My journey down Avenue Q: Could Puppetry Be My Purpose? - Part One

When I was a kid, I always knew what I wanted to do when I grew up. I was determined to be an artist. Art was all I was ever good at. I spent my childhood drawing, playing the piano, putting on silly voices and playing with puppets. And if I didn't have a puppet in my hand, I would operate my napkin or the tablecloth as a puppet. 

There were three goals I wanted to pursue - 

1. Be a cartoonist and/or animator.

I drew a lot of comic strips growing up. I knew I wanted to make at least one animated film. I've made a few, mostly during college. While I've never been able to make a living out of drawing, I still managed to earn a little bit of money here and there for the occasional drawing gig I'd get. And my animated films have screened at art shows and film festivals. Nothing big has come of my drawing. But I've had a go.

2. Write and perform music.

Since classical piano training from the age of three, I have played keyboard in a number of bands of many different genres. While I've never been able to make a living out of music, I still managed to tour the country, release an album with one of the bands, get a lot of good album reviews in overseas magazines, and made a lot of fans in the underground music scene. Nothing big has come of my musical endeavours. But I've had a go.

 

3. Work as a puppeteer, preferably with Jim Henson's Team (The Muppets, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, etc) if possible.

This goal hasn't been as easy to crack into, but as someone who has been obsessed with The Muppets my whole life, I keep coming back to it. With my own puppets at home, I'd practice along with the Sesame Street and Muppet Show puppets on TV. Being able to sync a puppet's mouth with my own or someone else's voice was a skill I picked up when I was very young, as well as being able to move a puppet in time to music. It's a skill that I always thought was pretty straight forward. I didn't realise it was considered by many to be such a challenging thing. To me, maths is difficult. Sport is difficult. Understanding politics and money is difficult. Most normal, everyday social interactions are difficult for me. Puppetry seems to be one of the most natural skills I have. But why has it been so hard to break into?

Performing lunch time puppet shows with the school library puppets proved to be quite popular, until the librarian confiscated the puppets. There was to be no more puppet shows in school. The library staff later took the tape recorder away too upon discovery of my interest in recording funny radio sketches in silly voices. 

My first proper puppet show at my youngest brother Dale's birthday party was properly scripted and featured songs. I combined my tape recording and puppetry skills for it. But unfortunately, the kids at the party were out of control and proceeded to pull the puppets off my hands, and come around into the back door of the refrigerator box puppet theatre I made, completely ruining all my hard work and preparation for the show. But this didn't deter me.

Since school, I applied for a puppeteer role in a children's television programme that was in early stages of development. I was cast. But the shows' creators pulled the plug on the project before we really got to do anything. 

My brother Dale and I created a TV show featuring my puppetry. We pitched it to the local community TV station. They liked the idea, but weren't willing to produce it without sponsorship. Sadly, no companies were willing to sponsor the show. So it never happened. 

In the mid-2000s, I heard about a Broadway musical called "Avenue Q" which had won a heap of awards. From the images I'd seen, this looked just like Sesame Street. It featured a cast of cute Muppet-style puppets (designed by Rick Lyon, who had worked with Jim Henson), alongside a human cast. But it was for adults. It's the story of a young college graduate entering adulthood and learning about real life issues such as finding your purpose in life, unemployment, racism, finding love, sexual identity, and learning to deal with the fact that you can't always achieve your goals without a lot of struggles and rejection. 

I finally saw the show when it came to Australia in 2009, first in Sydney, and then in Brisbane a year later. The story, the songs and the puppets were all brilliant. The show was funny, edgy, moving, inspiring, and thought provoking. I loved it, and really related to a lot of what the characters were going through.

KATE MONSTER
Morning, Brian!

BRIAN
Hi, Kate Monster.

KATE MONSTER
How's life?

BRIAN
Disappointing!

KATE MONSTER
What's the matter?

BRIAN
The catering company
laid me off.

KATE MONSTER
Oh, I'm sorry!

BRIAN
Me too! I mean, look at me!
I'm ten years out of college, and I
always thought -

KATE MONSTER
What?

BRIAN
No, it sounds stupid.

KATE MONSTER
Aww, come on!

BRIAN
When I was little
I thought I would be...

KATE MONSTER
What?

BRIAN
A big comedian
on late night TV
But now I'm thirty-two
And as you can see
I'm not

KATE MONSTER
Nope!

BRIAN
Oh Well,
It sucks to be me.

KATE MONSTER
Nooo.

BRIAN
It sucks to be me.

KATE MONSTER
No!

BRIAN
It sucks to be broke
and unemployed
and turning thirty-three.
It sucks to be me.

More than ever today, these lyrics affect me. I too am ten years out of college. I too am thirty-two going on thirty-three. I too have not been able to make a comfortable living out of the things I'm good at and interested in.

In 2011, a fascinating and inspiring documentary called, "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey" was screened as part of the Brisbane International Film Festival. It told the story of Muppet performer Kevin Clash, and his journey from rags to riches. From building his own puppets and putting on his own puppet shows as a kid, to meeting with Jim Henson and becoming one of the most important figures in puppetry today.

Shortly after that, the first new theatrically released Muppets film in twelve years (The Muppets) began screening. And I saw it three times, including two preview screenings.

During this time, I learned that Avenue Q was coming back to Brisbane - a local production! Which meant that I had an opportunity to audition! I'm not an actor or a singer. But I did know that the original cast of Avenue Q (in 2003) were puppeteers primarily, and have since been replaced over the years with seasoned musical theatre actors who had never touched a puppet until they were cast in the show. So I promised myself I would take the plunge and go for it. I figured I'd regret it forever if I didn't at least try. This would be another chance at puppetry. A rare chance to perform with professional Muppet-style puppets. 

I bought a couple of inexpensive (but fairly professional looking) monster puppets off eBay, so I could get practising again, and be able to show them at the audition what I could do. I made some alterations to the puppets, trimming the fur around their mouths, and making tongues for them out of stiffened felt. I thought they needed a bit of my own personal touch to them.

Leading up to the audition, I took the puppets out on the road to see people's reactions. They attracted several kids and their parents when I took them to the drive-in to see The Muppets. People were taking pictures of their kids with them and asking questions. I was reminded again that this could be my purpose. The puppets have even received fan art!

My wife Jen and I have since been discussing the possibility of starting a puppet show business. My boss had cut out a page from a parenting magazine showing all the clown and magician acts available for kids birthday parties. She pointed out that there are no puppet acts. She had recently paid a magician $300 for an hour at her daughter's fifth birthday party. She highly recommended that I look into it. These party entertainers make a good living, charging at least $200 per hour, and performing at several parties a week. Maybe this could be my purpose.

With all of these Muppet movies, public interest in my puppets, the idea that I could finally make some money doing something I enjoy, and an upcoming Avenue Q audition that I'd applied for, puppetry was really looking like my next big attempt at becoming a professional artist or performer.

In part two, I'll talk about the Avenue Q audition itself, and the events that are yet to unfold as a result. Will I be cast in the show? Will I receive any feedback on my strengths and weaknesses? Will I get the opportunity to perform with professional puppets on a production of a major Broadway musical?

 

Part Two - http://geekazoidopinion.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/my-journey-down-avenue-q-could-puppetry_27.html

Single? Lonely on Valentine's Day?

I'm happily married to a wonderful girl I met six years ago. (Yeah, rub it in why don't ya, Brett!) 

But it wasn't always this way. For a very long time, I was lonely and miserable too. I was always the "third wheel" as I hung out with my friends in couples. Every girl I knew was spoken for. Every new girl I met was spoken for. Every new 'single' girl I met was not at all interested.

I was the old fashioned 'nice guy'. I held doors open. I smiled. I was polite. This was considered creepy. Advice I was given? "Stop trying so hard to be all polite and romantic, and just be yourself"... This WAS myself! I knew no other way! It's how I was brought up! I should've been alive in the 1920s when this was acceptable behaviour. But in the 90s and 2000s, this was considered creepy, weird behaviour. Women gave me dirty looks and grunts of disgust ALL the time. 

And when I did find myself in a relationship, they were all very short term ones because I was always, "Too nice". That was the extent of the feedback I'd get. After I was given the initial, "It's not you, it's me" routine invented by George Costanza, I would usually find out that it was indeed me, because I was "too nice".  

Why was 'nice' a bad thing? Someone once explained it to me. These girls aren't used to being treated respectfully. It's uncomfortable for them. They need to be ignored and mistreated. They need a jerk, because that is what they're used to. It feels wrong to have a guy being kind to them. It's creepy. You've got to "treat 'em mean to keep 'em keen". Sorry, but that's not my style.

But anyway, all of that is neither here nor there now. Long story short - I found a girl who DOES like being treated nicely. 

What really gets me wondering is: Why are most of my female friends these days SINGLE? They're all very nice! They're attractive and a lot of fun to talk to! Why are all the girls alone on Valentine's Day? I don't have an answer to this question. My guess is there's a man shortage or something. All I know is, when I was single, ALL of my female friends were spoken for!

And then I think: Where were all these single girls back then when I was available? My first actual Valentine was Jen (my wonderful wife) in 2007. The first girl not to dump me before Valentine's Day (or ON Valentine's Day, as one of them did). But before I met Jen... Where were these single ladies?

Then it occurred to me: Of course! None of today's single girls were around at the time I was single. Most of my current friends were born between 1985 and 1991. So they were all still in school at the time.

Then I realised: Hey, my own wife was still in school at the time too. I met her in my ninth year out of high school! Most girls closer to my own age were in serious relationships early on during those nine years. Some were even married. 

So is there a point to this? Not sure. But I'll leave you with two pieces of advice about meeting someone. Take it from me. Someone who, for nearly a decade, could barely get or keep a girlfriend... 

1. If I can do it, you certainly can. And;

2. If there aren't plenty of fish in the sea now, there are always plenty of year 12 graduates around the corner.

Boom Boom!

Oh no he dih-ant! Cradle Snatcher!

Goodnight folks! Happy Valentine's Day! :P

2013 Edit: The joke's on me. Now we're separated. Divorce will take place in September of this year. We're still friends and all. But still... Heart breaking.

Brisbane public transport FAIL!

Getting my license can't come soon enough! I'm so incredibly frustrated with the inefficiency and shocked by the recklessness of Brisbane's public transport service!

Within just the last five days:

- I've had a bus driver reluctantly let me on at a stop, and then tell me that, "This bus is no longer meant to stop here"... Well how about either updating the bus stop/timetables or getting your facts straight! This same driver then proceeded to take the wrong route! People were having to give the driver directions on where to go! Clearly this driver thought he was driving a different bus. But the bus has zoomed past on several other occasions, so it very well *might* not meant to stop there. But the sign hasn't been updated.

- The Roma Street train station has about 6 or 8 gates for people to enter and exit the station through… Do you know how many gates they had working yesterday? One! Big queue of people were waiting on one side to get out, and another big queue on the other side to get in! Through one gate!

- And their train times keep changing, as well as the platforms! No longer can you rely on the Beenleigh train to come at 8:30 on Platform 4. Today, it might come at 9 on Platform 8, and at 9:10 on Platform 2 tomorrow!


- I saw a guy in a suit literally jump into a moving bus the other day! The door was open while the bus was moving, so this guy took a run up and leapt in from the side of the road! 





- A friend of mine yesterday was almost run over by a bus because the driver wasn't stopping at red lights! Probably because he was so busy speeding past all the stops and not letting people on! 
"Bus L5901 just ran a red light at Creek/Adelaide St while pedestrians were crossing. Then blocked them from crossing Adelaide St. Then nudged forward as people walked in front of him when the pedestrian crossing he was blocking went green. So, yeah. I was just hit by a bus (not badly)".



- And today, I wanted to get off the bus via the back door, so I swiped my card ready to go. And he didn't open the back door! So I had to come running to the front, saying, "Excuse me! Excuse me!" as he started driving on! He had to open the front door again to let me out! He'd already let people on, but wasn't letting anyone out! Why do buses have a sign saying, "Please exit via rear door" if they're not going to open the rear door to let people out?

- And then later, the "Out of Service. No Host" sign was on the rear Go Card machines, so nobody could swipe their cards at the back. People had to exit via the front.

Brisbane public transport has been terrible for years, but I never thought it was possible for it to get any worse! Reckless driving, broken doors, broken gates, broken Go Card machines, mixed up schedules, platform changes, confused drivers who don't know where to go! All within 5 days!

Unbelievable!

Not to mention the fact that the buses and trains are so few and far between that they're always PACKED beyond capacity! And the air conditioning rarely works. And we're right in the middle of a very hot Summer. And we don't have the same kind of train tracks as Sydney does, so we can't have trains with three levels of seating like they have.  We have these single-level, over packed, hotbox sardine cans plodding along rusty tracks at snails pace! And on our roads, we have outdated, over packed sardine cans on wheels zooming through red lights and not stopping to let people on or off! And when they do stop, the Go cards don't work! Or the doors! And it doesn't take much for them to break down!


Ok ok... Rant coming to an end... Soon enough I hope to be adding to the pollution by driving around in a car where I want, when I want, in air conditioning, while sitting in a seat (not having to stand up). Because quite frankly, "Take it easy, take a train" and "Leave the car at home and take a bus" are not the kinds of slogans that work here in Brisbane. 

Brisbane Music Scene: From Punter To Performer, Part 5: Wrap up

Well it's been over a month since my last update, and I think this whole topic is getting a bit stale now, so I'll try to wrap it up here so I can move on to more stories...

In my last blog post, I promised to talk more about Headkase's journey, the release of our full length album, and the reception it received both in Australia and overseas. 

I also said I'd talk about the ska/swing band I joined in 2010 called "Rad Rockets Are GO!"

OK, so let's do this!

Headkase kept playing everywhere around Brisbane - Good gigs, bad gigs. Breaking crowd number records in some venues, playing to an almost empty room in others. 

We spent about 4 years working on our full length album, "The Worm County Circus", which could've been released as a smaller EP back when we were riding a huge "possibly the next big thing out of Brisbane" wave in around 2003. 

But that ship sailed. Several things got in the way. People didn't agree on certain aspects. Bad decisions were made on our part. Opportunities were lost. There are lot of things we would've done differently if we had the chance to turn back the clock. But we worked with the position we were in, and finally finished and independently released a full length album in 2009. 

No record labels were interested in releasing it, but we did manage to arrange a worldwide distribution deal with a company called "CD Baby" who got the album onto all the internet music download sites like iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, Amazon and a host of others.

We received mostly positive reviews for the album, especially from overseas:

"This six piece are re-defining a circus metal genre"
- DEVOLUTION MAGAZINE (UK)
 

"The Worm County Circus is an album that every music fan on earth should own – simply amazing for a debut"
- METAL REVOLUTION (Denmark)

"One of the most interesting albums of this year"
- INFERNAL MASQUERADE (USA)

"A unique combination of heavy groove metal with plenty of influences taken from Mr. Bungle's evil side"
– THE FALLOUT MAGAZINE (Australia)

The closest thing to a negative review was just a comment in Brisbane's Rave Magazine, which we chose to accept as a compliment:

"The Worm County Circus sounds like a kid at a fete, jacked up on fairy floss, confused and excited by all the bright lights around them"
- RAVE MAGAZINE

We did an Australian tour in 2010, which was a bit of fun. Decent crowds in Adelaide, Melbourne and Newcastle, and of course in Brisbane... Next to nobody on the Gold Coast, and, sadly Sydney too, the very place we thought we'd be playing the biggest show, considering we had hundreds of requests over the years from Sydney fans practically begging us to play there. It happened to be the night of a massive storm down there at the time, so I'd like to think that was what deterred people from attending. But still disappointing all the same. There are a lot of similar bands in Sydney, doing the wacky theatrical stage shows and genre blending music, so we thought we'd fit right in. 

A fan and friend of the band, Sammi, a saxophone player, had seen Headkase performing a show in 2006 at the Hard Rock Cafe on the Gold Coast. By 2010, she'd made a name for herself as part of the horn section of a ska band called "Foghorn Leghorn". After a few lineup changes, that band evolved into "Rad Rockets Are GO!" and Sammi asked me to join them on keyboard. They had started working some swing/big band music into their repertoire, and initially only wanted me to be guest on a cover version of Big Bad Voodoo Daddies' "Mr. Pinstripe Suit", but we all hit it off in the rehearsal room, and I became a proper member of the band. 

Straight after the Headkase tour, the rest of 2010 was all about Rad Rockets Are GO! for me. From about June until Christmas, we played frequently, sometimes twice a week! After every show, someone would invite us to play another show. We were a hit! And it was looking like things were going to get better and better! 

We discussed the recording of a CD, doing a photoshoot and producing merch. But then things fell apart. Some members had other aspects in their life they felt they needed to put first. I guess it all seemed to be happening too fast, and they weren't up to that kind of commitment. During the struggle to replace the members who departed, things got a bit heated within the band. Sammi was the last to leave.

January 2011 saw the huge Headkase 10 year Anniversary show I mentioned in Part 1, where we were able to experience the kind of professional rock concert we'd all dreamed about. Here's some footage demonstrating the amazing, massive crowd we performed to at the Hi-Fi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUyIfvntriQ

Meanwhile, Rad Rockets spent about 7 months of the year searching for new members, and trying to rehearse without a full lineup. Several drummers put their hand up, then cancelled at the last minute. A new bass player came along, but was very unimpressed with the lack of energy in the band, and the infrequent rehearsals. In 2010, when we had all 8 members, we rehearsed weekly, and played weekly too! But it was different and depressing without the full sound that made us a hit in the local scene. 

A couple of sax players and a clarinet player had expressed interest in joining the band too, but never showed up to rehearsals. We did eventually get a drummer who was very keen to rehearse and learn all the parts, and we rehearsed with him a few times before deciding we needed to take some time off. People were between jobs, one member (a sound engineer) was touring the world with various festivals and concerts. It was near impossible to get back into the swing of things at that point, which was around July 2011. So we're hoping to pick things up later down the track. 

At around Easter time, through some new contacts I'd made on Twitter, I joined the Impro Mafia Theatre Company, playing music for their weekly shows starring their less experienced performers. A very different kind of gig for me, being used to having a band to work off rather than being the sole musician a troupe of actors have to rely on. But it's been an interesting experience, and I feel I've improved quite a bit throughout the year. I'm a big fan of TV shows "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" and "Thank God You're Here", which are similarly themed to what these nights are all about. Actors improvising their way through various games, sketches and songs. 

Meanwhile, Dylan (the bass player from Headkase) and I started getting together every Sunday to write and record some new music. We eventually thought we'd have a go at writing dance music. Cheesy top 40 pop-dance music! The kind of music the kids like! The kind of music that might make us some money! Money that could then perhaps fund more challenging, interesting material again. But we thought it could be an opportunity to continue striving for that goal to quit "normal" jobs and be able to live off music. 


Todd (my brother, Headkase drummer, and drummer in many other bands) had moved to Canada to pursue that dream. He's making a lot of good contacts over there, and seems to be getting close! 

We've had a lot of fun trying out new sounds and effects (including Autotune for vocals), seeing what the famous pop and dance artists are doing and trying to emulate that ourselves. But our twist is, we're taking all the common lyrical themes of pop music (sleaze, arrogance, drinking, dancing, and taking ownership of 'the club' and 'the night' and 'the floor', etc.) and making them literal. That is, we're writing songs about actually owning the property rights to a particular evening, turning a building into a club and actually owning it. We're writing about "dancing forever" in a literal sense. Someone dancing in a club and refusing to leave when it's closing time and security staff are trying to remove them. So this has been a lot of fun. 


We even had Sammi (the sax player I mentioned before - fan/friend of Headkase, ex-member of Rad Rockets Are GO!) sing some lead vocals on a song recently. We plan to have her back to sing more!

We chose to go under the name of "Sound Distiller" for this project. Watch this space - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sound-Distiller/229556637098714 - We've been posting up various demos and tidbits. We hope to dominate the pop charts soon enough! Wish us luck! 

Sound Distiller are off to a good start, gaining some attention through 612 ABC radio Brisbane by making a techno remix out of a political campaign theme song. I jokingly tweeted about Campbell Newman's song sounding a bit like the next 'rave anthem', so Breakfast announcer Spencer Howson thought it would be fun to create a story about us turning the song into a rave anthem, and getting a nightclub DJ to slip it into the playlist. 


That three month project can be summed up in a fantastic little story, which was aired in October 2011. The story can be heard at this link - Press the play button within: http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2011/10/dance-mix-of-campbell-newman-campaign-song.html?site=brisbane&program=612_breakfast

Yes friends... That was my 5 part story on how I went from attending local gigs and looking up to the artists on stage, to becoming a part of many aspects of the live music scene around Queensland and indeed other parts of Australia too. But mostly Queensland.

Here's the Triple J Unearthed page for Headkase. Listen to a fun song called "Cocaine and Caffeine". A perfect example of the wacky genre-blending sound we became known for:

http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Artists/View.aspx?artistid=25038

Thank you and goodnight!

Part 1 - http://geekazoidopinion.blogspot.com/2011/07/brisbane-music-scene-from-punter-to.html

Part 2 - http://geekazoidopinion.blogspot.com/2011/07/brisbane-music-scene-from-punter-to_21.html

Part 3 - http://geekazoidopinion.blogspot.com/2011/07/brisbane-music-scene-from-punter-to_22.html

Part 4 - http://geekazoidopinion.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html

Part 5 (Final) - http://geekazoidopinion.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html

Brisbane Music Scene: From Punter To Performer, Part 4: Experimentation and Ambience

 In addition to weekly rehearsals and gigs with Headkase, I was also a part of an experimental, improvised noise art project called "Silent Partners" from 2002 until 2008. There was no official end to the project. It's just that nothing has really happened with it recently. 

It was another very theatrical act with masks, facepaint, and costumes. We didn't rehearse. We just showed up and played. No two shows were the same. And they were hit and miss. On bad nights, people would either walk out, or just stare blankly at us, wondering what was going on. On good nights (thankfully there were more of these), people would smile, dance and come up to us afterwards and ask us what the name of the third song was we played. We didn't have an answer because it was just a live improvised jam, made up on the spot.

There were three main members of Silent Partners: Jesse Breckon, the mastermind of the outfit, on vocals, theremin, and various other electronic gadgets and effects units. Markus on bass, and myself on keys. Various other members joined us at gigs and on recordings. Sometimes the band would consist of up to 14 people at a time. Members from bands such as The Follow, The Red Paintings, Suspect Seven,  Felinedown, The Wretched Villains, and Headkase. Brass, strings, lots of percussion and vocal effects too... as demonstrated in this sample. Note the many different genres featured. There were no limits:

Silent Partners Sample by RealBrettHansen

And from 2003-2007, I was part of an ambient band called "Marlinchen". A couple of lineup changes to begin with, but we ended up with something pretty magical. It was quite a mournful sound we produced, but pretty as well. 
 
At our gigs, people would sit on the floor and close their eyes while they listened. A far cry from the crazy moshpits I was used to at Headkase shows. We had violin, operatic vocals, guitar, keys, glockenspiel and bass played with a cello bow. 

The following is an article about us in Time Off - 8 March, 2006:

MARLINCHEN

Marlinchen are that special something that makes you thank God such a thing as music exists; evoking everything from the mythical worlds of fairy tales and children’s rhymes to the more adult Tubular Bells and artists such as Faith & Disease and Lisa Gerrard.

Skye (Violin). Photo by Ricky Sullivan.

Named after a character from the Brothers Grimm tale The Juniper Tree, guitarist Maxwell Blair says the Brisbane quintet strive to recapture that childhood innocence. “Marlinchen, or ‘Little Marlene’, is a German term of endearment,” he says. “Childlike virtue, wisdom and wonder inspire me.”

Evoking more atmosphere than many composers do with large budgets, their demo Drawing A Cat With the Aid of Two Coins will certainly conjure up childhood images you thought you’d forgotten: real or imagined. So how does one go about creating such an impression?

Max (Guitar). Photo by Ricky Sullivan.

“The music writing process will start with Max’s or my chords,” keys player Brett Hansen says. “I like to think of a mood, and then the creation just flows. After we have run through a new song, we often discuss what it evokes for each of us. All sorts of films come to mind.”

Since the group’s inception, the line-up has expanded gradually to that which you see today.
 

“Each addition to the band has taken the music in a slightly different, but advanced, direction. It was certainly not imagined this way when Max and I first started making music but it pleases me,” bassist Glen Miller says.

Glen (Bass). Photo by Ricky Sullivan.

“Everyone is open enough to let it change, which is important,” vocalist Jasmine Hulme adds.

So what can you expect from their live show?

“Shivers-inducing violin; Skye [McNicol] is such an amazing performer,” Blair says. “And the cinematic implications of our music allow listeners to wander throughout their imaginations; our music invites people to visualise a scene from a film, whether imagined or real.”

Jasmine (Vocals). Photo by Ricky Sullivan.

Marlinchen turn Ric’s into an enchanted forest (or whatever you imagine) Wednesday Mar 15.

Marlinchen Sample by RealBrettHansen

Marlinchen played our final show at the Troubadour in the Valley in March 2007. 

Members now live in faraway places like France, Japan and other parts of Australia. Some have pursued other interests, while others continue to perform music in other groups. 

In my next blog post, I'll continue talk about Headkase's journey, the release of our full length album, and the reception it received both in Australia and overseas. 

And coming soon: I'll talk about the ska/swing band I joined in 2010 called "Rad Rockets Are GO!"

 To be continued...

Part 5 (Final) - http://geekazoidopinion.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html 

Brisbane Music Scene: From Punter To Performer, Part 3: Haters Be Hatin'...

Headkase had reached a point where we were attracting record crowd numbers at Her Majesty's Bar (The Basement), and being invited to open for some of the major touring acts in bigger venues. Doing something different and refreshing was starting to pay off. 

Front page of "QLD Times" Entertainment liftout

But as with world famous artists and performers who make a positive impact and attract a big following, there are always going to be critics. You can't please everybody. And sometimes the critics go to extremes, and do whatever they can to publicly drag these figures' names through the mud in order to turn people against them.

An "Anti-Headkase Neo-Nazi group" sounds a bit dramatic. That's what we thought when we learned that it wasn't just one or two grumpy members of our audience who weren't too impressed with what they saw and heard one time. 

It began with abusive posts on the Headkase message forum about how we're sloppy and lame, we're not heavy enough, we're all "gay" because we try (and fail) to splice metal with other genres. We can take criticism. Sure, it's not constructive criticism, but bands get this sort of thing all the time. Eventually these sorts of posts started appearing more frequently, in several public message forums like the Time Off Message Board, and the guest books of record labels and popular bands at the time. And then the hate emails started filling up our inbox. 

Pretty soon, they decided to take it to the streets. Posters were being plastered around the streets, music stores and venues of Brisbane trying to convince the town to boycott Headkase and it's homosexual members. None of us are gay, but our music and image somehow made them believe we were. Websites were built as well, doctored photos and even drawings were being uploaded, and every online music forum and guestbook was filled with anti-Headkase propaganda, and spam from people posing as members of the band, unprofessionally bragging about how superior we are to all the other bands in Brisbane. Rumours were being spread, our name was being brutally dragged through the mud, and people were actually believing what they were reading. Bridges were being burned, as they insulted and badmouthed every band we'd become friends with. And, frustratingly, people who'd never heard of Headkase were getting this false first impression, and believing every word of it. 

Before the advent of social networking websites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, and before the law and media started taking online bullying and defamation seriously, I gathered up printouts of all the abusive posts and emails (some threatening violence against us, with comments such as, "You'd better watch your backs at your next gig"), as well as posters I'd taken down, and brought them into the Police Station on Adelaide Street. It was shrugged off and taken lightly. "There's nothing we can do about it", one officer said. "It's a civil matter. Just get the personal details of the people involved, and take them to court". 

Getting the names and addresses of anonymous cyber bullies was not going to be easy. Nobody was able to trace where the emails and guestbook posts were coming from. None of the music forum owners were willing to cooperate, saying that everyone has a right to their opinion. They wouldn't even remove the offending posts for us. Meanwhile, the hateful replies underneath the posts were growing rapidly. Even people who admitted that they were once fans had been brainwashed and turned against us. 

One day, a friend/fan of the band came up to me at The Basement, and gave me a quiet tip-off. "Don't tell anyone I told you this, but I saw who put up one of those posters. I kinda know him, but he's a bit of a dick". I promised I wouldn't rat him out for telling me. "I don't know his last name, but he goes by the nicknames of 'John the Fascist', 'Facepaint John' and 'Gay John', and he is a strong believer in Neo-Nazism". Immediately, I asked, "Why do they call him 'Gay John' if he hates gay people, and 'Facepaint John' if he hates the fact that some of us in the band wear facepaint and masks on stage?". Turns out 'Gay John' was just a silly name mates called him, poking fun of his hatred of gay people. And 'Facepaint John' was due to the fact that he would wear white facepaint, similar to that of the racist, anti-christian members of the Norwegian black metal scene (pictured), responsible for many of the infamous Church burnings in the early 1990s. 

Headkase t-shirts

Gradually, I started piecing together all kinds of information about John the Fascist and some of his associates. Any information I received was given in secrecy, and in very small doses. There was a hint of fear from those who divulged any information. Some people simply said that while they respect what the band does, they're also friends with John and didn't want to betray their friend. I started hearing stories of people who were beaten for wearing Headkase t-shirts. And many of these stories were linked to other hate crimes against Asian people and gay people, specifically a lot of the bashings outside the Wickham Hotel in the Valley. But nobody was willing to give any more information. 

At one show, there was a group of about six goths in white facepaint who were chanting, "Nigger lovers!" at us while we played. There really didn't seem to be any basis behind these racist and homophobic statements being used against us, all because we dared to play music that was a bit different to what other metal bands were playing. The silliest part about the whole thing was the fact that these people were devoting so much of their time and money to this cause. The printing costs for posters and flyers, the time spent on hanging them up and handing them out, the time spent building websites and writing on countless message forums and guestbooks, and the entry fees spent on getting into our shows. Why would you pay money to see a band you hate so much?

 Thankfully, the threats of violence towards us never became any more than threats. However, I was appalled to think that acts of violence were being carried out towards our fans for wearing our t-shirts. Especially since the Police still refused to act without full names and address details. I had all the evidence, clues and leads for an investigation that they simply didn't want to be a part of. Venues like The Basement who took the matter seriously were putting on extra security at our shows, for the protection of the band and the fans. Both the front entry for the public, and the back entry for bands were being checked to make sure nobody was bringing in weapons. And roaming security guards were making sure nobody was organising any attacks, especially during our performance. Even enthusiastic fans in the mosh pit who lunged forward towards the stage were pushed back by security.

By 2007, the madness had died down. Any internet nonsense that was still going on was going unnoticed thanks to MySpace and the measures they had to keep riff raff like that away from band profiles. The band continued playing, and we'd gone through several waves of fans in that time. Many of the original regulars who packed out The Basement had long stopped attending shows. They'd hung up their leather pants, boots and spiky collars, gained full time employment, gotten married and had kids. But with every new wave of fans, we were still able to pull large crowd numbers. The "Overcranked" festival at the RNA Showgrounds was a highlight, and certainly reassured us that people were still willing to come out of the woodwork in large numbers to see us. MySpace helped to raise our profile nationally and even internationally as well, which worked in our favour when it came to touring and releasing an album.

In the next post, I'll talk about a couple of other bands I was in during this time - Silent Partners and Marlinchen. 

To be continued...

Part 4 - http://geekazoidopinion.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html