Taste Test: Dave Larkin

FIRST ALBUM I BOUGHT WITH MY OWN MONEY
Different Light by The Bangles, on LP. I bought it from Glenhuntly Records for 12 bucks and I've still got it today. It was a lot of scrimping and saving, passing on pennies, et cetera. They were really great pop-songs. I know they didn't write many of them, but that doesn't matter to a 12-year-old boy when you've got four or five hot girls playing guitars and drums.

THE ALBUM I'M LOVING RIGHT NOW
Most of the music I listen to is really old, so my new favourite album is actually Blue Öyster Cult's Secret Treaties. I've only gotten into Blue Öyster Cult in the last couple of years, and I've only just come to realise what a great band I've missed out on. I'm still trying to get my head around the true history of rock'n'roll, and when I came to Blue Öyster Cult, I was like, 'Wow, these guys were really good'. Great songwriting, great guitar-playing, great band. They kind of went missing in time, being dwarfed by Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin and those other rock giants of the era. There's your standard rock'n'roll history that journos and magazines always write about; the classics, the canon. But if you don't go looking under the cracks, go looking yourself, you miss a lot of the good stuff. I want to educate myself on what was actually really happening back at the time, not just those handful of bands that've lasted the test of time. So, most of the new shit I listen to is really old.

MY FAVOURITE PARTY ALBUM
Hey Hey It's Daryl & Ossie. It's as bad as it sounds. It's got one of the most garish album covers of all time. It's songs sung in a Denise & Ernie style. It's a stinker. I've never actually played it at a party, but I always know that I've got it if I really want people to leave. The other week I was DJ-ing at a pub, and the staff really wanted to go home, so they told me to put on something that'd clear the room. I put on Suicide, Frankie Teardrop. And it did, everyone cleared out really quickly.

MY FAVOURITE COMEDOWN ALBUM
Anything by The Killers or Franz Ferdinand. That'll help bring on the vomit.

THE FIRST GIG I EVER ATTENDED
The first gig I ever went to was actually the first gig I ever played. Technically, it was seeing Celtic Rhythm Express play at Molly Bloom's in Port Melbourne. But I was there with my high-school rock band, we were called Rising Tide [much laughter]. A bunch of 15-year-olds, playing our first-ever support gig, literally learning to play on stage. We were supporting them during the breaks, playing as close to an Irish set as we could, trying to fill 30 minutes. Which meant U2 songs, obviously, and then we figured Irish folks like The Beatles so we did a couple of Beatles songs. We were awful, just awful. We couldn't sing. But somehow we went down really well, and I thought I was such a rockstar.

THE WEIRDEST GIG EXPERIENCE I'VE HAD
I was one of those guys who for years has been telling everyone that I was there at that great gig at Meredith when Dirty Three were playing under the lightning storm. You were in the middle of thinking that maybe you should run back to your tent, like, 'we're all gonna die', because the lightning felt like it was going to hit the stage. But also thinking this was the greatest light show ever, watching a band hit their peak in the middle of a storm. The band is incredible without the light show, but with God on lights, they were amazing. So it was weird not in that it was strange, but in that it was amazing; it definitely stands out amongst all the gigs I've seen over the years. It was pretty memorable.

BIGGEST NON-MUSICAL INFLUENCES
I don't know... chocolate donuts? Terry Daniher? The Essendon Footy Club 1984 Grand Final?

THE COOLEST PERSON I'VE EVER MET
I met Burt Bacharach. He was pretty cool. Or, more so, that was really cool for me. I did a gig with him about five years ago, in Sydney. It was a whole bunch of Aussie artists doing Burt Bacharach songs at the State Theatre. It was all like Idol people, but I loved him so much that I just really wanted to get my name on the bill and do a song. I ended up doing 24 Hours From Tulsa, but, when I got to the rehearsal I'd learnt the song in the wrong key, and I turned around to the orchestra and said: 'oh, canya do it in C?' They weren't impressed. But Burt is pretty cool; he's dashing with that white hair. For some reason I thought he'd be really tall, but he's tiny and frail, about five-foot-nothing. A skinny little thing. He looked like he enjoyed a bit of the solarium action. Or maybe it's just the California sunshine. He was well sunned, let's put it that way. And looking good.

THE BIGGEST CELEBRITY CRUSH I'VE EVER HAD
Wow! Are sure this isn't for Dolly magazine? Judi Dench is smoking. Anne Haddy. All the olds do it for me. But back when I was a kid, I guess, to go back to what we were talking about before: Susanna Hoffs from The Bangles. Belinda Carlisle... Is this really gonna go to print?

IF I COULD HANG OUT IN ANY TIME AND PLACE IN HISTORY
If you're talking about music, I guess it would've been pretty cool to be the coffee clerk at Abbey Road in the late-'60s. Or hanging around the Bowery in the mid-'70s. But if you're talking not about music, maybe just go back to when the Big Bang happened. See where it all began. Take my camera, come back, play the video to Christians.

IF I WASN'T MAKING MUSIC I'D BE
Making scones? Making cake? Making excuses? This question seems strange to me, because I don't actually know anyone who lives on their rock'n'roll, unless you're talking about the Julia Gillard rock'n'roll. I'm making music, sure, but I also have a day job: a digital designer; websites, graphic design, all that shit. I was smart enough to have a Plan B in place, because Australia's not much interested in artists over 35. There's no hope for us, mate; we just have to play the old records, and think about the good times.

Dave Larkin Band will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 29 March - Phoenix Public House, Melbourne VIC