We interviewed Pet Conspiracy, who will be headlining Friday Nights at NGV on 26 February 2016.
Describe your sound in 5 words or less?
Yeah, well…alchemical, conflictual, corporal, messy and a little silly, from time to time
If your music was an artwork what would it look like?
…probably like a giant pink rabbit by Gelatin, funny, excessive and kind of creepy.
Do you have a favourite artist/artwork?
We have many of course, we would give a mention to Song Kun who is a very talented Chinese Artist and a good friend of us. Last year we cooperated to a Project named The Island. We lived together with Song Kun and other artists / musicians in Thailand for a month, coming out with an experimental and cross-cutting project, involving painting, videos photography and a new album. An amazing experience.
What’s your favourite gig you have played to date?
We do have a list for worst gigs ever played, but not of the best ones. That’s probably because the best gigs are so peculiar and emotionally charged that cannot just be ranked
What inspires/influences your music the most?
We all come from different musical backgrounds: electro, indie, goth, hip hop, and Beijing opera
What part of making music excites you the most?
Exchanging, confronting, fighting and then just get to the final common point. Just like a sexual intercourse, but a good one.
What can someone expect from your live show?
That’s difficult to say in advance…we are actually super emphatic with the audience…we lead the show but at same time our performance is driven by the energy and colors we can sense under stage. One thing is is sure,you are gonna love it, same as we will!
Tell us about the last song or album you created?
Each of us was scattered in different countries, China, Thailand, and Italy…we had to do it so we just worked a bit via email, a bit via Skype and a lot via wechat…somehow we worked out one of the most irreverent, sexiest and probably most different song we ever made, and fully in remote mode…
What is your favourite part of being involved in Friday Nights at NGV?
This is our the first time in Melbourne and our first in such an important National Gallery and the first with AiWeiwei. What could we say more, we really don’t know what to expect but it’s surely gonna be special
Andy Warhol famously said: ‘Art is what you can get away with.’ How would you respond?
Art is probably the most free type of expression. Even when the context you live in says otherwise, there is always a way you can get away with it. Just need to play smart, without giving up your intellectual honesty.
Ai Weiwei once said: ‘A small act is worth a million thoughts.’ How would you respond?You make the difference by acting the way you feel more ethical, by small but meaningful acts, and never give up thinking critically, and never take anything for granted.
A large portion of the works included in the Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei exhibition include political or social commentary. Have you been inspired to do this through your music?
The way we communicate with the outside is more physical than conceptual. Full expression of anything comes into our mind while on stage is just our way to be.
What else are you working on now? Or where are you next touring?
We want to do Africa next. It’s new, it’s fresh and it’s just good for us.