This week, THE BREAK are performing at Friday Nights at Italian Masterpieces. We asked Jim Moginie, Brian Ritchie and Rob Hirst a couple of questions about music and art. Book now.
Describe your sound in 5 words or less?
JM: Majestic, billowing, ageless, futuristic, symphonic.
BR: Slamming, pounding, throbbing surf noise.
RH: Surf sci-fi spag west.
If your music was an artwork what would it look like?
JM: A Pollock.
BR: Abstract Expressionism on a surf board.
RH: A Hokusai wave.
Who’s your favourite artist/artwork?
JM: My 8 year old, who draws beautifully and is as free as a bird from tradition
BR: Caravaggio
RH: Minnie Pwerle
What’s your favourite gig you have played to date?
JM: Two gigs we did on the SPACEFARM tour… GoMA in Brisbane and Woodford Festival.
BR: My favourite gig is the one I’ll be playing at the NGV.
RH: Woodford Festival
What inspires/influences your music the most?
JM: The music of Link Wray, Schoenberg and Sun Ra
BR: We like to paint pictures with our sound. Letting the people into our sound world and taking their minds on a trip through involuntary processes.
RH: inner ocean/outer space
What song do you wish you wrote?
JM: Telstar
BR: Happy Birthday. Big royalties on that one.
RH: Bombora (the Atlantics)
What part of making music excites you the most?
JM: The initial inspiration. It’s a drug I’m hooked on.
BR: I like the unexpected decisions made in the moment of improvisation. I also like the physicality of the craft part of music making.
RH: Recording/performing
What can a punter expect from your live show?
JM: To be transported to another dimension
BR: A thrilling ride through a musical kaleidoscope.
RH: Powerful instrumental-experimental-visual music
Tell us about the last song you wrote?
JM: It involved a rhinoceros, a tea cosy and Andrew Bolt in the third verse
BR: The last song I wrote is called One Note One God. It has one note.
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?
JM: Goya, Ian Abdulla and John Coburn
BR: Prado already has Hieronymus Bosch. That would be one. The others would be Enku, the Japanese sculptor, and Victor Brauner.
RH: Pablo Picasso; Henry Moore; Brett Whiteley.