Sydney

National Folk Festival – Grimick – Interview with Griff, March 2013

Overheard Productions Festivals, Interviews, Music general , , , , , ,
Image courtesy of Grimick
Image courtesy of Grimick

Chris ‘Griff’ Griffiths is one third of the membership of Sydney band Grimick and one half of its name.

Confused? Never fear. (Small band member joke there; we move on.) Yes, never fear because Griff has a black belt in algebra, and is not afraid to use it.

Grimick are Griff, Mick (join the naming dots there) and Dr Fear.

I first encountered Grimick at Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival several years ago and was quite mesmerised by their songs and music. Later, listening to their wonderful album ‘Dazzle’, I was even more enchanted. Firstly, for the stunning production values and warm, rich sound, and secondly for the fact that Grimick have this tendency to give their music away.

Griff explains more about this giving-away ethos in the interview, both giving away CDs at gigs and giving you the ability to download the whole shooting match at their website.

I interviewed Griff at Punchbowl Boys’ High School in Sydney’s south-west earlier this week and we spent a bit of time talking about the benefits to be had from inter-meshing music and education.

And by and by, we did discuss music, and Grimick’s first foray to the National Folk Festival this weekend.

Highly recommended. See them if you can.

*** Audio file will be removed at end of February 2020 ***

G1
Image courtesy of Grimick

Bill Quinn: 2013 is a year for doing interviews in new and interesting places. Already I’ve done one in a harness racing kitchenette, and now we’re at the Punchbowl Boys High School. I’m talking to Griff from the wonderful band Grimick. Hello, Griff.

Chris Griffiths: How’re you going? Thanks for making your way out to sunny Punchbowl on this Monday morning.

Continue reading →

National Folk Festival – Wheeze and Suck Band – interview with Tony Pyrzakowski, 2013

Overheard Productions Festivals, Interviews, Music general , , , , , , ,
Image courtesy of the Wheeze and Suck Band
Image courtesy of the Wheeze and Suck Band

This interview originally appeared on Timber and Steel in March 2013:

https://timberandsteel.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/national-folk-festival-interview-tony-pyrzakowski-wheeze-and-suck-band/

Wheeze and Suck Band have since wound up, and a cut-down version of the band perform as Traditional Graffiti. Tony Pyrzakowski performs with Butch Hooper as Hooper and O’Toole.

As I’ve said many a time on stage and in print, I don’t even try to have a veneer of objectivity when it comes to some bands.

They’re just my favourites, and I adore their music and I’ll hunt them down at every festival and sing along, and sometimes dance along, and that’s just the way it is and ever shall be, Wheezer World without end, amen.

So yeah, I quite like the Wheeze and Suck Band.

There, we’ve got that bit established.

If you think age shall weary them, just click on the video link below and suspend disbelief. It says so much with music and dance in this shaky clip I took at St Albans Folk Festival from a couple of years ago (usually held on an Anzac Day weekend — put it in your calendar now; thank me later) is the range of ages the Wheezers appeal to.

What child could resist jumping around to a bunch of men in funny hats and cloaks? And that’s for the young at heart and the young in the head.

And the young in age.

It’s enough to even make you groan with empathy (and maybe a little sympathy) to John ‘Red Tips’ Milce’s jokes, trotted out at irregular intervals in pure Lancashire-ish.

Fiddler-player Tony Pyzarkowski is one third of a regular trio along with Butch Hooper and Kevin ‘Bodhranworld dot com‘ Kelly who form “Kelly’s Heroes” and bash out three hours of stuff you probably know, stuff you may know and stuff you may not have heard of in PJ O’Brien’s pub in Sydney every Sunday night from 6-9pm. (No chance on Easter Sunday — that’s National Folk Festival central.)

After last Sunday’s session, Tony had a bit of a chat about what’s going on with the Wheezers and looked forward to the National Folk Festival starting this Thursday 28 March 2013 in Canberra.

WS3
Image courtesy of Wheeze and Suck Band

Continue reading →

Ann Vriend (Canada) 2013 Australian Tour – Interview at The Basement, Sydney, 2013

Overheard Productions Interviews, Music general , , , , , ,
Image courtesy of Ann Vriend
Image courtesy of Ann Vriend

Ann Vriend (Canada) is a very regular and very welcome visitor to Australia and this week she’s touched down in Sydney to kick off a month of shows that will take her south to Tasmania and north to Queensland — with appropriate stops along the way.

Ann’s first shows are in Sydney at The Basement where she’s received some great support from David Hand and Newport Consulting; the tour opener was fairly bursting with staff thereof.

In between set-list writing, sound-checking and dress-up* for the show, Ann took some time out to talk with me about weather, Aus-stray-lee-an pronunciation, more weather and suburb names. And music.

* When Ann came back in for the show, I dead-set wondered who was this elegant woman who looked like she was off to the races. And why was she waving at me from across the room?

I’m blaming it on jet lag.

*** Audio file will be removed at end February 2020 ***

Bill Quinn: When we have people who tour here from overseas, we have some who come here once and then we never see them again. And then we have others who tour here and they keep coming back, and back, and back again.

As a pundit and a punter, I’m totally OK with that. I’m sitting here with one who keeps doing that, and we’re very happy for that: Ann Vriend from Canada, hello and welcome?

Ann Vriend: Helloooo, and thanks for having me.

BQ: So, this would be something like trip number six, or something like that?

AV: No, it’s… well, I have to do math… but it would be eight, because my first was 2005 and I’ve come every year.

BQ: Every single year?

AV: Yeah. In your summer – that’s not by accident!

BQ: I tend to talk about weather, but what have you left behind you in Edmonton?

AV: Just before I left, we got about a foot of snow in one night. By the time it’s March, I’m a little bit over snow. So, if you go to my Facebook page, you can see the ‘before I left’ snow pictures, and the ‘after I left’ view of Sydney Harbour with palm trees.

BQ: So for the next few weeks, there’s going to be lots of pictures you’re sending back home in strapless numbers…

AV: Oh, I already posted a picture at the beach, like “Ha ha! I might not be rich, but there’s some perks to my job!”

AV3
Image courtesy of Ann Vriend

Continue reading →

The Acca Daiquiris: with a twist of jazz

Overheard Productions Interviews, Music general , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
The Acca Daiquris
The Acca Daiquris. Image courtesy of The Acca Daiquiris.

When you break down the name of some bands, they really do tell you exactly what you need to know. In this case, it’s taking hard driving rock numbers and serving them up in the cocktail bar (at Lounge Lizard O’Clock) with a smooth finish.

I had heard the name The Acca Daiquiris before through friends in high and low places associated with Thursday nights at the National Press Club and other jazz-related venues, but gun to my head, I’d struggle to pick them out of a line-up.

So when bass player Geoff Rosenberg contacted me via social networking last week, I had little to go on. But true to my congenital affliction (chronic interviewitis), come 7pm on Friday night we were conversing o’er the telecom lines, and I started by pointing out to Geoff that I was breaking some very new ground with this interview.

Bill Quinn: Now Geoff, this is the first time I’ve done an interview with a covers band so please be gentle with me.

Geoff Rosenberg: Yeah, I suppose we are a covers band, but we don’t always see ourselves as such. We do do covers, but we do original arrangements.

BQ: Just on that point, do you find there’s any snobbery on that? “We do originals and you do covers?” Continue reading →

A Punter’s Perspective #33 — 2012 Northern Beaches Music Festival

Overheard Productions Festivals, Music general, Trad and Now , , , ,
Northern Beaches Music Festival at Berry Reserve, Narabeen
Northern Beaches Music Festival at Berry Reserve, Narabeen

A Punter’s Perspective

Random observations on the wide, weird world of folk from the side of the stage

#33 Northern Beaches Music Festival
First published in Trad and Now magazine, March 2012

It’s always a good sign when you get a good vibe from a festival merely by walking through the front gate.

And so it was on the opening night of the second Northern Beaches Music Festival in Narabeen on the northern beaches of Sydney in February.

My first impression was ‘compact’ — in a good way. Venues are situated so closely within the confines of the Berry Reserve at Narrabeen, all five performance spaces were easily within no more than 60 seconds apart.

Walk in the front past the free stage and you were immediately at the main marquee. A quick stroll further on and you were in the downstairs Berry venue, up one flight of stairs and it was the large Lakside venue, and the ‘Tramshed’ (home of The Shack folk club) was a pitching wedge away.

For all of that, sound spill did not seem to be a factor.

Still very much in its infancy, NBMF is the brain child of Paul Robertson, and his background in theatre, TV production and outside broadcasts is evident in some of the organisational nous that’s behind the festival. Continue reading →

A Punter’s Perspective 27 — Kids in Folk III: Nissa

Overheard Productions Interviews, Music general, Trad and Now , , , , ,
Nissa
Nissa

A Punter’s Perspective

Random observations on the wide, weird world of folk from the side of the stage

#27 Kids in Folk III – Nissa
First published in Trad and Now magazine,  August 2011

As previously mentioned, it cheers this little heart to see and hear the youff of today making music. And all the more so when it’s folk, or folk-related, or in the ballpark or within striking distance of the more popular folk postcodes.

I’ve had some interesting discussions with people who are getting towards the upper end of the age spectrum, and there seems to be a divergence in attitudes to how much and what sort of encouragement the young folk should be afforded.

That sounds a bit weird. Allow me to elaborate. Continue reading →