The vast possibilities of music, Example 1: Frontside 5-0 grind on the steps of a gargantuan Mozart statue in Vienna. Wolfgang Amadeus looking down at a fallen skater soaking music thru a scraped shin. Sharp pain soothed by a passing, distorted ice cream van, the sort of moment from which operas are born. Example 2: Sydney’s toy thrashin’ trio of romper room ravers. Romper stompers, even. You can visit them here: www.dirtymouse.net/toydeath Or catch them during the www.thisisnotart.org bonanza in Newcastle, Oct 2-7.
What was the spark that started Toy Death?
Coming across a little guitar called a Microjammer in Canberra Target. It had such an amazing sound that we just had to make music from it. We are always inspired by the toys turning up in the shops.
How does the songwriting work 4u ?
The three of us sit down with our toybox full of toys and we just start combining different toys until we find a particular sound or strike a great combination! We then arrange the song and write it down
(otherwise we forget!) and work out some silly choreography.
Ever play with / to very young kids? Reactionz?
We played a gig at a primary School in Utrecht in Holland. It was a Daytime treat to school for disadvantaged and at risk kids and we had to not use any of our gunz and cut out all the sexy stuff. They were transfixed by us! At one stage I had to wrestle my twin neck guitar from the clutches of about 5 kids in the front row. At the end of the gig the teacher said they could now play with the toys and there was a stampede. It was mayhem! a bit like Beatlemania but with 8 year olds. They went nuts playing the toys, all of which were still plugged in!
Fave gig moment(z)?
The Utrecht gig was a wild one but we have had so many. In Munster (Germany)we played on the back of a truck at an outdoor festival. Lights started falling over as we all jump up and down at one point!. We forgot to save an encore and were mobbed in our dressing room by people begging for more. One guy got down on his knees! We also played a gig supporting Killing Heidi at Penrith Panthers and got boo’ed offstage! We launched our 7′ at a game arcade so people could play the games for free while we did our set.
Any particular fun toyz u fond of @ the moment?
I’m still in love with my Kawasaki twin neck guitar! All the ‘circuit bent’ toys are really kickin’ and its adding a whole new dimension to our sound. We brought back a Dutch telephone toy from Amsterdam that is just a crazy machine.
Who stars in toy death the movie, and what genre is it?
I definitely think that it would be Manga, a cross between AstroBoy And Vampire Hunter B. Starring voices? either the original Marine Boy cast or Allan Fels, Ita Buttrose and Tom Hanks as SuperTalk Barbie.
Toydeath unplugged =?
I don’t think that it would work, some toys are just too quiet. More likely to see us Un-Masked although I think that it really was a bad move for Kiss so learn from history. Maybe we play semi-acoustic style all casual like sitting down being very sensitive…..
Future planz?
Keep on having fun and finding great new toys! Time for a film clip set in a dolls house and maybe our next release will be a game or CD-rom thingy. Do some more exciting gigs in unusual venues! Next gig in Sydney. November 17th at Brett Whitely Gallery. GO TO JAPAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!