Lower Plenty: ‘It's A Post-War Band’

Jensen Tjhung and Al Montfort from Lower Plenty talk to TIM SCOTT about protest songs, suburban rivalry and leaving Collingwood city limits.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] “Dull” is a good way of describing the outer Melbourne suburb of Lower Plenty. The only thing “colourful” is Chateau Gatto the former home of “professional mediator” Mick Gatto but even that's a stretch. What’s definitely not dull is the inner-suburban Melbourne band that takes its name.

Made up of members of Deaf Wish, Ice Claw, UV Race and Dick Diver, the four-piece are entertaining, opinionated and funny. But unlike the rough-and-tumble of their other bands Lower Plenty present a quiet suburban-country with elements of indie-pop and rock; music that’s made (and often performed) while sitting around the kitchen table. After a well-received tape that adequately captured their pastoral mellow shuffle they have a new LP, Hard Rubbish, on the horizons through Special Award/Easter Bilby. Jensen Tjhung and Al Montfort dropped by to talk about the new album and, of course, Footy Classified.

Have you ever been to Lower Plenty?
JT. Nah.

AM: Yeah I went there as a kid. There's not much to see.

It's quiet.
AM. Too quiet

You are all in different bands.
JT: I like for all the bands I'm in to be quite different. I know when we started this band there was a heavy emphasis on not carrying any gear around. [Laughs] Just acoustic guitars and stuff. Kitchen table sort of thing. We'd cook a big dinner at Hope Street (former Melbourne sharehouse/band space) and just jam.

Has that continued?
JT: Oh, the set is elaborate now. [Laughs] The set up is as worse as any other band we are in. You've got Sarah's [Heyward’s] loop station and the drums and everything. We've got loads of shit.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

Up until now you've had a tape but an LP is coming out right?
JT. Yep we have some vinyl on the way. 250 copies are being put out by Bruce Saltmarsh from Easter Bilby [Distribution] in Memphis and the rest on local Melbourne label Special Award.

Bruce Saltmarsh seems to be a strong supporter of the band.
JT: Bruce is just into Australian music. He heard the tape when it came out. I think he is interested in putting out smaller Australian bands. He is a good dude.

AM: He helps out with a lot of the Aussie stuff in the US. When Nic [Warnock] from RIP Society does a record he will send all his American copies to Bruce.

JT: It's usually a distribution but this will be his first release.

Easter Bilby 001?
AM: Yep

What's an Easter Bilby?
AM: It comes from this movement that was trying to replace the Easter Bunny with a native marsupial animal the bilby. Bruce heard that story when he was out here and lost his shit and named his distribution label after it.

Have you considered touring?
AM: We haven't even played out of Collingwood. [Laughs]

JT. We've been as far as Coburg when we played the Town Hall Hotel. That's touring. [More laughter]

Would you ever consider playing the southside [of Melbourne]?
JT: Yeah, why not?

AM: Revolver, Chapel Street.

I was thinking more the Vineyard for a Sunday arvo “sesh”?
JT: Yeah we can take Lower Plenty down there. A bit of Lower Plenty in St Kilda would be good. They need it.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Lower Plenty: "Round & Around" by alteredzones

You play a style of folk music. Any Melbourne Folk Appreciation Society members expecting a bit of Pete Seeger?
JT: I think our audience exists entirely of School of Radiant Living members who talk really loudly over our songs because they have seen us too many times. [Laughter]

Do you do any protest songs?
JT. The whole project is a protest. It's a post-war band. It's a cold war band. I don't know Al, how would you describe the work ethic of Lower Plenty?

AM: It's like Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer working together. It's like billionaire rock. Miner rock.

Sarah has an interesting style in the way she plays. She uses a lot of different percussion.
JT: We call it a “psych station”. We don't know what actually goes on there just layers of percussive loops and samples.

Does she sing much on the new album? I really liked her stuff on the tape.
Jensen: Yeah she is great. There's a song on the new record I had a guitar part for her and you'd play to her and she'd kneel down to write something and 20 seconds later she is singing the song. We'd record it and that's it. Simple.

Jensen you play with two Sarahs – Sarah Hardiman in Deaf Wish and Sarah Heyward in Lower Plenty – who both have two different vocal styles.
JT: This reminds me of the interview with [former Adelaide Crows recruiter] Matt Rendell on Footy Classified on Monday night which was the most extraordinary, powerful and intense thing I've seen on TV since September 11 attacks. No bullshit. At one stage Gary Lyon asks him, “If you had two players of equal ability one aboriginal and one white who would you choose?” And his answer was: “No two players are equal Gary. No two players are equal.” That illustrates my point about the two Sarahs. [Laughter]

Do you do any covers?
AM: Yeah, 'Chelsea Embankment' by Nikki Sudden

JT: We did a cover every week when we did the residency at the Edinburgh Castle [in Melbourne].

How many songs on the new LP?
AM: Nine.

How many do you sing lead vocal on?
AM: I do three. Jensen does three and Sarah does three or four. No, wait. That doesn't make sense mathematically. [Laughs] Maybe Jensen does two and Sarah does four.

JT: We played the songs loosely around town in bits and pieces but nobody really new the songs that well. We went to my place with an eight-track reel-to-reel. Al and I sat down and worked out what was going on. The whole record is the first take. On one of the songs you can hear the reel run off. Then we just left it on the machine for like six months. [Laughs] So we actually recorded it this time last year. These things sometimes take a while.

Any music videos?
AM: I think our friend Kate Moss has made one for the song 'Nullarbor'. She took a bunch of footage the last time she crossed the Nullarbor.

Who did artwork?
Al: Zephyr from Total Control did a photo of our old house Hope Street. Sarah put it together.

Hope Street comes up a lot. You recorded your first tape there. How important was that house to the band?
AM: It was like the death star. It was a cool place. I lived there. A bunch of bands used to jam and get their start there. School of Radiant Living, Lower Plenty's first tape was recoded there, UV Race records were written and recorded there. Total Control, Dick Diver. Now it's over.

Jensen: My friend Ryan says, “I wish I knew there was a street called Hope Street. I've been living on Separation Street.” [Laughter]

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‘Hard Rubbish’ will be out in May through Special Award/Easter Bilby.

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