Interview with Kempsey

Interview with Flynn from Kempsey – by Beckylou in Sydney

Deep inside your mind you can dance on your own. Deep inside your heart you can love the unloved. Deep inside your soul you can feel the beats calling. Deep deep down in that small corner of your stomach you have that ache, that will to achieve, that need for survival and that passion to see it through.

Flynn (vocals, lead guitar) from Australian band Kempsey has that drive that passion and it comes through in some surprising answers below. A lot of bands these days in the spot light are all for the light and the glamour, Kempsey, a raw punk rock band from the nation's capital [Canberra] are more for taking the time to contemplate and enjoy what's here and now, as well as thinking about where here and now could be in the future. And in a world like our own, I do not discourage their attitude.

Kempsey are Danzig (drums), Drew (vocals, rhythm guitar) Flynn (vocals, lead guitar), and Luke (bass). The band has just finished the first stages of their next project at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne. With the yet to be titled third EP, employing the likes of Motor Aces Patrick Robertson as producer, and multiple ARIA award winner Paul McKercher engineering, Kempsey is bound to make a gigantic splash with national touring and CD distribution. Kempsey looks forward to meeting your ears.

When musing through the tracks on their MySpace, I was transported back to a warmer time of the year when Interpol and The Strokes were the names on everyone's modern day turn-table. These kids have style. These kids have sound. These kids are indie and need to be heard!

Beckylou: Describe your sound in five words or less.

Flynn: Soundtrack to ‘that' summer

Beckylou: What influenced you to make music?

Flynn: Music itself. It's all I can think about. I want to be as involved with it as is humanly possible.

Beckylou: What influences your song content?

Flynn: Life and my general status at a certain point in time.

Beckylou: What is your ultimate goal for your music?

Flynn: To be able to live off it, in whatever form. I cannot imagine a more privileged than the man whose hobby is his career.

Beckylou: What is it like to be an unsigned band in Australia? What are the perks and the downs?

Flynn: I imagine it is kind of being out the front of a trendy night club. Being the respectful, honest and moral led human you are, you wait in the line, believing, rather naively as it turns out, that each will have their chance and that all who wish to enter are just as chaste as you. But as you wait, and wait, you see this is not so. The people behind you seemed to have changed their outfit to accommodate the bouncer's demands. People, who have just arrived, schmooze other loyal line waiters and then jump the queue while their back is turned. Others walk straight up to the bouncer with a sweaty palm full of cash, and buy their way in. Imagine you're in that queue and you will get the idea. On the upside you get to go on sweet sites like indieSolo. So it's not all bad.

Beckylou: What does indieSolo mean to you?

Flynn: IndieSolo means we are given an opportunity to plead our case to the bouncer of the before mentioned queue.

Beckylou: Name a memorable gig experience.

Flynn: We played a show in a very small town called Corrimal. The line up was two metal bands and us. We played second last and our only crowd was a photographer who had fallen asleep during the first band's set and not woken up, a leathery beer swindler who was not aware of any music as he needed all his focus to stay on his bar stool, and a delightful middle aged man wearing a snoopy shirt who stood a foot away from me with his eyes rested on my crotch for the whole set. It was slightly depressing but supremely rock and roll.

Beckylou: Ever caught something thrown at a gig?

Flynn: There is a photo of us playing a big festival named Black Stump, and I am sporting a pair of undies someone threw on stage. To this day I can't understand superman's motivation for external knickers.

Beckylou: Which musician/s would you like to have a beer with?

Flynn: Mick Jagger and Johnny Cash. They'd have some pretty gnarly stories. John's would be from beyond the grave of course.

Beckylou: Monday Morning Madness - How do you cure your weekend hangovers?

Flynn: I go to work and stare out the window until the complete befuddlement of why I'm even alive, wears off. For someone who doesn't drink, I get some pretty gnarly hangovers.

Beckylou: Which song would you love to cover?

Flynn: Sexy Back - Justin Timberlake. You've got to keep people on their toes these days.

Beckylou: What was your worst day job?

Flynn: I used to pack shelves at Big W and my boss was a crazy Italian lady who blew a blood vessel if she caught you saying hello to a friend. The silver lining being I didn't have any friends.

Beckylou: Which city would be your ultimate gig destination?

Flynn: Texas or Seattle, you're bound to play with someone good if you're playing there. Either that, or Kingston; Jamaica. That way you're in Jamaica, and it doesn't really matter how the gig goes, because you're in Jamaica. And Jamaica is awesome. They have a bobsled team and everything.

Beckylou: First record/CD/tape ever bought?

Flynn: Pretty Woman soundtrack. "Wild Women Do" was a really good song.

Beckylou: Damn the man! Rant on the topic of your choice.

Flynn: I don't get Nintendo wii. I get it, but isn't it kind of bridging on making itself obsolete? I know, I sound like some old dude narking about bus time tables, but why should I pay $300 plus for something I can pay nothing for? I understand that it's convenient to do these things inside your own home, and that it's kind of rock n roll to have a sweet simulator, but my mate now has tennis elbow from playing wii. Tennis Elbow! He doesn't even play tennis! Suddenly, there are sports injuries for kids with warhammer shirts! I guess I just find true old-school analogue golf makes me feel far less like a lump of useless burger Pattie, and more like a dude who digs the world. Call me a dirty hippie if you like. I don't care. Trees are rad.

Beckylou: Any Last Words?

Flynn: Peace.

-end

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Kempsey Tickets may be available at TicketScene