Armen Firman - Ready To Take Flight

Wikipedia reveals that Armen Firman was an Andalusian-Arab whos’ first attempt at flight from a tower in Cordoba, Spain in 852AD, with naught but a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts which resulted not in the flight of fancy he was anticipating but did herald the discovery of the parachute.
So what does that a ninth century inventor and an up and coming Melbourne band have in common? Well, the name for a start and the similarities do not end there, metaphorically speaking at least. Formed five years ago in Wangaratta by schoolmates Matt Millar (drums), James Saunders (bass) and brothers Tom and Sam Whitty (guitars), the band relocated to Melbourne nearly four years ago, picking up fifth member Rob Rambaldi (Keyboards) and have been a fixture on the Melbourne live scene since.
Recent times have been exciting for Armen Firman, with a more than decent showing in the Triple J Unearthed charts and an appearance slated for this years Folk, Rhythm and Life festival.
The Dwarf recently took the opportunity to chat to frontman and chief songwriter Tom Whitty and discovered a band ready to take flight.

The Dwarf: So how did you initially get interested in music?

Tom Whitty: Um, originally I was doing the sport thing in school and playing a lot of soccer until I busted my leg and I was told I couldn’t play soccer for at least a year. I ended up picking up a guitar and never going back to it.

The Dwarf: As a songwriter, where do you get your inspiration from?

TW: I try not to write about anything I don’t know. I’ve written a lot of lyrical content in the past for the band, but that is starting to change and it is becoming a more democratic process. But in the past I’ve just written about stuff that I’ve gone through, or friends have gone through, I’ve been pretty open about that.

The Dwarf: Because it is a bit personal, do you ever worry about censoring yourself?

TW: I probably would if we were getting listened to by five million people every day. But it’s not something I’ve ever really considered.

The Dwarf: Speaking of all things personal. How do you find playing in a band with your brother?

TW: It’s great. I really love playing with Sammy. We’re pretty different people and we can often have a fairly different approach which I think the majority of the time can be a really beneficial thing. Having obviously grown up together, there’s not that degree of diplomacy you’ve got to have with other people. You’ve got that out of the way over the last 20 years growing up together and you can just say ‘no that sounds shit or that’s not what I had in mind’ and it’s just taken that you are both just trying to create the best possible music in the best possible way. It just makes it a lot easier to be completely honest at times. Of course there can be times when the rest of the band will go silent when we get quite heated in our disagreements about something because we are both quite passionate about this music. So there will be times when Sam and I will be screaming at each other and it’s usually the time when the rest of the band decide it’s time to leave us to it and have a coffee. But generally it’s a beautiful thing and I love playing with him.

The Dwarf: It’s beautiful, but also a licence to be a complete bastard?

TW: Absolutely. But you know, bloods thicker than water. There are times when we can take shit out on each other that we probably wouldn’t sling at the other boys, which is cool. It is can provide a little barrier. We can sort of bounce off each other in the frustrated times without worrying about the long-term effects of it all.

The Dwarf: So, have you guys released anything yet?

TW: Well sort of. We released 100 copies of our first EP and that was it. Basically whoever got one, got one and we moved on from there. But we have released things not necessarily in the traditional sense, but we have released fully mastered recordings online, as opposed to having CDs in shops. Basically, it’s not hard to find our music if you want to.

The Dwarf: As an independent band, what do you think of forums like MySpace and disseminating your music that way, as opposed to traditionally going to a record company and whoring yourself?

TW: Well, I haven’t taken the latter route and I don’t know that I can necessarily compare the two because I am fairly naive as far as that sort of thing goes. We’re pretty much doing everything on our own. But we’ve only been doing the MySpace thing for about six months and it has just been enormous. We’ve had people ordering CDs that we’ve just whacked together for them from the States and Italy and even Japan. People just really getting into the music which has been great. It’s really hard to be taken seriously if you’re not attached to one of these companies with a lot of money, so MySpace has really broken down a lot of barriers for us. Every day we’re getting people coming and checking out the music and meeting other bands doing similar stuff. It’s been awesome.

The Dwarf: It was worth selling your soul wasn’t it?

TW: It was! There’s a rant on our MySpace page about how joining MySpace equates to selling your soul to the devil which was done in jest. We’ve actually had some funny responses to it from a couple of people who are obviously pretty full-on MySpace addicts and avid fans of MySpace… we’ve just received some pretty funny abusive emails defending MySpace. I think they’ve sort of missed the joke there but that’s cool.

The Dwarf: So when can we expect a full-length album from Armen Firman?

TW: Well we’ve just built our own home studio and that’s been a really exciting process for us because the last few recordings we’ve done have been in studios where we’ve had to watch the clock. It’s been a steep learning curve for us and a really valuable one. But we decided because of our approach to writing music it might be more beneficial for us to remove some of those pressures and make a significant investment in the infrastructure to allow us to do this full time. Now it is just a matter of learning to use the equipment well. Learning how to record a kickdrum and make it sound the way we want it to. But an album is just a matter of time now I guess. Probably in the next 12 months.

The Dwarf: The tracks on MySpace really do sound beautifully produced.

TW: Yeah, the last two we did, ‘Porch Dweller’ and ‘Long Lost Cause’ were the first two we did in our new studio. We worked with an amazing producer called Jess Warnock who is a really good friend of ours and he encouraged us to get involved in the process. He spent some serious time on the tracks and we’ve spent a long time making them perfect, to our ears anyway, which is the benefit of having your own studio to do that.

The Dwarf: Now you guys are playing Folk Rhythm and Life. You’ve played that before… tell me about that.

TW: Well I first played FRL when I was 11 or 12 in my very first band and we were the first band to play at a FRL actually. We played at 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning, because back then it started on a Saturday morning, not the Friday night.

The Dwarf: 8 o’clock is not very rock and roll.

TW: It’s not very rock and roll but we weren’t very rock and roll either. We were in our Billabong shirts and our Mambo board shorts and our Oakley sunglasses and our Nike sneakers at an independent hippy fest. But we thought we were rock and roll and it was great. We played that first festival. The organisers do a lot for charity and the whole thing is a non-profit set up and it was great to be involved from the start and they were really cool about letting us do that. And now as a result it has sort of been one of those things we have gone back to. Armen Firman has played it once before which was about 3 years ago. But FRL is such a well-run event and it is such a well-kept secret because it is basically one of the best weekends you can ever have, as far as I’m concerned. It’s absolutely awesome. The music is eclectic and the people are just really beautiful and supportive and you never see a sad face there.

The Dwarf: Aside from Folk Rhythm and Life, where else can people see you?

TW: We plan to play a bunch of shows in Melbourne over the next 6 months. Our next Melbourne gig is at The Northcote Social Club on January the 26th with The Razor Cartel and Chainmber Made. That will be a great show. They’re great bands. Chainmber Made are good friends of ours. They are absolutely chaotic animals with crazy in your face music, which is all instrumental and insane and brilliant. Really heavy stuff, but really great. Their show will blow audiences away… you just don’t know what to expect with them. And The Razor Cartel is a band from Geelong that has been playing some massive shows recently with some big names, and we’re really happy to have them come play with us. They put on a great show too.

So, if you are ready to take a leap of faith, catch Armen Firman playing soon near you and like their namesake you just may find yourself an awesome discovery.

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