Rock City: Elton John’s good and bad advice to Pnau & Ruby Boots, Marlon Williams, No Mono, Montero
Rock City: Elton John’s good and bad advice to Pnau & Ruby Boots, Marlon Williams, No Mono, Montero, and who Nailed It and Failed It
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Pnau’s last album in 2011 snapped and faded overnight like a glowstick.
Mentor Elton John had insisted they make Soft Universe to showcase Nick Littlemore’s vocals. But fans skipped it and the band took it pretty hard.
“Peter (Mayes, bandmate) was browbeaten by the whole experience,” says Nick Littlemore from his home studio in Los Angeles.
On their fourth LP, Changa, Pnau play to strengths, abandoning a focus on Littlemore’s lush‘n’lite vocals to bring in force of nature Kira Divine and a tropical, fantastical Cirque De Soleil vibe. Jacking single Chameleon got them back in the game (an old raver texted me: “Pnau song is sick, reminds me of going out back in the day. Better than the weak s--- on the radio”) and Changa is full of rejuvenating cuts radio should play.
It’s a euphoric, eccentric record: sexy, flirty disco, piano house, trance touches and magic, mellifluous vocals — the most unique instrument of all.
Pnau have fresh legs and fresh ears off the bench in Divine (Shakira Marshall) and Sam Littlemore has joined the fray.
He brings his nightclub nous (ex-Tonite Only) and irony-free approach.
“We were doing a session for Empire of the Sun and three ladies came in and we isolated Kira’s voice and said ‘We want her’,” Littlemore says. “I would sing something and she would sing it back to me. I would put a lot of chaos in there and she came back with just as much fire. She’s a kindred spirit in the punk side.” Changa has none of that disaffected-half-singing-whiny-barista vibe.
“Exactly. It’s dance music, it’s meant to be the peak of all existence, the ecstatic madness of being. You’ve got to punch a hole in the sky. ”
While touring with Groovin the Moo in Townsville, Kira Divine had a little run in with the law, yes?
“She did. The thing is, I’m 39 and I don’t do the after-party. Not since I was 23. I tell everybody who comes on tour ‘Don’t do the after-party. The gig here is the moment.’ The after-party is the dregs. If you go to the after-party where the drinks are free then you might get a bit rambunctious. I’ve been rambunctious before, I got the s--t kicked out of me at the Annandale Hotel one night. I didn’t remember it because I was on Xanax and booze, the way I see it is that I was paying back all this karma for being a precocious little c--t”.
Was that where Nick lost his front tooth?
“It was. I had lost that tooth until I met Sir Elton John and he said (gruff accent) ‘Get tha’ toof fixed’.” At last some good advice from Reg.
“We’re working on a top secret project with Elton I can’t talk about. It’s got some BIG BIIIIG names. It’s got JD in it. JD backwards is of course DJ and Elton’s first publisher was Dick James Music.” Hmmmm. Internet, go to work.
Before we get into a track by track interview about Changa, did Littlemore and Mayes feel crestfallen after Soft Universe?
“The whole record was a kick in the teeth. It was self-sabotage. We always made music for the dancefloor which we didn’t do enough on Soft Universe. I’ve held Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen up there and at the time I went through something dark and I thought it was the right time where I could make everyone weep on the dancefloor. But of course it’s never the time to do that.”
1. Save Disco
“Save Disco is a squelchy one, you’re right. It’s actually the name of an album I’m releasing in January that I’m making with Two Leaves. We wanted to start the record like that. It’s actually a Pnau remix of the Two Leaves track. It was written just after I’d ‘jumped off’.”
2. Chameleon
“I always make a huge f---king mess then Peter pulls it all together. He takes the time going through each little bit. Then Sam came in and mixed and programmed it and took my s--- painting and made it beautiful. They say always work with family and children (sarcastic tone). And we worked with children (on Baby) and that turned out well so it was time to work with family. Sam was having huge success with Peking Duk and we thought we should get him in. We needed fresh blood after Soft Universe.”
3. Go Bang
“That’s a mad record. Luke Steele and I wrote that for Empire (of the Sun) and Empire didn’t like it so I asked if I could put it in the Pnau family with Peter and Sam. Luke gave it his blessing. And then those guys turned it on its head about 50 times, it kept evolving. I love performing live with Kira. By the time the second verse comes in everyone is grooving their asses off and singing along.”
4. Changa
“This one is a cool one. It’s an ode to the smoke-able herb that should be legalised in Australia. Did you know the national flower, the wattle, has the highest concentration of DMT of any plant in the world? There’s a lot of interesting parallels.”
5. In My Head
“We’ve always loved the Italo House disco movement, they’d play those tight Italo synth tracks and DJs would play them at half speed, like 120 bpms down to 100. And you’d be like (does shoulder-dance) groovy. Realllllly groovy.”
6. Into The Sky
“I was listening to Happy Mondays and that whole Madchester scene. We were always fans of the Mancy vibe. Our first Big Day Out in 2000 we were lucky enough to be on the same bill as Happy Mondays and I met Bez and partied with him a little bit, it was one of the only after-parties I’ve been to. This came together quite quickly. There’s that sound coming out of Australia with the DMAs doing it so I thought we could get away with doing a Mancy song. It’s about the psychedelic experience awaiting everyone (laughs like a weasel).”
7. Please Forgive Me
“This is a cool one! I’m glad you liked one. I sang it and it was very robotic tone, it’s much too high for me in the chorus to get up. We got this singer in LA and he had this cool voice that could hit any note. The steel drum is in there. We’re trying to learn how to be more tasteful which is something Pnau hasn’t always been, at least publicly.”
8. Young Melody feat. Vera Blue
“This track was lifted from my Two Leaves project. This song was from my deems experience. My manager said ‘We need to take this for Pnau.’ We pulled that song and Sam and Peter pumped up the beats on it and that’s what we got. Working with Celia (Pavey, Vera Blue), she actually is a bird, she doesn’t just sing like one. She’s like a nymph in the forest.”
9. Nothing In The World
“How does that go? (play him the track) OH THIS IS A WICKED SONG. It’s a banger. That spirit of bush doofs never gets old when you get it right. It always feels f---king exciting. I sing this with Kira live and it’s got that big build-up and breakdown. Oh god I love that record. (sings) ‘I’m breaking through tonight’. It’s all about breaking through when you see the real world (trails off talking about Buddha, the angels, a baby in the manger and DMT).”
10. Control Your Body
“When we were making this record we went through all our old Ableton loops. It’s weird going back on our old material, I pulled out this old laptop. We found some cool bits we used vintage synths for. The tempo is always similar, for a long time we called it 128 Tempo of the Gods. It’s exact. Everyone slowed down a bit in their age, which is nice, there’s more space. Chameleon is 120bpm which sounds so slow but then you hear it, it sounds like a bat out of hell. It’s a cool challenge to put a lot of energy into 120. Control Your Body is a smattering of all the old Pnau.”
11. La Grenouille
“That’s frog in French. At first it sounded like Steely Dan. Sam was making it at the same time he was finishing up with Tonite Only and smashing it. We made a really techno version which we put in the live set. The whole album thematically is about these psychedelic experiences. This song is not immune to those experiences. It’s pitched down so low that when I do it live I wear one of those face masks you see in Asia. I could be singing it…but I’m not, I’m just saying the words.”
12. Changes ft. Faul & Wad Ad (145 million Spotify streams)
“That’s a mad one. It went number one in five countries in Europe. Those kids stole the a cappella then we found out about it when it was poppin’ in Europe. It takes me back to when I found a fish in a bottle on a beach, quite a big fish in it. How did it get there? It took ten years to go out into the cosmos then for someone to download the (Baby) a cappella and turn it into a huge hit in Europe. It’s a little weird to put the same song on from three albums ago…but we are Australian and boomerangs are a thing.”
Beyond The Valley, Lardner Park. Dec 29. facebook.com/beyondthevalley/
facebook.com/pnaupnau
THE CAHILL GRILL – RUBY BOOTS
And now for something completely different.
Ruby Boots has a new single, people, titled It’s So Cruel. Listen to it below after you get to know her and her fondness for a s--t sandwich, roadtrains and Emmylou Harris when she’s being a fangirl.
Real name?
Bex Chilcott
Guilty pleasure?
Grey’s Anatomy
Where is home?
Nashville
Career Plan B?
Social Worker, working with people in need.
Biggest Bug Bear?
Losing my mind before I die
Earliest Memory?
My baby brother is the one that remembers everything, not me.
Your Best Quality?
Never quitting until there is no other choice
And your Worst?
Never quitting until there is no other choice
5 Dream dinner party guests?
My best friends in the world! Small talk blows!
Advice to teenage self?
Why so serious?
What did you have for breakfast today?
My number one comfort food in the world …open grilled tomato and cheese on toast
Top of your bucket list?
Eat my weight in pasta, pizza, cannoli and tiramisu through Italy
Biggest inspiration?
Tom Petty
Secret crush?
I wish I had a cat then I could answer with “my cat”
Secret skill?
I can drive a 16 gear road train
What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Someone that can do anything they set out to do.
Starstruck moment?
When Emmylou Harris told myself and Emma Swift she loved our live version of Lucinda Williams’ Jackson
Career highlight?
Writing my new song I Am A Woman with my dear friend Vikki Thorn (The Waifs)
Favourite tipple?
Abstaining from alcohol
Tough love or a quiet word?
S--t sandwich .. some tough love in between a couple of quiet words
Piano or synths?
Why choose when you can have it all?
How did you develop your creative vision?
Two hands on the wheel, go as fast as I can, hold on and never quit! Listen to Tom Petty.
It’s So Cruel out now. rubybootsmusic.com
NAILED IT
Stranded feat. Broods, Reggie Watts & Saro - Flight Facilities. Oh you want the drop now? Calm your farm. Four minutes of build-up will do just nicely. Imagine this when they unfurl it live.
Phantom – Sarah Blasko. Hiplash with panache. This is how you come back with a Blassy blast off.
Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore feat. Aldous Harding – Marlon Williams. A second record all about heartbreak and you put out a duet with the girl who broke your heart? Ballsy.
Tokin’ The Night Away – Montero. Currently touring with Mac DeMarco. Game recognise game.
FAILED IT
Coming Home – Sheppard. Soz we locked you out. Try the neighbours. Listen to it here if you’re into self-loath.
Looks like it’s Hollywood (a carry-over champion) for not pulling up its dick-swinging cis white males. Men, we must do better.
Haters. Let the love in. (I couldn’t come up with a third).
SURPRISE PACKET
Butterflies - No Mono, aka The Tom Tom Tom Club. Think Chewbacca playing chess with James Blake, Bon Iver and a bottle of Glenlivet. Deal = real.
OFF YA POP
“Louie Louie Louie Lou-ieeeee.” Louis CK. We shake our heads and bite our thumbs at you, sir.
WHO WON TWITTER THIS WEEK?
Launching a fragrance called "Who's Next?" in time for the holidays
— Kate Berlant (@kateberlant) November 10, 2017
PHILOSOPHICAL QUOTE
“Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.” – Socrates.
More of this sort of gold/mould here:
How to plan a post-lockdown Great Ocean Road getaway
The regional border has lifted, which means we can plan a trip to the Great Ocean Road. Here’s where to eat, stay and play.
‘I wouldn’t even s*** that’: What you missed on Wentworth
Wentworth does WikiLeaks in the third episode of the new season, as the Foxtel drama welcomes a new face. And there’s drama for Reb and Lou. Warning: Spoilers.