Interview: Jason Galea

Saskwatch, The Murlocs, Frowning Clouds and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. What do these Australian bands all have in common? If you’ve had your hands on any of the recent releases by these musicians, you will have seen the work of local mixed media artist Jason Galea.

Jason’s artwork first came to our attention when we interviewed Zak Olsen from the Frowning Clouds a couple of months ago. We were blown away by the band’s recent set of tour posters – the collaged images were a perfect fit for the Frowning Clouds’ aesthetic. After some coaxing, we managed to track down the Kensington-based artist, who took some time out of a very busy schedule to answer our questions.

Jason Galea portrait by Kristian Wild

Hi Jason, first of all thanks for the chat with Makers of Melbourne. Your work first came to our attention on several recent album covers and tour posters, but when did you start working with the Melbourne music industry and was there a “big break” involved?

I hadn’t done anything in the music industry until The Murlocs EP, early 2012. King Gizzard’s 12 Bar Bruise album and a couple of videos followed. Not long after that, Warner Music asked me to do the two Nuggets’ releases and I’ve been busy ever since.

When designing for other people or major companies is there a sense of artistic compromise, or do you have ways to separate the work that you want to create from the work that the artist or corporation wants?

 There’s occasional compromise but I usually have a lot of creative freedom doing what I do. With that comes the task of creating something that works for the sensibility of the client. At the end of the day, it’s their visual identity I’m playing with so I have to keep everybody happy, not just myself. 

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - "Oddments" Triple Gatefold Album cover

When we spoke to Zak from the Frowning Clouds, he told us that you listened to their album to get inspiration for the cover art. Is this typical of the way you work and does music influence all of your creations?

I always try to start with ideas that are a reaction to what I’m hearing. Listening and discovering music has a big influence on my output, but the artwork and packaging for the music is just as – or sometimes more – influential to me.

When and how did you start creating art? Were you artistic from childhood? 

 Creating art has always been a big part of my life; I was the kid in class that could draw. Dinosaurs, Batman or whatever cartoons were on TV at the time formed my childhood art repertoire. In my teenage years my artistic endeavours revolved around recreating skate logos.

You work in mixed media, from video to collage. When did you start experimenting with different mediums?

 I’ve always found myself looking for new things to get busy with. Filming and editing skate videos opened up a lot of possibilities to me. I studied Multimedia after high school and learnt about designing for the web, 3D animation and everything else digital. Bringing everything together into ‘Zonk Vision’ was when things started to get really fun.

Dorsal Fins - "Gripless 12" Vinyl Artwork

Could you please tell us about ‘Zonk Vision’ and take us through how you got involved?

‘Zonk Vision’ is an AV collective formed in early 2009. At the time it was Danny Wild, Greg Holden and myself experimenting with audio and video together over the summer. We started putting our videos online and eventually put on our first show, then we kept the ball rolling from there. At the moment we are a loose collective of about 10 people. We put on events that blur the borders between live music, film screening and performance around Australia.

Your work has such a distinct feel, regardless of the medium/media used. We really like the way that you use colour and pop cultural references. Aside from music, what would you say are the biggest influences on your work?

The works of Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Michel Gondry, Victor Moscoso, Martin Sharp, Tadanori Yokoo and Paper Rad have all helped shape my work. I’m influenced on a day-to-day basis by Danny Wild and Ben Jones from ‘Zonk Vision’. All the artists being published by No-One-Special are very influential to me, too.

Saskwatch  "A Love Divine" single cover. 

Do you ever exhibit your work or do you have any exhibitions planned for the near future?

I’ve been a part of several group exhibitions, screenings, installations and live performances over the last five years. I’m regularly doing live visual projections for bands, too. This September, I’ll be going with ‘Zonk Vision’ to New York where we’ll be doing screenings and as many shows as we can squeeze into the three weeks that we are there.

Is art your full-time job or do you have a ‘nine-to-five’ as well? If so, how do you balance the two?

I was working in the video department of an evil corporation for five years, that helped me pay the bills and gave me time to work out my art, build up enough freelance work and I now never want to work in an office again! My art keeps me busy seven days a week, whether it’s work for bands, ‘Zonk Vision’ or co-running Steady Bumpen skateboards.

Artwork for The Frowning Clouds album "Whereabouts"  - CD, cover & inner artwork

jasongalea.com

Interview: Nkechi Anele, Saskwatch

Nkechi Anele fronts Saskwatch at the Palais Theatre, May 2013

Phone interviews are always a strange affair. It doesn't matter how much you prepare in advance, you never know what's going to happen on the other end of the line. Or what’s going to happen with your phone line.

It’s 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon and Makers is desperately trying to get a hold of Nkechi Anele, front woman of Melbourne band Saskwatch. Our PR supplied calling card has failed, and when we do finally get in contact with the diminutive singer our phone reception is faint and tinny.

After a couple of minutes struggling to hear each other I decide to hang up, with the promise and hope that when I call back our reception will be crystal clear.

I dial a complicated set of numbers but once again the call rings out.

About a minute later, Nketchi phones me direct. “It’s so much easier this way,” she states understandably after I apologise profusely for the shoddy phone line.

It’s nice to hear that after five years of recording and touring both nationally and internationally, success hasn’t gone to the singer’s head. The 9-piece indie-soul outfit have had a hectic schedule since the release of their second album ‘Nose Dive’ a little over a month ago and so far this year have found themselves playing a string of festival shows including WOMADelaide, Panama Festival and Bluesfest Byron Bay. They’ve also just finished up a support slot on British singer John Newman’s debut Australian tour, and were recently announced on the lineup for this year’s Splendor in the Grass. Not to mention that the band will be headlining their own national tour in June and July; travelling through regional Victoria, the ACT, Adelaide, Sydney and Perth before wrapping it all up with a homecoming gig at Richmond’s Corner Hotel on the 5th of July. 

Saskwatch perform at the Australian Independent Music Awards in October, 2013

Saskwatch started out as a bunch of University students busking outside of Flinders Street Station “It was a quick way to earn money to go out and party,” Anele explains while discussing the heritage of the group.  It was only after PBS radio announcer Vince Peach waked past the band that things started to get more serious. The DJ asked the buskers to perform live on his show and later invited them to take up residency at his soul night at Cherry Bar.  “That’s when I joined the band,” she continues “and we ended up playing at Cherry for two and a half years before moving into festivals.”

 Nkechi: “This is the second band that I’ve sung in, the first was more electro and Saskwatch actually supported us when we launched our single. There were a couple of nights that the former singer of the group wasn’t available to play and the boys asked me to fill in, then I was asked to join the band full-time.”

Things continued in an upward trajectory after those auspicious beginnings, “We were performing at Cherry bar and the night began to pick up to the point where it was selling out every time we played. There was always a queue and each week people were being turned from the door. From there we found a manager who helped us get on the lineup for Golden Plains, that was the big kick off for us.”

Saskwatch perform at the Heart of St Kilda Concert at the Palais Theatre, May 2013

I recall seeing the band play a scorching set at the 2013 Sacred Heart Mission’s Heart of St Kilda concert. It was the first time that Makers of Melbourne had experienced a Saskwatch performance and we were blown away by their efforts on stage that night at the Palais theatre. I tell Nkechi that from my outsider’s point of view, the band seemed to go from playing the charity concert to suddenly being everywhere. (Laughter) “From the outside I guess it does seem like that. A lot of people think that we’ve only been around for about a year and a half when really we’re up to our fifth year of playing together.  I don’t know how to explain it, but there was an interesting period of time when my face was on every poster that my friends saw around town. I’d be getting text messages everyday saying “you’re on the radio” or “I just saw your face at the tram stop.”  

 I mention that the bands sophomore album ‘Nose Dive’ has a darker feel to it than their first release, the 2012 album ‘Leave it all Behind’.  “It was a little nerve wracking making the second album because at the time of releasing our first record the soul scene was huge here in Melbourne. We were trying to keep our writing up to that original standard of music, while moving away from that soul movement. We didn’t want to fall into the trap of being a novelty soul band that could only play themed nights. It sounds so exclusive, and creatively being a soul band is quite limiting. As much as the scene had helped us, it felt like it was time to move away and establish ourselves as a more serious band in our own right. The second album was written as a reaction to personal experience.”

 She continues “Our first album felt like a party album and I think that’s because we established ourselves in a bar where it was like a party every week. Now we’ve grown up and have moved away from that university lifestyle, we’ve started taking on responsibilities. Moving through life there are some dark sides to relationships and reality and I think we’ve all reached the stage where we are happy explore that. The culture that we find ourselves in as a band reflects our creative output.”