The Gin Club Interview

What got you together in the first place, and how was the band created?
We all met through a jam night that I ran in Brisbane at an Irish pub, where the emphasis was on peforming your own material.. that's basically how I met Conor, Brad, Adrian and Ola.  I had known Scott and Bridget already.. anyway we all began to know each other's songs and would get up and sing back up on them.. we hatched a plan that instead of competing with one another for solo shows we would start a sort of collective and do everyone's two best songs, with the other band members falling in behind whoever was singing.  This kind of got pretty successful pretty quickly and before we knew it we had an album, a label and a boozy future. Oh, and a name.(for full story see myspace site - www.myspace.com/theginclub)

What’s something new your bringing to the scene?
Terminal unfashionableness. Is that a word? And the collective/instrument swapping thing is fairly novel I suppose.. I myself play drums, bass and guitar at various points throughout the show, and all the others are similarly multi- talented. Or multi-functional, at least.

Any plans on a record deal and is staying independent a conscious decision?
Well, depends on what you mean by a record deal.. we kind of already have one with our label Plus One, but that just means they'll put them out, not that they have millions of dollars to waste putting pictures of us in every record store in Australia.. if a major label came along and offered to give us heaps of money to make a record you bet we'd take it! All we want to do is keep making music and travel around playing it to people. The former is easy, but the latter is expensive, especially with 8 - 10 members.

Have many of the members had formal classical music training? It seems many musicians in the modern era are self taught, do you think this is a positive step for the industry or a natural progression with the way the media works?
I couldn't really comment on that... I think maybe two or three have had some form of classical training, eg lessons.. but everyone is self taught to some extent! I'm not sure I really understand the question. Ummm. Bridget (our most classical classicist) says classical muic training is a waste of time, and people should go and burn down their local conservatorium. If you believe that, you'll believe anything.

What do you think of the infamous Myspace? Do you find it a useful tool for the promotion of your music?
I think it's great. Any new way of interacting with your fans, or making it easier for people to find your music, is a good thing as far as I am concerned. Whilst we might make rustic kind of music I see the Gin CLub as a modern band, absolutely.. we're not luddites by any means. Developments such as Myspace can be as positive or as negative as you want them to be. But I find it to be a very useful tool indeed.

So the organisers of the BDO approach you, saying give us a 25 word answer on why you should play the main stage this year. What would you tell them?
"Because we are a band, and you are a music festival. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Big jobs. Who is me?"

What were some of the artists you were raised on?
Wassily Kandinsky, Ken Done, Richard Scarry, Raymond Briggs, Aubrey Beardsley, Simon Bisley, Maurice Sendak, Rolf Harris, Arthur Boyd, Jim Lee, Sidney Nolan, Marcel Duchamp, Lynley Dodd, Quentin Blake

Any hobbies and interests outside of music?
Cricket, Dungeons & Dragons, Cricket, Texas Hold 'em Poker, Cricket, Nibbly Snacks (consumption of), Comics, Cricket, Rugby League, English comedy shows, American comedy shows, Deadwood, The Wire, Photography, Nintendo Wii, Sailing, Fishing, Cricket, Drinking, Cricket, William Gibson novels, Moby Dick, Cricket.

Top 5 aussie bands that we cant go past?
AC/DC, The Drones, White Mansions, Kill Devil Hills, Mexico City