This week Dan Kelly will be performing in the Great Hall for Friday Nights at Italian Masterpieces. Here, we asked him a few questions about music and art. Book tickets now.
Describe your sound in 5 words or less?
Adventure Songs from Pathos Island
If your music was an artwork what would it look like?
Australian manga 3d interactive walk in pantry/universe installation
Who’s your favourite artist/artwork?
I don’t have an absolute favourite but i’m in Sydney today so I’ll go for Brett Whiteley and his painting ‘Arkie in the Shower’.
What’s your favourite gig you have played to date?
I did half an hour at the Melbourne music week last year in a big outdoor space bubble thing. We just really went somewhere during one of the more expansive songs ‘On the Run’ and I remember feeling like I stopped thinking about anything for 5 minutes. That’s a hard feeling to get in front of lots of people or at all. I felt fabulous afterwards.
What inspires/influences your music the most?
Reading in bed in the afternoon. Swimming. Sub tropical weather. Women. Politics a little bit. Hypochondria. Eco terrorism. Melbourne bands. All the big stuff.
What song do you wish you wrote?
1983… a Merman I should turn to be. by Jimi Hendrix Experience.
What part of making music excites you the most?
Finishing it! And when players on the record do stuff you didn’t think of yourself.
What can a punter expect from your live show?
Lots of stories. Kind of a party vibe without the EDM. A variety of guitars and high singing. Some folk songs and some more stretched out instrumental meditations. All done with good humour and lots of hair.
Tell us about the last song you wrote?
It’s called ‘Back to Brisbane’. In it I find a secret message in the Age magazine which sends me back to the place of my childhood, where I eventually self-immolate in protest against the development of the Galilee Basin. Sadly no one cares and the Courier Mail covers it up. Very catchy though.
The collection of the Spanish royal family formed the basis of the Prado Museum collection. If you could develop a collection including any artists past or present, who would be your top three?
To suit my sub-tropical mindset right now I’d go for Paul Gauguin, Utagawa Hiroshige and Brisbane artist Adam Lester. It wouldn’t be subtle but there’d be heaps of colour!