From: dfong@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc,alt.music.alternative
Subject: Tasmania (NZ)  ;-)
Date: 12 Nov 92 20:53:31 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

   Transcribed by Malcy and De Fish! from Rip It Up no. 183, October
   1992.

   (Without permission...but what is of more importance here ?)

   --------------------------------------------------------------

                               TASMANIA

   Was it the curse of the Able Tasmans that led to the Chills'
   demise? "How do you feel about stealing another band's drummer,
   Martin?" goes the ad on Auckland's BFM [campus radio]. In comes
   Graeme Humphreys doing the wickedest Martin Phillipps impression
   you're likely to hear this side of the College radio circuit.
   "Well, I wouldn't exactly call it stealing" he mumbles.

     All silly fun, of course. "One day I'll ring up Slash records
   and get them to send me an amp or something," jokes Humphreys
   (piano, organ, guitar and vocals). There's no curse, of course,
   but Craig Mason, the Tasmans' drummer drafted into the Chills is
   coming home from the truncated American tour.

     "I got a phone call from him last night" says Humphreys. "He
   was great, it was 2.30 in the morning, they'd just finished a
   gig, there was lots of drinking and Craig, quite weepy-eyed he
   was: "Love you guys!". He's coming back soon. It's a shame he
   didn't get to go to Europe, but I honestly think he's approached
   it in a pretty workmanlike way, the contract, the money, the
   professionalism. I'm really glad for him that he had the
   opportunity, it's a shame he hasn't got the chance to earn a few
   more dollars off Warner Music for his wife and kid."

     It's perhaps typical of the Able Tasmans' whanau-like [maori:
   family-like] approach that Mason's decision to take up the
   Chills' offer caused no problem, other than finding another
   drummer with the new album, 'Somebody Ate My Planet', fresh in
   the shops and in need of promotion. But Robbie Yates, former
   Verlaines' drummer, had offered to fill the gap almost as soon as
   he heard Mason was leaving. Must be good karma. The band now is
   slimming down to a five-piece, with the departure of Ron Young
   (synthesizer) a move both Humphreys and Peter Kean (vocals,
   guitar, cornet) think will work well.

     "It's much easier to tighten up" says Kean. "It's been a
   criticism levelled at us for a long time that we have too much
   going on in the mid range and it could tend to be woolly and lose
   definition, and I think by cutting down to five it will go some
   way to solving that, just by the mere fact that that's the set
   up."

     "It also increases the amount of communication the goes on on
   stage, which helps with the tightness, because there's one less
   person you have to get in touch with" adds Humphreys. The rest of
   the band are Leslie Jonkers (piano, organ, guitar and vocals) and
   Jane Dodd (bass and backing vocals).

     Way back when Able Tasmans started as a two-piece,
   communication would have been no problem. The roots of the band
   lie in Whangarei [North of Auckland] in 1983, where Humphreys and
   Craig Baxter formed a band called Sister Ray, doing 50 per cent
   covers and "quasi-punk rock, new wave sort of stuff."

     "Wearing white sneakers" laughs Kean.

     "That was for playing tennis" says Humphreys "But the thing is
   if you played tennis in white sneakers and then went down to the
   mall in Whangarei on a Friday night it was pretty bad news. We
   got chased out of town for being punk rockers. I was very glad to
   leave and I tried to convince Craig to come down and play and he
   did and then we tried to convince Dave." That was Dave Bannister,
   who formed the Able Tasmans with the other two in 1984.

     Humphreys and Kean met at university, where Kean was in a
   little-known band called Raucous Laughter, a band which hardly
   ever got out of the practice room.

     "Raucous Laughter were in the practice room for seven years and
   did three live gigs" grins Humphreys.

     "We were the most underground band in Auckland" Kean agrees.

     "Peter and I were doing zoology and I went down to Pete's
   practice room and just enjoyed listening to the band and doing
   recreational activities down there, it was great fun. It was a
   practice gig for years."

     "It was a cool basement, eh, it had a sort of cage set up, it
   was well insulated" says Kean. Maybe that's why the band never
   got out, the practice room was so cool. "Yeah, didn't want to
   play live, shifting gear was a hassle."

     According to Humphreys "there's a few tapes of the early
   Raucous Laughter stuff, it was remarkably good" and a Raucous
   Laughter song appears on the back of the first Able Tasmans
   single. "During the single we had the opportunity to do something
   like that and after seven years in the practice room they had to
   show something for it!"

     The Able Tasmans have now come through a few recordings, from
   'Carolines' on 1986's 'Outnumbered By Sheep' (a forerunner to the
   'Freak The Sheep' series), the EP 'The Tired Sun' and albums 'A
   Cuppa Tea and a Lie Down', 'Hey Spinner!' and now 'Somebody Ate
   My Planet'.

     "Recording is in some ways a completion of something, a
   photograph of where we were at the time" says Humphreys, musing
   on the band's future path. "You can't destroy it, it will always
   be there, it's like history and if we can carry on recording and
   carry on being able to afford to record in the best possible
   manner, just keep doing that. Record, play live for fun, energy
   and band-type cohesion and the philosophy of being a rock band
   and record to record it."

     Both Humphreys and Kean are happy with 'Somebody Ate My
   Planet', given the circumstances under which it was recorded.

     "I think it's a good photograph, given the camera we had to use
   and how much film we could afford" says Kean, continuing the
   photograph analogy.

     "I still think four in the morning is a ridiculous time to try
   and get the best possible performance to put in that photograph
   to record its history" continues Humphreys. "That's just the
   constraint of time and money. If you're going to do something
   that's going to last forever, you don't work all day then stay up
   all night and do it at four in the morning. But you kinda have
   to."

     An oft-asked question is, who the hell is Mark Byrami? (as made
   famous in the album's song 'A Conversation With Mark Byrami')

     "He's been a friend of ours for years, he was here at
   university when we first came" says Kean.

     "He played bass with Peter's band once, he played bass with
   Bird Nest Roys" adds Humphreys.

     "Called him Frank back then" remembers Kean.

     "He's a unique conversationalist" says Humphreys. "Oscar Wilde
   and Mark Byrami together would be televisible. He's got so many
   great and unusual philosophies that seem to be just as solid when
   he argues them out and you think 'Yeah, Jesus Christ, the world
   is stupid isn't it?'"

     "Or: 'there is a god" laughs Kean.

     "So it was prime material to write a song about" reflects
   Humphreys. "Not that it's really going to make that much
   difference to anyone else. Because of the personal nature of our
   songs it became material for writing a song."

     The Able Tasmans are one of those bands who have fun. They're
   serious, but not that serious, perhaps why they've never done the
   OE thing, going for the big signing, the major tours. They'd love
   to get over to America, says Humphreys and, all things being
   equal, they may make it next year.

     "We'll go for fun, it's not ambition, that's the thing" he
   says. "The idea of the Able Tasmans going to the States is really
   exciting because we'll all be in the States and we'll be having a
   really cool time and playing music is a great excuse, rather than
   'we've got a tour to very seriously accomplish and play'".

     "It wouldn't be anything like pushing product" says Kean. "More
   like doing the geriatric bus tour 50 years early."

     Humphreys' eyes light up.

     "Maybe we'll go as a band and just not worry about doing any
   gigs. Just take our amps and find a practice room!"

                                                   - Fiona Rae
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