Will Drop Pants For Food: Armen Firman

As keen observers (and more-than-willing participants) of the Melbourne rock scene, The Dwarf decided to pick the brain of Sam Whitty, vox/axe-man of one of Australia's leading up-and-at-'ems, Armen Firman. Say hello, everyone...

First things first, who are you and what do you do?
We’re a five-piece Melbourne rock group and we rock! I’m the lead guitarist in said rocking rock group.

The “Influence” Question: You guys are apparently united by your “love of original alternative music”? Who do ya like then?
We dig heaps of bands from various backgrounds. The main ones would be Muse, Elbow, Radiohead, Stone Temple Pilots, Kashmir and Queens of the Stone Age. But we have a few jazz nuts in the band who would probably provide a completely different list of influences.

Your latest single “Porch Dweller” is doing pretty well; what can we expect from you guys from here?
In terms of music, we’ve just finished mixing a couple of heavier songs over the last week and they’re sounding great so far. Both songs are about to be mastered by Franc Tetaz (Gotye, Lior) who also mixed ‘Porch Dweller’, so you can expect similar warm production on some rocking tunes. As we finish off our new EP you can also expect plenty more live shows in Melbourne and along the east coast if all goes to plan.

Who do you like in the local Aussie scene at the moment?
Australia’s music scene is stronger than it’s ever been I’d say. Personally, I get into the more melodic artists, like Bertie Blackman, Gotye, Paper Scissors and Sparkadia who I think are all doing good things. We’ve also played with a few cool indie bands recently like House Of Orange, Number Station and The Midnight Mass, who are doing more than the four-chord cock-rock thing, which is always a nice change.

What kind of non-musical influences do you have?
Lyrically we’re influenced by all sorts of things from politics to books we read, to everyday life. I know Tom (Armen Firman guitar-man)has been reading a lot of science fiction by Philip K Dick recently, and his lyrics have become a lot more futuristic and removed… at least that’s what I’ve observed. Jim’s lyrics are always fairly poetic and abstract, so it would be hard to say what he is influenced by. Aside from that, we’re all into our visual art. We dig artists like Ghostpatrol and Miso and various other artists in similar circles. I'm not sure how much they influence us though.

What kind of effect do you think technological advances like downloading, iPods, MySpace, etc are having on the industry?
Clearly digital distribution is progressively cutting into the market and the functions of record labels have changed with the potential for bands to use myspace or aggregators to make their music instantly available. Even bankrolling a recording is something made more accessible through cheaper recording equipment and software. It’s a beautiful thing for the evolution of music that’s not necessarily commercial or ‘popular’.

What keeps you guys doing what you do? Fame, passion, money?
All those things are on the list. If we were in this just for the money we would’ve given up years ago, but we were told that after we get the money, we’ll get the power, and then the women, so really there are many motivations.

Where is rock going?
‘Rock’ is obviously a fairly broad genre. Without being too cynical, some rock is going on a fairly generic path of gimmicks, dance and rehashing old sounds. It’s not all bad, but everyone is doing it. Either way, that’s not where we see our vision of rock going. But I’d say we’re in the minority right now.

Tell us, why should the average punter come down and see Armen Firman?
We are poor struggling Melbourne artists that need your support. That’s not a guilt trip – people should come to our gig at The Evelyn Hotel on May 10th so they can exploit us. We will drop our pants for food!

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