Dance, Scientist, Dance: Scientists of Modern Music
» The Presets - Saloon Bar, The, Tas - August 1, 2008
» Trans-Am - East Brunswick Club Hotel, Vic - February 9, 2008
The term strength-to-strength can be over-used when describing fresh new bands, however in this case nothing else seems as appropriate. Cal Young and Simon McIntosh, the 21-year-old duo from Hobart, formed Scientists of Modern Music upon graduating from high school three years ago. In their first year they hit the live music scene with such power they had little choice but to keep going in that ‘strength-to-strength’ approach. “The prospects… is what keeps us going, pretty much every week what we do just gets better and better. We are just looking forward to the future, to playing more festival shows, to touring the world and just living off what we do for fun, and its slowly getting there”
Citing influences from a variety of music genres gives the boys a rare individuality in their music which has caught the eye and purse strings of the who’s who in Australian music, scoring them gigs at Falls Festival and supporting The Presets, Midnight Juggernauts, Crazy Penis and Regurgitator. “We listen to all kinds of music really, like a bit of French music, and we like listening to Air, Chemical brothers and a bit of classical music and heaps of electronic bands, but as far as influencing our music it’s the people around us; our families are all really supportive, our girlfriends and the people who come and see our shows.”
Creating their first full length album Scientists of Modern Music have gone for another fresh approach, alternative to their initial EP where “we made it all really quickly, it was straight after school… we just had so many idea’s in our head that we just wanted to get down on paper”. This time we want to “Sit down and create the song together first and play it later. It's generally 50-50 effort, I’ll do the drumbeat and the bass and Simon will do the melody, and all the different sounds,” Cal said.
Inevitably with a new album comes a tour and having just finished a solid run of shows with The Galvatrons, Cal said now they are just happy playing their one off shows. They are gearing up for a couple of shows supporting The Presets at their sold out shows in Tassie later this month, where they will be ready to showcase some new material. “Its great way to play new songs, and have a good time you know that everyone is there for the you and other band so its not all up to you, and its just an easy way of testing out new stuff.” Cal goes on to say “This time we’ve worked on our new set, like all the time, so then now it should be completely seamless and just keep going like one big dance party”.
On the buzzing, but slightly removed Island of Tassie the guys are starting to feel the pressure of the ‘mainland music scene’ and are considering a move to be closer to their agent, record labels and the of course their girlfriends who all reside in Melbourne. Meanwhile, they will remain close to their home until the new album is completely polished and they will continue to relish in their local music wonderland with bands like Enola Fall and Red Rival. “Yeah I’m really good friends with Joe Nuttal (from Enola Fall) he is an amazing singer, and we’re friends with the guys from Red Rival as well. Those two bands would have to be my favourite bands in Hobart at the moment”
Electronic music is no doubt taking off around Australia at the moment and musicians are really appreciative of “Australia taking Electronic music and just making it their own. It is kind of niche and there are just so many bands because it’s easy for people to pick up (an instrument) and use their computer to make music through it. It just keeps flourishing. Then there is the ‘Indie crossover’ that is just going to keep going, though generally with us, we are not big fans of the ‘Indie crossover’ and we are just going to keep making more dance music”.
The technological advancement of downloading music has meant that bands like Scientists of Modern Music have the forum to reach audiences internationally and people can access their albums with out having to go to a store and hunt for them and “that way it goes straight to the computer and it’s good enough quality”
Propositioned with the idea of being ringside at a four-way biff involving all members of the Beatles, Cal has decided to spilt his bets evenly on Ringo or Lennon winning . Reasoning that “Ringo has a large head but and could probably knock someone out with a headbutt. But John Lennon was a witty, tough cunt… who would pull out the sneaky moves…I reckon Lennon had a bit of dark side”.
