Eccentric Detonation

Berliner Tex Napalm is what one might call unhurried in his music career. Playing in Berlin bands for the last couple of decades with moderate success, including wild rockabilly boys The Raymen, he keeps a relatively low profile, making music in his basement studio on his own terms and timeframe.

With good friend and fellow decadent soul Dimi Dero, Napalm has finally released the album they started about four years ago, Partly Animals. It's like a fictitious scene where Blixa Bargeld, Tex Perkins and Peaches get talking at a festival, drink some quality bourbon and decide to make that great album. Napalm and Dero (nb. not short for derelict) are bringing the album to our shores for some long overdue southern exposure.

“I've been playing in bands for [the] good part of the last 25 years, some with local success,” he drawls good humouredly. “But I had too much material floating around that I wasn't able to be play with the band, stuff I did experimenting around with different styles. When I got in touch with Dimi he begged to play that stuff live – of all the material that isn't supposed to be played live,” he laughs.

We here may think of Berlin as the ultimate musical melting pot, where any art can happen and probably has – or will. Napalm says that while he loves living in Berlin, Germany isn't as open to experimental musical styles as we might think.

“There isn't really a scene for my kind of music in Germany,” Napalm explains, resignedly. “The rock, garage and indie scenes are very separated from each other. For example I got my name, Tex Napalm, from a country trash band I was playing in, but everyone in the rock scene used to bad-mouth me for doing that, although, ironically, I enjoyed that band a lot more. Since indie rock got big the scenes have been increasingly separate from each other.”

Luckily, in the primitive halcyon days of social media that we call 'The MySpace Years', Napalm was able to find himself a partner in cross-genre crime in Dero, the eclectic Frenchman.

“I found Dimi on MySpace; he left some good feedback on tracks on my page and I stumbled on his profile and it all started from there,” Napalm recalls. “We met and jammed on some songs, and it was so much fun I invited him to Germany to stay with me... not just to drink all day, but, I told him, 'you play some guitars and drums'. We recorded some songs, then after I'd toured France with some older material we got back together to record some additional tracks. After that we just decided to keep it going – and we have.”

Getting together for semi-frequent jam sessions, Napalm admits that they write a few songs, and – despite his earlier caveat against alcoholic indolence – drink a lot of wine. The advantage of which is that it keeps them plenty relaxed for some improvisation.

“We don't think too much in the studio, and that's one reason why it works so well to write together. We get to the studio with no idea what we're going to do. We work very, very fast – it takes us about 15 to 20 minutes to come up with a basic track. It's not too complex really: we're just two guys who like to hang out, drink too much wine, have fun and make some music,” he laughs.

“You know, our album gives one or two nods to the Australian music scene,” Napalm offers. “I've been fascinated with the diversity of Australian bands since the '90s: The Scientists, The Birthday Party, The Bad Seeds, Lubricated Goat... You take the rock thing to the edge without being ironic but not being too serious either. But, you're serious about what you do as musicians from what I can see. That doesn't happen here.”

Tex Napalm & Dimi Dero will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 21 February  - Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine VIC
Friday 22 February - The Tote, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 23 February - Lyrebird Lounge, Elsternwick VIC
Sunday 24 February - Labour in Vain, Fitzroy VIC
Saturday 2 March - The Public Bar, North Melbourne VIC
Sunday 3 March - Cherry Bar, Melbourne VIC