Strange Concoctions

26 March 2014 | 11:32 am | Steve Bell

"1978 was the last time we played together; we were only together really briefly."

The influence that Perth mavericks The Scientists had on world music is undeniable – major protagonists in the Seattle grunge explosion such as Mudhoney and the Melvins cited them as a massive influence – but the incarnation of the band currently celebrating the 35th anniversary of their first release is a totally nascent version of the legendary outfit.

This line-up – featuring mainstay Kim Salmon, drummer James Baker, bassist Boris Sujdovic and guitarist Roddy Radalj – burnt brightly but briefly, only existing between May and August in 1978 before gradually drifting apart and allowing further incarnations of the band to cement their reputation.

“1978 was the last time we played together; we were only together really briefly,” Salmon smiles. “For various reasons that line-up never even went into a recording studio – there was a bootleg circulating that was recently put out on vinyl so there is some material from those days available, but not much.”

As you'd expect, this early version of The Scientists had yet to hone the distinctive sound that would come to define them.

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“In that line-up, it's hard to put your finger on it but there was a real English influence – bands like The Kinks and early Rolling Stones, but not the R&B phase of either of those bands, more the melodic pop thing that they did – like Waterloo Sunset or As Tears Go By,” Salmon continues. “But even though we had that sensitive, melodic side the band was impossibly loud – there was a mixture of these jangly guitars but played at a very high volume and in a very haphazard manner – it was more like The Stooges than one of those '60s bands, it wasn't very twee at all.”

They did, however, come up with some enduring songs such as Frantic Romantic, written courtesy of the idiosyncratic Salmon/Baker writing partnership.

“He and I just had a great rapport and chemistry straight away – he'd write the words and attempt to sing them, but he was kind of atonal in his singing so I'd have to invent a melody,” Salmon laughs. “I'd invent a melody and come up with a chord progression and play it back to him, and he'd say, 'Yeah, that's how it goes!' We just did what came naturally and developed that.

“Because we came out of the whole punk rock thing – although I guess we were really post-punk – we were reacting against some of the conventions that seemed to already be in place, even though punk was meant to be a version of anarchy where you'd do your own thing. For a movement that was meant to have no rules there was a very rigid, prescribed scene going on, so we rebelled by growing our hair a little bit and wearing flashy, dandy sorta clothes. The pop sensibilities and melodies was also against what was going around us – we weren't so much provocative as belligerent and just committed to doing exactly what we wanted to do and fuck everybody else.”