Dead Frenchmen - In Wonderland

by Eff Dfyno | Thursday, March 29 2007

The Dwarf in conversation with...

With the release of their long player Wonderland The Dwarf recently took the opportunity to speak to Michael Pledger of the Dead Frenchman about a variety of wonderlands and the and their discontents.

The Dwarf: You guys have just released Wonderland. What was the process of recording the album?

We actually did it in two sessions. About six months apart. Originally we’d gone out expecting to do another EP. We released an EP in 2005 and we kind of decided we’d do a follow up EP which is what a lot of bands do. After the first recording session, we decided and our label decided that it was probably worth putting out a whole album. Which was fine but we didn’t have enough songs. We had to go away for about three or four months and write a bunch of new songs before we went in and did the second session.

The Dwarf: Well how does the songwriting process work in the band?

Fairly collaborative. Usually one of us would come up with an idea and bring it to a rehearsal or whatever and we’d kind of work on that idea. If there were things about it that weren’t working then maybe another member might contribute their take on maybe what might work best. Or the song would get ditched completely. Its one of those processes where you work out if something is working or not and if it isn’t you try and change it or you ditch it all together.

The Dwarf: Is ditching songs hard?

I think it is very hard. If you’re the person who has brought the idea to the table, I think you have this personal attachment to it. At the end of the day you’ve got to try and be as objective about the song as you can. If something is not working, rather than kicking a dead pig or whatever, you’ve got to kind of move on I think.

The Dwarf: The album cover itself is very evocative. Where did the inspiration for that come from?

I’m not sure actually. I’m guessing that the designer, I haven’t actually talked to the designer to find out what his inspiration was. I’m guessing his take was taking the title of the album and putting his own spin on it. Trying to create some fairytale kind of landscape. That’s kind of my take on it. I haven’t actually asked why he did what he did but I should ask him next time I talk to him.

Dwarf: Well it’s a conversation starter. Well what would be in your Wonderland?

That’s a very good question.

The Dwarf: It can be as outlandish as you want.

Because it was the title track I guess the track itself is a kind of sarcastic spin on some things that are happening in the world today. Our Wonderland might be reality I think. What would be in my Wonderland? That’s a very hard question to answer.

The Dwarf: Edible grass?

Sorry, edible grass?

The Dwarf: Yes my Wonderland would be that room in Willy Wonka..

Aahh YEAH. For sure! I don’t know. Maybe never having to get out of bed and go to work? That would be in there.

The Dwarf: Never ending pack of Tim Tams?

Yeah it could be that.

The Dwarf: Souvlaki that goes for ever?

Souvlaki that goes for ever? That would be one of mine. I’d definitely be up for that.

The Dwarf: And one that doesn’t give you garlic breath or onion breath. You guys are from Melbourne...

Actually two of us are originally from Adelaide. I kind of feel I need to talk up Adelaide a bit.

The Dwarf: So you’re from Adelaide originally.

Yeah.

The Dwarf: So why did you leave Adelaide?

I left Adelaide basically to get work. I got back from London a few years back now and found that I couldn’t find any work in my field in Adelaide. Adelaide being what it is: a slow sleepy town, it wasn’t conducive at the time to getting web design work which is my day job. So I decide to make the move to Melbourne. That’s the reason why I moved to Melbourne but it has all those kind of peripheral benefits of being the music capital of Australia. It was definitely in the back of my mind starting a band when I got over here and that’s kind of what we did.

The Dwarf: It’s now happening. How do you feel about the Melbourne music scene as a whole?

I think it’s pretty good, pretty healthy. There’s a lot of stuff going on and there’s always new bands coming through. There a lot of good bands making it overseas as well which is always good to see. I don’t see as much local live music as I used to apart from the bands we play with now. When I first arrived in Melbourne I went out every weekend going to see bands. Kind of getting involved in the scene I guess. The bands I’ve been seeing lately are all, well not all but there are definitely some good bands coming through that’s for sure.

The Dwarf: Is there anyone we should keep an eye out for?

Well there’s a few old favourites I have like The Crayon Fields, Ned Collette’s stuff - his solo stuff is really great. A lot of good stuff. Tick Tock Tokyos are a pretty good kind of new band.

The Dwarf: Are you guys playing with them or have played with them?

Yeah we’re playing with them at our album launch so it should be really good.

The Dwarf: Cool. You guys are about to tour for the album, do a few launches. What has been you favourite touring experience so far?

Favourite touring experience?

The Dwarf: You don’t have to say anything that is going to get you arrested. That’s fine.

It was probably our last Sydney trip. We’ve been up to Sydney a few times now and we’ve sort of kind of started to make a few friends. It’s kind of good knowing a few people up there that you can hang with. We did an all night bender which was a lot of fun.

The Dwarf: Good work

Yeah. It’s not something we do a whole lot anymore because we’re kind of getting a bit old. It was a lot of fun.

The Dwarf: When the hangovers start lasting three day you do tend to slow down a bit.

I can’t deal with it anymore for some reason.

The Dwarf: I had that realisation when I turned 24. If the three day hangover and your liver is still sore then it’s just like “oh man this isn’t such a good idea”

That kind of crampy feeling in your liver. You know you shouldn’t have done what you just did. It does make you think twice about the next time for sure.

The Dwarf: It’s punishing you for what you’ve done although the liver is the only organ in the body that can regenerate itself.

It’s funny isn’t it.

The Dwarf: Push that to the limit

We were built to do it.

The Dwarf: Our bodies aren’t temples. They’re houses to be trashed. Well, with the crowds in different states, do you see a difference between them?

Definitely. I guess we haven’t played interstate enough to say definitely. We’ve probably played Sydney enough to tell the differences between the Sydney and Melbourne crowds. Maybe Melbourne is a little more spoilt for choice. The crowds a re a little more harder to please over here than Sydney?

The Dwarf: I’ve heard that before actually.

You’ve sort of got to try a little harder to try and win them over I think.

The Dwarf: Basically got to set yourself on fire.

Yeah where as Sydney is a bit more happy go lucky as far as the crowd goes. Whether that means there more interested in a good time than they’re interested in the music I don’t know.

The Dwarf: Well how hard is it for musicians to actually make a living out of music?

Well from my experience, pretty well impossible. We spend a lot of time in the red I think as a band. I’ve never seen any money out of it. All the musical equipment that I’ve bought over the years would make it pretty hard to ever pay that off. In Australia anyway it’s quite difficult to get that critical mass where you could viably make enough money to live off it. As a band, there’s just not enough people. I think that’s why some of the up and coming bands decide to try to go overseas purely for the fact they’re getting a much bigger audience and they have a much better chance of making a go of it. So basically not much unless you take a real commercial angle.

The Dwarf: In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing the Australian scene today?

It’s a time of change for the music industry. A lot of the bigger labels are not as interested in maybe signing bands, or taking a punt on bands that maybe aren’t as commercial as other bands. That’s especially true in Australia. Like I said before, there’s not the audience for some of the bands. In England or America they might get a real go at a record deal. Those kind of bands don’t get noticed here I think. Just because they’re not a viable entity commercially. Maybe that’s the biggest thing facing the scene. The problem is those smaller bands might not be getting the chances that they maybe deserve.

The Dwarf: Because they can’t be used to sell Pepsi or cars?

Exactly Yeah

The Dwarf: You work in web design. I was interested to ask your take on MySpace and bands building their popularity through that?

A couple of interviews I’ve done I’ve been asked about that. It’s interesting because it’s kind of a double edged sword as far as I see it. It’s a really great networking tool for bands. You can contact other bands that you like. You can set up gigs really easily. You can contact venues. You can possibly be heard by labels that you like. So in that way it’s a really amazing tool for bands as it’s opened up a whole networking thing to some people who wouldn’t ordinarily be able to make those kinds of contacts for whatever reason. I think in that way it’s pretty great. Whether or not it’s a great way to promote your music, I’m still kind of undecided about that. I think it’s still kind of an insular world. Maybe it’s well known outside of the band community as people think. I don’t know. It’s a funny old place MySpace.

The Dwarf: I think in terms of the demographic using MySpace, lets look at this in dollars and cents, if you’re looking for customers, people who are going to buy the album, by and large they are people who are 15 to 25 as their main bracket. You might get the people who may not be able to come to shows.

Hmm, I think you’re right. We do get a lot of requests from people who are 16, 17 years old lately so you’re kind of right. They are people that basically can’t come to the shows. But I guess in a couple of years they can.

The Dwarf: I suppose it’s a building tool isn’t it.

Yeah

The Dwarf: Grass roots kind of thing.

Yeah. I don’t know. I can’t really see anything particularly negative about Myspace apart from the way it’s designed and the way it works. I’ve never been a huge fan of that.

The Dwarf: It works terribly...

It’s a very ugly clunky kind of site that the design needs torturing up.

The Dwarf: I don’t think Tom cares anymore.

No, Tom definitely doesn’t care.

The Dwarf: He’s got his millions of dollar and he’s off. So what are the future plans for you guys aside from now the albums been released, aside from the tour, what’s next?

We’re just going to try and get bigger and better shows. Going on our own for a while and getting those kind of supports that can help your profile a lot. That’s really our aim whether or not we get those supports I don’t know. We don’t have the backing from a booking agent or one of the kind of bigger labels that can get you those kind of supports quite easily. That’s what we want to do. Just play more and tour and hopefully get another chance to record another album which is what I want to do anyway. Keep on recording because that’s what I love most about it, about music. We’ve never been a band with a strategy or anything so we just kind of plod along

The Dwarf: Just take it as it comes.

Maybe not the best way to be if you want to get anywhere as a band.

The Dwarf: Depends what you want to take out of being in a band though. If you just want to enjoy playing music then why not, People tell you that you need the imperative of world domination but look at all those bands that get big and then break up because they hate it.

Exactly and also if you’re trying too hard for that kind of thing it doesn’t really sit very well with anybody. I don’t know. I’ve always been the kind of person that let things happen, see where it goes. I’m not really that fussed. We just keep on writing music which is the most fun part about anything.

The Dwarf: That’s a good philosophy to have.

Like I said before, I think I’m getting too old.

The Dwarf: How old are you?

I’m thirty.

The Dwarf: Gee that’s terribly old!

(laughter) Yeah terribly old! (laughter) But for a band that’s just done it’s first album it’s quite old I think.

The Dwarf: Oh that’s what they tell you but it’s not true.

Maybe it’s just my vanity or whatever.

The Dwarf: No. Nobody wants to be a teenage rock star.

I would have liked to be a teenage rock star!

The Dwarf: No they’re the ones who end up robbing 7 Elevens.

True true.

The Dwarf: The more younger you are when you have yours success, the hungrier they are to snap at your heels to bring you down. That’s the cliché.

And probably the quicker you become unfashionable.

The Dwarf: Absolutely. Look at Jet for example. They got big really quickly in terms of the media and then three or four months after getting big it’s not fashionable to like them anymore. It’s fashionable to bag them.

Exactly. I always wonder what people overseas think of Jet? With the whole tall poppy syndrome here in Australia, I’m always quite interested to find out what people say in America think of Jet. Whether or not there’s that same kind of uncool factor about them or not.

The Dwarf: See I don’t know. I was England when Get Born was released and they made the cover of NME and they were cool because they were like Aussie bogans. It’s like the rock n roll thing. I went and saw them there which was a bit of a thrill because it’s just someone from home. And they’re from Dingley and I’m from Scoresby so it’s like the eastern suburbs fraternity there. I don’t think they see them the same way as we do as you said before, we’ve got the whole tall poppy thing going here

We do. It’s kind of strange. It’s almost like, well that’s the concept but someone succeeds and then you hate them for succeeding. I just never really understood that.

The Dwarf: I think it all comes down to jealousy.

But you’d think other countries would feel the same way. You’d think they would have the same vitriol about it.

The Dwarf: It’s a very uniquely Australian thing. There’s probably a few book in it.

There’s definitely a PhD in it.

The Dwarf: I think so. ‘Why that collective mentality exists’. It’s so ironic because in Australia, people are pushed to achieve their best, especially in fields like sport and art because that’s where we get so much of our cultural identity from and music because you notice that when you go overseas. Like how much Australian cultural identity they take from rock music in particular. Everyone knows the words to Khe Sanh. We’re happy when they achieve things but, you can achieve but, not too much.

It is like that. I think with sports people it’s a bit different. They can pretty much do no wrong. As long as they’re not losing.

The Dwarf: Look what’s happening to the Australian cricket team.

Bizarre isn’t it. Just three losses or whatever they’ve had and it’s the end of the world.

The Dwarf: It’s just sport guys, not war. See maybe it has something to do with; when Australians get successful, they go overseas. They take their greatness with them.

That’s pretty much it isn’t it. Just maybe to get away from it (laughter).

Wonderland is now available through Shiny Records