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I put so much effort into burning up my youth.
After a failed attempt to tour America in 1993, we released an EP at home in Australia which was to be the bridge between Burn Out Your Name and Fill Yourself with Music. Felicitator was a random collection, with acoustic tracks and demo versions as well as fully formed new songs, which would never appear anywhere else.
Years later in 2005 we released Delusions of Grandchildren (thanks Dean), another kooky collection of studio recordings and home demos we had lying around.
Both these releases are close to our hearts, offering more of an insight into our weird songwriting and diverse influences than a regular album might. They are also resoundingly different sounding releases, being 22 years apart they almost feel like different bands.
Tim and Kel fired up both EPs and chatted about the songs, the recordings and the circumstances around them. We delve into the freer approach we took to these records, and talk about our singing and its many imperfections (which we like) as well as the broader approach of dazzling with bullshit (thanks Blackie) which has served us well over the years.
We also chat about teeth and dentistry, and at length about our current projects and plans.
This is the last episode of series one of the podcast. We're excited abut series two, it's going to much more diverse! Thanks as always to everyone who's been along for the ride, thanks for enjoying and commenting on the podcasts, we appreciate it.
If you've gotten something out of being a patron of Screamfeeder, tell your friends - they can sign up for a 7 day free trial and hear a bunch of stuff for free before committing, of course.
Felicitator on our website Felicitator on Bandcamp Felicitator on Spotify Delusions on our websiteDelusions on BandcampDelusions on SpotifyKellie's radio show, Heyday Shoeb Ahmad - Spotify Deafcult - SpotifyHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Don't Call it a Comeback
In 2015 we'd been touring again, promoting the vinyl re-issues of our earlier albums, and our manager encouraged us to start writing songs again. We released the first single, Alone In A Crowd, and ended up recording a dozen more, which ended up coming out as our 7th album Pop Guilt.
In retrospect the album was a weird one to return with after a 12 year absence. Tim and Kellie explain their mixed feeling around the songs, their recording and production. They discuss how being involved with other bands during the Screamfeeder recording hiatus meant that they came back to the table as different people and different songwriters, as well as how bizarre, challenging - and fun - they found being in bands with other people.
A lot of Tim's songs were written in England in 2016 after he won the Grant McLennan Fellowship in 2015, and he explains how this played out and the immense challenges he was faced with, more or less from day one.
Kellie dives down a rabbit hole trying to work out why so many of Tim's songs feature the phone, and we come to the realisation - late - that almost every song on the album is hugely influenced by Dinosaur Jr (and/or Sebadoh). Some things never change!
Pop Guilt was a first for us in that we got to pick from our "dream list of hero producers" to mix the songs. It was also a first in that we used crowd-funding, asking for assistance from our fans to fund the recording. Both these experiments paid off hugely in ways we could never have expected.
We chat about the culture of the late nineties and early noughties which was still such a huge influence, namely The Rat by The Walkmen, The Sopranos, and Seinfeld.
We also have a laugh about I Might Have Some Regrets: how Tim pulled his classic move of pushing it through super late in the game, and how Kellie "Chucked a 'nana like a little baby" in the studio.
Read more / buy on our websiteOn BandcampPop Guilt on SpotifyOn YouTubeThe Walkmen: The RatThe Valery TrailsCheck out our album All The Other Times: A Pop Guilt Companion and download it for free!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Manglende episoder?
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Don't Forget This Moment!
Tim and Kellie sat down together in February and recorded this episode outdoors, in Tim's back garden. The sound is a little different, and features intermittent cicadas, birds and general background rumble. Sorry for the long delay in getting this one out, it's been a crazy few months!
In 2003 we recorded our sixth album Take You Apart, in Brisbane and Melbourne. In a sharp left turn from the previous album, Rocks on the Soul, the songs were our straightest set yet; a collection of very simple pop/rock tunes written in standard tunings and with traditional arrangements.
In the early '00s indie music underwent a reset, much as it had done in the very early 90s. Led by bands like The Strokes, music powered back towards a more simple rock'n'roll feel, and no one was immune. For us it was a big call, to discard the guitar sound and approach we'd built "our sound" on, not to mention the boy/girl vocal attack which had become our "big thing" over the previous two albums. But it felt right. We needed change, and we needed a new approach if we were to keep doing this.
Tim and Kel discuss all this, how we felt stifled and bored during those years, and how we'd try anything to overcome that. This included swapping instruments, and bringing in the keyboard, which was to be a great addition to the album. We laugh about how Tim ended up with the job of acquiring Kellie a case for the keyboard, so she could take it on tour (as far as America) - buying a dodgy second hand case from a guy in a dark car park in Milton one night.
Other highlights are our explanation of Mods R Us - which you've seen on our posters for decades now, as well as the "quiet yell" - our sure fire way of overcoming boredom and annoying mixing engineers in the studio.
We chat about what it was like in Brisbane during those years. For us, living close together in Red Hill and Paddington we were home long enough to actually socialise in our own town for a change. It was party season, and it was on fire, literally. Kel remembers when "the whole neighbourhood could have gone up" at a party with an out of control bonfire - she ended up riding in the fire truck so at least it ended well. In a weirdly related event, Tim's Brisbane house burned down while we were recording in Melbourne, but never deterred, it was "on with the session".
We close this episode with a song by Sydney band Sounds Like Sunset. Pretty Soon appears on their album Invisible from 2005. We talk about the band, and their singer Dave Challinor, a close friend, who passed away unexpectedly in January 2023. This whole episode is dedicated to his memory. Please check out their amazing music if you haven't already.
Take You Apart on screamfeeder.comTake You Apart on SpotifyTake You Apart on YoutubeTake You Apart on BandcampSounds Like Sunset on SpotifySounds Like Sunset on BandcampSounds Like Sunset on FacebookHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Future, and How We Fit Into It.
In the middle of 2000 we finally got the green light to record our fifth album Rocks on the Soul.
We traveled to Melbourne and spent three winter weeks in a tiny studio with producer duo The Pound System. It was a great if somewhat confronting session; Dean especially feeling pushed into unfamiliar territory with the extreme editing of parts in the then-new(ish) digital recording domain.
We'd had the songs sitting around for ages and we were more than ready to let someone else take control of how they were played, recorded, and would eventually sound. The album was a sharp change in direction for us, after the noisy energetic Kitten Licks; a lot of fans of the band didn't get the new sound and feel at all. Understandable, as Tim and Kel discuss in detail, with focus on the opener Stopless (with its Seinfeld reference) and its subdued groove-based feel.
It was our first release which was really a Kellie album, her songs book-ending the record, and standing out as highlights throughout. Themes emerged which she'd go on to explore again and again, the rapidly changing world and our alienation from it, in the "desolate and disconnected" feel of If You Lived Here, the "trying to paint a bleak picture" in Close Again, technology's increasingly bludgeoning and de-humanising influence, consumer culture, and her probing reflections on her own youth and life choices.
It was a time when music was changing, the 90s were over, it felt like our indie rock enclave was transforming into something different, and we weren't sure where to go with it. Also our world was changing - a couple of us had mobile phones for the first time ever (and were faced with the task of dividing up colossal phone bills with those who hadn't made the leap, yet were still happy to send hundreds of texts every day on the others' Nokia 610s, at 22 cents a pop).
We go deep on every song, exploring the lyrics, music, and what we were trying to achieve. In retrospect we're still extremely happy with the majority of songs, one or two only end up getting picked apart and allocated to the "maybe not really good enough" pile.
The musical snippets are longer in this episode, we hope you enjoy the story of Rocks On The Soul!
Read more about it here Buy it here Listen on Spotify YouTube playlistHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Playing God with God
In 1999 we were stuck in a “weird label situation” where we weren’t allowed to record and release the songs which would become Rocks On The Soul, so we decided to make an album of some of our favourites by other people instead.
Tim and Kellie chat about working with Magoo; it was the first time we’d recorded digitally and was a hugely fun and creative session.
Kellie recounts one of the only hiccups, "I just started to spiral"; the nightmare scenario of trying to record the most basic 2 note bass riff ever, with everyone breathing over her shoulder saying “I’ll do it”.
We feel super fond of this record; our playing and singing on it as well as the songs themselves - after all they were written for us, by some of the best.
The track we mention by Bluebottle Kiss is Boredom You Are Breaking My Heart from their album Somnambulist Homesick Blues. Listen to it on Spotify here.
We toured a lot with BBK in the late 90s and really fell in love with their music.
Home Age track list:
1. Walls Come Tumbling Down – Style Council
2. So Sad About Us – The Who
3. The Word Is No! – Sesame St
4. Boys Keep Swinging – David Bowie
5. Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More – Walker Brothers
6. Keep Hanging On – Husker Du
7. King Of Carrot Flowers – Neutral Milk Hotel
8. Off To One Side – Come
9. Falling Out Of Love (With You) – The 6ths
10. Tomorrow Never Knows – The Beatles
Here’s a playlist of the original versions: Home Age Originals
Home Age on Spotify
On our website
On Video: The word is NO! | Tomorrow Never Knows
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Punching People in the Throat.
In 1995 we recorded our fourth album Kitten Licks.
The recording took place at Rocking Horse Studio outside of Byron Bay, and it rained solidly for 13 of the 14 days we were there. Kellie reads from her diaries about the rain, and about everything else; our new drummer Dean, our producer Paul McKercher, and the excitement surrounding our new batch of songs.
1995 was a big year for us, we had a line-up change and got Dean Shwereb in the band. This was a massive deal, his drumming changed everything for us; our approach to songwriting, our practice routine and even the songs themselves. We felt a huge creative freedom.
Dean also brought a crazy new level of fun and humour to the band - we try to explain his "unusual" mind, and tell the story of how he got his nickname Rat Beef.
Tim explains that a lot of the lyrics and song titles on the record were blatantly stolen from various places: books, films, and other bands' records and songs.
Kitten Licks changed us forever. We wrote the songs in a new, fast and spontaneous way, throwing ideas around in the practice room together, where anyone was encouraged to step up to the mic and “sing any old shit”.
Take a peek inside preceding months as we worked the songs up, the two rainy weeks we spent in the studio, and hear the inside dirt on all the songs.
See below for all the places we’ve stolen from, as well as others we were heavily influenced by:
Martin Amis: London Fields, also: Money and other early 90s booksDouglas Coupland: Shampoo Planet, also: Life After God.Neal Stephenson: Snow CrashLiz Phair: Shane (song, on Whipsmart)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsEvv237rGU Win Wenders: Until the End of the World - filmDream Whip fanzineRegurgitator: Blubber BoyHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Whatever Happens, Happens.
Tim and Kellie chat about our "weird" third album Fill Yourself With Music.
We were listening to a ton of early Flaming Lips at the time, we discuss their influence, as well as those of Sebadoh, and Seam, amongst other early 90s heroes of ours.
Kellie reads from her diaries from during the recording session and we both remember the problems and stresses that we were experiencing, and how our producer Wayne Connolly combated these (with calmness and brandy).
We remember the carefree and liberating approach in the studio - along with several magic moments, Tim and Tony's songs largely sounding like "sitting around in the back garden of Warmington St in Paddington with an acoustic guitar", and their killing of Buffalo Tom, for Kellie.
We also go off on a tangent recalling some of the adventures we had back in the days of having a land-line phone. Oh the things you could do..
There are plenty of laughs in this episode, despite the album attracting some very opposing views and reviews at the time. Still, we came away from this still very fond of our third child, and definitely with the feeling that "music can save you".
Fill Yourself With Music:
On SpotifyOn YoutubeOn our WebsiteHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Desk Wars.
In 1993 we drove to Sydney in Tim's van, to record our second album Burn Out Your Name. We remember all the strange and funny details around the recording, and the songs themselves, and Kellie dives into her diaries for some "on the ground" insights into what we got up to.
We chat about fighting over the mixing desk when the producer's back was turned, the origin on the Fingers & Toes song title, and Wrote You Off being "too poppy and catchy" for the grunge era.
We also mention our brief path-crossing with Steve Albini, and our band ethos of the time; "indie indie indie all the way", with Tim and Tony actively rejecting anything NOT indie.
As a flip side, Kellie divulges her most rock'n'roll moment of decadence, "Don't let my mum listen to this". We also go off on a tangent and introduce bit players Bunty Pring and Tricia Candy, and explore Tim being "cock-blocked by Mrs Candy", at the age of 15. It's crazy stuff.
Also The Darkness gets mentioned; Tim's love of the actual band, and Kellie's love of - and side hobby of - embracing the actual darkness.
Enjoy this episode!
For the 2014 re-release, Jamie Hutchings from Bluebottle Kiss wrote:
Ah.. the lottery that is life. I used to see Screamfeeder at every opportunity around this time. They were going head to head with You Am I on a lot of bills, and I honestly had no idea who would win out in the rock’n’roll path of fame stakes. They were that good! Good enough that I’d usually pay to see them open up for bands I had no intention of sticking around the rest of the night for.
Chunky, tinnitus-inducing riffs, bittersweet melodies and throat-implosion vocals; and on this album a dreamy molasses-like glaze over everything. Burn Out Your Name has everything that was special about the band during this era. Now it’s etched deep within the grooves of a vinyl record – where it belongs.
Youtube PlaylistBurn Out Your Name on SpotifyRead more and buy on our websiteHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Metal On Metal.
At the end of 1991 into the early summer of 1992 we recorded our first album, Flour. Tim and Kellie chat how it came about and how we made it happen. There's lots we don't remember, or we half remember, or we think we remember, it was a long time ago! We marvel at the album's "unusual" sound, and wonder how it ended up sounding like that. We also chat about how every song sounds like we're wanting to emulate one of our guitar-hero bands at the time (which we were).
This episode includes the story of the band's name change, after Kellie joined, from The Madmen to Screamfeeder.
It also tells the story of how Tim and Kellie met, and how Kellie joined the band, and explains how and why there are two versions of this album.
Tim blabs on about alternative guitar tunings a bit too much (you better get used to that, sorry).
Kel tells us about how she wanted to be "the best bass player in the world" and how that's panned out for her. And somehow the quote "The opposite of your balls dropping" gets a look-in. Enjoy this episode!
Read about Flour hereWatch the TOWER video hereListen to the deluxe edition hereAnd the original version from 1992 hereHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Lose 10 choruses or 5 verses.
Tim and Kellie talk about FIVE ROOMS, how it came about, what we did and how we did it.
We explain the album title, *despite only really mentioning 3 of the rooms.
We talk / go off on tangents about working with producer Anna Laverty, Kel's tenuous grasp of modern recording technology, the "Tim songs" which Kellie doesn't like, the concept of nostalgia, as it relates to music, and us, and diary writing vs social media.
We also find ourselves discussing the Urge Overkill lobe in Tim's brain, at length, and as always: smashing the patriarchy. Other notable moments include "Men settle down!!!" and "This isn't my song any more" from Kellie.
We deep dive into lengthy and sometimes entertaining stories around every single song, and we try to give them some context in the broader picture of the band and also the weird times during which they were written and recorded.
There are plenty of laughs and much stupidity. Enjoy.
More..
Read about Five Rooms, with Lyrics etc: Buy vinylOn BandcampDon't Get Me Started videoLate to the Party videoHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
