Dave and Kieran from The Sunday Washup came along to UnConvention last weekend and gave us a great wrap on their Bay FM Sunday evening slot.
If you missed your hard-copy of the UnConvention Brisbane Zine you can grab a digital copy here.
The zine was made in two hours as part of the Self Publishing Online and Off.
Jade Rehder spoke to UnConvention Presenters Daniel 'Monster Monster' Wright and Cameron 'Saint Surly' Rutter about their involvement with this years UnConvention Brisbane:
Brisbane beat-producers Daniel ‘Monster Monster’ Wright and Cameron ‘Saint Surly’ Rutter will be presenting at this year’s Unconvention Brisbane. The pair have been gigging around Brisbane for a few years, and are well-placed within the local hip hop scene.
Saint Surly says Unconvention Brisbane is "about a sustainable sort of industry, not just people making it big and pissing off.” Monster Monster agrees: "it’s looking at success, and what that means, but not necessarily going platinum.”
Both are mostly self-taught, with an obsession with music, in particular the intricacies of beat construction fuelling their desire to create instrumental hip hop, a niche segment. “I got into hip hop as a pimply teenager, it was the sounds that I was really interested in, and how it was constructed,” says Saint Surly. Monster Monster agrees, “I’ve always screwed around a bit with music, and when I finally got a computer and some software I could track out some ideas.”
The duo cites the Beastie Boys as major influences during these formative years, as well as other 90s hip hop. A recent trip to India turned into a scouting opportunity, with Monster Monster bringing back a few Bollywood records that is broadening their musical references and igniting their creativity - “the different types of reverb and compression, and other things that colour the sounds are amazing.”
Working together since 2007, the duo released their debut album Out of the Woodwork under the Videorama label last year, with a follow-up slated for early 2012. They are appearing on a panel entitled ‘We Don’t Play Guitars’, organised largely by Alex Yabsley, of Dot.AY fame. The theme of the discussion is music coming out of Brisbane that is not guitar-driven, and how to continue to be innovative, using laptops, turntables, synths and bent circuitboards.
According to Monster Monster this is a welcome topic, given that while there is a lot of support for indie rock bands in Brisbane, “there’s maybe not so much with the beat and electronic-drive kind of thing.” “It will be interesting to see what people say, and the differences between us all,” adds Saint Surly.
Come along to UnConvention this weekend to check out We Don’t Play Guitars and chat with Monster Monster and Saint Surly.
Brisbane MC Rainman was interviewed by Jacklin Yap for this weeks Scene Magazine about his session at UnConvention this year, explaining "what's really good about this session is that it's really trying to break down this idea that Brisbane [music] equals pop / rock".
Read the rest of the interview below and get along to UnConvention this weekend to chat with Ray and a small host of other inspiring and interesting people.
my approach to mixing is, in the best case scenario, to let every instrument sound as natural as possible - the perfect recording should sound as close to standing in the room with the band as possible. Get the band in the room sounding as good and balanced as they can and your mixing is already half done. I'll be discussing how this approach applies to Ghost Notes' By Cover Of Night (streaming below), which is probably the most naturalistic recording I've produced. Recorded at The Old Museum in October 2010, it features a rock lineup performing decidedly non-rock music, augmented by piano, trumpet, whistling and bowed cymbals.
Supported by soundslikebrisbane, this years UnConvention Brisbane networking session will kick off at 8pm Saturday, upstairs at the Boundary Hotel in West End.
Reflecting on the various showcases that I've been to at these type of things it struck me that the conference delegates rarely go to listen to bands. It's mostly to get drunk, hang out and make new friends. So we've had a rethink this year and have decided to run our networking event as an informal quiz-night on local Brisbane music trivia.Teams are going to be lead by UnConvention speakers and we're going to mix everyone up together so they meet and chat with some new people. There'll be some great music from Jhonny Russel, Potato Masta and Pear and the Awkward Orchestra and we're putting on a bar-tab so it's going to be a lot of fun.
Discussion Sessions:
10.00–11.30
12:00–13:30
Lunchtime BBQ and Showcase with Velociraptor and Hannah Macklin and the Maxwells
14.30–16.00
Documenting Brisbane Music: Justin Edwards leads a discussion on documenting Brisbane Music’s sights, sounds and identities for fun and profit.
Workshop Sessions (16.00–18.00):
DIY Electronics Hacking: Discover the hidden sonic potential of everyday items in an accessible introduction to diy electronics and music making.
Rock ‘n Roll is Where I Hide: Unavoidables for Musicians: Local IP expert John Kenny and creative industry accountants Ian McIntosh and Matt Tucker will guide participants through some common legal pitfalls and perils in the local music industries.
Run Your Own – Setting up and managing a DIY music event: Ever wanted to promote your own gig? This workshop will walk you through the process from finding a venue to booking acts and what to do if things fall apart.
We don’t got no Steenking Budget! – Guerrilla Music Video Production: Jaymis Loveday will lead participants on a lightning fast music video production shoot, showing you how to get results when working with no money.
UnMixing: local producers Cameron Smith, Stephen Bartlett and mastering engineer Dom McGlinn pull apart one of their recent projects and discuss their approach to record production.
Self Publishing On / Offline: Everett True and Bianca Valentino will share their experiences writing and self-publishing about music both on and offline.
Discussion Sessions:
10.00–11.30
Run Your Own Venue: with the closure of the Troubadour Brisbane has lost one of the last few mid-sized venues. The Brisbane scene needs new venues to grow and this discussion, led by Brisbane Sounds’ Blair Hughes, will focus on running your own venue from lounge room / backyard gigs to setting up a national touring venue.
11.30-12.30
We Don’t Play Guitars: electronic music producer Alex Yabsley (Dot.ay) and MC Ray Bourne (Rainmain) will bring together a range of practitioners from electronica, hip hop and beyond to discuss working in ‘other’ music industries outside of independent pop/rock.
Coffee
14.30-16.00
Sustaining the Chaos: Kellie Lloyd (Q Music) leads a discussion about the thrill of the chaotic moment on stage and sustaining motivation after the lights go down. How do you keep making music ‘for the love’, amidst the everyday grind of ‘real life’ when rock ‘n roll won’t pay the bills? For musicians there may be the next performance, but as a manager or industry worker, how do you keep engaged and excited when it’s not your own creative process?
Kellie Lloyd discusses her upcoming panel at UnConvention Brisbane with Dennis Semchenko in Rave Magazine this week.
GEARED: How did you first get involved with UnConvention, Kellie? KELLIE LLOYD: I was on a panel last year – Music And Culture. I was quite outspoken because I was talking about the institutionalisation of rock & roll and things like that. It’s confusing for me; I work at Q Music and I deliver workshops – I didn’t grow up with that type of stuff available to me and I don’t know how I would have felt about it when I was younger, but being in that position where I’m the person on the other side of it … I really enjoy it. I think it’s really worthwhile. After the panel, I was interviewed by the organisers of the global event – they must have thought “she can talk – let’s pick her! [laughs]” G: Your panel this year is called Sustaining The Chaos... KL: I know – I think it’s a contradiction in terms. I like the idea of it; it’s very true if you think about it. Rock & roll is chaos – it’s a pretty chaotic lifestyle and onstage, rock & roll is chaotic. It’s really hard to maintain a lifestyle that’s chaotic and to bring out the best of your art. I’ve been a touring artist for a really long time. You’re living away from home a lot when you’re travelling – it’s chaotic to you, the people you live with and the people who surround you. A lot of my friends are in nationally-touring bands and we’ve had big conversations about how we do what we do and how we maintain sanity, because touring is crazy and we get home and it’s all normal. It’s very hard and then you have to go back to your ‘regular’ life, working in a full-time job – you get stuck in that routine, but then you’re an artist and you’re a bit crazy. I think about that a lot and I think it’s a very worthy conversation to talk about how people maintain chaos in the ‘normal’ world. G: Are you also going to discuss the less ‘chaotic’ side of things in the music biz? KL: I guess what it really comes down to is finding out who these people are and what type of person does those things. Someone like Dom Miller [ex-Rocketsmiths] – a musician who played for a while and did quite well, then stopped and turned to management; he’s now working trying to fulfil someone else’s artistic dream and desire. What kind of person does that take and what type of skills do you need to be a manager? What makes a really great producer, for example, is somebody who can coax a great performance from someone. You need to be a real people person, be able to work out how to get into someone’s head and make them feel comfortable. A manager needs a lot of different skills: they need to be a good business person; they need to be able to be an arsehole to people who have to be arseholes; they need to be really close to people they work with and because they are employed, they need to deliver what that band needs. You need to spend a lot of time with people – that’s why mentoring is really important. |
There’s not much going on (music-wise) in Brisbane, our sunny, but sleepy city. Or is there? We have good bands here, and we have good venues for them to play in, right? But for some reason the stigma that Brisbane just don’t got it goin’ on still hangs around like a bad smell.
And then Unconvention came around. The inaugural conference first started in 2010 and is a not-for-profit, grassroots-led music conference which focuses around creating sustainable careers within the local independent music industry. In short: Melbourne Schmelbourne! Sydney Schmydmey! We can do it all, and right here in Bristown.
There’ll be forum discussions, workshops and networking events over the two days of Unconvention, and it’s open to pretty much anyone: independent musicians, promoters, labels, entrepreneurs, writers, technologists, innovators and artists. It’s time to shut down that sleepy city stigma – Unconvention’s a good place to start the revolution. Buy tickets here.
Independent. Not-for-profit. Realistic. Collaborative. Inclusive. Valuable. All ages.
Held 11-12 June 2011 at The Edge in Brisbane’s South Bank precinct, UnConvention Brisbane 2011 will comprise forum discussions, workshops and networking events focussed around creating sustainable careers within the local independent music industry.
UnConvenion Brisbane is a not-for-profit, grassroots-led music conference for independent musicians, promoters, labels, entrepreneurs, writers, technologists, innovators and artists. The goal of UnConvention Brisbane is to bring together like-minded individuals to discuss the future of independent music and how it will develop and flourish in the technological age.
To email the event organisers, click here.
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GEARED and UnConvention 2011 panelist, Screamfeeder member and solo artist KELLIE LLOYD talk about sustaining and surviving the chaos that is the music biz.