Guy Maddison has it all in hand. Jim Bennett photo supplied bye the aertist
You'll probably recognise the names Mick Turner (Dirty Three, Moodists, Bleak Squad and Mess Esque), Claire Birchall (Paper Planes, Phantom Hitchhikers, Kim Salmon's Smoked Salmon;, Joel Silbersher (GOD, The Sunset Strip, Charlie Owens, Tex Perkins and the long-standing Hoss) and Guy Maddison (Greenhouse Effect, Lubricated Goat, Bloodloss, Mudhoney).
What do they have in common? They've formed a band called Fancy Weapon Claire's on drums and lead vocals, Silbersher and Turner are both on guitar, and Maddison's on bass.
Some Melbourne shows have been well-received, supporting The Double, The Beasts, Penny Ikinger, Toody Cole, Savak, Mogwai and Tortoise. There's a few singles, “Squid”, “Squirmin' Merman” and “27 Minutes” with a video for each on Poison City Records'YouTube channel.
Their debut album will be released on Poison City Records on June 19. It will be available on limited edition deep sea blue colour vinyl (with the first 100 copies signed by the band), CD and all digital stores world-wide. Pre-orders are available now via Poison City E-Store and Bandcamp.
Alright, settle down at the back there. We all know it's hard for any musical combo to get any meaningful publicity without some sort of machinery behind them, or they somehow manage to work the algos, bots and bollocks of the Interweb chicanery. However, as far as this self-proclaimed boring old bastard is concerned, flim-flammery and hyperbole is nowt as good as fronting up to a shady dive one night to catch a band ... and if they get your attention - and hold it - they're good.
And, if you've got the songs, you've got the songs. Now, don't get this dementia-headed old coot all confused, right? Sure, songs alone don't do it. But, this is me writing to you, to tell you Fancy Weapon have the chops and the smarts to write the songs. And I've heard the LP ... they have the songs, and a long low groove with a rather delicate sense of beauty.
There's a lot of possibilities in this outfit, from the building ballad of (for example) "Following You" to the slow hammer of despair in "I Bring Nothing". And sure, I have a couple of favourite songs. But, they keep shifting so, never mind the neighbours - check these characters out. What also interests me is that this is Fancy Weapon's first LP, and having soaked them up for the last few hours like an old fart in a hot bath after a long day in front of the fire with soup and soldiers ... yeah, where they'll head next is anyone's guess.
So I sat down and sent off a few questions to bass player Guy Maddison.
Guy Maddison live. Pic by O (artist suppled).
I-94 Bar: What initially drew you to music?
Guy Maddison: My dad was born in 1931 in Calcutta and raised in the Raj, so rock and roll was not his thing. He actually gave me one of my first records, the first Rolling Stones album on Decca. No explanation, but I suspect he bought it on its release as it was probably advertised as "Blues" music, but he probably didn't think much of it.
Of course I don't have that record anymore, goddamn it! But he was a music fan and somewhat of an audiophile. His thing was jazz, mainly Louis Armstrong and Herb Alpert. He used to play it really loud and at times the staircase would vibrate. I think that's initially what got me interested.
When I was a kid, there was The Beatles cartoon on TV, and that originally drew me into them. I guess the next thing that made a big impression on me, would have been jailbreak by AC/DC on Countdown. Strangely TV seems to have quite an influence on children?
I-94 Bar: Did you play an instrument before you picked up bass? if so, do you still have it?
Guy Maddison: I started on the trumpet as a nine-year-old. I was in a Salvation Army brass band. I don't have the same horn I had then, but I still have a trumpet. I can't read trumpet music anymore and my lip goes very quickly these days, as I don't practice. Interestingly, my daughter chose the trumpet for her first instrument, and is a fine player; miles better than I ever was.
I-94 Bar: How did you join your first band, Greenhouse Effect? (if, indeed, that was your first band.)
Guy Maddison: Greenhouse Effect was my first band. I did have a couple of attempts at high school to form a band, but nothing really happened. My buddy Ringo and I cooked up the idea to start a band when we first became friends. He came round my flat with a slab of beer, after we'd met earlier that week at a party.
We were all part of a punk rock scene in Perth in 1985. It was easy to round up other people to play in a band, because there was really nothing else to do. I was in Uni then, so I had a lot of spare time. I was a lazy and unfocused student.
I-94 Bar: I suppose in every creative scene like seeks out like - do you recall what you were initially looking for? Did you find it - and what do you look for now?
Guy Maddison: If you mean as far as what I was looking for in a band initially, I had no skills as a musician, so I'm not sure I even knew what I was looking for in terms of musicality. It was a DIY punk thing. We were trying to play as fast and as tightly as we could, and failing at both. Now, 40 years later, I'm more focused on what I'm looking for.
Luckily, after so long playing in bands, I've built up a pretty large network of players and creators, which makes it much easier to get projects going and move them in the direction they need to. I primarily look at it as making artefacts, and It's fun to work with others who look at it like this too. Meaning the other musicians, record companies, journalists and promoters, all the people involved in getting the music out there, if that makes sense? That's why I like vinyl records, the artefact feels quite palpable in that format.
I-94 Bar: This may appear like a foolish question - but why did you move from Perth?
Guy Maddison: Like most alternative bands from Perth at the time, (1985) we found that we had nowhere really to play. There weren't many venues that were catering to people that liked our sort of underground music. The town was dominated by cover bands, and most venues were suburban beer barns. We'd headed out once already, on an extended trip to Melbourne, hanging out there for a few months, and playing shows with other like-minded bands from Sydney and Melbourne. We could see there were greener pastures in the Eastern States, and so we went for it. Off to Sydney to try our luck.
I-94 Bar: How did Fancy Weapon come about? Did you know Joel or Claire before joining? Did everything slot neatly into place, or did it take a while?
Guy Maddison: When I moved back to Australia in 2022 there was an upcoming Mudhoney tour booked soon after I arrived. The majority of my equipment was in a shipping container between the US and here. I had known Mick for many years - since the 1980s and his time in Venom P Stinger. We had remained in contact and friendly over the years. I needed to borrow some equipment, so I reached out to Mick.
He asked if I would be interested in playing some music with him and he gave me a demo tape on a thumb drive of four songs that he said he'd been working on for years with Joel. Just four pieces of music with no vocals. I listened to them a few times (mainly in the car) and I thought ‘Yeah, I could fit in here’.
I'd known Joel, a little bit back in the early '90s before I left Australia, when he spent some time up in Sydney. We'd bump into each other in the general music scene up there. The three of us started jamming. Then Joel, who knew Claire, invited her in to play drums. Mick and I had not met Claire before. This was about three or so years ago.
Once Claire started playing with us, it all started to gel. We discovered, quite quickly and quite naturally, that we worked as a band.
I-94 Bar: The songs on the LP demonstrate a neat (delicate, even) balance between heavy and melodic, and there's a kind of ... metal surf quality (though I suppose some might consider it a sort've stoner groove) ... could you tell us a little about what you're all aiming for?
Guy Maddison: Yeah, I can see the stoner rock/metallic surf thing in there. Definitely the play between the two guitars, which are of very different stylings, create that sort of Velvets meets Ventures kind of vibe. I think the sort of riffs that I write are a little more post-punk in conception, and the stuff that Joel and Mick have come up with is more in the Neil Young and Crazy Horse vein.
I'm not sure if we're necessarily aiming for any particular style of music? I think we're all discovering that we play well together. As everyone's contributing to the composition process it's interesting to see how the band's coalescing into its own entity. I think sometimes we sound like Beachwood Sparks, sometimes like Come and sometimes a bit like Endless Boogie, throw in a bit of Velvet Underground and that might be our ballpark?
I-94 Bar: Who's writing the lyrics?
Guy Maddison: It's a mix, some are by Joel, some by Claire and some by me. I don't sing, so the only lead vocalists are Claire and Joel.
I-94 Bar: Fancy Weapon strikes me as a band built to allow the guitars to dance with each other - while the songs themselves seem to take their time to arrange themselves. Comment?
Guy Maddison: The compositions are pretty jammy (often created from long jam sessions). Without a doubt a big part of the sound of the band is how the two guitars play off each other. Joel and Mick's style are quite different from each other. I think that makes for a really interesting blend of sounds, and also an unusual rhythmic element comes to the fore. It's probably the loose nature of how we work that gives the songs the slowly developing, swelling, and surging feel.
I-94 Bar: I particularly enjoyed what sounds like harmonies between Joel and Claire - strangely reminds me of The Beatles What was everyone's reaction when they first heard how the harmonies worked?
Fancy Weapon live at The Tote. Heather McDonald photo (artist supplied.)
Guy Maddison: Well, The Beatles or The Byrds would be aspirational mountain tops, if we could get there. For sure, Joel and Claire harmonise beautifully together, that's one of the aspects of the band that I like the most, and was a total surprise for me. I'm not sure if Joel had some idea that this might work before he invited Claire to join? Like I said, I really enjoyed this aspect of the band because it's not something that's been a big part of the other musical projects I've been involved in, so it's new and exciting for me.
I-94 Bar: You've worked with some truly extraordinary musicians - Martin Bland, Renestair EJ, Charlie Tolnay, Pete Hartley, Mark Arm, Stu Spasm (aka Stuart Gray), and now Mick Turner and Joel Silbersher. Every single one of those musicians have a distinct style - what challenges have there been over the years (as I cannot imagine it's always been easy)?
Guy Maddison: Well, I have probably been challenging to work with too, for those musicians you listed here. Yes, I've been lucky to be able to work with people who are incredibly talented, inventive and productive. Obviously Martin and I continue to work together to this day. I hope that he doesn't find it too difficult to work with me? Probably a question for Marty to answer?
My longest relationship in terms of music has been the 25-plus years I've been in Mudhoney. I think the secret to the longevity there is that we genuinely enjoy playing together and have a lot of common ground in where we're coming from as musicians, and what music we take from and what we like to make ourselves. It's been very easy over the years to write songs, make records and play shows in that band.
Of course it's not all plain sailing, in any band (or at least I don't think so?). None of us would be up there playing shows in front of people if there wasn't some ego involved. When there are egos involved, there are often clashes. If I were to be honest, I would say that the biggest challenges over the years have been the ones that have involved substance abuse and alcoholism. Those things definitely make life in general harder, and with that, any process of collaboration in music becomes much more difficult.
I-94 Bar: What's the best skill for a bass player to have?
Guy Maddison: I am not sure how to answer that question. I kind of look at the bass as the peanut butter in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I'm gluing the bread together with the drums, the bread drums, and somewhere in the middle the guitar players are the jam. I guess a skill for bass players is to be sticky? Stick-to-it-ness?
I-94 Bar: I gather you moved back to Australia in 2022 - right in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic! What struck you most about the differences between how Australia and the US were handling things?
Guy Maddison: My family and I did move back in mid-2022, at this time the pandemic was mostly controlled. Vaccines were readily available, and infection prevention protocols were decreasing the impact of Covid-19. I worked in a hospital and Seattle when the Pandemic hit. Seattle had the first recorded case in the United States. We were lucky at Harborview Medical Centre, because we had previously prepared (in 2014) for the Ebola outbreak, and a lot of those infection prevention preparations allowed us to deal with Covid somewhat more efficiently.
Obviously Covid changed the landscape of medical practice all over the world, and without going too deeply into it, when I arrived in Australia and began working at Royal Melbourne Hospital, I found that the standard of care and the general procedures in terms of infection control we're almost exactly the same as my time in the US.
In regards to the lockdowns in Australia, and the US experience with Covid, I'm not sure if Australia did a better job with that aspect of it, as I wasn't here during the Australian lockdown. My opinion is that the US response was severely hampered by the political landscape. If you're interested I made a six-part podcast about how our hospital in Seattle dealt with the pandemic.
I-94 Bar: I sometimes wonder how the current Seattle scene compares with Melbourne's scene these days?
Guy Maddison: I don't know how the Melbourne scene has developed over the years, as I was not here. But it's obviously very lively, and there's lots of places to play. In a way this is very similar to Seattle to this day. There's still tons of bands and Seattle and lots of venues, you can go out any night of the week and see music.
This is what was created in the early '90s, with the so-called grunge explosion. Seattle became a Mecca for bands from all over the US, and perhaps the world. With that came infrastructure. A multitude of venues and the associated music business, booking agents etc, it all really burgeoned in Seattle at that time. It's something that became part of the landscape of Seattle, and exists to this day.
When I look at Melbourne, it looks very similar, tons of venues, lots of bands. I'm not a Melburnian or a Victorian so I don't really know, but another similarity is both cities have very active and well supported public radio.
Lubricated Goat on the road in the USA in 1989. Credit: unknown.
I-94 Bar: It's been a long time since Lubricated Goat - do you miss band members setting each other's hair on fire or playing naked on telly? Or is that sort of stuff rather tame for someone who's worked as a critical care nurse?
Guy Maddison: It's been 36 years since I was in Lubricated Goat. The hair burning stage was after I departed (thankfully – burning hair is very smelly). The “In The Raw” adventure was kind of a blessing and a curse. It was great fun at the time, and a real coup, culturally, at least in my opinion. Its lasting interest is less entertaining to me. I guess it was a publicity stunt and perhaps not too much more should be read into it? It marked us as the "Naked Band" - and perhaps that was a detractor?
I am now retired from nursing, but did spend many years as a critical care nurse in a trauma centre in the US. It's a job that moves from high stress and anxiety, to often very sombre and difficult emotional situations. Mortality (life and death) is a daily contention. If you're looking for war stories from the ER, you'll have to wait for the book, ha ha. Of course, many shifts were routine and uneventful. I enjoyed my career and love many of the people I worked with, but am happy to be retired.
I-94 Bar: Could you tell us a little about La Paire D'Or, please? I had a listen on Bandcamp - among other things, I notice there's a rather groovy homage to John Murphy - how did you first encounter John?
Guy Maddison: LPDO is Martin Bland and myself, with different vocalists, on the first record it's mainly Annabella Kirby, a singer from Seattle, with one guest spot by old Mark Arm, (more records to come, and more singers). Martin and I began this project just before Covid struck, it was just a jam tape on reel to reel with Martin on drums and me on synths. Pretty much the same synth setup I used in Beauty Hunters.
After lock down, Martin had two old eight-track mini discs; he dumped the jam tape onto eight-track and left a disc, and one of the machines, at my place. We started overdubbing on mini disc and leaving the disc in each other's mailboxes (Because of isolation protocols). That's how it all got going. It's a studio project and we still work by sending overdubs between us. A slow process, but very entertaining.
Before I ever met John in person, he called our house in Sydney on the phone (remember landlines?) The somewhat infamous Gracelands pad. I picked up the phone and he said, in his classic droll baritone, "Look , it's John Murphy here, I'm coming up to Sydney with my band Slub, and I want to know if you have a drum kit I can use". I guess I met him a few days later when he arrived and played that Slub show. John lived in Sydney for quite a while after that and we became friends.
We played together on some projects and he was in Monroe's Fur on occasion, as both a drummer and synth player. John had an EMS synthi (I believe it was the AKS model). He could make you pass out with that thing, the almost subsonic nature of it. He played it in a strange fashion, where he would mash down on the pin board connections - almost like using a wah wah pedal. Ever since, I've been fascinated by synths, but it took me a long time to get my own and start to experiment with them. If I were to dedicate the LPDO record to anyone, it would be to the Murph and Peter Read. Both those guys showed me a different way to look at music, for sure.
I-94 Bar: How did the Beauty Hunters project happen? I notice the Bandcamp description refers to "the days when post-punk intersected with early industrial and German experimental. For fans of Throbbing Gristle, Asmus Tietchens, Cluster, Robert Rental" . A hell of a description - and accurate. You seem to be implying that musical movements have become more fixed and less open, yet I'm seeing a number of bands which are nominally “metal” or “rock'”with serious branches leading in a number of directions. What do you think limits a creative person?
Guy Maddison: Beauty Hunters was created out of friendship. Sean and Curt, the other two members. Sean's a synth player and Curt's an audio visual creator, were some of my closest friends in Seattle. We started out just trying to entertain ourselves, really. We decided early on to focus on non-traditional venues for live performance, where the setting would enhance the music. We played in public parks, bicycle shops, art installations, under bridges, record stores and Mechanic shops, Anywhere we could hang our projections screen really...
That Tagline "for Fans of" is now used as a cue for people purchasing music in general. That list could easily have been, Nurse with Wound, Boards of Canada and Tangerine Dream, which would have been inaccurate and misleading too, ha. Post Punk and Industrial music were a kind of sweet spot union for me. Given my age (and musical coming of age), around 1980 is when I began to develop antisocial tendencies, haha. I know what you mean about things getting diverse, I agree, particularly in Metal where they seem to be melding all sorts of influences Dream Metal, Symphonic Metal, Kawaii Metal etc. I think Rap is like that too. Even Punk, now we have Egg punk... I think is great to explore new feels, not sure if everything needs a name attached to it though?
I-94 Bar: Do you have a favourite bass?
Guy Maddison: My old '75 Fender Precision, I've owned it for 40 years now, honourable mention to my '79 Precision Bass.
I-94 Bar: What kind of rig do you prefer?
Guy Maddison: I use a TC Electronic RH 450 head (I like its portability), preferably with Fender 4 X 12 Cabinets. I also use a Music Man HD 130 head.
I-94 Bar: Looking back, what were your favourite gigs?
Guy Maddison: That I've played? Opening for Johnny Thunders in Perth in '86.
Opening for Hawkwind, (that was Hawkwind, Sleep and Monroe's Fur in Seattle; epic!)
Opening for The Butthole Surfers on our first US Tour with Lubricated Goat.
Mudhoney live at Koko (The Camden Theatre) is just one highlight, so many great Mudhoney shows, it's hard to choose, probably any one of a dozen great shows in Italy. Italians are crazy!
I-94 Bar: But what about, say, a few gigs you were simply there to witness? Which outfits absolutely hit you hard? Did any make you reassess what you were doing creatively?
Guy Maddison: Pere Ubu at the OK hotel in Seattle in 1995, just an amazing performance by the band and Dave Thomas was magnetic, mesmerizing.
The Clash at the Perth Entertainment Centre in 1982, they made us take our Doc Martins off and leave them on the concourse (due to the skinhead problem in Perth at the time). The show had it all, tension, anxiety (skinheads!) epic anthems, costumes and projections.
Kraftwerk a couple of years ago at Rod Laver Arena, sounded perfect and a long-awaited goal achieved.
Dead Kennedys at the ANU, Canberra 1983, I doubt that needs further explanation.
The Clash and Dead Kennedys were before I had formed any bands, but they made me reassess my life, ha ha. For sure every great band you see makes you reassess what you're doing. I think other acts I admire show me new possibilities and sometimes reinforce what I'm doing right, or wrong.
I-94 Bar: Worst gigs you've ever played?
Guy Maddison: Mudhoney played a festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz, in the Basque country of Spain once. In classic Spanish style, we went on at 2am in the morning. We had been treated to a multi-course feast prior to the show (also a classic Spanish custom), huge amounts of rich food. Dan and I had overdone it, with the food and booze and other intoxicants. It had rendered us incapable of performing our rhythm section duties effectively. I won't go into the unpleasant details, but suffice to say, mental and bodily functions were compromised.
I-94 Bar: I told myself I'd ask you a minimum of Mudhoney questions but I really should ask - how exactly did you join the band? Was it initially difficult or was it a natural fit?
Guy Maddison: Mark and I had done music together before, in Bloodloss. I knew all the Mudhoney guys for quite a long time, since my first US tour with the Goat in '89 and their tours down here, in the late '80 early '90's.
Living in Seattle since '92, I was on pretty friendly terms with them all, including Matt. I was asked to join after Matt left. Initially they were offered a tour of Brazil and I turned it down as I was just finishing up Nursing School. Our friend Steve Dukich of Steel Wool fame did that tour (small world stuff: Sean Hollowell of Beauty Hunters was the guitarist of Steel Wool). Later that year in 2001 I started playing shows with Mudhoney.
I remember sitting with Steve on his porch and learning the songs on acoustic instruments. Once we hit the practice room with amplifiers it all came naturally. As I think I said before, I feel like we're all kind of coming from the same place. Those guys are great fun and great players, and were totally welcoming and open when I joined.
I-94 Bar: Five favourite American bands?
Guy Maddison: Boy, five is a tough cut, so many more than five that I LOVE!
Pere Ubu, Dead Kennedys, New York Dolls, Devo, MC5.
But hell, how about the Cramps, Ramones, Dead Boys, Stooges, Jimi Hendrix, Silver Apples, Suicide... There is no end, really.
A younger Guy Maddison. Credit Dom Guerin (artist supplied)
I-94 Bar: Five favourite Australian bands?
Guy Maddison: Saints, Birthday Party, Thug, Radio Birdman, AC/DC.
Once again tough cut, and problem omissions: Venom P Stinger, Beasts Of Bourbon, Scientists, Hard Ons, The Eastern Dark, Rose Tattoo, Severed heads, SPK ...
What about NZ, the Gordons ...What no Euro / UK? Sex Pistols, Magazine, Wire, Kraftwerk, Gang of Four. The Fall ...
I-94 Bar: Five favourite films?
Guy Maddison: “Withnail and I”, “To Live and Die in LA”, “Full Metal Jacket”, “Man Bites Dog”, “Chinatown”. And same again, but I'll spare you ...
I-94 Bar: If you could live anywhere in the world with no rent, food, water or income concerns ... where would it be?
Guy Maddison: Marseille, France.
I-94 Bar: Lastly, as I find the mainstream music media to be lame, moribund, dull, and largely run by the sort of people who would do equally well selling concrete to Russia, I'd like to ask a question usually guaranteed to make a creative character fill the air blue with curses .... What advice do you have for the mainstream music media? (PS, do try to keep it clean)
Guy Maddison: As a musical underground basement dweller myself, I'm sure the mainstream has as little interest in me, as I do in it, ha. So I would say my advice would fall on deaf ears (pardon the pun). Like any journalism or media, the music media has a responsibility to call it like it is, no sacred cows, no protections for the established order. The Melody Maker famously slammed the Sex Pistols, that they "do as much for music as World War Two did for the cause of peace", which in retrospect is actually pretty great journalism, I'm sure the Pistols loved it!
Fancy Weapon’s debut album will be available on limited edition deep sea blue colour vinyl (first 100 copies signed by the band), CD and all digital stores world-wide and is out on June 19. Preorders are available now via Poison City E-Store and Bandcamp. The album launch is Saturday July 4 at the Tote in Collingwood with special guests Star/Time and Chris Smith. Tickets here.
