Cable Ties’ Jenny McKechnie names her secret crush, secret skill & dream dinner party guests
Winner of the Corner Award 2017 Cable Ties’ Jenny McKechnie names: secret crush, secret skill & 5 dream dinner party guests.
Best of Melbourne
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By the power vested in me (by myself), I declare the Australian of the Year:
Jenny McKechnie (champagne and streamers emoji).
She runs the game in Cable Ties, Wet Lips, Hysterical Records and is a good person to stick close to come the apocalypse.
You’ll see why in a tick.
Let’s put her under the Cahill Grill.
Real name?
Jennifer Kay McKechnie.
Guilty pleasure?
Nup... don’t be guilty about your pleasures. Love them while simultaneously criticising the parts of them that are damaging or problematic to other people. All of Cable Ties LOVE AC/DC with a lack of irony and lack of guilt. I also know that their lyrics are often f--king sexist and horrendous. So we take that pure and unadulterated rock, channel it into our own music and make it something better for everyone. I can only hope that future generations of young, Melbourne underground rock legends might hear what we have done and say ‘well I love this but it was sh!t for these reasons’ and channel it into something better. I’m not doing very well on the quickfire answers am I?
Where is home?
I live in Brunswick but I grew up in the City of Greater Bendigo (specifically the small town of Huntly – which, incidentally, is the name of a great Melbourne band at the moment).
Career Plan B?
The climate apocalypse is coming people. F--k career plan B. The end is nigh.
Biggest Bug Bear?
I have a lot. My number one is probably soup because it’s somewhere between food and drink and I want it to make up its damn mind.
Earliest Memory?
Not great.
Your Best Quality?
I’m very loyal to my good mates.
And your Worst?
My forgetfulness.
5 Dream dinner party guests?
So I get very anxious and my ideal dinner would be with my best mates but ... if I was being brave and meeting my heroes and sh!tting my pants:
- Briggs
- Celeste Liddle (who I was on a panel with recently and shat my dacks holy shi!)
- Alok Vaid-Menon
- Uncle Jack Charles
- Carrie Brownstein
5 Desert Island discs?
Primary Colours - Eddy Current Suppression Ring
DAMN - Kendrick Lamar
Reclaim Australia - A.B.Original
The Woods - Sleater Kinney
In Blood Memory - Jen Cloher
Advice to teenage self?
You’re gonna learn some things the hard way but they’ll make you a better person.
Some people don’t need saving. Leave them be.
What did you have for breakfast today?
Nothing... oops. I love sleeping more than breakfast.
Top of your bucket list?
Get in a van, throw my phone out the window and drive around Australia.
Biggest inspiration?
My dear friend Tully O’Neill.
Secret crush?
Waleed Aly.
Secret skill?
Shooting a gun. I hate guns and I’m vegan but I am from the country and can shoot guns pretty well so that’s my skill for the apocalypse
What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Depends how hung-over I am.
Starstruck moment?
When Courtney Barnett said she liked my shirt but don’t even worry we’re totally friends now and I’m like totally cool about it.
Career highlight?
Look. Meredith 2016. (review here). No doubt.
Corner Hotel or Forum Theatre?
What? I dunno. The Forum has some cool sh!t in it but have you been to Old Bar?
Hardcore punk or softcore porn?
Definitely depends which kind of hardcore punk or softcore porn hey??
Waleed Aly or Clem Ford?
WHY THE F--- WOULD YOU ASK ME THIS QUESTION I CANNOT POSSIBLY CHOOSE?! BUT OMG YOU’VE JUST REMINDED ME WHO MY SECRET CRUSH IS (see above).
Steve Price or a three week old sandwich (still in Glad Wrap but in bad condition)?
Sandwich... c’mon that’s not even a question.
Triple R or PBSFM?
Um. loaded much? No.
Flotation tank or Bikram yoga?
Nope. Flotation tank = claustrophobic anxiety attack. Bikram yoga = white hippies talking sh!t and appropriating other people’s culture.
Favourite tipple?
Espresso Martini if I’m being a fancy biatch which yes I always am.
How did you develop your creative vision?
Find the spot between my rage and love where the music comes out.
ICYMI, y’all:
CABLE TIES
CABLE TIES
[POISON CITY]
4.5 stars
“I’m not crazy, I’m just not, backing down,” Jenny McKechnie roars, throwing the forks on Cut Me Down at “good blokes” who call women “hysterical”. Hi Steve Price. You can get a lot done in 44 minutes. Cable Ties manage eight songs, no duds, all heroic lyrics we can melodically shout along to in the shower/car. I’ve cut myself shaving to Same For Me more than once. Speaking of razor sharp, Say What You Mean has a trenchant mid-song monologue: “I am not a production unit, I am a human being!” Cable Ties really outdid themselves with this debut and now Melbourne have another world-class, conscientious rock band. This is a maelstrom of protean punk, kicking against the pricks./MIKEY CAHILL
SOUNDS LIKE: anxiety never sounded so liberating
IN A WORD: blistering
Let’s tie one on: @joeylightbulb
Laneway Festival, touring nationally, late Jan, early Feb, $174.50+bf, lanewayfestival.com
Cable Ties Ball feat., Habits, Miss Blanks, The Dacios, Simona, Eat-man + Miss Destiny
Corner Hotel, 57 Swan St, Richmond. Feb 24. $25.09.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-cable-ties-ball-corner-award-show-tickets-39863093586
Boogie, March 25-27, Tallarook. $82.65/$249.90, boogie.net.au