Magic Dirt - Art and the subconscious with Raul

Off that back of yet another great album and high energy tour, Magic Dirt the young veterans of the Australian music scene show now signs of slowing down.

ND: You’ve just come off a national tour – what was the highlight?

Raul: For me, probably the highlight was Tassie. We played two nights at the Republic bar in Hobart, and they were both sold out and the crowds were just wild and we had a really good time.

ND: I was just reading your site before and you said that the Republic Bar and Ruby’s Lounge in Belgrave were the best venues – what makes a good venue?

Raul: I like a venue that kind of has personality. I know that seems a bit vague probably but just somewhere where the people are slightly different and they are there to take care of the bands and they appreciate musicians. You go to some venues and you almost feel like you’re doing them a favour or something. It’s like “why do you think the people come here?” They come to see the band not for any other reason.

ND: Obviously you guys have been touring for so long now that you’ve seen all sorts of crowds – what do you do when a crowd is not that into you?

Raul: Maybe you have a couple more drinks and you kind of hit them with everything you’ve got. Yeah, I think sometimes you just have to try a little harder?

ND: It’s fair to say that Magic Dirt have gone through a few changes, do you come across many people that tell you they prefer your old stuff better than your new stuff?

Raul: No, I wouldn’t say we’ve come across many but there’s definitely a couple. It was pretty funny, on this tour, I can’t remember where it was but some guy kept telling out “whatever happened to the good old days!” and all I could think of was “they’re gone”. Get over it.

ND: ‘Snow White’ is your fifth studio album – it came out early September – what have you learnt about the different studio experiences over the years?

Raul: Well the thing that I’ve taken with me the most is that I really enjoy the spontaneity of recording and what I mean is when people make mistakes or something that wasn’t planned happens it usually has a certain amount of magic to it. I think that that is what a good recoding is to me. I’m not a person that enjoys meticulously crafted music. I like things that have character and even mistakes. I just enjoy things that you can tell just captures a moment.

ND: Well that’s quite interesting because with ‘Snow White’ the major thing about it is that your songs have a lot of depth as far as the audio production goes and a lot of work has gone into it – how do you find that sort of record when you obviously prefer things that are quite raw?

Raul: Yeah, well sometimes it’s frustrating (laughs) but I think Snow White kind of has two faces. There is that really laboured, multi-layered, side to it. But, then there are other songs like Sleep and Mother’s Latest Fear and Dyin’ which are pretty raw, and we didn’t really work to hard on pre producing those, we just wanted to capture the fell of it in the studio. But the other side, we’re disciplined when it comes to making something work so there’s definitely two sides I think.

ND: When a band first gets tog there’s a lot of wrangling for power. Do you find that you still have that fight for power after so many years together?

Raul: A little. We’ve all worked out what our roles are in the band. You know, there’s bound to be arguments and disagreements, and we just try to work it out as diplomatically as possible (laughs).

ND: The last album, ‘Tough Love’, was a very personal album, how would you sum up ‘Snow White’ – are you still looking inwards?

Raul: I would say that ‘Snow White’ is actually a reaction to ‘Tough Love’. With ‘Tough Love’ we spent probably about 3 years working on that album and you know it was a self imposed kind of discipline and a struggle for all of us so when we finished that record and when we stopped promoting it we felt that we wanted to try something different and approach it in a different way so I think ‘Snow White’ is a reaction to ‘Tough Love’. I can’t talk about lyrical content because I didn’t write any words but I think musically we have all found different things we enjoy and we’re just going to keep putting it in the pot.

ND: you’ve said in the past that it was a challenge to make the album because you started to use more acoustic instruments. Now that you’ve done that what’s next?

Raul: Yeah, that’s a good questions. Uuum, I dunno. Maybe horns? Cellos, violins. The ony thing that I want to stay well away from is keyboards. If anybody mentions keyboards I’ll have a fit.

ND: What about side projects? I mean Dean has always produced records and Adalita’s worked with other bands. What about you?

Raul: Yeah I’ve got this band together called “Midnight Wolf”. It’s a blues based band. I also like to help out. I’ve got a few friends who do things and I help them record – much more on a smaller scale than Dean. We all have little things we enjoy on the side.

ND: How important are those side projects for the band?

Raul: I think it’s growing in importance probably because the stuff – with Magic Dirt – becomes very focused and in a way you kind of need other things to learn from. We’ve been together for such a long time that we kind of need other avenues to influence us.

ND: The band has gone from passion to a career how do you keep the passion going now that making music is basically a job for you?

Raul: It’s not hard, I think we’re all naturally passionate and we al love music. I mean, when we get together we just talk about music. Music is probably as necessary to us as food. I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit because it does become different when after you’ve been established for a while. It kind of becomes, as you said, a career, but I think what we’re trying to do is to keep it as fresh as possible for ourselves. The side projects has something to do with that and also just challenging ourselves musically and not letting people have too much of an expectation of what they’re going to get.

ND: It must be difficult though. With so much success with the earlier albums, if you want to do something different how much does that scare you?

Raul: I don’t think it has any weight at all. I think if we’d thought about that too much we would have just churned out that stuff.

ND: You’d say music is art for yourself as opposed to art for other people?

Raul: Yeah, I think an artist has to satisfy him or herself first. If you start second guessing what you like and what ‘they’ are going to like or ‘is this cool’ or ‘uncool’ then you’re already chasing something. I think that the artist should be ahead. I even think that the subconscious is much more powerful that what you consciously think you’re doing so I always try and let my subconscious drive me.

ND: You have quite a big online presence as well so thinking in general terms what is your view on music online and the copyright issue?

Raul: Well I think the internet is a really valid place for putting music out there. But as far as ownership - I think it’s unfair for people to expect to get things for free when that person has put their heart and soul into it. I mean if people are going to expect to get music for free then I would expect to get everything for free. You should go down to the shop and get your bread for free. I see that as the same thing – I don’t think art is necessarily devoid of ownership. But at the same time I’m not very precious about it as well.

ND: Don’t you want as many people to hear your music as possible? Isn’t there a conflict there?

Raul: Yeah. I think so. I don’t really want as many people to listen to it as possible I just want the right people to hear it. You know, there are people out there that frankly I don’t care about. They can all go and die for all I care.

ND: How do you define the right people?

Raul: I don’t know. I want people who are open minded – like I’m being (laughs).

ND: So now the tour’s over what’s next?

Raul: Well we’re not going to take much of a break so after the Big Day Out I think we’re planning to head straight intowriting and then record a new record and hopefully that’ll be out by 2007.

ND: You certainly don’t stop do you? Have you ever actually taken a break over the last two years?

Raul: No. No. I think the break will come when one of us falls apart.

A Podcast of this interview is now available! Click on the "Podcast" link at the top of the page and follow the links to hear Raul speak!

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