The following is a transcript of an article written by Jim Dickson in UK Fanzine Bucketfull Of Brains, issue 16, June 1986. In the transcript, the following abbreviations have been used:
BOB - Bucketfull Of Brains
TM - Tom Kazas
DB - David (Smiley) Byrnes
AH - Alan Hislop
MD - Mick Duncan
Readers of Bucketfull Of Brains have, no doubt, been eagerly awaiting more information on the band that received the highest praise for their debut single in Issue 12. Since then, however, the band lost keyboard player Nick Potts and had up until recently been operating as a 3-piece which, as guitarist Tom Kazas had told me, was unindicative of what the band was all about... in fact, the band’s psyche seemed to be operating at about 75% until late in ’85 when Mick Duncan was recruited in to take the place of the missing claviest.
Dutifully, your local correspondent dug his head out of the sands of Bondi Beach and went along to talk with Tom, Mick, David Byrnes (bass) and Alan Hislop (drums).
BOB: How did the Moffs come together as a band?
TK: Since leaving school I’ve been playing guitar in various bands - a few small things. I went to school with David and we used to do a lot of jamming. For about a year we were sussing out what sort of feel we wanted in our music ... this was about 3 years ago.
DB: We got our music together and then had problems finding a drummer. We had found a keyboard player and eventually found Alan. The whole thing gelled in early ’84.
TK: That was the time of our first official gig. Six months before that were spent writing the songs.
BOB: I understand that you all come from the suburbs of Sydney. Was it necessity that motivated you to come and play in the inner city?
AH: Well, it’s more open-minded than out in the suburbs...
TK: ...and we were motivated by playing something different. I don’t know if it sounds like that now, but then we were experimenting with sounds that people weren’t using then, delay boxes ...
DB: Trying to get different noises, using different techniques on the guitar, sliding sounds on the bass and crashing symbols.
AH: We were hitting a spot that hadn’t been explored by other bands playing around the place.
TK: We were oblivious to what was happening in town. When we arrived we realised that we were different; that could have been an attraction!
BOB: Was it always in the Moffs scheme of things to use keyboards rather than, say, another guitar?
TK: It was always a conscious thing, keyboards. Even when I was young they had a lot of effect on me. In my own style of guitar playing, I find the presence of a second guitar very cluttering. Keyboards create moodiness.
BOB: They provide the more ethereal effect?
TK: Yeah, for sure! And that’s what we were wanting - we didn’t want to have a guitar-y sound as that was what was happening.
AH: Four different instruments create more possibilities.
BOB: Would your favourite bands have that line-up then?
TK: We were listening to a lot of early Pink Floyd.
DB: That was back in the early days ...
AH: ... and now it’s more of our own original music!
TK: It’s like Art has come from somewhere else. Music’s like that. It’s not that people are consciously ripping each other off .... it’s a tradition that you’re carrying on. That’s how I like to think of it. Once we really wanted to be like our influences, doing covers; now we’re content leaving that behind. The influences have become less direct.
BOB: The Moffs are they first band I’ve seen in a long time that has an audience that sits on the bar-room floor while they’re playing. Does that promote any kind of energy for you guys to work off?
DB: We’re not a dance band, though people have danced to us, we don’t mind people sitting down. Maybe people don’t know exactly how to accept us. They’ve even gone "freaky, freaky, whacka doo" and wonder what the fuck the band is on about. It makes it interesting for them.
BOB: Did the release of the single help people understand you a bit more?
DB: Gig-wise, yes!! We also discovered that people outside the inner city really liked us too.
TK: It gave us more confidence as well. Hearing that the single had gone down well overseas made us think that we must be doing something right. It gives us the impetus to keep going. Before the single was released, it was hard to find gigs, now people are more receptive. It’s like that in Sydney. Hopefully the new record will be the next stepping stone.
BOB: ‘Clarodomineaux’, the B-side of the first single, seems to have a leaning towards the baroque. Was that a diversion?
TK: I’d written the middle part of the song quite separate to the rest of it. I liked it and thought it might be a nice change to place it in there. Maybe it comes across as a King Crimson influence. I don’t think in terms of everything being rock’n’roll .... whatever sounds good we ought to play. The Elizabethan/baroque/paisley is just a tie-in.
BOB: The songs, the artwork you use and the lights indicate an escape from the "rigours of reality". Does that reflect your philosophy of music in general?
TK: Music is a moving force. Whenever I play it with intensity and emotion, it does have that effect. A lot of the lyrics are directed towards impressions of things we see. You might call it a bit "cosmic", but it’s just the way we see everything fitting together. The lyrics are an interpretation of the music, they reflect it, they’re integrated.
BOB: Do you always use a light show?
TK: We look upon it as an enhancement of our music .... and it gives people something else to look at. It creates a more meditative effect while the songs are going on. It comes from that late ‘60’s mixed media, whatever. We don’t mind the "psychedelic" tag, we’re fairly oblivious to the tags people lay on us. A lot of people use the word in a derogatory way these days. It gets irrelevant to talk about the 60’s ... you can only talk so much.
BOB: What were the circumstances surrounding the departure of Nick Potts from the band?
TK: It was a personality thing that was starting to affect the music. We started off with Nick as a harp player and suggested that he got into keyboards. I guess he lacked the motivation and wasn’t keeping up. We wanted the keyboards to be a really strong force in the band.
BOB: So you managed to persuade Mick to join?
MD: Yeah! I’d been seeing these guys playing for quite a while and had always enjoyed them. I was playing in bands that they had supported as well. Originally, I was going to give Nick Potts a few pointers on his keyboard playing ... but that never eventuated! Then Nick left and after a pretty drunken night at one of their gigs, I started filling in for him, I ended up joining in November last year.
DB: Mick has brought that fourth contribution to the Moffs that we were looking for. That extra dimension of ideas is now in the band.
BOB: The Moffs new mini-LP "Quintessence" (This is actually the self-titled EP released in December 1985 - PB) is out on Citadel (as was the debut 45). How did the deal with Citadel come about?
DB: We had recorded "Another Day" and were looking around the indie labels for a release. John Needham said he’d really like us on his label so we said "Yeah!".
AH: We didn’t originally think we could do it cause it was all a bit different to the other stuff that was coming out on Citadel.
TK: Maybe John thought it was a bit of a gamble, but it worked out really well.
BOB: Are the new recording songs you wrote after Mick joined?
TK: The songs were the ones that we felt were the strongest at the time and the ones we were most familiar with. With Mick, the record is going to come out a little different to what we originally expected as there were so many different ideas floating around in the studio.
BOB: Did you use the same producer as for "Another Day"?
TK: Yeah, Chris Logan, but we did a lot more work on the production ourselves this time. We were more involved, figuring out with Chris what should be what. It was pretty hair-raising at times, but worked out well.
AH: It was done in a Christian recording studio that specialises in doing commercial jingles!
DB: They didn’t understand the idea of feedback and used to freak out every time they heard it. When we asked for reverb on the drums, it was total horror!
BOB: Do the Moffs have ambition?
TK: Well, we are happy with the way things are going for us now. We get to play and put out records. We see ourselves as a band with a long future; we’re going to be occupied for at least the next 3 years. We know our music won’t have success in the charts, but that doesn’t stop us getting satisfaction out of what we’re doing.
AH: We could all use being a little richer ....!!