Interview by KAREN MURPHY
Still mourning the departure of the One Movement Music festival? Find out what Karen Murphy had to talk about with OPERATOR PLEASE singer and bassist, Amandah Wilkinson and Ashley McConnell at the Esplanade on October 9th.
So what has the year been like so far?
Amandah: The years been good, it’s been—
Ashley: Consistent.
Amandah: Yeah, it’s been completely consistent. I think the first time around, when we were playing lots and lots of shows, things would pop up here and there and here and there and you just roll with it. But this time around we actually had the opportunity to hone in the key things we should be doing and be really specific with what we’re doing. It’s good.
What are you/have you looked forward to the most about the festival?
Amandah: Ah, just hanging out and checking out all the bands that are here. You know, we don’t usually get to come over to Perth a lot of the time, just because it’s so far away.
I know! Airfares are so expensive, it’s cheaper to go to Bali from Perth that Melbourne or Sydney!
Amandah: Yeah! It’s just further away, like especially Adelaide and Perth and that kind of thing, I mean, you do go and do your tours there but you don’t usually get to go that often. It’s only like five times, compared to when you get to do a Sydney show, which is a lot more than that. It’s not fair but I guess it kind of works both ways.
What made you decide to come to Perth to play one movement?
Amandah: Well, we were approached to play, but you have to look at the line up and it’s like, uh, there’s lots and lots of really great bands and Australian talent. I think it’s kind of important to show that you’re still getting out there regardless of stature and regardless of how well known you are as a band because it’s [The One Movement Music Festival] the kind of place where people that don’t normally go to full-on festivals go to, just to check out the kind of music and obviously with all the international people that are over here, checking all the Australian bands out, it would be really stupid to pass up the opportunity.
What’s it like sharing the stage with such a diverse range of established and emerging artists?
Ashley: It’s good, there’s usually a certain type of artist you’d be playing with; it’s usually a certain themed festival or whatever, bands that support you. But here it’s just a whole bunch of different bands on the same stage.
Amandah: Yeah, it’s good.
Ashley: It makes the music scene stronger.
Amandah: There you go. [Waves hands towards Ashley]
So I daresay they’ve got your schedule booked up with interviews. But have you had much of a chance to check out any other acts?
Amandah: Well yeah, the boys have been here all the days pretty much. Yesterday we came down and we saw Children Collide and we were watching British India, and um, no, it was good to kind of catch up. I mean, British India, we’ve known for a really long time [Laughs]
Ashley: They seem to follow us everywhere, like every gig we do.
[both laugh]
Amandah: Yeah I know! It’s kind of good to see them always, and I think it’s really good to have a few band friends to chat to when you go to play festivals, you always know you can hang out.
Have you had any crazy experiences with over enthusiastic fans?
Amandah: Um, there’s been many off stage experiences, on stage, I don’t know, I think that—
Ashley: Bras and things—
Amandah: Oh yeah, getting bras thrown at us at Future Music was pretty weird. It was an El McPherson bra as well [laughs], I mean, that ain’t cheap! We had three bras thrown, and we picked them up and flinged them around, it was really cool. It was kind of unbelievable, getting bras thrown us.
Have you had the chance to check out any of Perth’s local bands, what do you think?
Amandah: Oh, Tim and Jean obviously. We took them on tour so it’s kind of good to catch up with those guys. There’s been—
Ashley: A few other ones, like, I think The Chemist? I think they’re playing on our stage, or they might have already played…
Think they played this morning…
Ashley: Well there you go, but yeah, I checked them out on myspace and that before I came here and they sound pretty cool.
Yeah! I hadn’t heard of them until I had to interview them; checked out there myspace and fell in love!
Ashley: I know, they’re very original!
So what’s it like starting out in the industry so young? Are there any drawbacks? What are the advantages?
Amandah: I think there was definitely an equal amount of advantages and drawbacks. But then again, the advantages can sometimes work as a drawback too. I think the main thing about starting out young is that your able to really stretch your longevity, and getting in there and learning the ropes earlier would only ensure that you’ve got your stuff together for however long you want to be in the industry and however long you want to be pursuing it for. I mean, I believe that a music career lasts as long as you make it last and so, I think the advantage of getting in early is that you have that much time to make new records and keep putting out music and keep being really consistent with work. I guess the drawbacks about it are mainly some attitude that you get, you know, because you’re younger, I guess. But other than that, you can’t really take notice of that kind of thing. You have to just keep your head down and focus and make sure that you’re being really honest with your work, you’re doing what you love to do and not compromising that for anybody.
What was it like supporting Powderfinger?
Ashley: It was good, it was really different to what we’re used to in terms of supports or anything like that, but both shows we did, Gold Coast and Brisbane, we did such massive productions. The Brisbane show coincided with Riverfire which is this massive fireworks display that Brisbane put on, so everything about it was just great: Powderfinger, just listening to the crowd sing along to ‘My Happiness’ and stuff like that.
Amandah: Oh my god, yeah.
Ashley: It just gives you the chills.
Amandah: And they’re such a down-to-earth band, which was lovely.
Ashley: And The Vines played as well which was good.
Amandah: Yeah, it was really an honour to be asked to play.
Ashley: It was good to be there because they asked quite a few local bands to play, it was good that they gave everyone a chance. They had a few different bands do a few stints so we did a few shows, yeah, it was great.
Amandah: It was really good.
So you guys have played with quite a few super bands now, Powderfinger for example [laughs], do you still get starstruck?
Amandah: The whole famous thing, I don’t think about that much. You don’t notice, like, what your level of that is until you see things in magazines or newspapers or things like that. You don’t, you’re not, your just somebody that just plays music and people hear it and people come up and say that they really like your it and stuff like that. It’s stuff that you really appreciate. But I definitely get super starstruck, I won’t go up to them unless they come and say hi.
Ashley: She hides in a corner.
Amandah: And I’ll be like [pause] that is spot on! [laughs] Like I met Salt and Pepper and I couldn’t go up to them, I was like…speechless, and I’m never speechless.
Ashley: Yes, yes, I agree with that. [laughs] But like, with certain things you kind of forget about it. Like the other day we were out at Gloria Jeans and they were playing the new record from start to finish.
Amandah: Oh it was so funny!
Ashley: I know, at first we were like, ‘they’re playing our song, how cool!’ Then we were like, ‘wait a second, they’re playing all our songs!’ We thought it might have been the radio or something at first. [both laugh]
Your new album ‘GLOVES’, although having the same energy as your last, sounds a lot more sophisticated and developed, was this your intention?
Amandah: Yeah I mean, I guess it’s just—
Ashley: Naturally progressed.
Amandah: Yeah, naturally progressed I mean, we started when we were sixteen, seventeen, and we made this record when we were twenty, twenty-one, so, yeah, do you know what I mean? It’s just something that would happen naturally. You know, it’s fact that we are older and we’ve spent a lot of time overseas, and a lot of time enjoying the festivals, and watching bands. I think for me personally, as a person and as an artist, it was really important for me to start focusing on the voice and making that the main focal point of the songs and having like, the melody, and then making sure that we had other elements that were just key elements, were supportive of what the melody was doing, but without thinking about it too much.
Ashley: Yeah.
Amandah: And not having instruments fight over each other for the spotlight.
Ashley: Yeah, we wanted the melody to really hold the grunt of the record.
On your facebook page I saw that if you ‘share’ the page you get to buy gloves cheaper than the rrp. How important is the internet and social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook to your development as a band?
Amandah: I think it’s important to your development in the industry full stop. I don’t think it’s like specific to a certain band, I think it’s something that needs to be embraced and something that you need to find new ways to work with.
Ashley: It’s something that a lot of our generation are addicted to [laughs] so if we could tap into that…
Amandah: Yeah, it’s about making sure that you’re embracing the technology that’s being developed in order for you to share your music with as many people as you can. A lot of kids on our Facebook are either American or from Mexico. It’s cool to know that you’ve got people that are overseas that like your music.
How would you describe yourselves in a couple of words?
Amandah: Left-field Pop
Three words, that’s pretty good
Ashley: If you counted left-field as a combined word…
Haha, I hyphenated it!
Amandah: Awesome.
What do you think of Perth?
Amandah: I love Perth, I mean, I was born in Karratha, it’s so far away from everything coming back is, relaxing I guess, it’s a more island kind of feel.
Ashley: I guess we haven’t really had much of a chance to look around, but for us, the few times we’ve been here, I’ve really loved it.
Amandah: With the showcases you get to have a bit of a look at the city as well.
Ashley: Yeah, just have a look at it. The way the river is contrasted with the buildings right next to it. It’s a bit like Sydney. Very pretty.
Amandah: Yeah we love Perth.
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