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ON THE COUCH WITH: Neon

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

Access All Areas.net.au: Your biography is quite an interesting read having started from an outback city, moving to the big smoke, and then a case of ‘being in the right time at the right place’. How long a period has it taken you to get to where you are now, releasing your debut album?

Neon: I guess it depends where you start counting from. From the point where we started calling ourselves Neon it’s been about 3-4 years. But, I’ve known Josh since we were kids… so if you count from then it’s more like 20 years or something like that… Sometimes it feels like it’s taken forever & sometimes it feels like it’s all happening at once. But somewhere in the backs of our minds I’m sure we’ve always been thinking about that illusive debut album. Just like any normal kid who’s into music I guess.

Access All Areas.net.au: Can you tell us a bit about your music?
Neon: Well, I can’t remember whose quote this is, but I’m going to say it anyway: “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture”.
I think by far the best way for anyone to find out about music is to quite simply listen to it! That way they can make their own decisions on how they fit it into their classifications rather than me trying to pigeon-hole ourselves. That said; I can’t really think of any music that is like it out there at the moment, so it will be interesting to see how fit into the scheme of things.

Access All Areas.net.au: And how about your latest release, ‘Dizziness’?
Neon: Yeah – how about it eh? I was quite surprised it’s been so well received. When we were putting it together I was imagining it would be a little too heavy to be accepted into the mainstream, but seeing that people do seem to really be getting into it, I guess I was wrong! …Maybe the tides are shifting?

Access All Areas.net.au: How would you choose to describe your music to someone who was unfamiliar with it?
Neon: As I mentioned before, I would probably choose not to describe it. I’ve always thought the best art was that which left the explanation to the viewer (or listener). That’s something I hope comes out in the songs of Neon. I want the listener to find their own thing in it. & when they do, pass it on, but don’t say anything about it except; Just listen!

Access All Areas.net.au: Touring is a major part of being a musical artist, and already you’ve done enough of that having supported the likes of Jet, The Vines, Living End… I could go on forever… but it doesn’t stop there, you’re also about to embark on a marathon number of tours: Jebediah, Motorace, The Doves and then your own tours in the US, UK and back in Aus. Is touring something you ever get sick of and how important have you found touring for NEON?
Neon: We crave live shows & recording. I usually go stir-crazy if we’re not! Touring helps to keep us focused & it also gives us the chance to get better– one live show is worth a thousand practices hands down.
Also, touring with other bands is more often than not quite inspirational, plus it’s a whole heap of fun & really, that’s what it’s all about. I guess you just have to be careful not to have too much fun – my health can attest to that!

Access All Areas.net.au: You’ve already toured the US and Japan, how have your audiences there differed to the fans back in Oz?
Neon: It’s a funny thing really. Each country or city does seem to have its own vibe. & it usually does differ to what we see in Australia. For instance, although they could, the Japanese audiences we played to seemed not to get drunk, which goes without saying is quite different to Australian audiences. They’re also thoroughly polite whilst you are playing & clap even more politely once you’ve finished – it’s kinda spooky but also really engaging. English audiences really get into it – have you heard they say that music is the national pastime for the English? It does seem to ring true – they seem to source stuff out for themselves & want to get in up front & have fun about it all. & given the nature of the English press, it’s a happy surprise. Canadian audiences are also pretty unique. I remember in Montreal, they seemed to mosh pretty heavily, except, they we’re really gentle with each other. Like, if you were walking through the crowd everyone hopped out the way, or if you were crowd surfing you were carefully passed to the back & it was made sure you landed safely on your feet. I can’t say I’ve seen much of that kinda thing in Australia!

Access All Areas.net.au: Where did the name for the band – NEON - originate?
Neon: We had a few ideas kicking about but none of them ever stuck. ~This naming stuff is tricky business.
A friend of ours asked us to play for his birthday party. & the booker needed to put something in the local street rag. I suggested Neon among many others & everything got shot down in flames except it. So, it was sort of a process of elimination – or should I say illumination?

Access All Areas.net.au: What has been the major highlight or highpoint for you thus far?
Neon: Definitely recording our debut album with Steve McDonald & John Agnello. It came at a time when everything seemed to be taking for ever. The whole album, collectively, has pretty much been a celebration ever since. I’m still surprised by what we did. It still makes me as excited as the idea of making it. You really can’t ask for more than that.

Access All Areas.net.au: When a fan goes to one of your shows, what can they expect?
Neon: Expectation is a slippery thing. Hopefully they can get out of it what ever they choose to enjoy. We’ve really tried to avoid expectation. I can remember before we’d even played a live show Brit used to police the idea. Before long we all stuck to the idea that once you expect something it rarely comes to life. Expect nothing & everything seems a timely bonus.

Access All Areas.net.au: So what are your plans from here?
Neon: Hmmm… Lets see; Touring, touring, touring & when that’s done a little more touring. & in between that; Recording, more recording, mixing, mastering & releasing. Some painting, drawing & sleeping too; plenty of loving, & finally completing the space ship I’ve been working on.

Access All Areas.net.au: Outside of touring, recording and all your other commitments, what is it that you like to do to just chill out?
Neon: I really like to immerse myself in a good 50s sci-fi novel & I’ve always been a sucker for comics, cartoons & old fashioned computer games. & cooking too, that always seems to chill me out… but I guess when it comes to the crunch, nothing chills me out more than sitting down with a cold brew, good friends, a bunch of new music & the stereo doing what it does best.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

“I grew up in Broken Hill” explains singer-guitarist Josh Bitmead. “It’s called ‘the capital of the outback’. Nearby is this ghost town called Silverton where they filmed Mad Max 2. It’s pretty much how it looks in the movie, so as you can imagine, you have to make your own fun...”.

Broken Hill (nickname ‘Silver City’) is also famous for producing the world’s largest deposits of zinc, silver and lead. But the obsession with metal doesn’t end there. “My first real band was called Porcelain, we were somewhere between Sebadoh and The Smashing Pumpkins. We were unearthed by Triple J and things were looking good for a while but it wasn’t really what I wanted to do. The only groups who would come and play in Broken Hill would be real hard rock bands like The Angels and Cold Chisel, because they were the only ones who would last five minutes. I knew if I was seriously going to do my own thing I had to move away...”

So it was that one week after his 18th birthday, Josh made the time-honoured pilgrimage to Melbourne, armed only with a suitcase and his electric guitar. “It was kind of odd. I had to start life in a new town, looking to play in bands whilst holding down a boring job. I did all sorts. I played drums in one band, but slowly things came together..”.
Persuading louche drummer Jamie Gurney to make the trip west to join him, Josh then persuaded the sister of one his friends to join on bass. Cue the arrival of blonde bombshell bassist Britt Spooner and the completion of NEON’s photogenic vision.

The band quietly gigged away, paying their dues and slowly building up their chops. They have played over 300 shows supporting the best of Australian talent including Dallas Crane, Magic Dirt, Rocket Science, Dan Brodie, The Living End, Jet, The Vines and The Mess Hall.
However, the thing that really got the ball rolling was the old tried and tested home demo cassette. The next chapter is the stuff rock’n’roll dreams are made of. “We had a bunch of songs we recorded at home and we decided to send five cassettes to different people we admire” says Jamie. One was Steve McDonald of legendary West Coast band Redd Kross. “We had pretty much forgotten about it” says Britt “and then one day at about 3am we get this call from Steve McDonald, which we of course assumed was a joke. He said he loved our songs and wanted to produce our album. It was totally surreal”.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic a NEON demo cassette landed on the desk of (ex Blur Guitarist) Graham Coxon. Blown away with the raw power, Coxon’s record label (Transcopic Records) instantly offered the band an EP release.

McDonald swiftly arranged for the band to be flown over to L.A so he could produce their album. Working twelve hour days with him at renowned LA studios The Boat proved to be equally surreal. “It was totally bizarre. At first we were all in awe. Dale Crover from The Melvins came down and played a drum outro on one track. When we wanted a different guitar sound Steve called up Pat Smear (Meat Puppets, Nirvana) and we borrowed some of his gear. It inspired us to show we were up to scratch..”

Imagine Cheap Trick and The Replacements jamming in the middle of the desert with Lou Barlow on ‘vibes’ and you might get some idea of the searing, sinuous noise contained on NEON’s forthcoming debut album. Dry-as-a-bone riffing (‘Everything’) sublime psych-pop hooks (‘Happy Going Nowhere’) and ghostly, Big Star-ish melodies (‘Friends’; ‘Lapse In Conversation’) come as a standard, but with it, comes an opaque lyricism which suggests that beneath the riffola a darker mindset. When Josh drawls “ I’m a man of action/ Can’t you see I’m lazy” in the brilliant ‘A Man’ or “I got the key in my hand/But there’s no way out” in ‘Dizziness’ it feels both lurid and disorientating. “I like that ambiguity, the feeling of being on shifting sands” grins Josh. “All the best records allow you room to figure things out for yourself….”

Having signed an international deal with V2 records after a year long label scramble, NEON completed their first US tour in Spring of 2004 as part of the ‘Aussie Invasion’ with management stable mates The Vines and Jet, as well as The Living End. Two sold-out tours of the UK have followed, with the band scoring an impressive NME single of the Week, not once but twice. Throw in a tour of Japan and another US run and the OS picture is looking pretty damn good thank you very much. The latest news from UK is that they have been confirmed to perform at this years Reading/Leeds festival!

So what now?

“We are an Australian band and we love Australian music” says Josh. “We have spent a lot of time overseas but Australia is our home and it is the most important territory to us. We want to play as much as we can to as many people as we can!”

And he isn’t kidding! In the next 2 months, NEON will be touring the country not once, not twice, not even thrice. They are currently on the road with Jebediah. They then back up with MotorAce and last week they scored the highly coveted main support spot for The Doves Australian tour in July. To top it off they will then play some very special one-off album launches in early August. From there it’s off to UK and US and then hopefully back for a full Australian tour in October 2005.

www.neontheband.com

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MY FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

Birds of Tokyo
In january 2007 we did our first Big Day Out over here in Perth & when we got on stage the security had to close the doors of the pavilion as the room capacity had been reached. Now the thing was the band on before us only got the room like a third full so for heaps of people to rock up to watch us play, at home, was something special & I haven’t forgotten that show since.

Ideal Lineup?
Firstly Weezer, I really like those guys & they play some cool rock stuff, so they’d be awesome to see. I’d also have to say Queens Of The Stone Age, these guys just put on the best show each & every time they step on stage & to see them is always amazing. So I’d go with those 2 for now.

Tips for attending a Music Festival?
Personally, I feel it comes down to just being curteous to others. I mean you go to festivals & you see people just barging through in groups or by themselves & it’s just not on in my books. I suppose drinking water & wearing proper clothing to protect yourself from the sun also help, but basically being curteous is my tip.