Posted by KB on March 10, 2010
Bambi recently made the move from Melbourne to Sydney after joining the Priscillas 'family'. While not especially new to the modelling industry - she first began taking up position in front of the lens at the age of 14 - Bambi is a relatively recent addition to the national scene. And, it would appear, people just can't get enough of her unique, waif-like style, including Russh, Harpers Bazaar and Oyster. And, of course, us. Bambi is featuring in the next issue of Kluster magazine in a bold black-&-red dominated, '90s-femme inspired story. Watch this space...
In between cruising the streets of Bondi on her bike and becoming one of Sydney's fashion 'it' girls, Bambi sat down with Kat Hartmann for a quick chat.
Covered: Harpers Bazaar, Oyster and Bondi Beach.
Kat Hartmann: When did you start modelling and how did you first become involved in the industry?
Bambi: I was scouted when I was 14 and did a little bit of modelling in Melbourne. Two weeks ago, a friend suggested I meet with Priscillas in Sydney.
KH: You’ve been a busy girl lately. Besides working for Kluster on our upcoming fashion pages you have shot for Harpers, Russh and others. Tell us about some of your recent jobs.
B: My first shoot was a beautiful story with Russh magazine, then Harpers Bazaar, a very cool story with Oyster, and I have several more confirmed for next week. It has been quite fun so far.Continue...
bambi, priscillas, russh, harpers bazaar, oyster
Posted by Danni Le Toullec on February 24, 2010
You could say that Brisbane band Last Dinosaurs have had a pretty successful start to their music career. Despite the band’s relatively new arrival on the scene (they started playing together in late 2007), they’ve managed a Triple J Unearthed win, a tour of Japan, recording sessions with Lost Valentinos’ Jono Mar and a signing to the Dew Process label.
Kluster’s Danni Le Toullec managed to track down bass player Sam Gethin-Jones down for a quick Q&A ahead of Last Dinosaurs’ debut EP release at the Old Museum on February 26.
Covered: Pillows, being unearthed, Jono Ma and happy gooey feelings.
Danni Le Toullec: How and when did you guys come together as a band?
Sam Gethin-Jones: I was actually the latest addition. Sean and Dan went to the same school as one another. Then Lach (who is Sean’s baby brother) was recruited on guitar. I met the guys through the Brisbane music scene and when they asked if I was interested in joining, I jumped at the opportunity.
DL: What inspired the band name?
SGJ: There is a Japanese band called the pillows that we all like, and they have a track called 'Last Dinosaur'. Dan heard the track name and thought it rolled off the tongue perfectly, so, lo and behold here we are.Continue...
last dinosaurs, the pillows, dew process
Posted by KB on February 9, 2010
Late last year Kirin Big In Japan hosted an event by the same name. The Kluster Sydney staffers headed down to take in the headline-making madness that was this CarriageWorks affair. Before watching Cathy tackle birds to a dramatic classical music soundtrack in a pseudo dollhouse-like, birdcage-esque enclosure and Daito Manabe shock themselves for electronic music’s sake, Kat Hartmann sat down with Mademoiselle Yulia to gain some insight into one of the hottest young things to come out of the Japanese underground in some time.
Covered: high school girl band, meeting Vivienne Westwood, dreams of Egypt, the internet and Love with Beni Single
Kat Hartmann: You’ve got your fingers in quite a few creative pies: the singing, DJing, MCing, your label, GIZA, your fashion writing for Nylon and your blog Honeyee. Have you always been this industrious?
Mademoiselle Yulia: Yeah, I’m kind of busy but I love to do everything! I just want to do as much as I can and get involved in anything that comes up. Singing is what I wanted to do from when I was very young and I have been studying design, so this is what I want to do too.
KH: Tell me a little about your creative history. What were you like in high school? You were the frontwoman for girl band, Girls Mind. Tell me about that.
Y: I was in a band for six years playing guitar and vocal. The band suddenly broke up but I still wanted to do something with music, which is why I started DJing.
KH: How did all the projects begin?
Y: Some people from the band Revolver asked me to design jewelry. I said, “I am not interested in it” but I started and really loved it so it became my plan. They gave me a chance to do that.Continue...
mademoiselle yulia, vivienne westwood, kirin big in japan, summer sonic
Posted by Sam Hartmann on January 29, 2010
Texan band Midlake are due to release their newest album, The Courage of Others, very shortly. Kluster’s Samantha Hartmann was lucky enough to not only hear an advance copy of this British-folk inspired album, but to also speak with band member Paul Alexander about their newest creation. The band has gone in a new direction, giving them the opportunity to explore different ways to create their music. Fans of Midlake will still recognise the haunting, rich sounds but the inspiration for this latest release was quite different to that of their previous works. This album was longer in the making due to this, but, as Paul explains, the band is happy with the evolution and are looking forward to taking it on the road.
Covered: crazy jazz, B-sides, U2 and British folk.
Samantha Hartmann: What makes this album different from your previous two?
Paul Alexander: It took a lot longer! This one took us about a year longer than the others but it was necessary to get the sound we wanted. We tried to focus more on arranging as a band rather than over-dubbing. For our previous albums we dubbed things together. This time we wanted to record more at once. This took us a while because we had not recorded in this way before. We had to grow as musicians.
SH: Are you happy with the outcome and your growth?
PA: Yes! It’s a good change musically for us. We think it is the beginning of something; we have not arrived at the end of this development. We have just started.Continue...
midlake
Posted by kluster on January 13, 2010
White Rabbits have been astounding audiences down here in Oz. Prior to their arrival in the country, through a shaky line and bad weather, Kat Hartmann caught up with the phenomenally polite White Rabbits guitarist, Alex Evans.
Covered: Drunken antics on Letterman (or not), duelling banjo-esque jams with Paul Schafer and band, doubling up on drummers and the Brooklyn scene.
Kat Hartmann: I heard you guys started out as a college band. Can you tell me about the early days?
Alex Evan: All of us, save Brian the bass player, grew up in Missouri and the music scene that existed there was very small. We all met each other at shows while everyone was at school and had played in other bands together before. We had been playing and listening to music together for a long time so we started the band there and everyone was graduating from school. We decided pretty quickly that we wanted to do the most romantic thing we could and move to NYC, which we did in 2005.
KH: I am interested in what inspired the band name. My first thought would be a nod to Alice in Wonderland – am I close?
AE: I would go ahead and say that none of us are a fan of band names. They’re a bit of a silly notion but we recognise the need for one and so we just kind of picked White Rabbits because it’s open ended and suggests a lot of things to a lot of people. It doesn’t necessarily represent any of us in the band. White Rabbits means whatever you want it to mean.
KH: The new album has been receiving wide praise. How would you describe it?
AE: To me, it sounds pretty raw and fairly immediate. It’s hard to ignore as it’s pretty brash in places. It naturally pulled into the direction of rhythmically driven music.
KH: The band situation seems to have changed somewhat since the recording of the debut – you’re not sharing a loft and bunk beds anymore. How did the change in situation affect the recording of the new album?
AE: When we moved to NY in 2005, we didn’t know anyone in the city, the only thing we had was each other and trying to make music that we thought was cool. So we spent a lot of time playing together and just learning about each other and how everybody played music. I think a lot of the songs on the first album were borne out of us playing together; we were learning how to become a band. This record we knew a lot, we all contribute, we all write, there are no boundaries to what each member can do. It was a bit more fractured because we don’t live together anymore, so it was like two or three people working together at a time and then bringing it to the rest of us. There is a lot more of that, so maybe this record doesn’t sound like six people playing but it’s definitely the product of six people creating the music.Continue...
white rabbits
Posted by Kristen D on December 23, 2009
Kristen Dagg caught up with Infusion's Frank Xavier on a hot Sydney day, in the flamingo coloured courtyard at the Darlo Bar. Kristen decided on beer, and then he got a cider. Kristen was jealous. Apparently he’s trying not to drink, so cider is a compromise. The silly season is punishing his liver.
Covered: The Hungarian club scene, getting nude at festivals and not wanting to join a band.
Kristen Dagg: So, Frank, tell us about your recent album release, All Night Sunlight?
Frank Xavier: Well our last album was in 2005, so it’s been a long time between releases. We were touring a lot so we couldn’t get any work done, and we were living in Brighton in the UK and we wanted to do a new album, so we basically shipped all our gear over there assuming we were gonna do some work. We were playing three or four times a week so we were all really tired all the time and we just didn’t end up doing anything, so we shipped all our gear home.
When we got home, we were all living together in Melbourne, but we were all working separately, as we all have our own studios and we were never getting together to write. So we ended up hiring a beach house in Anglesea near Lorne, in Victoria for a month. There would be no distractions, no mobile reception, no parties or events to go to like there were in Melbourne. We set up a studio and just worked really hard and came up with heaps of stuff.
Then we went on tour and when we got back we did a month on the Mornington Peninsula, in Victoria in the middle of winter. It was freezing cold and we just sat inside all day with the heaters on, working. There were no distractions at all and we got a lot done.
We managed to get out of our last record deal and thought maybe we could do this ourselves and we went full steam ahead. We got the engineer James Brown, who is legendary producer Alan Moulder’s protégé. He was doing stuff for Nine Inch Nails and Placebo. He loved the tracks and we just went from there.
KD: So you’re playing in Budapest for NYE, why did you choose that gig?
FX: Well, for the first time in 12 years we had NYE off, and we got this offer to play in Budapest and we thought, yeah, why not? We have a really big following over there for some reason. It’s going to be crazy though. Its 30 hours worth of travel one way for a one-and-a-half hour gig, and then 30 hours back. But it should be fun. Budapest is always fun. It’s in a huge stadium so I hope there will be people there! The warehouse parties we usually play there have around 4000 people so they’re pretty fun.Continue...
infusion, all night sunlight, rainbow serpent