Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / From Apartment To Bandit: DAVE McCORMACK On CUSTARD: Z51, TRS80 And A Dog With A Guitar
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Excellent.
- 0:00Speaker 2: How are you, Mr.
- 0:02Speaker 1: McCormack slash Mr. Bandit?
- 0:05Speaker 2: I'm good, Miss Williams.
- 0:07Speaker 3: Yes, it's Friday afternoon. Welcome to Heavy Mag.
- 0:10Speaker 2: Well, thank you for having me on Friday Arvo. How good.
- 0:14Speaker 2: It is.
- 0:14Speaker 1: Is that a virtual background of yours?
- 0:16Speaker 2: Yeah, you like it? I've been going through like, while
- 0:20Speaker 2: I was just sort of trying to figure out, I
- 0:22Speaker 2: just figured out you can put your own backgrounds in soon.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fine.
- 0:26Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah. So I put this one in. I've
- 0:30Speaker 2: been having some fun. It looks good, doesn't it?
- 0:32Speaker 1: It does.
- 0:32Speaker 3: Because from here, like, and I haven't got my spectacles on,
- 0:35Speaker 3: which I, my ego doesn't let me.
- 0:37Speaker 1: Wear them all the time. Yeah. I couldn't, I actually
- 0:40Speaker 1: had to like zoom in and go, is that AI
- 0:42Speaker 1: or not?
- 0:43Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's somewhere, somewhere. I went back in, yeah,
- 0:48Speaker 2: back in my photo thing and found it. It looks good.
- 0:50Speaker 2: It does. I like it.
- 0:51Speaker 1: Very good.
- 0:52Speaker 2: I like yours as well. It's nice and informative. Heavy, heavy, heavy.
- 0:56Speaker 1: Heavy, heavy, heavy.
- 0:57Speaker 3: So how is, how's things been? Are you in Brisbane
- 1:00Speaker 3: this afternoon? It's a lovely day here.
- 1:02Speaker 2: Oh, I'm in Sydney at the moment. It's beautiful down here.
- 1:06Speaker 2: It's scary though that this is still officially winter, right?
- 1:12Speaker 2: For another couple of, and it's warm. What's going to
- 1:14Speaker 2: happen in summer? Ali, what are we going to do?
- 1:17Speaker 1: I dread to think.
- 1:18Speaker 2: We are.
- 1:19Speaker 1: Some stuff happening with you.
- 1:20Speaker 2: I'm busy. Ali, I'm busy.
- 1:22Speaker 3: You are a busy man, which is good. You're going
- 1:25Speaker 3: to be part of Z51, which how awesome.
- 1:27Speaker 2: I know. What a good runner. I know. Well, and
- 1:31Speaker 2: there was Z50 last year. It was amazing. We really
- 1:34Speaker 2: wanted to do. I know. I can't believe we missed it.
- 1:36Speaker 2: I can't. Yeah. Anyway, look, we're here for Z51. You are.
- 1:39Speaker 1: Absolutely.
- 1:40Speaker 2: And Mudhoney. Mudhoney. And Mudhoney. I know.
- 1:44Speaker 1: Rock of Cain. When I spoke to.
- 1:45Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Hell yeah.
- 1:48Speaker 1: So good. Frothing for that. Yeah. And I Heart of Rush.
- 1:52Speaker 1: My Shonen Knife. And Dad Fight. Not Dad Fight.
- 1:54Speaker 2: Sorry.
- 1:55Speaker 1: Mitch Please. A whole bunch of awesome people.
- 1:58Speaker 2: I'm just going to Google the lineup.
- 2:00Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, it's wild.
- 2:01Speaker 3: I was, I just about fell off my chair. I
- 2:03Speaker 3: had to keep it under wraps knowing that it was,
- 2:05Speaker 3: it was happening back in February. Well, high possibility, but
- 2:08Speaker 3: not knowing the lineup. And then I was like, holy shit.
- 2:12Speaker 2: That's a Shana knife for there. What the hell? This
- 2:15Speaker 2: is massive.
- 2:17Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 2:17Speaker 2: Damn, Mitch.
- 2:18Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 2:19Speaker 2: Oh, okay. Cool. And there at the second bottom of
- 2:22Speaker 2: the list that I see here, Ali, is a band
- 2:25Speaker 2: I've never heard of, but I love the name Still
- 2:27Speaker 2: Full From Lunch.
- 2:29Speaker 1: I know. I love the name too. And I haven't
- 2:31Speaker 1: heard them either. So I'm really keen.
- 2:33Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to Still Full From Lunch. That's going
- 2:36Speaker 2: to be my favorite name of the year.
- 2:38Speaker 1: That's great. It's great. And of course, earlier, I had
- 2:42Speaker 1: the pleasure of seeing you guys perform with Spiderbait on
- 2:44Speaker 1: their tour.
- 2:45Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, nice. Oh, yeah, at the Tivoli. That was nuts.
- 2:50Speaker 2: We hadn't done a gig in ages, Elliot.
- 2:51Speaker 1: Oh, you were amazing.
- 2:52Speaker 2: And it was just fun to get back out there.
- 2:55Speaker 1: You're an absolute treat to photograph on stage, Dave.
- 2:59Speaker 2: Oh, I saw you. Yes. You were down there. Of course.
- 3:02Speaker 1: In the front. There you were, yeah. It's fun to
- 3:04Speaker 1: dance while I'm taking pictures.
- 3:05Speaker 2: No, no. The hair. I remember the hair. Of course,
- 3:08Speaker 2: that was fun. That was so good. And Spider-Bait is
- 3:12Speaker 2: such nice people.
- 3:13Speaker 1: Oh, I love those three. They're just gems.
- 3:15Speaker 2: Ali, you know what? Spiderbait are still proper famous, aren't they?
- 3:21Speaker 2: It's not like, oh, it's a bit of a 90s thing,
- 3:24Speaker 2: you know, like with Sunbat. They're still proper. A lot
- 3:27Speaker 2: of people love them.
- 3:28Speaker 1: And with The Gorge. And, you know, you guys fall
- 3:30Speaker 1: into that category too. Like the best music, I end
- 3:33Speaker 1: sound to say, happened in the 90s, mid-90s to 2000s.
- 3:37Speaker 2: Yeah, that was pretty good.
- 3:39Speaker 1: Absolutely part of that. I think for me especially, I
- 3:43Speaker 1: think a big part of that was when Triple J
- 3:45Speaker 1: came to the regions because we didn't have to play
- 3:47Speaker 1: until 94 or 95, I think.
- 3:49Speaker 2: And that just opened up.
- 3:51Speaker 3: My world of actual solo good music. And I've never
- 3:55Speaker 3: looked back.
- 3:56Speaker 2: I think Triple J, because I remember when it came
- 3:59Speaker 2: to Brizzy.
- 4:00Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 4:00Speaker 2: It's ancient history now, but that was the early 90s.
- 4:02Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 4:03Speaker 2: And we just started. So we were at the right
- 4:06Speaker 2: place at the right time. You know, in history. So lucky.
- 4:10Speaker 3: And I spoke to, I did a review and got
- 4:12Speaker 3: to see, fortunately, I got, I'll get the pleasure of
- 4:14Speaker 3: seeing them in both forms.
- 4:15Speaker 1: I was a UMI.
- 4:16Speaker 3: Um, so Andy, I spoke with them. They're doing their
- 4:20Speaker 3: string quartet, actually the Thursday before Z51.
- 4:22Speaker 1: Oh. And yeah. And I got to see them in
- 4:25Speaker 1: the Cooley Hotel, just them, which was so awesome. And
- 4:28Speaker 1: I'm like, oh yeah. Right. So again, hugely part of
- 4:31Speaker 1: that era. Yeah.
- 4:33Speaker 2: It was a golden age, wasn't it?
- 4:36Speaker 3: And also Screenfeeder. So those guys are just, they're doing heaps.
- 4:38Speaker 3: So they're actually playing down here in Cabra on Sunday,
- 4:41Speaker 3: which I can't wait.
- 4:42Speaker 2: Oh, nice.
- 4:43Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 4:43Speaker 3: And they did a gig in the art place in
- 4:46Speaker 3: Moulin Bar a few weeks back.
- 4:48Speaker 1: And yeah, just the best.
- 4:50Speaker 2: Well, I saw Screenfeeder did a thing where they did
- 4:53Speaker 2: all the Kelly songs, didn't they?
- 4:54Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yes. That's what they're good by. Yeah.
- 4:57Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 4:57Speaker 1: Yeah. So Kelly and Janet are like girl crush because
- 5:01Speaker 1: I play bass, you see.
- 5:02Speaker 2: Oh, well, they're legends. They're both legends.
- 5:05Speaker 1: Yes, very much so.
- 5:07Speaker 3: So, yeah, you guys have been and now you're doing
- 5:10Speaker 3: your tour of Cut This Shit Up.
- 5:13Speaker 1: Is that what it is?
- 5:14Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's like I put this band. When I
- 5:17Speaker 2: was up in Brizzy last Christmas, Ali, I did a
- 5:19Speaker 2: gig over at the Cave Inn. Okay. And it was
- 5:22Speaker 2: like a Christmas show. And I got my friend, long
- 5:27Speaker 2: time friend, Adele Pickfance and Nick Norton to like be
- 5:30Speaker 2: the backing band for me. Nice. And we did this
- 5:32Speaker 2: gig and it was an afternoon gig, Ali, and I
- 5:34Speaker 2: love an afternoon gig. We all went really good and
- 5:37Speaker 2: it was Christmas and it was a bit magical. I
- 5:40Speaker 2: thought this is a vibe. So we jumped into a
- 5:43Speaker 2: studio in January and quickly recorded a whole bunch of songs,
- 5:47Speaker 2: which has come out now. So, and the band's called
- 5:50Speaker 2: David McCormack's TRS 80.
- 5:52Speaker 1: I love that. The TRS tape was that tapes we
- 5:55Speaker 1: used to record on.
- 5:56Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 5:57Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 5:57Speaker 2: There was, there was, there was those. And we used
- 5:59Speaker 2: to have in the, my family's first computer was the
- 6:02Speaker 2: TRS 80.
- 6:03Speaker 3: So it was like, Oh, there you go.
- 6:06Speaker 1: That were TDKs, weren't they?
- 6:07Speaker 2: TDK does amazing things to your system. Yes. That was
- 6:11Speaker 2: the ad.
- 6:13Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 6:14Speaker 2: Yeah, so I've got this custard gig coming up.
- 6:17Speaker 1: That's so good.
- 6:17Speaker 2: There's TRS-80. We're doing a Sydney, a Brisbane, and a
- 6:21Speaker 2: Melbourne show. Yeah, nice. Soon, actually. Yes, that's exciting. Yeah,
- 6:26Speaker 2: and then we've got some other stuff coming up at
- 6:29Speaker 2: the end of the year, some other custard stuff.
- 6:31Speaker 1: Oh, I love that.
- 6:32Speaker 2: You know what, Ali? I feel like I'm busy, but
- 6:34Speaker 2: not too busy.
- 6:35Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good. It's a good medium place to be.
- 6:37Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
- 6:38Speaker 3: But you don't want to be like trying to burn
- 6:41Speaker 3: the candle at both ends.
- 6:42Speaker 2: No, I just do a couple of things here and there.
- 6:44Speaker 2: I love it. I love it.
- 6:45Speaker 1: Yeah, and then just kick back. It's the best.
- 6:47Speaker 2: Kick back here in my personal lounge.
- 6:50Speaker 3: And of course, you know, the good listeners here at Heavy,
- 6:52Speaker 3: I know, well, For me, I'm aware of this because
- 6:56Speaker 3: I have.
- 6:56Speaker 1: Small wee grandchildren.
- 6:57Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
- 6:58Speaker 1: Also... the voice of bandit from the yeah that's it
- 7:02Speaker 1: louis which uh be surprised how many people don't know
- 7:05Speaker 1: that which again i don't know whether that's general knowledge
- 7:07Speaker 1: or not because i have wee ones.
- 7:09Speaker 2: Yeah yeah yeah no you'd be surprised like if if
- 7:12Speaker 2: you're in if you know little people like you know
- 7:15Speaker 2: all about bluey but i'm and there's like there's like
- 7:20Speaker 2: an iron curtain of information like if you don't if
- 7:24Speaker 2: you aren't involved with little people you don't even know
- 7:26Speaker 2: about it it's weird Yeah, but, I.
- 7:28Speaker 1: Mean, it's world famous.
- 7:30Speaker 3: Like, it is common knowledge with, like, little folk, you know,
- 7:33Speaker 3: in the States particularly. And, like, I think, gosh, my
- 7:37Speaker 3: girls are old now. But Bananas in Pyjamas, I think,
- 7:40Speaker 3: had a very similar vice of fame overseas as well.
- 7:44Speaker 2: Yeah, and The Wiggles. The Wiggles is still huge. That's it.
- 7:47Speaker 2: Isn't it weird?
- 7:48Speaker 1: Aussies are known for, like, putting out really good quality
- 7:50Speaker 1: kid stuff.
- 7:51Speaker 2: Ali, Aussies can do it as good as anyone in
- 7:54Speaker 2: the world.
- 7:54Speaker 1: They absolutely can. My question is, is Bandit going to make,
- 7:58Speaker 1: is he going to be in band? Dad Rock Band.
- 8:01Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah. I reckon that.
- 8:02Speaker 1: That would be so rad.
- 8:03Speaker 2: Look, I've been pushing that. Why not? Like, why can't
- 8:06Speaker 2: Bandit be in a band in the show? I think
- 8:09Speaker 2: it's a great idea.
- 8:10Speaker 1: See, I wrote a kid's book for my grandchildren. It's
- 8:13Speaker 1: called Our Nana's Not Like the Other Nanas. Al Nana
- 8:15Speaker 1: rides a pink motorbike and plays a blue bass guitar.
- 8:18Speaker 2: Oh, nice.
- 8:19Speaker 1: It's a whole thing. Because I'm at the preschool, it's going,
- 8:21Speaker 1: my grandkids must be going, oh, our Nana's not like
- 8:24Speaker 1: the other Nana.
- 8:27Speaker 2: You're the cool Nana.
- 8:28Speaker 1: I'm the cool Nana. I've been the cool mum since 2006.
- 8:31Speaker 1: The school disco were my first ones. It's surreal because
- 8:35Speaker 1: it's almost like, you know.
- 8:37Speaker 2: You must have been a young mum, right?
- 8:39Speaker 1: I was. I was 20 when I had my older.
- 8:41Speaker 1: She was the same when she had her first.
- 8:42Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 8:43Speaker 1: But I'd do it all over again because, you know.
- 8:45Speaker 2: Oh, hell yeah. See, I was an old dad, but
- 8:48Speaker 2: I'd like to go back and do what you've done
- 8:50Speaker 2: if I could. 20-year-old dad by the time you've done it.
- 8:54Speaker 2: That's great. Good on you. Cool, Nan.
- 8:57Speaker 1: Cool, Nan. Doing the cool stuff. So, yeah. So that's
- 9:00Speaker 1: good that Custer's coming back and doing some more.
- 9:02Speaker 2: Can't wait.
- 9:03Speaker 1: You know, are you writing new music or is it
- 9:05Speaker 1: just some of the old faves?
- 9:06Speaker 2: I mean, look, you know, we'll probably, we'll, we'll stick
- 9:10Speaker 2: to the old faves for these upcoming shows. You know,
- 9:12Speaker 2: you don't want to give the people what they want.
- 9:15Speaker 2: I know.
- 9:15Speaker 1: And I still have apartment playing in my head.
- 9:18Speaker 2: There you go.
- 9:19Speaker 1: There you go.
- 9:21Speaker 2: We've sussed out a really good way to do the
- 9:22Speaker 2: set list. Now you just go on to like Apple music.
- 9:26Speaker 2: And you know and then you go your most popular
- 9:28Speaker 2: songs like we pick we pick out our 12 most
- 9:31Speaker 2: popular songs And then reverse the order so you play
- 9:36Speaker 2: like the 12th to the and then the last song
- 9:38Speaker 2: you play is the most popular song.
- 9:41Speaker 3: I remember going to a midnight oil show once I
- 9:43Speaker 3: think was the first show I went to when I
- 9:44Speaker 3: was 18 and They had all their hits on a
- 9:47Speaker 3: top chocolate wheel and they spun it landed on their play.
- 9:50Speaker 2: It was so good Oh, I'd love to do that.
- 9:52Speaker 2: That's a good idea. But you'd have to lug the
- 9:54Speaker 2: chocolate wheel around. That's a problem.
- 9:56Speaker 1: But it was worth it.
- 9:57Speaker 2: I'm not going to lie.
- 9:57Speaker 1: It was definitely worth it.
- 9:59Speaker 2: Very cool. That's a great idea.
- 10:01Speaker 1: It was. Yeah. So, you know, putting the feelers out
- 10:04Speaker 1: there and thinkers. Yeah, no, that's good. So you're doing
- 10:07Speaker 1: all the old faves.
- 10:08Speaker 2: Are you guys- All the old faves, yeah.
- 10:09Speaker 1: Or are you just enjoying playing the classics?
- 10:12Speaker 2: We love it. We love the classics. And- The audience, too. Yeah.
- 10:16Speaker 2: We love playing them, but it's also seeing everyone's reactions. Like,
- 10:19Speaker 2: you know, like, at that Tivoli thing, you play these
- 10:22Speaker 2: old songs from, some of them are from, like, 94
- 10:25Speaker 2: or something. And people still dig it. It's amazing. They
- 10:29Speaker 2: dig it all these years.
- 10:30Speaker 3: I forgot how many songs of yours I know. And
- 10:32Speaker 3: it's like, oh, shit, you've got, like, a whole album.
- 10:34Speaker 3: But then I did listen to Triple J pretty much
- 10:37Speaker 3: hours a day, every day.
- 10:38Speaker 2: I'm trying to figure out how many years ago 1994 was.
- 10:40Speaker 2: Is that 32 years ago? Maybe.
- 10:46Speaker 1: I was 14 then.
- 10:49Speaker 2: It's a long time ago.
- 10:52Speaker 1: 34 years ago.
- 10:52Speaker 2: Yeah, it's too long that we can't even figure it out.
- 10:56Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what we calculate. I still count on my fingers.
- 10:58Speaker 1: I'm automatically dyslexic, I swear. Lyrical genius, absolute wordsmith.
- 11:04Speaker 2: Absolutely.
- 11:05Speaker 1: Math, maths is not my forte.
- 11:07Speaker 2: Okay.
- 11:09Speaker 1: And when people add maths to music, I'm like, no.
- 11:12Speaker 2: No, you can't do it.
- 11:14Speaker 1: Why can't it be a three and a seven?
- 11:16Speaker 2: Yeah, easy, easy.
- 11:17Speaker 1: So that's awesome. So you've got three, Brisbane, obviously, with Z51,
- 11:21Speaker 1: then Sydney, I imagine, is it, or Melbourne?
- 11:25Speaker 2: My TRS-80 tour starts, or it starts next... Next week? Yeah,
- 11:29Speaker 2: next Friday, the 4th, in Melbourne, and then Brisbane on
- 11:32Speaker 2: the 11th, and then Sydney on the 18th of September,
- 11:35Speaker 2: and then Z51 on the 24th of October.
- 11:39Speaker 1: Oh, cool. So you're doing two Brizzy shows.
- 11:41Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there's some more custard stuff
- 11:44Speaker 2: in November as well. So it's good. We're going to
- 11:47Speaker 2: some good places. Yeah, sure. We love doing that stuff.
- 11:50Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah, no, that's excellent. Well, I'm so excited. I
- 11:53Speaker 1: can't wait for Z51.
- 11:55Speaker 2: Ali, I'm freaking pumped. I can't wait.
- 11:58Speaker 3: But, you know, the funniest thing is, is I'm like, yeah,
- 12:00Speaker 3: Maud Honeyburton. And then so my friend, AD, frees him
- 12:03Speaker 3: in the band, the Test Eagles, which.
- 12:04Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember the Test Eagles. Yeah.
- 12:07Speaker 1: And he's like, Ali, Mark, because Mark sang with the
- 12:10Speaker 1: Saints last year.
- 12:11Speaker 2: True.
- 12:12Speaker 1: No, he was standing next to us for so long,
- 12:14Speaker 1: I went, oh, really? Oh, wow.
- 12:16Speaker 2: No, he's a legend. And I hear that the Saints
- 12:19Speaker 2: with Mark Arm was amazing last year. Yeah. And I
- 12:22Speaker 2: remember talking about the Test Eagles. I remember seeing their
- 12:24Speaker 2: names all over posters and gig guides in the 90s.
- 12:27Speaker 2: And I thought, that's a cool name.
- 12:29Speaker 1: It is a cool name. It is.
- 12:32Speaker 3: And they're writing some new stuff, which is very exciting.
- 12:35Speaker 3: That was funny because I'm like, oh, really? But yeah,
- 12:37Speaker 3: the Saints were great. I mean, the Gurgers were great.
- 12:39Speaker 1: Love to see. It was so good to see Eddie again, Butterfingers.
- 12:42Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, right. Oh, yeah, look, that sounds like that
- 12:45Speaker 2: would have been a killer gig, but I'm sure this
- 12:47Speaker 2: one will be pretty good too.
- 12:48Speaker 1: Absolutely. It will be. Well, it's been an absolute pleasure
- 12:53Speaker 1: chatting with you.
- 12:55Speaker 2: Thank you. And great chat to you, Ali, and welcome
- 12:58Speaker 2: to my lounge.
- 13:00Speaker 1: It looks kind of like the lobby of like somewhere fancy.
- 13:02Speaker 1: Is that right?
- 13:03Speaker 2: I think it was.
- 13:04Speaker 1: Yeah, it was very nice.
- 13:05Speaker 2: That's when I used to go to fancy places.
- 13:09Speaker 1: I'm adulting and I'm pretending. Yeah, that's right. I don't know.
- 13:15Speaker 2: Good on you, Ali. Thank you very much.
- 13:17Speaker 1: You're a gem. It's been a treat.
- 13:19Speaker 3: And I look forward to seeing you at Z51, but
- 13:22Speaker 3: maybe at the Brisbane one beforehand.
- 13:24Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
- 13:25Speaker 1: But our roster is free because I just never know
- 13:27Speaker 1: what I'm doing usually.
- 13:28Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. And I don't even know where we're playing
- 13:30Speaker 2: in Brisbane. But people can Google it. They'll find it.
- 13:34Speaker 1: Excellent. We will do.
- 13:35Speaker 2: All right, guys.
- 13:35Speaker 3: See you.
- 13:35Speaker 1: Thanks so much. We'll talk soon. Bye. Bye.