Rock’n’roll Cavemen

Melbourne supergroup The Ooga Boogas tell TIM SCOTT that, while they’re far from serious, they’re not a joke band either.

It would be too easy to compare the simple yet melodic rock of the Ooga Boogas to that of a blunt blow from a Caveman’s club -- or its modern day equivalent, a bogan’s steering wheel lock -- but the truth is their rhythm section does eek out a loose primal feel.

With a rich pedigree in the Melbourne garage rock scene – guitarist Mikey’s “current” band is nominated for an ARIA – the Oogas aren’t here to win you over with new sounds. Modular band they are not.

They describe their debut album, Romance and Adventure, released September 11 on Aarght! Records, as a “rollicking concept album filled to the brim with tales of gash and hijinks”.

It’s true – the album is good, especially accompanied by a few Aldi beers – but like watching Farm Aid on DVD, you miss out on the realness of the heartland and what the Ooga Boogas are all about. You need to be front and centre at one of their live shows singing along: “I’m an Ooga Booga and my cock’s made of wood/ And though it drags on the ground it still tastes good.” It’s old-school Mellencamp type stuff.

The Oogas Boogas are currently taking the heartland back to its proverbial heart – the US. Their second American tour included a return to Memphis’ Goner Fest, a four-day rock brouhaha now in its fifth year.

This interview was conducted in two parts: the first over pizza in the Tote band room; the second, next to a cigarette machine in the pool room of what was once Melbourne’s notorious Nazi punk haunt, the Birmingham Hotel.

Okay, the beginning?

Richard: I was sitting at Per’s house listening to records and mentioned that I wanted to start a new band. At the time I didn’t even know that he played drums but we talked about it for a couple of weeks. Then at an Eddy Current Suppression gig he suggested that we ask [guitarist] Mikey to play. I thought it would sound too much like Eddy Current but we ended up asking him anyway and he said he wanted to be in the band if it didn’t sound like Eddy Current.

So Mikey is like your …

Richard: If Mikey wasn’t in the band you wouldn’t even be here.

Exactly. Mikey is your connection to Triple J.

Per: I don’t think we have a connection with Triple J.

Richard: We don’t.

Mikey is your connection to what a supergroup could be.

Stacky: Yes, if when you say “supergroup” you mean Audioslave, Temple of the Dog and if you want to make an Australian comparison, Tex, Don and Charlie.

Mikey: We started jamming but were looking for a singer for ages. And Stacky was keen to join but he didn’t want to sing.

Per: I remember one of my friends coming down, but he didn’t make it. Actually three singers didn’t make the cut.

Stacky: But we didn’t have to resort to putting and ad up in the Barleycorn or anything.

Do you still see them around? Is it socially awkward?

Richard: Nah, one of them is here tonight.

Per: After the last dude tried out I was like, “We wouldn’t have this fucking problem if you sang Stacky!”

So Stacky got the gig basically because the other guys couldn’t be bothered having any more auditions?

Stacky: Well, yes and no. We had another option of having Richard sing but then there was the question of acid and we realised that wasn’t really going to work.

Richard: It got to the point where we all looked each other in the eyes and realised that we were this really tight social unit and anyone who came in was automatically an imposter.

What about musically? Besides not sounding like Eddy Current did you have an idea as to how you wanted to sound?

Richard: It was about starting a band that didn’t sound like anything else – not to not sound like anything else was how we wanted to sound.

Mikey: I do see a pattern forming for say when I write a song, it’s a loose pattern but we seem to work on it in the same way.

Richard: But it’s like there is this big cauldron. A big musical cauldron and we just pick up the ladle and take a sip.

Do you consider yourselves a fully fledged band as supposed to say a side project or something of that sort?

Richard: Yeah, we are a band. I mean we play in other bands, but the other bands are in no way as important as this band. (Laughter)

As guys who have been playing as long as you have in various bands do you feel a sense of responsibility being part of the old guard?

Stacky: Good question for Per.

Per: I’m not in the old guard am I?

Mikey: What does the old guard actually guard?

Richard: And what do you expect from people who have been playing in bands exactly?

Oh, I don’t know. Advice? Invites to play gigs with you?

Richard: No, I don’t feel any responsibility.

Why the decision to record the album up in Mansfield, Victoria?

Mikey: To get away. Have no hassles. No phone calls. Just hang out in the bush. Just to do it ourselves.

Richard: We thought that rather than hire time in a studio why not go on a holiday for the weekend.

So there was no drama with the recording?

Mikey: It was the best recording experience ever I reckon.

Per: It was definitely one of the best band get togethers.

Mikey: Yeah it was a total bro-down, you know we could cook and do the dishes. Studios aren’t very conducive for activity or a good band experience. We have our own gear; we don’t need a lot we just needed to set up in some country shack and cut loose.

Per: It was like a communal man date.

Richard: There were bulls.

Stacky: There were some tits too.

Tits on bulls?

Stacky: No birds. Blue tits. There were tits flying around everywhere.

What were the locals like?

Mikey: Well there were no actual locals until you got into Mansfield.

Per: We looked like a really kind of weird gang because we had all made a pact not to shave during recording.

Stacky: It was interesting to see what it’s like to live and work on a farm, Richard and Mikey got chased across a field by a bull. We wore RM Williams.

Richard: I got my Chambray shirt a bit sweaty that weekend.

Stacky: It was also where we got our new direction, our new look. We now shop exclusively at Colorado and Rivers for our outfits, Moleskins and Chambrays.

“Not to not sound like anything else was how we wanted to sound.”

Boat shoes?

Stacky: Personally I like to wear a good pair of RM Williams boots. We visited Lake Eildon too which was nice. We got to see some of the reservoir and the water level affected by the drought. That was interesting wasn’t it?

Will water-level graphs figure in the album liner notes?

Stacky: We are going to dedicate it to the people and the water levels of that area, yes.

Richard: There is pictorial documentation of the whole weekend. There are no actual liner notes, it’s just photos and images

Stacky: Mansfield is a complex part of the world. It’s like a termite mound and we approached it the same way scientists might a termite mound.

Per: One thing about Mansfield is that it’s got a great music shop. Like if you need a guitar string or something they bend over backwards to help you.

Is Mansfield considered “high country”?

Stacky: Yes, Mt Buller is not far from there.

Per: How do you even determine what is high country and what is not?

Stacky: The way they determine high country is that they take a mountain man up into the mountains and if he cares for the land it is considered high country.

Where you surprised with the recording when you got it back?

Mikey: No, other people were more surprised. Which in a little way is kind of insulting when they are kind of saying, “Jeez I didn’t realise you sound this good!”

Do you think that may come from the way you work together and your sense of humour? That some people may not take you as seriously as they should?

Richard: I’m sure it comes across as sometimes we are just a bunch of funny buggers, but when you think about the conversations we have while we are writing a song or what to do next, it’s all pretty serious.

You sing songs about squid and octopi …

Mikey: I think “not too serious” is a correct assessment of the band. I don’t think we plan everything so much.

Richard: No we are not super serious but we aren’t a joke band either.

Per [to Richard]: When you came up to me that night and said you wanted to start a band, I said, “Okay, what is important?”, and you said, “No ambition”, it was then I thought, “Okay, I’m in.”

But certainly you must have some ambition to record a record and tour to the States?

Mikey: But they are only personal ambitions, they have nothing to do with success or anything.

Richard: When you have bands with ambition there is some objective beyond the overseas tour – always something else that they have to get next. Going away with your mates for a weekend should be the reason why the band is there in the first place, and then going on tour is the end result.

Mikey: We don’t have to get signed because we have started our own label. We don’t have to get our manager because we book our own gigs.

Per: Yeah we can do all of it on our own from the artwork to the recording to the booking. It’s a good feeling; some would think maybe self indulgent but we don’t need anything or anybody.

Stacky: In regards to squids and octopus, there’s actually a family tree kind of thing going on in the evolution of the Ooga Boogas. Before us there was a band called the Calamaris, which was about New Zealand squid, and I guess through that band we came up with some of these lyrical ideas.

There was also a band I had with Dempster (from the Sailors) called the Octopus Brothers. And again we sang songs about the plight of these particular animals.

But I don’t think these are particularly threatened or endangered animals.

Stacky: No I don’t think so but we are just interested in the lives of these creatures.

On the other hand, the start to your song ‘Ooga Boogas II’ sounds like L7.

Mikey: Really? What? The guitar sound?

Yeah, just at the very start.

Per: Ha! I guess we’ve now heard all of it Roy Orbsion, the B52s and now L7.

Are there any songs that you like on the new record individually?

Richard: I like ‘Rich and Me’.

Mikey: The people seem to like ‘Neon Sunset’ on the record. My girlfriend’s favorite song is ‘Fanny Mae’.

Who is Fanny Mae? Is the song based on a real character?

Mikey: Better ask Stacky.

Stacky: It’s about growing more mature.

Per: Someone said it was like Skyhooks (laughter from everyone) … and I couldn’t argue with them.

Do you read your own press? I’ve read some reviews, one in particular that wasn’t so kind about your live show.

Richard: You can laugh it off in public and that but it really hurts. (Laughter)

The reviewer seemed to have good reasons though.

Mikey: I think it came down to the fact that we weren’t as hot as the guys in the Vasco Era.

I did some research and back in the ‘50s, the word Ooga Booga was considered quite a racist word.

Per: It still is.

On your US tour you are playing shows in the south. What do you think the reaction is going to be when you take the stage in Mobile, Alabama, and say, “Hi, we’re the Ooga Booga’s?”

Mikey: My girlfriend was wearing one of our T-shirts in Austin last year and some dude pulled her up and said, “You don’t want to be wearing that T-shirt around here.”

You should tread with caution south of the Mason-Dixon Line then.

Richard: That’s why today none of our merchandise actually says the name on it. There’s no name just the image. The brand.

Stacky: We are actually very similar to Prince in that department.

Mikey: I didn’t realise that it had a racist connotation to it.

Richard: We just thought it was caveman-esque.

Stacky: I actually did some research and the origins of the word are from the British colonialists. When they were in Africa and they would use it as a term for news like, “Have you heard any ooga booga?”

The new album is titled Romance and Adventure. It sounds part Lonely Plant Guide to Cambodia part Falls Creek chalet website. What is more important to you: romance or adventure?

Richard: I’m not sure we could answer that collectively. Mikey would say romance.

Per: I’m not very romantic or adventurous.

Mikey: How about we vote. Who says romance? (Counts three hands)

Richard: I’m the only one without a girlfriend.

So you are up for the adventure of finding a girlfriend?

Per: I think adventure is more like walking the streets of Port Moresby as a male hooker at 2am.

What is Goner Fest like? An international garage-rock trade show?

Richard: It’s like if you had 20 bands at the Tote over a weekend.

How did you get along at Goner Fest last year?

Richard: Oh, there were a few people there at two o’clock in the afternoon when we played. We were first on Saturday arvo. No, but there were some people there to see us.

What’s the best thing about Memphis?

Mikey: Food, nice people, cheap housing. But it’s got the worst crime rate in America.

But for a tourist isn’t that like a badge of honor to say you visited the city with the highest crime rate?

Mikey: It’s kind of cool. We were walking down the street and some cop pulled up on the curb and said, “What the hell are you doing here?”

What was your answer?

Mikey: We’re walking home. (Laughter). That’s how we answer every cop.

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