Kram gives Good Love

Mark Maher, the shaggy drummer and co-vocalist from Spiderbait, better known as KRAM; has branched out as successful solo artist. Striding from strength to strength, playing shows around Australia, KRAM has proven to be a dynamic and exciting musician.

Managing to grab some time away from his busy schedule, The Dwarf had a quick chat with KRAM, quizzing him about the switch from Spiderbait to a solo career and his debut album.

What inspired you to follow a solo career from Spiderbait, which was such an established Aussie band?

I think I had always wanted to do it, but the main thing was I just wanted to do this project. Where you play all the instruments yourself and you try to make every song sound different; you know singing different every song, and the whole production style changing all the time; but it is all played by the one person. The opportunity came up to do it and I thought, yeah let’s do it; so yeah I was really happy.

How do you feel the public’s reception has been towards your solo career?

I couldn’t be happier, I’m absolutely stoked; right from when we put Silk Suits out. I didn’t have aspirations, I just wanted to do it; put it out there and whatever. I’m really happy that people really dig it and you know it’s not just because of me, but the style of record that it is. A lot of people may not understand why I am doing country ballads and funk songs, but people are actually into that.

In a way, it has given me a lot of respect for trying something different, when maybe I didn’t really have to. I could have just gone out there and done a rock record or whatever.

How would you describe your solo music compared to Spiderbait’s?

Well, this is one and that is three, even tho I have written a lot of Spiderbait stuff myself, when we get into the studio particularly when we get on stage it become this sort of rock and blues, or jazz band.

We feed off each other and you never know where it is going to end up; there are versions of Black Betty which go for twenty minutes.

Do you still play with, or keep in contact with, the members from Spiderbait?

Oh yeah, we are really close friends, we still play like four or five festivals a year. I think the last one we played was three months ago, we did a show up in Queensland with The Living End; it’s always big gigs or big festival shows. But it is funny cause we haven’t written for a while, or done anything more than that; but every time we play it is just such an awesome huge response.

So we have decided we will do a new record for our twenty-first anniversary coming up in a couple of years. The band has not and never has broken up, we are all close friends and like playing music together; but we don’t really tour as extensively and do much work like other bands would together.

You played at Splendour in the Grass in Byron Bay, how did you gig go?

It was fantastic, I was just really happy with the response I got. I played on the big stage up there, which I was a little bit nervous about because I played a Spiderbait show there about two years ago, and it was one of our greatest ever gigs and you know when you front up by yourself everyone will remember what it was like when you were there last time. But I was really happy with the response I got; I couldn’t be happier.

How do you mentally prepare yourself to face such massive crowds as a solo artist?

It’s actually easier to play to a really big crowd than it is to play to a small one. The worst shows are when you are playing to like five people or twenty people, particularly if you know them; that can be quite nerve racking.

But a huge crowd of like ten or twenty thousand people I find actually easier; I don’t find the crowd nerve racking, I just get on stage and hope I play well. There is something with a big crowd that they become like one giant person, and if they are into it they are into it.

How would you describe your debut album Mix Tape?

Just exactly like it is called; it is pretty much the best way to describe it. It is like a mix tape of different groups of music that somebody has put together on their iPod or their record collection; that’s the idea. While working on it we ended up making two whole albums, so there is a whole second record ready to go as well.

How do you prepare yourself for tours?

Just rehearsal wise we get together, we have got a pretty good set going now. I would like to inject a few more songs into it with this coming tour. But I just try and keep enthusiastic and positive. I don’t want to put too much pressure on everyone; the guys are really professional, particularly Ash and Andre.

They have played in so many bands, and have written so much material on their own. I am just really happy that guys at this calibre, which are mates and also great musicians, want to play my songs; that has given me a lot of confidence.

What is your favourite instrument to play and why?

At the moment it would be acoustic guitar, I just really like the intimacy of it but, like anything, I can’t pick only one thing. If I play one thing for too long, I may just jump onto the drums and whip out the distortion pedal.

Considering your solo work is so dynamic what are your inspirations to make music?

Everything, my life; the inspiration of life, it’s so rich and varied.

For all information on KRAM including tour dates and information on Mix Tape, head to his website at www.kram.com.au or www.myspace.com/kramofficial.

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