The Ugly Truth

The Australian underground rock'n'roll scene has been in exceedingly rude health in recent years, with what at times seems like an endless stream of bands plying unique and compelling music with little interest in the prevailing idea of what constitutes 'success'. These outfits and artists are ambitious, but usually in a creative rather than commercial sense.

Now this loose scene has been documented in new book Noise In My Head: Voices From The Ugly Australian Underground, a series of fascinating interviews compiled by Melbourne-via-Brisbane author (and former Time Off contributor) Jimi Kritzler. The four-year labour of love had humble beginnings as an Honours thesis until Kritzler realised that he had the beginnings of something far more substantial – the fact that he himself had long been part of this same scene due to membership of bands such as Slug Guts and White Hex definitely helps explain the illuminating candour of his eclectic array of subjects.

“It does help if you know the person you're interviewing,” he concedes. “If you know heaps of things about them and you've done heaps of dumb shit together – run amok together – then I guess you have a personal connection; they trust you and know that you're not going to abuse the privilege of the interview or abuse their story. That's where this book succeeds – it is extremely personal, and goes so in-depth into people's warts and all faults and their beautiful fuck-ups. It covers their beautiful moments and their worst moments, and it's as depressing as it is hilarious and it's as beautiful and is it is incredibly ugly.”

The book's scope is incredibly diverse, featuring more well known bands such as The Drones, Eddy Current Suppression Ring and HTRK right down to lesser-acknowledged – but just as fascinating – acts such as Kitchen's Floor, HITS and Straight Arrows.

“[All of these artists] definitely make a lot of different sacrifices – and in some cases stupid choices and in some cases brilliant choices – to then create in both situations brilliant music,” Kritzler continues. “There's no overarching theme or sound, it's all just based on the fact that these bands are unique and create music which is incredibly unique to themselves. The fact that all of these bands have emerged in the last give-or-take 15 years is also amazing – especially in the last eight or so years there's just been a huge amount of Australian bands who are incredibly interesting, and who are being recognised in America and Europe because of this.

“[These bands aren't tied together by their] sound, because they all sound incredibly different. And it's not an ethos or any kind of aesthetic because their methods and approaches are really different and the aesthetics are all totally different. I'd just say that the overarching thing that links them together in their artistic endeavours is with the music they create they're all incredibly unique – incredibly unique to themselves – and each band has a really unique personality and a really unique and interesting story to tell.”

Kritzler is hoping that Noise In My Head appeals to existing fans as well as acting as an introduction for newcomers to this rich vein of underground homegrown talent.

“I think it's a valuable insight for people who are already familiar with these bands and who love the records and go to see them play live – it's like having a really personal conversation with these people and discussing all of the stuff that's gone on with the band,” he offers. “Some of the interviews were almost like therapy sessions, talking about everything from hilarious stuff to the morbid stuff, tales of rampant fucking heroin abuse and prostitution – these fucked scenarios that people from bands found themselves in and people going to mental asylums…

“But then there's hilarious stuff, mainly the fucked-up situations that bands find themselves in on tour, which are often so ridiculous it's almost unbelievable. So I think it will work for people already into these bands but also for people who aren't so aware of the scene – people will just find it interesting on a human level regardless. I hope that reading it a few people who haven't heard particular bands will be encouraged to think, 'What the fuck does this sound like?' and then go and check them out.”