Gareth Liddiard of Australia’s garage-blue’s outfit The Drones took a few moments to get all Dostoevsky on Evil Monito’s ass (of course we prompted him to do so).  He was kind enough to give us his views on humanity, suffering, making music and of course lifeboat cannibalism.

EM: Havilah, the title of your new album, has multiple implications — ranging from the Biblical to the area where it was recorded — would you care to expound upon the name choice?

LIDDIARD: Naming records is harder than actually making them. So we just name our records after the places they were recorded.  We figure that if anyone has a problem with that then they should go and ask Led Zeppelin what their first four records are called.
Havilah is the name of the valley the record was made in and its taken from the hebrew word “place of gold”. Havilah valley is full of gold mines so the name works with that and the fact that this record won’t be going gold anywhere.

EM: The year is 1851. You have been charged, tried, convicted and sentenced to exile and a life of hard labor.  Which prison colony would you choose, Australia or Sibera? Please explain your answer.

Siberia isn’t that bad. I think it gets a bad rap. I’ve seen a TV show about Siberia and it’s a very beautiful place. But you won’t see that on History Channel cause fat 35 year old losers who still live with their moms find that shit boring. Naturally though, I’d pick Australia. Just because I know my way around. I could find a sandwich anywhere anytime. And there are koalas there too.

EM: Do you anticipate loathing humanity — through listening to your music, it seems this is the case — enough to put down your instruments, move to a cave in a remote desert, shun the world, and descend into madness?

I don’t loath humanity. I just think we humans have an unreasonably high opinion of ourselves. We’re the best thing ever if we do say so ourselves.  Its retarded. Would you get a criminal to preside over a criminal court? Nope. But even if I did hate everyone that much I still couldn’t go and live in a cave. As useless as I think people are I still have an urge to hang out with them or at least with half of them and being a hermit isn’t going to make that any easier.

EM: There is a definite literary feel to your lyrics, and the deliberate pacing through your songs is often reminicient of a book. What books, authors, thinkers have influenced your work?  Do you involve them in your creative process?

I like all kinds of stuff. I read a lot of science stuff and philosophy and history stuff by lots of different folks like John Grey or Stephen Hawking and his nerdy mates. Whatever is laying around I guess. As far as literature goes I read guys like Flann O’Brien, James Joyce, Louis Ferdinand Celine, Hemmingway, Yeats and stuff like that. Just what ever is good and makes your head work.

EM: The Drones — that’s you folks — are stranded in a life boat, hopelessly adrift at sea.  Who gets eaten first?  How will you decide?

Not me. There’s no meat on me. It’d have to be Fiona cause the other two are too hairy and full of toxic waste to eat. And on a practical level it’d be easier to physically overcome a female. We’re musicians, after all.

EM: Your music, lyrically speaking, is rather bleak, though not without humor, in your opinion can the world be saved? Or is the end niegh?

I don’t hold out much hope.  But I don’t see that as a gloomy thing, all though it is a shame that we’re wiping out nature and half of everything in it in the process.
I doubt the human race can save itself.  And every species dies out, normally through overdoing it with the instincts that usually have a positive effect in a survival sense, and most often its the need to breed that spells the end.

On another level, people think there will come a time when we become perfect and there will be this conflict free utopia but that’s not going to happen. To bring that utopia about you have to get everyone to agree to a universal system and to do that you have to kill the folks who naturally won’t agree then once your done killing half the worlds population you lay down your guns and pretend that nothing happened then go and fuck your best friend’s wife while he fucks yours and we all live happily and wisely ever after in a gorgeous and intelligent way.

A conflict free world is a fantasy.  And that’s without even factoring in global warming. If you just look at the whole situation and all of the facts and everything that needs doing and co-ordinating then it looks like we’re doomed. Try getting India to cut down its carbon emissions in the next 20 years, let alone China or the US. If there was no deadline then maybe, but there is a deadline.

EM: Have you ever been waiting by the river and seen the bodies of your enemies float by? If you have not, in your ideal world, who whould float by first?  (authors note: The Drone’s fantastic 2005 release was  titled Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By.)

Yeah. I’ve seen them come and I’ve seen them go. That’s just the way it is. But I don’t have any enemies as such right now. I know a lot of dickheads who could use a swim but how and why they wind up in the drink has nothing to do with me and doesn’t really warrant me thinking about it.

EM: Finally, do you have any questions for me? If so, where do you get off asking me a question.

Why do you ask?

***
For more of The Drones, visit their site: http://thedrones.com.au

via Bowstrong Bostrow, 15 April 2009 10:45am | |