01.So who are you and who's in the band?
Ash : Well I'm Ababil Ashari Winarizal, call me Ash, and I play sing (badly) and play guitar (worse) for The Clever References. Mélisande "Mel" Ricou here plays bass and does some keys stuff and Evan Keith hits/programs the things.
Mel : Bonjour!
Evan : Hey.
02.First, how you come up with the name 'The Clever References'?
Mel : Gonna handball this one to Ash...or Evan?
Evan : The name was Ash's idea. The logic behind it is that most band names are in themselves clever references to one thing or another, so why not just name the band "The Clever References"? It's a kind of autological name in a way, what you might call a strange loop. The name describes itself.
Ash : What he said.
03.Has everyone on The Clever References been on a band before?
Mel : When I was 15 I was the lead singer/guitarist in a French emo band called Spasm, then I was in another French rock band called Inside Paradox, I stopped music for about 8 years whilst studying and working. Started playing in a band again last year called Astrohym...
Evan : I've been in a band or two back when I was in high school, all just garage projects that never really put out anything. I was never that keen on most of what I did in those bands though, so I ended up mostly just doing my own music projects. For the past few years I've been doing my own music under the name Fish Slappa, but I guess The Clever References is my first return to playing in a band in a few years. It's good to keep grounded and play music that people actually want to hear, so working in a band setting is good for me, I think.
Ash : I haven't been in bands as much as they are like one-angry-boi egotrips lmao, but yeah Shorthand Phonetics and did a multimedia project called Cloverlines
03.What would you call your music as?? Emo?? Future Rock?? Nerdcore?
Evan : I think Ash is better qualified to answer this question, but I generally would describe The Clever References as "Indie", even though that's kind of a nebulous term. I guess that's kind of the idea, because our music does drift around a bit stylistically. There's definitely some emo influence there, so perhaps Emo-Indie? I'm not sure how you'd categorise it really.
Ash : Yeah, nah, you got it right man ha ha, I'll leave that to like music reviewers to box us into something marketable lmao
Mel : Indie Buzz Band lol
04.Describe me about the Australian music scene? Is it possible for pursuing music as a career there though you're not a big musician?
Evan : It's definitely possible to pursue a career in the indie music scene, as long as you're happy persisting on a fairly low income for quite a while before expecting to get big. Australia does have some of the strictest and most generous minimum wage laws in the world, although given that so much of a musician's time spent 'working' ends up as unpaid labour anwyay, these laws are often hard to apply to musicians. So if you want to do other part-time work and be a musician on the side, Australia's a great place, because you'll be paid well for whatever work it is you're doing. Just don't expect to be making that much from the music itself!
Mel : The Aussie music scene is very welcoming and it's easy to get to meet a lot of musos really quickly. However if you want to make money as a musician there, it's not great... You're better off becoming a French citizen lol. In France artists are paid a monthly pension (equivalent to minimum wage) by the State if they perform a certain amount of hours each month...Why did I leave again?
Ash : Well there's more demand for live music here, and more importantly live "band" music. Not just yknow, one man party djs or hip-hop. Nothing against "urban" music but likebands move here to Melbourne like from the U.K.! We've met a couple of guitar-based rock bands who move HERE, to get a crack at breaking. They say the music scene back in ye olde United Kingdom (at least) is more "urban" focused. I think they mean like hip-hop and grime and stuff...nor really familiar with that.
05.How are you guys got featured on a TV show? Tell me the story please...
Ash: Oh yeah! So there's a facebook group called Melbourne Musicians, and the booker of that show was looking for talent on there, and I just volunteered our band to play and they picked us!
Evan: Well Ash organised the business side of that, but from my perspective we just kind of showed up at RMIT and played a few songs live for this show about motorsports. It was a remarkably chill experience really, although I'd never been on community TV before so I guess I wasn't really sure what to expect.
06.Tell me a bit about the place of the band, Victoria?
Mel : Aussies call it the garden of the State because it's quite green compared to the rest of Australia. The climate is a bit less extreme than in the North and it has a bit of a European feel... At least near Melbourne. It's a beautiful place to live, we're quite lucky to be honest. However East Gippsland was severely affected by the recent bushfires. A lot of those beautiful green forests are now gone. It's quite sad to have witnessed that loss of wildlife. As a response to these tragic events we have organised a bushfire relief gig where all proceeds went to CFA (Victorian Country Fire Authority) and all sales from our latest single "BIG SAD" will also go to the CFA.
Ash : Oh yeah and it's not just us obviously, like other music acts from like small bands like us up to like fuckin' Tones and I are doing bushfire relief gigs. It's a very tight-knit musical community here, and like everyone from the top to bottom are always I dunno...sticking together I feel...I dunno, I'm new here haha Evan?
Evan : Well I'm kind of new to Victoria, and I can't say I've explored much of the state outside of Melbourne itself, unfortunately. Melbourne is certainly a good place to live, especially if you're interested in music. It's quite a sizable city, and there's a lot going on, but it's much easier to get around than other cities of a similar size I've been to (especially Sydney).
07.Some people says that Aussie is the most peaceful place and the safest one on earth as well, is that true?
Evan : That's a complicated question. Before I moved to Melbourne last year, I lived in Darwin, in the Northern Territory, which is probably the state/territory that's closest to what pops in your mind when you think of the 'outback'. I certainly wouldn't describe much of the Northern Territory in those terms, in fact quite the contrary. On the other hand, though, Melbourne is extraordinarily safe for a city of its size, in spite of a few notable incidents that have happened here over the past year or so. I suppose no country can be uniformly safe or dangerous, but if you stick to the big cities, there are certainly worse places than Australia.
Mel : You do feel like you're a bit in a bubble sometimes, at least in Melbourne. I don't really know the rest of the country. I personally feel much safer living in Melbourne than in Paris, when it comes to things like walking in the streets by myself. But then there's other stuff I never had to worry about before, like bushfires. I live in a bushfire prone area so every summer we have to be alert.
08.Whats your favorite meal to eat after having a band rehearsal? Any good place to eat to recomend as well?
Evan : I guess statistically our most frequent place to eat has been KFC, although perhaps due largely to its ubiquity here in Melbourne. If there's one good thing about the city, though, it's that you can find just about any type of food done well if you know where to look.
Mel : We love a good Satay pizza.
Ash : Yeah we found a place on High Street across Cactus Room thats really good!
Mel : Or some Alice Spring Chicken.
Ash : That's not a real thing, Mel!!! I'm sorry thats like an in-joke...
Mel : I'm still waiting on Ash to invite us to an Indonesian restaurant though.
Ash : Just have to find the right one!
09.So you put out two maxi singles on spotify, any plans for doing an EP or Full Length?
Evan : Ash will have to confirm this one, but I'm pretty sure the current plan is to shoot for a full LP release around November of this year, releasing some singles from that and a few non-album tracks before then.
Ash : Yep that's the plan!
10.Any last words you would like to say?
Mel : Stay clever!
Ash : Oh my word, I forgot all about that catchphrase...
Sites :
Bandcamp - https://thecleverreferences.bandcamp.com/
Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/thecleverreferences/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thecleverreferences/
1 comment:
Interesting rread
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