Thanks so much to Darran McCrann for the interview! Some months ago I discovered a couple of songs on Soundcloud. There was no band name, but the credits of the two songwriters, McCrann and Firmager. I found they had been based in Ireland and Australia. Lots of things weren’t clear. But the songs were good. I wanted to know more. Not too long ago Darran got in touch and was kind enough to answer all of my questions with detail. I’m very happy to have learned a bit about their story. Check Tripoli out!

++ Hi Darran! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

That’s for showing interest and taking the time. Yes and no, occasionally I still collaborate with Liam Firmager (we’ve worked together on and off since the Tripoli-era). Recently I helped an old bandmate Phil Dean of The Snow Ponies to arrange some tracks from his forthcoming album to be released later in 2026.

++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?

‘Top of the Pops’ was a major weekly event in our house in Ireland, I remember watching it in the late 1970’s on a portable black and white TV. There’s a picture of me at the age of three miming into a kettle lead, standing on the kitchen bench. I guess I’m still an expert with one to this day. We did have an acoustic guitar in the house, which was red and possessed. I’d knocked it over as a toddler and the terrifying sound would later haunt my nightmares. It’s probably the beginning of all of the trauma. Anyhow I learned to play an acoustic in my teenage years, finger picking was always a preference.

There was always music on in our house and we had one of those giant radiograms. From the age of seven, I would DJ playing the bubblegum pop singles that one of my younger aunts had left before moving overseas. The first time my brain recognised something that resonated, was hearing the melancholic sounds of The Everly Brothers, Del Shannon, and Roy Orbison. Later, obsessed with all of the pop bands of the early 1980’s though too young to understand alternative music, I remember singles like U2’s The Unforgettable Fire. As a teenager I became obsessed with The Smiths, The Cure and all the usual alternative music that fed into the 1990’s.

++ Had you been in other bands before Tripoli?

After moving to Australia, I started writing with guitarist Liam Firmager (later of Tripoli/The Jet Set/The Kissingers) at the age of sixteen in 1991. Liam ran a record shop in Bendigo, a rural town in Victoria, Australia. He’d lived with his family in Ireland and the U.K. and so we had a common music background and references. It was the pre-grunge-era so hair metal was the order of the day with Guns’n’Roses blaring at every traffic light. It seemed so out of touch, music that was more fantasy than reality, so our job was to do the opposite. The early songs influenced by U2, REM with me yodelling over the top with cringe inducing Morrissey-esque flourishes. Andrew McHardy joined us on drums and Ty Pendlebury on bass. We recorded a lot on a four track machine but never gigged. After Liam moved back to Ireland I kept working with Ty and Andrew, joined by a guitarist named Jeremy Dellar. We recorded some new material and played a few shows in the local bars around that time. I think those guys were really into Talking Heads, so that influence is there.

++ What about the other band members? Were they in other bands too?

Liam and I were the principal songwriting partnership. I think Liam preferred to write and wasn’t keen on performing and he’d worked in rehearsal with some others before. After relocating back to Dublin in 1994, after working with a few line ups, Including Chris McDonnell on bass we enlisted Joe Collins and a drummer called Mark (whose surname is lost to me) who got nicknamed ‘Sparky’ due to his reticent manner and air of someone in the grips of an ongoing breakdown. That lineup of the band was short-lived. Most of them had dabbled in other bands but in a limited capacity.

++ Where were you from originally?

I was born in Sligo, Ireland, it’s a town on the North West coast of Ireland. My parents were working class and had a massive extended family. It’s a place where it rains all the time in seventeen variants (heavy, frizzy, saturating, horizontal, etc.) We moved to Australia in 1986, which was for a twelve year old like being moved to Mars, I hated it! The later teenage years were better but I jumped at the chance to return to Ireland. Liam was born in Australia, but had lived in the UK, he’d followed a family member back to Ireland and had found himself a flat in the Northside of Dublin. I think he met Joe and Mark through contacts working at a local restaurant.

++ How was Dublin at the time of Tripoli? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

I think we made a catastrophic error by starting in Dublin. By the time we got our act together Britpop had taken off and the local music scene seemed dead in the water. The first gig was at a now closed venue on O’Connell Street. We played at Slattery’s on Capel Street (run by the terrifyingly monikered local impresario, Smiley Bulger) then upstairs at The Attic on the quays and later at Eamonn Dorans in TempleBar (venue for Radiohead’s first Irish show etc.).

Tower Records though a U.S. chain was a staple, and where at the behest of Liam I picked up a copy of Love’s Forever Changes. Working in Temple Bar there were two great record stores, both whose name I can’t recall. Some great artists would pass through Dublin, I recall bumping into the rhythm section from Supergrass on their In It For the Money tour in one and bought a copy of Tim Buckley’s Goodbye and Hello from the other. Pulp had just released Different Class, it was an exciting time.

The local songwriter scene was better though, so I would go out solo to a weekly gathering upstairs at The International Bar, Glenn Hansard (The Frames) and the solo artists Damien Dempsey and Paddy Casey (all still active) would play. There was no amplification, you just had the guitar and your voice. It taught me a lot.

The bigger influences for me at the time were from the UK and the US. I saw Throwing Muses, The Bluetones, Suede etc. all in small to medium sized venues. Though not a big fan, the energy at the first Oasis Dublin gig at a 500 capacity venue was something else, fey was out and dumb and blunt music was back in fashion. Within Ireland however, The Cranberries reigned and that abomination set to music, the song Zombie, was everywhere. With the Britpop-lite of Menswear and pseudo-alternative protest rock from Alanis Morrissette, a bugle from an apocalyptic horseman had sounded, the end was that scene was nigh.

++ What were your favourite bands in your area at the time? Was there any that you think deserved more attention, that should have been bigger?

None really during this era, we were very disconnected. Later when Liam and I returned to Melbourne, Australia and formed The Jet Set (and later The Kissingers) in Melbourne we would rub shoulders with a lot of great underrated bands. At that point we were playing gigs there every week or so and were much more involved with what was going on. There was a buzz around the early 2000’s in that town. Plastic Palace Alice and Phil Dean’s Zeptepi could have received a lot more attention.

++ How was the band put together? How was the recruiting process?

Conscription, but inspired by the methods of Stalin’s apparatchiks. No, it was all very organic, I think Liam met Joe at work and someone told us that Mark had a drum kit. This turned out to be true so he was hired.

++ Was there any lineup changes in the band?

Yes, the original drummer was Gareth O’Hanlon, a lad from the same housing estate as me in Sligo. I remember ringing him to come to rehearsal one day and his excuse was that it was raining, since it rains a lot in Ireland sadly he tapered off. Chris McDonnell on bass was a big lad who played rugby, an absolutely lovely guy but he looked so intimidating that the audience never got around to heckling us. After his time was up Joe came in, his style was more springy and he brought a playful sense of counter melody. It’s what you can hear on the version of Sydney from this era.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

We rehearsed constantly, initially at a flat in Munster St in Phibsborough, a house divided into flats where Liam and I lived. Later on we moved to a rehearsal studio (now defunct) on Ormond Quay in the city. Typically Liam would come with a chord pattern and we’d kind of trash it out until it had more structure. Then he would go off and perhaps demo the tracks on his 8 track portable studio, and then we’d finish the song in rehearsal. Typically I wrote most of the lyrics and would just improvise over the band in rehearsal or via a demo on cassette, sometimes Liam would give me a line or phrase as an initial idea. Once the melody had formed I would sit down and write some drafts. For the other songs you mentioned Prescriptions and Tonight (Around Your Elevations) these were written and recorded by Liam and I in his flat in Iona Road, Glasnevin.

Around that time I moved into a house with the ex-bassist Chris and the new bassist Joe. We had amps and a drum kit set up in a living room at the back of the house, so we would rehearse constantly. It was a great time, very productive. The neighbours were thrilled.

++ What about influences?

I had been obsessed with Kristen Hersh (both solo and Throwing Muses) and her obtuse Sylvia Plath influenced lyrics. Liam had given me a copy of R.E.M.’s Green in 1991 and nothing was the same, Stipe’s homage in the lyrics I Remember California lead me to the line ‘the palm trees fall into the sea’ from Patti Smith’s Kimberly. David Bowie’s Heroes was in the mix and brought a disjointed paranoia. Scott Walker 3, his masterpiece written in waltz timing, that featured Big Louise and Two Weeks Since You’ve Gone providing high drama and pathos. Finally the lingering influence of Suede’s Dog Man Star was also there, tales of small trapped lives set to Bernard Butler’s post-apocalyptic soundscape.

Liam had an eclectic record collection, everything from Stax to medieval polyphony, and at the time was really into The High Llamas, Burt Bacharach and The Boo Radleys. He also was a massive fan of The La’s, The Stone Roses, The Police, U2, and The Stranglers. He used a Fernandez Strat copy and the amp was a Vox Venue 100. The Vox was a transistor amp but had a very clear ringing tone. The early influence of The Edge had seen him experiment a lot with delay and jangly chorus effects. In that period a distortion pedal was rarely used.

Joe was influenced by Beck, Everything but the Girl, Ron Sexsmith, Tricky and Talk Talk during this period. Though his taste was melodic, he tended away from obviously mainstream music and his mixtape credentials were impeccable. He presented me with a copy of The Colour of Spring about this time, which try as I may I couldn’t get into. It was 10 years later that the penny dropped and it became a favourite.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

Tyranny, Liam came up with it and I said ok. I think he liked the fact that it conjured the image of an exotic location and the dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi. Two things I had been hoping for.

++ My favourite song of yours is “Sydney”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

It’s probably the tale of two songs, music that was upbeat and about moving on by Liam, and for me a darker tale.

Though it’s called Sydney, the lyrics at least are about a period when I was staying in a house in St Kilda Beach in Melbourne in 1993-94. It was a bit of a wild time and all my friends were getting into the rave scene, partying non-stop. Heroin had entered the arena and I could see the effect it was having. I don’t think Liam ever understood why I would put the line ‘a weight in sand to drag these shapes’ into the chorus of an upbeat song, but it was about feeling the weight of losing someone to the drug. I remember walking in one night to see people out of it, lying on the bare wooden floor. The Velvet Underground & Nico was playing on a loop and the only light was coming from the orange streetlights outside. I thought they’d overdosed, I had to drag some of them into a recovery position and stayed to make sure they were ok. Nico was singing I’ll Be Your Mirror as I sat with them in the dark, it was a mirror world I wasn’t going to step into. The line ‘harbour dips to recover’ wasn’t about swimming, it was a reference to living in warped reality, a world stretched out of shape. I’d been dragging my heels for a few months but it was the final straw. I had to get out while I could, so I decided to return to Ireland.

It can’t really speak for Liam but his music and lyrics at the time were more wistful, still about escape but somehow more affirming. The key song of his at the time for me was Maelstrom where his lyrics referred to a psychic darkness, the track was claustrophobic swirling atmospheric guitar part, punctuated by a beautiful arpeggiated lead line. By the time we got to Sydney, he wanted something more accessible and outgoing. We had been recording a lot of dark material and it was time to write something in full colour. Underneath his jocularity, he is a sensitive guy, who would always find a positive angle and rally the troops. Joe was going through his own troubles and poor Mark was a bit of lost soul. Like many bands we were a gang of misfit young men, unable to communicate what was going on, but who decide to externalise it all publicly in a confused way via music. Without a guiding hand that train was going off the rails. I think we created a song that despite it all has an affirming feeling. You can get out, somehow, here comes the sun, at least for a while.

++ If you were to choose your favorite Tripoli song, which one would that be and why?

I think Prescriptions for me was a breakthrough song for us creatively. It was not commercially oriented but it kind of encapsulated something that was uniquely ours. While not obvious, later on we would build on what was discovered there. It ends with a coda from another song called Lost whose original lyrics were written by Liam. In Prescriptions the metaphor from the original is inverted and drowned out by a confusion of multi-layered voices.

My true favourite of that era though was a version of Liam’s Lost with my vocal. I was in the grip of a Scott Walker fixation and think I changed the feel of the song so it didn’t work with his intentions. True to its name, the only recording of Lost is actually lost somewhere in my collection. Perhaps one day I’ll find it.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

As that band, a handful of times. Liam was no fan of playing live so it was a rare occurrence. In later incarnations we played every week. On reflection, putting the same energy into getting recordings out there would have been more worthwhile.

++ And what were the best gigs that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

The early period as Tripoli was more sincere; it was also about learning the ropes and was more about documenting where we were at, regardless of the music’s relative commercial obscurity. A significant memory was the gig at The Attic in 1995 that was recorded for posterity. It mostly involves the audience yelling in-jokes back to us and the sound system struggling to cope.

The best gigs were in the later period as The Kissingers, but I think that was not just about the material but rather the fact that we had matured as a live act. The tone of the band was different, I think Liam wanted to steer me away from the introspective music that we had been making and so there was a great tension there, I wasn’t that person. I’d been through art school so the whole thing for me became a performance, a parody of the self-serious indie star, so wearing terrible sunglasses indoors was mandatory. Underneath the veneer you saw flashes of the old music. We had some great gigs with a lot of energy but it was on different terms.

++ And were there any bad ones?

The first, in some unremembered venue on O’Connell Street was the worst, there was virtually no foldback, and I don’t think anything I was singing was in key. I’m sure the other guys did great, but I wanted to hide under a table. In future permutations of the band we had some hilariously disastrous occurrences at gigs but by that time we had the experience to overcome any internal cringing and make it happen, volatile objects been flung, unsolicited stage invasions involving indecent exposure (by audience members I should add), and falling stage lights that took out the entire electrical system could be endured.

++ When and why did Tripoli  stop making music? Was the end of the band when you moved to Australia?

After the Sydney sessions and a few gigs, Mark left the band and Liam got married and was the first to start having kids. We reformed with a new drummer and were considering starting again, but by that stage I’d had enough of Dublin and wanted to return to Australia.

Liam and his family returned later the same year and after a bit of time we started again, originally with the backing of the drummer and bassist Andrew and Ty from the first band in 1991. After a few gigs The Jet Set was established, we added keyboard player Matt Stanton, bassist Lee Herrick, and finally our long term drummer Paul Angas joined. The Kissingers was essentially the same band but complemented in the crossover period with Nicola Barnes on keys and Michael ‘Mog’ Webb on bass. Paul was a great drummer who was professional and willing to help with all of the unglamorous behind-the-scenes heavy lifting, getting the promotional material out there and creating logos and web presence.

Ironically the last gig with this band was at the St Kilda Festival in 2008, where literally a stone’s throw from the stage was the house where the story behind the lyrics to Sydney unfolded. I don’t think the others knew that.

++ Were any of you involved in any other projects afterwards?

Loads really, Liam formed a few bands – The Sugar Free Masons, Happy Valley Sunshine. Since the 1990’s I played my own material as a singer songwriter, so I went back to that, the first band was called Darn Thorn and the End of the World which later morphed into Black Seas. Liam and I had fallen out during that period, but I was working with Paul the drummer, Phil Dean, and Andi Fitzpatrick, all members and friends of the former group. Paul is currently playing with Jen Lush and The Field who are still releasing music. Phil’s project The Snow Ponies is due for a vinyl release in the coming months. Liam and I dropped the proverbial hatchet and started occasionally writing together. At this point I have no idea how/if that will be released.

++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?

Not this period, we had no management so we were a bit clueless about promoting ourselves. Later bands with Liam, like The Jet Set and The Kissingers were played on Australian college radio and some of the major alternative stations such as Triple J. Television appearances featured some live performances, most notably a full concert on SBS on Christmas Eve 2006 and our video clip for the song If You Want To was played regularly on RAGE, the influential late night MTV-style programme on the national broadcaster ABC.

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

I think from that period there was only one review from Hot Press, the Irish Rolling Stone. They were reviewing a demo that contained Prescriptions and other similar tracks. The two reviewers didn’t get it at all and said that we were like Pink Floyd fronted by Chris De Burgh. At gigs we would jokingly start a song with a snippet from Lady In Red and we laughed it off, but I was crushed. I guess it helps to develop a thick skin when it comes to the media. Later on in Australia we would be featured and reviewed regularly in the Australian music press.

++ What about fanzines?

I expect there was some fanzine content at some point, but I’m not sure.

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

At the time it was probably recording Sydney, but later it was the support we had in Melbourne. By that stage we’d gained an audience and the full concert feature broadcast nationally during the Kissingers-era on Christmas Eve 2006 was the  highlight of that phase. The final TV performance live show recorded was also on Noise TV in 2007 again broadcast nationally on SBS Australia, by that time the band was at its best as a group, no disrespect at all to former members, but at that time we had years of gigging under our belts, and during this period Andi Fitzpatrick had joined as bassist.

++ And aside from music, what other hobbies do you have? 

Not so much a hobby but I went to art school in 2000 and since then have been exhibiting within the contemporary art scene, the work is photographic and goes out under the moniker Darn Thorn. Liam has made a number of feature films as a director including the Suzi Quatro documentary Suzi Q (2019) featuring interviews with Alice Cooper, Talking Heads, and Blondie among others.

++ Been to Dublin once and loved it and would love to go back. What do you  suggest checking out in your town, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

Dublin is grand if you stick to the nice areas on the Southside, outside of that things can get sketchy if you don’t know where you’re going. Avoid Temple Bar, unless hanging out with European tourists on mescaline is your thing. I travel through it occasionally, but I haven’t lived there since the 1990’s. Whelans on Wexford Street is a reliable haunt for local music.

The town has changed so much, after we left there was the ‘Celtic Tiger’-era of dodgy economic growth that ended in tears. It’s a different world there now, cafes with all the trappings of international hipsterism, not like the grungy pre-boom days where even the commercial fringes of the underground scene had more of a punk and goth aesthetic. With that in mind the area around Grafton Street and Georges St. Market are an easy tourist go-to for a snack. Obviously there is the Guinness thing, so have some of that from a reliable vendor (i.e. Grogan’s in William St South), but also order some Murphy’s stout, a brew from the rival Corkonians just to annoy the Dubs. Frankly, I’d recommend visiting Cork, fierce craic down there altogether as they say.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Nothing to declare but my geraniums.

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Listen
Tripoli – Sydney

Thanks so much to Mark Bryceland for the interview! I had written about the Perth, Australia, early 90s band Wash on the blog back in March. I was surprised to hear that the band is planning to reissue their songs thanks to Chapter Music! And I needed to learn more about the band. Mark also shared with me his new project and was happily surprised as well. Clearly he likes the music I also like! So it made total sense for this interview to happen. So if you haven’t heard about Wash, please hear them now!

++ Hi Mark! Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?

There was often music playing in the house and in the family car – my Dad liked Roxy Music, Motown, Boz Scaggs, Motown and I particularly remember a lot of Smokey Robinson’s ‘Being With You’ album. As kids, we listened to the charts a lot: the Australian one  and Casey Kasem’s American Top 40. I noticed I liked sad, melodic stuff such as ‘What About Me?’ By Moving Pictures, ‘You Weren’t in Love With Me’ by Billy Field, ‘All Out of Love’ by Air Supply. I was also really into John Lennon at this time, in particular ‘Mind Games’, ‘#9 Dream’ and ‘Watching the Wheels’. Being the early-to-mid 80s, there were loads of great synth-pop, rock and ballads around and I became obsessed with Simple Minds’ ‘New Gold Dream’ and Tears for Fears’ ‘Songs From the Big Chair’ albums. Later In high school I got into the Jesus and Mary Chain. A school friend, Stephen Garrett, lent me his Psychocandy cassette. I thought the noise was a cassette fault and gave it back. The more accessible ‘Darklands’ album was released very shortly after. I particularly loved the sad, melancholic title track, then got into Psychocandy after Darklands! Friends at School were listening to The Smiths and Echo and the Bunnymen and alternative British pop. A few friends were punks but I didn’t like punk, being very much a child of the more effeminate new-romantic era. So I was listening to all sorts of alternative music at that time and especially liked British indie and older stuff like Love, The Doors, The Byrds and Bread etc. I always wanted to play drums, so saved up and bought a beaten up old Rogers drum kit for $50. My parents flipped and I wasn’t allowed to play it in the house so I really looked forward to joining a band in order to practice.

++ Had you been in other bands before Wash?

I played drums in two cover bands with high school friends. One was The Funeral Party with Paul Collins (vocals), David Coggin (guitar). Paul Bristow (guitar) and Stephen Garret (bass). We mostly played covers of The Birthday Party and Bauhaus songs plus an original called ‘The Night the City Screamed’. We performed perhaps a handful of parties and gigs. I was also in a Joy Division covers band called Covert Activity with Stephen Garrett again (bass) and Peter Norris (guitar). I had seen Covert Activity play at a ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition at Applecross High School with their previous drummer just before Stephen enrolled at my school. We didn’t have a vocalist and we never played live, but we practiced most Sundays in Stephen’s very hot garage. Both bands eventually merged and then played half a gig at The Stoned Crow in Fremantle, which ended prematurely with an argument upfront, and we broke up on-stage.

++ What about the other band members? Were they in other bands too? 

I’m not sure about Alan Matthews (bass) and Courtney Babb (guitar), but Rolf Farstad (guitar and vocals) was in another band with Jon Scull called Benji. Jon Scull did the artwork for the Wash ‘Demo’ cassette. One of Benji’s tracks, Iguana, made it onto Guy Blackman’s compilation ‘Bright Lights Small City’ in 1991 alongside Wash’s ‘Klunk’.

++ Where are you originally from?

My family moved from Paisley in  Scotland to Perth in Australia when I was a kid. Perth was a nice place to grow up but it started to feel a little small as I got older, so I moved to London and spent the first year seeing a lot of gigs and a lot of bands – including a lot of  the first Stereolab gigs! Laetitia had a cool voice and presence and was very sweet. The band had a raw energy in those days, much like the Super Electric EP, produced by Ian ‘Robbs’ Robbins. I ended up going to far too many gigs and soon got bored of gigs altogether and have generally avoided them ever since. The last gig I went to see was a Dory Previn tribute evening at The Betsey Trotwood in London in 2024 and before that Deerhoof in 2014 who were great, of course. 

++ How was Perth at the time of Wash? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Perth is a geographically quite large and spacious suburban city with a relatively small population. It’s a famously isolated city and international acts at the time would often omit Perth from their touring schedule on viability grounds, I think. Despite Perth’s relatively low population there was quite a vibrant and diverse alternative music scene. Venues including The Old Melbourne, The Shents in Shenton Park, and The Stoned Crow in Fremantle were good venues for seeing a variety of alternative bands. I liked quite a few Australian groups such as The Go-Betweens, The Church, Ratcat, Lubricated Goat etc.

There were a few good record shops in Perth. Dada Records (still in business on Pier Street) was something of a regular hangout for people into alternative music at the time. The staff were cool and funny and would often make recommendations. 78 Records on Hay Street was a big one but seemed a bit snooty and dull so I didn’t go there much. There was a Perth musician called Kim Williams who had his own band (Summer Suns, who put out a few nice singles) and a while later he opened a record shop called House of Wax, first on King Street then moving to an arcade on Hay Street, which I started to visit more often – he specialised much more in UK indie music than Dada’s – so it became a new favourite.

++ I can think of quite a few great bands from Perth! Did you have any favourite bands in Perth at the time? Was there any that you think deserved more attention, that should have been bigger? Or ones you really enjoyed sharing a gig? 

The most enjoyable and memorable gig I ever saw in Perth was the very first The Blackeyed Susans gig at the Seaview Tavern in Fremantle in 1989ish. The Blackeyed Susans were an Australian ‘super-group’ made up of David McComb and Alsy McDonald (The Triffids), Rob Snarsky (ex-Chad’s Tree), Ross Bolleter, and Phil Kakulas (ex-Triffids). They did a bunch of covers by the Velvet Underground, Elvis and others, and later put out some original stuff in the 90s. The Seaview gig was packed and the Perth audience were uncharacteristically enthusiastic on what was one of the hottest evenings of the year. On the basis of that performance I thought they should have been a great success. 

++ How was the band put together? How was the recruiting process?

Rolf had been writing songs and wanted to put a band together. He put an ad in House of Wax for musicians and Alan joined him first. They played their first gig supporting Thou Gideon at The Actors’ Centre (I think) in Northbridge. Thou Gideon’s drummer, Cameron Potts, sat in on drums. I can’t remember how I ended up joining – I’d known Thou Gideon’s lead singer Mark Lilypie for years so perhaps he recommended them to me, having known they needed a drummer. We first rehearsed as a trio, played two or three gigs and recorded half the cassette before Courtney joined us on guitar. Courtney beefed up our sound quite a bit and we sounded much improved thereafter. You can hear the difference Courtney’s guitar made in the second lot of songs we recorded for the cassette. 

++ Was there any lineup change in the band?

We were fairly stable for a few months after Courtney joined and until I left for the UK: we played a few more gigs and recorded the rest of the tracks on the cassette. We were in something of a hurry to get the cassette out before I left. I was replaced on drums by Jamie Hamilton, and the band played one or two more gigs and recorded a couple of new tracks before splitting. Those two later tracks will also be included on the forthcoming re-release. 

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

We were from south of the Swan River and practiced in a rehearsal studio next to the Fremantle Market most Saturdays. Rolf wrote his songs at home and brought them in as and when. We learned them fairly quickly and would just run through them all a few times at each rehearsal. We worked solidly and with little fuss at rehearsal to get the arrangements as tight as possible and then often had a beer at the Sail and Anchor in Fremantle afterwards. 

++ What about influences? 

Rolf and I were both mad about The Jesus and Mary Chain. We all liked Creation and 4AD stuff like Ride, Lush, My Bloody Valentine and Pale Saints, I think. Rolf was into Sonic Youth and Sub-Pop stuff too, and loads of other stuff. I was also into a lot of UK indie like Sarah Records and The Pastels, The Vaselines etc. 

++ One bit that struck me is that you were the only shoegaze band in Perth at the time. Is that really so? In Australia in general, did you find any other like-minded bands?

I don’t think we knew or used the newly-coined music media term ‘shoegaze’ at the time – I just thought of us as ‘indie’. There were a few Cocteau Twins-ish rock bands around (The Cutting for one) but not what might be defined as shoegaze at that time – the definition seems to have broadened considerably over the years. I don’t remember other bands playing anything similar at the time and the Perth alternative music scene was quite diverse, so we’d play on some pretty eclectic bills. There was a bit of excitement around the release of Ratcat’s very successful ‘Tingles’ EP in 1990. They played Ramones-type power pop and their single ‘That Ain’t Bad’ became a huge crossover hit in Australia after its release, which helped popularise alternative rock in Australia to some degree and offered some inspiration to young bands at the time, including ourselves. 

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

A friend of mine, Michael Lock, and I were into the same stuff. We’d comb through NME and Melody Maker for new bands to check out. Back then if we wanted to hear something we’d have to visit Dada Records. There was so little demand for some of this stuff in Perth that they wouldn’t stock it and we would often have to order it just to hear it. Michael never had any money so I’d usually have to buy it and make him a copy on cassette. Michael and I became huge fans of bands like The Pastels, Primal Scream, Slaughter Joe, Meat Whiplash. Michael was the one who suggested the band name, ‘Wash’, and I and the rest of the band liked it too. ‘Wash’ fit well with the one-word indie band names so popular at the time; Bleach, Lush, Ride etc. It also matched the washy distorted sound of the guitars. 

++ If you were to choose your favorite Wash song, which one would that be and why?

My favourite is probably Orangeboat. It’s another slower melodic one and Rolf’s vocal has a nice floating quality. The guitars sound particularly good on this one with quite a lot of nicely blended feedback and more of Jason’s string-like effects. The drums play double time on the choruses which provides a nice bit of contrast and variety and makes the arrangement more lively. Not sure the drums actually work that well though – I tended to overplay and no-one ever reigned me in!

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? And what were the best gigs that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

I think we played about six or seven gigs in total before I left for the UK. One of the more unusual ones we played was a Saturday night gig with Cinema Prague at a surf club in the Scarborough area, I think. I don’t think we were quite the surf crowd’s cup of tea at that pre-Nevermind point despite us sounding like crashing waves. The most memorable was when we played at the Old Melbourne Hotel with Thou Gideon and Rust. Thou Gideon had garnered a reputation for outrageous stage antics, including burning a pig’s head on a spike, performative defecation, spitting, nudity etc. That night, Mark Lilypie swung the body of a dead cat over his head which enraged one or two of the guys from Rust and a bit of a tussle between the bands ensued. Rust asked us to take Thou Gideon’s place supporting them a week later. 

++ When and why did Wash stop making music? Were any of you involved in any other projects afterwards? 

I left the band to move to London shortly after the tape was released and was replaced on drums by Jamie Hamilton. I think they played one or two gigs after that, then split due to various reasons including travel, study and other band commitments. Rolf committed a bit more to Benji after that. 

I’ve played in other bands in London. I played bass for a friend, Silvana Del Bene, who had written some nice songs and performed them under the name Cream Soda. We played a handful of gigs, the first of which was supporting Oasis at their first ever London gig at the Water Rats. We recorded a 4-track demo of Silvana’s songs, produced by Ian ‘Robbs’ Robbins (he was our manager and also produced Stereolab’s Super Electric EP) from 4AD’s Colourbox that sadly never saw the light of day. More recently, I started a new band, The Dark Reds, in London. We’ve just released a debut album largely written by myself and we play regularly around London. I also have a solo project for releasing more offbeat stuff called Rembrandt Swells which I do when the mood takes me. 

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

There wasn’t much press at the time. There was a local fanzine called Party Fears (named after the Associates single, Party Fears Two, I assume). It was a one-man operation by a guy called David Gerrard. We might have got a few small mentions there since it covered all sorts of Perth-based music news and interviews and reviews. I think that was about it!

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

Recording in the studio was a great experience for me and probably the others. Jason was relaxed and easy-going. He liked the same music as us so knew where we were coming from and did a great job of recording and mixing the songs.  We were pleased with how it all turned out. 

++ Also wanted to ask you about this year’s World Cup how do you see Australia doing this time around? 

I’ve no idea about the Australian team, or the Scotland team. I watch a bit of the English Premiership but I don’t know how well England will fare. The UK media have a habit of talking up England’s chances a little too much and then criticising them harshly when they don’t live up to the unrealistic expectations, so I’ll take any predictions with a pinch of salt, although England could do well. 

++ Never been to Perth, nor Australia, so want to ask a local. What do you  suggest checking out in your town, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

Perth has great beaches and I always spend a bit of time swimming there whenever I’m visiting from London. The city itself is a little sleepy and provincial compared to London. The University of Western Australia is lovely to visit and has an outdoor cinema nestled amongst pine trees. We saw a bunch of films there in the late 80s and most memorably Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire. If you were to visit, I’d spend more time outside of Perth taking in some of the state’s natural beauty: I’d recommend visiting The Pinnacles limestone rock formations near Cervantes a couple of hours north of Perth. The south west coast and forests are great too, from Albany back up around the coast, the Stirling Ranges and Bluff Knoll, the highest point in the state, the Margaret River wine region, and the karri forests around Walpole. Food wise it’s a mixed bag: I’ve had the worst curry I’ve ever tasted in Perth at the Old Shanghai Food Court in Northbridge – I’m sure it was made with just a can of chick peas in tomato soup with a teaspoon of curry powder. But the Chinese food in Perth can be really good. There are lots of small unlicensed family-run Chinese restaurants scattered throughout suburban Perth. Many are open for just a few hours in the evening. Some are better than others but the good ones are great and it’s fun trying them out. 

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Listen
Wash – Chlorine