border thieves says...

According to Border Thieves...

The dominant paradigm that popular music operates under is an unyielding beast, begrudgingly approaching antiquity. Equal parts useful and redundant, the schema places musicians at a crossroads; those who adhere are can be rewarded with success but will all too often self-destruct (Metallica) and those who subvert will work day jobs until their brilliance is discovered in the pages of some retrospective book by someone who had the patience to wade into their murky depths (Mission of Burma).

But as is the case with most system dichotomies, choice is not a black/white divide. Here at Border Thieves, we choose to adhere to the dominant paradigm. Here at Border Thieves, we also get bored sometimes and indulge in some subversion.

Because… how can you smell the roses with a nose cut for spite?

So Kluster, with this in mind we have answered your questions. One answer will adhere to the rules of the interview and hopefully provide your readers with a snippet of information on which we hope an interest may spark and compel them to click a link and go listen to our songs. The other will subvert and we will read them back to ourselves in 10 years' time and say "No wonder nobody understood us".

We hope you get it.

Kluster: For a three piece, your sound is pretty epic. How do you manage to create so much with so few musicians?

ADHERE: We recently realised that we have more gear than we have band. Approximately double… maybe more. It started with Oscar playing live drums and drum samples concurrently, then Joel looping and effecting his vocals with guitar pedals and then Kat's sample box of sounds that we have recorded along the way. Everyone has two arms, two legs and two instruments that must be employed for sound creation. These are the rules.

SUBVERT: Much in the same way the disabled/morbidly obese make use of companion monkeys, the band enlisted the help of robots to forge our epic sound. Not all robots are designed to help humans before one day turning nasty and seizing control of the entire world. But the ones we own are. And when they turn... * shakes fist* . But until that time, we continue to employ them as loyal, sound-producing compatriots. In return, we exploit them, feeding through electricity on a fixed ratio schedule. In the future our hard work finally pays off, and each robot buddy learns to salivate in response to the distant tinkle of Oscar's many miniature bells.

K: Collectively, how did you go about developing a signature sound for the band?

ADHERE: By letting as many ideas end up in a song as possible. Our music making is a democratic process and no one is ever in charge so when it comes to write a song we're never short of someone with an idea they want to lay down. We all also come from fairly different vantage points of taste, so Oscar's subs and beats, Joel's pop melodies and Kat's dirty guitars end up getting a fairly equal share of the end product. All this comes together and sounds like Joel, Oscar and Kat.

SUBVERT:
1.    Photocopy the SUPERGRASS logo three times.
2.    Distribute copies amongst band members.
3.    Turn the page upside down and practice copying the logo with your non-dominant hand.
4.    Continue, until mastery.
5.    Test your skills by withdrawing money from the SUPERGRASS chequing account.
6.    Most money withdrawn in a single attempt = best unique band signature.
7.    Sample winner singing ‘Sun Hits the Sky' and teach this version to a local primary school's recorder orchestra.
8.    Record the recorder orchestra, slow the recording down 15 BPM, and claim it as your very own and original art.

K: The three of you used to play for various bands (RiYM, Teenager, Golden Age to name just three) before coming together in early 2009. For the sake of those not yet familiar with the band, let's get a little pedestrian in our questioning: how did Border Thieves form?

ADHERE: We were all last man standing in the wake of our previous bands when it was suggested that, that guy Joel who was in I Love Space and that chick Kat who was in The Golden Age and that guy Oscar who was in New Zealand were looking for a new band. So we did that lame thing were you take your demos to each other and test the water, but then we just got drunk then decided we didn't actually need to listen to each other's songs and we should be a band and write new songs. So we became a band.

SUBVERT: Did you ever wonder what happened to all the kids from Fat Albert after Bill Cosby moved on to a real person pretend TV family? Neither did I, I just assumed “crack” like the rest of us. But imagine, if you will, that the cartoon kids went on to be involved in the development of a Mo-Town inspired series of Voltron, where each of the lions (No, we will not get into this, Lion Voltron is and always will be the superior Voltron) is replaced by one of the kids. Together they form Fat Albert Voltron – traveling throughout the universe to bring a soul inspired sense of justice to those who need it most. That's kind of what happened to us.

K: We're sure fans are highly anticipating the band's debut EP, soon to hit the stands early next year. What can folks expect from the release?

ADHERE: Vinyl. One side with songs that have singing. One side without singing.

SUBVERT: We're looking at releasing on the most inconvenient format imaginable. Honourable mention must go to the idea of simply releasing sheet music for each song, but the round tabled initiative of having one band member deserted on a mid- Pacific island (rock/paper/scissor round robin) distributing the sheet music via castaway bottle is truly the inspired (aka pointy) end of our business model. The songs themselves are a Kafkaesque reinterpretation of the 1986 John Landis classic, ¡Three Amigos!

K: Border Thieves' latest offering, Nevermend/The Currency of Ideas was recorded in Oscar's bedroom. In fact, we noticed that for the most part the band has stayed out of the studio thus far. What motivated this decision?

ADHERE: Because we can.

I think it's kinda cool how technology has been such a jerk to musicians on one hand by making songs about as valuable as my right toe nail, but then has also been such a friend by giving us the tools to record it for free. It's like putting a reverse down on the reverse the player before you in Uno tried to screw you with. BAM! Take that.

SUBVERT: If you can promise that this stays between us, I'll let you in on a secret: Border Thieves is actually a front for a pornographic film production company. Boned To Tears has a reputation within the industry for producing the kind of films our country cousins in Fyshwick shy away from, citing “morality” and “ethics” as excuses for an infirm disposition. But I digress. The nature of our film content requires that we have a semi-legitimate front for the business to distract the attention of police and human rights groups alike. This front is the musical troupe Border Thieves. Oscar's bedroom is the best equipped for our film production purposes.

K: There've been a lot of good things said of your launch last week at Melt Bar in Kings Cross, and needless to say, we are extremely excited to see you play at Kluster Presents… State of the Art. Mind giving us a little preview of what partygoers can expect from your set?

ADHERE: We're gonna structure our set like we are a DJ. Once someone peaks out we will be happy, so will they.

SUBVERT: There'll be a smoke machine and possibly the sort of strobe that brings satellites down. There'll be songs, and in between the songs there'll be improvised noise where the “Hi, thanks for coming to the show” bits usually are. There'll be things played live, and companion robots that salivate whenever a bell tolls. Unless they've turned evil. THERE WILL BE NO FALAFEL. During the second half of the set we'll trace our names out in reverse with our eyes just in case you met us earlier and forgot our name(s). Awkward. There'll be Compact Discs with our music on it available for $5 or probably just if you just ask and say you like us but not necessarily in that order.

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