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| Taken on site by me, March 2012 |
I have been in love with Melbourne band Oh Mercy ever since first hearing their album Privileged Woes (specifically, this song). To this day Oh Mercy's songs, ranging from dance-inducing strummed jams to Dylan-reminiscent folk and all beautifully illustrated by intimately written lyrics, remain my greatest adorations.
During SXSW of 2012 I was immensely thrilled to interview frontman Alexander Gow: the poetic brains behind, as well as singer and guitarist of, Oh Mercy.
You can listen to the interview here.
How did you guys form?
Originally the band was formed around myself and my friend Thomas Savage. We went to high school together and started making music there and we made the first Oh Mercy album together, not long after leaving high school, and after that he decided he wanted to move to England with his girlfriend and started up a group over there. So since then I've got some other members involved... the current line-up's been together since then, which was a few years ago.
What are some of your influences?
I really love the kind of singer-songwriter.. songbook kind of stuff, like Bob Dylan and Leonhard Cohen... they're probably my two favorites. But I'm also writing to kind of 60's girl groups, like Diana Ross and Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick, and stuff like that are some of my favorites so they (my influences) could definitely cross over between that pop thing and the song writer stuff.
How would you describe your sound?
I suppose it's kind of like lyrical-based rock music or something. Like I mentioned, the songwriting aspect of it is the most important to me because that's what I love and that's what I grew up on, but I'm also interested in having fun with the music side of it, as opposed to just being like the troubadour that plays acoustic guitar and sings his heart out. I kind of am more interested in having fun with the sound so it's kind of like, having both feet firmly cemented in the songwriter thing but just presenting it in as many ways as I wish, which is the exciting thing.
So your first album was Privileged Woes and Great Barrier Grief is your second album. How are they different?
Well the first album was made in a bedroom to begin with, with minimal gear, by my friend Miles. We kind of thought we were making some demos but Miles is pretty clever with his computer and whatnot so I suppose we kind of accidentally made an album over a long period of time. Because the first one was kind of successful in Australia we got the opportunity to make another one and at that time we could afford to do one in a studio. I mean the main difference is the environment in which they were made. The first one, we're kind of making do with very little, therefore we had to build and build and build the sounds until it sounded acceptable, whereas the second one we had the leisure of just kind of setting up as a band in a room and having a more simple sound and letting the songs speak for themselves.
Do you think you get a different response to your music in the States than in Australia?
It's kind of hard to tell, we're just at such an early stage in our career over here, really just taking our first baby steps. But yeah, I think that there's probably truth in that. Our music has a little bit of background in Australian, alternative 80's kind of culture. There's few bands that I love, like the Go-Betweens and the Triffords, who are considered kind of quintessential alternative Australian groups. So we kind of had a little bit of that going on in those bands kind of praising us and I suppose no one really knows about those groups over here so they don't quite hear those references. But like I said it's still early, it's kind of hard to tell. We'll have to wait and see.
Are you working on a third album after the tour?
Yeah, after this tour is over we're driving over to Portland to make our third album with an Australian/Canadian produced called Birk Raid. We're also gonna have Steve Berlin play on the record; he's this saxophonist from Los Lobos, one of my favorite groups, so I'm really excited.
What's your favorite sandwich?
I do love sandwiches. I love salty and spicy things, so anything to do with that. You know like some kind of salty cheese, like a feta cheese or a goat's cheese maybe. Maybe some Anchovies.. a little bit more salt. Maybe like salami or something like that.
