Meet Your Upstarters Finalists: Any Young Mechanic
Any Young Mechanic are a five-piece from Adelaide / Tarntanya making a slightly strange but deliciously listenable mix of folk and indie rock.
Their music has a warm, live feel - more an organism than a set of chords and strums - mixing acoustic guitars, violin, double bass and banjo with clever storytelling and arrangements that can go from intimate to surprisingly big and cinematic. The band sound rooted in old-school folk and country, but twist it into something weirder and more modern, with shades of artists like Big Thief, Fleet Foxes and Black Country, New Road. Catch them live at the Monster Children BIGSOUND Brisbane showcase this Wednesday.
Who are you?
Allan McBean (double bass/electric bass)
Jay Eliot Mee (drums/backing vocals)
Luka Kilgariff Johnson (banjo/electric guitar)
Sam Wilson (vocals/guitar)
Thea Martin (violin/clarinet)
How would you describe the music you make?
Our first album we'd describe as rock music with folk instruments. Alternative folk if you'd like.
What have you learnt about each other (your bandmates) through making music together? (make this short, lighthearted and funny)
Making music feels best when you can fully trust, musically and in life, your bandmates. Being in a band is really important to us, we believe in collectivism and collaboration as a conduit for creativity.
Are there certain rituals you do when making music
We left off a lot of steam playing a card game Jay invented called Punishment. Recently we've added a new card game to the mix that we named Babble.
What is the hardest thing about being a musician in Australia?
The lack of industry infrastructure - there's still so little financial or even sustainable pathway support for emerging artists. Touring in Australia is so unsustainable, its super expensive, more venues are shutting down every year...'initiatives' like the government's Job Ready graduate scheme make it incredibly difficult for the arts to be culturally valued in this country, which feeds into the vicious circle of funding cuts.
What is the dumbest ‘job’ you’ve had to work to be able to pay for gigs?
There's been some more unpleasant/tedious ones for sure, but honestly we haven't really thought of it that way, its just a given that you have to make some money to be able to do music and pay your rent. We've all done some time in hospo/retail.
What song do you wish you had written that someone else wrote?
Tonight by Sibylle Baier or I Ate The Most by Aldous Harding.
How important is lyricism in songwriting?
It depends on the kind of music you're making. To us, very important. Who knows what they're saying in Cocteau Twins songs, but it doesn't detract from how great the music is. If you've got a great melody, your lyrics can be unintelligible.
What is a perfect record?
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco and Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You by Big Thief.
What would you do with the $20K if you won it?
We'd love to do some regional touring in Australia, which is currently pretty inaccessible to us due to travel costs - there's so many beautiful halls and community spaces that go underutilised, with the kind of music we play we can adapt super easily to unique acoustic spaces. We're really inspired by the way a band like Big Thief connects with the places they tour to with initiative like inviting local high schools to watch soundcheck and ask the band questions, that kind of local exchange is so important when you're invited into a space and community and we'd like to emulate that ethos.
Cheers!
