think having creative parents (painters) opened your eyes to the possibility of music? Did they encourage you to pursue music?

Not really, not to be a musician. I grew up with my mum, who had amazing taste in music that definitely influenced me.  She encouraged me to learn piano when I was a child, though I don’t think she ever saw me as becoming a musician. I was playing the piano the other day, and it hit me that I’ve been writing these weird little instrumental pieces since I was a kid. So perhaps my mum did open my eyes to the possibility of music, in her way, by introducing me to the piano. I never saw it as a career though, and I don’t think mum did either. But it wasn’t like she didn’t encourage me, it was just that it was something that I did, that I’d always done, that I never saw as anything other than a place to escape to, when I needed to disappear from the world.

On your MySpace, you list Jim White (Dirty Three) under band members “on the recordings”. Do you write all the music yourself or was it collaborative with Jim?

I write all my songs, though the record I made with Jim was nearly all written on the spot. I had some songs that I’d been working on, but when he asked me if I wanted to record something I got rid of most of those songs and made up thirteen new songs over a few days. I worked out the lyrics as we were recording. I had some basic ideas in my head, but they were really just ideas. The whole thing was recorded and arranged in less than two days unrehearsed. So I guess it is a collaboration of sorts.

I have mostly played solo, though I prefer to play with other musicians. I have a theremin player who plays with me when he’s not playing in his own band, and a violin player.

When you perform solo, does it get lonely onstage?

It depends. Yes, if I’m playing somewhere foreign to me where I don’t know a soul and I don’t have any friends in the audience. It can be incredibly lonely walking into a venue alone, setting up my instruments, playing to a crowd of strangers, then packing up, and still being on my own. It still scares the shit out of me. I have a lot of respect for anyone who does it. It’s a completely different experience having even one other person playing with you.  Or someone just there in the crowd that you know.

What is it like working with a legendary musician like Jim White? Intimidating? Eye opening?

Jim is my friend and he was my friend before we worked together so he wasn’t intimidating.  Though it was my first ever recording experience so I found the whole process intimidating. Jim was really inspiring though.  I didn’t know what I wanted or what to expect, and everything was really new to me. Playing in front of someone was new to me, but he would ask, “How do you want the drums to sound?”, and I would try to explain, usually with some obscure metaphor that didn’t even make sense to me, and he would do something, and say “how’s this?” and it would be exactly what I’d been trying to describe.

The whole experience was eye opening, scary, challenging, intimidating, and fun.  I just wish we’d had more time. We only had a few days to try and make something before Jim had to go back to NY. So what we made was really spontaneous. But it would have been great to have more time, more time to really get a feel for something, and more time to arrange things more carefully. Though at the same time, it was a really fun time because there was no pressure. It was like we were just trying something on for size, mucking around, there was no pressure for it to turn out a particular way, because we were making it up as we went along.

Your muses include Nana, Debussy, Billie Holiday, Rowland S Howard and Sonic Youth – these are very diverse. Is there a common thread among these artists that inspires you?

I’m not sure why Nana is there. Nana is a very sad character from a Jean Luc-Godard film called Vivre Sa Vie, which translates as ‘My Life To Live’. Everything about that film – aesthetically, poetically –  is inspiring. If you’ve ever been completely lost, and alone in the dark, it resonates. I think that’s why she’s there. I’m drawn to sad female heroines. I have so many muses, but as for the artists you’ve mentioned, they’re all completely different but at the same time sincere, brave enough to make and say what they want to make and say, and they own it. That’s inspiring. That moves me. If something is sincere, it will move you. And lyrically, they’re mind blowing. Rowland’s lyrics blow my mind. Billie Holiday’s voice… Debussy, Satie, Sakamoto…sigh… I could go on and on.

What about non-musical muses and inspirations?

There are so many. And they change. Though if I named them all, I guess in one way or another they would all relate back to one simple, though incredibly complicated entity: love. Love and madness, though they’re almost one and the same aren’t they? Love and madness, the fleeting moments in life when you feel completely free, completely present. Awake, alive.  I had one of those moments earlier this year, it only lasted half an hour, in Tasmania. Time stopped. And I don’t know if it was love, or if it was the place, or the air. But that half an hour stayed with me, and inspired me for months. That influences me. I wonder how many times that happens to us? How many of those moments we get in a life time. How many forks in the road, and forks in the heart. That all influences me. And again, we arrive back at that complex word, that word that gives weight to everything. Everything. Love.

What can you tell us about your upcoming album?

Well, it was engineered by Matt Voigt, in Andrew & Kerry’s living room in Nagambie, Victoria.  Andrew is the charismatic man behind Greville Records & Shock. I don’t know what genres it would fit into? I guess there are hints of classical, gothic, experimental, and folk if that helps.  It’s currently being mixed by Casey Rice, and is due for release late December, with shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Tasmania.

Apparently Tim Burton is quite a fan of you. How does it make you feel that one of the world’s most influential gothic visionaries was taking photos of you at a gig?

I just hope he enjoyed what I played, because I am a huge admirer of his work. I found it pretty hard to believe that he was really there. I feel really lucky to have met him, not because he’s Tim Burton, but because he was so nice.  I felt like there was a kind of kindred exchange of “I get you,” and “I get you too.” 

UPCOMING SHOWS:

• Sunday November 7: The Empress Hotel [Residency with Brendan Welch]
• Sunday November 14: The Empress Hotel [Residency with Emma Russack]
• Sunday November 21: The Empress Hotel [Residency Ruben Montane & Cuba Is Japan]
• Sunday November 28: The Empress Hotel [Residency with Miles Brown (The Night Terrors) & Mystic Eyes]

LINKS:

• Saskia Sansom MySpace
• Saskia Sansom Facebook

By Paige X. Cho

INTERVIEW: These Patterns

We have moved! Our blog is now at www.paper-deer.com. 

In late 2008, two girls and one guy started experimenting with dark electronic soundscapes, male-female vocals and tribal drums. The very excellent end result was These Patterns, a Melbourne band famous for their sombre brand of electronic music that has plenty of nightmarish textures, Peter Murphy-style vocals and live drums to distinguish them from the slew of electro jam bands out there. It might also help that all three of them are actually classically trained in their instrument of choice...

The trio is also slowly becoming known for its hardcore DIY approach - as part of the new breed of bands on the streets, these smart cookies realise that throwing money at an entourage of "help" isn't going to necessarily work anymore. Perhaps these three talented kids are just control freaks, but everything from management, booking and the artistic direction of their videos are all done within the band. These Patterns are so dedicated to their DIY cause that they have even started up a production house for their music video escapades. Hell, if Paper-Deer had asked them to write this blurb, they probably would have.

These Patterns are currently slaving away at the recording studo to work on their upcoming EP, so things will be a bit quiet on the gig front until the EP launch in November. But there's no need to worry if you're starting to have awesome-band-withdrawals - Paper-Deer was lucky enough to catch all three Patternites on their way to the studio. Paul Satur, Jess Njoo and Samantha Arthur give us the three different sides to the story.

What pattern is your name “These Patterns” referring to?
Paul: One thing that I have found to be really cool about what we are doing is that we all have different interpretations, encounters and reactions of our name. The name for me is about the fact that I have come from an overly developed suburban area and one thing I have struggled with over the years about such an environment is the monotony of everything, and how so many people just seem to accept that. They eat, go out and where the same things, they live in the same looking houses, doing the same things every week. Just like patterns (see what I’ve done there!), so I suppose these patterns is a reflection of my frustrations with that sort of thing.
Sam: Yeah, I guess we didn’t really have a meaning behind the two words, together they just kind of fit. For me it refers to patterns in life, art, music, nature… everything seems to have a pattern.
Jess: But really our name means whatever you want it to be.

These Patterns is an excellent do-it-yourself type of band and has started your own production company Ludwig Van. Why do you guys love doing things yourself as opposed to kicking back and hiring minions to do the dirty work?
Sam: Doing everything ourselves is a major priority for us. We like to be in control of every aspect of our music, from our designs to our music videos. I think for a band to take control of every part of their music reflects how important it is to us and how it gives us a great sense of euphoria.
Jess: I guess we can’t help it. We love being way too involved in everything. I don’t think we ever thought to get someone else to make us a video, or to help with anything else really. It just seemed like that’s what we should do. A lot of the other bands we like and admire are really DIY and I think that it’s a really important aspect of being passionate about something you are a part of.

The Loui video that These Patterns/Ludwig Van made is really excellent. Is it easier (because you have total creative control) or harder (because you have to do everything yourself) to create your own video?
Sam: We had a lot of fun doing Loui because it was challenging to try and make it as good but also as cheap as possible. We used all our sneaky little resources to make it almost a like a family event, everyone knew each other. We were all feeding off each other’s ideas. With areas like costume, make up and hair we let the artists listen to our music and contribute their own creative ideas and influences. Jess was the brains behind the entire piece, having just finished a degree in film and TV. She organised everything, Paul and I just tagged along and helped out where we could.

What do each of you bring to These Patterns in terms of personality, energy and talent?
Jess: Hmm, hopefully all of the above! Although Sam and Paul seem to disagree, I think I have a killer sense of humour, however incredibly lame at times. I like to use a lot of catch phrases that have died out over the years - I think they help with band bonding.
Paul: For a long time we have always compared ourselves to animals. Our animals tend to change on a monthly basis, but right now I’m a baby giraffe, Jess is a gold fish, and Sam is a three toed sloth... make of it what you will.
Sam: I totally disagree with the three toad sloth comment, but musically we all have really absurdly different tastes. I come from a jazz background, Jess likes folk, Paul likes punk, but strangely when we start writing music these influences intertwine and we are left with a morphed music love child which is These Patterns.

You’re about to lock yourselves into the recording studio. If you can bring only three things with you, what will they be?
Sam: Three thousand pairs of drum sticks. I hit too hard, like a giant ape man.
Paul : Honey, green tea, and a can-do attitude....yay!
Jess: Yes, green tea! But also my camera and a pack of muesli bars.

What can we expect from your upcoming studio trip?
Sam: The sound is going to be more current to our new stuff, somewhere between post punk, experimental, electronic, a lot of tribal sounds strange noises and experimental lapses. We really want to explore every inch of our instruments and stay true to our live sound but also add more layers than we can physically do on stage.

Any embarrassing secrets about These Patterns that you’d like to share with Paper-Deer?
Sam: Alright, biggest embarrassing moment of my musical life was when we played at the John Curtin Hotel and I was carrying my bass drum down the stairs, slipped, did a somersault over it and somehow it landed on top of me. I stood up, looked up to see a bunch of people staring at me, dusted off my knees and hobbled to the car.
Jess: I’m generally pretty embarrassing and make a lot of lame comments which has led to me being denied an on stage microphone, so I guess no one will ever hear my hilarious jokes or embarrassing stories.

Any last things to say to your adoring fans before you leave us for the sound booth?
Sam: Paul will miss stage diving on small girls and spraying beer on expensive cameras.
Jess: Please convince Sam and Paul to let me have a microphone.
Paul: Turn off your TV.....cheers, big ears!


Still having withdrawals? Check out These Patterns rad video for Loui.

'LOUI'-These Patterns from LUDWIG VAN on Vimeo.

DATES:

• Friday September 10: The Tote
• Friday October 8: 1000 Pound Bend [Gallery opening]

LINKS:

• These Patterns MySpace
• These Patterns Facebook
• These Patterns on Tumblr
• These Patterns on Twitter
• These Patterns on Triple J Unearthed
• Ludwig Van (These Patterns production company) Vimeo page