Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Facing The Chop With TODD HANSEN From KING PARROT
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Get everyone Toddy here from King Parrot and f U s.
- 0:06Speaker 1: I'm just here having a chat to Chris about my
- 0:11Speaker 1: dreadlock chop. I'm chopping off the dreads. They're going after
- 0:15Speaker 1: twenty four years. They hang down to the top of
- 0:19Speaker 1: my legs now and they're just they're ready. I'm ready
- 0:23Speaker 1: to let him go, ready to let it all outside
- 0:26Speaker 1: to speak, Yeah, let it cut them off. Yeah, Wow,
- 0:31Speaker 1: it's It's been a big decision obviously, I mean it's
- 0:36Speaker 1: I've been that guy with the dreads for the last
- 0:38Speaker 1: twenty four years. But yeah, for several years, I've considered
- 0:43Speaker 1: them doing the chop, and I always said that when
- 0:45Speaker 1: I did it, I wanted to raise money for a charity,
- 0:48Speaker 1: and at the moment, the charity that I'm really into
- 0:54Speaker 1: is Support Acts. Just I mean, I know yourself, you
- 0:57Speaker 1: even you've even had help with Support Act during the pandemic.
- 1:02Speaker 1: Almost everyone I've talked to recently that works in the industry,
- 1:06Speaker 1: especially sort of crew guys. I was I was working
- 1:09Speaker 1: a show with the sound works guys and they bring
- 1:11Speaker 1: a crew and that was at the Trippet, and so
- 1:14Speaker 1: the staff at the Trifford, the sound guys and lighting
- 1:17Speaker 1: guys and all the road crew on the on the
- 1:21Speaker 1: tour have all benefited from Support Act and that sort
- 1:25Speaker 1: of just reinforced what I'm what I'm trying to do.
- 1:28Speaker 2: So we actually, between you and me, whoever listen, listen.
- 1:31Speaker 3: To this, there's a good chance that he wouldn't be
- 1:34Speaker 3: here today if it wasn't for Support Act. Like when
- 1:36Speaker 3: I was going through some really tough times during COVID,
- 1:38Speaker 3: like those guys helped me out and how they gave
- 1:40Speaker 3: me a bit of injection that that helped carry me through.
- 1:43Speaker 2: So they've got a.
- 1:44Speaker 1: Lot of support. Yeah, yeah, they that's that's sort of
- 1:49Speaker 1: their thing that you know, people don't know. They're the
- 1:51Speaker 1: Australian music industry's charity and they deliver crisis relief services
- 1:57Speaker 1: to musicians, managers through music workers all across every genre.
- 2:05Speaker 1: So it doesn't matter what genre, if you're in crisis,
- 2:09Speaker 1: if you can't work, if you're having sort of mental
- 2:12Speaker 1: health concerns. They are for short term financial support, they
- 2:17Speaker 1: are for funeral support. They offer several mental health prevention
- 2:21Speaker 1: and education programs and they have a support line and
- 2:27Speaker 1: they're really there. Actually the support line is open to
- 2:30Speaker 1: the whole arts community too, so even if you're not
- 2:33Speaker 1: necessarily in music, you can, if you're an artist, you
- 2:36Speaker 1: can call that support line and get some like talk
- 2:39Speaker 1: to someone. So they offer a whole lot of things
- 2:42Speaker 1: and they help a lot of people and help a
- 2:44Speaker 1: lot of my friends. So yeah, it's something I've donated
- 2:48Speaker 1: to for several years, and I thought, if I'm going
- 2:51Speaker 1: to cut my hair off, then I'm going to do
- 2:53Speaker 1: it for the people of the Australian music industry who
- 2:59Speaker 1: have given my hair a reason to be somewhat missed
- 3:03Speaker 1: by cutting it off.
- 3:07Speaker 3: Just to reiterate the point, mate, because I'm sure there's
- 3:09Speaker 3: some people there watching this just gone what the fuck
- 3:12Speaker 3: did I just hear? At two pm on Saturday, August
- 3:16Speaker 3: is seventeen, You're going to be stripped of your strength
- 3:19Speaker 3: and humanity as your dreadlocks are ripped from your screaming
- 3:22Speaker 3: body in an act that would almost be classified as blasphemous.
- 3:25Speaker 2: So really made. How are you feeling about it, mate? Like,
- 3:28Speaker 2: it's it's.
- 3:29Speaker 3: It's it's a lot of fun, but it's a big
- 3:32Speaker 3: thing man, Like it's a big part of your life.
- 3:34Speaker 1: Yeah, well it's more than half my life. I haven't
- 3:39Speaker 1: brushed my hair or had a haircut since the nineties.
- 3:45Speaker 2: Save on combs.
- 3:46Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's it. Nineteen ninety nine was the last
- 3:50Speaker 1: time I cut my hair off and I started growing
- 3:53Speaker 1: it for dreadlocks. So yeah, that's the thing that that's
- 3:58Speaker 1: there was there was always a bit of an identity
- 4:00Speaker 1: because I've probably considered it for several years, and then
- 4:04Speaker 1: more so after COVID when we got back to playing
- 4:07Speaker 1: and playing our first gig back, you know, I pulled
- 4:11Speaker 1: my hair out to do some windmills, as I do,
- 4:13Speaker 1: and it was just getting stuck on everything because it
- 4:15Speaker 1: was so long. I'd gained that much length throughout COVID
- 4:19Speaker 1: and not playing. It hadn't realized it, and so I've
- 4:23Speaker 1: just kind of had it tied up for a couple
- 4:24Speaker 1: of years. And it's just like well, swimming, I like swimming,
- 4:29Speaker 1: but I don't I don't wet my hair in the
- 4:31Speaker 1: shower every day because it takes too long to dry.
- 4:34Speaker 1: So I've got a plan for hair washing and whatnot.
- 4:38Speaker 1: I've written a whole lot of reasons down to justified
- 4:41Speaker 1: in my head. But yeah, it feels like it's time.
- 4:45Speaker 1: And yeah, I figured by making it really public and
- 4:51Speaker 1: raising money for a charity, it would just all make
- 4:54Speaker 1: it feel a bit easier, better answer. It would answer
- 4:59Speaker 1: that general question of wherever I go, why did you
- 5:02Speaker 1: cut your hair? Sort of like google it and google
- 5:08Speaker 1: it and let's talk about something else.
- 5:10Speaker 3: I suppose there's a bit of a safety issue there too, bro,
- 5:13Speaker 3: Like you're talking about doing your windmills, Like how much
- 5:15Speaker 3: were those dreadlocks whale?
- 5:16Speaker 2: Once they come off, you're gonna have to make sure
- 5:18Speaker 2: you don't.
- 5:18Speaker 1: Take off Well yeah, I don't know, like there's got
- 5:23Speaker 1: to be like a kilo or so. And I've had
- 5:25Speaker 1: a few discussions around this with various people that have
- 5:28Speaker 1: had friends who've cut their dreads off, and I think
- 5:31Speaker 1: the most I heard was someone's weighed three kilos per
- 5:34Speaker 1: dread or for the light I don't know, yeah, I
- 5:36Speaker 1: think for the lot. Yeah, I would dare say minor,
- 5:39Speaker 1: like maybe a kilo, But put some water in that
- 5:44Speaker 1: and it gets heavy. Like we went for a holiday
- 5:47Speaker 1: to Fiji last year and there's like beautiful pools and
- 5:52Speaker 1: an ocean there, you know, and I'm not just going
- 5:55Speaker 1: to stand there and look at it. So basically my
- 5:58Speaker 1: hair was wet the whole trip. Like I dry it,
- 6:01Speaker 1: but it still stays wet. Within the dreads and and yeah,
- 6:06Speaker 1: I don't like sleeping on a wet pillow.
- 6:08Speaker 2: And that's just the pitfalls of dreadings are just endless.
- 6:14Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's just I think now that it's sort
- 6:17Speaker 1: of sinking in or has sunk in that I'm it's
- 6:19Speaker 1: definitely sunk in. I'm cutting them. It's going to be
- 6:21Speaker 1: a whole new ball game. Well even this time next
- 6:24Speaker 1: week when they're gone, because it's less than a week now,
- 6:29Speaker 1: it's going to be a whole new ball game. Getting
- 6:32Speaker 1: used to that and seeing it. I mean, I've seen
- 6:35Speaker 1: what I look like without dreads, but that was that
- 6:39Speaker 1: was more than half my life ago. Yeah, well exactly are.
- 6:42Speaker 2: You going to go to the full hog? And do you
- 6:43Speaker 2: be in too?
- 6:44Speaker 1: Well? The only reason I've kept the beard is actually
- 6:47Speaker 1: because early on I had a bit of a thing
- 6:49Speaker 1: going just purely because I hadn't shaved, and someone's like, oh,
- 6:55Speaker 1: are you going to throw the beard in? And I
- 6:57Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I could do that, So I'll just
- 6:59Speaker 1: let that go as well and shave it all. So yeah,
- 7:03Speaker 1: the beard's going as well.
- 7:05Speaker 2: Business can't sprint it up just to hand out. The
- 7:07Speaker 2: people say Hi, I'm toddy.
- 7:09Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, or I'll just enjoy being unrecognizable for
- 7:13Speaker 1: a few months until everyone's used to it.
- 7:15Speaker 3: They get me sitting back watching people and they look
- 7:18Speaker 3: on their face like I'm sure I know him from somewhere.
- 7:21Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean even yeah, even at
- 7:27Speaker 1: like festivals in the last couple of years where I
- 7:30Speaker 1: have like a poncho on and I walk up to
- 7:33Speaker 1: people and they don't know me because I can't see
- 7:35Speaker 1: my dress. Okay, you're going man, and they're like, who
- 7:39Speaker 1: the fuck is this? It's Toddy. It's like, oh couldn't
- 7:43Speaker 1: I couldn't see. It's like I've got a ponchow on.
- 7:45Speaker 1: So I'm going to be in, yeah, instantly unrecognizable. So
- 7:52Speaker 1: it's kind to blend in a bit more.
- 7:54Speaker 3: Maybe possibly now, after initially satting your target at two
- 7:58Speaker 3: four hundred and twenty four dollars, ACT have announced that
- 8:01Speaker 3: you've recalibrated expectations to ten and twenty four.
- 8:05Speaker 2: Twenty four is a magic number eight. But how's it looking?
- 8:09Speaker 1: Well, last I looked, I haven't I haven't actually checked today.
- 8:12Speaker 1: I'm trying not to check it too much. I don't
- 8:14Speaker 1: want to be too obsessive over it. So we went
- 8:17Speaker 1: up to that because I was like, well, I wonder
- 8:19Speaker 1: if we can crack five figures. We've already hit the target,
- 8:23Speaker 1: so that's cool. Hit the target with just over a week.
- 8:27Speaker 1: And then last week I was like, I was talking
- 8:31Speaker 1: to support Act and I said, well, if we hit
- 8:35Speaker 1: three grand before the weekend, this is last weekend, I reckon,
- 8:39Speaker 1: we can bump it up. And we did that last
- 8:42Speaker 1: Thursday hit three grand. So now it's about three thousand
- 8:46Speaker 1: and something, so we're still a ways off ten and
- 8:50Speaker 1: twenty four. I think perhaps a lot of people will
- 8:56Speaker 1: maybe look at that during the week or maybe they'll
- 9:02Speaker 1: maybe they're sort of waiting to see if I actually
- 9:03Speaker 1: go through with it, And well I have to. Now
- 9:08Speaker 1: I've made myself very accountable. I put posters up of
- 9:14Speaker 1: plaster the internet with it, and we've raised some good
- 9:17Speaker 1: cash so far. So whatever we raise is going to
- 9:19Speaker 1: be great. But yeah, it'd be great to hit that
- 9:21Speaker 1: tenenty twenty four. But yeah, so we just thought let's
- 9:25Speaker 1: just go for it. See what happens.
- 9:28Speaker 3: Yeah, speaking of donating, where and how can people do it?
- 9:33Speaker 1: Well, I'm going to shoot the link through because it's
- 9:36Speaker 1: a long one. It's they use they use a certain
- 9:41Speaker 1: they use a certain fundraising site called like raise lee site,
- 9:45Speaker 1: but it's a really long link. So I've just sort
- 9:48Speaker 1: of been directing people to Facebook dot com slash Todd
- 9:53Speaker 1: Hanson Official. That's my musician page. So I've got all
- 9:59Speaker 1: the links on there if you're on Facebook. If not,
- 10:02Speaker 1: King Parrot has actually shared everything as well from all
- 10:05Speaker 1: of our socials. Young has been right behind this, which
- 10:09Speaker 1: is much appreciated. So and King Parrot's on everything. It's
- 10:13Speaker 1: like on Instagram and TikTok and x or Twitter and
- 10:18Speaker 1: obviously Facebook. So you can find the link. It's just
- 10:22Speaker 1: Toddy's dreadlock chop for Support Act and yeah, you can
- 10:26Speaker 1: find the link there to donate. There's an event because
- 10:29Speaker 1: I'm going to live stream it on Todd Hanson Official
- 10:32Speaker 1: next Saturday at two pm August seventeenth. But we'll also
- 10:38Speaker 1: get some little videos and whatnot, and King Parrot will
- 10:41Speaker 1: share that through all the socials for those that maybe
- 10:43Speaker 1: don't use Facebook. Yeah, so that's probably the best place
- 10:49Speaker 1: to go. If you want to see what Support Act do.
- 10:51Speaker 1: You can check out support Act dot org dot au
- 10:55Speaker 1: and they actually also have another one oz music t shirt.
- 11:01Speaker 1: You can just sort of type that in and the
- 11:03Speaker 1: website will come up. And I mean also, if you
- 11:07Speaker 1: want to find this and you don't use any socials,
- 11:10Speaker 1: you can google Toddy's dreadlock chop for Support Act and
- 11:14Speaker 1: heaps of stuff comes up on there. So just straighten
- 11:18Speaker 1: the Google machine and the Internet will do the work
- 11:20Speaker 1: for you.
- 11:21Speaker 2: Okay, that's the way we like it. Now. Can people
- 11:23Speaker 2: donate right up to GPM or is there a cutoff?
- 11:26Speaker 2: Or can they donate after the fact.
- 11:28Speaker 1: There's no cutoff at this stage. I've discussed this with
- 11:31Speaker 1: Support Act. At this stage they like most of these
- 11:34Speaker 1: sort of fundraisers, they leave it open sort of a
- 11:36Speaker 1: week or two after, so we're looking at doing that.
- 11:40Speaker 1: It'll definitely be open at least a week after and
- 11:43Speaker 1: then we might sort of call it see if it
- 11:46Speaker 1: slows down or whatever. But yeah, I'm going to do
- 11:50Speaker 1: a little bit more. I've been on a couple of
- 11:52Speaker 1: radio shows and stuff, so I'm going to do I've
- 11:54Speaker 1: been asked to come back and do some follow ups
- 11:57Speaker 1: after I've had the haircut.
- 12:00Speaker 2: Radio are really going to notice a difference, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 12:03Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. I mean you'll be able to hear you'll
- 12:06Speaker 1: be able to hear the lightness on my head.
- 12:11Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, stranger, you're raising money for a good cause. Bro,
- 12:16Speaker 3: I remember you're donating bodily hair from a different area
- 12:19Speaker 3: ths Simon from Massik at si Fest as well.
- 12:22Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah we actually what do we raised for that?
- 12:25Speaker 1: Twenty bucks or something for a few pubes.
- 12:28Speaker 3: Today?
- 12:29Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I know it's pretty good. That was that
- 12:33Speaker 1: was pretty fun. Never never sold the pube before, but hey,
- 12:36Speaker 1: for a good cause, what won't yourself?
- 12:39Speaker 2: Hell yeah?
- 12:39Speaker 3: And what's actually going to happen to the dreads is
- 12:41Speaker 3: they come off like are they going to be actioned
- 12:44Speaker 3: off for souvenirs for people or are they going to
- 12:46Speaker 3: the ben getting into them?
- 12:49Speaker 1: Good question. I have actually been asked by some random
- 12:55Speaker 1: people about but they're sort of saying, if I donate,
- 12:59Speaker 1: can I have a Dread? And it's sort of to
- 13:01Speaker 1: me that's, well, that's not really a donation, that's a say, yeah,
- 13:06Speaker 1: I hadn't really planned on selling them. I mean, don't
- 13:08Speaker 1: get me wrong, if someone wants to throw ten thousand
- 13:10Speaker 1: dollars in and maybe I'd consider it. I guess for me,
- 13:18Speaker 1: it's sort of like it's like the end of a
- 13:21Speaker 1: chapter of my life in the beginning of a new chapter,
- 13:24Speaker 1: like not that not that Heaps is going to change.
- 13:28Speaker 1: I'm just going to cut my hair off. It's just hair.
- 13:30Speaker 1: I've got to remember that. But it's like, you know,
- 13:34Speaker 1: the end of the dreadlock chapter. So I don't I
- 13:38Speaker 1: don't particularly I don't think I'm going to keep them.
- 13:41Speaker 1: I don't particularly want to just give them to people.
- 13:45Speaker 1: But I have been looking at ways I can donate them,
- 13:48Speaker 1: and they don't particularly take dreadlocks here for wigs. They
- 13:53Speaker 1: do in America is yeah, well in America they have that.
- 13:59Speaker 1: There's a company can't remember researching all this just to
- 14:01Speaker 1: figure out what I want to do with them. There's
- 14:04Speaker 1: a company in America that gets dreadlocks specifically and like
- 14:10Speaker 1: treats them and cleans them and makes wigs for say,
- 14:13Speaker 1: cancer patients who had dreadlocks who lost their hair. It's
- 14:18Speaker 1: it's based in Florida. I can't remember what it's called,
- 14:21Speaker 1: something about dreads, but it's sort of like, well, how
- 14:23Speaker 1: much is it gonna like how much is it going
- 14:26Speaker 1: to sort of cost to seal them and ship them
- 14:30Speaker 1: and hope that it gets there because I've sent stuff
- 14:32Speaker 1: in the in the past where you know the postal
- 14:36Speaker 1: services aren't always one hundred percent reliable, So it's just
- 14:40Speaker 1: to sort of know that my dreads are in the
- 14:41Speaker 1: ether of some postal system somewhere. Is a little weird too.
- 14:47Speaker 2: You're one of the.
- 14:48Speaker 3: Few people in the world I can never tell if
- 14:49Speaker 3: you're serious and not made.
- 14:51Speaker 2: Was that was that serious or was that just a spell?
- 14:54Speaker 1: Oh I'm dead serious. Yeah, I'm actually looking at so
- 14:57Speaker 1: look a lot long story short. I've found some places
- 15:02Speaker 1: in Australia, because places actually buy or not buy, you
- 15:05Speaker 1: can donate your hair and they make wigs like a
- 15:08Speaker 1: real hair wig for cancer patients. And I've done a
- 15:13Speaker 1: lot of you're saying before about fundraising. I've actually done
- 15:15Speaker 1: a lot of fundraising for ovarian cancer after my mom
- 15:18Speaker 1: passed away from it, and so I've sort of always
- 15:21Speaker 1: I've been across the sort of cancer things as well,
- 15:25Speaker 1: and so I was looking into that as far as
- 15:27Speaker 1: donating hair. You can actually donate dreadlocks in Australia, but
- 15:30Speaker 1: they don't use them for wigs. They use it for
- 15:34Speaker 1: like hair research, and they like break them all up,
- 15:40Speaker 1: like cut them all up and put them in like
- 15:42Speaker 1: certain product. Can't I can't remember. I was just at
- 15:46Speaker 1: a quick Google search yesterday. I was reading a few bits,
- 15:49Speaker 1: so that's actually something I'm Yeah, I'm sort of looking
- 15:52Speaker 1: at like.
- 15:53Speaker 2: That's a massive rabbit hole to go down research and
- 15:55Speaker 2: all that shit.
- 15:56Speaker 1: Bro. Well, yeah, it's not something you'd think of if
- 15:59Speaker 1: you haven't had dreadloin for twenty four years and want
- 16:01Speaker 1: to sort of ethically dispose of them and not just
- 16:03Speaker 1: chuck them in a in a bin, you know what
- 16:06Speaker 1: I mean? Yeah, yeah, I just feel like they've they've
- 16:12Speaker 1: done their time and it's time for them to go.
- 16:14Speaker 1: But I want to actually put them towards something good. Yeah.
- 16:20Speaker 2: Yea cool.
- 16:21Speaker 3: Now we can't leave made without a plague for king
- 16:24Speaker 3: parrots November sure with weedy to astro death and chuk So.
- 16:28Speaker 2: Tell us a bit about that.
- 16:29Speaker 1: Well to link that into everything we've just spoken about.
- 16:34Speaker 1: It will actually be my first ever tour without dreadlocks,
- 16:37Speaker 1: so that's exciting. I've had dreadlocks as long as I've
- 16:41Speaker 1: been playing in bands, so I don't I don't even
- 16:44Speaker 1: know that I've played I might have played one gig
- 16:46Speaker 1: without dreadlocks, but I'm pretty every Originals band I've played
- 16:50Speaker 1: in I had dreadlocks. So so that'll be my first
- 16:53Speaker 1: tour without dreads.
- 16:56Speaker 3: Snap your neck, mate, like the used to sort of
- 16:59Speaker 3: the resistance when your head banging.
- 17:01Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, I don't know. I haven't
- 17:04Speaker 1: had bun in a couple of years. Really, I'm not
- 17:07Speaker 1: a little bit, but I haven't done the full thing
- 17:10Speaker 1: because I've got this big ball on the back of
- 17:12Speaker 1: my neck of hair. So yeah, but that's going to
- 17:17Speaker 1: be cool. That's kicking off the sixth and November up
- 17:20Speaker 1: here really that the awesome mos and then we do
- 17:23Speaker 1: the Trifford the night after and then we sort of
- 17:27Speaker 1: head south. Yeah, it goes through about two weeks. I
- 17:32Speaker 1: don't have all the dates right here in front of me,
- 17:34Speaker 1: but yeah, it starts on the sixth of November on
- 17:36Speaker 1: the Gold Coast and it's going to be awesome having
- 17:40Speaker 1: the weed either guys over and then I think it's
- 17:43Speaker 1: I think Chiff and Astro Death are both really well
- 17:47Speaker 1: contrasted because you're going to kind of have that sort
- 17:50Speaker 1: of stone of vibe with Astro Death and Weed Eater
- 17:53Speaker 1: and that chaotic vibe with Chiff and King Parrot. Thus
- 17:58Speaker 1: the weed meets the speed.
- 18:02Speaker 2: There's your jackline right there.
- 18:04Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, that's the name, that's the name of
- 18:06Speaker 1: the tour.
- 18:07Speaker 3: So yeah, all right Toberal, thanks for your trying today, mate.
- 18:12Speaker 3: Tonty Dreadlock Shop is on that day, seventeenth of August,
- 18:16Speaker 3: two pm live streamed.
- 18:18Speaker 2: All the money rais is going towards the port Act.
- 18:20Speaker 3: As you say, you can tech check Toddy Socials, King
- 18:23Speaker 3: Parrots Socials. There'll be leaking this interview, mate, but based
- 18:27Speaker 3: of luck for it and hopefully I recognize you next
- 18:29Speaker 3: time I see you.
- 18:30Speaker 1: Thanks mate, I'll come up and give you a hugg
- 18:32Speaker 1: and you who's this eggheaded weirdock? Hey, thanks for having me,
- 18:39Speaker 1: Thanks for having me on man, and I appreciate it.
- 18:41Speaker 1: It's I appreciate you spreading the word and hopefully we
- 18:45Speaker 1: can crack that ten k mark.