05/09/2008
Midnight Juggernauts Live @ Johnny Brenda's: Interview, Review + Photos
In the falltide, fellow Walruser Michael gave some love to three Aussie prog-rockers otherwise known as Midnight Juggernauts. Sweet find! Thanks to this hawt tip, I grabbed an opportunity to shoot the shit with the Juggernauts before a sweaty-as-hell dance-fest at Johnny Brenda's on Wednesday night!
I must say, going through with the interview was a good decision. Midnight Juggernauts are more than their slightly pigeon-holed, yet duly-earned "Justice-approved" moniker. Plus, they rocked the Art in the Age threads I brought for them! Follow along as I head into the proverbial unknown with these intergalactic chaps...
Robin: Who are you and where do you come from?
Well, I'm Andy, I'm Daniel, and I'm Vincent. We're Midnight Juggernauts and we come from...Mars!
Vincent: Andy and I come from Melbourne, and Daniel comes from the surfin' beaches. He spends his life sunbathing with surfer chicks, playing the guitar, watching the waves...
Daniel: Not true!
Don't worry, I believe you. So how and when did you meet?
V: match.com!
Andy: Vincent and I have known each other since high school. Daniel and I were in Sydney when we met for the first time. He was a young boy, a keen young man...
Where does your name come from?
V: It comes from a fortune cookie we were eating, that said, "What is a midnight juggernaut?"
A: The answer? It's an unstoppable force in the middle of the night.
So to go along with your unique band name, if you had to make up your own genre to place yourselves in, what would you call it?
D: It would be in another dialect from another planet, or something with "new" in front of it. Isn't that what they're doing nowadays?
V: We wouldn't have a word. We'd have a symbol, like Prince! It would be a dollar sign with a question mark and then a no smoking sign to keep with the times.
Ok, now for the good stuff! Ha! Since you've known each other for so long, do you want to fess up to any embarrassing musical obsessions from your past?
D: When I was a four-year-old...I listened to Bing Crosby records. The most embarrassing? East17, an English pop act from the early 90s. That was one of the first concerts I ever went to.
V: It's funny thinking back to big acts from the 80s and 90s like Elton John, Billy Joel and Paul Simon. When you're young, you cringe because you think they're so cheesy! Your parents liked that music! But sometimes when you look back without all that baggage, there are some pretty good songs.
No worries. Billy Joel and Elton John = totally allowed (in my book, at least). So beyond being avid music listeners, do you have formal music training?
V: I started playing violin when I was 7. I got pretty good and joined string ensembles. This was the peak of my powers.
A: I had guitar lessons twice. I was into metal music, so I played some harsh distortion. My teacher told me what I was doing was wrong.
D: I used to play the tuba in my school orchestra. I was this teeny little kid carrying around this huge thing. It was the worst! Then I learned all sorts of percussion.
V: We're still trying to uncover pictures of him as a kid with the tuba wrapped around his whole body!
I'm sure they're well-hidden somewhere.
Besides music, are you involved in visual art? How much of a role do you play in the direction of your videos and album art?
V: We are involved as much as possible. Just like with the music, you want to create this other world.
D: We started our own label to put this album out. It's all about independent projects. We wanted to do our own artwork, our own videos, and make the entire thing one big piece of art! All of that stuff is really important, like what you were talking about with the artist-driven shirt brand. People that make art in the world have to support each other.
After all this touring and art-making and thinking and dancing, how tired are you, seriously? Do you ever have crises and want to sit in a silent dark room for a week?
D: Yeah, all the time. That "dark room," is called The Tour Bus, or our "coffins." We have these cubicle beds. We've got our laptops and headphones. That is the escape.
V: I wonder what it's like to just sit and do my taxes.
It's probably not as fun as what you're doing. Seriously. After all of your experiences, can you give me any piece of advice or a recommendation?
A: When in Washington, go to Ben's Chili Bar, it's incredible!
D: Stay away from The Dark Side....or embrace it.
V: If you're going to check in a lot of luggage at the airport, make sure you find a young pretty girl to check in with, and not an old grumpy man who is going to charge you $3000 in fees.
Haha! Ok, finally...how do you take your eggs?
A: Scrambled.
D: An omelette...with lots of different stuff.
V: Raw. No, actually, fried.
Ok, that's all I've got! Thanks so much, it was a pleasure!
SHOW REVIEW: Notoriously late, I arrived just as Shy Child was trucking their gear off stage. The crowd seemed a bit sedated and I was nervous to see what the response would be to the pounding Juggernaut beats. Man, was I wrong about the sedation! As soon as the Juggernauts began their set, the floor became crowded and throbbing with guys and gals shakin' it...hard! There were no breaks in the set, which was pretty impressive, as the transitions were seamless. I described it later to a friend as "one giant, live mash-up of songs" Additionally, Vincent and Andy switched between keyboards, vocals and guitar throughout the set. Their energy and consistent solid mix of instrumentation is what truly sold me on the band.
Need more Midnight Juggernauts? Visit their MySpace page for more info and tour dates. Their debut album, Dystopia, is available now via their official site. Also, download the Knightlife remix of "Shadows" below! NOICE!
MP3
Download 'Midnight Juggernauts - Shadows (KNIGHTLIFE Remix)'5:42 | 13.05MB
Posted by Robin on 05/09/2008 1:06 PM in Indie-Pop, Electronic, Experimental, Interview
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