East Brunswick All Girls Choir Q&A

First lesson with East Brunswick All Girls Choir: don’t be fooled by the name. Second lesson: Respect that this is one damn cool band who are heading along to Kennedys Creek Music festival in October.
Hi there, thanks for taking the time to chat with Forte magazine, how are you and what are you up to at the moment? 
Hey there, right at this very second I’m looking out a window from a 7th storey office building at the drizzle. The guy sitting across from me has just returned from a three week cruise to Vanuatu. Now I’m not normally into the idea of going on a boat full of jerks but it’s looking pretty tempting right now.
First things first, how did the name for the band come about? 
When I was in primary school I auditioned for the Victorian youth school choir but didn’t cut the mustard. My school at the time didn’t have a program and my parents were really keen to see me follow up on singing. We found that there was an all girls school in Brunswick at the time and they allowed me to practice with them every week. I remember singing Rip Rip Woodchip quite a lot.
A little while ago you released your debut album Seven Drummers, which is aptly titled after your bad luck with actual drummers in the band. Can you tell us about how you went through so many?
Oh it wasn’t so much bad luck as we tended to pick drummers who were quite busy doing a lot of other things so it was mainly that. A few relocated overseas, a few just did one or two shows with us. It was just a whole lot of us playing with our friends where and when we could.
We’re guessing that things are all good in the drumming world now?
Arguably, Jen can’t leave her dogs alone for too long. She gets separation anxiety and starts foaming at the mouth.
That album came to a whole lot of acclaim too, are you believers in everything happening for a reason?
Not really, sometimes things happen out of coincidence or pure luck across all facets of this world. I think we worked pretty hard before recording to make sure everything would be easier when we went in. It was good working with Casey who was really objective while we were in the studio. I don’t really know, you can’t just sit around and wait for things to come to you because they never will.
You’ve been working with Milk! Records too, how have you found that experience? 
It’s been really good, they’re really easy to work with and save me the hassle of having to go to the post office. They’re good communicators, transparent. It’s a pretty no bullshit kind of operation It’s interesting I suppose, they’re not really a label in the traditional sense so all the legwork and label “services” we still have to do ourselves which I like. They’re essentially an online store that has a big fan base.
You’ll be heading down to Kennedys Creek for the festival there in a few months, have you been there before? Any plans for the visit while you’re there? 
I’ve made it as far as Skenes creek, that’s about the limit of my Great Ocean Road adventures. We had planned to head up earlier but we’re now off to Brisbane to play a new festival on the same weekend so our Kennedys Creek experience will probably be short and rushed which is a shame.
Do you have a preference over performing city gigs or country gigs? What’s the difference for you? 
There’s not a preference really, it’s kind of cool to see country bands though. There’s always some diamonds in the rough. Some kind of nutbag kids making something outrageous just because they aren’t surrounded by “city” bands. They think for themselves and have no pretense about it. The other thing you get in the country is hecklers. I wish there was more of this in the city shows. Maybe it’s a Melbourne thing to hide in the dark and not say too much.
Thanks again for taking the time to chat with us, are there any last words of wisdom you’d like to share with our readers? 
The day someone takes any advice from me should be the day that said person considers where their life might be headed.
When & Where: Kennedys Creek Music Festival, Kennedys Creek – October 24 & 25