STACK #168 Oct 2018

MUSIC

FEATURE

INTERVIEW

THUNDAMENTALS I f you're both a laidback hip hop fan and a love song tragic, you’re gonna want to sink your teeth into Thundamentals latest album, I Love Songs . Fresh off a 45-odd date regional tour in go really well on radio; we’d done okay, but nothing stood out," Tuka explains. "We were writing a lot of love songs still, but we’d hide them at the end of the record and they’d never be singles – they’d be tucked away. Once we put out that cover we realised we’ve got tender elements of our personalities, and we’re not like some hectic G-rap dudes.” The self-dubbed “hippies from the Blue Mountains” see sensitivity as a strength. “That really was our breakthrough

elements of your personality even if you’re in a hip hop group. If it wasn’t for that Brother cover I think we would be in a really different place. It’s quite special.“ I Miss You is the first single released from the album, and Tuka tells us it’s all about the consuming nature of social media. “ I Miss You is less of a love song; it’s more about the connection that I feel like I’ve lost with my friends since social media has become a huge part of our lives. Catching up on the internet is how I catch up with 70 to 90 per cent of my friends nowadays. I find it really sad, so I’m almost talking to myself in that song. It’s about loss of community and loss of connection, and reminding ourselves of that.” Tuka tells us if you really pay attention to the record, there’s a complete story arc within the tracklist – with a few extra bangers thrown in. “If you follow it really closely, there is actually a narrative of two people meeting, going through troubles, and then at the end making some kind of conclusion that they don’t know what the future will be anyway, and it’s just important to see one another. The rest of the songs are based around community and friendship: the inner and outer love that you have for people.” AK

celebration of The Decade Of The Thundakat , MC Tuka says the Thundas boys are feeling nothing but love for the fans, the industry, and music in general. “Touring for a decade and seeing some old faces pop out of the crowd that we haven’t seen in a long time was probably the most special, and I guess playing some of the older songs and even new fans knowing the old songs, we were all extremely grateful," he says. "I think something like 20,000 people came in total, and I guess when we started 10 years ago we never thought that would be possible. The whole thing was a highlight, to tell the truth.” Love is always at the heart of Thundamentals’ music, and their triple j Like A Version cover of Matt Corby’s Brother (which charted at #49 in the 2012 Hottest 100) was the awakening of their love affair with love. “Prior to that, we hadn’t had anything

moment in terms of the public, and it was also a breakthrough moment in our songwriting, because we realised it’s cool to be vulnerable and it’s cool to show tender

I Love Songs by Thundamentals is out now via Island/Universal.

BOB EVANS Kevin Mitchell – aka Bob Evans, the break-out frontman of beloved Aussie ‘90s act Jebediah – releases a carefully compiled record of tracks from throughout his solo career this month. We spoke to the engaging musician about Full Circle . and I could still hopefully

You’ve said: “It’s such a game to keep creatively stimulated and excited.”What do you try to do to play that game? You just have to be proactive. You have to keep searching out inspirations, and I set little challenges for myself. For example, a couple of years ago I was like: Tom Petty. What Tom Petty songs do I know? I don’t own a single Tom Petty record. I know a few of his songs that’ve been on

In assembling this album, you chose songs from your back catalogue that have “grown legs of their own” rather than those that were radio hits. In what various ways have these songs grown their own legs – is it through playing them live, or did it happen in your own mind over time? [Laughs] Look, sometimes it’s happening in my mind! Wonderful You , for example, was the final track off my Familiar

of a song that’s grown purely in my own mind, because it was a song that didn’t get played on the radio, or have any sort of life outside of the record, but it’s that I really felt was important to include on this compilation because it represents another side of [my] songwriting. This will be the first time I’ve played Wintersong live, on this tour.

write. Playing guitar would be difficult. The thing is, I started Jebediah in my first year of university when I was still living at home; the following year was when I started earning a wage from being a musician, and moved out of home, and I’ve been doing it full time ever since. So I don’t have any experience or any qualifications to do anything else! So I’m really kind of f-cked! Because this music thing has to

You've said your solo career

took off at the perfect time because Jebediah were

the radio, but I’ve got to educate myself. So I go on little education missions where I dive into the back catalogues of people form the past. And then steal all their ideas. ZKR

Stranger record [2013]. It was never a single, but it has become a real live favourite – I play it pretty much every gig. Most of the time I end my

burnt out, and you “can’t do anything else.” Do you really think that? If your arm dropped off tomorrow,

keep working! And the stakes are much higher now because I have kids and a mortgage. If I had to get a job I’d literally be applying at Coles or something.

Full Circle by Bob Evans is out October 5 via EMI.

shows with it. Wintersong is an example

what would you do?

If my arm fell off I could still sing

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