Groundbreaking noise merchants The Scientists went through a few distinct iterations during their pioneering initial tenure in the '70s and '80s, having started in Perth before heading over to Sydney in 1981 to set up shop in the big smoke with a reconfigured line-up.
Eventually even Sydney seemed constricting and that version of the band decided to have a crack at the international market, decamping to London in 1984 where what's widely regarded as the "classic line-up" - featuring Kim Salmon (guitar/vocals), Boris Sujdovic (bass), Tony Thewlis (guitar) and Leanne Chock (drums) - formed for the first time.
The band's sound and style changed remarkably in a short period of time, but Salmon explains that even the final line-up's aesthetic can be traced back to that time spent immersed in the Sydney scene. "Back in the old days in Perth, James Baker the drummer wrote the lyrics and I'd put melodies over the top of that and arrange with my guitar and have things following on top of that," he recalls. "That's how it worked in the original line-up, but we eventually stopped and relocated to Sydney and James had by that time left and joined the Hoodoo Gurus, and I didn't have anyone to write lyrics for me so I had to think of things to write myself.
"I wrote very different lyrics to James and that's what happened, really: the music I wrote had more to do with what I was feeling, so it was probably a lot closer to my heart. That's the difference. I think the band makes a difference as well, don't get me wrong, but what we were building our sound around was probably less of a romantic, post-modern view of pop music and more of a dark and primitive view of what was going on around me.
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"So 1981 when we relocated to Sydney with me, Boris, Tony and Brett Rixon [drums], that was where we really built the sound around the people in it, and while I was writing the music - I'm not a drummer, so I really needed Brett's help for that with the style. We really tried to do something quite different rhythmically in a lot of ways, and sometimes you need different players around you to sort of understand and do the right kind of playing, and who could play that kind of material, and what he did was quite unique.
"So when we went to London and eventually he left, it was really hard to replace him and we were trying to recreate that same atmosphere with players who could technically play what he did, but somehow didn't play it in the right way. Eventually Leanne - who was not a drummer, she was our tour manager - took over. She had bought his drumkit and kind of figured she could play his beats, and basically what she learned from was what Brett had done.
"So there was no foreign material for our body to reject when she started playing, regardless of the fact that she was only a beginner at the time - it fitted better and actually sounded right in many ways. It made it feel even more primitive actually, but it finally worked."
Back in the '80s, countless Australian bands followed their musical dreams to London and while many struggled The Scientists quickly found their own niche. "It was a tough place, but we had something going that people wanted to know about, because there was definitely an audience for what we were doing," Salmon reflects. "There were a lot of bands who fit into the London scene, for instance The Birthday Party made a big impact and then left a void when they weren't around, and I think we fit into that same thing. I would stress that we weren't like The Birthday Party - we had a lot of similarities, but it was quite a different thing - and I think the same thing happened when we went to Sydney.
"Radio Birdman had really established something in Sydney and then when they were gone there were bands everywhere imitating them, and we went there and helped fill that void even though we weren't imitating Radio Birdman, and I think it was the same thing happened in London: The Birthday Party made a really big splash there, a really big impression, and I think that people were looking for something that did the same thing, as in made the same kind of statement. [They were after] bands who had a certain amount of experimentality, and a bit of brutality and disregard for certain conventions, and I think we fit that bill."
