Midsumma 24, Bailer 26, Dry Cleaning

My chat with Dry Cleaning may have gotten off on the wrong foot, musing on how they have broken out as an indie darling at a more mature adulting age than is typical.

Credit Steve Gullick

DRY CLEANING

Words by Andy Brewer

I’ve already christened their full band Zoom appearance a democracy, an institution perhaps on the wane in the UK, but in this house the speakers perform sentences by committee. My initial suggestion that they’re getting on in years (if not as much as myself) is taken on the chin as Nick Buxton (drums) retorts: “We’re pretty close. Closer than you might expect.” Florence Shaw (vocals): “We look beautiful and young and youthful but we’re not.”

Lewis Maynard (bass): “And we feel fresh.”

Florence: “We’re feeling very fresh. But yeah we’re not. We’re mouldy.”

“It was born out of what we each like to do and partly out of me being a beginner and wanting to do something accessible like talking.”

Unbeknownst to me, this fungal issue is likely relative to their having fully savoured the night airs of Cologne the night before - hence their being propped up in hotel beds and gifting the conference call a bare minimum of eye contact. Nick continues, “I don’t think any of us would have handled this situation well in our twenties. It is a lot of fun, it’s an amazing experience, but I think if this had happened to me when I was younger I would have really fucked it up”.

Tom Dowse (guitar): “We wouldn’t have been on this call for a start.”

Lewis: “We wouldn’t have woken up. We’re now responsible adults.”

Florence: “We’re very mature.”

Starting a band at such a ripe old age could mean that in place of youthful naïveté one could even be jaded, but Nick quickly jumps in, “Oh if we were jaded we wouldn’t be doing it”. I clarify that the musical knowledge and fully formed influences they’ve garnered grants a perspective where they might hear something new and instantly know the derivation, “Oh they’re ripping off blah”.

Nick takes my lead, “I know what you mean and I feel a bit of that and at the same time I feel like this is the richest creative period of my musical life. Obviously I’ve got more time to put into it now. But also I feel very free and I think this band offers us a space to operate in that we didn’t necessarily have in other projects.”

This seems as good a time as any to throw a hoary music journo cliche into the pot, but I’ve an excuse for the aberration which I nervously attempt to detail while gesticulating wildly. For all the glorious albums that have emerged to offer some small recompense from the COVID era, Dry Cleaning was one that made me sit up straight and say, “What’s all this then?” before keenly pondering unlikely relationships to artists like spoken word dabbling stoners Bongwater, council estate lo-fi Television Personalities, niche peculiarities Midget Handjob, rock poet Patti Smith and, now familiar with Florence Shaw’s inquisitive, contrasting and just damn effective collage lyricism, most pertinently, William Burroughs’ tape collages on Break Through In Grey Room. Knowing the likelihood of disappointment- these are no conceptual art rock wankers- one still cannot resist asking if there’s an origin story. Not Peter Parker meets spider, but could there have been a conceptualisation of their sound or was it entirely organic? Florence breaks the news gently, “The real answer is probably annoying. Right there when you were like, ‘Was it organic and boom there was Dry Cleaning?’, unfortunately that was true. It would be easier if there was more of a story, like we made a plan - but it was very casual.

“It was born out of what we each like to do and partly out of me being a beginner and wanting to do something accessible like talking.”

“We had snippets of conversation, I was nervous to come to the rehearsal so Nick sent a few songs to me, like ‘You don’t have to just belt out a number, you can be a front person in whatever way you want’.” Reading elsewhere you’ll find these songs may have included Grace Jones, but I’ve granted an exemption from naming names. “(It was) just to remind me that I shouldn’t get in my head too much. But that was literally a text, it wasn’t, ‘Now let’s have a meeting’. It was one text and then I went ‘Oh yeah’. It was very organic, which sounds like such bullshit, but it was.”

Florence is still feeling guilty for trampling on my dreams, “The references you mentioned are nice to hear really because we get a lot of ‘Oh it’s like The Fall’ or whatever. I really like The Fall but I don’t see a massive parallel.” I forcibly interrupt her to agree in that Mark E Smith was frequently completely unintelligible, a foible Shaw does not suffer. With mirth, she proceeds, “Even something like Patti Smith is interesting because I don’t have any memory of anyone ever mentioning her before. Which I find really surprising. People always stick to the usual suspects. So it’s interesting, that’s a broader pond that you mentioned.”

While Poppies (Radio Ethiopia) is a fun counterpoint, it is a beat poet friend of Patti’s that fans of Dry Cleaning’s lyrical methodology should look up. Explaining how Burroughs spliced and manipulated tape recordings to achieve his own collage technique even piques the band’s interest. Aside from attributions to The Fall, Magazine, Wire, journalists far and wide have been twisting themselves in knots to provide a moniker for their sound; while post punk seems lazy, I profess some glee for one encompassing label “post punk anti poet”, particularly its possible glancing aside to NYC’s Sidewalk Cafe music scene. While amused, Florence is having none of it. “I don’t get the anti”. The collage perhaps? “Yeah but I think that’s a legit way to write. All these terms, if you get stuck into them they drive you a bit mad.” It is entirely legitimate; Burroughs deemed his tape poetry collages an attempt to evolve his art form to keep up with modern visual art movements.

“Sometimes I think we should start calling ourselves pre punk,” says Nick. “We have much more direct influences from bands like Sabbath or the movement in the mid 70s that came just before punk. Those early rock and roll bands. It’s a weird thing the post punk, it gets used a lot.” Listening now, adorned in a “PRAISE IOMMI” hoodie, it’s not Sabbath that emerges, rather the expertly produced maelstrom of guitar, bass and drums with Florence floating singularly above the eye of the storm. In fact, I rather wish for a yarn with Tom about the interplay between Morrissey and Marr, but one might infer from reticence that his night in Cologne had extra sauce. Indeed, Tom draws the curtain for Nick, “This stuff only happens in interviews, we don’t ever talk about what we are - we just get on with it.” Lewis provides more finality, “The post punk (comparison) is so weak unless you view almost all guitar music post Sex Pistols as post punk.” Indeed. In farewell, and querying what audiences can expect from the band’s upcoming Australia tour, I’m promised a bouillabaisse of material from the records and Lewis has some discoveries awaiting, “I’m still confused by chicken salt - I heard that it’s green.”

Dry Cleaning are playing Meredith from December 9-11 and The Corner Hotel on December 12 and 13.

DAREBIN ARTS SPEAKEASY

Although it can pass in what feels like the blink of an eye, surviving ten years in show biz is no small feat, and even more impressive when you throw a global pandemic into the fray. However, that’s exactly what Darebin Arts Speakeasy is celebrating – an entire decade of ground-breaking and award-winning performing arts.

Words by Joanne Brookfield

Since 2013, Darebin City Council’s Speakeasy program has invested in contemporary dance, circus, theatre and multi-disciplinary work that speaks to issues that matter to the community, celebrate cultural diversity and reflect the times we’re living in. Behind it all is a team led by Beau McCafferty, Head of Programming, who works closely with a diverse curatorial panel of artists when selecting each year’s offerings, which are performed at the Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre and the Darebin Arts Centre. He admits, when he was first brought on from Melbourne Fringe to set things up, that he didn’t quite expect to hit this milestone. “Most arts programs last only a few years,” he laments. While Darebin Arts Speakeasy “has definitely changed and adapted over time” he says that one of the keys to their success was the fact they focused on building trust with audiences and artists. “I brought with me my knowledge and networks of creative workers whom we consulted with for months before setting up a program that would provide certainty for planning ambitious works, whilst also elevating under represented voices,” McCafferty says of the program that is designed to best suit the needs of artists and creative companies “in an in-depth way”. They are not a venue for hire, in that artists must pay to play. Instead, what they offer is the space, equipment, staffing and a generous fee up front for artists. “This means that artists don’t have to rely so heavily upon the risk involved with box office earnings,” he explains, adding that the financial certainty this provides, often being shored up early in the creative process, means other funding bodies can also come on board. “By coordinating across the arts sector and having longer timelines, it opens up more opportunities,” he says. It’s been a winning strategy, and they have the impressive stats to prove it. So far Darebin Arts Speakeasy has supported over 1,500 artists to create over 150 original works presented to over 75,000 patrons, receiving 40 creative industry awards and a further 116 nominations. “There are so many artists and creatives who have worked on multiple shows with us over the years and also work on main stage productions, tour work with different companies and organisations and have created impressive careers,” says McCafferty, who when asked to nominate some examples names companies like RAWCUS, The Hayloft Project and Little Ones Theatre.

“One that is hard to go past is ILBIJERRI Theatre Company’s show Coranderrk with Uncle Jack Charles in the lead. It sold out before opening night and then got 5 star reviews,” recalls McCafferty. “Another would be Hot Brown Honey which now tours the world…. Presenting Stella Young’s only solo comedy show Tales From the Crip is something I’m so glad we got to do before she sadly passed away,” he says.

McCafferty points out that the program has also launched the careers of those who don’t appear on stage themselves. “Lighting designer Amelia Lever-Davidson and designer Romanie Harper. Another example is Stephanie Lake, who is now one of Australia’s hottest choreographers currently experiencing a lot of international success. When she first took the plunge to form her own company we presented two of their earlier works. It was wonderful to be a part of the arts ecology that helped support a newer company as it established itself”.

Darebin Arts Speakeasy show no signs of slowing down, having just announced their 2023 season. The first half of the season, which takes place from March through to July, will feature wellknown companies, hot young ensembles, and talented emerging artists, presenting two new plays, three contemporary dance works, and a cutting edge First Nationsled circus company.

McCafferty says at Darebin Arts the top priority has always been about supporting new works by Australian artists and arts organisations to reflect community diversity and share stories that matter, to offer audiences “thrilling arts experiences”.

For more information on the Darebin Arts Speakeasy 2023 program, head to arts.darebin.vic.gov.au. This article was made in partnership with Darebin Arts.