KING FELIX
PART 2
I-94 Bar: Since the recording of 'Shape your Mind' has the band recorded more material?
Ned: Well, we've recorded an album since then.Carl: We've recorded an album since then and done it ourselves and (our guitarist) John did all engineering.
John: We recorded our album with home recording equipment on a digital 16-track recorder.
Carl: In recording our album, what we basically did was record it at the rehearsal studios where we normally rehearse in Rydalmere (in Sydney) and we'd basically learn the songs and play the songs as we would live and we would mime (but not sing) the words as we were recording the instruments and we would go back and add the vocals later to the songs we recorded live.
Ned: On some of the songs we over-dubbed some of the instruments.
Carl: We were thinking of calling our album "Live with Dubs" but we would ripping off Lobby Loyde but we didn't want to do that to Lobby.
John: As a result of recording the album on the equipment we had, the cost of recording of our album was next to nothing.
I-94 Bar: When and over what period of time was the album recorded?
Ned: We recorded the bulk of it in 2005, having recording sessions on weekends which means it got stretched out over a year on and off. We weren't in a hurry, and our plan was to try and just record everything we've got and review it all. We recorded 18 songs and then mixed those earlier this year. Then we culled them down.
I-94 Bar: Describe the experience and approach of recording the bands LP, compared to the past experiences?
Carl: Recording the album way we did in our rehearsal studios, was so much more laidback. We would try to record a song once or twice but no more than three times.
John: Which is how Carl and I had recorded in the past with The Hunchbacks.Carl: After three attempts at recording a song, the energy dissipates incredibly quickly, that another attempt at recording a song is not worthwhile and band members start getting really frustrated.
So it becomes essential to really hit the mark in the first three attempts, hopefully the first two attempts. Then in trying to get the song down in two attempts we found we should be really at our best in the first attempt and not having as such a practice run and some of the songs on the album are the first attempt at recording a song.
With the control we had, there was time to relax and a recording studio engineer was not pressuring us and saying "C'mon boys, there's only three and a half hours and we've got to get the mixing done."
We could record two songs in a day be happy with the two songs we had recorded and then the next week we would record four songs.
Ned: When recording in a studio with an engineer, the environment is quite sterile.
Carl: You're in their den and you'll sometimes feel obliged, when what they say to do something, to then do what is they've asked and sometimes band members won't agree with what is being asked, but not speak up about it and afterwards band members can be quite disillusioned. In recording our album the way we recorded, difficulties and situations like that were avoided.Ned: A lot of stuff that I like listening, which I think has a good sound was recorded in the '60s and '70s. It would be recorded live with a minimum of overdubs and it would capture the moment and we tried to do that when recording our album.
When recording, we tried to record a basic track as live as possible and did a minimum of overdubs and we would only overdub when we thought something was dodgy or out of tune, but we would try to keep the recordings as live as possible.
In a studio, a recording will sound good when playing it back in the room, but a recording when it’s mixed and mastered the guts of the recording are dropped out and lost and the engineer has their own idea of how a recording should end up sounding for radio and it becomes totally unlistenable.
It has only been at not so big name recording studios such as Zen (Studios in Sydney) and Sound Level (Studios in Sydney) where there's an eight-track recording desk and an engineer only, that I've had a good experience when recording in a studio. When recording in bigger name recording studios, producers take it over and it becomes their baby.
Carl: Producers basically try to put their own stamp on a recording, so that they can say "Hey, I produced that recording".
Ned: Bands should always produce their own music, unless they're technically inept and don't know what they're doing. The control over the recording process should never be totally handed over to a producer, since a producer can try and make it theirs and it becomes their interest.
Everyone has a stake and an interest in a band's recording and the end result and the less stakeholders the better, the purer the end result - the music is. The most important stakeholders in a band's recording are a band themselves, the songwriters and the musicians.
I-94 Bar: With the approach and the control the band had when recording its CD, is a vibe or presence captured in the recording of the songs that would otherwise possibly not be captured?
Carl: We were certainly more relaxed, when recording as compared to having to record in a recording studio and probably without the control we had when we recorded our album.
Having recorded music in past bands, band members can quickly become frustrated or irritated when things don't go right or things are taking too long, which happens all the time.
Certain members of bands can be pre-disposed to becoming more frustrated or irritated with other band members more quickly than other members of bands, but for us, we were fortunate.
John: In the past, we've always tried to make sure that we were well prepared prior to recording to make sure we would be able work quickly in a recording studio.
Andi Jackson: drumsCarl: For instance, when a band has recorded drums and bass and then record the rhythm guitar and then lead guitar, when recorded by layering the instruments, that initial punch of the instruments, particularly the drums and bass is likely to be lost, the punch can be reclaimed, but it is generally lost; the sound of the recording then loses its initial impact and becomes too clean.
Ned: Multi-track recording as a band often does in a recording studio can work well but it generally doesn't that work well.
When recording that way, the band members have to playing their parts as best they can at the time and it’s really important for the drummer and bass player to record their parts solidly and the rest of the instruments that are recorded overdubbed over the drums and bass should end up sounding good, but it’s rare that that happens with recording that way.
When a band records live, it’s quite different because everyone should be together and so the vibe will be stronger.
A song such as "Housing Commission Blues" could never be recorded that way or the sound would be too sterile and lame, it has to be recorded completed live, since its such a loose, jamming song.
Andi: When a band records together the instruments kind of "dance together" or they "move together" and the dynamics is quite different to when the instruments are pulled apart and recorded over each other, the spontaneity and "the dance of the instruments" is lost.
Ned: Funnily enough "Too Far Gone" was recorded that way where we recorded the instruments each over and not altogether, which ended up sounding good.
I think it’s really essential to record a song with a good live basic track and without that, a recording just doesn't sound the best that it can.
Carl: Particularly, the drums, the bass, the lead and rhythm guitars should really be recorded live...
Ned: When listening to a band like Dead Moon, you would think Dead Moon would not even know what overdubbing instruments when recording is.
When comparing our recording to the recordings of Dead Moon, it probably seems our recording was akin to George Martin producing The Beatles and yet with the recordings of Dead Moon being kind of lo-fi and the way they are, the songs, the playing and the mood of both the band and the song all comes through in their recordings and it really amazes when you listen to their recordings.
I suppose people that are used to listening to music on the radio, which is specifically produced for radio airplay don't appreciate that kind of sound on a recording.Andi: If a song is good is to begin with it can stand on its own and doesn't need glossy, fancy recording and heavily manipulated and over-produced. When a song is crappy and not that great, you can make it sound good for radio, but it remains a crappy song; but with a good song its not absolutely necessary to record and produced a particular way and should still sound good.
Carl: I've always had the opinion, a good song can be played alone on an acoustic guitar and even though it might sound different it should still sound good.
Ned: The album has been mastered by Steven 'Bones' Martin and the artwork is just about completed and we're in the process of duplicating copies of the album which will be launched in Sydney at The Lansdowne Hotel on July 15th.
Carl: We will playing our album launch with bands such as The Intercontinental Playboys, The Steak Lovers and The Men from U.N.C.L.E.
I-94 Bar: Of the 11 songs on the album, are they all original songs or are there any covers included?
Carl: There will be three covers. One of them is in some dispute as far as wh actually originally wrote being 'Baby, Let me follow you down'...
Ned: Most people would be aware of 'Baby, Let Me Follow You Down' through Bob Dylan's version of that song.
Carl: Another of the three covers will be 'Easy As Can Be' which was a song by The Easybeats from the one of their '60s albums. It's an Easybeats song which not many people would be aware of, which we jammed on a bit and we sort of re-arranged and some people think that we wrote.
Ned: I'd never heard that song until Carl showed me the chords to that, which is why our version doesn't seem to be much like The Easybeats’ original version of that song.
I-94 Bar The other cover on the album will be...?
Carl: It will be a Neil Young song called 'Too Far Gone' which Ned sings on the album and I think came out on a recent Neil Young album which Ned knows more about.
Ned: Neil Young wrote 'Too Far Gone' sometime around '76, but he only recorded that song in 1989 on the album "Freedom" which was sort of his comeback album and which had the song 'Rockin' in the Free World' and had 'Too Far Gone' which we thought was a stupid three chord song and was great.
Carl: It could have been written at anytime in his career.
Ned: It's ('Too Far Gone') a beautiful song. We also do other songs. Apart from those songs / (covers) being good songs, the other reason why we put those songs on the album was the band performances on them was really good and they came up really well.
Carl: There were seven other songs we recorded, but we didn't really capture them live as well as the other songs that will be on album.
John: Well, that's how you pick which songs should be on an album. You've got to pick out the best songs with the best performances and leave out the rest. It's got nothing to do with song. It's just about how its captured and performed and recorded.
Ned: Otherwise, it would have been a double CD.
Carl: We had a hard enough time arguing over the 11 songs which will be on the album, let alone 18 (laughs).
I-94 Bar: Is the writing of the original songs a group effort or do one or two members of the band mainly write the material?
Ned: Most of the originals belong to Carl and myself. There was a co-write with Carl and John.
Carl: We sort of have a view that, whoever initiates the song is the writer, but the band is also credited with the song.
Ned: We have a person's name and then the band, since it's got to do with how a song ends up being arranged and in a band.
Carl: A song may never get out of your bedroom.
John: If you bring a song along and say "I've got this bit written and I've got that bit written and this is how it should be performed like this" I think that's wrong in a band. I think you should start off with "I have this written" and then "What can we added to it?"
Ned: Some songs were written and arranged already before the band would have a go at it, whereas some songs had a basic song structure and band members would suggest an arrangement bit for it or a key change for it. Things like that.
I-94 Bar: Bar What about the instrumentation of the songs on the King Felix CD? Any thoughts of adding keyboards, strings or brass?
Ned: Well, we did record keyboard tracks for a handful of songs on the album and one or two of the songs which we recorded keyboard tracks for are on the album.
Carl: I also played harmonica, but not too much.
Ned: I'm still keen on playing keyboards. I really enjoyed playing keyboards in Roll Cage and when I have transport we'll be able to add keyboards to the live experience. Now that we have two guitarists, there's that scope for jumping/swapping instruments.
John: Also you (Carl) can play keyboards?
Ned: Carl's a trained keyboard player and plays keyboards quite well.
Carl: I can play keyboards but I just don't get the chance, while playing bass.
Ned: Carl also blew some harp on the album and we also had John and Andi contribute backing vocals on the album, which is interesting because they normally don't sing live.
Carl: At the moment we're trying to get it to the point, where we have four singers in the band. I'd love to be in a band with four singers. It just makes things easier on everyone else if somebody's throat blows out one night, we won't have to blow a show out.
Ned: We want to be like The Byrds on steroids.
Carl: The Band...they all sang.
Ned: We're all big admirers of Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Three-part harmonies, four-part if you can get them, they just sound magic.
I-94 Bar: Of the original songs on the CDLP are there some songs which the band are more proud of recording as opposed to other original songs on the CD?
Ned: I will say we're pretty happy with "Housing Commission Blues" since it was recorded completely live and because we never play the same song the same way twice it’s interesting to have a record of what the song sounded like on the particular day we recorded it and we were really impressed that it was a live take.
Carl: I don't know. I suppose the song "More than Anything" was a song that... I wanted to write a blues song, I don't give a fuck what happens and I just thought I've got to write a song that has the smallest amount of lyrics in it, so I came up with something that had only six lines in it and so I was pretty bloody happy.
I can't speak for John and his song, but he basically told me what he wanted it to be written about.
Ned: Lyric wise.
Carl: The sort of mood and stuff like that. The song "Strange Dreams" is just like a dream I suppose.
Ned: We tried consciously to get songs that were musically a bit varied and had good lyrics and weren't just the usual songs about girls and stuff. Although some songs like "Someone Like You" are pure pop songs where the lyrics are not really that deep, simply conveying a good vibe or a good feeling.
Songs like "Housing Commission Blues" and "Stalker" which is a fucked up character...
John: Ned, peering in through windows...
Carl: Ned as a peeping tom.
Ned: Are there original songs by the band that you’re particularly curious about?
John South: guitarI-94 Bar: I suppose the song "Suburban Angst".
Ned: Before I was in Roll Cage, I'd done a stint in theatre and got to be known as what they call a Western Sydney-based artist and a lot of those songs were written when I was still in theatre responding to those kind of themes of detachment and compartmentalisation, at life in the suburbs and "Suburban Angst" was written following on in that theme.
Carl: About life in the Western Suburbs.
Ned: Well, not just in the Western Suburbs, but rather anywhere. People talk about "Urban Angst", well I wanted to write about "Suburban Angst", about being bored, stoned and single on a Saturday night and "Suburban Angst" is really a stream of consciousness, although its not total nonsense, but the lyrics reflect...
Carl: I don't perceive them as negative either.
Ned: No, they’re not really negative, they’re more situational. I was also having fun with words, with rhyming words and phrases like "spicks and specks" and "nanotech".
Carl: "Spicks and specks" has nothing to do with that TV show on the ABC.
Ned: Although, I do concede a nod to The Bee Gees, that's playing with words.
I-94 Bar: I suppose the song "Strange Dreams". With having the word "dreams" in the title, that may indicate the song may be about something mystical or mysterious.
Ned: That song is one of Carl's and he knows more about it that I do.
Carl: There's a line in the song about "The Lightning Man" and I actually dreamed that before I what it was and "The Lightning Man" is actually an Aboriginal painting and Klarry (ex-Hunchbacks guitarist), of all people showed me the painting in a book. I know I dreamed that before he showed it to me, which spun me out a bit, 'cause I thought... I was gonna write about it.
"Strange Dreams" was actually written a long time ago when John and I performed it with John Spittles and Ashley (Thomson)...
John: ...and in The Hunchbacks...
Carl: We had this muck around band going with John Spittles, Ashley (Thomson), Matt Bannerman, John (South) and I and I've actually got a version of us doing that song on a tape, but nothing ever happened with that band, so it just sort sat around for a few years and I thought we'd try it.
The (lyrical) content of it... is just crazy. If you ever have these crazy dreams where you things just flash through and you don't really know what the hell is going on and then you wake up in the morning and think you'll remember that dream and by lunchtime you've forgotten everything.I-94 Bar: Is there a label releasing the band’s upcoming CD and how did the label come to release it?
Carl: We haven't shown the album to anyone, but Maria (from Melbourne band, The Mystaken) has offered to put it out on her label called Rock Against Bullshit and we're probably only going to press up a hundred or so copies.Ned: Initially.
Carl: To see if anyone's interested... I don't know. I haven't had much luck signing record contracts in the past.
Ned: We also got a track on the Off the Hip Sunnyboys "Happy Man" compilation, which was cool.
Carl: Hopefully, we'll get some interest.
Ned: We'll see how it goes. We're not extremely ambitious, we just want to have something out there that people can buy and listen to in the comfort of their own home.
I-94 Bar: How did the band come to appear on Off the Hip Records' Sunnyboys tribute?
Ned: Well, there was a blurb in the News section of the I-94 Bar calling out for people to..I-94 Bar: Of all places!
Carl: We emailed Mickster (from Off the Hip Records) and he said "Yeah, send us down a track..."
Ned: So we recorded it really quickly, half drunk and sent it in after we recorded it, mixed and mastered it in three-and-a-half hours.
Carl: (laughs) With Ned slightly pissed.
Ned: That was (recorded) when we were a three piece and we actually recorded at the end of 2003 and that album has just come out.
Carl: The recording has been floating around for about three years.
Ned: It's a good recording, but it's not representative that much of where we are now, 'cause we're a four piece. It turned out alright, we we're pretty happy with it.
I-94 Bar: Was "Liar" the band’s choice of song?
Ned: We had about three Sunnyboys songs picked out, with our first choice being "Trouble in my Brain" but that was already taken, as was our second choice "My Only Friend" so we picked "Liar" which was our third choice. We would've been happy to do any song off that first Sunnyboys record because it’s just such a classic album.
I-94 Bar: Is there a name for the band's CD?
Carl: It will be self-titled. We we're going call it "Alive with Dubs" but then we thought we couldn't.
Ned: Lobby Loyde had an album out in the late '70s with The Sudden Electric called "Live with Dubs", which was essentially a live recording with vocal overdubs and guitar and we thought we might call it that.
Carl: We thought we'd call it that but, no.
Ned: We thought Lobby might sue... although he's a bit too sick too now. Isn't that terrible that Lobby Loyde has lung cancer? That's awful. So many of them have died, all these great Australian legends.
Carl: Pete Wells.
Ned: Yeah, Pete Wells... If we lose Lobby then, what's the world be coming to?
I-94 Bar: What other covers are you playing live?
Ned: We play The Byrds’ "100 Years from Now" live.
Carl: We play The Flying Burrito Bros’ "Sin City"...
Ned: We've also been working on a "quiet set" and at a quiet gig we played recently and we did The Flying Burrito Bros’ "Sin City".
Carl: We also played, at our quiet gig, Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home" and Willie Dixon's "Wang Dang Doodle".
Ned: The covers we play kind of come out of nowhere really.
Carl: They're mostly blues and country.
Ned: It's nothing we think about...a song comes up and Carl and I both say "yeah, we like that" and we play it.
Carl: If it gels with all of us, we play it, if not we just flick it.
I-94 Bar: Will the band also be touring interstate?
Ned: We're going to try and to get to Melbourne, by the end of the year, most definitely.
Carl: Hopefully, in late July or August, if possible.
Ned: Maybe a trip to Wollongong. Nothing is really planned yet, other than Melbourne and Sydney.
I-94 Bar: Not also considering touring Adelaide or Brisbane?
Carl: Well, we really don't have any contacts in Adelaide and we haven't spoken to anyone in Brisbane for years.
Ned: If something comes up, we'll do it.
Carl: I suppose I'd could contact Richard (ex-Strutter, Aampirellas, Hits) but I don't know what's going on up there anymore... (laughs) But I'd also love to go to Adelaide.
Ned: We're trying to get more gigs in New South Wales and outside of Sydney. We've been discussing with some other bands to get some gigs in the Central Coast.
Carl: I'd really like to go out west, to Bathurst.
Ned: Do a rural tour of the cow towns.
Carl: ... and get chased out of town with by shotgun... "You we're looking at mum's sister"...
Ned: "Keep you hands off my momma." (band members laugh)
Ned on keys for Roll CageI-94 Bar: Any frustrations of being in the band?
Carl: I guess I got over frustrations of being in a band years ago... Egos get in the way all the time and I'm just over that and I refuse to play in a band with people with egos anymore and if this band (King Felix) doesn't do anything, well, I'll probably go solo and whistle Dixie around the corner or something.
Ned: For me, the frustrations are not necessarily being in the band so much as, breaking into the scene and getting past the bullshit and hype.
There's also the usual frustrations of dealing with people that are all about style over content/ substance, which has been the biggest frustration, but we just keep going and hopefully there's enough people out there that like what we do and we've just got to get through to them, which is both frustrating but also our biggest challenge.
Carl: It's not going to stop us from playing music. I'm 40 and I've been playing in pub bands since I was 19, so its 21 years of this and I still haven't stopped, so I'm going to keep going.
I play more now for the music and the people I play with. I also play for the crowd, but I actually just enjoy playing music. I don't need to play at a big venue like The Metro (in Sydney).
Ned: We did that fundraiser gig at the church, where very few people turned up, because it was raining and stuff, but we still played the gig, had fun cause we were playing music we like. That's what it comes down to, if you don't like playing music there's just no point.
It doesn't matter if there's a 100 people or one person, you've just got to like playing music.
John: I was speaking to a mate of mine the other week and he was saying that someone said that when you’re touring and playing live and you don't, love to being up on stage and playing live music, then the shit that goes on with touring, then you're fucked.
Carl: Yeah.
Ned: Not that we've ever toured. (band members laugh)
John: You've got to love playing music.
Carl: We've done tours when playing in other bands and if the band members thinking about the same thing and getting along, it's quite funny to actually take four or five people that might play in a band and all they do is see each other in Sydney, but when they go on tour and the different personalities come out and it can be a bloody shitfight, just being on the road for four days. The same people can tear each others’ throats out.
Ned: That's why its good if you can afford airfares and fly when touring, it’s much better than spending three days in a car with four people.
Carl: You find out if you really like you're other band members, if you have to sit in a car with them for 20 hours.
Ned: You find out all the idiosyncrasies and weird habits.
I-94 Bar: What compromises has the band had to make?
Ned: I suppose we compromise when playing certain gigs we'd rather not play just to try and get out there
Carl: In getting together a kind of "quiet set" I suppose that is compromise of sorts, where we kind of go back to the blues.
Ned: That's not such a major compromise, it’s more expanding what we do, so that we can play quiet or loud as the occasion dictates.
Where we play a rock venue, we'll play loud, having a quiet set is mainly for gigs where we play with quieter bands. So as a result of playing at a quieter sort of gig, we want to have a set, where what we play will fit in with the rest of the gig.
I think a good example of a band playing quieter was Died Pretty. When they started they were quite raucous and loud but they consciously went cleaner and quieter, which is not what we're going to do. In having a quiet set, we just want to have two different sets for two different types of occasions.
Carl: I wouldn't mind going quieter and cleaner at all. I'd love to do that. (laughs)
I-94 Bar: Are there any other bands / projects the band members of King Felix are also involved in currently?
Ned: A few us are sort of "moonlighting" in a band called "25th Floor" which is kind of a homage to Patti Smith Group.
Andi: Myself and Ned play in "25th Floor" and from time to time I do a stint in a local band called "Sex Doll" when their regular drummer goes crazy. At the moment, I'm also working with Steve Lucas and the keyboard player in "25th Floor" Kerryn and a local guitarist and bass player in a project.
Ned: The band "25th Floor" is more a part-time thing for Andi and myself; all of our creativity and energy are invested in King Felix
Carl: I also played in the band "25th Floor" for a while, but I eventually left
I-94 Bar: Bar The band has a wide range of influences which we expect the band's CD would demonstrate. What kind of sound and/or songs does the band envisage itself pursuing/writing/performing in future
Ned: We just want to extend, where we're going. We're still finding new inspiration in various things...It's always going to have that R'N'B, blues, punk, folk kind of blend. I guess it depends where each song takes us. We look at each song individually, as opposed to following through on a musical style
Carl: At the moment, we're sort of looking towards and enjoying softer and getting tighter, which is something we haven't done in the past. We'd just turn up and blast
Ned: Go the flog
Carl: Yeah, we can't sort of go the flog anymore, 'cause we're too old to go the flog
Ned: Which doesn't mean we're going to turn down, we're working on a quiet set so we can have a bit of light and shade and play smaller places without being asked not to come back. We actually did a gig at a venue in King's Cross and they told us we we're banned 'cause of (drummer) Andi's monstrous Ludwig drum kit and we we're too loud
John: Was that gig on a Wednesday? We're never doing a Wednesday night gig ever again
Carl: Yeah, Wednesday night's are cursed. (laughs
I-94 Bar: Has the band has been working on new original songs since recording its album
Ned: We're always working on new original songs. Some original songs we've worked on since recording the album haven't been played live by the band. Through the past few years some original songs we've worked on have been played live once at a gig or may be a part of the set for period of six months or so.
Carl: We have a few covers in our set and we would like to play covers in a quieter band, but try and take that feeling and try and make it original. From the covers we play we try to get a mood, rather than just copying
Ned: A lot of our songs can be played acoustically but not all songs can, which is why covers are needed to fit in with a mood or create a mood. Songs that we cover like Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home", we'd play at a quiet gig, since playing that song can create a mood.
Carl: Songs like those we only play at a quiet gig to try and create a mood with and the mood created with those songs we'd like to try and create in our own songs.
Ned: We also play those songs since they were such good songs.
I-94 Bar: Since we're in a Bar, what are you drinking?
Carl: A Scotch and Dry and Carlton Draught.
Ned: Lemonade and Bourbon and Coke.
John: VB.
Andi: Two schooners of VB and a jug of water.
