Introducing: //This Thing// Collective

There’s something happening in Melbourne’s “live electronic” scene, and new collective //This Thing// are at the heart of it, writes TIM SCOTT.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] Since forming in a North Melbourne backyard a little over 12 months ago the artist run collective and record label //This Thing// have been making strides with their parties, international tour promotion and free downloadable releases. Upcoming spots on this weekend’s Sugar Mountain and March’s Golden Plains is validation that the group – consisting of up to 20 local DJs and producers including Wooshie, Crumbs, Electric Sea Spider, Galapagoose, Baba X and Mike Kay – has grown into one of the more interesting and innovative, not to mention fervently DIY, music operators in Australia.

But Trent Gill (Galapagoose) and Dylan Michel (Wooshie) want it known that while //This Thing// is a bunch of like minded friends there's no rigid set of ideals that the group operate under. “It's not so much an umbrella but more of a platform that helps and supports getting music out and heard,” Gill explains.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

What was the beginning for //This Thing//?
Trent: We planted the seed at the end of 2010. Just a group of us had been thinking of doing something on our own. To have some control over the music.

Dylan: A lot of it was born out of frustration but we could also see that there was this groundswell of different broadcasters, DJs and beatmakers and we all had this common ground ... We all wanted to do something in terms of either putting on regular nights or releasing things. There was enough of us that we knew that if we did something the power of numbers would make it work.

Were you all friends from the start or did people drift in?
Trent: We all knew of each other but it was a first time meeting for a lot of us. It started out as an excuse to hang out. Since then more people have come on board.

Dylan: We had a BBQ in Richard [Rambl’s] backyard in North Melbourne and that was the formation. We all realised that something was happening in Melbourne and we could all help each other out. We all had an appreciation of beats and electronic and club music but none of us came from a dub-step or heavy club vibe. It's weird for us in a good way as well as a strange way ... of playing in a club setting and playing live music that forces people to interact. It's that weird contrast of sound system culture but also trying to make it live.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

It has a punk rock DIY ideal as well.
Trent: I think that was where a lot of us come from, especially Dylan and Nathaniel [N.P.C.B]; a real punk and hardcore aesthetic and approach to music. Of doing it ourselves in a more organic manner.

Dylan: It's also because we have other skills outside music. Someone may be a good poster designer or someone is good at mastering or mixing so there is that support network as well as slowing building an identity of what we are and what we represent. We kind of want to avoid getting booked as “This Thing Collective” unless it's something special like Golden Plains. We want to take a fresh approach and help empower and promote the individual artists involved rather than lump everyone into a group. When I first moved to Melbourne [from Perth] there were these amazing and respected DJs who had been around for years but weren't really playing together. Just working. Not to say that they were of an older generation but they had seen waves and scenes come and go and then there was a bunch of us younger guys ready to do stuff our own way.

What was your first party like?
Dylan: I was helping with the Buffalo Club [in Melbourne]. A few of us were helping build the place and I guess that was starting up at the same time we were forming //This Thing//. Although they are two different things we needed a home for what we wanted and the first party was the opening of the Buffalo Club.

Trent: It worked really well for both sides. It was a really good launching pad and it was really awesome to have a monthly and be able to create and show what we were about but it's not necessarily sustainable we want to keep going and moving on.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] Can you explain as producers how you perform live?
Dylan: It's more about the context of club music but also we play music that is completely live and often improvised.

Trent: We are operating in a club environment and we are touching on that aesthetic and environment of people being able to dance. But in terms of writing we are doing it the same way a band does but then finding new ways to perform them live. There may be computers on stage but no one is just pressing a space bar and dancing around. It makes it more spontaneous. What makes something truly live is the possibility of it going wrong and it often does! [Laughs]

Dylan: I started making beats in my bedroom with analog equipment then made the shift to Ableton and using computers, but I didn't necessarily want it to be about the technology ... I didn't want to perform live as a glorified DJ – not that there is anything wrong with that – but there's a lot of people playing “live” when they are just triggering preloaded clips. So it's about people knowing that when you are playing that pad, it's live. That high hat, that kick drum the whole groove is controlled by you. You can play the same song differently every time and you feed off the crowd and what they are doing.

The word “abstract” is often used in describing this style of music whether it be Jonti or Flying Lotus. What do you think?
Dylan: I guess the only phrase that sits comfortably with me is “live electronic”. It often gets branded as “wonky”. It's actually weird in Australia you go to every different city and state and they all have different names for it.

Was there any other group or label that you took inspiration from?
Dylan: There are different clubs that are orientated to good dance music and sound systems all over the place. Plastic People in London is probably a prime example. It was a base for us with the Buffalo Club in terms of making the SoundSsystem a room with a feeling, but for a Melbourne audience you don't want to go “future UK”, and too ahead of the curve because people are just going to freak out. It can be a bit of a delicate balancing act.

Trent: What we are trying to do is show people what exists in their own city. There's a lot going on here and it's different to anywhere else in the world. There's nothing quite like Melbourne at the moment and, not to say it's better or anything, but it's just really different and it should be appreciated locally which is the hardest thing in the world. [Laughs]

Dylan: I think that whole, “Oh they are international we must go see them”, mindset is more true for smaller cities because they go there less often, whereas in Melbourne we are a bit more spoilt for choice.

“There may be computers on stage but no one is just pressing a space bar and dancing around.”

Trent: But then the Matthew David show we did in Adelaide was fantastic. I don't think it was necessarily because he was from LA it was more that people wanted to hear something a bit more different to what they were used to, and we had three local acts who were really good too. The smaller cities are good and supportive. I've played in Perth once and, even though there was not a whole lot of people there, people are asking me to come back as people talk and word gets around. In Sydney it's different too, at least the shows that I've been involved with. It seems people are really into the vocal stuff, but then again I live with some girls from Sydney and they are always talking about the warehouse, almost rave scene up there. I guess classic dance music. It's really hard to say what music [fits] where. You can't always base it on geography.

Oscar + Martin have been important especially in Melbourne in crossing over the indie/beats side of things.
Trent: I think what they are doing is quite impressive in the sense that they are combining a lot of the indie aesthetic like guitars and vocals and have it feature really prominently in their productions, but still having the electronic and beats element too. It's not that far away from what we are doing. There are actually quite strong parallels and maybe they are coming from a more indie direction but I guess that there is not that much opportunity to have that cross pollination. Younger crowd people 18 or 19 year olds come to our gigs all the time. They seem more open to the idea and the idea of feeling less self conscious dancing and stuff.

So far all three of your releases – Baba X, Thomas William and a Wooshie/Mike Kay split – have been free. Is that something you decided on from the start?
Dylan: From the beginning we kind of planned to have parties, and any profit from the parties would go back into releasing records or releasing mixes. But we are getting to the crossroads: we are a label but also this thing that helps artists.

Trent: We've put out everything free so far as a way to get established, and to put out things that are really good but not as formal, I guess. Thomas William is much more like an album, and I think that could do with an even bigger physical release. But the kind of approach taken so far is to keep digital releases free because a lot of times people are going to download them anyway. In our own minds, we highly value physical albums and vinyl, or a tape. It gives it an extra personal touch so in terms of releases we are headed to that dual delivery: a free or cheap download then the properly priced physical copy.

What do you have on the horizon?
Trent: We have two cassettes and a 7” coming out in the first part of 2012.

You are playing on some bigger shows this summer inducing Sugar Mountain festival this weekend.
Dylan: Yeah, Baba-X, Martin L and Mike Kay from // This Thing // will be playing the late slot at Sugar Mountain Festival. It should be fun.

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Sugar Mountain takes place this Saturday (January 14) at The Forum in Melbourne. Limited tickets available here.

Click here for the //This Thing// Soundcloud.