Frequently and infrequently asked questions.

  


 

When did the Coral Snakes finish?
Roughly sixteen albums ago. (Including the collaborations on SALMON, two albums with Harry Howard and the NDE, the soundtrack to the movie Bad Eggs and others...)
At the end of 1997. We were finishing with Universal records after three cds and I knew it was going to get rougher.
Why the mistLY?
I felt like a change. The Lurid Yellow Mist was a mouthfull.
Why the Royal Dave Graney Show before that?
Well, ever since we folded the Coral Snakes in 1997 and started the Dave Graney Show with Adele Pickvance and Stuart Perera, I wanted it to be clear that, when appearing live, we would be a group of people rather that a guy with a ukelele and a bag o' marbles. I like playing with a band and the energy they can bring to a song. Then a few years later I thought we needed a bit of an upgrade. "The Royal Melbourne Show" was on at the time and then "the Royal Easter Show" in Sydney. I thought it would be cool to draw on this. Traditionally, the show is " a little bit of country in the city". Kind of posh, kind of home grown. Like us.

Who are your biggest influences?
I would say that black American r&b performers in general are who I have always looked to for inspiration. Also, mid 20th century American crime literature, psychedelic rock music of the mid 60's (American and English) , 70's reggae and any kind of jazz . You can probably get a better idea through the links pages.
I guess the biggest influence would be the peculiar distortions of the general Australian scene. Its an uncomfortable group of people, with a dream life strangely remote from the physical surroundings.Look at me for instance!

I wrote my 2011 book, 1001 Australian Nights in part, wondering about this sort of stuff.

  


DG, picture Tony Mahony

Heavy Entertainment? What is?....
Well there's light entertainment and heavy entertainment. Both are heroic volunteers. The heavy entertainer has more baggage. He , or she, drags more shit of their personal choosing onto the set , the space that which they are working in . The light entertainer is often scarier up close and more psychotic due to the incredible demands they place upon themselves to respect their given space and to leave it as transparently spotless as when they stumbled onto it. There is no personal shit of their own choosing on display and their show is tight as a drum, like their skin. So, heavy entertainment and the heavy entertainer is peculiar and cranky and works in their own context.
Why don't you write love songs?
Everybody else seems to take that on, why should I?
Who are some of your favourite Australian music artists?
The Boys next door / Birthday Party were superb. Artistically and entertainment wise they were unbeatable. Also the Laughing Clowns (and Eds solo work) . Spectrum/ Ariel, the Cruel Sea, the Underground Lovers, the Psycho Surgeons/ Lipstick Killers, Dragon, Kim Salmon ( especially all his post Scientists work), the Apartments, Country Radio and Machine Translations.
The Melbourne undergorund music scene is always throwing up some interesting characters. Wagons,Jane Dust, Kes Band, The Ancients, Baptism of Uzi, teh Ocean party, Kimng Gizzard and the Lizard Wizzard, Ned Collette.
And favourite overseas artists?
Steely Dan, Tupac, Biggie, Nas, Slick Rick, Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges, Roland Kirk, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Bill Evans, Grant Green, Charlie Byrd, Bill Callahan, Queens of the Stone Age, Bonnie Prince Billy, Herbie Mann, Thelonius Monk,Lynyrd Skynyrd, JJ Cale, Blue Oyster Cult, Don Ellis, Prince, the Isley Brothers, the Chambers Brothers, the Allman brothers, Love, the Byrds, Quicksliver Messenger Service, the Charlatans, the Fall, Pere Ubu, James Chance, Muddy waters, Howlin Wolf, Jimi Tenor, Robyn Hitchcock, the Divine Comedy, Suicide, Pulp, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Roxy Music, Presley, Sinatra, Jerry Lee lewis, Hank Williams, the Pop Group, the Doors.
Favourite films?
Big Wednesday, Point Blank, Amateur night at the dixie bar and grill, the league of gentlemen, Zachariah, the Mack, Boyz in the Hood, Friday and Next Friday, Larcenaire (the elegant criminal), the Samurai, the boy with the green hair, the Big Heat, Mildred Pierce, the Asphalt Jungle, Double Indemnity, the Postman always rings twice, Bulworth, They're a weird mob, walkabout, sunday too far away, any St Trinians, any Norman Wisdom, Any Eddie Cantor, any George Raft , Edward G Robinson or Mitchum or Lee Marvin , the Killers ( both versions), the French Connection (1 and 2, especially the music by Don Ellis), Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, and God created woman, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, either Bill and Ted flick, either Pee Wee Herman flick, a boy and his dog.
  

 

 

Favourite tv shows?
Justified, the Shield, the Micallef Show, Big Bang theory,the Wire,the Shield,Deadwood, Miami Vice, F Troop, the New People, Wandjina, Neighbours, Crime Story, the Sopranos, the Jackie Gleason Show, the Jonathan Winters Show, the Dean Martin Show, the Outer Limits, the Invaders, Soul Train, the league of gentleman, Alan Partidge, Father Ted, Buffy, Angel.
Favourite writers?
John Cowper Powys, Iris Murdoch, Joyce carol Oates, Jenny Diski, Patrick White,David Foster,M Barnard Eldershaw, AE Coppard, JG Ballard, William Burroughs, Richard Stark, Dennis Johnson, Raymond Chandler, James M Cain, Paul Cain, Dashiell Hammett, Horace McCoy, WR Burnett, Jim Thompson, Raoul Whitfield, Harry Whittington, Charles Willeford, Richard Burton (the explorer), Patrick Hamilton, Graham Greene, Paul Bowles, Cornell Woolrich. I've been trying to learn French for the last couple of years so haven't read anything in English. I still buy books though and have a pile of PG Wodehouse and Somerset Maugham, as well as some North African writers to read.
Favourite figures or periods in history?
the French revolution, the Russian revolution, the moment when the British and the Australians looked at each other in 1770, Mabo and Wik, the whole post second world war struggle by the vietnamese people to determine their own fate and their victories over the French and then the American forces, the Cathars and the Albigensian heresy, Jacobean intrigue and Elizabethan London, the Elizabethan and Victorian explorers, the Regency period with the writers and the Dandies and the colonial expansion in Australia and contraction in America, the Napoleonic period, the Wild West of the US with the beginnings of their celebrity industry, the aboriginal struggle for recognition and land in Australia which is still continuing.
  


Favourite regional epicentres of music.
Melbourne.Its a music town.
Jamaica and the incredible brew of ska and reggae which came out of the post colonial experience. So strange with all its very British shadings when you consider its proximity to Cuba and Haiti with their own distinctive Spanish and French post colonial notes. An incredibly creative part of the world.
Chicago, which, being a railroad centre saw so many Black Americans come through from the South. It means Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf to me, along with all the European emigre architects and also Hugh Hefner. (and Urge Overkill). I also dig the other musical cities like Kansas City (Charlie Parker) and St Louis ( Chuck Berry and Nelly).
New York for Suicide, Lou Reed , the Contortions and the Fugs.
Edinburgh for the postcard sound of Josef K
Bristol for the Pop Group. And Tricky.
Manchester for the Fall and the Happy Mondays, Stone Roses and Joy Division.
Brisbane for the Saints and the Leftovers.
London for the Sex Pistols, the Rolling Stones and the Subway Sect.
Los Angeles for Charles Mingus, Love, the Byrds, the Doors.
Brazil for Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Nigeria for Fela Kuti. As well as Mali for the guitar players and Senegal for the singers.
Cambridge for Syd Barrett and Robyn Hitchcock.