Long disbanded Geelong band KIKX are back and have just released an album, with 11 tracks written back in the day, and recorded in the now. We chat to vocalist and guitarist Monty Osewald.
Hey thanks for chatting to Forte Mag! First up, tell us about the conversations that led to re-activate the band a couple of years ago following a reunion gig. Was it a fairly quick decision?
Geelong has had a long history of producing musicians. Many of these musicians were from English Irish and Scottish backgrounds, but also a few from Europe, like myself. The history of Geelong bands during my era [1960’s 70’s 80’s] had its divisions and musical differences which can generally be grouped into cabaret bands, that did covers of mainstream songs of the day and the past, ethnic bands that tended to play instruments and songs that are traditionally associated with their ethnicity and lastly the pub bands that played rock and pop songs of the day, and where a few of these bands wrote and performed their own songs and music.
KIKX were part of the latter group.
In 1980 KIKX set themselves apart from other bands as they developed their own music and performance style which they had experimented with through their Lizard days, but which had now been clearly refined in KIKX. This was all made possible through the volumes of bookings we received mainly at Ian Lovell’s Eureka Hotel with the further support of Laurie Richards at the Crystal Ballroom in St. Kilda but also elsewhere at University campuses and Melbourne inner-city gigs such as the Exford Hotel in the city and Martinis in Carlton.
36 years later in 2016 when the organisers of the Geelong Musicians Reunion, mainly musicians from the Geelong “cabaret” camp put forward their idea of creating a gig where bands of the ’60s ’70s and ’80s could perform at a Geelong Musicians Reunion gig I thought I would like to be a part of that, partially to wave away, the great divide between the ‘camps’ but mainly just to have a forum to play in again. This was an instantaneous thought bubble that grew.
All KIKX members were in agreement except for Chris Lawson [KIKX ex-drummer] who works for the ABC as a sound engineer and music coordinator with no time or inclination to commit and John Phillips [KIKX ex-guitarist] who’s “Sons of the Blues” project and his work as a media teacher rendered him time-poor and unavailable for a KIKX reformation. The other musician who was an original KIKX member not in the current KIKX line up is Karl Nosek [violin] who died in Germany in 2004.
We asked Nat De Palma to play drums for us as he had been a member of our 1979 Lizard band. Oddly enough it was in 2017 that Nat located an old Lizard cassette recording at his house which he subsequently sent to me. That cassette sparked an interest in him to play with Lee and me again. I was very pleased that Nat got in touch and to be associated with him again. Nat had been living and working as a priest in Canada for the past 20 years, and now that he was back in Australia all he wanted to do was play drums. I asked him if he would join us for a KIKX reactivation. “Yes, of course, why not”. The wheels started turning from that point and we had the basis of a KIKX band reunion happening.
KIKX current members are: Monty Osewald vocals and guitar, Lee Beckworth vocals and Bass, Kerry Hunter vocals, Nat De Palma drums, and special guest guitarist Garry Quince from former Geelong bands, Shadowfax and Redhouse. Another new inclusion to the KIKX line up is Susan Wheatly who sings backup vocals with Kerry Hunter. Susan is Nat De Palmas partner, hails from Canada and has years of music experience singing in that country.
KIKX members rarely associated since the demise of the band in 1981. But after making those initial contacts in December of 2017 we organised our first rehearsal and there it was, the old KIKX energy still there, the same as ever.
It was fun to play again and we jumped at the opportunity to play live in front of an audience, lurching into full bore rehearsals in preparation for the 2018 Geelong Musicians Reunion gig. After that gig it was a simple decision to go ahead to record and create the ‘Lost Poets Now’ album of songs with sound engineer Allan Kelly at his Almach recording studio in Newtown Geelong in April 2018.
After all we had missed our opportunity to release a previously recorded demo album recorded at Greg Bee’s studio in 1980, but the deal we were hoping for with Astor records fell away as the company closed its doors.
Congrats on the release of Lost Poets Now! Made up of 11 tracks written back in the day, but recorded now, were there any changes to the tracks?
The song arrangements from 1980 have been altered slightly but are basically the same songs, as we had played them in the early 1980s. However, on this Lost Poets Now CD release we have expanded the old KIKX sound by adding keyboards and computer sampled industrial sounds which give our sound a harder edge which takes the songs to another level beyond the hard rock 1980’s KIKX sound.
We began by re-recording the songs that we had already recorded in 1980 for our then single ‘Nova Express’ and ‘I get my kicks’ originally recorded at Richmond Recorders with producer Eric Gradman of “Bleeding Hearts and “ Man and Machine ‘ fame as producer and with the most sought after sound engineer in the business at the time Tony Cohen.
Our current CD/album ‘Lost Poets Now’ 2019 took over 18 months to record as we played and experimented with new sounds, more ideas, and more digital tracks, just because we could. Some of the song files have over 65 tracks in the mixdown. And as you may be able to imagine, re-learning songs that had not been played for nearly 40 years was a bit of a battle playing the parts on rusty fingers and getting the arrangements right for this production.
What led to the decision to record these past tracks over writing new ones?
We decided that those old songs were still relevant and that in some cases the lyrics of those songs were more relevant today than they were back in the day when they were written in 1980. For instance in the song “Computer Girl” which incidentally was written and performed by KIKX at least a year before the Mi Sex ‘Computer Games’ hit single, I sing about a girl I met at school who is obsessed with her computer. Scowling at and intimidating this poor nerdy girl in the song I sing “computer blob” “computer slob” “skinny eyes” “skinny legs”. We supported Mi Sex a couple of times at the Crystal Ballroom. Theirs was a much friendlier theme compared to the punky confrontational song we were putting out, but ours predicted what is now so prevalent in our society, the constant obsession and use of mobile phones.
In another song “Picasso” I sing the line “Are you for the Vatican” “No thanks No Catholics for me” is my response to the crimes perpetrated by Catholic priests on innocent child victims back in the 1980s but now in 2019 with the conviction of Pell and the demise and loss of trust in the church generally this song is more pertinent today than it ever was when it was written.
Yes KIKX were a thinking band of artists well ahead of their time.
Has much changed in terms of band dynamics, or is it one of those instances where it just feels the same?
I guess you are asking about personal within the band and how it works now compared to the 1980s. There are new musicians in KIKX now but the basis of the group still revolves around my musical relationship with bassist-vocalist Lee Beckworth. We perform the main functions of writing the music and lyrics, provide the substantive basis of the rhythm section, work together on song arrangements and we are a constant sounding board to one another when recording or rehearsing for a live show.
Kerry Hunter has always provided the band with a little special colour and harmony on top of the main vocals. At this forthcoming CD launch, KIKX has added yet another female singer to the vocal backing section in Susan Wheatley who hails from Canada and is the partner of Nat De Palma. She has had years of experience fronting her own bands in Calvary in Canada.
Nat De Palma’s hard-hitting drums and exceptional timing keeps a handle on our sometimes erratic runaway timing. He is a perfectionist who practices for hours on every aspect of a song and his determination to get “it right” keeps the band steadfast on the beat or whatever is required.
For this upcoming KIKX CD launch at the Door Gallery café and the Vault studio in Fyansford we have invited an outstanding talent, a mercurial and gifted guitarist well known for his own sensational music and video clips that he produces as Quince Music Video Productions.
We give you Garry Quince. Garry has not performed LIVE for many years [ ex Shadowfax and Redhouse] and all I can do is to encourage and say to you our listening audience DO NOT MISS this opportunity to hear and see Garry play with KIKX. Its going to be a BLAST. Our high-power rehearsals so far tell me so.
You’ve got an upcoming gig in Fyansford this December, what does a Kikx gig look like these days?
With the musicians assembled in KIKX for this CD launch, we are a runaway high energy Rock band, powered by drums and bass that are right up there in the mix with plenty of guitar sounds and riffs. Garry Quince’s solo work is outstanding as his explosive speed, power and feeling weave in and out of the songs. We are endeavouring to achieve subtleties and the dynamics, making each track interesting including touches of middle eastern sounds and Lee Beckworth has bought a keyboard which he aims to use in a spot during his “French Curves” song. KIKX will perform all the tracks from their current “lost Poets Now” CD.
You can witness KIKX first hand when they hit the stage at the Door Gallery Cafe in Fyansford on December 7. More info at kikx.com.au
Image is a still from the KIKX “Paris ” video. Far left: is John Castelaine In the car is Filomena Bua, Lee Beckworth , Monty Osewald and on the right is Peter Nell 1979
