you were deep inside that thought: July 2023

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Night Of The Wolverine 30th Anniversary Tour starting this week

Donna McRae asked if she could use some new technology at Deakin University to do a clip for Night Of The Wolverine a couple of months ago and the finished film was pretty great!

It was a project for her students and herself as much as anything I guess. I just said at the beginning that it might be difficult for any band involvement as Robin Casinader lives in Canberra (his image appears in the clip on a billboard) and that I would not be able to mime to the song. (Also that the band doesnt really exist as a full time thing) For other reasons I wasn't really comfortable trying to mime it and thought it would suit it more if I just appeared in it as a cameo. Like a wandering presence. Its all Donnas ideas. I just suggested a nightclub scene after hours or - when it was explained what was possible with the Virtual Studio technology- some sort of downbeat neon streetscape like Francis Ford Coppolas One From The Heart.

Here is a link to an interview Donna did with Filmink about the production.

We were invited into the Friday Review on ABC Melbourne with Brian Nankervis and Jacinta Parsons. Robin Casinader flew down from Canberra for the afternoon to do the session. We played two songs, Mogambo and I'm Just Havin' One O' Those Lives live to air and did and interview. The sound was excellent and it was great to see that beautiful ABC studio still being used. Unfortunately the audio is already unavailable from the ABC site.

More shots from behind the scenes at the video shoot.

CAST:

Dave Graney

Clare Moore

Rod Hayward

Liana Samson Piniata

Willow Wakefield-Trump

CREW

Donna McRae - Director

Ben Bellette – Director of Photography

Hannah Jennings – 1^st assistant camera

Martin Andersen – 2^nd assistant camera

Josh Fernandez- Gaffer

Luca Bizzarri – Grip

Will Jones – Lighting assistant

Doug Bicker - Virtual Production assistant

Nicole Zhang - Playback/Production Assistant

Téa Mancini – Set dresser

Donna McRae - Editor

Courtney Palser – Colourist

DEAKIN:

Laurie Meade – Coordinator of Post Production & Workflows

Matthew Skarajew – Coordinator, Digital Technologies

Adi Ringma – Technical Officer

Nick Donaldson– Unreal Operator

Kimberly Potts – Wardrobe and Standby wardrobe

Mark Lasky-Davison – Technical Officer

Matt Haycroft – Technical Officer

It was also Margret Roadknights 80th birthday last week so Guy Blackman and Ben from Chapter Music organized a lunch at a restaurant on Chapel street.

Tour starts this week in Canberra. The Night Of The Wolverine double vinyl album and my lyric book will be available at all shows. In Melbourne they can also be gotten at Greville and Rocksteady Records and at Redeye in Sydney.

Its also available mail order via our Bandcamp site.

Friday 28 July – The Street Theatre, Canberra ACT
Tickets

Saturday 29 July – Blue Mountains Theatre, Springwood NSW
Tickets

Thursday 3 August – The Factory Theatre, Marrickville NSW
Tickets

Friday 4 August - The Imperial, Eumundi QLD
Tickets

Saturday 5 August – The Old Museum, Brisbane QLD
Tickets

Sunday 6 August – HOTA, Surfers Paradise QLD
Tickets

Friday 11 August – The Royal Oak, Launceston TAS
Tickets

Saturday 12 August – Gnomon Room, Ulverstone TAS
Tickets

Sunday 13 August – The Palais Theatre, Franklin TAS
Tickets

****NEW MELBOURNE SHOW ADDED****
Thursday 17 August - The Gershwin Room , Esplanade Hotel, St Kilda.
Tickets

Friday 18 August – The Corner, Richmond VIC
******SOLD OUT****

Saturday 19 August - The Gov, Adelaide SA
Tickets

Friday 25 August – The Heritage, Bulli NSW
Tickets

Saturday 26 August – Drifter’s Wharf, Gosford NSW
Tickets

davegraney.com

Sunday, July 9, 2023

Lyrics Book Launch was a party

Thank you to everybody who came to the One Star Gallery and Lounge to the launch of my lyrics book.
The book was self published and I got the design together with the help of Simon Strong.

The launch was set up with a casual suggestion to Katy Beale and Mick Harvey. Its a great, flexible space that perfectly suited this kind of affair.

Doors opened at 6pm and I stood around as people started to fill the place. There was no hiding out in a backstage room (though there was one available) as this was to be a very casual soiree.

I hadn't really prepared anything to read out as its a lyrics book (though with many annotations and notes in regard to song chords and structures and production) and I just thought I'd wait and see who turned up - if anybody! I had my Crate acoustic amp with both my guitar and mic plugged into it, ready to make show.

People arrived on a very wintry Thursday evening, coming from work and home. By car and tram and foot. Wine and beer were served and chairs were lined up for an attentive audience.

The place was full with about 70 people so I started at 7pm. I thanked everybody and told them what the book was and about the design and that it was lyrics from 1980-2023 with no images, only text and was 374 pages in total. Book design is based on a classic French Éditions Gallimard NRF form of paperback.

I mentioned that I'd written about how I got my tone of voice in my 2011 book 1001 Australian Nights and mentioned my blue collar and regional town background. I was explaining how I found it difficult to howl songs starting with "I" like my heroes did so easily. How "I" as an unreliable narrator of my own story or self but felt the pressure of the particular moment of the music scene I was immersed within to write my own words and to fashion them from my own environment. I had found this difficult also because all the sounds and images we liked were from the UK or USA.

Then I read out the words to How I Wrote Elastic Man by The Fall as if to illustrate the way that Mark E Smith - in his post punk META stance - opened up so many new ways of expression for me - and I'm sure for others as well. It didn't have to be all "I - I - I" it could be also a kind of meta eye view of your own situation (even as you were doing it). A kind of pulp reportage.

I'm eternally gratefulTo my past influencesBut they will not free meI am not diseasedAll the people ask meHow I wrote "Elastic Man"

Life should be full of strangenessLike a rich paintingBut it gets worse day by dayI'm a potential DJA creeping wreckA mental wretchEverybody asks meHow I wrote "Elastic Man"

His soul hurts though it's well filled upThe praise received is mentally sent backOr taken apartThe Observer magazine just about sums him upE.g. self-satisfied, smug

I'm living a fakePeople say, "You are entitled to and great."But I haven't wrote for 90 daysI'll get a good deal and I'll go awayAway from the empty brains that askHow I wrote "Elastic Man"

His last work was "Space Mystery" in the Daily Mail,An article in Leather ThighsThe only thing real is waking and rubbing your eyesSo I'm resigned to bedI keep bottles and comics stuffed by its headFuck it, let the beard growI'm too tired,I'll do it tomorrowThe fridge is sparseBut in the townThey'll stop me in the shopsVerily they'll track me downTouch my shoulder and ignore my dumb missionAnd sick red faced smileAnd they will ask meAnd they will ask meHow I wrote "Elastic Man"

I mentioned how crude the music was but how great and Marks voice so harsh and sometimes unintelligible but also great.

I then picked up my guitar and went through the chords and the lyics of some of my songs.

I got into Death By A Thousand Sucks from 2000's Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye and the title track of Heroic Blues from 2001.

"death by a thousand sucks
you know what I'm talkin about
you know mate, that guy would give a dogs arse heartburn "

I went through the chords of Heroic Blues but should have explained how we recorded it on a digital Zoom hand held device at a soundcheck in Tarwin Lower. A big, empty room we could improvise into while the sound of women washing dishes in the kitchen added a melancholy, empty ambience to the space. I meant to explain how this was a kind of production and presentation that was integral to the song as much as the chords and the improvisation. It was an improvised field recording.

"I'm standin in a bar
singin my songs
theres six people hangin around
they've got nowhere else to go
I'm a hero, thats what I do"

I played parts of Lt Colonel Cavalry from THE DAVE GRANEY SHOW album (1999).

"I was a free man
like a highland prince
a fur trapper gazin into the distance
nobody bothered me with trifling details
my mind wandered the earth and the cosmos
rightin wrongs and cuttin fools down where they stood"

Talked about the chords and how the chorus has a drone note going through four changing chords underneath, holding it at the treble end while the emotion shifts underneath.

I said that I had never had much feedback for my work as in the moribund, straight rock scene of Australia I sensed I was seen as mostly an annoying ironic presence who was not serious. Serious rock music being unreservedly grim.

I didn't mean that I wanted to be taken seriously, I meant that I didn't take any of that seriously, only my work. My songs.

I also played The Old Swagger and ended with Where Are You In The Underworld. Both from my most recent album, IN A MISTLY.

It was a very enjoyable night and I thank everybody who came along. You really made my night. And day.

THERE HE GOES WITH HIS EYE OUT IS AVAILABLE VIA BANDCAMP.

Simon Grounds and Clare Moore

Maxine, Katy Beale, Will Hindmarsh and Kim Salmon

Miles Brown in the back chugging on a beer.

Mick Harvey checking the football scores

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

There He Goes With His Eye Out - Lyrics 1980-2023 - book launch

I am launching my book of lyrics THERE HE GOES WITH HIS EYE OUT - complete lyrics 1980-2023 Thursday night 6pm at One Star Gallery and Lounge which is run by Katy Beale and Mick Harvey at 301-303 Victoria St, West Melbourne VIC 3003.

Everything from the Moodists to the latest albums and beyond. Includes some descriptions of intent as to the song or music in question and also some notes as to production approaches and chords.

Book design is based on a classic French Éditions Gallimard NRF form of paperback. All text, no images. 374 pages.

Thanks to Simon Strong from Ekranoplans for help in editing and formatting.

You can only get the book via our Bandcamp page.

I'll have my acoustic guitar with me and will be talking about my kind of songwriting and perhaps playing a few songs.

Doors will open at 6 and I will do something at 7pm. Admission is free but books will be available.

In other news, this was sent to our booking agent yesterday. It really floated my boat. Two kids acting out to one of our most abstract and wilful songs, Wilco Got No Wilco from Everything Was Funny. Thank you younger generation! (Their father - who I dont know - sent it)

I had spent what seemed like the previous two weeks in a constant battle with tech. Must be a common thing I know.

Basically always coming to these situations where you are told you need to upgrade. Hardware or software. So as o work with apps or better integrate other apps. As you know, this is a nerds daydream that we all have to live inside IRL and it rarely works smoothly or immediately.

More than a few years ago I upgraded my OS by accident or as a result of fatigue and my desktop workhorse went to a black screen. A couple of days later I had it working again but it just didn't gel with the music software Protools anymore. I learned that after a certain level of OS upgrades it in fact didnt work at all and I had crossed that Rubicon. It was all kind of glitchy with the graphics but somehow hung tremulously together. Then there was the realization that the application itself had entered an era where you could no longer own it but had to subscribe.

I mixed several albums in this burning wasteland/sick, drifting spacecraft situation. Then another situation developed with someone sharing files with me and it seemed the only solution was a new computer which meant subscribing to several applications.

I went online one day and asked the internet what OS and Protools combination was the best and the answers were all to do with OS versions from the early 2000s and further back. People had audio only computers that they never took online. I learned that there were people using versions of Protools numbered 4 (the current version is about 13 or 14) and that they mixed television programs that way.

My cunning plan was to downgrade, to go back.

Last week I achieved all this. I bought a $150 Mac with OS in the early 10s (before it lost touch with Protools) and it works perfectly! No graphic glitches, just as smooth as a new contraption.

I seriously felt healthier! As if this nagging feeling of instability in my tech life was also feeding into my physical sensibilty.

So I've been "in the studio" for the last week. Working on new material and trying out some outboard gear. Something may be out this year but definitely next.