This is a wrap-up post to give you an idea of what I saw and heard during One Movement, October 17-18 2009.
I’d like to state that the post-event coverage on One Movement Word consists entirely of the views of myself, Andrew McMillen. Much as I’d loved to have cloned myself several times in order to catch every performance, every panel discussion and every Fringe Festival act, it simply wasn’t possible.
Apologies to those who I missed; thanks to everyone who I saw. To me, it was a weekend filled with highlights. Thanks to Sunset Events, Chugg Entertainment and A&R Worldwide for making it all happen.
Below: panoramic footage of the Showcase Festival grounds on Saturday afternoon, between bands.
Below: a Flickr slideshow consisting of couple dozen photos I took during the weekend of One Movement. Most of them were taken on the ground at the Showcase Festival, but there’s a few from the panels and late-night industry showcases, too. Click here for the Flickr set.
Finally, a panoramic video of the Esplanade/Swan River/ferris wheel taken from side of stage while Chinese pop band Super VC played on the Sunday is embedded below.
The above video - taken from the stage as Art Vs Science played the Crossover Stage at the One Movement Showcase Music Festival on Sunday, 18 October 2009 - is insane. It shows just how far the Sydney-based electro pop trio have evolved as a live act in their short history. Witness keyboardist Dan Mac confidently striding out with an electric guitar in the middle of a seven-minute long version of ‘Parlez-Vous Francais?‘. Watch him nonchalantly scull a beer in the middle of his solo. Look at that thousands-strong crowd going batshit.
Try to resist their appeal. You’ll fail, as many have failed before you. They’re a phenomenal live band, and this from-stage video shows that better than ever before. Thanks for playing One Movement, Art Vs Science.
As an added bonus, here’s a tour blog by drummer Dan W. Sweat, who wrote about the band’s time in Perth and collaboration with Tigarah.
Tour blog bitches! by Dan W.
Perth! The city is Sydney backwards. As in the sun sets over the ocean. Not over the land. Backwards.
It is host this year to the first annual One Movement Festival, a sort of South By Southwest of Western Australia. That means it is kind of half industry showcase, half festival for the peoples. That means that the city of Perth is flooded with all manner of music industry types, looking to see the best that Australia / Asia / some random countries from the Commonwealth have to offer. Which makes it kind of unique, if a little strange. A bizarre bazaar of different styles, all mashed up and stirred into a tasty culture clashing soup.
Monday:
We fly in today, around six days before the actual festival. Which is actually freakin great. Its rare when touring to get more than a cursory glance at any place you visit. It’s all courtesy of APRA (the Australian Performing Rights Association, yo!), who have invited us to do a cross-cultural songwriting workshop, with a view to recording the songs and performing them at the One Movement Festival. We meet Tigarah at the hotel. She’s a Balle Funk / Baltimore rapper from Japan. She’s cool. She’s off to buy a phone. We go and hire bicycles.
Tuesday and Wednesday:
We ride to the studio were we are to write with Tigarah. We mess around for a while watching Beastie Boys on Youtube. We all play each other music we like. We kind of swan about wondering how we’re allowed to use this studio in sunny Fremantle and get away with it. We ride around on bicycles some more and eat watermelon and go to a brewery and see some dolphins. But geez, it can’t all be bikes and fruit and beer and water dwelling mammals. Time to write some music!
We undertake the first few tentative jams, playing random hip hop grooves and sharing ideas for hooks. It is our first time writing songs with other people in the room, which is kind of like having someone you dont know watching you get dressed. At first you’re like, “What the hell are you doing here?? I don’t know you, I’m not comfortable”, but then they’re like “no its cool I’m meant to watch you get dressed. We have to get dressed together soon” and then you end up getting dressed together. And you feel like you know them. And it’s okay. But we’re done for now.
Thursday:
We laugh for a while when Tigarah sings the line “everybody digging on my vocal”, which is hard for her to say in her Japanese accent. We’re such rude hosts.
Okay, so its 4am and I think we have 2 full songs. I think one is called “Killer”. I think the other one is called “Seinfield Steroids”. Nigel, our loyal driver and chaperone around Perth, drives us home shortly before sunrise. Legend.
Friday:
Tigarah gets to go to the zoo, so we get to ride around the Swan River, which is way swell. We embrace the day.
Then it’s late at night and we play the Dew Process party in Perth city. It’s in a carpark and sounds pretty wild but the people seem to have a good time. Nice.
Saturday:
We check out our friends the John Steel Singers. I go and play drums with Tigarah for her own set of songs. Konnie her producer makes me wear giant sunglasses. I am happy. We wander around the festival. We see acts from Malaysia, Thailand, South Africa, Canada… Its like a UN convention, but with more drunk people from Perth. We haven’t seen our manager Claire for days. I think she’s busy “working” or something.
There are some after the festival parties, and then there are some parties after that. But must sleep for now.
Sunday:
Show day! We play our set with Tigarah at 4pm. And it actually goes really well. People dance and smile and wave and so forth. We take a few hours to compose ourselves.
We go and see our pals Dappled Cities play their dream pop to the peoples. Love those guys. Everyone’s smiling and dancing and forgetting the weary weight of this unintelligible world. Ahhh festivals.
So its around 7pm now and we’re on in 30 minutes. I pace around the backstage looking for reasons to ask people questions about the things they are doing. I’m sure it annoys them but it seems to comfort me.
And then yes showtime. Ha! Its the first time we’ve played after sunset outdoors at a festival, and wow is it good. People go crazy, throwing flippers at us and singing along. I’m starting to remember why I got into this business.
After the show we tandem ride a pushbike to the afterparty to see our friends the Philly Jays play their brand of hobo pop. Jim is there but somehow ends up at the casino with Tigarah and Konnie. We are awake to see the sunrise. Which rises over the land here you know. Backwards.
The weekend and the week before it are all a dropped jigsaw puzzle; one that is complete from some 4th dimension perspective, but to me right now seems scattered and difficult to perceive in its entirety. But I know the pieces are there. I realise that some great stuff happened. Its all in my brain somewhere. And hopefully some bands from around the globe got their chance to wow the peoples. Hopefully some industry types saw them too. Ones who can help them and maybe only take some of their money.
Sunday, 18 October 2009, 11.00am: “Australia: State Of the Host Nation”
Summary: Australia may be the land way down under but it’s very much part of the global music pulse. For a country of just over 20 million, Australia has served up more than its fair share of musical greats and international industry players. But it’s not all AC/DC and Rupert Murdoch; Australia has an exploding musical underground with thousands of artists and businesses forging into new and exciting territory.
Like the rest of the Western music industry, Australia has faced several challenges over the past decade but has embraced new ideas and technologies faster than most. Australia is also the key to the emerging Asian markets and has had major cultural and trade relations with countries like Indonesia, China and Malaysia that stretch back decades. Much like the country’s resources sector, as Asia grows so does the export potential of Australia’s music industry. Australia is a robust music market more than ready for the future. It also has many robust personalities, assembled here to discuss the State Of The Host Nation.
Iain Shedden, Music Writer, The Australian (interview here)
Richard Moffat, Founder, Way Over There (mini-interview here)
Moderator: Ian James, Managing Director, Mushroom Music Publishing (interview here)
Richard Kingsmill, Music Director, triple j (interview here)
Paul Piticco, Founder, Secret Service/Dew Process (mini-interview here)
Tim Prescott, CEO, Albert Music (mini-interview here)
Ed St John, Chairman and President & CEO, ARIA and Warner Music (interview here)
At the beginning of the panel, Ian James pursued Richard Kingsmill regarding triple j and its place as a national youth broadcaster. His questions below:
How many people work at triple j?
What about just the music team?
Do you ever try to ‘keep your ears clean’? Do you take a break where you listen to nothing for a week?
With the internet opening up radio broadcasting around the world, triple j could become a kind of ‘voice of Australian music’ outside of Australia. Do you think that’s realistic?
There’s three of you on the ‘front line’ and 37 people in the ‘back room’, couldn’t one of you put your mind to [a project like that]?
Unearthed has obviously been an important thing for a lot of artists. Do you still find a high level of quality of acts coming through the system, as when it first started?
Footage of Kingsmill’s response is embedded below.
James’ attention then turned to Ed St John, and his role as CEO of Warner Music. Ian’s points of discussion are included below.
Ed, you run a major label. It’s acknowledged that the industry has had some difficult times; how do you go about keeping Warner Music bouyant on a day-to-day basis?
The idea of acquiring rights to other areas of an artists’ career is becoming more common (ie. 360 deals). Part of that is having the infrastructure. When you do those sorts of deals, do you have to buy a merchandising company as a consquence? When you’re approaching live music, do you take an override; are you thinking of getting into the agency business? How do you go about developing the businesses that need to support that model?
Sometimes you can use the label as a hub, and I absolutely think it’s fair enough, Ed, that if you’re going to create an artist’s career - and particularly when the money seems to be in touring and in venues, as it is at the moment - you’re entitled to it. You’re part of the mechanism that got that band to where they are.
Tim Prescott discusses how “360 deal” is a hackeneyed phrase; it’s more about what your business can do [for an artist]. “How can you add the services that make sense for what your business already is?”
Paul Piticco discusses how his label Dew Process have separate contracts for publishing, management, promotion, and distribution. Their approach is determining what each artist requires from the label; it’s a case of having multiple business streams on offer, and ensuring that both parties benefit from the deal.
Footage of the panelists’ responses embedded below.
Audience question: “Why was New Zealand-born Ladyhawke nominated for five ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) awards?”
Chairman Ed St John responded; footage below.
Audience question: “What’s wrong with doing something that sounds like Jay-Z in Australia, but which expresses the Australian way of life? Because every time I send an Australian demo to a record company, if it sounds like something from the States, they don’t even look at it, they just throw it away. That’s my point of view and I just want to find out what’s wrong with that.”
Piticco: “A lot of the Australian hip-hop community is fiercely independent. They’ve shunned traditional label systems and created their own, and motivated their own fans around their own culture. There is a market for hip-hop in this country, and if you’re not getting the love from us, do it yourself. It’s proven that there’s a model there and that it works.”
Kingsmill: “The music’s just gotta be good enough. It’s not about style, or whether it sounds American, or anything like that.”
Footage of the panelists’ responses embedded below.
It was easily the most fascinating and enlightening panel that I witnessed at One Movement, which is unsurprising given the big names in attendance. A big thanks to all involved.
The final showcase festival video I recorded was a song by US singer-songwriter Meiko. With an array of cute pop songs and charmingly profane between-song banter, the late afternoon crowd were soon enamored of the Californian resident. Mid-set: “Y’all have Jack ‘n’ Coke in a can and I think that’s the shit!”
Here’s footage of ‘Boys With Girlfriends’, wherein she sings about knowing better than to be friends with boys with girlfriends. Before proclaiming “holy shitballs, it’s really hot!” and introducing her band: drummer Josh Day, bassist Ed Maxwell, and Carson Cohen on keys and “the other thing”. A true professional!
Apologies for the whole ‘walking while filming’ tactic, but I didn’t want to miss the intro. More Meiko on MySpace. This 3.40pm Sunday set concluded my One Movement coverage due to an appointment back in Brisbane on Monday morning.
A bizarrely entertaining highlight of the One Movement Showcase Music Festival on Sunday afternoon was Mary G Queen Of The Kimberley, who I’ve since learned is the female stage persona of Mark Bin Bakar.
The unique performance at 3.05pm on the Snowball Stage was often hilariously self-effacing, and occasionally beautiful and moving. Mary G was accompanied by the WA Youth Jazz Orchestra and a live band, as well as three traditional Aboriginal dancers for the final song, ‘Dreaming Of The Black Man’, which is embedded below.
I am dedicated to all aspects of social and economic success for our Indigenous community. I am also very committed, conscious and passionate about the health, well being and social developments of our WA community and Australia as a whole. My mother was taken away from Halls Creek at the age of three and I spent most of my childhood in Broome. I was born in Derby and am fully aware of the uniqueness of who we are as Aboriginal people, recognising and identifying the extended families through the Kimberley. We are all connected up.
I Heart Hiroshima played One Movement at 3.15pm on Sunday afternoon because the editors of Street Press Australia chose them as the best emerging Australian artist. For mine, their decision couldn’t have been better . The Brisbane-based trio recently released their scarily good second album ‘The Rip’, which saw their indie pop songwriting mature markedly from their 2007 debut, ‘Tuff Teef’.
I won’t lie; I’m biased. I love the band’s music. I reviewed an August live show and interviewed the band at a sushi train in September, both for Mess+Noise. Their music video for recent single ‘Shakeytown’ is awesome, and it’s that song from their One Movement set that I chose to record. Footage below; a few extra shots from front-and-centre stage included underneath. More on MySpace.
The Sunpilots were one of the final additions to the One Movement Showcase Music Festival; in early October, they were chosen as the winners of the MySpace showcase artist competition, which drew entries from hundreds of Australian acts.
The Sydney-based rock band took to the Discovery Stage at 1.45pm on Sunday, but I’ll admit that my attention was mostly focussed on the festival’s Twitter account while the band played. Until, that is, they whipped out a Beatles cover. Eleanor Rigby, no less; a personal favourite.
It was a ballsy choice and a remarkable performance, considering that the original contained only vocals and string instrumentation. Yet The Sunpilots saw fit to add wailing guitar solos, ‘Achilles Last Stand‘-style vocal theatrics and slap basslines. Whoa! They sure got our attention.
Footage embedded below, shot from the ground in the shade (and wind-chill) of a Boost Juice freezer.
Frontman Raj Siva-Rajah’s advertisement at set’s end was noteworthy in its succinct effectiveness: “If you want to hear more of us, go to either MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter dot-com-slash The Sunpilots.” Respect!
Alongside indie rock quartet 26, fellow Brisbane natives Grand Atlantic were chosen by local music industry development organisation QMusic to showcase at One Movement. They took to the Snowball Stage at 1.15pm on Sunday, 18 October, which was pleasantly cooler than the day before.
Despite the sparse crowd of earlybirds in attendance, the band proved their suitability for future main-stage appearances. Their power-pop sound is reminiscent of the best bits of bands like Supergrass, Jet, Dallas Crane and Kings Of Leon; watch singer/guitarist Phil Usher whip out a harmonica from his back pocket toward the end of their set closer, ‘Ghost Town’.
The superbly clear sound is worth a mention, too; it’s the result of flying a Brisbane-based sound engineer friend across just for the showcase. Righteous! More on MySpace.
Following Sydney indie band The Paper Scissors and a particularly memorable set from Perth rock group The Chemist at the Sonicbids Wolf Lane showcase were Melbourne-based theatrical rock quartet [ME].
I invited Perth hard rock band Eleventh He Reaches London - who played the Wolf Lane Fringe Festival stage on Sunday night - along to see their show, but didn’t give away any hints as to [ME]’s sound before they began playing. I’ll take the same tact here. They’re the kind of band where it’s best you just watch them - footage below - instead of reading my words.
Here’s their third song, ‘Westward Backwards’.
And here’s the last half of their final song, ‘Nip + Tuck’.
More of the band on MySpace and Facebook. By the way - Eleventh told me they really dug [ME]. What about you?
![Melbourne theatrical rock band [ME] at One Movement Perth](http://www.onemovementword.com/wp-content/uploads/meband.jpg "Melbourne theatrical rock band [ME] at One Movement Perth")
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