Psychedelic Porn Crumpets on Aussie bands and Japanese fans

In the Aussie Outback, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets spend their days mingling with melodies and mandolins. Luckily, The Rodeo managed to catch a signal and have a chat with the Perth psych-rockers about their upcoming plans and Newcastle United. 

We saw you in Newcastle earlier this year and there seemed to be lots of family and friends there, is Newcastle a special place for you?
Yeah, my dad is a Geordie, I think he was born in North Shields, and we are all Newcastle United fans. I’ve been to see them once when they were playing in the Champions League when Bobby Robson was there, so I was still really young. Obviously, I’ve lived in Australia for 13 years so that show was the first time I’d been back, the first time I could drink over there and properly see the town, it was good night that one.

So, you’re on tour at the moment, is there a particular show that’s stood out?
We just got back from Japan, and the whole of Summer Sonic was incredible. You know how in Europe; all the festivals are in the same field? Well, over there it’s basically all stadiums. There’s a district of stadiums, with tennis stadiums, baseball stadiums, football stadiums, and you walk from stadium to stadium. We went to Osaka and it was huge, there were seven or eight thousand people in this arena and it was unreal. The crowds were great! People say Japanese crowds don’t clap or make a sound afterwards, like they don’t get it, but it was the opposite.

That might have been a reaction to you guys!
Haha! No, they were doing it for everyone. I’ve never seen crowd-surfers like that. It was like that scene from 28 days later when they’re all just jumping off that bridge. It was nuts. 

You’ve got shows and festivals coming up, anything jump out?
We’re heading over to LA to play a show there and ending that run in Desert Days, which will be solid. The line-up for that is silly, it’s all the bands I’ve ever wanted to see in one place: Stereolab, Flying Lotus, Frankie and the Witch Fingers. It’s mega. 

You released And Now for the Whatchamacallit this year, which has a bit more funk and pop sound to it. Where did the change in style come from?
If we had done another album similar to what we were doing, then it would have fallen on the same crowd and not really been a progression. We only played our first festival at the start of last year, so we are really fresh to playing on bigger stages and finding that sort of what festival sound and music should be. I think this was definitely aimed at festivals. So, Bill’s Mandolin and Kick On, those sort of tunes. When we first released it, I was hesitant because it definitely does have that poppy vibe, less fuzzy and rocky, but as soon as we started playing them at festivals. They’re the tunes that are really going down with people who haven’t heard us before. I’d say it’s more of a gateway into Porn Crumpets, not a step-back but a more refined and melodic album so if you haven’t heard us, there might be couple of tracks that you can show them instead of hitting them with Gurze.

The album I’m working on now is going to be straight back into knocking your teeth out kind of riffs.

Interesting, when is that album coming out?
I don’t really know, but I’m getting close to finishing it which is fun.

What’s your favourite new song to play live?
‘Hymn for a Joy’ is going off when we play it live, it’s got that intensity. We now play with a fifth member, who plays guitar and keys, and when we get that underway it’s great. We transition it with ‘Bill’s Mandolin’, they’re both great songs to play. There are some big tracks on the album actually.

There are, it’s more anthemic, more people can sing along it seems.
Yeah, I just wanted to give it a crack and I think it’s very radio-friendly which sometimes isn’t a bad thing, it’s a kind of progress, you can take both paths. It’s really cool being an underground band where you can make good music, but you’re playing to 500 people each time, it would be good and it’s integral. But I think sometimes I wouldn’t mind branching out like if we did do a festival, would we get more festivals? I think that’s what’s been happening, and I think the way it was intended for and what crowd and the style we chose to write in has opened us up to a bigger market. It’s also given us, on the next album, more range to work in. I’m happy about it from that point of view.

You mentioned Bill’s Mandolin earlier, what is that and can you explain the story behind it?
So, when I was back in England on our very first tour of the UK, and our first international tour actually, I went to see my Gran who I hadn’t seen in years and she had my Grandad’s old stuff. I rummaged through it and found his old Mandolin. He gave to us every time we would go over and would let us play it. It’s an old cheapy,  about 100 years old, and I think he found it at an old car boot sale. Obviously, it’s got a lot of meaning to myself, so I thought I’ve got to have this. I didn’t have a case for it or anything and carried it around the whole of England basically in my hand and passed out with it. We had to do a tour of Australia afterwards, so I was just carrying this Mandolin around with me. Eventually, I got it home and it was unscratched, still in good nick, so I thought I’ve got to write a song about the journey its been on. It kind of has this quest kind of vibe, it was our token of the tour.

You mentioned your Gran there, was there any influences from other members of your family from what you listened to on any record that you have made? Any particular bands that you thought “I want to make music like that”?
Oh, for sure. I remember dad had a huge record collection with like Sabbath and Zeppelin. I remember my Grandad used to play Santana and Link Ray, people around that sort of era. I think The Beatles was the biggest one, everyone back there cranked all those records and when you get old you realise how timeless those records really are. They pretty much changed modern music and to write in that sort of style, there is still so much to learn still like production-wise and structure-wise, how you’re going to develop as a songwriter or a band. You start off with The Beatles, such a strong flavour and group. They were the one I looked to more on this whatchamacallit album than the others. 

As a band, you started in Australia, what were your experiences growing up and playing in the Aussie music scene? Any anecdotes from early shows?
Well obviously, the Perth music scene was the biggest scene. Tame Impala, Pond, bands like Red Engine Cage, Hideous Sunbeam and Spaceman Antics. Everyone would go out on the weekend and watch live music and because we are quite far away and isolated in Perth from all the other cities, most big bands don’t come through here. So, no international acts but you could have a Saturday night gig where it could just be huge for a local band or someone who has come across from inner state. But that local scene is where the hub is formed and where I met most of the band members from Porn Crumpets. It just formed into such a cool, diverse scene; it’s gone more neon-soul that psych-rock these days but its sick. I don’t think I listened to much different music than Tame Impala, Pond, King Gizzard. It was Australian bands for ages, then I got into Temples, Oh Sees, Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Completely opened the door to so much more music.

It’s always changing and producing great acts and that was definitely my main inspiration when we were coming out

Some great bands there, is there any bands in Perth or Australia that people should look out for that are just getting going?
There’s so many good bands like, Nala and Hoby Magic. The bands coming out now are getting real traction like Amyl and the Sniffers who started around the same time as us. Also, Tropical Fuckstorm who another big band just hitting the international scene. There’s a band called Spacey Jane that are probably going to be massive, they’re just coming out of Perth now. It’s always another act coming out underneath you, it keeps you on your toes almost like right I need to write another record, just keep doing this so you don’t get overtaken.

Finally, my mum has no knowledge of music far beyond Blondie and classical music, so how would you sell her Psychedelic Porn Crumpets?
I suppose we have some classical notes, the heaviness of Wagner, or Bach. That heavy German orchestral sound mixed with some backbeat of the Blondie drummer, mixed in with the 60s. I suppose that would work.

Listen to Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and their new single Mundungus on Spotify or Apple Music.

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