Monday, August 20, 2007
10 Questions with Yves Klein Blue
Brisbane, Australia
Yves Klein Blue head to Sydney for a short tour this week. Being one of our favourite bands, we took some time out to ask them stuff about things and things about stuff and all that...
So tell us, who's in the band, what do you do?
Michael Tomlinson - vocals rhythm guitar and limited piano.
Charles Sale - lead guitar and also some piano.
Chris Banham - drums.
Sean Cook - bass.
How long have you been together?
1 year.
What are your main influences in your sound?
The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, CCR, Television, The Strokes, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Big Star, Beatles, Pixies, Various blues bands like Led Zeppelin and BB King and Muddy Waters etc.
Yves Klein Blue? How did the name come about?
There was an eccentric French artist called Yves Klein who with the help of chemists developed a medium called International Klein Blue is a colour of blue which looks the same dry as it does wet. It has this quality because its pure blue pigment suspended in synthetic resin - the resin dries but the pigment never touches the air so it never oxidizes. He did a whole serious of sculptures and paiting with it, most famously anthropometries, which were paintings he made by directing naked models covered in paint to drag themselves across large canvases.
You won the MTV kickstart competition some months ago, how do you compare the band pre-kickstart and after?
The band is much the same except we get more gigs now.
What do you forsee for the band for the rest of 2007? Are there any plans for recordings, videos etc?
Well we recorded a new ep with the money we got from the competition, and we're hoping to get that out later in the year, not for a couple of months though realistically. And we have a video, its on MTV sometimes and one day we'll work out how to put it on the internet..if we are legally allowed to do that. Other than that we'll just be traipsing up and down the countryside in my dented people mover hopefully supporting The Killers or The Police on their respective world tour.
You've been touring Sydney a lot, how does it compare to the scene in Brisbane?
its really cool we love to come to Sydney - its like some kind of wonderful holiday. Its strange to - in Brisbane there is really only one place to play/go out and that's the valley, but Sydney has millions of different bars that are cool to play and depending on who you ask they'll tell you a different place... except everyone says that the sandwich club is awesome) (good brownie points there). And there are all these hotels which look exactly the same and I'll say like "hey -lets stop in here for a drink" and all the people from Sydney will be like "nah, that bar is for losers, ill take you to a cool place". So then we all walk for like 10 or 15 blocks and we arrive at the cool bar and it looks EXACTLY like the uncool bar and there are the same number of poker machines and the same beer on tap and it costs the same...BUT SOMEHOW ITS COOLER! I don't understand it. I guess we are small town folk.
As far as the actual music scene goes - you guys have way more bands in your town, and they all seem to influence each other, which is different to Brisbane as bands up here tend to be less influenced by their peers. That's cool because then real "scenes" develop, as opposed to Brisbane which is a lot more insular. Everyone is really nice though - we are big fans of Fait Accompli, Goons of Doom, Talons, Tokyo Blonde. Also I heard that band Ghostwood recently, I think those guys are pretty cool.
What are you guys listening to at the moment?
The John Steel Singers, The Police, The Band, Dungen, Bruce Springsteen, The Killers, Kings of Leon, Toots and the Maytals, The Cars, CCR, Artic Monkeys, Sarah Blasko, Gotye.
If you could choose your ideal band, who would you have play and why?
uhhh...just the guys who are already in the band...and that genie who has the never ending pack of tim tams. and a big gay bear dressed all in leather with a massive angle grinder
White, multigrain or brown?
MULTIGRAIN! As the black guy from the shining said, you gots to be regular to be happy..
MP3: Yves Klein Blue - Polka
MP3: Yves Klein Blue - Silence Is Distance
myspace
Sydney Tour Dates:
Wednesday 22nd August - Pet Cemetery @ Flinder Bars, Surry Hills (Free)
Thursday 23rd August - Candy's Apartment, Kings Cross
Friday 24th August - MUM @ World Bar, Kings Cross
Yves Klein Blue head to Sydney for a short tour this week. Being one of our favourite bands, we took some time out to ask them stuff about things and things about stuff and all that...
So tell us, who's in the band, what do you do?
Michael Tomlinson - vocals rhythm guitar and limited piano.
Charles Sale - lead guitar and also some piano.
Chris Banham - drums.
Sean Cook - bass.
How long have you been together?
1 year.
What are your main influences in your sound?
The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, CCR, Television, The Strokes, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Big Star, Beatles, Pixies, Various blues bands like Led Zeppelin and BB King and Muddy Waters etc.
Yves Klein Blue? How did the name come about?
There was an eccentric French artist called Yves Klein who with the help of chemists developed a medium called International Klein Blue is a colour of blue which looks the same dry as it does wet. It has this quality because its pure blue pigment suspended in synthetic resin - the resin dries but the pigment never touches the air so it never oxidizes. He did a whole serious of sculptures and paiting with it, most famously anthropometries, which were paintings he made by directing naked models covered in paint to drag themselves across large canvases.
You won the MTV kickstart competition some months ago, how do you compare the band pre-kickstart and after?
The band is much the same except we get more gigs now.
What do you forsee for the band for the rest of 2007? Are there any plans for recordings, videos etc?
Well we recorded a new ep with the money we got from the competition, and we're hoping to get that out later in the year, not for a couple of months though realistically. And we have a video, its on MTV sometimes and one day we'll work out how to put it on the internet..if we are legally allowed to do that. Other than that we'll just be traipsing up and down the countryside in my dented people mover hopefully supporting The Killers or The Police on their respective world tour.
You've been touring Sydney a lot, how does it compare to the scene in Brisbane?
its really cool we love to come to Sydney - its like some kind of wonderful holiday. Its strange to - in Brisbane there is really only one place to play/go out and that's the valley, but Sydney has millions of different bars that are cool to play and depending on who you ask they'll tell you a different place... except everyone says that the sandwich club is awesome) (good brownie points there). And there are all these hotels which look exactly the same and I'll say like "hey -lets stop in here for a drink" and all the people from Sydney will be like "nah, that bar is for losers, ill take you to a cool place". So then we all walk for like 10 or 15 blocks and we arrive at the cool bar and it looks EXACTLY like the uncool bar and there are the same number of poker machines and the same beer on tap and it costs the same...BUT SOMEHOW ITS COOLER! I don't understand it. I guess we are small town folk.
As far as the actual music scene goes - you guys have way more bands in your town, and they all seem to influence each other, which is different to Brisbane as bands up here tend to be less influenced by their peers. That's cool because then real "scenes" develop, as opposed to Brisbane which is a lot more insular. Everyone is really nice though - we are big fans of Fait Accompli, Goons of Doom, Talons, Tokyo Blonde. Also I heard that band Ghostwood recently, I think those guys are pretty cool.
What are you guys listening to at the moment?
The John Steel Singers, The Police, The Band, Dungen, Bruce Springsteen, The Killers, Kings of Leon, Toots and the Maytals, The Cars, CCR, Artic Monkeys, Sarah Blasko, Gotye.
If you could choose your ideal band, who would you have play and why?
uhhh...just the guys who are already in the band...and that genie who has the never ending pack of tim tams. and a big gay bear dressed all in leather with a massive angle grinder
White, multigrain or brown?
MULTIGRAIN! As the black guy from the shining said, you gots to be regular to be happy..
MP3: Yves Klein Blue - Polka
MP3: Yves Klein Blue - Silence Is Distance
myspace
Sydney Tour Dates:
Wednesday 22nd August - Pet Cemetery @ Flinder Bars, Surry Hills (Free)
Thursday 23rd August - Candy's Apartment, Kings Cross
Friday 24th August - MUM @ World Bar, Kings Cross
Labels: Interview, Yves Klein Blue
