Interview: Getting to Know Animaux
Somethingyousaid.com catches up with Bill Black, who, despite sounding like the anti-Walter White, is actually the keyboardist for Melbourne-based band, Animaux. Here’s what he told us:
Animaux are seven friends who love to make music together. We write songs. We like people – we try to help them get happy. Animaux is big! It has become a family, and everyone who comes to a show becomes part of it.
Our new single ‘Alaska’ is about the place we’re all trying to get to, far from where you started but just like home. It’s about spaces – small intimate spaces, lonely spaces and big rolling prairies. Performing it feels good.
Our single launch show will be sweet. We’re excited about it. We’re going to give you a taste of what’s on the rest of EP that’s coming out later this year. We’re really proud of this record. If you can make the launch, stick around and we’ll share a drink with you after!
We spend too much time talking. About life, love, passion and Breaking Bad. We’re into different things, but that just means we have more to talk about! We can talk about not much at all. Oh, and we also spend way too much time soccer-moming our friends home after gigs!
It might surprise people to learn that we don’t take any money out of Animaux. We put it all back in to make what we do better. The hardest question to answer (so relieved you didn’t ask us!) is ‘What kind of music do you play?’ After three years it might surprise people to learn that we still can’t tell you.
In the future we want to be getting better at being Animaux. A rider that includes ginger beer for the self-appointed soccer-moms would be nice and hummus for our drummer too! A sponsorship with Nandos wouldn’t go astray either! To go on tour again would be brilliant (for the record, we’re quite happy to be our own roadies and split petrol money). We want to be making music that is fresh but kind of familiar, and above all powerful. Powerful music connects us with peoples’ feelings, and we want to continue doing that.
Animaux launch Alaska at The Workers Club in Melbourne on 11th October. Keep up to date with Animaux on Facebook.
Interview by Bobby Townsend.
