This page is meant to be a window into the world of Kevin Purdy, myself, the creator of Soft Records.
I have lived my whole life as a creative artist. I studied piano as a child, then drums and percussion, later in life I studied guitar and along the way taught myself to be somewhat capable with many other instruments. I have never had interests in so called normal pursuits, so whether it be music, art, writing, cooking or any of the other many paths i've travelled I've always given it my all, my heart and soul.
When you have that kind of mindset it can be a curse as well as being a gift.
I have always lived and worked as an outsider, never a party animal, a networker, a schmoozer or any form of socialiser at all. Always trying to be true to my goals and ideals. My life as a musician, whether it be performing or recording has never, ever had me engaging in anything that I believed to be seeking fame, or success on a commercial level, or strayed from my firm beliefs in my art, its point, its potency, its reasoning. And it is for that reason (among others) I have never had industry types cuddling up to me, I have never concluded a business deal with a label, or promoter. I'm just too damn stubborn in my desire to see my work finished and presented in a way I feel it should be, and my persona be presented and handled in a non showbiz, bullshit fashion.
This has meant that from the very outset of my life as a recording outset and performer, everything I have been party to has been released and promoted independently. This has meant minimal promotion and that everything was hand-made, DIY, local and sincere. From designing and hand printing flyers and posters, designing covers and labels, booking gigs, hiring vans, driving interstate, or around the state, setting up and pulling down.
This journey taught me how to be self sufficient. If I didn't know how to do things, I'd learn. If I got frustrated with dealing with other people's way of doing things I'd find out how to do it myself. I learnt about home recording, from the early days of cassette portastudios like the Tascam 144, I was there helping the studio engineer pull faders on cue during recording sessions. I was setting up mikes and PAs and anything else that needed doing. So whenever I was faced with situation where I was being held back from what I was trying to achieve, sooner or later I'd learn to do it myself. This is how I created my studio, this is how I went solo and this is how I created Soft Records.
The curse, I mentioned, is, well, personally, my need to achieve has caused me untold amounts of stress, anger, frustration and depression. And for others, of course, a whole world of being pretty hard to be around at times, with many people breaking ties with me. For all those creative souls out there that I have hurt in any way during this journey I give you a deep and sincere apology. The curse on a creative level has pushed me further and further, forcing me on to realise my goals and finish the next work, learn the next skill. So this is the gift. This is a gift that I need to always assure myself of, to see that all of this life of passion and struggle has had a point, to enliven and enrich peoples lives, to effect people in a positive way, to make my life fulfilled.
Starting at the Beginning:
Well that would be filling up bottles with water to various heights to make different notes, bashing on saucepan lids, twanging rubber bands, kazoo, harmonica, anything that made music. Any birthday or Xmas question was answered with Bongoes, maracas etc. When a piano arrived at the house I was playing it before it was put down in place. I was given a snare drum with a little cymbal, on which I accompanied Kenny, who played piano at our many house parties and doo's (Dad, a Mason and Scout master. Mum, a cub master, Arts Society member and Mason's wife), accompanying Rumpty Tumpty singalongs about coconuts and barrels. I was given an ancient drum kit, complete with traps for christmas when I was 11, which I debuted at the Bankstown Masonic Ball, this earned me my first musical paycheck. I played piano at school concerts. I played drums at the Royal Easter Show and other concerts with the Bankstown Police Boys Band. After a while I swapped my Ajax kit for a Pearl kit, that I still have today. I formed a band during High School that practiced in our living room and in garages, we never performed live. I joined a group from Campsie that comprised of older Lebanese and Chinese guys that were into English boogey rock, that was a cool thing to do but they broke up and we never played live. I just kept on practicing in the back shed, big muff headphones, playing along to my prog rock gods. The years drifted by slowly, as they do when you're young. I had a screaming desire to be in a band, play on stage with flashing lights and mirrorballs. It seemed like purgatory. I was a damn good drummer with nowhere to go. I got into the habit of using two tape decks, record something on one and then play it while playing another part and recording that on the other cassette deck. I'd keep going adding layers of sound, being thrilled out of my mind that I was recording songs, as shitty as it might have sounded, it was heaven. I joined a band that was odd for its time, rehearsing meticulously, covers of New Wave tunes, Roxy Music, Ultravox etc, with not even a mention of originals, I mean where the hell could that have been a thing? With the amount of originality in the music scene in the late 70's. Anyhoot, they broke up before we ever played live. Who'd've thunk it? But I didn't give up!
Aural Indifference:
This was the first great musical happening of my life. Brian Hall, a couple of years older than me an odd and interesting musical guy advertised for musician that was into, basically, the same things that I was interested in. We hooked up for what never turned out to be a live band. Again! But it did turn out to be a fantastic recording project. At that time I was a full devotee of Brian Eno, so this fit perfectly into my desire to create works in the same vein. Brian supplied bass, guitar, keyboards (Jupiter 4), vocals, Dr Rhythm programming and an ability to use the Tascam Portastudio that he had bought, with the help of Lisa, who's front room of the house she had in Newtown she kindly gave to him to record in. I played the Jupiter 4, drums and percussion, guitar (badly), sang and learned how to use the Tascam. I was in heaven. We slowly worked up a collection of wonderful, strange and delightful tunes that we released independently on cassette as 'The Sound of Indifference' by 'Aural Indifference'. Brian also recorded and released the 7" 'California Dreaming / The weatherman' on M2 Records, as 'Denial' on which Lisa sang and I played drums on the flip. This was the first time I had appeared on a vinyl record and goddamn it felt GOOD!
Madroom:
Around that time, '81, I responded to an ad, probably in 'On The Street' requiring a drummer for a band, that wasn't really a band yet. It must have had all the right words in the ad because I gave them a call. Goose, the vocalist and his partner Susie. who then played keyboards, plus their mate Paul on bass got me to come to a rehearsal with them and their soon to depart guitarist. I wouldn't have a clue what happened that night, but to get together with musicians who loved the shit I was into, you know, The Velvet Underground, Television, Eno, Bowie, Roxy Music et al, as well as being wonderful freaks was just up my alley. We rehearsed and rehearsed, changing guitarists until a fella by the name of Gary turned up and within minutes we were sorted, we were now a band. Like a lot of bands we did Velvets covers and Stooges covers, but eventually the originals started developing. We took three songs to Basilisk studio and set forth to record a 12" ep 'The Cruelty of Beauty', without ever playing live. We organised two gigs at a Petersham photo studio and invited a bunch of friends to come. Nervous as hell, personally anyway, the two shows went well and so we organised a gig at Exit nightclub in Bayswater Rd Kings Cross to launch our record. JJ radio (I don't think it was JJJ yet) caught onto the record and gave it a right thrashing. We set up in an empty club but by the time we came on the place was crammed and we were being received like we were the crowd's favourite band! Good lord, I was shaking, but I was exhilarated, this is what I'd been waiting for, for half of my life. Madroom continued on until 1986. We changed radically when Gary started playing James Chance style sax, along with guitar, which lead Suzie to start playing violin and me, who'd become a mad free jazz freak began incorporating messy wild drum ideas into the mix. Paul was replaced by Arlene on bass and Gary departed which left us with a changing lineup of guitarists and bass players over the next few years, we later incorporated Patrick on sax and Leigh on trumpet. Over that time we played hundreds of gigs, the Trade Union Club, Strawberry Hills, Propaganda Club, Yugal Soccer Club, Behind Enemy Lines and so on, including all the shitty suburban venues that would have us. We released an album, subtitled "I am for an art..." a 7" called "Acid Dog Man" and had a track on the JJJ 12" "Live at the Wireless" plus one on a comp called "Beneath the Southern Skies". Not a great outcome for five years, but in those days you didn't get paid much and we were generally skint. The band were a mighty force we had done some amazing things and had a good following, but something in me was wanting a change. My musical tastes were shifting to different areas and it seemed like my journey with the band was over. I eventually gave my notice, which was sad, but that was the end. Without me Goose and Susie were the only original members, so they decided on a name change which became 'Box the Jesuit', who went on to have a very successful history.
Melbourne:
Before leaving for Melbourne in early '87 I fiddled around trying to find my place in the world. I had a mad penchant for Rhythm & Blues, Soul, rockabilly, jazz, funk, African and so on and I was trying to figure out my place in that headspace. I'd been to Melbourne a few times, touring and record shopping. One thing that really stood out was the overabundance of really good music, it was everywhere, it was amazing how many venues had bands. I was drawn like a bug to a flame. Somehow I had to pack up my whole world and transport it to Melbourne.
Due to my friendship with the legendary Johny Topper I had places in Melbourne to stay until I got settled. Finding my way into the Melbourne musical scene was a lot more complex. Most of the people I was interested in playing with (as a guitarist) were much better trained than I was and I think were a little non-plussed with my lack of training, also there was definitely a deep bond between most of the local musicians I encountered, who'd known each other since childhood. I was a rare entity back then, a Sydney person moving to Melbourne. Over the next 9 years it became far more common. In fact 95% of the people I played with over those years were from other states, or countries. I struggled on trying to create a space in my new world, sitting in with various combos, but I had an ally in my mate Jim White, he of Venom P. Stinger, The Dirty Three etc etc, who kept getting drumming jobs and would call me when he had to leave them to do other gigs. I went from country bands, to jazz combos, to old timey hokum bands. There was plenty of work for a skilled drummer, but none for a medium skilled guitarist. This led me to my birth as a busker. Back then the place hadn't become gentrified, Melbourne didn't have the Grand Prix and things were pretty funky, so doing things like busking was easy to do without being asked to move on by council and police. I got this crazy idea to be a one piece band, inspired by Sun Records recording artist Joe Hill Louis and his one man band, I set myself up with a guitar amp, microphone, bass drum, hi hat with a tambourine on top. I plugged into a bakery in Acland St St Kilda and played a set of blues R&B Honky tonk and rockabilly to happy crowds, I even made some good money. I was doing this around St Kilda for some time and one day a musician from Adelaide approached me, we had many mutual friends in Sydney and he asked if I'd be interested in teaming up with him, which we did, him on guitar and vocals me with my set up. We were like a two piece four piece, long before the White Stripes and co. We called ourselves the Chicken Hawks and preceded to become a regular fixture on the Melbourne music scene. I guess publicans liked the fact that their support band had only two people to pay. We played at the Esplanade Hotel for years plus gigs all over the place, including tours to Adelaide and Sydney. Eventually we expanded into a four piece, with an ever changing lineup, we changed our name to the Ocean Stairs and recorded an e.p. of originals at Preston Studios. The band continued for a few more years during which we recorded a mini album CD. The band was fine, but it lacked the spark I sought in my life, I always wanted more out of life than average, or goodish, luckily the band kind of fizzled out and I was free to move on.
During my time in Melbourne I sort of accidentally became a radio presenter. Firstly, I was thrown into the deep end at 3CR doing a late night slot which led me to becoming part of a team for a show on 3PBS, with the other two members no longer being part of it and here I was presenting a really cool show on a really good time slot at a time that radio was still electric, with a strong community base. 3PBS had a huge gang of volunteers filling up the place, the vibe was very encouraging, with really great tech staff. It was great. By the time my band broke up I'd been doing radio for years and I'd branched out to doing DJ spots here and there. My interests in new music had, as usual, been shifting and expanding. I had a major love of roots musics as well as soul, funk, latin, Brazilian Jamaican and African, but I was also listening to more newer music such as Hip Hop, Dancehall, Jungle and the newly emerging style of Trip hop. This really got my attention, with people like DJ Shadow using rock, soundtracks, folk and other less funky sources and being slow and dubby was right up my alley. I always had some kind of recording setup with me, always working on songs, man I had a lot of them. One thing about busy musicians, we can have albums of material come through us that never gets released and it's kind of OK, as long as you keep moving forward. So here I was with ideas pumping through me and mad keep to get them down. I began cutting loops using a regular turntable, dropping the loops straight to tape, hours of work, trying to get each loop perfect. Then I'd get children's records, spoken word, sax breaks, laying it over the top, putting down keyboards, percussion, vibes. I'd use anything that came along that sounded good. After some time with that process I bought myself and Ensonique 16 sampling keyboard, with the tiniest sampling rate imaginable and floppy disks. It was torture, the things was so difficult to use. I'd be up all night getting something down. Once again I was creating a whole gang of works, many of which would never see the light of day, but I was happy, I was going somewhere that was new, it was tied into dub, bent hip hop and trip hop but I couldn't help but infuse it with my own stamp, forged by my own journey. Little by little my tunes and my technical abilities grew, things started to take shape, started to develop. By 1995 I had a good little collection of tunes that were shaping up and I'd given them an airing at places like Global Warming. A friend of mine told me that a label in Sydney called Creative Vibes had taken one of his tunes for a compilation they were putting together, he urged me to send them my stuff. I did and very soon after I was contacted by Peter Pasqual, who told me that he dug my stuff and he like to put one of the tracks on the comp. That track was 'Dope Thing'. I had the tune mastered and sent it off. Yay! I was back in business.
I felt around that time that my Melbourne journey was through. I'd done heaps, done an astonishing amount of music, had developed my technique as a guitarist 10 fold, I'd played with a lot of great people, DJ'd tons, put on nights at the Prince of Wales, I'd supported Tricky. It was a very fulfilling time, but everything in me was saying to move on. The fact that a hip Sydney label wanted me on their comp and I was getting the vibe that Sydney had a pretty good thing going on, I thought, that sounds good to me, it's time to pack up my world and take it back to Sydney.
Sydney...again:
My return to Sydney was a very unexpected experience, the complete opposite of my landing in Melbourne. I was welcomed warmly by a community of very cool people who dug what I was doing. With the release of Evolutionary Vibes there was a lot of radio play and 'Dope Thing' was a featured track on stations like 2SER and JJJ. I was being asked to perform, DJ and do radio interviews. I met people like Sir Robbo, Lyndon Pike (who later did the artwork for Kevolution and Fairytale Insurance), Jonny & Gemma from Klub Kooky, Seb and Luke from Frigid / Cryogenesis, where I soon was performing to a very loving crowd. I was truly home. I continued working on and developing my music, releasing a 12" 'A First in Everything' on Breakneck Records and then my 7" single "Sugar / Glory". Meanwhile the friendship I'd formed with Sir Robbo (drummer in The Latenotes / Atomic Hi Fi / Head Shots magazine / Frigid) developed very easily into a musical working relationship. He would bring the records he wanted to sample and together we shaped a fantastic collection of tunes. We started performing as the Sir Robbo / Purdy Experience and when we got near to completing our first album we called ourselves Tooth, then released 'No Strings' independently. The album was beautifully received and well loved. It was a very different beast to the usual sample driven releases out there in the world as the glowing reviews for the album stated (see below). I was thrilled to be part of such a fantastic combo. John Maddox had joined us on bass and really made the band glue together as a live act. With the album finished I got back to working on and adding to my collection of songs for my next solo project. During that time I also did several tunes for compilations, worked on film music, Dj'd all over the joint, played live with Tooth and as Purdy, began a radio show on 2SER which ran for years, Plus I was working at Warped Records in the Cross. Sheesh! It was the most musically rewarding and busy time of my life. I went to various Australian labels to see if anyone was interested in releasing my first album, but even though there was interest, it was obvious that they would take control of the project and play the tune I had to dance to. I decided that that was not going to happen so I started saving up my money to bring my first solo release into existence. By the end of 1999 it was ready to press. It was ironically titled 'Kevolution' and the label I created was called Soft Records.
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