"Dolewave, that's funny."
Al Montfort was the Unofficial Australian Of The Year in 2013. He plays in a lot of bands. I've been fortunate enough to see a few of his bands play. Total Control released the best punk song of the past ten years, "Carpet Rash." Nothing else matters really.
On Friday, September 19, Dick Diver played their first show in the US. I was in attendance. They were wonderful. They played the hits off of Calendar Days and some new unreleased songs. They have recorded their next full length. It was recorded in the woods somewhere. They spent six days on it. There are other details about it but I wasn't recording when Al Montfort told me about it.
What I did record was our conversation about his views on touring the US, why he lives in Melbourne, working in a chocolate factory, among other enlightened topics. Enjoy.
Listen to Total Control's Typical System via bandcamp.
Listen to The UV Race's The UV Race via bandcamp.
Listen to Eastlink's "Mosquito" via soundcloud.
Listen to Lower Plenty's "Strange Beast" via soundcloud.
Painful Burning:
Right now you're on tour with Dick Diver. I was researching you guys and came across a quote from the Herald Sun saying that you guys are, "Really good."
Al Montfort:
The Herald Sun said that?
Painful Burning:
According to the Dick Diver Twitter account, yeah. Why do you think they said that?
Al Montfort:
Well, because we are. Also we would put that on the Twitter because Herald Sun is a conservative tabloid out of Melbourne. It's despicable. It's owned by Rupert Murdoch and it's the reason why conservative government is in power in Australia.
Painful Burning:
Comparable to Fox News or NY Post.
Al Montfort:
Yeah, exactly. So to get a good review in the Herald Sun was shameful almost.
Painful Burning:
Is that real though? Did they give you guys a good review?
Al Montfort:
Yeah. They have a rock writer that's pretty good. He's an old Melbourne rock dog who actually was the man inside the Hawthorn Football Club mascot, a giant hawk. He'd do flips and stuff. He's a freak basically.
Painful Burning:
So that was his day job and he'd pursue music writing at night?
Al Montfort:
Yeah. If he does an interview with you he'll call you up and say, "How ya doing, mate, it's Andy. How's rock 'n' rollll?"
Painful Burning:
That's really funny. I think Damian from Fucked Up did some stuff with Fox News.
Al Montfort:
Really, what for?
Painful Burning:
I think one of their journalists loves Fucked Up. I'm not entirely sure. Very random.
Al Montfort:
Yeah, it's pretty random.
Painful Burning:
I'm not sure if you're the person to answer this question, but what do you think differentiates Australian rock from USA rock?
Al Montfort:
Lack of ambition.
Painful Burning:
On the part of Australians?
Al Montfort:
Yeah. Acknowledgment that you're not going to go very far so you might as well try to write something that you really love rather than something that will sell.
Al Montfort playing bass in Dick Diver.
Painful Burning:
Do you think that's why Rowland S. Howard was so weird?
Al Montfort:
Yeah. They loved American music, Birthday Party, but I don't think it was big on their horizons to take over America at the time. I think they would've like to but they only ever moved to England, knowing that they were massive in Europe.
Painful Burning:
That's what happened with Go-Betweens also, right? But they ended moving back because they didn't do that well?
Al Montfort:
Yeah. Because there's that link to the colonial past it's easy to get a Visa and stay there.
Painful Burning:
Because of being in bands you've been able to tour the US a few times now?
Al Montfort:
This is my fourth time. I came the first time when I was twenty one with Straightjacket Nation. Now I'm twenty seven.
Painful Burning:
I saw Straightjacket Nation in New York at 538.
Al Montfort:
That was the second time, that was at the end of the Total Control and UV Race tour.
Painful Burning:
Do you have a favorite part of the US at this point?
Al Montfort:
I really love this part, I really love San Francisco. I love the Bay because I have so many friends there. And I like to go swimming. I like Memphis a lot when we go there.
Painful Burning:
Because of the history?
Al Montfort:
Yeah, yeah. Lots of history. People still seem really enthusiastic there even though it seems really far away from everything. I like Cleveland a lot. Cleveland is probably my favorite.
Painful Burning:
Why do you like Cleveland so much?
Al Montfort:
They really love music. Maybe it's not that they're trying to do, but they're total freaks so they can't help but do weird punk music.
Painful Burning:
Can't go wrong with Clevo punk/hardcore. What about your least favorite part of the US?
Al Montfort:
Milwaukee.
Painful Burning:
Why's that?
Al Montfort:
We just had two of the worst UV Race shows in Milwaukee.
Painful Burning:
Because of low attendance?
Al Montfort:
Yeah. For The UV Race there were more people on stage than in the audience.
Painful Burning:
That's unfortunate, but to be fair you do have six people playing on stage. Even for US bands it can be difficult between the coasts.
Al Montfort:
I don't know, Chicago has always been nice to us. And Cleveland's been really good. Minneapolis... UV Race had a seven inch out on Fashionable Idiots, our third seven inch, and that was great. So when we played there it was awesome. So the Midwest has kinda been good to us. And Texas.
Painful Burning:
What portion of the US best resembles Melbourne?
Al Montfort:
I feel like America has... Each city has a peculiar scene. But Melbourne has such a big scene that it encompasses a lot. Not in a New York way where people are super complacent which is what people have told me about New York. I don't know what you could compare it to. I don't think LA. It's not like LA.
Painful Burning:
I feel like people would assume somewhere in California.
Al Montfort:
Yeah, people have said San Francisco, Oakland, the Bay. People have compared it to that.
Painful Burning:
You could always ask David West.
Al Montfort:
Dave lived in SF and then he moved out. Maybe that's why he moved to Melbourne.
Painful Burning:
You live in Melbourne, right?
Al Montfort:
Yeah.
Painful Burning:
Melbourne and Sydney are relatively close...
Al Montfort:
A ten hour drive.
Al Monfort playing guitar in The UV Race.
Painful Burning:
Why do you live in Melbourne instead of Sydney?
Al Montfort:
Because I was born there. People don't move around as much I don't think. I've met a lot of people in the states who have moved from city to city. Maybe to find a city, a scene, that suits them. But I feel like Melbourne is pretty varied. You can go to a different gig every night. You can go to gigs every night.
Painful Burning:
The reason why you haven't moved to Sydney is because you like Melbourne enough?
Al Montfort:
Yeah, I like whipping myself. Sydney is beautiful and has beaches. Melbourne is cold. It's easy to get around, I don't have a car.
Painful Burning:
Public transportation is good there?
Al Montfort:
Public transportation is better in Melbourne than Sydney.
Painful Burning:
If you lived in Sydney, and if it's as nice as you're describing, you wouldn't be in twenty bands.
Al Montfort:
Yeah, I'd probably just be at the beach the whole time. I was in Sydney last weekend with Dick Diver. They just always have such great bands. I think because Melbourne is like New York in that it's complacent, you kinda settle into a sound or settle into something. They just have offshoot bands that do amazing things... Like destiny 3000, a new band that's changed their sound. They've been around for just over two years and are amazing.
Painful Burning:
Is that your current favorite of active bands from Sydney right now?
Al Montfort:
Yeah. I'd say them and a band called Friendsters which is Liam from Bitch Prefect, Peak Twins, and he played bass in Kitchen's Floor. Roberta Stewart from New Zealand plays guitar and is the songwriter. And it's amazing. Friendsters... They got a seven inch out on Eternal Soundcheck Records.
Painful Burning:
I'll check it out even though it's so overwhelming to keep up with what's going on in Australia, there's so much good stuff. Because you're in all these bands, do people in the bands with you get jealous?
Al Montfort:
I don't think so... Because everybody is in a few bands anyway.
Painful Burning:
But it seems like you're always in more bands than everyone else.
Al Montfort:
Yeah, yeah maybe.
Painful Burning:
Do you have trouble keeping track?
Al Montfort:
No, it's easy. It's fun.
Painful Burning:
How many songs do you have to know right now in all the active bands that you're in?
Al Montfort:
Heaps. I don't have to remember much else. I just work in a shitty factory job. It's not like I'm a paper pusher or I'm studying or anything at the moment.
Painful Burning:
Did you have to quit your job at the factory to go on this tour?
Al Montfort:
I did quit but they would've let me have the time off anyway. They would've let me have leave without pay because they're a funny hippie spiritual fair trade chocolate factory. Organic.
Painful Burning:
So are you some type of chocolate snob?
Al Montfort:
I don't like chocolate. It's gross.
Painful Burning:
Oddly enough I used to hate chocolate but got a job at a chocolate factory and eating the chocolate there changed my mind on it. Now I don't mind it.
Al Montfort:
Maybe I've started to like it a bit more. Maybe not our chocolate.
Painful Burning:
Not to stress you out, but have you thought about dealing with getting a job when you get back?
Al Montfort:
I've thought about it. I've got a bit of savings, so I can chill out for a bit.
Painful Burning:
Maybe write some more music?
Al Montfort:
Yeah, I'd like to do some more music.
Painful Burning:
Is there someone in particular that's waiting for you back in Melbourne right now?
Al Montfort:
Like a person?
Painful Burning:
Yeah, is there someone who's very excited for your return?
Al Montfort:
Yeah, Amy, my Mrs. Amy. Yeah, but she's busy too. She plays music. When we started going out she had one band. Now she's in five bands. She plays in School of Radiant Living, Constant Mongrel, Toothache, and Backstabbers. Her and I also started a new band with Zephyr, from Eastlink and Total Control, and his partner, Xanthe.
Painful Burning:
What's the new band?
Al Montfort:
The Speedies. Like the New York Speedies, but Melbourne.
Painful Burning:
Wait, when you first started dating her was she in only one band?
Al Montfort:
Yeah, she was only in one band.
Painful Burning:
But after she started dating you she was in five?
Al Montfort:
Yeah, I'm a fucking bad influence.
Painful Burning:
No, you're a very productive and creative influence. Are you satisfied with how Typical System came out?
Al Montfort:
I was pretty satisfied. It got amazing reviews and I'm extremely proud and happy of every aspect of the record.
Painful Burning:
It sounds great. It's not as manic as Henge Beat.
Al Montfort:
Not as urgent.
Al Montfort playing guitar in Total Control.
Painful Burning:
Why do you think that is?
Al Montfort:
We wanted to do something different from the last thing we did. The last thing we did before that was the split with Thee Oh Sees. That had a couple of punk band bangers on it. So we wanted to do something different.
Painful Burning:
I love the songs on that split. I thought that song "Scene From A Marriage" was a preview of what Typical System was going to sound like but Typical System didn't end up sounding like "Scene From A Marriage" at all.
Al Montfort:
The first song, "Bloody Glass" has a drum machine.
Painful Burning:
It's more disco than rock. And especially the second to last song, "Hunter." It sounds like a robot dropped LSD and wandered into Studio 54.
Al Montfort:
I love that song, I love "Hunter" a lot. That's one of Dave's song. That was all in his brain. I don't think it was psychedelic influence, I think it was more isolation maybe.
Painful Burning:
Given the option, would you have U2'd the album?
Al Montfort:
Give it to everyone, enforce it on everyone?
Painful Burning:
Yeah.
Al Montfort:
Georgia from UV Race was around my house the night before. I was like, "Fucking genius, she downloaded a U2 album on my iTunes. That's the funniest gag ever." Then I read the articles. But no, it's a bit imposing. It's funny for a punk band to do that. I don't think it's funny for U2 to do it. He already thinks he's God. Have you listened to the record?
Painful Burning:
No. Have you listened to it?
Al Montfort:
No, I didn't listen to it.
Painful Burning:
We have so much access to free music with Spotify and YouTube why would I listen to it? It's a nice gesture but it's competing with everything else that's already on my computer.
Al Montfort:
Yeah, it's counterproductive.
Painful Burning:
If anything I'd be more likely to not check it out because it feels like they imposed.
Al Montfort:
Exactly, exactly.
Painful Burning:
I'm not sure if it's a snobbery thing but I don't like music being pushed on me.
Al Montfort:
I like the feeling of discovering music. I think everybody likes that.
Painful Burning:
How many interviews have you done?
Al Montfort:
A few. Twenty. I don't know, heaps.
Painful Burning:
When do you an interview what are you hoping for?
Al Montfort:
To not look stupid. I can't help that. I hope the questions are interesting. Sometimes you do interviews and people just ask what's on the press release or what's on another interview, just referring to another interview. We've done a few of them for Dick Diver because we played a festival at the start of the year called the Laneway Festival. And we had to do promo for newspapers, like the Herald Sun, and people don't give a stuff. They just look up a few interviews, see a few words and ask about that. That's a real bummer.
Painful Burning:
The questions are copy pasted but if your answers are copy pasted then you won't seem enthusiastic and can come off boring to the reader. They're less concerned about the questions than the answers.
Al Montfort:
I felt like I was on fire by the end of doing eight interviews in two hours for when we played that festival. The publicist puts them all them together, back to back. The Herald Sun, they've got fifteen minutes. Then The Guardian, they've got fifteen minutes. Then a blog, they've got fifteen minutes.
Painful Burning:
And by the eighth you were just piling on through it?
Al Montfort:
Yeah. But trying to think of good gags at least.
Painful Burning:
Do you ever make up things in interviews?
Al Montfort:
No, because it's printed. And somebody's will say, "This did not happen."
Painful Burning:
Inevitably someone will call you on it.
Al Montfort:
You can do that when you're drunk in conversation but not make up something in an interview.
Painful Burning:
Was there a particularly bad question that kept coming up during those interviews?
Al Montfort:
People kept asking about dolewave.
Painful Burning:
Isn't that a joke genre that you don't want to be associated with?
Al Montfort:
Yeah, it's just something made up.
Painful Burning:
So if someone asks you about it you just don't really answer?
Al Montfort:
Yeah, I don't know. They want you to say something.
Painful Burning:
Because they want to have a quote at the top about dolewave.
Al Montfort:
And it is always the quote. Even if you might've said, "Oh yeah, that's funny," they'll put, "Al Montfort: Dolewave, that's funny."
Painful Burning:
This leads to my next question: What is dolewave?
A brief pause.
Painful Burning:
I'm just kidding. It's not the next question.
Al Montfort:
I was hoping it would be.
Painful Burning:
That would be funny if I was so clueless.
Al Montfort:
One time I did an interview on PBS, the radio station, in Melbourne. It was publicity for a gig that we were doing at a zoo, the Melbourne Zoo. I've been a vegetarian for ten years. I don't really like zoos that much, the idea of caging up animals. I said to the woman, "Can you not ask any questions about the zoo? Because I'm not a raging animal rights activist but I'll probably say something shitty." And then she's like, "No problem, Al." And then like straight away she went, "Al, so playing the zoo on the weekend, how's that? How are the animals?" I was like, "Oh, God."
Painful Burning:
She went right into it?
Al Montfort:
Right into it.
Al Montfort celebrating the 44th president of the United States of America.
Painful Burning:
What did you end up saying?
Al Montfort:
I think I said something sarcastic.
Painful Burning:
I don't think that would've been rude if you called her out on it.
Al Montfort:
I would've been hypocritical, I'm playing this thing at the zoo. They gave us money to play the zoo, a lot of money. I'm already hypocritical, and even more so if I'm acting like it's such a bummer thing.
Painful Burning:
Unless you have no ideals whatsoever, you're going to probably have to deal with hypocrisy if you want to actively tour. It's so hard selling records. A lot of bands now do a lot of product sponsored things, or have their songs in commercials. Not even twenty years ago that was lame but it's so much more accepted now. People are just like, "If you're getting paid, whatever."
Al Montfort:
It's a funny change.
Painful Burning:
Unless you're U2 and you can give it away for free. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but In America a lot of times people will gravitate towards Australian or international bands in general because it sounds impressive to listen to bands from other countries. Does that happen at all in Australia with US bands?
Al Montfort:
Not as much.
Painful Burning:
Why's that?
Al Montfort:
I think there's less people over there pushing American music. Maybe some promoters are pushing. Mistletone is a label that brings out Sonny & the Sunsets, Ariel Pink and a bunch of that more popular indie stuff. But there's no smaller labels that are doing a lot for it, trying to push. For a while people were trying to get Crazy Spirit out but it just can't happen.
Painful Burning:
Because of the amount of money that it would cost?
Al Montfort:
Yeah, amount of money. People aren't willing to put that up to get them out there. Which is fair enough because it does cost quite a lot. And you're probably not going to make your money back in Australia. That's maybe why we turn to our own music, and turn to our own scene in Australia because we can't rely on American bands because American bands can't afford to come out to Australia so we have to create our own scene. I noticed in traveling through America, traveling through Europe, so dependent on international bands. It's international bands all the time. They're playing, coming through.
Painful Burning:
In the US?
Al Montfort:
Well, in the states it's not even international bands, it's interstate bands. Like a band from New York playing in Oregon. The tour circuit. I'm not sure... What do you reckon about that thought?
Painful Burning:
I'd agree about Los Angeles. In terms of guitar bands there are very few things going on locally that interest me. In terms of punk and all that stuff, LA is very dependent on what you're talking about with out of area touring. I wish I could champion more local music. What strikes me about what you're saying, and that's the problem, is that if your band is too creative, you can't be tacked onto a particular genre. Crazy Spirit, even though they are punk and hardcore, they can't do an Australian tour circuit that maybe Bridge 9 bands would do or Epitaph bands can do. That's the problem, if you're too weird.
Al Montfort:
But then the weirder Australia bands, labels over here in the states, are willing to take a total gamble getting us out here.
Painful Burning:
I think that's partially because of the allure of Australian bands. It's like when Eddy Current Suppression Ring was getting so big everybody would mention Australia when talking about them. Also they're a great band.
Al Montfort:
Yeah, they're great.
Painful Burning:
Finally, is Total Control working on anything for a next release?
Al Montfort:
We're on pause. We're not doing anything at the moment. We didn't work on anything immediately after Henge Beat either. We haven't done anything immediately after any of our releases.
Painful Burning:
There was a three year gap between full lengths.
Al Montfort:
Yeah, we take time. We need time to build up, write some more bangers.
-Z
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