When asked to contemplate his decision and its impact upon his enjoyment of 2011, the ever-so-thoughtful frontman explains, “I sort of split the year into two as to how I remember it. Embarking on the solo tour was the first big thing. I had to learn how to hold my own without three of my best friends behind me. It was a challenge that I was up for.”

While the deceptively shy song-smith knew he needed to step out of his comfort zone, the move was never motivated by a desire to ditch his close pals, but rather develop a greater understanding of his own onstage persona and to better his already amazing songwriting. He notes, “I think I kind of worked it out by the end of the tour. I worked out how to present my songs on my own, which was really satisfying to be able to play those songs in their most basic form and see how people react to them. It is a privilege that not many band guys get to have. I was so fortunate to have been able to do that. By the end of it, it was guiding me as to how I want to write in the future.”

With Oh Mercy all set to close the year with the release of Gow’s favourite song on the record, the chirpy, Blue Lagoon – and a set of full-band dates – Gow is clearly relishing being back with his buds and focusing his efforts firmly on the future for Oh Mercy.

“I guess the second half of the year has been spent writing new material for a new album. I’m having a lot of fun doing that. It is going to be a marked difference from the last one. I will always try to make one album different from the other. I am not interested in making the same album twice. I also don’t think fans are really interested in hearing the same album twice,” says Gow.

While he is not an artist who criticises the work of others, he has clear aspirations as a songwriter that he feels some of his contemporaries lack. Without any hint of malice, he sighs, “Some bands have had wonderful careers out of making the same album ten times, but it doesn’t suit my interests.” While he is determined to make album three a different kettle of fish to Great Barrier Grief, he is currently not in a position to raise expectations. When asked to define his intended differences, he is only able to point to the fact that “the last album was quite romantic, so this will be a little less romantic.”

With the taste buds wet but wanting more, we switch our focus from his writing spree to the year that was. When asked about his highlight of that year that was (and still is), the sincere songwriter pauses. Not wishing to offer a flighty misrepresentation of his year, he takes his time and seriously thinks about what really has meant the most. He finally arrives at his answer. “I suppose my highlight of the year is being asked to join my favourite Australian band on stage at the Queenscliff Festival in November,” he offers.

“I am getting to play a selection of early The Triffids singles. I also get to be one of the guest vocalists with the band themselves. I guess my appreciation and admiration for that band make it such an incredible honour. I am just so excited.”

Like a child in a sweet shop, Gow, despite his own incredible success, is all beady-eyed at the prospect of joining his own heroes. Completely void of any ego or expectation, the musician has already started his prep to ensure he does not let his own idols, or himself, down.

“I have a had a bit of a fiddle around on my own. It has been pretty liberal about which tracks we can choose. There are a couple which I am really dying to do. One is called Revelry and another called Spanish Blues. I started looking at ways we can do it that are different to the original, so they suit my voice and the band.”

Though he concedes that the final decisions about who does what are yet to be made, the humble soul is happy to have been selected and is not about to push to the front of the queue with a list of demands. With a real innocence, he states “there are lots of vocalists who have already worked with The Triffids and I so I am quite happy to wait my turn at the end of the queue. I don’t necessarily have a favourite track. I am yet to find out which song I am going to do as a guest vocalist. But I guess the early stuff is my favourite, so I hope I get to do one of those.”

Oh Mercy will play the Queenscliff Music Festival, 25-27 November 2011. Their album, Great Barrier Grief is out now through EMI Australia.

ohmercy.com.au

All Images Copyright Jeremy Williams

Jeremy Williams gets the lowdown on the beginnings of Back to Back’s new piece, Ganesh Vs The Third Reich and why this performance has come into fruition. Co-creator, Marcia Ferguson, tells all…

“Ganesh Vs The Third Reich has been in development over the past three years. Back to Back develops new shows at the same time as touring its exisitng repertoire and running an extensive community programme.” Marcia Ferguson is on a train to rehearsal, our line keeps cutting in and out, but rather than become agitated, the clearly spoken artist keeps her cool and ensures that each time she has to restart her point, she keeps it concise but clear.

With Back to Back’s latest work all set for its debut as part of the Melbourne Festival, Ferguson starts our chat by introducing me to the conception of the rather oddly titled piece. She explains, “The piece came about initially when one of our actors Sandi Therbin came in wearing blacked up boots to the knees and a big leather jacket. The class we were running on that day was voice modification and she had a shaved head and she looked like neo-nazi. As they played with voice modification, she began to develop quite a powerful persona, and also quite a weak little person as the voice developed.”

“At the same time another member, Risha Halabarak was fascinated by Ganesh. One of our guest directors was adopting an Indian child at that time. These two elements of interest were really obsessing the cast.” With two such opposing characters at the centre of focus during the workshops, it was not long before someone stumbled upon the well-known connection.

“So the filmmaker went in and Googled ‘Nazi’ and ‘Ganesh’ and discovered that Ganesh’s religious symbol, the Swastika, was appropriated by the Nazi’s as the symbol of the Third Reich. Pretty quickly the cast developed a narrative that Ganesh went to the Third Reich to re-appropriate what was rightfully his. To re-appropriate his cultural symbol from evil.”

While once explained it becomes clear that the piece is far from malicious in intent, the title and premise alone have been enough to raise questions amongst the Hindu community, both on home turf and overseas. When probed if there had been any consideration of the pieces controversial nature, Ferguson remains calm and explains her take on the events.

“There have been two commentators who have quite different views. One of those commentators feared that the production would make a mockery of Ganesh, the other commentator could see the logic in the narrative and was worried that if the production was insensitive it could unsettle Indian-Australian relations. It is very hard for these people to judge as they haven’t seen it. Actually the play does directly seek to examine some of the issues raised, the issues of appropriation.”

Given that she has been involved with the process from the outset, Ferguson has never felt that the piece itself treads on toes in the same way the provocative title does. However as a creative team, they did stop and ask themselves certain telling questions.

“At the same time, the cast were discussing our right to tell the story. Only two of the collborators are Jewish and none of us are Indian, though Kate has spent a lot of time adopting her children there. We were dealing with very big issues. This discussion gradually emerges as the dominant factor of our piece. Who does have the right to re-tell a story from other cultures and other worlds? It is quite an interesting question if you look at the arts across the world. People are constantly re-appropriating elements of other cultures for their own use.”

Ganesh Vs The Third Reich is now showing at the Malthouse as part of the Melbourne Festival. For more information or to buy tickets, head to the Malthouse website.

Image Courtesy Jeff Busby Photography

“It is sort of like A-Ha’s Take On Me film clip. So I sort of jump in and out of videos, there is a three metre screen on stage. It is a show I did at the Adelaide Fringe in 2010 and the Melbourne Comedy Festival this year, so I kind of know the show.

But I have a director who helped me re-jig it a couple of times. It is similar, but everytime I do it, I have to film myself on the green screen and learn all the parts I play. Not all the changes may make it,” explains Chong.

While he may not be entirely certain what shape the final performance will take, he is clearly pleased at having been able to successfully stage a show that encompasses more than just his comedic abilities.

“I am a video editor and filmmaker, so I have always enjoyed that kind of stuff. I love special effects movies and stuff, so it was almost like a challenge. I just wanted to see if I could do it.”

With a low budget and no production team, Chong has had only a little bit of assistance from his lovely fiance and some close friends along the way. He clearly relished the prospect of mounting his show, he recalls the process was in itself not far removed from a comedic sketch.

“I did all the filming, I set up a big green screen in an abandoned church with a camera 20 metres away. I had to push record, run back, do the scene, run back and see if it was all good. It took about three months to film all the pieces and put it all together.”

While the filmic nature of the evening dictates to a degree the form of the show, Chong is aware that as the sole performer he is constantly on edge. While many a stand-up only have themselves to consider (and perhaps the odd heckler), Chong is working to a series of tight cues and timing control.

“Because there is filmed conversation on the screen I don’t have much room to move. But because people laugh at different points every night and sometimes there is a bit of a gap before things happen, you have got to be really thinking and change what you say. If they laugh to long, I have to condense the next line or I will stumble over. Every night, for me, feels very different but within a very rigid structure.

I have a friend in Adelaide who can impersonate any of the comedians by their hallmark, the thing that defines them. He always struggles with me.”

When asked if he feels the show helps define his identity as a comic, it is clear that although the format combines his two passions – filmmaking and comedy – the subject matter is more of an interest than throughline for his career.

“In the past, being half-Asian, I have done shows about being Asian and that kind of stuff, but I don’t think that is necessarily me, but I think technology is a little bit, and having fun with technology. For this show I have an Optimus Prime helmet that I have rigged up to some speakers and stuff like that. I like the multimedia side of things. But at the same time I don’t always do that sort of thing.”

Reel Life is now showing at Soft Belly for the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Get the details here.

All Images Copyright Jeremy Williams

The day started off with a bang. Armed with an iPhone, I was ready to do my live-tweet from the front row of as many Parklife acts as possible. Unfortunately my phone died after an hour (damn 3G phones and their power draining), but luckily for you, our friend, Jeremy Williams was at hand to take some amazing shots. Plus my tweets are boring. And annoying. And is anyone even on Twitter? Don’t answer that, because yes I know, there are millions and millions of people on Twitter.

ANYWHO. My aim of getting to every single performance was of course, never gonna happen. Highlights that we caught included the legendary Diplo; NYC’s, Duck Sauce; Melbourne boys, Strange Talk; Brooklyn hip-hop slash funk queen, Santigold; Sweden’s, Little Dragon; “our” Kimbra and London dubstep princess, Katy B.

I’ve never been to Parklife before, so I really can’t say if it’s getting better or worse. I CAN say, however, that this year’s Parklife definitely makes me want to go back for more. The acts were fantastic, the crowd was good – everyone was having a great time – and the vibe was pretty relaxed. After a long day in Melbourne’s usual weather tease of it’s-sunny-now-it’s-freezing-now-it’s-sunny-again-and-now-here’s-an-arctic-gale, and having spent sixty bucks on two drinks, a gourmet snag and a bucket of chips, it was time to leave. And seeing as my music reviews consist of stuff like “Diplo was sick as f$#%”,  I’ll just leave you with the picture book version instead. It’s way better.

Images of Digitalism and Simian Mobile Disco courtesy Fuzzy Entertainment.

All other images courtesy Jeremy Williams Photography

Melbourne-based Kiwi photographer (and good friend of Laneway mag), Olivia Blackburn, went along to MSFW last week and though we can’t report on the fashion, trend predictions, what’s hot, what’s not or what the season has in store for us (who ACTUALLY looks at the fashion when there are better things to look at?), we CAN show you the most important stuff: a whole lotta glamourama photos of really, really, ridiculously good looking people, some of whom are wearing very little. Sigh. Being beautiful must be a tough job…

All Images Copyright Olivia Blackburn | Go check out her blog right about here

We were recently invited along to the gala launch party of Full Skirted Production’s 2011 season at The Order of Melbourne. The gala, a burlesque and cabaret extravaganza was a wonderful event put on by Annabel and Letitia, the lovely girls behind Full Skirted. Their season kicks off at Chapel Off Chapel in August with Two Femmes & A Fatale followed by The Object of My Affection for this year’s Fringe festival. We’ll be catching up with the girls for a chat very soon, but until then, check out our Doll Face photo recap below!

All Images Copyright Olivia Blackburn

I’m sure we’ve all been curious about what goes on in the Nicholas Building, the 1920s Palazzo-style architectural wonderment on the corner of Flinders Lane and Swanston Street.

Housing dozens of artists, designers and craftspersons, the 11-storey building is rumoured to lack heating and plumbing (pretty sure it’s not 100% true) and is said to be home to the last remaining Lift Ladies in Melbourne (I believe this is true). But who actually goes up there, apart from the artists themselves?

I’d probably be fairly safe to assume that not many of us have actually made it up to the top floor – maybe the second or third, if that. Well now you have the chance to see what goes in, deep in the rabbit warren of studios at the annual Open Studios.

From 4-9pm on July 29, resident artists in the building will open up their studios to the public, giving us a rare insight in to their creative spaces and the opportunity to chat to them about their work and if you’re super keen, you could possibly purchase up some of their wares: art, jewellery or handicrafts, if you ask nicely.

Hit the Nicholas Building Open Studios website for more details.

Due to the absenteeism of every single Laneway editor (FACT), we really couldn’t do a large scale coverage of this year’s MIFF, but we’re pretty sure you would’ve caught wind of it through other channels.

The 2011 roll call of films is a very long list indeed, so long that when I picked up the programme, I put it down straight away because I thought it would explode with information. Having said that, I’ve now decided that the best way to see MIFF is to do the old “close-your-eyes-and-run-a-finger-down-a-page-and-stop-at-random” trick…or pick a random date and choose something…like this Saturday night’s screening of the hip-hop documentary, Beats, Rhymes & Life on the legendary A Tribe Called Quest. And if you don’t like hip-hop, that’s fine…there’s hundreds of films to choose from. Get the lowdown here.

Have a go at a First-Timers session this Sunday. It’s free and you probably won’t get hurt…but you might wanna make sure your hospital cover’s up-to-date, just in case, ya know?

Check it out.