Kim Salmon. Photo by The Barman.
It's taken a long to get to this, folks, but I love Smoked Salmon's new LP “Totally Sick!!”. So much squeal and skronk, in measured and carefully ladled doses. Utterly captivating. Such a damn groovy LP.
Apart from anything else, the production on these songs is right up there; noisy but clear and with brutally separated layers. It sounds fucking fantastic.
But first, some context.
The other day I noticed that “The Horses” guy, Daryl Brackawacker, is finally calling it quits. No surprises there for many people, I suppose, but I thought he'd died 20 years ago. And Russell Morris, called it quits last year. I thought Kate Ceberano, Angry Anderson, John Farnham and (more rock 'n' rolly) Ratcat had hung up their boots. Oh, god, make it fucking stop before I blurt out even more names of appalling retirees or retirees on their last tours like Ordinary as Anything. TISM. fucking Pseudo Echo.
Look, I get it. I really do. It must be terribly hard not to roll out the old jalopy and take it for one last coughing spin through the ghastly beer barns or (gulp) local council cafes with their 'diverse and vibrant' customers. And I'm sure all these musicians are really lovely people but please god, can't you just stay at home in front of the fire with some pot noodles and far too much yankee whiskey?
There really are NOT that many folks who can continue to do this rock 'n' roll thing and genuinely entertain folks. You know the sort of thing, surely. Not send people away going “it was okay ... I guess”.I've been going to see The Animals and Friends for over a decade now, and original drummer John Steel is 85. (They're coming back to Australia yet again in November and December). But most of Steel's contemporaries cannot come close to his stamina and drive.
I saw Sparks recently. They're aged in their 70s. Brilliant show. Sure, Russell's slowed down a bit. But fuck, the amount of energy the man exudes would put a 22-year-old distance runner to shame. Next month Marc Almond will turn 70. I saw him last year; he's still got the presence, the voice and he's still hungry.
The problem is that there are so very, very many creaky old farts who have not aged well enough to continue to perform and so many fans who don't want to admit it.
Back in Australia, Kim Salmon, is one of the very, very few singer/songwriters who I'm always happy to hear his new stuff, and go see him in the actual flesh. Kim Salmon? Founder of The Scientists of mighty legend (which provoked Mudhoney's Mark Arm to coin the term "grunge"), member of The Beasts of Bourbon, founder of The Surrealists and founder of Smoked Salmon.
Kim Salmon. Photo by The Barman.
Quite seriously, if you claim to love rock 'n' roll and don't know who Kim Salmon is, I can only suggest you do a deep dive and try not to drown in the man's incessant outpourings (oo-er, matron, fnaar fnaar, ooh, you mustn't, etc) of rackety rawk goodness.
Right, intro over, let's have at the bugger.
* * * * * * *
I-94 Bar: How did Smoked Salmon come about, and evolve into what it is today?
Kim Salmon: Smoked Salmon was quickly grabbed together at the very end of 2019 to play a benefit for firefighters in NSW. I got Jeff Hooker because he knew all my stuff from playing with me for years and Clare Birchall because she’d worked with me and was a great drummer and fabulous singer. I just played “the hits” . All the “Frantic Romantics”, “(I'm a Dropouts”, “We Had Loves”, “Come On Springs”, “Swamplands” and none of the more challenging Scientists, Surrealists stuff. Indeed, nothing thing too arty or conceptual.
That was and is the rule. The name was so obvious that I finally succumbed. It’s basically that concept, aided by people dotted around the world who know the material and the concept, and can play a gig wherever I may be.
I-94 Bar: What were the first bands or songs which really got your attention like a BIG BANG in the sky? What happened?
Kim Salmon: I was a kid throughout the '60s and pop music wasn’t really on my radar. I loved sci fi, drawing and painting and I just lived peacefully in my own world as a child for that entire decade. Then it was 1970, I turned 13 that January, I was in high school and everything changed! It wasn’t all peace and love anymore.
The first music that I really became aware of was the rock and roll coming out in 1970 which meant anything by T Rex, Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), Deep Purple’s “Black Night”, Dave Edmunds' “I Hear You Knocking”, The Master’s Apprentices’ “Turn Up Your Radio”. There was a generally recognised Rock and Roll revival going on! By 1971 I was thirsting for anything that reflected those sounds and attitudes - electrified guitars, screaming echoey vocals, boogie beats, electronic production sounds that were definitely not the peace and love hippy sounds of the '60s!
Funny story: As a 13 year old I watched the Grammy awards on TV and saw this curly-haired chap playing an acoustic guitar singing a song from the standpoint of being an astronaut about to be launched into space. I wasn’t paying too much attention in the pre-announcement until I heard what I thought were the words “David Bowman” and “Space Odyssey”. Being a sci fi kid I thought, “man, this is more like it!”.
It was a couple of years later that David Bowie truly came into the picture and really cemented the change that was already going on that had captured me in 1970.
I-94 Bar: Do you still feel their pull or influence? Why?
Kim Salmon: Because it’s an attitude and philosophy of my teenage formative years I definitely still feel their influence. Its endemic to me. That doesn’t stop me going against it from time to time.
I-94 Bar: I've lost count of the number of records you've put out. Do you remember the sensation of holding that very first single, what it felt like? Have any of your other records ever felt like that? In “Self Replicator” you're singing about a virus - which one were you thinking about?
Kim Salmon: I’ll answer both questions here: They all feel wonderful! Especially given the comeback of vinyl, especially given the advent of pressing plants in my own suburbs! For example Program and Zenith!
In 2020, as we remember, there were strict boundaries as to where we could travel. For a while there was a 5km restriction. I had the idea to record and produce a record within those restrictions. I chose a studio and pressing plant – Head Gap Studio and Program Records (pressing plant) which were both around the corner from each other and just up the road from me - well within my allowed travel zone. With the wonderfully supportive help of Finn Keane I recorded all the instruments and vocals for a single comprising the Bacharach-David composition “Everybody’s Out Of Town” as well as my own song “Self Replicator”.
Smoked Salmon. Maxine Pryce photo.
The latter was my answer to all of the songs being recorded at the time that used imposed isolation as a metaphor for people feeling isolated in society. In true Salmon form I couldn’t help myself from singing from the point of view of the disease and about the way a virus spreads which is a kind of opposite to isolation ie; replication.
Anyway getting the finished product, featuring a photo taken by my partner of a deserted Brunswick Street designed to emulate the cover of the B.J. Thomas original and dropping the needle on both tunes was wonderful. Later on, hearing the test pressing for 'Totally Sick' from Zenith (featuring re recordings of both songs) was the best test pressing experience ever. 'Totally Sick' has the best sound of all my records! But they all bring back the experience of first hearing the first Scientists 7”, “Frantic Romantic” b/w “Shake Together Tonight”!
I-94 Bar: Although the theme of the “Totally Sick!!” LP is sickness, for me the flipside is that each song can be interpreted in several ways. How did the songs develop? Did you find yourself adjusting them to fit this flipside?
Kim Salmon: Nahh! I must be a sick person! The whole reason for the project was my idea to do an EP to go back with and finish the European tour we had to curtail by four Spanish dates (due to us catching COVID). As I mentioned earlier, Smoked Salmon’s repertoire is about all my “hits” and “would be” hits. “Fix Me Up” was always waiting and I wanted a more “true to its intention” version of “Freudian Slippers”.
“Shine Some Darkness” was always a song that I thought needed another chance. When Wally from Cheersquad suggested a full album it turned out I had no end of songs about the various maladies of the human condition!
I-94 Bar: One of the things I enjoy about your songs are that there are often so many playful, groovy aspects to them. the “Totally Sick!!” songs strike me as being particularly mischievous. Your front cover (and the Bandcamp blurb) is a little tongue-in-cheek. Yet, Kim, it seems to me that the tone of many of the songs here is very strong, if not savage. “I went looking for the darkness that's inside of you”, fuck's sake... the lyrics to “Fix Me Up” ... am I wrong? What kind of dark humour is this?
Kim Salmon: I’ll answer with a quote from Disraeli: “Never complain and never explain”. I’m not going to explain my songs and it’s tough if anyone wants to complain!
I-94 Bar: I've seen that a large percentage of your audience look forward to seeing what adventure you'll take them on next. How on earth do you cope with that expectation? Or do you just go into your creative zone and ... what pops out is what pops out? What's the thing you most enjoy about playing your songs for people?
Kim Salmon: It's great if there are those people in my audience! I really don’t care what their expectations might be - and nor should I. I must admit however that I do like it when I do confound people’s expectations. Importantly though, it’s not my driver.
I-94 Bar: “Totally Sick!!” has an awesome, big ‘70s whorl about it. How's that 1955 Les Paul TV Special going? Is it still the king? What pedals are you wearing out here?
Kim Salmon: That axe still has lots of chops left in it! I still love swingin’ it and I don’t expect I’ll lose that joy in a long while! As for pedals there’s a few lines I’ve crossed over the years.
For the Scientists in the '70’s and '80s I never used a pedal – that was Tony’s domain. In The Surrealists it was only ever a fuzz pedal and later on a wah-wah. One couldn’t even buy a fuzz in the early '90s when my Gen Harmon Booster died so I got a RAT pedal for a while until my girlfriend bought me a Big Muff in ’95.
One didn’t need a board for just two pedals. In the Naughties I got fed up with having to carry around my amps and got a Tube Screamer to add crunch and warm up my sound with whatever amps were provided. I went and got a Boss Tremelo (it’s essentially a Fender Tremelo circuit in a box) a bit later.
At present I use just a Tym Guitars custom built fuzz called The Murderess, a Tube Screamer and the Boss Tremelo. Can you see a strictly analogue theme here? Just actual sounds of their own and NO digitally emulating something already existing. I just think why copy something when you can make something new? Even if something new is the result of trying to copy and getting it wrong…..although I DO use a Boss RC-1 Loop Pedal with an A/B splitter which does in fact digitally copy MY sound.
I consider the loop pedal a digital instrument in its own right. I don’t have any problem with digital tech per se, just a problem with copying pre existing sounds. I’m sure I’ve contradicted this many times all you trolls out there!
Anyway I resisted the pedal board up until 2021 when I went out to look for one and went straight to Bunnings and got some three-ply, a saw, and some Velcro rather than fork out $200+ for a board. It was a matter of all the patch leads and jacks I was going through and saving wear and tear.
I-94 Bar: Anyone looking at your records over the last few years must have noticed: lots more Kim artwork. I wonder if you could take us through your initial interest in drawing/ painting through to the present day? Are you selling signed prints? Do you do commissions? (and, while I'm at it, is Jean-Michel Basquiat an influence - and if not, why not?)
Kim Salmon: Firstly, I’ve drawn and painted for as long as I’ve been speaking. It really is second nature to me hence me being able to ignore and abuse the facility I have for it throughout the early part of my musical career! I think punk rock lied to me and told me that my music was my art and to reject the pastime of actual art. I’ve come back to it over the last decade and a half. I don’t actually count the artwork I do for albums and posters etc as my art.
My art practice veers toward the abstract with touches of symbolism and surrealism. Some of my favourites and influences are Marlene Dumas, Louise Bourgeois, Brent Harris – probably still my top 3, but all the usuals like Hopper, Pollock, O’Keef - actually too many to list. Of course I like Basquiat but have yet to delve! However, I’m gradually being “drawn” back to figurative work as there is nothing like capturing something about the visual essence of something and getting people to see it anew!
I don’t tend to do commissions but “never say never”. I might get into signed prints. Its all admin and outlay however. The current visual art project for commerce is the next Smoked Salmon tour tee-shirt of an idea (partner) Maxine had and drafted which I’ve rendered to her specs. It looks pretty good, in fact up there with the Surreal Science tee which went gangbusters!
I-94 Bar: When I spoke to you in 2024, you mentioned that you were going back to your “difficult arty farty mindset”, with a couple of conceptual works in the pipeline'. You also said: “Once I’ve gotten past Smoked Salmon just wait! I’ve got a couple of things that I feel haven’t been said by anyone else yet and I’m about to say them with the next couple of projects...” So, Kim, please imagine I've been unconscious for the last couple of years: did these happen? will they?
Kim Salmon: No they haven’t. Still a bit to do with Smoked Salmon for at least the rest of the year.
I-94 Bar: Dear god, you're not going into politics, are you?
Kim Salmon: NO! Except to say DON’T vote for ONE NATION! They’ll take away everything. If you’re a parent, have a disability, are an immigrant, person of colour, indigenous elderly, a normal wage earner, normal income bracket person, LGBTQ person, artist, in fact anything that’s not a rich capo pig they’ll take it away from you and make your life a misery! Troll me, call me woke, tell me I’m believing the bullshit, I don’t care! Albanese might’ve fucked up kowtowing to Trump and Netanyahu but he’s generally on the better side of politics than ON and the LNP! RANT OVER!
I-94 Bar: Earlier this year, you confessed (on this very website) that over time you'd realised that “my survival depended on making music or making art”. Now, some might have interpreted that to mean “monetarily”, but I don't think that's what you meant. What is it about being able to do the creative thing which is so deeply important to you - what would the world look like to you if you were denied the ability to create?
Kim Salmon: I don’t think the world would look any different for all the influence I might have. They say I invented Grunge but someone had to do it and would’ve if it weren’t me - ha ha! My world however would probably be not much chop. What I was trying to say back then was creating art is all I can do so please let me do that!
I-94 Bar: Your cover for the “Freudian Slippers” single featured (in your words) "vulval slippers". Whilst pondering the most sensible and nuanced questions to ask you for this interview. My question is, since there seems to be no end to the public's demand for the unlikely, and your creative imagination, should we expect to be offered silk-lined vulval slippers a la Salmon as we swan past the posh shops in Collins Street?
Kim Salmon: I thought they already had existed in the past and somehow the internet censored them.. or maybe monetized them.
I-94 Bar: You've lived in Melbourne for many years now. It's changed greatly over the last 30 - what first made you want to live there, and is that reason still solid?
Kim Salmon: More Gigs More art. Still works for me!
I-94 Bar: Of all the musicians you've worked with, which stand out as having a big influence on you?
Kim Salmon: They’re all great in their own way, and I’m really lucky to have the chance to be playing with great people of my own choosing in Smoked Salmon. I sincerely don’t have favourites. Anybody that wasn’t went long ago.
I-94 Bar: Kim, truthfully, we really, really need some sort of autobiographical collage from you. A booky kind of thing. With pictures. Will it ever happen?
Kim Salmon: Its normally a choice between doing something or writing about having done it. I’m just reading Robert Forster’s book "Songwriters On The Run" and he seems to be doing both in a way. He’s created a story but using the life he (and muso’s like myself) knows. To his credit he’s making me re-evaluate the idea. I’ve got something cooking in the back of my mind but obviously I’d wreck it saying anything more!
I-94 Bar: Five most wicked gigs you've ever seen? Five most wicked gigs you've ever played?
Kim Salmon:
- Surrealists supporting The Cramps on their 1996 NZ Oz tour.
- Scientists supporting Alex Chilton at the Mean Fidler Harlesden UK 1985
- Beasts Of Bourbon supporting Iggy on his 1993 Oz tour.
- Sonic Youth blowing the Jesus and Mary Chain (who I’m a big fan of) off stage at the Lyceum in 1985
- Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Subiaco Oval 1972
- Scientists blowing everyone off stage at the 1984 Pandora’s Box Festival in Rotterdam
- Smoked Salmon at the Community Cup - 50 years of Punk Rock!
I-94 Bar: If you had the means to play a gig anywhere (and anywhen), where would it be? And, who with?
Kim Salmon: At the Emily Harvey Foundation Artist’s Residency Venice. Just me but I’d have Maxine with me if possible.
I-94 Bar: If you weren't allowed to be you, who would you choose to be?
Kim Salmon: Our cat Zorro. She just lives to bask in the sunlight, eat, sleep, have her fur brushed by each of us every night and, now she’s older, seemingly pisses wherever she likes.
I-94 Bar: Lastly, a slightly silly question. If you eat fish, what fish is your favourite? Haddock?
Kim Salmon: Raw Tuna e.g. Tuna Crudo or Sashimi.
SMOKED SALMON
TOTALLY SICK!! TOUR 2026
JULY
24 - Mojo's, Fremantle, WA
25 - Prince of Wales, Bunbury, WA
31 - Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine, VIC
AUG
1 - Shotkickers, Thornbury, VIC
2 - Wheatsheaf, Adelaide, SA
6 - La La La's, Wollongong, NSW
7 - Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham, NSW
8 - Link & Pin, Woy Woy, NSW
9 - The Oak Tighes Hill, Newcastle, NSW (free show)
14 - Tanswells, Beechworth, VIC (free show)
15 - Smiths Alternative, Canberra, ACT
21 - Republic Bar, Hobart, TAS
22 - Royal Oak, Launceston, TAS
28 - Junk Bar, Brisbane, QLD
29 - Blah Bar, Lismore, NSW
30 - Cabarita Beach Club, Cabarita, NSW (free show)
SEP
4 - Young St Tavern, Frankson, VIC
