Features / Music

“We have changed so dramatically that In Hindsight is a new start for us. Even though the last three years have happened and informed everything, Hunting Grounds feels like a new band starting out all over again.”

It’s been five years now since the inception of the GW McLennan Fellowship – the award remembering much-missed Brisbane icon Grant McLennan from The Go-Betweens, gifted each year to emerging SEQ songwriters, allowing the lucky winner to spend two months overseas honing their craft – and the 2012 shortlist is among the best yet.

“We sort of started out doing weird production in the beginning, and we were always trying to make ourselves uncomfortable in the songwriting, and not just be conventional... If we were starting to write songs with standard structures we were always like, ‘Hold on, that’s a little bit obvious’, so we were trying from the outset to something a little bit different.”

“[Dave] was always in bed and I’d usually have to go to the shop and get him a Cornetto ice cream; he couldn’t start the day without it. I was like an old auntie buying him sweeties to keep him happy.”

"We don’t want to be one of those bands who’s continuously lumped in with something that’s already been, that’s thought of only by their references."

“There’s been a bit of a turn against these large scale festivals I think with lots of people... now I prefer to go to one gig a week rather than hoard all my money and go to one event a year."

"I emailed him and called him a mad Swedish viking which got his attention... I basically said, ‘Look mate we’re interested, but are you interested in coming over?’"

Frontwoman Lisa Maxwell tells Tony McMahon how Dear Stalker’s latest single was birthed by chance.

"It’s a very inspiring experience. You go and you dress up, and you see what other people are wearing, and you see the amazing cars – it’s just this big festival of colour and style and tattoos and awesomeness."

“I try to write lyrics as a whole piece, a little bit like poetry."

Dan Kelly tells us a couple of his favourite things.

"There used to be a superstition for New Zealand musicians about touring Australia. I think it began when Chris came to Australia with his band Toy Love and didn’t have a good time."