Smoked Salmon (Melbourne) (from left) Jeff Hooker, Claire Birchall, Kim Salmon and Doug Galbraith.RB: Kim, 'How Did They Ever Manage?' is such a groovy pop song, lots of shifting gears here. It's funny, but when I first heard it I kept thinking of those late 1970s/ early 1980s film clips (you know, early Elvis Costello, The Damned, The Vapors) with the white background ... then I saw the clip and that's exactly what you've done.
Now, look: how did you find yourself heading back to the clean lines of what I think of as pop-rock-via-pub-rock, when the ENTIRE WORLD knows that the future of music lies with Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran? Or have you been listening to them as well?
Kim: Naah, I’m really outta touch with modern pop music. I’m not wanting to be righteous about that ... but neither am I ashamed of it.
But to us: Smoked Salmon takes an opportunistic approach and its repertoire is just the stuff I’ve done over the years that the punters have liked. All the “Swamplands”, “Come On Springs” and “Dropouts”. It’s that simple. “How Did they Ever Manage” harks back to that era of my songwriting and, yes, there were an awful lot of those white infinity backdrops in Post Punk back then. And it just so happens that my partner Maxie and I have a living room with huge white walls that amounts to a post punk film set if you take out all the décor.
I’m sitting on a whole album of material that’s come to me in the last six months, played by an international cast of Smoked Salmon members. I wouldn’t mind betting that it all aligns stylistically with “How Did They Ever Manage?'”. I really haven’t thought about this band conceptually beyond what is opportunistically available to me.
RB: Now, am I right in suspecting - with “Slider Street” and “How Did They...”; that you've been reflecting on your past...? (if not, don't answer the next question...) If so, care to share your conclusions..?
Kim: “How Did They Ever Manage?” were some words that just came to me driving to Fitzroy Pool. I literally wrote ‘em down in Notes and then Memo’d a melody on my phone. There’s a bunch of tunes that have come to me in a similar way which has given me impetus to record them with the various Smoked Salmon players around me wherever I’ve had a chance to record them.
Of course once the process was underway the ideas flowed slower and I had to work harder as time moved on. For me that’s the time when events from my life start to become song fodder and “Slider Street” was about the last song for me to finish in this batch; it loosely tells the story of some Surrealistic escapades. "How Did They Ever Manage?" is some amusing (to me) observations about certain types of people that presented themselves to me.
RB: Okay, here's where we get nosey: what are your favourite guitars ... and why..?
Kim: I’ve never really been that much of a collector of guitars. I’ve been happy with my Greco SG, the couple of Telecasters I’ve had forever and the Revstar given to me by Yamaha. That might seem like a bunch, but believe me, compared to many of my peers it's modest. I’d prefer to go to an art supplies shop than a music shop any day. $100’ll get a lot more from Art Spectrum than Manny’s I can tell you...
However, my guitar predicament has just now radically changed! I’ve just been given a 1955 Les Paul ‘TV’ Special by a long-time fan from USA. It’s been a game-changer for me! It’s the sound of Johnny Thunders, Mott The Hoople and pretty much all punk rock from the late 1970s. It's an absolute joy to play… there’s no going back for me. Here’s me thinking I really didn’t care about guitars!
RB: ditto pedals..?
Kim: Don’t start me on them! I never had a single pedal in the days of the Scientists. I left that to Tony Thewlis. I had to borrow Brad Shepherd’s Companion fuzz to play “Dropout” on 'The “Axeman’s Jazz'” with The Beasts Of Bourbon. I always loved the sound of fuzz but never wanted to be buying batteries and tripping over pedals. I just used amp distortion. Then Tony gave me this Italian thing called a Harmon Booster which can be heard all over the early Surrealists and with the Beasts albums up until I left them in 1994. Brian Hooper gave me a Wah-Wah pedal
which I instantly started to use. For a while I just had a Fuzz and a Wah-Wah.
Now I must confess to having a board with a loop pedal, a tremolo, a Tube Screamer and a Fuzz. However ... if I had to, I’m sure I could go back to just running a small amp hot and riding the volume to get the sounds.
RB: It sometimes seems as if music and songs flow through someone like a conduit. I know that while some musicians seem to turn this on like a tap, while I know others struggle to open their valves to put their work together… do either of these types seem familiar..?
Kim: Yep, as above with the upcoming Smoked Salmon material - I’ve struggled with both of those modes. I think there’s always going to be an ebb and flow with the creative process and I think the thing is to just keep working through it regardless. Quite often it’s simply a matter of
recognising the value of what one has done.
RB: Our expectations shift over the years - care to share yours with us?
Kim: As a child and early teenager I had expected to work in the visual arts field. I had no concept of music, but that changed when I hit puberty and rock and roll seduced me. However I remained on course to be a painter, studying fine arts until punk rock finally came along and hijacked me into a career of music. Initially I rejected art - but never actually stopped doing it, even doing it “on the sly” to myself. I’d do caricatures of people I knew or comics and posters. I even did a fake fanzine pretending to be some over-the-top Scientists fan. I just didn’t commit to lots of paint and big canvases.
When COVID came along my response was to really get back on the painting horse. I’ve had a few successful exhibitions now and am hoping that people are starting to view me as a painter who happens to play music (which I believe is actually closer to the truth) than a muso who"dabbles". I guess I’ve got myself to blame if it is the latter.
RB: What songs do people tell you they like the most? given that so many 50+ fossils (like me) ‘don’t get around much anymore’, what's the nature of your audience..?
Kim: Those songs are pretty much the Smoked Salmon repertoire. Obviously I’m not going to bite the hand that feeds me so I’d have to say that my audience is charming, open-minded andreceptive to challenging ideas. That’s more an attitude thing than an age thing.
RB: For many years I thought Australian music was unique; distinctive..? Now ... I’m not convinced… what are you seeing at the coal face..?
Kim: Ha! I’m not at any coal face but here in my own world. That whole national, parochial thing has never interested me. For example, when the Scientists went to live in London we did everything possible to distance ourselves from our fellow expats. Try as we might they invariably tracked us down... I think Dave Graney was the most diligent in that regard.
I think everyone’s experiences are unique and universal at the same time. How they express that in art has more to do with that individuals ability to do that than the culture that they’re in, or at least that’s what I think.
RB: What’s next on the horizon … or should i say, further up the stream..?
Kim: Well as I’ve alluded earlier, I’ve got a whole album of Smoked Salmon material due for release early next year. Beyond that I’m going back to my “difficult” arty farty mind-set with a couple of conceptual works in the pipeline.
RB: It strikes me also that you like to soak up culture… what music are you into at the moment..? what books, what films…?
Kim: It's pretty random really. With books I’m a pretty impatient reader and I need it to be something well written and gripping to keep me reading. Or saucy. The last book I read that got me in was “All Fours” by Miranda July. Before that it was “Bereft” by Chris Womersley and before that “Bad Art Mother” by Edwina Preston. Actually there have been a plethora of unfinished and even finished books strewn by my bedside. I know the last two writers out of chance but I think that would actually work against my finishing their books.
When it comes to visual art I’ve pretty much stayed with Louise Bourguois, Marlene Dumas and Brent Harris as people whose work inspires me. I’m always looking for new people but these are my go-to practitioners.
Music’s a bit harder for me. As you can tell from this interview I’ve got set in my taste. I think over the pandemic I got stuck at “Bisch Bosch” and all of the later Scott Walker stuff and haven’t really moved on from there. I don’t think that necessarily reflects in my work.
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...
RB: Right now: what are the most vivid, stand-out things ..? does today’s world still inspire you - what paradoxes fascinate..?
Kim: I’ve been catching up on a whole lot of holiday travel that escaped me throughout my professional life. For example, I’d travelled to Berlin over 10 times and never seen anything outside of the Exenpop bar!
I’ve started to have dedicated holidays. Went to Japan over January, just been to Thailand andNew Zealand. Real obvious stuff that everybody’s done …but it's new to me. Everywhere is so different. But really this sounds banal so I’ll stop right there.
RB: Stepping back a bit ... The Scientists were one of the bands supporting The Birthday Party's last gigs in Melbourne ... could you tell me a little about that time, what the BP were by then, and how the Scientists were received?
Kim: Really?! The BP were great, no doubt, but the trouble was people had sucked so far up them that those people felt compelled to continue to do so which they did often at the cost of other artists who were doing things that weren’t actually the same. Exhibit A: The Scientists! Time has proved that we were nothing to do with them but try telling some folk back in the day. It’s the same thing with the Saints and Radio Birdman. I quite like a all three bands to varyingdegrees… probably relate most to the one that comes from another outpost city the most, BUT and a big BUT, The Scientists were doing their own thing ALWAYS and wouldn’t have been a note different had none of those bands ever existed!
_____
RB notes that The Moodists were also one of the BP supports; they were equally not remotely the same as the BP but ... as Kim says" 'try telling some folk back in the day'"... but hey, we move on, and some of us more swiftly than others can fully appreciate...
Get “How Did They Ever Manage?” here.
Kim Salmon’s Smoked Samon
"How Did They Ever Manage?" Tour
OCT
11 - George Lane, St Kilda - Tix
13 - Wheatsheaf, Adelaide - Tix
19 - Bearded Lady, Brisbane - Tix
24 - Tanswells, Beechworth - Tix
25 - Smiths, Canberra - Tix
26 - Django @ Camelot, Sydney - Tix
27 - Frank's Wild Years, Thirroul - Tix
NOV
1 - Hybrid Wave House, Fremantle
("In conversation with Kim Salmon" appearance) - Tix
2 - Lyrics, Perth - Tix
3 - Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle (Free Entry)
9 - Merri Creek Tavern, Melbourne - Tix
