Peabody - On The Road

Many people would be familiar with the old adage, ‘what goes on tour stays on tour’. However, some people are stricter about adhering to this rule than others. Thankfully, The Dwarf tracked down Ben Chamie, the bass player and songwriter for Sydney four-piece, Peabody, who was happy to enlighten us with colourful tales about life as an indie-rock star, among others.

Peabody are currently on tour supporting their latest EP, The Devil For Sympathy, off their forthcoming third album Prospero, which is slated for release in 2008. By his own admission, Chamie is in a jovial mood, no doubt flavoured by the vibe chart he set up on the group’s myspace page which boasts ratings such as: success; ecstasy; gold; interesting; drunk; tired; this is sh*t; and I hate myself and music. “At present I am pretty much ecstatic because, and I’ll let you in on a little secret here, when you’re an indie-rock star life is pretty much brilliant, all of the time”.

It appears that Peabody have come a long way since forming in the mid-nineties where Ben admits that their only aspirations were to play at the Sandringham and Annandale hotels. One biography of the band even goes so far to say that Peabody chose “a road less travelled” by originally “mixing smart suits, Rickenbacker guitars, classic pop melodies and gold old Australian pub sweat”. But if the band had chosen an alternate route earlier on, how would this have differed from what actually occurred?
“Okay, crystal ball let’s see…we could have located to Bunbury in Western Australia like INXS did when they were a young band on the make, and look what it did for them. Coke, starlets, premature death and then an idol-like search for a rock star series on channel ten. It’s all so clear in hindsight”.

It seems that Ben may be suffering from a temporary identity crisis so I contemplate whether he’d find describing a Peabody live show for someone who has never seen it, somewhat easier to answer.
“For the uninitiated, a Peabody live show is like the musical equivalent of speeding down a highway on a scorching hot day in your hotted up seventies terror-mobile. You are drinking liquid mescaline and listening to Sonic Youth cover Motörhead when the radio starts blaring so loud it gives you the hiccups; (then) you are forced to stick your head out the window to find some respite when (instead) you are decapitated by an oncoming road train”.

An entertaining analogy indeed, as this is no doubt influenced by the antics that could only occur whilst on tour. “I am sorry to disappoint, but these days we tend to resort to puerile jokes and name-calling. It used to be funny gambling band money on various things at extremely long odds but Bruno (Brayovic, vocals and guitar) has banned that activity. One time after a gig, our cabdriver overheard us as we were discussing how a certain dog was going to ‘trounce it in’. I think he thought we’d received a hot tip (but) we were actually gibbering-drunk. Anyway, he followed us into the bar we were going to and he bet on the same long on, hapless pup, we put our band money on. But guess what, it came in and we all made a fortune! He brought us many Campari and gins and we all sang and danced his traditional songs late into the night, I think he was from a former soviet nation”.

Peabody continue to push themselves when it comes to creating music. Bruno once said that they attempt to “unlearn all the clichés and relearn music in a way that no one has done before”. Ben adds, “I think what Bruno was referring to was the fact that in the genre that we exist in, there are a lot of tried and true chord structures, sounds and so on. I think we have consciously tried to avoid those things and one way of going about it has been to explore different tunings and discordant noise. That’s something we started on (sophomore album) ‘The New Violence’ and has continued further on our forthcoming album”.

Thankfully, there appears to be little opportunity for this group to grow stagnant as this is more likely to happen to buskers and two of particular note that haunt the streets of Sydney. One performs by holding a speaker while the other plays glass bottles like a set of drums. “My favourite is a guy that busks on the streets of Dulwich Hill. He sits there while his stereo plays a soccer chant on a loop, but the icing on the cake is the laminated poster propped up against the stereo picturing the ‘Monkeys of Asia’- (It’s) gold!”

Another precious object is the forthcoming album, Prospero, one whose lyrics are inspired by a great breadth of influences. “This last album has been inspired lyrically by some great poets and writers like Jack Kerouac, Jean-Paul Sartre, Kurt Vonnegut and others. Also by visual artists like Egon Schiele… and then there are those things that you might overhear in day-to-day life that are bizarre or funny (and) that you find yourself working into a song. It’s a fairly unconscious thing…and then I refine them into something to fit the rhythm and melody of the song”. After Ben’s laborious work fleshing out the “musical idea” of a song, this is generally taken to the band rehearsal room where the entire group arranges it.

Chamie is also quick to note the contributions of Jared Harrison and Tristan Courtney-Prior on drums and guitar, respectively, whose addition to the line-up have influenced the new material, as the extra guitar has helped add more layers to the sonic mix. Chamie believes Prospero is a logical continuation from the precursor, The New Violence, albeit a release that draws upon the melodic aspects found on the predecessor.

Peabody have been together as a band for over ten years, a time that Ben admits has been lots of fun and littered with small successes along the way. His outlook in this regard is an upbeat one, something contrary to an older article where Bruno had said that “Ben and I are grumpy old men,” as they both enjoy pointing out bad aspects of life. Therefore, I was curious to know precisely what Ben felt was truly awful today. For those playing along at home, his response was a long diatribe bemoaning things as diverse as dentistry, technology, bad coffee, tax, war, death, astrology, insects, countries, authority figures, irritating noises, bad drivers and hairy people. Unfortunately, we do not have the time to offer the more comprehensive list, but if anyone would like to take a guess at what Chamie said in his actual response you can send all notices care of The Dwarf and all perfect scores will be awarded a copy of the band’s new album by myself personally.

Needless to say, Chamie and band are a creative bunch who relish their artistic freedom. This makes me think of another original bunch of blokes who revel in their own independence, The Chaser. As their ‘controversial’ satire has featured fellow Australian musicians such as Tim Rogers, Quan Yeomans and Spiderbait, it is not difficult for Ben to imagine how Peabody could feature in a Chaser sketch. “Possibly (by) re-enacting what it’s like to be caught in a vicious monkey attack. I only say this because I heard monkeys killed the Mayor of Delhi in India recently. That freaked me out. Or maybe some skit about wearing a meat-suit and swimming in the shark-infested beaches off Adelaide. Who knows?”

And because members of Peabody aren’t adverse to a little flutter, I’m predicting odds of forty-to-one that the vicious monkey sketch will grace our screens sometime soon.

See Peabody perform live on the following dates:

1 Nov 2007- Old Bar Melbourne, Victoria
2 Nov 2007- The Espy Melbourne, Victoria
10 Nov 2007- Bizzo’s Sydney, New South Wales
11 Nov 2007- Newtown Festival Sydney, New South Wales

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