Alec:
Hello. Welcome to the Tortured Artist podcast. I’m Alec Westgarth-Taylor, this podcast is brought to you by Pelican Magazine, your local student magazine here at UWA and available on campus and online where you’re no doubt, hopefully, listening to this podcast. SO, a little bit about this. We hope to do a series of long-form interviews with local up and coming artists and creatives in Perth – exploring their practice, their motivations, what they do, why they do it, how they do it, and how they balance all that creative output with the life of being a young person in WA. Today’s subject was Sam Rocchi. Sam is a multi-instrumentalist in a multitude of groups in WA at the moment, such as COSY, he plays with Noah Dylan, as well as releasing some of his own solo work. In this conversation, we talked a little about his songwriting method. The ways that he explores different sounds, the different approaches he takes to different projects and how he feels about Rock, with a capital R.
A: How would you describe yourself now? Like what adjective? As a musician, or as a… yeah? What’s the term?
S: I don’t know. Like, probably confused is a good one.
[A laughs]
S: Just like… can’t seem to look ato some people who make music and they’ve like, got a thing. And it’s kind of like what they’ve always done. But like, I’ve been playing since I was like thirteen, so. Like everyone. You know? You have a lot of influences and you know, a Jimi Hendrix phase as a teenager and all that. And I’m still, like, in that. Sort of. The songs that I write are just kind of always… you can kind of group them into bits but it’s always… can be face value like different. I think. So confused is a good way.
A: But as in like going through different phases, kind of like throughout time?
S: Yeah, yeah.
A: Oh okay. That’s interesting. But so… I always thought you started earlier than thirteen, if not before. I remember like primary school stuff of you, like, at least learning the guitar, I think. You started with guitar?
S: Yep. Yeah, in my mind I never really, I didn’t start until I was in year eight. So, how old are you in year eight? Whatever that is.
A: Thirteen, I think. Yeah.
S: Maybe. Maybe I got that right. But, yeah, I think that was the point where it was like, something I did almost every day, sort of thing. When I took on this guitar, I’m going to like start doing this now instead of it just being like a, you know, thing that’s lying around, pick up, and then learn a scale or a riff or whatever. I think that was the point where I like… I wasn’t aware that I was dedicating myself to something. But looking back on it, I definitely did it more and it like, music absorbed a lot of my time.
A: That’s when you’d say it was kind of like an attitudinal shift or something, like a bit more seriousness devoted to it?
S: Yeah, yeah. I think… yeah. Early days, I just found a lot of enjoyment in like just messing around. Like not really actually learning stuff and just kind of like playing with the sounds and seeing what this does. I got like a little… one of those Fender Front-Man amps. That one I’ve still got, it’s all torn up at the moment, with the spring reverb. Really shitty. And I remember just when I would play with that like to ten.
[both laugh]
S: It’d make the harshest noise and then roll it down and find like a spot that I like. But, just all of that, was kind of like, you know, exploration in like sounds was what I did, heaps.
A: But was it always like guitar was something that you focused on from a very young age? S: Well, we had a [stumbling]… really only had piano lessons. That was like a… parents were like, you know, ‘all our kids have tried music’. And so, yeah, when I was in that phase guitar was the thing that I did the most, most comfortable with. Just playing the piano and then being at school if there was no one around, I’d get on the drums. You know? I just kind of wanted to do all the things. Remember, from the music department I had a saxophone. So I was like, ‘that’d be fun,’ and that lasted twenty minutes, and I realized that it’s so like, loud. It’s so loud!
[both laugh]
S: And it’s going to take me a week to sound like, even, remotely in tune. Put that away.
A: Try, try something else
S: Yeah. I think guitar was the first thing I got into.
A: So, what was it then that particularly drew you to that, like influences from the music you were listening to as a child, or the sonics?
S: Yeah, yeah. I think at that time I got a CD from my Aunt and Uncle – it was a present, Christmas one year – it’s like the Wolfmother one.
A: Oh yeah! With the debut.
S: Yeah. And I was like, ‘man, Rock!’ This Rock shit is, like, pretty good, hey? And then like, yeah, from the Rock, big riffs and all of that, I just kind of went through all those…
A: Rock with a capital R to a…
S: It’s still… I still like Rock with a capital R, it’s not kind of meat head stuff.
A: Yep, yep. Alright, cool. Cool. That’s interesting… because I can always remember you like messing around with different instruments especially. Would you say that was like, you were always interested in different sounds? Or, just kind of, I don’t, more messing around? S: Yeah! You can totally pull a lot of stuff out of different instruments. I think my grandparents had a piano and I’d go there and I remember being young and just, like… tiny arms reaching the highest keys and the lowest keys. Playing the same thing up there, and playing the same, you know, few notes down there, and being like ‘oooo’, kind of the middle. And just kind of, I don’t know. It was just a form of expression kind of thing. Once you, you know, find out what this sounds like, then you kind of do the sound, you feel like ‘oh’. It’s all twinkly and nice. You know, I want to play around with these twinkles or like the low notes, just going [impersonating low beat]
[A laugh]
S: Like that stuff. That’s what I did a lot, and still do. Just hopefully with, like, a little bit more musical context.
[both laugh]
A: You’d hope that it develops over time.
S: Yeah, yeah.
A: But how did that then kind of, like, develop then?
[S thinking]
A: I mean you’d think that… so you did, you’ve always done music at school.
S: Yeah, I really liked school. There was a point where I signed up, I think it was year eight, I signed up for the music classes that not everyone did, go and… most of the kids I was with were like classical musicians, so good! Like, incredible! The amount of practice was like beyond my comprehension and the amount of like skill that they had, and just kind of in that decision, ‘aw yep, this is like going to be a thing I do now.’
A: Oh so that, you looked at some classical, you had that classical training as well.
S: No, I never had classical training. I’ve always, like, admired it and even at uni, like, did music as a second major so, I didn’t do performance or composition, I just went like to the boring history classes for, you know, the students. The stuff that wasn’t engaging.
[A laughs]
S: I really like and… yeah, same with jazz. Just look at those people and the stuff they do and it’s just like, ‘what the?’
[S laughs]
A: Yeah, yeah. No that’s something, yeah. Definitely, like, I think you get an admiration of that from like a… even if you come from a different kind of, like, musical tradition you can still see the musicality kind of continues throughout.
S: Yeah, you’d hope so.
[Both laugh]
A: Well, in cases of good musicianship! But yes.
S: You’d you appreciate it. You can just as easily listen to something and be like, ‘what is that racket?’
[both laugh]
S: Improvised, free-form horn music. What are you doing?
[A laughs]
S: But I think, yeah, I think it’s… there’s… And then at that time I’d look up to those kinds of musicians and you know the teachers who were around and older kids that I knew. I’d look up to that thing. When I was, like, practicing I’d kind of always, like I got to this point where I’d always compare myself to people that were doing it professionally. I’d be like, ‘they’re doing that, I’m doing this, so I should probably get better at doing this.’ And I think that was, like, the motivation to practice for me. I was kind of like, there’s a standard I should shoot for, sort of thing.
A: Yeah, right so, would you say that kind of like influenced the development then in kind of, maybe, looking at it in a more professional way, or? Like, you know before talking about seriousness, like giving the kind of like serious attitude towards it?
S: Yeah. I think that’s where the dedication to like practicing and the thing came from, and just, I guess in my mind, I was like, ‘I want to be a musician’. You know? Something I want to do.
A: What kind of way was that in? Was that also technically? Like looking at, like the way people are playing, or the way people are putting things together and?
S: Yeah. I think, yeah. You definitely style, you know, in the way, like two people can play the same thing but because they’re playing it, it sounds different in all the subtle ways. And, I just really like that. I think, yeah, with musicians you kind of gravitate to that certain, like, even within one genre people can play totally differently and it’s the same genre. Same chord progression if they’re going to improvise over it. That was the stuff I was like really in to. Kind of. I guess, yeah. And you grow up and you have role models, so you want to be like them, so you try and adapt, like, how they play to yours. And you do that enough and you’ve got your own sort of thing.
A: So, who then were those role models coming up through?
S: Well, it probably started off being that riff rock. Wolfmother…
A: AC/DC.
S: AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix played crazy stuff. Learning guitar and you do a thing, and you’re like, ‘that just doesn’t make any sense.’
[A laughs]
S: And, I don’t know. It sort of changed. I was into like Jazz. And so, listening to like the horn players, and sort of trying to adapt what they do. Like all the little inflections that Charlie Parker does, or like, things that Coltrane did was something I was into. That lasted a few years. But, it probably changed when I found, or was like introduced to musicians or guitarists in particular that were just like weird. Just played so weird. Like, couple Australians like Rowland S. Howard, and Gareth Liddiard, you know. Being like familiar with Nick Cave because everyone in Australia kind of knows some Nick Cave songs. Going back to with the Birthday Party and getting into all that like punky stuff and, yeah. I think those definitely. Those, like, examples of like weird, cooky guitar playing totally changed what – I don’t know – how I was wanting to approach making music. Because you can like be all sweet, like [sounds melodic tune]. George Benson Affirmation was his one song that I did for my music exam in year twelve. It’s all sweet and jazzy, you know, all those lines. And then the same instrument and just make like industrial screams.
A: Yeah, like dark and that.
S: Yeah. And just like, with electric guitars and peddles, and the way that everything feeds back. You’ve got all these sounds that you can just pull out and it’s like, pretty, you know, diverse in that with whatever expression… musical expression you go on for.
A: Yeah. Was that then the point when you were getting into that grungier, kind of like more dirtier stuff, that you started like forming bands and stuff like that? When you started playing with other people much more, like outside of kind of school context?
S: Yeah. [Pause]. Yes, I think so. It kind of happened. It was like a pretty natural progression I think, coming from really liking the Pixies and Nirvana and then being shown the Drones and getting like a, that kind of, getting older and really appreciating songwriting. So, songwriting was something I wanted to do. Whereas before I was pretty happy putting bits together and playing through things. I think… I played through bands through school, like cover bands. I think that’s such a cool thing to do is just like, especially when you’re starting, is just play music. Other people’s music. Like great music. So, you know, you can get familiar with how to do it and how it’s been done. Like, what different ways that people have wrote music that make it cool and good to you. I think, yeah. It’s always, also like that little jazz band we had going. Was like, one of the like from high-school.
A: True! [laughs]
S: That was a big band to me, I think.
A: Yeah. Yeah?
S: That was when Oscar and I gemmed for the first time.
A: True! Yeah!
S: That was that. Oscar and I have kind of been making music together since then.
A: Yeah! Damn! So, when was that? That was?
S: Fifteen?
A: Yeah, we were like fifteen.
S: I think we were fifteen.
A: Decided to start making jazz. [Laughs]
S: Yeah! Yeah that was… that was. Wasn’t our dream to just do corporate stuff? And make like, so much money?
[A laughs]
A: Who was it? Someone was like… I was at the Subi hotel and they have a band there every week. We should be that band! It’s just like, playing like you know, three thirty-minute sets a night for like people who just do not have a care! Doing like Van Morrison covers or…
S: I still do Van Morrison covers, you know!
A: Yeah, great artist.
S: I think that was probably, like Oscar and I making music together, because he was like wicked player and then I was like, ‘aw shit I should like really try and do this thing good too!’ And, yeah, bands have changed what I’ve done. I really like, instead of spending all my time on like my own music, doing other people’s music. Like, being a part of other people’s groups, and supporting other people I think is… I want to say more fun because there’s less like insecurity about what you’re doing yourself and putting out your ideas. And so, yeah, that’s the thing I’m really happy with doing now. Playing like Noah Dylan, doing like lead guitar. So much fun.
A: There’s kind of less pressure there, if you’re…?
S: Yeah, there’s less pressure. Like, all you… just get to build things up, you know? Foundation’s there, you just get to put all the ornaments on and like help direct, you know. I really like having taken directions, you know, ‘I want this section to do this’, and we’re going, ‘OK, what sounds make this section sound like what they want?’ You know? Like all geeky and be like, ‘aw you want that song, I’m going to pull my semi-tones and bend a little bit, or I’m just going to flesh this out with a major sixth chord,’ you know?
A: Oh that’s interesting. Because then that’s… I don’t know, that’s kind of, you know, like the application in terms of like theory and stuff like that. The grounding you get through the education into like, you know have that tool-kit of someone wants it to sound a certain way, here are the all the different ways in which you can make it sound that way. And then picking and choosing how you want to make that work.
S: You build up your library. Saying that, there are people that are so good that don’t know a shred of theory and just have figured it out through playing and practicing. And they know that this pattern sounds like that and will bring that out, and just like, you know. Either way, it works, I think.
A: But what… what, where would you see you?
S: I’m a big fan of the geek side of things. Yeah.
A: You delve into the kind of theoretical aspect?
S: Yeah. Yeah, I like it. I don’t know why. [Laughs]
A: Alright. It’s interesting.
S: Yeah. I’m not like, that advanced at it, you know? But, just like some of the basics. You know, just different voicings, different ways to play chords, can be the same chord and you just change the order of things and it’s got like a different, you know, texture to it. I think that that’s really interesting. Love messing around with that.
A: That’s always good stuff to know, I think.
S: Yeah. I think so. There are… Like, I do a bit of teaching. Like of people are reluctant to learn that stuff. And I totally get that. But if someone’s a little bit interested, I’ll just be like, ‘yes! Here we go!’
[both laugh]
S: Thirty minutes is up. How about we just do another one? I love… yeah.
[A laughs]
A: Already nurturing the youngens coming through!
S: Yeah, well, it’s a lot of fun.
A: Yeah, that’s cool.
S: Teaching, I really like it. Especially when they’re keen and want to learn some theory. But like, keen either way is just like a super rewarding task to do, because then, you know, you
see someone figure something or be able play something and they’ll light up and you know they’re going to go and spend their time doing something that’s pretty good for them as opposed to other stuff that kids do that’s not very productive, you know?
A: Yeah. Is that kind of theory aspect then something that you take in towards, not just when you’re playing with other people, but your own kind of approach to song-writing? Is that, you have that kind of in your mind when you’re writing?
S: Yeah. Yeah, there was definitely a point though, with writing, where my head was full of theory and it was just hard because everything I did, I’d just be like, ‘aw, one-four. Typical.’ Or something like… just…
[both laugh]
S: You’d be thinking stuff… I’d be like, ‘aw OK this section, I’m going to put like a whole tone scale over this and see what I found.’ And that really, is… like, it can work. Definitely for composers that’s like a really good tool. But, for a lot of stuff that I wanted to do, I just kind of had the theory and like just put Paul Curtin over all that stuff and try and use my ears instead to find what, you know, sounds good. Or what comes next and try and hear it and do it. And a lot of the times, it’s pretty predictable, but still.
A: I feel like that’s the danger you can fall into with too much theoretical understanding sometimes is that you start categorizing what you’re doing and then nothing seems original and it’s not good enough because you can put a label on it and you’re like, ‘I need to do something different, I need to break new boundaries.’ Where it’s like, if you’re writing a rock song, you’re not going to be breaking kind of like theoretical…
S: You don’t have like smashed diminished chords. [both laugh]
A: I mean you could, but!
S: You definitely can.
A: The question of how much it works at the end of the day, as a tune, is separate matter. S: And it’s… writing songs is really hard, I think. Sometimes, like people always talk about them just coming straight out and sometimes work on it for ages and it’s great. But, I’ve got so many songs that start of spark and come back to the next day, and just like, ‘Sam, what… what was that?’
[Both laugh]
S: ‘What were you thinking? Scrap that.’ I think it’s, yeah. I’m not like the most natural song writer.
A: You have to like, tinker away?
S: Yeah, yeah. It takes a while. Like, with COSY it takes almost forever. Which, you know, is kind of good, like it’s got its pros and cons. You get frustrated, being like ‘aw yeah, here’s that song from last year’
[both laugh]
S: Or like, finishing something and being like, ‘we’ve played this twenty times but I really don’t think it’s done yet.’
A: Yep.
S: You should put this back into the basket of unfinished music.
[A laughs]
S: But you know, however you get there.
A: As long as you arrive at the destination.
S: Yeah. As long as you do that. You can still, like, have fat jams but it’s, that’s what it is. A jam.
A: You’re just messing around.
S: Yeah. I really find it hard to solidify ideas, I think. That’s why coming to recording things, like my own music, we get there in the studio, and they’re like, ‘do a take,’ and you’re like, ‘cool,’ and they’re like, ‘do another take,’ and then whoever’s recording would be like, ‘yeah that was different’. Yeah! Yeah, it was. I haven’t learnt my own parts.
[both laugh]
S: I just… but.
A: You just kind of see what happens.
S: That’s how it is. I think most of the… most of the songs that I’ve got… the majority of the songs or like my bits of the song aren’t set in stone just because when I go to perform it or practice it I feel like doing stuff differently. Feel like singing this line a bit differently or playing that chord with a little extra [sounds twanging guitar sound] or something, like ornaments or that… I think it’s, yeah. I should probably work on cementing things though.
A: I think that can definitely be a strength in life, performance particularly. It’s something people definitely appreciate about seeing a group and like no two times they see it exactly the same. It keeps it fresh and alive and kind of…
S: What we were running with that Tired song. I really like the idea of that song, just not really being the same each performance. You know, it went through phases of vibes. But like each time it was still a lot of improvised stuff in there. But I think we’ve like, Oscar and I, kind of moved away from all that. Like improvised sets and kind of getting to halfway through a song and looking at each other and just shrugging
[both laugh]
S: And continuing on because we want to have a little bit more of a tight punchy package.
A: Yeah, yep. OK. That’s definitely something that I kind of, when I was looking at COSY stuff now and then going back through to like all the Moong Dal stuff and seeing that kind of evolution. So the band, you guys started Moong Dal back in, it was like late 2015, 2016, or something? Around then, I think. And that was much more… I mean how would you describe it, like when you started?
S: That was like an erratic mix of like that, kind of, Velvet Undergroundy garage sound with like some just like… the songwriting was more like, ‘here’s a verse, here’s a verse, here’s a chorus. Let’s just… we know that these bits are there, let’s just perform it and we’ll not really like… we’ll just see how they come together.’ And then, the more we performed it, the more things worked out. Like kind of consolidated. So yeah, when we started then, that was largely what we were doing.
A: It was very like an improvised approach, like you said.
S: Yeah. And how much of that was like a conscious choice, as opposed to laziness [both laugh], is still something I haven’t figured out. But, I liked it. How it was at the time. It’d be fun to do it again, but also, I don’t need that stress, I think. Yeah, that… I feel like we’ve come… Even though we still play songs that Mung did, they’re pretty different now as they were. Especially like when Albi started playing bass, he kind of brought this whole like, sound kind of, I don’t know. Beefy, punchy bass lines, that kind of made everything that require set in stone…
A: It has to be more like tightly… tightly packed.
S: Yep.
A: To have that kind of punch.
S: Yeah, I think so. But, we’re still working out all that COSY stuff. We’ll probably just working it out for as long as we’re doing it. Like I said, confused musical state.
A: There’s no kind of overarching statement of sound or vision?
S: Yeah. It’s something I think it takes everyone, or every group of musicians to come to terms with, you know? And like it takes a lot of tinkering and just time to flesh out, and then you get… especially when you get people who come from all kinds of music, play all kinds of music. You kind of, there is a point… I feel like for bands, it’s pretty important to find some kind of niche sound or some kind of label you can actually use. I think one of the worst things, I’m guilty of it for sure, the worst thing is looking at someone’s bio and it’s just like this ten-word sentence of like jazzy, folky, rock inspired grunge… [A laughs]. Like, yeah, but what does it sound like?
A: Yeah. What does that mean?
S: Yeah, I think that’s something that is kind of… Maybe we should have come together and wrote a bio first or like, you know, let it follow naturally, but… it’s tricky. It’s a divide. It all sounds samey, or it sounds too different. That’s part of being a good band, I think.
A: Like, finding that sweet spot.
S: Yeah, is getting that all together. Whichever like end of the spectrum you’re closest to. As long of you kind of like not be one or the other. That’s important.
A: Potentially terrible question, but, how then would you describe COSY at this point along that spectrum? Because like, Moong Dal, initially that stuff was a bit more garage, lo-fi, like rock, and it seems to have gone in a more like slightly cleaner direction.
S: Yeah, I think we were kind of doing that and then we were just like, ‘alright how about we just get that thing and polish it up,’ and now we’ve got, especially with Albi, it’s more like a punky, post punky vibe. But then because like I’ve wrote a bunch of songs that we perform that are kind of like songwriter driver, you can listen to it and tell it comes from one person. And so we’ve got some that are just like punchy band songs and some that sound more like a solo performers song with like all the accompaniment. I think we kind of bring a little bit of shoe gaze and a bit of that post punk thing and just Rock with a capital R.
[both laugh]
A: Hard riffs.
S: Yeah! I’m a pretty big fan of riffs.
A: What’s not to love?
S: I think you need some riffs.
A: Yeah. Ah, cool, cool.
S: I’m not spending as much time on COSY as I think I’d like to. But, it’s good to also be spending a lot of time on other projects.
A: So, what are the other projects?
S: Noah Dylan, playing the guitar with his band, and then like working on solo music or just working on making some beats, you know, using Ableton and getting and loops of sections and putting them together. I think something I want to do and doing that… Luke, I think Lucas is what he wants to call it. He’s kind of writing songs for a few years. Putting those together, getting on the drums is kind of fun. Then doing the Kramer’s stuff every now and then. And so, yeah. Spreading myself out like that I think is good, good for me. Being busy like that.
A: Is that… like having that then diversity of playing, especially like you’re playing different parts in all these bands. Like Kramer’s, you play bass, and drums with like Luke and doing lead with Noah. Does that, do you find that helps then come back together in your writing, or?
S: Yeah. Yeah, it’s easier to like form ideas about what stuff does but, like, if I’m going to the band I really don’t want to come with all the parts ready and just give everyone a sheet. I think it’s… just doing everything like that is fun. I was playing guitar like five nights a week at rehearsals then I’d get pretty bored of that thing.
[A laughs]
A: Fair, fair. But then, so where are you going with the solo stuff, do you think? Because you had the EP out late last year.
S: Oh yeah! That was… album was just a collection of songs that I’d had over like two, some songs were like three years old, that I just had like lying around that I just wanted to put together. I’m glad I did it, but also that I… just like a bunch of the first songs I’d written recorded at home with no real clue about recording and you know, kind of put together that way. It was a big learning… it was more like an objective to move onto other things. So now I think less of the totally guitar driven music. I got a like organ strings, keyboard. I think just using that to come up with stuff and starting with a drum beat as well, doing like the little sequence in Ableton. Starting with that in another way to just like…
A: Build something off of that?
S: Yeah and get some fresh ideas. Yeah, I think that… that’s what I’m excited about now. Building on. And then like excited about going to rehearsals with COSY and writing or rehearsing. Being able to do it. It’s really fun.
A: Nice, nice.
S: What else you got?
A: Oof.
S: On this sheet.
A: We like, we’ve covered most of it, I think.
S: Cool, cool.
A: Yeah, yeah. I’m interested to hear your take, though, on like… I don’t know… the state of the art, or the scene. The scene, generally. I don’t know, anything that you see…
S: Perth?
A: Like particular movements like going on, or…
S: Yeah! There’s so many. All, like at the same time. And, I guess, everyone’s pretty ready to throw themselves into one or the other. I don’t know what’s happening now. There’s kind of like… there’s like bands who’ll pop up that do a similar thing, like a similar sound, around the same time or like, you know, everyone’s just kind of influenced by each other. Perth’s pretty close. I mean, you know, people seem to be acquainted with everyone else. Doing the music thing.
A: Some would say incestuously.
S: Yeah, well, yeah, bands sharing members as it happens is a bit incestuous, like that. But, what is the scene? I don’t know. I think it’s really good because it’s, you know, everyone’s influencing each other like and really supportive. You know, big fans their friend’s music, and really promoting it and getting excited about it, makes it really easy to like make music, you know. And, be encouraged to make music. I hope everyone feels like that in Perth that they can… that they’re encouraged to do it. I really hope that’s what this little community does.
A: Yeah, it does seem to have a fostering atmosphere, I think.
S: Yeah. Especially with… like you’ve got the venues and you’ve got like all the other DIY stuff that happens. I think all that little DIY stuff that happens is like so important for people to get their toes in and get comfortable and then work up to, you know, doing it in the
venues, and releasing music and doing launches. All that stuff. It’s really cool. But I definitely like the little scene thing that happens in waves of people who can say like, people who have just turned 18. There’s a whole bunch of them, and all these different bands who have just come up and just like, wow everyone. That’s really cool. Ever-evolving.
A: Ah, that’s true. And the DIY kind of aspect of it is something that you obviously have been involved in?
S: Yeah.
A: With like the Humour Dog things, for a while.
S: Yeah, helping organize all of that stuff. I think it’s really good. It’s really hard for people to do. You got to do it in the right way and like, run things smoothly and like be responsible for people’s health and safety. [A laughs]. So it’s a big process, but, yeah. I think even just having gigs at your house is like something that happens, is just like you know that little Perth music community, you know. People can rock up without knowing anyone that lives at that house and still see the music. Or like, know everyone who lives at that house and still like see their friends play. Makes it, yeah, worthwhile. Everyone can feel like their music’s worthwhile to be made, then that’s real good. Special.
A: How do you… because like recently over in Melbourne, because you got friends who live there. Would you say that that kind of aspect of it seems distinctly Perth, or? If you can speak to…
S: Yeah… I don’t really know. Because we were in Melbourne for a week, but you kind of get the sense that there’s just so much that is similar to Perth. But you know, there’s just so many more people so there’s like so many more scenes and… It still seems like, when we’d show up to the gigs, that the people would know each other. But, I don’t know. I can’t speak.
A: No, fair, fair.
S: So many more venues. Heaps happening all the time.
A: It could be like a manner of a scale, in a way. Of like, because Perth’s just like a little bit smaller, it’s a bit more intimate. Just a little.
S: Incestuous. Is that what you said?
A: Oh dear. Painting ourselves as like deep South kind of…
S: Yeah! Ah, it’s not so bad. [S laughs].
A: Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. Oh well. I don’t know why this light keeps turning off. I’m worried about something going on with the audio.
S: It’s still red, and there’s still a tick on the USB.
A: OK. Well, sweet. That’s all I need to hear.
S: Imagine that, though. The audio just cut out 40 minutes ago.
[both laugh]
A: Oh god. We had a good conversation anyway. Interesting stuff. Was there anything particularly you wanted to plug? What do you got in the works? What’s coming up?
S: Well, the COSY EP is going to be finished soon. It’s been like seven months, maybe. It’ll be released. It’ll definitely be like, you know, over half a year of it being recorded, so it’s kind of been like plodding along, redoing sections. So that’ll come out. I’m excited to get that done and dusted. I think I’ll try and make a little solo release EP or album. See how many things I can do or how well I can do them. Yeah, Luke’s going to start doing some shows as well. So that’ll happen. Yeah, there’s heaps. Heaps that’s going to be going on.
A: Sweet, sweet. Lots in the works.
S: Yeah.
A: Yep.
[S laughs]
S: I’m tired.
[A laughs]
S: So tired. I don’t know. I think about half an hour ago, I had… see this is probably my third coffee today. I’m pretty, like, sensitive to it. Like, we’d be talking about something and I’d forget what we were talking about.
[Both laugh]
S: And then I just look at the cup and be like, ‘aw no, more of you.’ I guess I’ll drink it. [Fading out].
A: So, that was the conversation I had earlier with Sam. Thanks so much for listening, hope you enjoyed. You can find Sam and COSY and Noah Dylan on Facebook, on Soundcloud and on Bandcamp. You know, whenever you engage with your content, check out those guys and support local music. Keep your eyes peeled for the new releases that were mentioned. As I said at the start, this is a podcast that’s brought to you by Pelican. I’d like to give a really, really big thank you to Katie McAllister, one of the editors over at Pelican for all the help and support for producing the podcast. Our art here is brought to you by Matt Van Der Chaiev, a very talented local artist here in Perth. So, definitely keep an eye out for anything he’s got in the works. And the music is brought to you by today’s guest, Sam Rocchi. With that, we’re going to let COSY play you out with their latest single, ‘Happening’. Enjoy.
[Happening by COSY plays]
Fin.
Transcribed by Jack Mulqueeney