THE BASICS are many things but basic is not one of them. With a sense of humour so dry it hurts, to a thick layer of what I can only hope is sarcasm, Tim Heath, Wally De Backer and Kris Schroeder offer up some of their valuable time to have a talk with LOUIE SMITH after their set at Fotsun.
So how did you find the gig? I saw a bit of it and it was awesome!
Tim – Thankyou.
Kris – Yeah it was good, it was nice to get up and play a different festival. Different crowd, nice times.
Was it sort of a smaller crowd than what you’re used to?
K – Yeah, it wasn’t too bad they were pretty energetic.
Well Thursday was the premiere of your live film, what prompted you to do that?
T – We had Ryan Gasket and his team come along and film the Northcote Social Club and the footage turned out really well and the audio got mixed really well so we decided that it was something we could release. We had a screening on Thursday night at ACMI in Melbourne and it was great.
You’ve definitely been busy with your own side projects what was it that brought you back together?
T – Ahh it’d been a long time. We’d been apart and thought why not and it’s always good fun. So we said yes to two gigs and that turned into three and that turned into five and that turned into ten.
Wally – Fifty Five…how many gigs did we do like thirty, forty?
K – Maybe twenty something, thirty max.
T – We’re gluttons for punishment.
K – There’s been a few. I just got back from Kenya and I just wanted to catch up, hang out and play a show but as Tim said it just blew out.
Since you’ve been playing again has it sparked some new ideas?
K – Yeah I’ve been writing a bunch of stuff. Wally’s quite busy so every now and then I’ve been putting some notes down. We played a couple of newbie’s even today so we’re just working towards recording another album, which will hopefully happen in the next ahh two to three millennia…some time before the apocalypse.
What’s the highlight of the festival been so far?
K – Getting here.
T – Yeah arriving.
K – And then our other highlight will be leaving…because we know that we’ve done our job well.
T – We just arrived and then played and now we’re here so we haven’t had much time yet, but later on tonight we might enjoy it.
Are you heading straight out of Port?
W – Tomorrow, we’re staying the night.
T – Tomorrow morning, so tonight will be crazy.
Are you going to hang around for The Rubens?
T – Yeah I think we’re going to take some pills…
W – Haha.
K – Do some lines…
T – Do some shots and lines, freak out, get nude…
W – Some ahh Sudafed…
K – Jump off the stage and break a hip…
W – Cepacol, it’s like a wild lozenge…
Well you’ve played here before Wally, what is it that makes you wana come back to fotsun?
W – Well I had a great time last time we were here. It’s great. It’s a very easygoing festival. The audience is lovely. Scott who runs the festival asked us to play and we said yes, it’s as simple as that really.
No thought at all?
W – Well there was some…‘what am I doing that day? Am I washing my hair? Ok no, book it in.’
K – We didn’t think about it until today and then we thought ‘oh did we agree to do that? Oh, oh alright we’ll do it.’
W – After the set Kris rang our agent and said ‘look you’re going to have to pay us we didn’t realise.’
K – I didn’t realise we’d be so terrible.
You were great!
W – Terrible, really terrible.
K – Nooo don’t say that, look at Tim’s head swelling. It used to be tiny.
W – Shrunken head heath we called him.
T – That’s why they call me ping-pong heath.
I love that you all co-ordinate your outfits, a lot of the bands…
W – Dress down.
K – They look shit.
Haha that’s not what I was trying to get at.
W – It’s not their clothes, it’s their faces lets be honest.
K – Yeah we need good clothes because we’re so ugly.
Well it’s been great talking to you.
W – Thankyou. It was great observing your multi-coloured nail polish.
My day of the dead fingernails?
W – Day of the dead?
It’s the theme of the festival…
W – What!?
K – Ohh, no ones come that way at all. There was one girl I saw.
W – Ahh that’s what it is.
T – I just thought it was a trend…