AT LAST! - THE PHIL GRINHAM HEY MOOK INTERVIEW!
Winter 1991
HEY MOOK are touted by many as the finest original band to come out of Hobart. Other people say "never heard of them", for the Mooks play only very occasionally but very passionately when they do appear. Their music is drawn from the same well as Paul Westerberg's and Alex Chilton's, both of which seem to require an element of the enigmatic.
Mook history is a scattered and sometimes intangible text. Based on the legend of The Reserves (circa 1980), the Mooks first appeared as The First Third in 1987. Kim (vocals,guitar) and Adrien (drums, vocals) were both members of The Reserves, a prime evil verson of the Mooks. Kim's nephews were mentally altered by this all original band and managed to revive the old men and the C chords. These nephews, Jonathon (bass, vocals) and Simon (guitar, vocals) had paid their dues in the much ignored Laminated Snails. So the Mooks were born. More recently the Monsieur Hulot of Tasmainian rock and roll, Rodney Febey, has augmented their familial ranks.
Through a series of spasmodic gigs and passionate practices, the Mooks have got to the rarefied (in Hobart) stage of playing all originals. Time has been spent in the studio and some electronic harvest is due (see review). the mooks are very fond of little intimate bars filled with elderly patrons and bad wallpaper. So it was that one indifferent Tuesday night we met at the Crescent Hotel for a beer and a chat about songwriting.
PP: Why don't you do more live gigs?
K: Personally, I've been a bit stressed when we haven't played more often but..
S: When we play there's a cycle of writing songs and getting ready to play and that really determines it more than anything else.
PP:What is your songwriting process?
S: Kim brings a song along and we go yeah and we nearly always love it.
99.9% of the time .
It's really made up on the spot.
Jonathon starts with a bass line and in the end he's got just what he wants.
I'll mess around until I've got a riff that I quite like and it builds from there.
Phoebe will bring in his bit.. and then Kim will say it shouldn't really be like that... then we keep playing the way we want it.
If kim's reallly unhappy he'll keep complaining and we'll change it a bit.
There are four or five songs we've had for years that have never worked.
PP: What makes for a good cover song?
J: Two things, I reckon... two chords!
S: The ones we keep for the end, the old thrashy numbers... you go berserk and they're easy to play and the crowd likes them... they've got to know them like "Hospital" and "Bastards of Young"... we never practice them.
K: I think covers are good.
S: They're fun for us.
K: I mean you can warp the shit out of them... I've been missing "SOS".
PP: But that's a different attitude to the note for note crowd.
K: Yeah, but that's sad.
S: We can't play it note for note.
PP: (to Kim) Do you feel any ownership on the songs?
K: Yeah, yeah, there is a bit.
PP: Are you possessive about your songs?
K: Hell no! I mean it's a band.
S:We've always said if we were going to copyright them it would be Mooks down the line.
K: I like to think I can still play the songs I write accoustically... but then that's what you're in a band for you have five different brains... I don't know how other people work on writing songs. I have a lyric and a melody and I take it along and I go like this (strums air guitar) and Jonathon adds a bit. Everyone does their little bit.
S: It's never that simple.
K: I'm not even a musician.
S: (in a posh tone) You're an artist Kim.
K: No, I'm not. I like to think of myself as someone who can string along a few chords that are a bit different.
J: It's never a question of key, it's always G and C.
Ph: Some of the chord structures are really weird though.
K: It's a real band process.
S: Yeah putting the flesh on the bone.
Writing the songs has the same sort of passion as when we play live.
Kim's walked out on more than one occasion.
K: I have?!!
S: We all have. I kicked him out of the car not so long ago.
K: yeah, but that's about playing live. We've almost come to fists, but the bottom line is that we are really good friends. That is very important. There are more Mooks than five really. About twelve Mooks, publicity officers, poster people, Gerard, Shan, Jarry and all the others.
PP: You have a tight family background and are a tight unit. Why Phoebe? (Much spraying of beer and chortling.)
K: Phoebe's always been a Mook.
S: Jonathon and Kim got on the piss with Phoebe one day and kim rang up and said, "I've got Phoebe". And I said, "What have you done?" (much chortlings)
Ph: We've always been drinking buddies.
K: Also, he's added colour to the band.
PP: Yeah, an off pale.
S: Yeah, a lighter shade of green.
K: he'd left the Pleasure heads and he was drinking with us.
S: It was just over a couple of drinks and Phoebe didn't have a band so we asked him, "Do you want to come along to a practice?"
K: And we got drunk.
S: He was our first publicity shot and he wasn't even in the band. That's how it was you know, a few keyboards here and there would be good.
PP: Did it open up more possibilities for your songwriting?
K: God, yes!
S: Kim and I were playing a lot of the same things but nowadays I don't play as much.
K: Well, he doesn't know what I'm playing.
S: I couldn't tell you what he's doing. Phoebe does one thing, I do another. It's made us a bit smarter about what we're doing.
PP: Phoebe brings a lot of experience to the band. Phoebe hasn't been out of a band since...
J: The last four centuries
Ph: I don't think I'm ... I'm just one fifth of it. Everyone's equal. No instrument is more important than another.
PP: Was there an early tendency to get out there and just slam it out?
S: And a lot of that was out of fear.
J: We covered up with noise.
S: I used to spend half the time in the toilet before a gig.
PP: Is there a big response to original material in Hobart?
S: There wasn't for us for a long time.
K: I think it's a total load of bullshit... you know you read the paper on a Thursday... not only for wayne's reviews.. but for bands saying, The audience wants this or that and we're trying to throw a few of our own songs in" and that sort of shit.
S: Part of our thing, and I think it's been subconscious, is that we've liked what we have been doing so much that we want other people to like it too. We don't think about it.
Ph: I've always liked the bands in hobart that have played original songs...
K: And you've got to say goddam this is an original.
J: But it's the only bloody point. You're pissing in the wind if you do anything else but originals.
PP: What about the Top 40 bands in Hobart who go for the buck? Do you respect them?
J: No.
K: Not really, but I've learnt to respect bands.
S: yeah, I respect bands.
Ph: It's hard enough to get any band together.
PP: Is a musician for you someone who has a certain amount of technical expertise?
S: I wouldn't say that any of us would say that we were musicians in a technical sense.
K: I would consider four members of the band reasonable musicians and I'm a bit of a plodder.
S: One thing these days is having Plop and Paul mix for us.
K: They play football with us!
S: We've always needed someone to mix us cause we've always been so...
K: Unprofessional, sloppy.
Ph: Plop has always tried to get me to learn mixing and plugging knobs in, but I won't do it because then he'll make me do more things.
K: They've taken an interest and think we've got good songs so therefore... well, it's good friends again.
S: I'll listen to Plop when he says my guitar's too loud. It's a real respect thing. It's about trusting the people you're working with. It used to be fists and things with other mixers.
K: partly our own fault.
PP: So a certain amount of production is necessary?
S: Shit, yeah. I mean we've even got lights now. (laughter, chortle)
Ph: Plop and Paul roll up and take care of it.
S: Plop has got the best ears on that side of the desk and Paul in the studio is just great. He really knows what's going on.
PP: Would you like to see all Hobart bands actively involved in original material?
S: I remember saying to you a year ago, why isn't there a fraternity of bands playing original music? Why can't it happen here as much as anywhere?
J: It's the enigma of being in Hobart.
K: The enigma! Write that down.
S: With the Dream Weavers and Marcia Brady's Boyfriends we'll be there going yeah. There playing good originals.
K: The Dream Weavers are a wonderful band.
Ph: And jolly good chaps too.
K: A marvellous band.
J: Their vocals are something to look up to.
Ph: (aside)I would have preferred to be in somebody's house because it would have been cheaper.
PP: The usual routine is to write songs, record them and go to the mainland. You've done two, what of third?
J: We like living in Hobart.
K: We'd rather sit in the park... I just bought a house.
S: Mind you if there was enough interest in playing on the mainland we'd go, then come home.
K: Simple as that... I like being here.
S: We've done some recording lately. If we get something good out of it we'll do a record.
K: Very romantic maybe, but true.
S: If The Chills can come out of Dunedin, who knows what can come out of Hobart?
Ph: Tasmania is a lot more bizarre than New Zealand.
PP: What's special about The Replacements?
S: Well, there's something about it that makes me want to cry. It's brilliant.
K: He's a fine singer.
S: I guess it's the some kind of honesty with Westerberg. You know that he farts and eats and sleeps.
K: "How old am I, lets count the rings around my eyes."
S: Yeah.
K: Yeah, The Replacements, Big Star, Chilton, The Db's, The Band, The Byrds, Campervan Beethoven... J, Husker Du.
PP: What's the nature of an influence?
S: Something you wouldn't dare touch, I reckon. If we cover bands we really love like Chilton or The Replacements, we do their easy songs.
K: I get really worried by Chris Stamey because I think I rip him off.
PP: Is this hero worship? Would you have a beer with these people?
S: I'd love to.
K: On a really sad occasion, I wrote to Michael Hurley (John Prine sort of character) and he sent me a tape and didn't write back... upset me.
"They are a tight knit group and their tape is a result of their friendships' with all those Mooks that surround them. Accordingly, they celebrate intimacy and deplore it's loss."
S: I think it's hero worship. you see these things in yourself and see those things in them. The Beatles' influence on us is huge. Phoebe brought a lot of that back into the band. Phoebe's riffs are very Beatlesque.
Ph: My record collection consists of lots of Beatles up to 1970 and a couple of other albums and that's about it.
PP: "Decomposing Under Heaven" has some nice keyboards.
K: Yeah, Sooty meets Daryl Braithwaite.
PP: What's Hobart's best venue?
J: There isn't one.
S: The Dog House has been very good to us.
J: It's the only place you can play comfortably.
S: Lee at the Brisbane is one of the top barmen. But too often the Brisbane is full of sixteen year old metal heads and we really don't fit that. The Tasmanian University Union doesn't employ bands that play original music. The Ship Hotel basement should always have been a good venue, but never is and we all know why.
PP: (At this point we all wished Phoebe a happy birthday and drank a few toasts.) Is recording tedious?
S: No, not tedious.
K: You listen to songs more and become a bit smarter about them.
S: You think more about your own bits and what you're doing.
PP: What about the idea that "Rory Jack" could be released?
J: What, as a single or out of prison?
S: It's a bit of a worry.
K: I want to write a song about Dr Boughey.
S: Rory Jack should be in the jug forever.
J: He shouldn't be released.
K: That song is basically see-saw marjory daw.
J: It's a scary nursery rhyme.
S: It's not about whether Rory is right or wrong, it's about things like that happeneing. "Mr Paton" is another true story. It's funny how people latch onto the bad things. One of our favorite songs is "Affection" and that's about good things.
PP: Would you make a video?
S: Yeah, we'd do that.
Ph: The best place is on top of our practice room.
K: ... And down the Rivulet. Everyone should go down the Rivulet. Under the Domain they've diverted the Rivulet so it went under Macquarie Point and there's a huge cave-like thing... it's beautiful.
S: Westerberg says videos stink and he may be right, but I still like seeing Westerberg on video.
PP: Anything else?
J: I saw Camper Van Beethoven once, bungy jumping off a bridge in New Zealand!
Many of the elements of our Crescent conversation reappeared in the recent live and recorded offering from the Mooks. Firstly, they performed two nights in row at the Dog House. One for their own benefit, celebrating the release of their tape "Accordion Hufcor Doors" and the second, for the benefit of this highly esteemed publication.
The tape launch was complete with wine and cheese (a sedate beginning for any night at the Dog House), and a powerful performance by Mau Mau Menace. The Mooks themselves seemed somewhat subdued, uncomfortable perhaps, at being the main attraction. At the PRESS PRESS benefit, they played first before Crucial Fiction and their own favorites The Dream Weavers. On this occasion they were back to their very best. Less pressure, more beer and less cheese saw them put in a rollicking and formidable set.
ACCORDION HUFCOR DOORS
BY HEY MOOK: A REVIEW
It's all there on tape. the enigmatic, the traditional, the humour, the compassion and the love of simple intimacy. Interviewed in the Crescent, they mourned the loss of it's kin, the Clarendon ("Brick By Brick"). They despise "the fast buck ride" of fast track development ("Decomposing Under Heaven"). The terror of personal darkness is explored in "Rory Jack", "Mr Paton" and "Abortion 1917." Their debt to THE RESERVES stands here in the form of their old song " Waiting For An Order ". Personal relationships that survive and blossom ("Affection") under these pressures seem to be their notion of salvation. They are a tight knit group and their tape is a result of their friendships' with all those Mooks that surround them. Accordingly, they clebrate intimacy and deplore it's loss. Kim's lyrics so often reflect traditional images such as the sea, the stars and the clouds, the natural versus the overated need for progress. Progress yes, but personal development rather than burying people in brick hotels. This is not to say that Kim is not the master of the clever phrase (which he is), but to quote them is to take them out of context. Listen for yourself.
Musically the variety is enourmous. From the Beatlesque ska of "Affection" to the country feel of "Decomposing Under Heaven", the Mooks cover the essence of their influences. Phoebe's versatility is continually apparent. His sax, mandolin, harmonica, delicate keyboard figures, slide, acoustic and electric guitar playing add a rich colour to the songs. Kim's voice evokes Al Stewart, Ian Hunter (especially on "Brick BY Brick") and, of course, Mr Chilton. The real revelation is Simon's guitar playing (maybe because I'm a guitarist), a mixture of Neil Young and Lou Reed, it stands as a perfect foil to Kim's vocals. The production undertaken by Plop and Paul Roberts creates a lot of space in songs that can have up to eight instruments. This is no mean feat. The intricate arrangements are cleverly thought out and show a great interest in dynamic range. There is the thrash of "Ham and Eggs" and the simple accoustic pleasure of "Hook, Line and Sinker", featuring the textured violin of the much acclaimed Immy.
The tape's title is taken quite arbitarily from a factory wall near their practice room. I'm sure if they named a cocktail after the Mooks it would be a six ounce beer. What other tape salutes its ending with a blast from a kazoo.
PRESS PRESS June 1991