Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Twisted Compliments With CHRIS CARPENTER From CRASH & THE CRAPENTERS
Transcript
- 0:12Speaker 1: Time.
- 0:13Speaker 2: Vaccine you bunny, and you feeling so fast?
- 0:18Speaker 3: Chris Carpenter from crashing the Cravenders. I just want to
- 0:22Speaker 3: talk about our new EP Species Defeices that is out
- 0:26Speaker 3: now on all of the traditional streaming services worldwide.
- 0:33Speaker 2: Fantastic, Chris, thanks to join us today. That was a
- 0:36Speaker 2: sensational intro.
- 0:37Speaker 4: Oh that's much better. Thanks mate. I'm glad you cut
- 0:40Speaker 4: me off.
- 0:40Speaker 2: I had kept going, you would have still be sitting here.
- 0:43Speaker 3: Next week you'd be doing an interview number seven at
- 0:46Speaker 3: half past twelve.
- 0:49Speaker 2: Thanks. We'll get through this one first.
- 0:51Speaker 3: But halpast eleven Brisbane time. I should say we're an hour.
- 0:57Speaker 3: We're an hour in front, I think over here.
- 0:59Speaker 2: Are Indeed, it doesn't mean you know it out more
- 1:01Speaker 2: than us.
- 1:01Speaker 4: It just means, oh, it probably means me now an
- 1:03Speaker 4: hour less. We've wasted an hour.
- 1:07Speaker 3: Actually up in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago for
- 1:09Speaker 3: a work expo for me, real job, and I was
- 1:13Speaker 3: loving it.
- 1:14Speaker 4: Seven o'clock at night. I was ready for bed. It
- 1:16Speaker 4: was unreal. Yeah.
- 1:17Speaker 5: And on the exactly oppositely, when I get down south,
- 1:19Speaker 5: it's like looking out there at eight o'clock and it's like,
- 1:22Speaker 5: what's the sun still doing out.
- 1:25Speaker 4: I'm going to be a wake till two am exactly.
- 1:28Speaker 2: So, as you say, rather crash and the Crappenter has
- 1:31Speaker 2: released your.
- 1:31Speaker 5: New EP Species of Feces back on March of seven,
- 1:34Speaker 5: so it's had a couple of weeks to digest.
- 1:36Speaker 2: How's the only reception been.
- 1:38Speaker 3: We're really really happy with the way that it's been received,
- 1:43Speaker 3: both you know, streaming wise, which is you know, a gauge,
- 1:48Speaker 3: not the total gauge.
- 1:49Speaker 4: But it's been really well received. I got a lot
- 1:51Speaker 4: of people listening to it.
- 1:53Speaker 3: It's been playlisted on a number of playlists, but also
- 1:56Speaker 3: in the in the reviews and stuff that it's been getting.
- 2:02Speaker 3: The variety in the ep I over four tracks, it's
- 2:06Speaker 3: hard to imagine that you can be that you can
- 2:08Speaker 3: display all that much variety, but we've tried to and
- 2:13Speaker 3: that's something that's being noted and it's something that's being appreciated,
- 2:16Speaker 3: which we're really which is really really gratifying for us.
- 2:19Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 2:19Speaker 5: Cool, Now that the title is actually a reference to
- 2:22Speaker 5: the nineteen eighty five Midnight Eily EP Species Diseases.
- 2:26Speaker 2: But I can't figure out if you're honoring it or
- 2:27Speaker 2: taken the.
- 2:28Speaker 3: Piece, mate, No, No, it's it's completely there's no irony
- 2:34Speaker 3: around it.
- 2:35Speaker 4: I'm a massive fan.
- 2:37Speaker 3: I'm a massive Mid not All fan to start with,
- 2:39Speaker 3: but that EP was a real sort of turning point
- 2:43Speaker 3: for them, And if you look back at Mid Not
- 2:45Speaker 3: at All, there was sort of everything that went before
- 2:47Speaker 3: that EP when we're talking about Tender one and red
- 2:51Speaker 3: sales and the embracing of technology, and then there was
- 2:54Speaker 3: everything that came after with diesel and dust and Blue
- 2:58Speaker 3: Sky mining and everything that they went on to do
- 3:00Speaker 3: after that.
- 3:01Speaker 4: And and we we honestly feel.
- 3:06Speaker 3: At this point in time creatively for us, it's a
- 3:09Speaker 3: it's a it's a it's a turning point for us
- 3:12Speaker 3: as well, and we're really looking to make what we
- 3:15Speaker 3: do next. A working title for our for our next
- 3:20Speaker 3: album that is in pre production at the moment is Surpass,
- 3:23Speaker 3: and we'd like to think that we're going to be
- 3:25Speaker 3: able to surpass everything that we've done before with what
- 3:28Speaker 3: we do, which is you know, when you look back
- 3:30Speaker 3: at minos career, they pretty much were able to do
- 3:34Speaker 3: that and achieve their greatest creativity and their greatest successes
- 3:40Speaker 3: after having used species diseases. Is that that's sort of
- 3:43Speaker 3: bridging that gap between red sales and diesel and dust.
- 3:47Speaker 3: So now and and I mean, you know, the world,
- 3:50Speaker 3: the state that the world is in. It's it's a
- 3:52Speaker 3: little bit of a humorous, humorous play on words about
- 3:57Speaker 3: trying to rise above the inherent shitness of people in
- 4:01Speaker 3: this day and age of social media and global politics
- 4:05Speaker 3: and all of that type of thing.
- 4:07Speaker 5: So, while we're drawing parallels to Midnight on There bro
- 4:10Speaker 5: as the lead singer, are you going to emulate him
- 4:12Speaker 5: and shave your head?
- 4:13Speaker 1: No?
- 4:13Speaker 3: I might.
- 4:14Speaker 4: I've done that, been there, done that. My hair is
- 4:16Speaker 4: getting longer as I go, as I go further along.
- 4:21Speaker 3: Yeah. So, although I would have to say, and if
- 4:24Speaker 3: anybody who who has come to a show of ours
- 4:28Speaker 3: would probably attest the energy I grew up probably as
- 4:32Speaker 3: you did, Chris, watching Oils on the water and the
- 4:37Speaker 3: air of menace that Midnight Oil had around that time
- 4:41Speaker 3: is something that I do try to emulate somewhat and
- 4:46Speaker 3: provide for the punters. So, yeah, I'm not going to
- 4:51Speaker 3: shave the head anytime soon. Make me hairlines too hot?
- 4:55Speaker 3: You know, I shaved head look like I'm bald. So yeah,
- 4:59Speaker 3: I'm not going to shaving the head. But I do
- 5:01Speaker 3: like to think that when it comes to performance wise,
- 5:04Speaker 3: particularly in the live setting, Peter Garrett is definitely an influence.
- 5:09Speaker 5: Yeah, so we'll get onto the actual songs on the
- 5:11Speaker 5: EP soon. But you just raised an interesting pointbro, Like
- 5:14Speaker 5: you guys are a very humorous tongue in cheap band
- 5:16Speaker 5: from what I can see with your lyrics and the
- 5:18Speaker 5: way you do everything. But the world's become an increasingly
- 5:21Speaker 5: more sanitized bro, where you've got to be careful you
- 5:23Speaker 5: don't offend someone for putting your sop on the wrong foot.
- 5:26Speaker 2: Like, how do you got to go with that? Like
- 5:29Speaker 2: are you conscious of that when you're writing now or
- 5:31Speaker 2: is it?
- 5:33Speaker 4: Mate? We're really not.
- 5:36Speaker 3: But but in saying that, I think that we've got
- 5:39Speaker 3: an air of sensitivity around us in that we're not
- 5:43Speaker 3: going to go out of We're going to say what
- 5:45Speaker 3: we want to say, and we're not gonna we're not
- 5:48Speaker 3: going to be sanitized. But a lot of our stuff
- 5:51Speaker 3: is that it's about messages of uplift, and really it's
- 5:55Speaker 3: about universal uplift, you know, and it doesn't apply to
- 6:00Speaker 3: any particular category or gender or race.
- 6:05Speaker 4: Or we're really we're not.
- 6:10Speaker 3: We're you know, we have the sensitivity and and and
- 6:15Speaker 3: we'd like to think that anything that we're saying it
- 6:19Speaker 3: will be just as applicable to.
- 6:24Speaker 4: Everybody and anybody you know, like and and and.
- 6:28Speaker 6: One of the things with punk rock is how inclusive
- 6:30Speaker 6: it's always been, whether it be gender related or all
- 6:35Speaker 6: girl groups or or you know, especially for for a
- 6:39Speaker 6: guy like me who's the class or a massive influence
- 6:42Speaker 6: at midnight oil as.
- 6:44Speaker 4: Well appealing to an audience of all all races and
- 6:49Speaker 4: colors and creeds.
- 6:51Speaker 2: Did you get tough and tough?
- 6:52Speaker 7: Though?
- 6:52Speaker 5: Like I know personally, like when I'm putting means like
- 6:54Speaker 5: for the heavy page, I've got a new attitude now,
- 6:56Speaker 5: Like if I think should I or shouldn't I, the.
- 6:59Speaker 2: Answers no, I shouldn't.
- 7:00Speaker 3: Probably yeah, And that's not You're not being You're not
- 7:06Speaker 3: being sensitive in anything way. It's just about being able
- 7:09Speaker 3: to And that's probably something that if, if if there's
- 7:14Speaker 3: a positive to some of the change that has happened
- 7:17Speaker 3: over the last ten or fifteen years, is that people
- 7:19Speaker 3: are a little bit more sensitive to stuff that may
- 7:21Speaker 3: offend people.
- 7:23Speaker 4: And rather than.
- 7:24Speaker 3: Just being offensive and oh well, you know what happened
- 7:27Speaker 3: to free speech? How about not how about being mindful
- 7:32Speaker 3: of the way that you talk, and the way and
- 7:35Speaker 3: the messages that you convey, and and being mindful of
- 7:39Speaker 3: the fact that they may be insensitive to some people,
- 7:42Speaker 3: and and not saying them.
- 7:44Speaker 4: I think if a lot of people use that.
- 7:47Speaker 3: You know, our free speech, I'll say what I want
- 7:50Speaker 3: as a as an excuse, as a platform to be imbecized.
- 7:54Speaker 3: And we may inadvertently come across as incilees at times,
- 7:58Speaker 3: but it's certainly not with not not with any intention,
- 8:02Speaker 3: and certainly we're not aout to offend anybody. We want
- 8:05Speaker 3: to appeal and get across to everybody because that inclusiveness
- 8:10Speaker 3: is such an important part and always has been off
- 8:13Speaker 3: punk rock, you know.
- 8:15Speaker 2: Well, said brother.
- 8:16Speaker 5: Now, one thing I love about doing interviews about EPs
- 8:19Speaker 5: is there's not many songs on them, so we can
- 8:21Speaker 5: chat about them all in depth.
- 8:22Speaker 2: So there's only four songs on this one, so.
- 8:24Speaker 5: I want to run through them one at a time
- 8:26Speaker 5: and just tell us a bit more about it from
- 8:27Speaker 5: a musical point of view and what you're trying to
- 8:29Speaker 5: go with them.
- 8:29Speaker 2: So we'll start with all Get Up.
- 8:32Speaker 7: All Get Up is a little it's it's almost a
- 8:34Speaker 7: little bit of a bit of a people are dummy
- 8:37Speaker 7: in that it's a pretty straight ahead punk rock chanty
- 8:40Speaker 7: sort of sing along chorus. But I talked about if
- 8:45Speaker 7: you look at our look at our our Instagram bio,
- 8:48Speaker 7: and everything is about the social these days. You know,
- 8:50Speaker 7: we talk about the fact that we play punk rock
- 8:51Speaker 7: reggae scar with wanky literary pretensions. And if I had
- 8:55Speaker 7: to describe all gear up, it's like a it's like
- 8:58Speaker 7: a little short story in four acts about my experiences personally.
- 9:03Speaker 4: When I was younger.
- 9:05Speaker 3: With drugs and alcohol, but also about the noseby culture
- 9:10Speaker 3: that exists in Australia of you know, Friday night, it's
- 9:13Speaker 3: party time, you've got your bags in your pocket, and
- 9:15Speaker 3: don't worry about tomorrow because it's just some other time.
- 9:18Speaker 3: And Act two is the Saturday when you've given too
- 9:22Speaker 3: much of your gear away, but you know it's all right.
- 9:24Speaker 3: I can get on with a guy into Sunday where
- 9:27Speaker 3: you're not having any fun at all and you should
- 9:30Speaker 3: go home, but you don't want to because you know
- 9:32Speaker 3: that when I eventually, when you do sleep, we've been
- 9:36Speaker 3: awake for two or three days, you're going to wake up.
- 9:39Speaker 3: And Act four is dealing with the aftermath and the comdown.
- 9:43Speaker 4: Of those type of experiences.
- 9:46Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's sort of it's segues into track two,
- 9:53Speaker 3: which is depression smells like middle aged spirit, which is.
- 10:01Speaker 4: It's once again a lot of my lyrics, and.
- 10:03Speaker 3: Most of my lyrics are autobiographical, and it talks about
- 10:07Speaker 3: the place that I found myself in about, you know,
- 10:12Speaker 3: ten years ago, where.
- 10:16Speaker 4: And I always felt like.
- 10:17Speaker 3: It was the aftermath of all of those years of
- 10:22Speaker 3: really engaging in this self destructive behavior that was just
- 10:27Speaker 3: half of the course for myself and most of the
- 10:30Speaker 3: people that I knew, and where I found myself at
- 10:35Speaker 3: mentally from having just just been living that way for
- 10:39Speaker 3: all of that time, you know, and the reason why
- 10:42Speaker 3: I threw in the middle age.
- 10:43Speaker 4: It smells like middle aged spirit.
- 10:46Speaker 3: Musically it is reminiscent of a little slightly I smells
- 10:51Speaker 3: like teenage spirit.
- 10:52Speaker 4: But when I looked around at.
- 10:54Speaker 3: So many of my peers and people that I know
- 10:58Speaker 3: who are middle aged, a lot of us found out
- 11:02Speaker 3: we're all in the same boat and dealing with the
- 11:04Speaker 3: sort of the mental health issues that all those years
- 11:09Speaker 3: of mistreating yourself basically when you're young and ten feet
- 11:16Speaker 3: tall and bulletproof, and the aftermath of that type of behavior.
- 11:21Speaker 5: All right, we'll skip onto the third track then, which
- 11:23Speaker 5: is The Devil's in the Detail.
- 11:25Speaker 4: The Devil. The Devil's in the Detail was written by.
- 11:29Speaker 3: Dave Lewis, who is our guitar player and the other
- 11:32Speaker 3: chief songwriter in the group, though all of the guys
- 11:34Speaker 3: in the band do right.
- 11:37Speaker 4: The Devil's in Detail.
- 11:38Speaker 3: I really love it because when Dave brought us in
- 11:40Speaker 3: the demo and had that sort of little sort of
- 11:43Speaker 3: industrial thing to it, which I loved. And it's a
- 11:47Speaker 3: little bit lower key, certainly I'm singing a lower than
- 11:51Speaker 3: I normally would, and there's that little bit of it's
- 11:54Speaker 3: got that little bit of that era of menace to it,
- 11:56Speaker 3: which I love talking about Midnight Oil and that era
- 11:58Speaker 3: of menace. I feel like all bends Once they lose
- 12:01Speaker 3: that era of menace, they lose something. And that song
- 12:04Speaker 3: and that song, I think it talks about a lot
- 12:13Speaker 3: about the COVID experience, which was coincidentally the timeframe of
- 12:19Speaker 3: where I was dealing with the issues from track two
- 12:22Speaker 3: and the two how the two sides were never going
- 12:25Speaker 3: to be able to agree and both thought that, you know,
- 12:30Speaker 3: when you're talking about people who were vaccinated and people
- 12:33Speaker 3: who were anti vacs and and how both sides thought
- 12:39Speaker 3: the other was wrong and when you're when you're thinking
- 12:42Speaker 3: in black and white like that, you're never going to
- 12:45Speaker 3: be able to compromise, And that song is it's basically
- 12:48Speaker 3: about just sort of saying, you know, we're never going
- 12:51Speaker 3: to a compromise. We're never going to be able to compromise,
- 12:55Speaker 3: so I'm not going to enter into those arguments. You know,
- 12:58Speaker 3: this is how I'll say my piece with this track
- 13:01Speaker 3: that Devil's in the detail, and I'll leave it at that.
- 13:06Speaker 2: You know, every round off with the four track Off.
- 13:09Speaker 3: The Bricks, Off the Bricks is me, and it's it's
- 13:16Speaker 3: I wanted to finish the CP on a bit more
- 13:20Speaker 3: of an uplifting tone, And if you listen to the lyrics,
- 13:23Speaker 3: it's just basically all of the things that I did
- 13:27Speaker 3: over the last you know, five to ten years.
- 13:31Speaker 4: That have helped me to get myself to a much better.
- 13:35Speaker 3: Place mentally, you know, like it's looking within for starters
- 13:42Speaker 3: and then you know, living and survival mode and having
- 13:47Speaker 3: to deal with the consequences of that, and I go
- 13:50Speaker 3: through my breath work and my yoga and my meditation
- 13:53Speaker 3: and my weekly therapy sessions, and it's just it's almost
- 13:59Speaker 3: like I'm catalog all of the measures that I took
- 14:05Speaker 3: to try and get myself into a better, better, better place.
- 14:09Speaker 3: And I'm really really glad to say that. And I'm
- 14:12Speaker 3: not saying that one of those or all of those.
- 14:14Speaker 3: Everybody needs to find their own way, but I'm saying
- 14:18Speaker 3: that for me, that was what And it's got it's
- 14:21Speaker 3: got a bridge in that, a precurrent chorus, and it says,
- 14:25Speaker 3: you know it's addict Yeah, sort of like ask it,
- 14:28Speaker 3: sort of like talking to myself, and that in the
- 14:30Speaker 3: dialogue and acknowledging that when you've got that type of
- 14:34Speaker 3: addictive personality, you've got to admit it. First step is
- 14:38Speaker 3: admitting it, and only then you can sort of improve
- 14:42Speaker 3: and get beyond it. And the and the core off
- 14:44Speaker 3: of the bricks is just about getting you' dragging yourself
- 14:46Speaker 3: up off the ground, doing it for yourself, not pulling
- 14:49Speaker 3: other people down to try and build yourself up, but
- 14:52Speaker 3: just dragging yourself up and and by doing so, hopefully
- 14:56Speaker 3: bringing some people with you. You know, like that that
- 14:59Speaker 3: that's the whole you know, talking about the messages of
- 15:02Speaker 3: uplift and that type of thing. You know, if we
- 15:05Speaker 3: achieve nothing else musically or creatively. You know, if we
- 15:10Speaker 3: can just if we're people who identify with their lyrics
- 15:12Speaker 3: and identify with what we're what they're that we are
- 15:15Speaker 3: trying to say, and feel less alone because they can
- 15:18Speaker 3: can identify with the fact that we're going, we've been
- 15:21Speaker 3: through and are going through some of the things that
- 15:23Speaker 3: they are, then you know what that's as you know,
- 15:28Speaker 3: we'd be really happy if we're able to achieve that
- 15:31Speaker 3: sort of thing for sure. Bro.
- 15:34Speaker 2: So what's cushion the crap? And has got planned for
- 15:36Speaker 2: the rest of twenty twenty five and beyond?
- 15:38Speaker 4: Matey?
- 15:38Speaker 2: You've got gigs with stuff planning.
- 15:39Speaker 4: We're busy, mate, We're very busy.
- 15:41Speaker 3: We've got we're we're going to play once a fortnite
- 15:45Speaker 3: once a month. We've got shows lined up for the
- 15:47Speaker 3: next little period of time. We've actually we're coming up
- 15:50Speaker 3: to Darwin and rock Hampton and doing a tour with
- 15:55Speaker 3: our great friends Tattered and Torn at the end of
- 15:57Speaker 3: June and in early July, which is exciting, you know,
- 16:01Speaker 3: and for a bunch of middle aged guys like ourselves,
- 16:05Speaker 3: it's a sort of once in a lifetime opportunity to
- 16:08Speaker 3: do that, to play the seven shows in ten days
- 16:10Speaker 3: and just completely wear ourselves out.
- 16:13Speaker 4: And live that rock and roll lifestyle.
- 16:19Speaker 3: But yeah, but the rock and roll lifestyle only extends
- 16:22Speaker 3: to the playing of the shows. Generally, after a show,
- 16:25Speaker 3: we're all sipping waters and getting to bed early to
- 16:28Speaker 3: get ready for the next one. And then there's other
- 16:31Speaker 3: I mean, as I said, we're in pre production. I'd
- 16:33Speaker 3: like to have when I look back, and you seem
- 16:38Speaker 3: like you're a similar vintage to me, Chris. When I
- 16:40Speaker 3: look back at a lot of the bands that I
- 16:43Speaker 3: loved coming through, they were busy, you know, it wasn't
- 16:45Speaker 3: It wasn't like it is now with a lot of
- 16:47Speaker 3: the whole profile bands where you know, you make a record,
- 16:49Speaker 3: your two for three years, you have eighteen months off
- 16:52Speaker 3: and put another record out five years later. Our fourth
- 16:55Speaker 3: full length album surpassed. I'd like to have out late
- 16:59Speaker 3: twenty five or or early to mid twenty twenty six
- 17:03Speaker 3: and just keep building on the on the creative platform
- 17:06Speaker 3: that we've with with with the foundation that we've set.
- 17:11Speaker 2: Nice, it's the best place to keep up with what
- 17:13Speaker 2: you guys are done.
- 17:14Speaker 4: Mate.
- 17:14Speaker 3: We've got the Facebook page, but our Instagram page is
- 17:17Speaker 3: where where most active.
- 17:21Speaker 4: So anybody who would like to chuck us follow.
- 17:24Speaker 3: Crash and the crap enters at Instagram dot com and
- 17:28Speaker 3: and and that's where we share.
- 17:30Speaker 4: As I said, that's a social.
- 17:31Speaker 3: Media platform that we're most active on Friday.
- 17:45Speaker 1: Nice part of time.
- 17:47Speaker 8: Vaccine you pudgy and you feeling so fast, so busy,
- 17:51Speaker 8: have your first fland.
- 17:52Speaker 2: The word better market is just amount of time.
- 17:57Speaker 3: Up.
- 17:58Speaker 8: Hold hogg up, hogging up, hoggy out.
- 18:03Speaker 2: They were bettery DENI.
- 18:15Speaker 8: Friday's other and you're into Saturday day.
- 18:18Speaker 2: How this slept the week? We can feel a noo
- 18:20Speaker 2: tag that said wrong bomb. But you can't too much away.
- 18:23Speaker 8: We can get on with the carner.
- 18:24Speaker 2: It's a new way.
- 18:26Speaker 8: Hogg up, hogg it up, hoggy up, hogy up, hog
- 18:31Speaker 8: get up, hogget up, hogg get up there.
- 18:35Speaker 1: Bedery hold on.
- 18:46Speaker 8: In Sunday the sn't make any in your hand side
- 18:49Speaker 8: fucking time, But don't want to go to.
- 18:51Speaker 2: Bed because when you're working up you feel worse than day.
- 18:54Speaker 2: Honey bag left is a factful of regret.
- 18:57Speaker 8: Hog get up, hoggy up, me up, hold up? Holding up?
- 19:04Speaker 2: What is the double off?
- 19:06Speaker 1: Dude?
- 19:31Speaker 8: Now it's Monday and you think it's suica.
- 19:36Speaker 2: You're crying in the dark, but there is nowhere to
- 19:41Speaker 2: hat from the thoughts in your head and your wounded proyn.
- 19:48Speaker 7: Tomorrow will be worse if you make it through the
- 19:53Speaker 7: n