Latest / Stream of Consciousness with Dan: Stories from the Midwest / Stream of Consciousness Episode #70 - Jono Mata - Sly Withers

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Stream of Consciousness Episode #70 - Jono Mata - Sly Withers · Stream of Consciousness with Dan: Stories from the Midwest

• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everybody, we are live with Stream of Consciousness with Dan.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: And today we've got one of Perth Australia's finest, Jonah Mata from the band Sly Withers.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: If you've been anywhere near the Australian music scene over the last couple years, you know who I'm talking about.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: ARIA Top 10 albums, Triple J Hottest 100 Love, Sold Out Tours, and More Riffs Than a Bunning Sausage Sizzle Has Onions.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: May Jonah, thanks so much for jumping on.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing today?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing great.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: That was a very, very kind intro.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: I have to, before we get started, explain to our listeners what a Bunnings sausage is.
• 1:05
  unknown: Yeah.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: So uh a bunnings is like one of our main, I guess, like hardware store chains, you'd say.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um Home Depot equivalent.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, gotcha.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that you everything there from tools to gardening to building, all of that.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and on the weekends, Saturdays and Sundays, they'll have you know, like the local footy team or church or scouts hall set up out the front, and they do fundraisers.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So every weekend you can go there, there'll be a different group fundraising cooking a you know a sausage sizzle, you get a bunning snag, and that's where that all comes from.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And they're always 10 out of 10.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, I I wish Home Depot and Lowe's would do that.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: They get more business.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: But okay, that's great.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: So before we dig into anywhere near music, I really just want to go back and talk about your childhood uh from someone at the complete opposite side of the world as me, what it actually was like growing up in Perth, Australia.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, when you think WA, I I don't really know.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: I just picture a lot of sun.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: You're very isolated, and those birds that just like swoop at you, the magpies.
• 2:14
  unknown: Yeah.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, so yeah, where you end up, yeah.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if like you were really into school or sports or skating video games.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Just kind of tell me about yourself growing up.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, kind of a like a little bit of everything.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was definitely really into sport growing up, like played everything like basketball, footy, soccer, did some rugby, did some baseball, t ball, like all of those things.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was very sporty in my youth.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um kind of pushed that to the side when we started the band.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um because it started clashing, like you have your games on the weekend, but if you had a show on on a Friday night, you just didn't really want to do both of those things.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, definitely sort of pushed all that to the side for music when it started.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, like growing up in WA, like you said, it's a lot of sun.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like I live well, all of us, all the guys in the band, we all lived pretty coastal.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So grew up at the beach, grew up surfing and fishing and doing all that kind of stuff.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of skateboarding um back in the day.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: My ankles can't really cover anymore, so that went out the door as well.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, no, I think WA is like a very unique place to grow up.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like you said, it is very isolated, and you kind of have to come up with your own sources of fun um here.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, just kids doing stupid stuff and running around the suburbs on skateboards.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was kind of what we did.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I can picture it because in your music video explode into view.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: You guys are doing some pretty some dorky fun things with the skateboards.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think you were trying to go down that little hill in the parking garage on a lawn chair on two little skateboards.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So Yeah, the problem is like none of us are really that good at skating.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So when uh Tim, uh Tim, the guy that we've done videos with forever, basically, um he was like, Yeah, we'll just go do some skateboarding.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: He brought some boards for us to mess around with, and we were like, Well, we're not actually that good.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: End up just doing stupid things instead.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I enjoyed it.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so did you play any instruments growing up?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, piano or guitar, did that just kind of come about or yeah, just talk to how you got interested in music.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I I started with drums initially.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, begged my parents for a drum kit and they after a few years, you know, regrettably got me one.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um joint birthday Christmas prevalent.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: When I think I was I think I would have been like eleven or something.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So like the kind of age where you don't really want your kid to have a drum set.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like, yeah, awful and and loud.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: But that's where I started.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um really loved playing drums, and then we kind of just had guitars around the house.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like we weren't like a super musical family in that sense, but there was always just seemed to be like you know, the old uh like acoustic nylon guitar.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think belonged to one of my uncles who like left at our place and was sitting there.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then I think it was through through school, like in WA at least.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Most schools, like when you're in primary school, they'll you'll do some music and everyone ends up with a with a recorder at some point.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and then they you can kind of get split into uh like the horn section or strings or guitar.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: That was like the three choices, like classical guitar.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: That was the the three choices that you had within the music program.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I remember like I initially wanted to do trumpet.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh really wanted to play the trumpet, but I can't remember why.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I put that down on all my applications and stuff, and then my mum actually went and said, like, no, you you're gonna do guitar because it's oh my god.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I imagine I'd probably made enough noise with the drums as is to then bring a trumpet into the house as a trained child.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out, mum, for getting me on the right path then.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, that's hilarious.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because so we kind of had a similar thing, and uh, so I had taken piano lessons growing up, but I think it was fifth grade, you could either be in band, so you know, like uh horns and woodwinds and all that stuff for orchestra.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, my mom had a clarinet from when she was a kid, so of course I ended up playing the clarinet.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that was kind of my first band instrument, but I think it was important because just being able to read the music like that, even from piano, I can pick up any instrument now and just learn it so much faster, having that knowledge.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um 100%.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I I wish like if I could go back, I would have learned piano if I could, because I think like what you said just gives you such a broader understanding of everything that's that's happening within within music.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that's I've never like yeah, never learnt to read music.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um oh wow, okay.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, I think I'll it would have been helpful.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: I imagine because like I said, uh trumpet was my COVID project.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I learned how to play trumpet during COVID, uh banjo, ukulele, and I just take the piano and then I like transpose it to whatever instrument I'm trying to learn.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: So it's I don't know, it's kind of fun, but I always like talking to musicians because I'm kind of jealous of you that you can just play the way you play just without the the notes.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: I just think that's really cool.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it's uh yeah, it's a lot of like trial and error, I guess, the way I do it, like without knowing what to do.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, this is the right one.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go from here.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh that's great.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm actually gonna switch up what I was gonna talk about.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I wanted to talk about your early influences, just music-wise, like who you were listening to.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Were you listening to mainly Australian bands?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, did you listen to a lot of you know Western stuff?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because for me, the only Australian artist I knew probably like five years ago was Paul Kelly, and that was about it.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Kelly kind of influences all at this stage.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think like it was a pretty pretty spread mix.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, definitely the like in it growing up in Australia, you do get a lot of exposure to US music and and UK music as well, just through the radio, and that's like that's sort of what we we had on.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like my my mum's from the UK, so she has Oh gotcha.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Her her records were like Elton John, Ron Stewart, like all of those that crew.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um whereas my dad was either Jack Johnson or Jerry Rafferty.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's sort of like what was at all times.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that was kind of the spread there.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the first CDs that my parents ever got me was um Mike M, uh Welcome to the Black Parade, that album.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh geez, that's a phenomenal album.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that was I think that was the first CD they ever got me.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um Jet was Jet's an Australian band.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I didn't know that.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: But Jet's good, I like Jet.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, so that album and Good Charlotte, Good Morning Revival, that record, and um Silver Chair, the Frog Stomp record.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: So they were the first four CDs that I got, and that was kind of I guess my earliest taste of music and what was sort of happening in the world, and I rinsed all of the records for everything that they're worth.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think we might be related.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so my first my first CD that I ever got was Young and the Hopeless by Good Charlotte.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: That was my first D I ever uh ever had.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: So, and yeah, my chemical romance just phenomenal.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I guess looking back, because I'm I'm trying to explore more into Australian music, not just punk-wise, but like the waifs.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: I just got into them, they're really good.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what was the other ones I found?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: I was making a playlist, and I feel like I've just been missing out.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like Something for Kate, Eskimo Joe, you mentioned Silver Chair, just those bands are so good.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm really excited to dig more into those.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think when you're playing Sly Weather stuff, do you classify?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously you're Australian, but do you classify yourself as like Australian or a Western mix?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: Or I guess, and you don't have to put a label on it, but you know what I mean?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what would you kind of classify yourself when you're making Sly Weather's music?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, like, yeah, we're definitely super influenced by sort of what's going on in Australia.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you kind of have to keep your finger on what's happening here, and there's like you said, like bands like Slowly, bands like Stand Atlantic, like there's so much cool stuff happening here, and always has been, that there's there is so much to draw from.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: But we definitely, like, as a group, I guess, like we all sort of fell in love with like Midwest emo music and you know, bands like modern baseball and Menzing is like all of that crew, four year strong, like all of the stuff that is the more I guess punk-esque stuff that you guys have going on in the States, like that was really where we found what we kind of loved in in music, and I think that unity of what's going in in Australia with those influences was kind of where we landed naturally, just from I guess what we're interested in.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is like it is tricky to put a label on it, because I think even between each album and the songs on each album, like it's I find it hard to group them into a specific genre.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I think at the same time, like that's what people like about us.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think there is yeah, that's the beauty of it for sure, is you're not just hearing you know one style of music.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so I gotta talk about you and Sam.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: And Sam's my wife, so now I'm confused because we have guy Sam and then my wife downstairs, Sam.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: But uh so if I uh recall, you guys met in high school, right?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah or did you meet okay, you met in high school and you guys are busking what outside just coffee shops or uh yeah, just talk about kind of your relationship with him early on, and I'm just picturing you two just playing Jack Johnson covers outside a local coffee shop.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: That is exactly what sort of happens.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um I yeah, I guess like Sam was the first person that I've found like a mutual interest in music with, and we kind of I'd say we definitely like fostered that in each other, and that's how the band started.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was like we had acoustic guitars and we would go busking on the weekends and sit outside a cafe along the coast in in Perth, um, and just play play for people there, hammer coffers, and it was stuff from all the covers that were coming out on on Triple J we were covering, and uh, like you said, like things like Jack Johnson and Matt Corbys and all those types of guys.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that was really the root of where the band started was yeah, Sam and I doing covers together, and that was probably about 12 years ago now, if not a bit more.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, that's it's uh it's been a long time that Sam and I have been working together on this.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and to me, especially as someone who's just an amateur musician, I mean that takes a lot of courage, and I mean, just you have to be you just have to have such a love for music to do that because you're still learning, you're still getting better, you're probably still fairly raw.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um so just I guess where did that that courage come from?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Was it just something you always had, or you're just like, I'm gonna do this, screw it?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was a little bit of we're just gonna do this, screw it.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um Sam had definitely like he'd played in bands before.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's part of a like a music program thing that's sort of run in Perth.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Rock Scholars.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's been there since he was a kid, and he's there still teaching and mentoring other bands.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's awesome.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's a it's an amazing program, and it's where we first sort of started out as a band.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: But Sam's gone through it from young kid to you know, teenager to adult to now teacher, mentor, and running the program as well.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: So he's super ingrained in the whole culture there.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he had played in a couple of bands previously through that.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: So they you know, you sign up as a kid and they they'll put you in a band with a group of other people.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you do a term's worth of you know, uh rehearsals and have a mentor in there to help you learn the songs, help you write your own music, and then at the end of the term, there's a show that they put on, and parents go and friends go and and that.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So they do like four shows a year through that.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's it's such an amazing program for like helping kids not only get in the room with other people and start playing instruments, but also helping them get at the foot in the door with the industry and like learn how to book a show, learn how to show up to a show and learn what to do there, and all of those things that you can only otherwise find out by getting it wrong.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um so Sam definitely had more confidence right out of the gate that like, oh, that's yeah, you know, we're playing now, but the natural progression is we then do something about it.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like you get it out of the house and you get it out of the bedroom.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I I think like without Sam's influence, like I mean, absolute zero percent chance we would have gotten to where we are today without everything that he's done to push the band forward, but even in those early days, like I don't think I would have been the guy to be like, I'm gonna go and sit outside the cafe and play guitar.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's really sweet, actually.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: And did you write the script a school of rock?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's what it just sounded like.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Is I'm just picturing school of rock right now.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, so this is a little bit off the cuff, but it's also important to me for kids to play music and learn about music.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think it it teaches practice, uh, not just for music, but for anything that you do in life.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um 100%.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, to really learn an instrument takes a lot of practice.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I've always heard I had a great banjo instructor, like 15 minutes of good practice is a way better use of your time than one hour of you just dorking around.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it just it builds really good habits, I think.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: And like you said, I didn't even think about getting your foot in the door on the professional side.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I just think that's really awesome that you guys have that, and uh that Sam's seen it, you know, from start to finish, so that's really cool.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's like you know, like you said, there's there is that element of you have some direction with the practice that you're doing because you're working towards a goal, you're working towards writing the songs, you know that there's a show coming up that you've got to be ready for, but it's also like you can get really good at playing guitar by yourself in your room if you want to, but that's that's a totally different thing to playing with a another group of people, like a bass player, and like the collaboration that has to go into songwriting, that you can't have everything your way, you've got to make compromises with other people, and so it's like it's less about learning how to play your instrument and more about like okay, how do you actually do this productively with a group of people that yeah you may have only met last week?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, right amazing programs.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna have to do some research on that and maybe uh try to get that.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think we might have something like it in the States, but I think it's more private.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, I just think that's awesome.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very jealous of that.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, so you and Sam, you're doing your whole busking thing, and uh how did you meet your other two bandmates originally?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: And well, because I think you have a new drummer now, but you guys, your first four were together for quite a long time.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, how did the other two members uh kind of get together with you guys?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we were we were all in in high school together format in in school.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um Sam and Joel, the the original drummer, had actually played in, you know, they were both in that program earlier before high school, I think, or maybe early days.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um so they already had done some stuff together, and then we just had like music as a class um with Shay, our bass player.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh okay.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that was like around the time that we were in year year ten, year eleven, and we kind of got you know, we we just gravitated towards each other for the projects that you do in that music class.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um we ended up being sort of allowed to go into the music rooms on our lunch breaks and stuff and and jam at school.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so from there the the three of us signed up to that program.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's how we originally started.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: We were in that in that school thing.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's called Rock Scholars.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: We were um we did that for maybe a full term or or two terms, I can't remember exactly.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um before we asked Joel to to join.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because he had sort of left school by that point.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know if it's the same in the in the States, but you can sort of leave school a year early to go into an apprenticeship and start doing it.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, yeah.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so he'd left early to go and do carpentry, and that's what he loves and still does now.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so we were like, yeah, like, do you want to come and play drums?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like, Hell yeah.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's how it all worked out.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's that's how we started with Joel, and fuck, he was the four of us for you know, at least uh a decade.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um before it just like because Joel now runs his own business.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a whole team of chippies working for him, and that's his absolute passion.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like he just loves his job and loves his his work.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they just got too too much to sort of juggle at the one time.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that's when he stepped aside and and Fraser, the new drummer, sort of jumped.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm glad it ended on good terms.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: It sounded like he it sounds like he's having a blast.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, no, absolutely.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Best best way it could have possibly ended where everyone wanted to carry on doing what they love.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, again, a little jealous.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I can uh fix anything or make uh yeah, I'm so uncarpenter, just terrible.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: So let's fast forward.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: You guys are Sly Withers officially.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of shows are you playing?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Is it mostly local?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then we can kind of uh work our way up from there, you know, booking bigger and bigger, etc., if you want to just kind of paint that picture.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: I should start out by saying that I'm terrible with dates, like I have no memory for the actual years or dates that things happened.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's Sam's area of expertise.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, the first I want to say like four or five years that we were a band was all local.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like we were playing shows around Perth.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can kind of do mini tours in WA where we went down south a few times and play places like uh Dunceboro and Margaret River, Bunbury.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: those kind of places.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that was our first like I guess like taste taste of touring.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I remember being so excited for like it that was just insane that we were like we get to drive for three hours and play a show.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: What the hell?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: There was like four people there, like this is the best ever and it was like you know, hanging out with other bands and all of that.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, yeah, we just got so excited around around touring at that time.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: But the Perth music scene, like we had so many role models to look at when we started like big local bands for us were bands like um they've got the Love Junkies, band called Foam.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: These were bands that we could go out and see like most weekends you could catch playing somewhere in Perth.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And again I think because we'd done that music school type of setup where we had done shows through them and Sam had much more of like an industry understanding of how to then go and get those shows and book your own shows it felt like a a pretty natural progression at the time and Sam was running everything.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: He was booking all the shows acting as you know frontman songwriter manager booking agent all of those things.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've played shows you know weekends here and there around Perth and in the city and down in Frio and and all of those places and I feel like there was a lot more venues doing those kind of weekend shows for local bands back then.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like there definitely you know COVID hit everyone and things are a little bit tougher now.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's still like there's still a lot of places in Perth um but it is I think now more important than ever that like bands have their scene and find their scene so that they have access to those sort of areas.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when we we got in touch with Skinny our manager now and from there he sort of you know he was much more industry aware much more on the ball when it came to to booking shows and booking tours and that um and the first tour that we ever did nationally we actually won we won a triple J competition to go and film a music video over in Sydney.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was the first tour that we did.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: We we booked some shows around that and went and met our booking agent over there for the first time had a couple of interviews with people and met Casey O'Shaughnessy who's our booking agent now it was love at first sight we've been with Casey ever since that was the tour that we kind of like assembled the family a little bit like we've got manager here, booking agent here everyone gets what we're trying to do and everyone's in for it and from there like you know having that skilled managerial team and booking team working with us that was when we were kind of able to step up and book more tours get more support tours as well and and from there kind of snowballed to what we're doing now.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: I do want you to explain uh kind of what triple J is um I've fallen in love with it.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many great covers that uh bands have done on I don't know if it's like a exactly what to equate it to but because you guys covered um what wasn't scientists which cold plate song did you cover?
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah the scientists yeah the scientist you covered the scientist um the Vans did Hey Ma by Boni Vare which was incredible uh Luca Brazi's How to Make Gravy is probably number one that is just a phenomenal cover.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: So could you just explain what triple J is yeah so triple J is kind of like our I guess national youth broadcaster is what they say.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the the radio station like the national radio station right um and so they're heavily involved with the national music scene like because you have triple J and then you've got triple J Unearthed which is kind of where you know you can upload your songs there's people there that are filtering through and listening to everything and then put some local people on the radio it's like it's kind of like the foot in the door for the Australian you know music board gotcha okay.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so they do a lot in terms of like Triple J Presents tours where they'll come on board and like shout out the tour on the radio and help promote and advertise in that sense.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: They do a lot with you know a lot of the festivals that that go around um but what you were talking about before um like a version and sort of like every Friday they'll have an artist in to do you do one cover and you do one original and it's recorded in the triple J Studios um and that is kind of like like growing up as a kid in Australia if you're interested in music it's like what would I do for my like a version it's like that's the pinnacle of cool pinnacle of this is what you want to work towards in Australia.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah you're right it's such a like it's such a wealth of just amazing covers in there by like you can go on like hours and hours worth of scrolling through through past like a versions because I think it's been it's been going for like well over 20 years.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow I can't even remember how far back it goes um maybe I've got that completely wrong but it's it's been going forever like we were aware of it when when I was first finding out that like music existed.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: It goes goes back for ages.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's just a really cool opportunity to like you know go in there do a do a cover get it out there on the internet and like it's I wouldn't say like a rite of passage because you know everyone wants to do it and they can't have everyone in to do it but it is it is a uniquely cool opportunity to go in and sort of leave your mark on the scene and that that station by doing that.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's sort of similar to I guess you guys have like you've got your audio tree like file oh yeah audio tree live yeah yeah it's it's it's pretty similar to to that.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well I like you said just incredible covers and I do want to talk why you picked the scientists um because obviously there was a reason for that and I guess when I think Sly Withers that's not the first thing that would have came in my mind like pick that kind of song not that that's good or bad it just that wouldn't have clicked at first and then you hear it and you're just like that works.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: So kind of what was your vision to obviously respect the song but make it a Sly Withers cover.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: I remember it being like a it was I wouldn't say stressful but like it was a tense period of trying to figure it out because it is like you put so much pressure on yourself to to do a good job and if you don't do a good job the comment section's gonna let you know about it.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's a bit riding on on the opportunity itself.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: But we definitely like we definitely wanted to do something big and something classic something that was outside of our genre that we could sort of make our own without having to change everything about it.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think it still needs to be true to what the song is but you just leave a bit of your taste on it.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so I can't remember exactly like who originally suggested it but it was a very quick like oh this this works like and this is cool and I think I know I remember Shay and Joel taking a little bit longer to come around to the idea of doing that one because even for me as well like a lot of our favorite like versions are the ones where like it's a slower softer song and the bands make it loud and heavy and because we grew up on those like you know like pop goes pop goes punk like situations it's like that you know that's what you want to do.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: So coming up with an idea where we're like oh this is actually a bit more subdued a bit more in that kind of you know like you want to say like emo direction um spin on it it was coupled with that you know the opportunity is so big and you don't want to mess it up it was just like a okay like we've got to back ourselves here and it was such a fun experience but being able to like add that song to our live set and we sort of played it as a like if we got an encore we would do that.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Oh better part of yeah because we we don't really like you know you leave your best song for the encore and you walk off and you come back on it seems stupid so we always want to have like a cover that we can do that's just like a fun way to to end the night and that one has never failed to hit because everyone knows that everyone even if you say that you don't like Coldplay like everyone loves that song.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's so hard to find someone that doesn't like it.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's yeah it's interesting I don't know if it was just the time and place where we were but it we sort of modelled that like a version off of Clarkson I guess um our song Clarkson and because when we were writing Clarkson the sort of elevator pitch was to do like a pop punk col play.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: Don't know why that was a thing at the time but that's kind of what we were working with.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I guess like the one thing sort of bled into the other at that point and yeah it's it's a uniquely like Australian opportunity and something that like people take very seriously here.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it was really cool to get the chance um and I'm glad we didn't fuck it up.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah you definitely didn't yeah everyone out there don't just check that one out it I mean that one's incredible yeah there's so many out there that are so good and you can come across some really talented bands that you may not have heard before so um I'm gonna ask a question you probably get a lot and I was debating asking it but I I do like to ask musicians about their songwriting process just because I think it's important and to me that'd be the most difficult thing is to I mean a lot of your songs I believe are are fairly pretty much based on personal experience.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you're really putting yourself out there I mean do you start with a riff do you start with guitar and then put lyrics on top or vice versa or are you just completely it could be anything um I think the majority of the time it is guitar first.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like it'll sort of come from picking up a guitar and and messing around finding you know a riff or a little diddly bit that you you like and that sort of catches you as a melody and then from there it's like workshop and workshop and eventually words will sort of fall out.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's me as a sense but I I think like Sam I think has always been much better at telling a story you know and and actually conveying an idea from start to finish and I think a lot of the time for him it is well I definitely he like 100% he puts more emphasis on the lyrical content than the music behind it.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's very much Sam's favourite saying is like if like any great song should sound great if it's just you and an acoustic guitar and that's his sort of ethos behind it.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you know over the past decade plus we've always been like each other's biggest influence um 100% like I've I've always been in awe of the way that Sam can convey an idea from start to finish and tell a story and make it uniquely personal to what's going on but also so relatable.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's like that's that's really difficult to do and he does it very effortlessly whereas I think I'm more right from like a more like abstract sense and more that so I I guess that's another like unique thing about our band is that there's two songwriters with quite different approaches to how this comes about but then everything goes through the filter of the band anyway.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right then there is no Jono song that Sam hasn't influenced at some stage in the process and and vice versa.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah I think when it comes to writing that it's also a bit different per album.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like this last album that we've just done was the first time we ever kind of just like sat around a laptop with an interface and plugged in and wrote the songs together and workshopped the demos and did it like that.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas everything else has been like we sort of write together in the room um with everything happening at once.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a bit of a change up um there's things I like and dislike about processes but yeah I think the I I don't like songwriting is something that we've been doing now for so long that I think we have to do it a bit differently every time to keep it fresh and keep it fun.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: No I'm glad I asked that and I think it I think it's what makes your band just a little bit cooler and because you have like you could tell oh that's a Sam song or that's a a John O song but it's a Slywither song at the same time.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: I just think what I have a I have a band that I really like it's kind of a piano pop band called Jukebox the Ghost and they have a similar process where you know each of them kind of split 50-50 between the songwriting and it just works.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: I just think it's really neat so I'm gonna geek out real quick on guitar tuning and then we're gonna get some slang going okay sure let's go so I've noticed that you do do some a couple funky tunings and I love talking about them what is the what is your favorite kind of alternative tuning uh then for everyone listening out there like the stand not the standard tuning it's uh are they mostly open or yeah just talk about that for a quick second so I only use I only use one um alternative tuning that I stumbled across stumbled across years ago and just left a guitar set up like that and ended up writing some songs but it's this uh this strap behind me here um it's D A E A C sharp E.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna write it down so yeah D A E A C sharp E.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: I I think there's there's a tuning people refer to as angel angel tuning okay which which is that but instead of the B string going to a C sharp it stays as a B.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's the only difference that I could find with it.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah it's just like a very very nice math rocky thing type tuning.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we're sort of split between I think at the moment like with the songs in the set I'm sort of 50% on that guitar and then 50% standard and drop D at the same time.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: So gotcha okay well I know what I'm gonna do tomorrow is I wish I had I wish I had two guitars then I could but um oh I hate doing it a different uh a different tuning and then you're like oh crap I want to play this song so it's like I have to retune my guitar every single time.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah but no I really want to start like I wanted to start messing around in like another tuning like find something else because I I love that about when I found this tuning it was kind of like there's I have no idea what I'm doing I don't know where the notes are this is 100% trial and error from here and that's and then eventually you just figure out what works and what doesn't and it's a really fun way to write songs and a really fun way to come up with new parts but if I start doing that with another tuning and when then we record those songs I'm gonna have to start taking three guitars on the road at all times and I'm sorry I don't want to don't want to do that.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: So for now I'm sticking with have you heard of the band Tiny Moving Parts yeah yeah okay that he messes around with a lot of different tunings he does some cool stuff.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: So alright I'm gonna test your American slang and food and then uh I'll let you roast me on some Australian slang and food that I am 100% probably not going to get all right so that might be terrible at this.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: Hey if uh I'm gonna do the same thing with Ben so if he sucks at it or does better than you I'll I'll let you know.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: I reckon Ben and Slowly have been to the States far more than I go.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: Alright we're we're gonna start with a I think it's a fairly easy one.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you give someone DAP DAP I know like well when you dap someone up it's a handshake.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah you got it like fist bump handshake okay there we go see your one for one Riz.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: Riz is like your your ability to pick up a member of the opposite sex we want to call it Riz or Okay.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: That is I also you can get your Riz on just to just to anyone it doesn't have to be with the opposite sex but damn you're good.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: This one was like really popular when I was growing up tight.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: Tight thick nice like yeah it's like cool like oh that's tight thick that's cool yeah yeah like it's like the 70s equivalent of groovy basically yeah and so this one I don't even understand it.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: You may have heard it stick six seven six seven no that one has always just gone over my head.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like people like six seven six seven and I'm like I don't know what the hell are you talking about.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: Apparently it originated in New York it means to betray someone or set them up.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh interesting like I don't know what that means so like like did I get six seven'd is that what you say or I don't I don't know I reckon there's a lot of kids out there doing it that have no idea what it actually means I mean I'm just glad it wasn't like some weird like sexual reference or something so that's good.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then pressed pressed uh like I'm trying to find the word like it like to interrogate is is how I say it like if I was going to press you on something that interrogating you in a sense I can't think of a better word than interrogate at the moment.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's not bad.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think you actually can use it in that sense but like maybe you're writing a song and you're like oh I'm so pressed like you're annoyed you're bothered like you can't get something right you're pressed you're kind of stressed out pressed stressed kind of like that well I'm gonna get I'm gonna give you like three and a half out of five on the slang.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: So you did great.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: Cool and now we're gonna go to food.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_01: This is where it gets really fun.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: We have something called a walking taco never heard of it.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: What is a walking taco?
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: So do you know what Fritos are like the the chips Fritos?
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so you take either a bag of Fritos or Doritos and you open it up and you pour like ground beef and cheese and onions and just have a spoon and you're just walking it's kind of like a make just a makeshift taco it's a walking taco.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah so like you pour the taco into the bag yeah and then you just kind of eat it like that.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know you can't really go wrong with it.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um and this is kind of a a fun one Cincinnati chili no I don't recommend eat I don't recommend eating it so it's you know chili is usually just chili I don't know what you guys serve it with.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: But uh in Cincinnati apparently they top or they top spaghetti with chili and that's called Cincinnati chili.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh are you talking chili okay chili is in the like the like the soup.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah like the okay I know what you mean now okay yeah yeah so it's a Cincinnati chili chili topped up with spaghetti and chili that does not sound good.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: I guess it's like it's not too far off a bolonese right yeah I guess you could if you think of it that way it's not too I guess we'd make our s spicy our chili pretty spicy.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: Alright but okay you might know this.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what a corndog is I know what a corndog is okay oh gumbo gumbo uh I feel like I've heard people refer to them as like I don't know if you have them over there but in shopping centres here there's often like just a little freestand thing of gumballs.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh I'm talking gumbo G-U-M-B-O gumbo.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, I'm lost then.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh down in Louisiana.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's like rice seafood.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, seafood.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a seafood boil.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: Soon Louisiana.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: I've got it.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen those videos.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, my standing desk is being weird.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: I keep pressing it.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um okay.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'll give you about a two and a half out of four on those.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the since the Cincinnati chili one, you had no shot.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um so alright, I want you to to give me.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: We'll start with food since we're on that.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: Give me some Australian food, and I will not cheat, and I will attempt to tell you what it is.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: Australian food.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Golden Gay Time.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: Was that in English?
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: What is what it just a golden gay time.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: Golden Gay Time?
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_01: Ah, I have no idea.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: Golden.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: So is it is it is it a fried item?
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, geez.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm lost.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thus, golden gay time is an ice cream.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: It is a fantastic.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's kind of like a caramelli coffee type ice cream with uh and it's like covered in sprinkled uh almonds, I want to say.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that sounds good.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: Look them up.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: I will.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um we we already did the bunning snag, so that one's out.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um uniquely Australian food.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think the problem with like Australian food is that there isn't that much that is uniquely Australian.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: We just think whatever else in the world.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how about uh if you go to the pub you would you might get a palm?
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you go to the pub and get beer.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um is that like a sandwich?
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: It uh close, it's like a chicken chicken palmy.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's like chicken parm.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like yeah.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_01: You get that at the pub?
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh god, it's a staple of of pubs.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, jeez, that's amazing.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: I love chicken parm.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: And depending on where you are in Australia, it's either Parmi or Par Ma.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you say the wrong thing, you are interested, depending on which which pub you're in.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh geez.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think what else is uh you can tell I'm not the foodie of the name.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um you haven't told me Vegemite, so uh that's about the only one I knew.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, okay.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well Vegemite, like I don't even really have Vegemite either.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: I have it when I'm sick.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: Vegemite's like, for some reason I crave it when I'm sick.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_01: Is there like any way you can describe what it tastes?
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because I I have no idea.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a yeast, is it like a spread?
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_01: Or like what even is it?
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a thick, salty, savory, molasses type looking spread.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: And like do you put it on toast?
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you put it on toast.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh where people go wrong is that they use it like peanut butter, where it's like a little bit.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: A little goes a long way with Vegemite, so you don't need much.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um Vegemite, yeah, that's fair, uniquely Australian.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think we could sit here for hours and I would kind of do nothing better than Vegemite.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I will not I will not put Vegemite on because I have a peanut butter and jelly toast like every morning, that's my thing.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I would not mix that with jelly.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: No, definitely.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, I will remember that.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then I learned Australian slang when I was talking with Skinny.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, he's free Saturday Arvo.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, oh yeah, what the hell are you talking about?
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: Is that a typo?
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what does that mean?
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then I go to AI and they're like, oh, that just means afternoon.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, oh, okay, thank you.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's funny.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: So now that we've kind of rizzed each other, um how many times have you been to the states touring and like was maybe there a favorite band you tour with or headlined for?
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um I keep doing that.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_01: Because I don't know, I just think that'd be neat, like even for an American band to go to Australia and vice versa.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_01: So if you could just share any stories about that.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we've we've only been to the states once, and we were only there for South by Southwest.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I wouldn't say that we've like toured the States.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to come back and and do a proper run and do some shows, but yeah, we were basically in Austin the entire time.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't really get to do much else uh because we were it was all jam-packed into the trip.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um but we did do a tour around Australia where we got to bring out Tiger's Jaw, which was Oh, sweet, they're good, yeah.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_00: Incredible, like, yeah, incredible.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: That was such a fun tour.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um got along with them really well, um, and have been hoping to sort of reunite at at some point in the future, either back here or or in the States um with them.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um but that was our first I guess like bringing out a band um from the States to do some shows with us.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then this tour that we're about to do, they're not on the whole run with us, but we we run a sp a festival in Perth.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a multi-day venue takeover style festival.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we have sort of three two or three nights of line-ups.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and on that we've had had Tiger's Joe on that run, we had Drug Church on that run, um, and this tour, this time we've got Slow Mass coming out from Chicago, who Skinny met when he was in Chicago on an trip.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, it's it's awesome to start kind of making those those connections and across the world and start to do more.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, any band listening who wants to take us around the US, get in touch.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be there.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I've got plenty.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so who would be, would you say, it can even be older bands, like what would be your dream your dream tour, like an opener, uh second, and then obviously you headlining.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_01: Just design your perfect your perfect uh US tour.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect US tour.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, you're headlining, of course.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean it doesn't matter if like Blink182 has to open for you.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
• 50:49
  unknown: Yeah.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, well Blink can open.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_00: Good on them.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for helping us out.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it'd be awesome to do.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like Simple Plan would be an amazing thing.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh I think they'd be really cool.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: They just seem like they're still just having fun doing it, you know.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um I guess moving away from like the absolute pipe dreams in the world, like doing some stuff with uh like we we really want to do some stuff with origami angel, like either having them out here or or doing some shows.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: Massive, massive fans of of that crew.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um story so far, we love that band.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um Four Year Strong, Tiger's Jaw, you know, shout them out again.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many, like it's hard to hard to pick.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: We should just do like a Walp Tour style festival with all of our that would be that would be sweet.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I really again I keep bringing up kind of the the the differences yet similarities between each other.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to talk about what being Australian means to you, because I think it's important, like for me, being American is important to me, but it's also important to learn about you know other cultures and why it's important to you.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_01: So if you could just speak on that for a second, because it's a place I'd always kind of dreamed of going.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it it seems like there's a lot of similarities in just the pride that you guys have.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: You're very proud, but you're not arrogant, and you're very like laid back, but you get your shit done.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so yeah, just kind of talk about what it means to be Australian.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think it like it definitely is a laid back culture.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think there's some there's something that comes with like being so spread out in in a country and having especially in Perth again, like being so isolated here, is like a uniquely beautiful part of the world, like in and intensely different.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can drive one or two hours and feel like you're in a completely different country because it just like the landscape changes so much.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think like I don't know, for me personally, like I'm I'm a first generation Australian, like my parents immig immigrated here, so my mum's from the UK and my dad's from Argentina.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um so okay.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_00: Sort of grew up with a big Argentinian family here in Perth, and we've all sort of spread out and moved around the country and internationally as well.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it like Australia is a very multicultural place.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's a it's the best part of being in Australia, is that like you know, we were talking about food before, and like what I said, there's like there is no Australian outside of a bunning snag.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like we depend on on all of these like amazing cultures from around the world that have moved here and made Australia the unique cooking pot that it is.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think that comes across in everything, like from the food to the culture to the music to the art to the movies that get made here, like the breadth of like storytelling that happens in Australia across all of those mediums is like it's those against those differences that are what make it unique in a sense.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, I feel like I'm so unqualified to speak on like the the national pride of of Australia, because I think you know that's something that can go one or two ways at the moment, and I think like especially politically here, definitely people are taking that national pride too far and being arrogant about it, which sucks to see.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um because again, like as a first generation Australian, like I wouldn't I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't have had the opportunity in the life that I have without my parents being able to move here when when they were younger and set up and and have that life.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that that's not a uniquely Australian thing at the moment in the world.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it's a it's a reminder that like that sort of stupidity can sort of sprout out anywhere.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: Which I I do feel like being in the music industry for so long, like there is a certain and and of course it's not everyone, but like there is a certain attitude towards acceptance and multiculturalism that comes from just being exposed to music and the people that make music in this country, um and knowing like how shit of a scene it would be if we didn't have like all of these outside influences.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think it's a I mean like it's a fucking interesting time in the world to be like training about national pride in in any sense of that word, and I think that can go a lot of different ways, and people take it in the wrong way far too often.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_00: But for me specifically, like I think what Australia's given me and my family is just like the opportunity to figure out what we want to do and have all of the chances to do that.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's a uniquely privileged position to be in.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm very grateful for what I've been afforded and what I've been allowed to do in this country, and I guess the as well, like the relative safety that we have to try those things in Australia and not be terrified of failing and the consequences of that if you get it wrong.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, that's sort of what I guess, yeah.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's fair enough.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's yeah, like you said, it's uh and this is not a political podcast.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_01: I try to stay as as positive as I can because uh I don't know, sometimes I feel like there's not much I can do about it except just spread positivity and welcoming, which is why I do this podcast.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_01: I talk to people like you from Australia, I've talked to chefs from Ireland, I've talked to uh a Native American woman in Northwest Canada.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're all people, and I do that through like my sh my love of music, my love of uh books, my love of community service and fellowship.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_01: So so that's what this is all about, and yeah, we don't we don't need to talk about all the other crap here.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, of course.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're the same, like we've always tried to like while we of course like we have our own political opinions within the band and we we feel quite strongly about the things that we feel strongly about, but I have always wanted our music to be to be an escape from the shit things that are happening in the world for people and maybe a place of refuge if they need it.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think it does like absolutely get to a point where like that turns into sticking our heads in the sand sometimes, but I think you know, we're we're on the same page there that it's like we just do what we can be nice to the people that we encounter, and that's sort of there we go.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I really appreciate your honesty on that because it's it's a deep question, and we're celebrating here a very important day.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_01: This was the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, so it's been yeah, it's been kind of neat to see everyone come together, but um well, I just appreciate just your candidness throughout this conversation and for taking the time and coordinating a good time to meet because it's not easy.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_01: I felt like I was either gonna be up at like 4 a.m.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_01: or like something like that.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I appreciate that.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I just want to give you one last opportunity to uh, you know, remind people where they can find your music, uh, purchase merch.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_01: I swear to god, you guys, it's not enough to just listen to them on Spotify and give them a penny, or probably not even a penny.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, buy merch, uh, support them.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you're listening from Australia, I do have some Australian listeners, go to their shows, uh, support other bands like them, uh, Tiger's Jaw, check them out.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, uh I just want to give you the chance to tell people where to find SlyWithers.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_01: You can find us on the internet, SlyWithers.com, www.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're sort of fully independent now, so everything runs through our website.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_00: You can find the merch store there, you can find it through all of our socials and all of that as well.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's links around to take you to the right place.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um but if you decide to order something, you can know that it's going to be packaged by either me or my partner.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and then we'll ship it out to you.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's always lovely to see like a US shipping label on there and know that it's going to some far part of the world.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's really cool.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but apart from that, like yeah, just have a listen if you're into it.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_00: Check out some Australian music.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's so much happening at the moment that it's a good time to get involved.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_01: Alright.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, again, thanks so much.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna maybe I'll order what was it, happy or f Golden Gay time or whatever that ice cream was.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh as an ice cream, I wouldn't recommend it.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_01: They might be thoroughly melted by the time they've got they've got dry ice, they can keep it for a second.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but seriously again, thanks so much, and I'll let you go.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_01: Keep doing what you're doing.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, this has been Dan.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and maybe next time I'll have a bowl of gumbo and you can have uh a chick a Parmo.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_01: Or whatever.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_00: Parmo.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can't be in the middle of the test.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_01: Unless the already should be like, but uh but no, this has been Dan uh signing off from Omaha, Nebraska.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Jono's signing off from WA Perth, Australia.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh just God bless to everyone out there.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next time.