Named after Saul Bellow's novel, Augie March are Australian lit-rock at its finest. Soaring, evocative and sometimes heartbreaking lyrics are one of the reasons the Melbourne-based 5 piece have become the darling of the indie rock scene down under, thanks to vocalist Glenn Richards' long term interest in poetry. Their second full-length album released by BMG in October 2002, "Strange Bird" manages to not only live up to, but transcend its predecessor, "Sunset Studies" which has been described as "Poised, balanced pop-folk-rock, steeped in elliptical snatches of history books, poetry and ghosts." Olivia talked with singer Glenn Richards over email.
OLIVIA: Augie March started off with a somewhat frantic style, almost grazing punk with songs like "Lazy Pines" around 5 years ago, however albums "Sunset Studies" and "Strange Bird" are for the most part slow and melodic. Was there a shift in direction early on?
GLENN RICHARDS: I didn't know what I was doing when I first started, and obviously I still don't otherwise I'd have a marketing job by now. What remains of the approach I took around '95 is a reluctance to become professional in a particular mode or style. If there's energy in your fingers or your temper is up while you're writing, chances are you should give the song a belting to get it home. If your thoughts are measured or your indignance is perhaps more subtle, then you should struggle towards something more rare - in industry terms "slow" and "boring".
O: You've listed personal musical influences as Jeff Buckley, the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Which current musicians inspire you?
GR: Although I admire some of Mr. Buckley's work, I've never regarded it as influential, in fact I'd never heard of him until a good four years into Augie. There aren't a lot of current musicians I listen to, at least not at the moment. There are a few Australian songwriters I admire but most of them have been a long time at the wheel. As far as genuine lyrical writers go, Will Oldham sets a decent example, Nick Cave is always worth paying attention to, and Shane McGowan when the gin isn't winning. I like Tom Waits and Gillian Welch.
O: Which authors or poets would you consider influences?
GR: Usually whoever I'm reading at the time, whether I like it or not. I've taken to reading anthologies lately, like "Rattlebag" which was put together by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes. I think sometimes I'd prefer they all had written at the end of them "by Anon." To be honest I couldn't name one or another, I kind of started a regime of random reading a while ago which consists of finding a piece of writing on something I'm concerned about, (for example, toe cancer), and then looking up the most appropriate or apparent links I find in a given sentence. It's a therapeutic process, it gets rid of anxiety.
O: There is a quote on the band's website from Saul Bellows, the author of "The Adventures of Augie March," part of which reads: "Writing of this
sort is writing which is meant to be passed through the soul, not just absorbed idly, superficially." What feeling or impression are you trying to pass to listeners?
GR: I think it's pretty obvious what Saul Bellow is saying, and I suppose I was just trying to lend some sophistication to the argument (the fact) that modern audiences, modern radio etc. dodge the more difficult and more rewarding work being done. There's arseholes who'll keep telling you that "if it hasn't grabbed you in the first thirty seconds..." etc. Bullshit.
O: I've read that you resent that you don't possess a booming baritone. Are there any male vocalists in particular whose vocal range you covet?
GR: I've been smoking so much that I no longer covet the baritone. I'd like Chet Baker's tone and his ability to hold a note and move it, just like his trumpet playing. Tom Waits' range is probably the most interesting. But you can't covet these abilities, they're earned. I admire them.
O: Do you feel limited by your voice? Would your overall musical direction be changed if your voice was different?
GR: I generally hate hearing my voice, like most people. I hear not only the weakness and the lie of the delivery, but where those flaws are coming from which is my character. You have to be honest, and harsh. I don't work on it, to my great detriment. If you get better at something like an instrument, or your voice broadens, obviously it allows you to become more ambitious. Whether your audience will like it is a different issue.
O: The stories told in your songs seem to take place in different points in Australia's past. What particular point in time inspires you, and why?
GR: It's always the present I'm writing in, it can't be any other way. The presence of the past in my songs is just the feeble means by which the songwriter tries to remind the listener that the past is the present. How's that for a sentence?! There is no particular point in time that has me in shackles, unless I count a couple of periods of crisis in my own history - but that's the same for everyone. And of course they find their way into every honest song I write.
O: The lack of overt sexuality in your lyrics is an island in the sea of smut that popular music has devolved into. Do you consider yourselves part of the morality movement that seems to be sweeping the world at the moment? (e.g. a return to burlesque, pin-up style erotica in favour of hardcore pornography, "family values" in the face of war, saving oneself for marriage increasing in popularity...)
GR: What a good question. I think I'd have to point to a curious streak of conservatism present in every member of this band to explain the cold fish-ness of our music - (I don't think it's really cold fish, just a little ice queen). Despite the fact that we're all sex lovers, and smutty as they come in the tour van stakes, I think there's a willingness to go about it, musically, in a different manner. I tend to intellectualise areas that a lot of people think should be realms of instinct, but what if your instinct is to run a thing through the mill of the mind? So much of the shit people are putting out there is intended to be sexy and dangerous and of course, because it doesn't involve the mind it ends up, at best, an animal display. That said, in this country we've exhumed the corpse of balls out rock'n'roll and it seems to be humping away alright. Ultimately I think it's a look in the eye more than any kind of pelvic motion.
O: Fans are always trying to transcribe the lyrics to your older work, and generally failing miserably. Why don't you set them straight?
GR: 1. Because they're embarrassing. 2. Because our fans are spoilt. 3. Because I don't want to answer questions about a song I wrote when I was 22.
O: Every live Augie March show I've seen seems fraught with technical difficulty. A guitar string snaps, an amp crackles... Are you cursed or just unlucky?
GR: Inept, lazy, poor, unprofessional, cursed, despised, lazy, poor, unhealthy. We'll get it right soon.
O: Why are you so cranky about song requests for titles from your back catalogue? Do you feel you've moved past those songs? Are you embarrassed by them?
GR: Because I'm frustrated, Yes, and Yes.
O: Many Augie March bootlegs and older unreleased tracks seem to be floating about the internet. What do you think of that? Do you stand on either side of the MP3 trading fence?
GR: That makes me angry. I don't mind people's motivations for sharing stuff otherwise unavailable, but because we didn't release it it means that it still belongs to us in philosophical terms. Only when we give something over to public domain does it cease to belong to us. I hate the fact that there are terrible recordings of terrible performances available for anyone to hear. How does that help anybody? If you want a live performance you have to see the band, otherwise all you're getting is a flat piece of noise that doesn't even match it with a desk tape. It has no life, the life has been stolen from it. I understand that it may be the next best thing for people who can't see us, but we're trying to get as far as we can that way and lame bootlegs don't help at all.
O: Has the degree of commercial success Augie March has attained affected your lives at all? Are you able to make a living?
GR: All it means is that the band can keep touring a bit. We're worse off personally because it's impossible to keep a decent job when you tour for long periods. And Centrelink isn't interested in those kinds of excuses. It's actually worse than being in a little known band from that perspective. Nobody knows who we are if that's what you're asking, not on a daily basis. Because it's been going on for so long it's impossible to know what sort of compound effect the band may have had on our lives. It certainly limits us as far as doing what our friends have been doing over the last few years - travelling the world, having money, different occupations, and meeting girls etc. But we've managed to tour this country a few times and met some fine people.
O: Recently you let slip that three quarters of a new Augie March album is written. What can listeners expect to hear?
GR: It's just going to be another record full of different songs. Contrary to what most people seem to think, there was never any intention to make a "mellow" album or a "difficult listening" record in the past, just whatever bunch of crap I've come up with over six months, crudely put together by a shonky band and recorded amateurishly despite the best efforts of some great engineers. So you can expect another album of flawed genius, unexpected departures, delightful wordplay and astonishing variation, likely to be reviewed to within an inch of its precious life and disappearing into the bargain bin within two months.
O: Are you receiving love outside of Australia? Any plans on touring in Europe or the USA?
GR: Indeed we are. There are labels in both continents genuinely in love with the album and we'll be heading over to the UK around June this year. As far as USA, I hope not long after that. There are a number of people who somehow got our records and somehow listened to them long enough to like them, so it's about time we cracked our piggy bank and hopped aboard the whisky longboat to the old country and the cruise missile to the land of pre-emptive elections. Yippee.
visit augie-march.com for tour dates and news from Augie March.
OLIVIA: Augie March started off with a somewhat frantic style, almost grazing punk with songs like "Lazy Pines" around 5 years ago, however albums "Sunset Studies" and "Strange Bird" are for the most part slow and melodic. Was there a shift in direction early on?
GLENN RICHARDS: I didn't know what I was doing when I first started, and obviously I still don't otherwise I'd have a marketing job by now. What remains of the approach I took around '95 is a reluctance to become professional in a particular mode or style. If there's energy in your fingers or your temper is up while you're writing, chances are you should give the song a belting to get it home. If your thoughts are measured or your indignance is perhaps more subtle, then you should struggle towards something more rare - in industry terms "slow" and "boring".
O: You've listed personal musical influences as Jeff Buckley, the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Which current musicians inspire you?
GR: Although I admire some of Mr. Buckley's work, I've never regarded it as influential, in fact I'd never heard of him until a good four years into Augie. There aren't a lot of current musicians I listen to, at least not at the moment. There are a few Australian songwriters I admire but most of them have been a long time at the wheel. As far as genuine lyrical writers go, Will Oldham sets a decent example, Nick Cave is always worth paying attention to, and Shane McGowan when the gin isn't winning. I like Tom Waits and Gillian Welch.
O: Which authors or poets would you consider influences?
GR: Usually whoever I'm reading at the time, whether I like it or not. I've taken to reading anthologies lately, like "Rattlebag" which was put together by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes. I think sometimes I'd prefer they all had written at the end of them "by Anon." To be honest I couldn't name one or another, I kind of started a regime of random reading a while ago which consists of finding a piece of writing on something I'm concerned about, (for example, toe cancer), and then looking up the most appropriate or apparent links I find in a given sentence. It's a therapeutic process, it gets rid of anxiety.
O: There is a quote on the band's website from Saul Bellows, the author of "The Adventures of Augie March," part of which reads: "Writing of this
sort is writing which is meant to be passed through the soul, not just absorbed idly, superficially." What feeling or impression are you trying to pass to listeners?
GR: I think it's pretty obvious what Saul Bellow is saying, and I suppose I was just trying to lend some sophistication to the argument (the fact) that modern audiences, modern radio etc. dodge the more difficult and more rewarding work being done. There's arseholes who'll keep telling you that "if it hasn't grabbed you in the first thirty seconds..." etc. Bullshit.
O: I've read that you resent that you don't possess a booming baritone. Are there any male vocalists in particular whose vocal range you covet?
GR: I've been smoking so much that I no longer covet the baritone. I'd like Chet Baker's tone and his ability to hold a note and move it, just like his trumpet playing. Tom Waits' range is probably the most interesting. But you can't covet these abilities, they're earned. I admire them.
O: Do you feel limited by your voice? Would your overall musical direction be changed if your voice was different?
GR: I generally hate hearing my voice, like most people. I hear not only the weakness and the lie of the delivery, but where those flaws are coming from which is my character. You have to be honest, and harsh. I don't work on it, to my great detriment. If you get better at something like an instrument, or your voice broadens, obviously it allows you to become more ambitious. Whether your audience will like it is a different issue.
O: The stories told in your songs seem to take place in different points in Australia's past. What particular point in time inspires you, and why?
GR: It's always the present I'm writing in, it can't be any other way. The presence of the past in my songs is just the feeble means by which the songwriter tries to remind the listener that the past is the present. How's that for a sentence?! There is no particular point in time that has me in shackles, unless I count a couple of periods of crisis in my own history - but that's the same for everyone. And of course they find their way into every honest song I write.
O: The lack of overt sexuality in your lyrics is an island in the sea of smut that popular music has devolved into. Do you consider yourselves part of the morality movement that seems to be sweeping the world at the moment? (e.g. a return to burlesque, pin-up style erotica in favour of hardcore pornography, "family values" in the face of war, saving oneself for marriage increasing in popularity...)
GR: What a good question. I think I'd have to point to a curious streak of conservatism present in every member of this band to explain the cold fish-ness of our music - (I don't think it's really cold fish, just a little ice queen). Despite the fact that we're all sex lovers, and smutty as they come in the tour van stakes, I think there's a willingness to go about it, musically, in a different manner. I tend to intellectualise areas that a lot of people think should be realms of instinct, but what if your instinct is to run a thing through the mill of the mind? So much of the shit people are putting out there is intended to be sexy and dangerous and of course, because it doesn't involve the mind it ends up, at best, an animal display. That said, in this country we've exhumed the corpse of balls out rock'n'roll and it seems to be humping away alright. Ultimately I think it's a look in the eye more than any kind of pelvic motion.
O: Fans are always trying to transcribe the lyrics to your older work, and generally failing miserably. Why don't you set them straight?
GR: 1. Because they're embarrassing. 2. Because our fans are spoilt. 3. Because I don't want to answer questions about a song I wrote when I was 22.
O: Every live Augie March show I've seen seems fraught with technical difficulty. A guitar string snaps, an amp crackles... Are you cursed or just unlucky?
GR: Inept, lazy, poor, unprofessional, cursed, despised, lazy, poor, unhealthy. We'll get it right soon.
O: Why are you so cranky about song requests for titles from your back catalogue? Do you feel you've moved past those songs? Are you embarrassed by them?
GR: Because I'm frustrated, Yes, and Yes.
O: Many Augie March bootlegs and older unreleased tracks seem to be floating about the internet. What do you think of that? Do you stand on either side of the MP3 trading fence?
GR: That makes me angry. I don't mind people's motivations for sharing stuff otherwise unavailable, but because we didn't release it it means that it still belongs to us in philosophical terms. Only when we give something over to public domain does it cease to belong to us. I hate the fact that there are terrible recordings of terrible performances available for anyone to hear. How does that help anybody? If you want a live performance you have to see the band, otherwise all you're getting is a flat piece of noise that doesn't even match it with a desk tape. It has no life, the life has been stolen from it. I understand that it may be the next best thing for people who can't see us, but we're trying to get as far as we can that way and lame bootlegs don't help at all.
O: Has the degree of commercial success Augie March has attained affected your lives at all? Are you able to make a living?
GR: All it means is that the band can keep touring a bit. We're worse off personally because it's impossible to keep a decent job when you tour for long periods. And Centrelink isn't interested in those kinds of excuses. It's actually worse than being in a little known band from that perspective. Nobody knows who we are if that's what you're asking, not on a daily basis. Because it's been going on for so long it's impossible to know what sort of compound effect the band may have had on our lives. It certainly limits us as far as doing what our friends have been doing over the last few years - travelling the world, having money, different occupations, and meeting girls etc. But we've managed to tour this country a few times and met some fine people.
O: Recently you let slip that three quarters of a new Augie March album is written. What can listeners expect to hear?
GR: It's just going to be another record full of different songs. Contrary to what most people seem to think, there was never any intention to make a "mellow" album or a "difficult listening" record in the past, just whatever bunch of crap I've come up with over six months, crudely put together by a shonky band and recorded amateurishly despite the best efforts of some great engineers. So you can expect another album of flawed genius, unexpected departures, delightful wordplay and astonishing variation, likely to be reviewed to within an inch of its precious life and disappearing into the bargain bin within two months.
O: Are you receiving love outside of Australia? Any plans on touring in Europe or the USA?
GR: Indeed we are. There are labels in both continents genuinely in love with the album and we'll be heading over to the UK around June this year. As far as USA, I hope not long after that. There are a number of people who somehow got our records and somehow listened to them long enough to like them, so it's about time we cracked our piggy bank and hopped aboard the whisky longboat to the old country and the cruise missile to the land of pre-emptive elections. Yippee.
visit augie-march.com for tour dates and news from Augie March.
VIEW 9 of 9 COMMENTS
stiffo12:
woohoo,, these guys are awesome have seen them live a few times,, and their song one crowded hour moves me everytime i hear it
issue_:
i approve of your thread bumpage ways.