The Role of Surf Music in the Development of Australian Popular

Home , Brian Cadd, Drawn from Bees, Luke Kennedy, Martin Rotsey, Max Merritt, Richard Clapton

Surf, sun, and sound: The role of surf music in the

development of Australian popular culture.

An investigation of the iconic surf film, Morning Of The Earth, as a medium.

Tim Gaze

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for Doctor of Creative Industries

School of Creative Practice

Creative Industries Faculty

QUT

2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP 4

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5

ABSTRACT 6

1.0 INTRODUCTION 7

1.1 Research Question 11

1.2 Aims of following this research 14

1.3 Background 16

1.4 Music and surf movies 19

1.5 Description of DCI Format: Creative Projects One and Two 22

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 24

2.1 Surf Music 27

2.2 Eastern Origins 29

3.0 HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF PRODUCTION 35

4.0 METHODS 39

4.1 Research Design Flow Chart for Creative Projects One and Two 39

4.2 Step 1: Choosing and recruiting artists/bands 39

4.3 Step 2: Briefing the Artists 40

4.4 Step 3: Studio and Recording Planning 40

4.5 Step 4: Creative Leadership and Production Facilitation 41

4.6 Step 5: Mixdown 41

4.7 Step 6: Lay music against Films One & Two 42

4.8 Step 7: Final mixes and mastering the completed soundtracks 42

5.0 METHODOLOGY 44

5.1 Interviews 45

5.2 Participant Observation 45

5.3 Practice-based research: Describing the practice and its place 47

5.4 The Practitioner’s Lens: Situating the Practitioner 51

6.0 THE CREATIVE WORKS 55

6.1 Creative Project One and Creative Project Two links 55

6.2 Researcher’s response to Creative Project One: Reworked soundtrack 55

6.3 Researcher’s response to Creative Project Two:

Reimagined soundtrack 56

7.0 DESCRIPTION OF PRACTICE 57

8.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 62

8.1 Reflections on what could be done differently 63

8.2 Artist responses to the Creative Works 64

8.3 Creative Industry responses to the Creative Works 66

8.4 Audience responses to QUT screening of the Creative Works 67

9.0 CONCLUSION 70

10.0 IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 74

11.0 REFERENCES 76

12. APPENDICES 82

APPENDIX A: Albe Falzon interview transcript 82

APPENDIX B: Brian Cadd interview transcript 98

APPENDIX C: Chris Moss interview transcript 121

APPENDIX D: David Elfick interview transcript 137

APPENDIX E: G. Wayne Thomas interview transcript 149

APPENDIX F: Terry Fitzgerald interview transcript 164

APPENDIX G: Andrew Taylor interview transcript 170

APPENDIX H: Jessica Keble and Beau Simpson interview transcript 177

APPENDIX I: Chris Perren interview transcript 182

APPENDIX J: Dan James Drawn From Bees interview transcript 189

APPENDIX K: Evan Setiawan interview transcript 195

APPENDIX L: Seaton Fell-Smith Jakarta Criers interview transcript 197

APPENDIX M: Lawson Doyle Port Royal interview transcript 202

APPENDIX N: Seaton Fell-Smith interview transcript 206

APPENDIX O: Joe Saxby These Guy interview transcripts 209

APPENDIX P: Zinia Chan interview transcript 213

APPENDIX Q: Links to Films 218

APPENDIX R: Links to Audio Recordings 219

APPENDIX S: Field Notes Creative Projects One and Two 224

APPENDIX T: QUT CreateX Q&A Screening Transcript 264

APPENDIX U: Logistics 277

LIST OF DIAGRAMS:

Fig. 1: Research Design Flow Chart for Creative Projects One and Two 40

Statement of Original Authorship

The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.

QUT Verified Signature

Tim Gaze

22nd February 2020

4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The undertaking and completion of these Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Doctor of Creative Industries (DCI) Projects and thesis would not have taken place or become a real outcome without the invaluable assistance of my QUT Creative Industries Supervisors. Special thanks must go to Professor Phil Graham for helping me initiate and formulate my degree, Aspro Michael Whelan for seeing me through the Doctoral maze, Doctor John Willsteed for reflective inspiration, Industry Mentor David Minear (Bombora Creative) for being a true supporter and believer in Australian Popular (surf music and film) Culture, and Brian Fitzgerald for advising me to take a look in my own backyard before trying to go out and research the whole world. Many thanks also to Gavin Carfoot, Brad Millard and Peter O’Brien for your ongoing assistance with seminar and thesis reviewing support and for taking me that one step further at each juncture of this expansive Doctoral journey. Very special thanks also to producer and audio engineer James See for overseeing and keeping track of the many recording and mixing sessions, and his insightful assistance in helping realize the projects to their final outcome. I would also like to give special thanks to Kayne Hunnam and all the QUT Level Z9 Studio production staff for their professional technical assistance in the workspace––to all these people I am truly indebted—many thanks for your sharing of knowledge, your ongoing patience and support and for helping me see these creative projects through to their completion. Additionally, without the original inspiration from Morning Of The Earth on which to reflect and immerse within, there would be no projects or thesis with which to connect for these purposes, and indeed no slingshot to my early music career, so a huge and very humble thank you to Albe Falzon—film maker, surfer and inspirational creative director of the original film, for his generous sharing of resources and insights into his iconic work that is Morning Of The Earth. And lastly, to my beautiful wife Kath for her understanding, love and ever present support, and to the kids Alex, Riley and Ollie for their love and surrounding me with purpose.

ABSTRACT

The aim of my research is to analyse how the surf film, Morning Of The Earth has helped shape the development of Australian popular culture and how it might continue to do so into the future. The theoretical framework for the project combines a ‘performative research’ strategy (Haseman, 2006) with a ‘media ecology’ (Strate, 2008) theoretical perspective. The theoretical approach responds to the inseparable links between both music and film productions in the historical emergence of surf music more generally and, specifically, to the film’s potency as a medium in the development of Australian popular culture. The methods I propose combine practice-based research, participant observation, and interviews with key historical figures and contemporary artists involved in the project. I intend to generate comparative insights into whether and how Morning Of The Earth functions as a medium, first by re-recording the original soundtrack using emerging local talent, then by asking the same artists to re-imagine the soundtrack and compose new material for the film. By artistically directing, producing and overseeing the making of these projects I hope to see how Morning Of The Earth’s influence has inspired these artists’ reworking and responding to the original soundtrack by comparing the film’s overall position in popular culture then, to that of today.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

An interesting observation comes to light by way of this article in Surfer Magazine noting the re-emergence of “retro” medium as part of popular culture;

In 1970, world champion surfer Nat Young turned his back on organized competitive surfing and retreated into the Australian hinterland to eat organic home-grown vegetables and shape and ride organic home-grown surfboards. Most of the Australian surfing community followed him back to “the farm,” resulting in a dynamic era of experimentation in surfboard design, endless articles in Tracks Magazine about composting and “negative vibes in the flesh of dead animals”—and one of the greatest surf films ever made: Albe Falzon’s Morning Of The Earth. Now, more than thirty years later, surfers are once again grabbing guitars, splashing psychedelic swirls onto lopsided single-fins, and heading off barefoot and bearded into the bush. And they’ve all brought their video cameras. What do we make of the by-product, the growing number of “retro” surf films inspired by Morning Of The Earth? Despite the range of theme and quality, movies like Sprout, Shelter and Glass Love share common tendencies: all find their roots in the 1970s. (Surfer Magazine, 2010)

This QUT DCI is the first project that tests those assertions empirically through the production of new music directly and consciously inspired by the original film and this is part of what I am seeing come about through the workings of my Creative Projects One and Two within the framework of this project. Such projects raise technical issues alongside the cultural. It is apparent that in this age of new digital production tools, current practices have much in common with those of the past. Many production techniques have indeed migrated from the analogue to the digital realm, but there are also differences. These DCI creative projects have highlighted the many and varied ways in which contemporary music production can be achieved. Today the tasks of producer, editor, composer and performer will often fall to a single person. Furthermore, an engineer will often also be the artist and songwriter, producer, and film maker.

Morning Of The Earth has influenced many film makers and musicians (myself included) since it was released and is even regarded by enthusiasts as ‘The Holy Grail’ of surf films in some quarters, partly because of the way it was made—a spontaneously filmed work without use of verbal narration or location sound and only the music soundtrack supporting the

7 imagery and concept. As Scott Laderman, author of Empire In Waves: A Political History of Surfing (2014) says of Morning Of The Earth’s prolific effect on popular culture,

In late 1971, several young surfers travelled around Bali and Java with photographer Albert Falzon in search of waves. What they found was a beautiful left - hand pointbreak below the Hindu temple at Uluwatu. The California-based magazine Surfer would, shortly afterward, declare that Uluwatu “may be the finest wave in the world.” Falzon’s footage of the surf and the “primitive Asian culture” he discovered in Bali was released in Morning Of The Earth (1972), a filmic “fantasy of surfers living in three unspoiled lands & playing in natures oceans,” according to an on- screen narrative that opened the production. Today, Morning Of The Earth is perhaps the second most celebrated motion picture in surf history. When it appeared in the early 1970s, it was very much a reflection of its era. The film dances psychedelically through Australia, Indonesia, and Hawaii; often looking like something out of an acid trip, the smell of burning dope practically wafts from the screen. (Laderman, 2014)

Much has been written about surf culture, Morning Of The Earth, and their influence on Australian popular culture more broadly, and there seems no doubt as to the enduring effect Morning Of The Earth has had on the many people associated with surf music and film, including those who have spent a lifetime writing and reflecting on and within surf culture. Keith Beattie points out the film’s cultural and historical importance:

‘One ocean covered the world; it was the Morning Of The Earth’. The line, with its allusion to a new dawn of endless (surfing) possibilities, was used to promote Morning Of The Earth (1972), a film produced by David Elfick and filmed by Albert Falzon that extended and informed the mode of nonfiction surf films. The inclusion of the film within the National Film and Sound Archive’s Kodak /Atlab Collection, and its place within the archive’s Surf Movie Project, reinforces the recognition of nonfiction surf films as works of cultural and historical significance that form an important part of Australian film culture. (Beattie, 2011)

Australia’s foremost surf culture author, historian and archivist, Stephen McParland, (1983, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2014) says,

With Morning Of The Earth, Albe Falzon shook the foundations of surf film making. With one feature, he not only made a statement, he demonstrated what could be done given the right combinations of resources, good waves, good surfers, good music and

above all, a grand design. Like Bruce Brown before him, Falzon was aware that not only surfers, but the general public were also prospective viewers. Therefore, the end product was structured in such a way as to appeal to both rather diverse audiences, yet still remain an equally fascinating experience in itself. It was a film FOR surfers and ABOUT surfers. (McParland, 2004 p.165)

Morning Of The Earth was appealing not only to surf culture, but to people those who were becoming aware of lifestyle changes aligned with music, art and general expressions of free thinking. These very qualities are what make Morning Of The Earth such an appealing work to explore today. As Timothy J. Cooley notes,

Some surf movies do have themes such as environmentalism (Pacific Vibrations), alternative surf-focused lifestyles (Morning Of The Earth), the discovery of waves in a previously un-surfed location (the list of examples is long), and the antics of young surfers traveling on the cheap in search of waves. (Cooley, 2014)

It can also be noted that there are those who were at the forefront of their surfing professions, such as legendary Australian surfer Michael Peterson, who became synonymous with the Morning Of The Earth. Robert Forster (2012) said that,

There are three minutes of Michael Peterson in Morning Of The Earth—sufficient time to make him a star. And from this sequence Falzon extracted a still frame to be used in the artwork of the film’s gold record–selling soundtrack and in the promotion of the movie. It is the most famous image in Australian surfing, one of the great captured moments of Australian sport, and potent enough 39 years later to grace the front cover of Tracks’ 40th-anniversary issue. (Forster, 2012, in The Monthly)

This previous quote from Forster instils the fact that there is a continuous and reverberating effect emanating from the existence of Morning Of The Earth and its influence upon those in the creative industries. It would appear as well that after being involved with Morning Of The Earth the opportunity arose for these surfers to also diversify their careers by way of embracing the creative enterprises of design (surfboard manufacture) fashion (clothing and accessories) and media (cultural industries). Two-time world champion surfer and founder of Hot Buttered P/L, Terry Fitzgerald, a surf industry leader who also featured as a surfer in Morning Of The Earth notes that,

There were so many spokes to the hub. Surfing was going through this catharsis, in that some ways it was cutting off the past and in the same step looking for direction and the tangents, like Albe Falzon and David Elfick in the surf film side of it, and then the guys who did the music from other side of it, like G. Wayne Thomas and Brian Cadd. Morning Of The Earth was supporting so many people within the surfing and music cultures here. The overview that by focusing on the strength of what people were doing is what was captured particularly. Morning Of The Earth was really the launching pad for my professional career in the surf industry as well. (Fitzgerald, personal interview, 8th November 2015)

Morning Of The Earth has also had a lasting effect on many film makers and creative professionals who have surf culture at the core of their creative practice. One such person David Minear, director of Bombora Creative and surf culture enthusiast who produced and directed the timely and immersive live music performance DVD Delightful Rain, celebrating Australia’s connection to its surf music culture says,

Delightful Rain (2006) was a major production. We took over the Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club on Sydney’s northern beaches and spent two weeks day and night recording some of Australia’s legendary surf music musicians. Included in the line-up were The Atlantics, Richard Clapton, Tamam Shud, Celibate Rifles, Les Green, Beau Young, Dan Rumour, GANGgajang, The Angry Tradesmen, featuring Rob Hirst and Martin Rotsey from Midnight Oil, and many others. As I reflect on the recording and filming of Delightful Rain, it is clear to me just how much influence Morning Of The Earth has been on me to get me to that point. (Minear, personal communication, 2017)

As further addressed in Chapter 1.3, Morning Of The Earth has had and keeps having an ongoing influence upon creatives affected by the film since it was released in 1972. In 2012, surfer, musician and film maker Andrew Kidman, mentored by Morning Of The Earth creator Albe Falzon, started putting together ideas for the film Spirit of Akasha, a forty-year affirmation of Morning Of The Earth as a key media influence in surfing and music popular culture. In an interview by Carina Nilma on the AU Review website, Kidman points out that:

This new film in itself is an homage; paying respect to one of the first ever films to embody the spirit and the cultural lifestyle of surfing depicted in Albert Falzon’s Morning Of The Earth”. After Kidman helmed previously critically

acclaimed surfing-related films in Litmus (1995), Glass Love (2005) and Last Hope (2010), it seemed like a no-brainer for Falzon to have Kidman involved. (Nilma, 2014)

Brian Cadd also noted that during one of the performances he did of the Morning Of The Earth ‘live’ stage show at Bluesfest (Australia) in 2009, he was particularly taken by the fact that,

I remember we did Bluesfest and I'd looked out into the audience and there was three generations of surfers standing there all together in a family. You could see someone my age who's obviously the Grandfather one, and his son or daughter or whatever who was there, and then there was a son or a daughter or a couple, and they're all standing there together and they're obviously from the same family, so that film and our music started with Granddad and it's as fresh today for those kids—they were all singing! I don't know whether you noticed it Tim, but they were—everyone sang all the words all the time! Regardless of whether they were eighteen or eighty and THAT'S pretty powerful! (Cadd, personal interview 2017)

As we can see from these affirmations, Morning Of The Earth has had, and continues to have a wide ongoing effect on Australian popular culture generally, and on those in the creative and surfing industries who have been influenced by the film since its first release in 1972.

1.1 Research question

My research question is:

Why has the film Morning Of The Earth had such a profound influence on the surfing and creative music popular culture, and how does it continue to do so?

The methods that I will use to address my research question are the same methods I have used as a professional musician since 1968—that is, by writing, playing and recording music, not only by way of established recording scenarios but also to create new music by seeking out current and emerging workplace approaches. After questioning as to why Morning Of The Earth keeps influencing and inspiring musicians and film makers alike, creative practice emerges as most succinct and appropriate way to test Morning Of The Earth as a medium by way of exploring the effect of the film on new music in a present-day setting with current creative artists.

The main aim of reworking the film music soundtrack from Morning Of The Earth was,

1. To gauge what influence and inspiration Morning Of The Earth can provide to new and emerging artists; 2. To revitalize the original music with new and emerging artists and current trends and practices in the recording studio; 3. To understand how Morning Of The Earth might function as creative medium.

By focusing on the music and performances I will research the ideas put forward by the emerging artists, thereby throwing light upon the perspective of Morning Of The Earth as a medium. As Technical Editor for Electronic Musician, Gino Robair (2013) notes that,

Musicians work hard to find the right balance of predictability and surprise, yet the tools we use to capture inspiration require a high level of inflexibility. While those of us who work both sides of the studio glass try to balance the logical with the creative, it can be challenging to keep the tools from determining the finished product rather than the other way around. (Robair, 2013, p. 58)

The description of the recording studio environment illustrates the basic challenge of popular culture: the need to make something new, but that is also familiar; like writing a new song but delivering that song within a recognisable style, for example, blues, rock or pop. I have seen that due to the nature of Morning Of The Earth being a demonstrably creative medium for many musicians, filmmakers and artists, that these projects have inspired the passion inherent in creative minds. Through the development of these projects I aim to demonstrate how new music can be realised not only through established recording and writing techniques, but how the contemporary studio environment supports the emergence of new thinking and approaches to music composition. As Jon Forman, lead singer and guitarist of San Diego based post-grunge band Switchfoot states, having the space to create music for a soundtrack can be very helpful in freeing up the flow of musical ideas:

We’re looking to make an entirely new album but we’re also really excited about scoring the film. Through the course of it, there are a lot of opportunities to use beautiful instrumental music, and there are some pretty unique textures that might make an album feel a bit disjoined. In a film, there is a lot of room to push the music in different directions. (Forman, 2012)

The original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack album release was limited to twelve pieces, or songs, which in this case was the limit of two sides of a long-playing vinyl album (at around twenty-three minutes a side). This was the most popular commercial medium available at the time. However, the original film soundtrack contained six additional incidental music pieces that didn’t make the original soundtrack album cut. The twelve tracks chosen for the album were those chosen by the producers as the most essential tracks of the film’s eighteen sequences. As Keith Beattie states,

The soundtrack to Morning Of The Earth deviates from such obvious commercialism by including pop music, such as that by Brian Cadd, together with underground music, notably that by members of Tamam Shud. It differs, too, in that rather than using snippets of hit songs, as Pacific Vibrations does, songs are included in their entirety, with each one functioning as the musical accompaniment to a complete sequence within the film. (Beattie, 2011, p.121)

Beattie’s quote emphasises the important place the music holds in connection with the film imagery, and by the way whole songs were used to support the story; there being selected pieces partially reintroduced in additional scenes during the original film as well. Testing the Morning Of The Earth’s influence by way of new artist’s interpretations will bring out the films artistic value and continuing influence, and at the very least deliver two newly inspired soundtracks.

Georgina Born, argues that there “is a need to acknowledge that music can variably both construct new identities and reflect existing ones” (Kornhauser, 2010). This is a relevant premise for conducting my DCI research where a contribution to knowledge is that, there are these two new soundtracks finding new audiences for this amazing film. The power of Morning Of The Earth as a medium has also been shown by way of the impact it has had on the musicians and songwriters involved, and by the way the project as a whole has responded to the input of fresh talent, minds, skills, and technologies in and away from the recording studio. Tim Cooley reminds us that,

The power of music lies not in its ability to mimic other sounds or replicate the exact effect of a different experience, but in suggestion and in the associations we make in our minds and bodies. Pairing visual stimuli with music allows for some wonderful things to blossom in one’s mind and body. Perhaps the nonnarrative quality of a film

clip of a person dancing across a wave is especially compatible with music— humanity’s least referential and therefore most adaptable art form. (Cooley, 2014)

There have been many projects undertaken by musicians, bands and filmmakers with varying degrees of cross-platform integration, some commercially focused with support from the professional surf, film or music industries, and other works made as standalone experiments in music, art or film. In looking at films with only a music soundtrack to support the imagery, e.g., the highly acclaimed film, Powaqqatsi (1987) with its vivid and sometimes urgent photographic style depicting Third World cultures immersed in work and life. The films’ director, Godfrey Reggio says here that,

Powaqqatsi is not a film about what should or shouldn’t be. “It’s an impression, an examination of how life is changing”, he explains. “That’s all it is. There is good and there is bad. What we sought to capture is our unanimity as a global culture. Most of us tend to forget about this, caught up as we are in our separate trajectories. It was fascinating to blend these different existences together in one film.” (Glass, P., Coppola, F., Lucas, G., Reggio, G., Taub, L., & Lawrence, M. (2006)

Ultimately, we also see with Morning Of The Earth conflicting imagery between beauty and stark reality. There appear to be some negative effects on these cultures as technology plays and ever-increasing part. As we see with Morning Of The Earth, the urge to return to a less technology-based way of hand making items and focused self-subsistence becomes an important issue reigniting the connection between people and survival. The organic connection made therefore between the new artist and the soundtracks becomes a focus for their creative endeavours apart from the technology. To my mind, this outcome is what occurred in the studio during various recording sessions and can be read about further in the field notes attached to this paper. See Appendix S: With the renewing and reimagining of these DCI Morning Of The Earth creative recording projects One and Two however, I aim to develop a model of engagement which can be used by other musicians and practitioners, creatively and academically on other ‘wordless films’ and creative projects of this level.

1.2 Aims of following this research.

This DCI project includes:

1: The original Morning Of The Earth film music soundtrack;

2: Creative Project One: The new versions of the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack (Renewed) recorded by the emerging artists;

3: Creative Project Two: The new original music (Reimagined) recorded by the same artists in response to the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack.

By comparing these three soundtracks as examples of influence, and to be able to compare the ways in which they were created, I hope to see some new methods brought to light regarding the technical and creative focus by today’s music artist in relationship with the music artist and producer of forty-five years ago. Essentially, the creative aspects are of central importance, but so are the methods by which today’s artist brings the content to life, whether renewed or reimagined. Cooley comments that,

I mark the return of soul-surfing films with the 1996 Australian film Litmus: A Surfing Odyssey, by Andrew Kidman, Jon Fran, and Mark Sutherland. While clearly inspired by Morning Of The Earth, Litmus takes the message of surfing self- sufficiency a step further by using a soundtrack made by the film makers themselves; most of the music was written by Kidman himself, the soundtrack was recorded by the Val Dusty Experiment in one day, and all of the other film makers were also in the band. (Cooley, 2014)

Flexibility regarding creative writing and recording methods would also seem to have some bearing on outcomes, and here as Andrew Kidman (2015) reflects on what it means to him be connected to the culture:

You have to take it further—you ride that wave—dance on that wave in some weird way that your mind is elevated—I don’t think that your mind can operate on a higher level than when you are riding a wave, because you have to make a decision— the whole thing is moving; you have to work out a way to ride that thing to put you in the right spot. (Kidman, personal interview, 2015)

Similarly, the artist (as content producer) needs to be willing to pursue and compare new creative writing and recording methods enabling inventiveness to flourish. With this in mind I aim to use Morning Of The Earth as an inspirational work through which artists can be influenced to create new music using best contemporary practices. This project aims to understand how this iconic film has functioned as an influential medium for Australian popular culture, and how it might continue to do so.

1.3 Background

The soundtrack to Morning Of The Earth was recorded during the latter half of 1971 at TCS Channel 9 Studios in Melbourne and the film was released on 25th February 1972. It is an enduring creative work envisaged by influential filmmaker Albert Falzon. The style of the film delivers a spontaneous and vivid account of how the emerging culture of the day demonstrated and awareness of changing lifestyle choices being inspired through its connection to surfing.

Morning Of The Earth has an ongoing life in Australian culture. The original film and its soundtrack have been re-released five times, in 1991, 1995, 2002, 2008, and 2012, on DVD and CD, packaged and sold either together or as separate product items, and it remains the biggest selling soundtrack in Australian music history selling well upwards of 200,000 copies worldwide. Chris Moss, who worked in the record company environment for Warner Bros, says that,

In 1995 the Morning Of The Earth film was restored, and the soundtrack remastered by way of a budget through the National Archive in Canberra, for the 30th Anniversary re-release. The film is considered an historical artefact by the National Archive. Also, as far as record company policy is concerned, a record must continue to make a certain amount of sales every year to remain in the catalogue, and I can comfortably say that the Morning Of The Earth soundtrack continues to be a best seller year after year – for 45 years it has never been taken out of the Warner Bros catalogue. (Moss, personal interview, 6th November 2015)

Morning Of The Earth has also been performed and presented as a successful live stage show on various occasions, including shows at Sydney’s State and Melbourne’s Palais Theatres in September 2008, and at Queensland Performing Arts Center, Brisbane in January 2012. It was also performed to capacity crowds at the Sydney Opera House, with the musicians performing the soundtrack as the film rolled on a wide screen behind and above them. Brian Cadd says of the 2012 show,

Forty years ago, I was privileged to be involved in writing and producing music for a revolutionary new kind of surf movie: Morning Of The Earth. Freedom and breaking the rules was the order of the day and a most unique and eclectic collection of music became the 'dialogue' running under Albe’s superb pictures. Four decades on we are finally marrying this music with those pictures again, this time in a live performance setting. (Cadd, 2012, in Arts Hub)

A year after its initial release, the soundtrack achieved album sales in excess of $50,000 giving it Gold record status, the first soundtrack in Australia to achieve that, and in fact went on to achieve Platinum sales. O’Bryan (2004) says of Morning Of The Earth:

Today the film remains the most influential of all Australian surf movies and a gauge of quality for the large number of current surf moviemakers who film the world’s best riders in exotic locales across the globe. Apart from its superb camerawork, what distinguishes Morning Of The Earth is that “flow” which seems to emanate organically from its editing rhythms, and which is enhanced by the liquidity of the music score. All these formal aspects merge to produce the sounds and images of a quintessential body-and-head-trip we could call: “Surfin’ Down Under”. (O’Bryan, 2004)

Morning Of The Earth was originally created in a relatively limited and highly regulated media environment. Film showings were limited to cinemas, with VHS technology arriving much later. The film was also screened in various cinemas in Australia, commencing at the Metro Cinema in Manly, New South Wales. Chris Moss says,

It was remarkable really; an incredible thing when it hit the deck, what actually happened is that it was right in that nexus where surfing was changing dramatically, where Nat Young (Australian world surfing champion) was having such an incredible impact with what was going on. Bob McTavish and George Greenough were revolutionizing surfing with their designs and the transition taking place was mercurial. The amount of excitement that was going on with that alone, and then for a movie to be made … the impact of that was extreme for everybody. It was a game changer for the whole world. (Moss, personal interview, 6th November 2015)

As a cultural and commercial force, the film and others like it that combined visuals of high- level surfing with cutting edge music, led the way for an international surf industry that has seen many changes. Australian surfing pioneer Bob McTavish recalls:

I’d had a dream, not long after I had got back from my stowaway trip to Hawaii, and in it I was riding a shorter, wider surfboard and I was turning it straight up the face of the wave then off the top and back down to the bottom. I’d broken the straight line and I was going vertical on the face of the wave. But I knew that there was no surfboard known to man that would do that. That became my passion—to design a board that would go vertical—and by early 1967, I knew I was getting close. (McTavish, 2010 in Jarratt, 2010, p.86)

Australian surf industries have prospered through the commercialisation of films, records, surfboards, fashion, and sporting competitions (see, for instance, the changing corporate fortunes of Quiksilver in Hadrian Capital, 2014). Industry wide, this long and internationally significant success was led by music and film that showcased an ethos, a lifestyle, and an aesthetic. It was mediated through music, film, video, promotional and distribution methods. As Cooley (2014) notes:

One of the reinventions of surfing when it was exported from Hawaii was that it became an industry, and that industry was centred in Southern California. And then the first popular music comes out to be definitively associated with surfing, which would be Dick Dale instrumental rock and the Beach Boys’ songs about surfing—all of a sudden in 1961, surfing had a different soundtrack, and it came from California. (Cooley, 2014)

With these changing cultural aspects taking place, it was emerging that surfing lifestyle was not only growing in California but being embraced by other like-minded people around the globe. At the time Morning Of The Earth was made, we see not only the portrayal of emerging lifestyle choices, but a harking back to embracing that which is in our control to produce by way of growing our own food and making surfboards by hand. Cooley also says here that,

The myth of soul surfing is captured best in the 1972 Australian surf movie Morning Of The Earth, featuring former world champion surfer Nat Young who lived a near subsistence lifestyle for a few years in rural New South Wales, making his own boards, growing his own food, and surfing uncrowded waves. In reality, however, most of us make compromises that prevent us from living to surf. Soul surfing is an aesthetic ideal that, if we are fortunate, we achieve occasionally when we manage to catch a decent wave, arch our back gracefully into a bottom turn, and forget for a moment why it is we ever leave the water. (Cooley, 2014)

By bringing these agrarian lifestyle choices to an individual level, the craftsperson or artist can be part of the inspired evolutionary process. These modes of creating also flow with the filmic and music characteristics involved with my QUT recording projects supporting the many influential comments and statements made by way of personnel and artist interviews.

1.4 Music and surf movies

As Timothy Cooley says in his book, Surfing About Music,

The established technology of film was used for the first time to create surfing movies in the 1950s, and those films were always accompanied by recordings of popular music, usually mixed together by the filmmaker using the first commercially available tape recorders. Particularly in Southern California, a seemingly sudden critical mass of surfers collided with post-war optimism, new ideas about music and youth culture, and technologies that brought it all to the beach, setting the stage for the creation of new cultural practices that would define New Surfing. (Cooley, 2014)

‘Surf music’ remains tied to the medium of film. Bruce Browne, director of the 1966 surf film classic, The Endless Summer changed the course of surf-related film making, when for his film Slippery When Wet (1959) he commissioned an original soundtrack. Cooley also notes here that,

The music for Slippery When Wet was created by the Bud Shank Quartet, a West Coast cool jazz ensemble led by Shank on flute and alto saxophone, with Billy Bean on guitar, Gary Peacock on bass, and Chuck Flores on drum set. This is the first soundtrack composed specifically for a surf movie. (Cooley, 2014)

Beattie notes that the “Morning Of The Earth soundtrack cameo film took Browne’s approach further by making a surf film with no dialogue. It had a resounding impact on the surfing culture, both in Australia and around the world.” (Beattie, 2011). It evokes a timelessness, in large part because of the novel approach taken by director Albe Falzon, whereby the absence of location sound/foley and dialogue/voice is the model. In distinction to the highly planned and scripted character of current film making approaches, Falzon captured much of his footage without having any real plan in place. According to Falzon,

When we started filming, we had no idea what we were doing. There was no plan or story board or any type of projection whatever. We just kind of made it up as we went. We were really just filming the way we were living. (Falzon, 2003)

Because of the absence of dialogue in the film, Morning Of The Earth was wide open to interpretation. It was left to the music soundtrack alone to support the film’s narrative, capturing the experience of the surf culture revolution of the early 1970s. The idea of only

19 using music to accompany the film was how Falzon brought together a burgeoning Australian music scene with an expanding global surf movement.

The 1960s had already seen a surf music culture explosion in the U.S. and Australia with many new music artists finding that their music was being sought out for inclusion in surf film soundtracks. Many bands were releasing “pop” surf tunes aimed at the teenager market drawing them into the booming surf culture. As Stephen J. McParland states,

Surfing movies were as much a part of the early days of surfing’s renaissance as surf music, and in many ways each subsequent release paralleled the development of modern music as it did modern surfing. As surf music gave way to “coastal consciousness”, the fun of the beach and the ocean lifestyles succumbed to a more powerful and “heavy” musical influence, which still was designed to reflect the ideals and passions of the surfing experience. The beat of the beach had not changed, only the individual interpretation of it. (McParland, 2004, p.156)

With the 1970s came more experimental approaches to music. Many international bands, such as Yes, The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and other “psychedelic” acts were composing more serious and reflective pieces using new mixtures of classical arrangement techniques and production ideas. Film makers were also experimenting with new technical breakthroughs to enhance the look of their footage. Tim Fisher, editor of Australian Surfing Life, says of Morning Of The Earth’s production,

Falzon shot most of the surfing at forty-eight or seventy-two frames a second which is quite extreme slow motion, but when he printed it, he step-printed it three or five times slower than that, he slowed it down enormously. (As cited in Beattie, 2011)

Morning Of The Earth music soundtrack producer, G. Wayne Thomas, who also edited the film with Falzon recalls the process:

I would cut the music. If you actually listen to the film soundtrack, the original film soundtrack, because Albe has re-cut that film quite a few times since it got transferred to tape. He's actually had a few little cracks at it. So, it's actually a different film but not markedly so. In some areas when we were putting it together we were just putting it together in 16 mm and frame counting all the stuff, so to get a time sequence we had to count every frame. (Thomas, personal interview, 7th November 2016)

McParland notes that, as the popularity of surf music increased, “surf music and surfing—the activity—generally became big business and so were made use of to everyone’s benefit”.

(2004 p. 9). Even though Morning Of The Earth was not undertaken as a ‘commercial’ enterprise per se at the commencement of filming, the web of commercial, technical, and cultural aspects involved in the relationships among surf music, media and film, make Morning Of The Earth and its place in Australian culture theoretically susceptible to a media ecology approach; media ecology being ‘the study of media as media’. (Strate, 2008). As Strate argues:

For media ecology, it is the symbolic form that is most significant, not the content. It is the technology that matters the most, its nature and its structure, and not our intentions. It is the materials that we work with, and the methods we use to work with them, that have the most to do with the final outcome of our labors. (Strate, 2008, p.130)

At this point we can also note that McLuhan’s (1964) influence on the media ecology perspective provides a relational connection between the Morning Of The Earth soundtrack and the film itself. From a media ecology perspective, the “content” of any medium is always another medium (Strate, 2008, p. 131):

The “content” of any medium is always another medium. The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph. If it is asked, “What is the content of speech?” it is necessary to say, “It is an actual process of thought, which is in itself nonverbal. (McLuhan, 1964, p. 1)

Here, McLuhan’s very idea of nonverbal ‘process of thought’ aligns itself very strongly with the format of Morning Of The Earth—the film having no verbal narrative or location sound, leaving more room for the viewer to engage with and reflect on the relevant media, those being the film and the music. While recognising that to separate the soundtrack from the footage is somewhat artificial, the film’s vision could be seen as the visual medium for the original music because in many cases the artists involved were presented with the footage to work from as a compositional reference. By taking this view, re-recording the soundtrack using emerging artists is a way to test Morning Of The Earth as a medium in terms of its relevance to contemporary popular culture. Observing how today’s young artists translate Morning Of The Earth into new music via composition and recording will therefore help to gauge the historical effect of Morning Of The Earth compared to current trends, and as can be observed in transcripts of field notes in APPENDIX: S of this paper.

1.5 Description of DCI Format: Creative Projects One and Two

Queensland University of Technology’s Doctor of Creative Industries (DCI) degree is conducted around two major projects. My DCI projects will entail the re-recording of the original soundtrack from Morning Of The Earth by local artists, and the recording of an additional soundtrack composed by those artists to test the cultural impact of the original film.

1: Creative Project One: New versions of the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack (Renewed) recorded by the emerging artists;

2: Creative Project Two: New original music (Reimagined) recorded by the same artists in response to the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack.

For my projects, the content of the medium (Morning Of The Earth) is the new music produced by emerging artists as a test of the film’s creative impetus. As one of the contributing artists Andrew Taylor said,

I think that listening to a lot of 1970s content has inspired me to create more music for now—there was so much experimental music being made. You could do a lot of cool stuff and not be afraid of, hey, is this music any good, or what are people going to think. They just seem to have done what ever felt great, and I think there has been a lot to learn from that regarding the future of music. (Taylor, personal interview, 29th August 2016)

As Taylor comments, the way in which we can borrow from the past to reinvigorate the future is a strong point and relates directly to how he is inspired to progress with his recording and production attributes. In this way we can see how the film with its spontaneous flow can also have this effect on the creative music artist as they connect with the intrinsic elements of media made over forty years ago. Additionally, we also see this reasoning supporting the initial fundamental message regarding the creative and comparative reimagining of the Morning Of The Earth soundtracks.

The idea and purpose behind recording two soundtracks (the original and reimagined) has its roots in familiarising the new artist with the creative media structure from the original film as inspiration for new music. By recording new versions of the songs from the original film the new artist can experience this dynamic flow from a different time and make use of these influences as they reflect on creating their own original compositions for the second film. By merely recording one new soundtrack to the original film without experiencing the

22 connection with the first on a creative level, would not result in a complete scope of comparison for this research.

As Creative Project One develops, each new artist show’s that they have very definite ways in which they approach the recording process as they are immersed into the early 1970s production, instrumental and song-writing repertoire that is Morning Of The Earth. For example, some artists started their recording ‘live’ in the studio, while others had initiated pre-production tracking and arrangements which they brought into the studio as a template so as to add their additional tracks and import into their sessions at QUT studios. Each recording scenario is different depending on the artist’s method. (See Appendix S: Field Notes Creative Projects One and Two).

Creative Project Two is a response from the artist through an original music piece inspired by their experience of re-recording a piece from the original soundtrack. This involves the artists undertaking to write, rehearse, and record a new piece of music inspired by the original Morning Of The Earth footage. By doing this I aim to identify the influence of the Morning Of The Earth on the artists to see how this was expressed in their new music pieces. The new music pieces was then applied to the original Morning Of The Earth footage in place of the original soundtrack, creating a new music and film experience.

Using artist interviews, I explore what the musicians had to say about their recording experience and how that affected them as creative writers and performers. Making use of some of the interview data throughout my thesis helps to deliver a wider scope of the project, conveying real-time reflections from the artist’s connection to the methodology across the projects. These interview responses (see APPENDICES: A to P) may also present an opportunity to produce an informative documentary describing the model I used in reworking and re-imagining the two new Morning Of The Earth soundtracks as part of my QUT DCI project.

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

Dennis Aarberg, who co-wrote the script for the Hollywood surfing blockbuster Big Wednesday (1978) says,

It was a special time; surfing was a brand-new sport with its own aristocracy. It took about a year to write the script. We very much wanted it to be authentic. That's important to me because I'm a real surfer. (Aarberg, 1977)

When the first surf films were being put together it was the trend for the producers to choose a style of music that they personally liked, seeing no surf music style actually existed. One way of using music was to choose a style dynamically relevant to each sequence. So, for a small wave sequence you might use something upbeat, perky and fun, then for a big wave sequence you might decide on a full-sounding powerful piece. At this stage it was still all pre-recorded selections and the custom soundtrack was yet to be written.

“It was therefore Brown who perhaps changed the course of surfing related filmmaking. Because of his decision to use an original musical score in 1959, surfing and music became entwined for the first time”. (McParland 2004, p. 153). In fact, the term ‘surf music’ was still to be realised, as this recollection from Paul Johnson, guitarist with 1960s U.S. group The Belairs points out,

Going into that memorable summer of ’61, we had never given the slightest thought to calling ourselves a “surf” band. But at our first dance that summer, which drew about 200 beach-area kids, a prominent local surfer came up to me and said: “Wow, man—your music sounds just like it feels out on a wave! You oughta call it ‘surf music!!’” By summer’s end we were filling halls with 1500 fully stoked surfers who were doing just that—over the summer they had embraced our music (along with Dick Dale’s) as their own, and now they were calling it “surf” music! (Johnson, P. 2012)

With the early 1960s also came the commercial release of many Hollywood teen surf films, with titles such as ‘Gidget’, ‘Beach Party’, ‘Surf Party’, and ‘Beach Blanket Bingo’, etc. These films were pretty light-weight entertainment, using the surfing connection as a pop prop for the most part. Cooley notes here that,

Surf Music can be heard as an anthem of New Surfing that sings of the shift from Hawaiʻi to California and from Hawaiians to the then predominantly white surfers of

California. Paul Johnson, founding member of the Bel-Airs, a seminal Southern California surf band, today talks about instrumental rock Surf Music as an original regional American folk music expressing the experiences of affluent white kids in Los Angeles suburbs. (Cooley, 2014)

It wasn’t until the later ‘60’s that a more cultural, experimental and reflective style of surf film making was to appear. With the release of Bruce Brown’s The Endless Summer (1966) a new realisation emerged. Even though this film was of a semi-commercial nature, there was a sense of connection and reality becoming apparent—that surfing was becoming more than just hanging out or partying on the beach—surfing was evolving as a life-style. When interviewed by Luke Kennedy, and asked if he imagined that The Endless Summer would inspire generations of surfers to go and explore coastlines around the world, Brown (2017) recalls,

Yeah, I had no idea. At the time that we made the movie, surfing had kind of a bad rap—you know—we were all just losers. That never seemed right to me. I thought we were just good people. I just wanted to show the rest of the world that we weren’t total losers. What people don’t realise now—because surfing is such a mainstream thing—but in the 50’s you didn’t want to tell anyone that you were a surfer. (Brown, 2017)

In the late 1960s there were also Australian surf films being made. One of these films was made by filmmaker Paul Witzig and was entitled Evolution (1969). The great thing about some of these emerging films, was that they evolved rather than being constructed. Fortunately, for those of us on the receiving end, the sentiment and imagery can be passed on and applied to the way people may wish to steer the outcome and ‘feel’ of their projects. “When Paul Witzig made Evolution, he wanted to showcase the ‘home-movie’ style of its maker, an aspect of Witzig’s productions that made them easily accessible.” (McParland 2004, p. 160)

The lack of any narration also cast this film into the then new area of wordless movies being released with soundtracks recorded by genre-related (surf) and well-known music artists of that era, in this instance, the Australian surf rock band Tamam Shud. This was a useful exercise, as recording a custom soundtrack gave these films certain credibility regarding their ‘belonging’ to the surfing fraternity. It also gave the band a 1969 album release through CBS records. Paul Witzig reflects,

The way we recorded that soundtrack was also very interesting because essentially what we did was to project the film onto the studio wall and just go for it, the band playing ‘live’ with no overdubs. It was very loose, free and creative. I certainly never did another soundtrack like that again. And in that way, it is very unique. (McParland 2004, p. 160)

This method of connecting the soundtrack to the film Evolution was also carried on as a ‘live’ additional performance feature to the film in theatres when film makers took their movies on the road up and down the coast to promote and screen; the band setting up in the front row of seats and then playing the music of the soundtrack live to the film. This ‘performance technique’ has endured into the 21st century with various film makers taking advantage of the live nature of music also being created spontaneously while the film rolls. (see Kidman - Hot Buttered Soul - The Movie (2007). This free and creative aspect would appear to be the first inkling of what was to materialise with the realisation of Morning Of The Earth, whereby an emerging spontaneity is starting to appear.

Australian surfboard pioneer Bob McTavish, inventor of the revolutionary Plastic Machine surfboard design, has been involved in the creative industry side of surfing for many years, and reflects here that during the filming of The Fantastic Plastic Machine (1969),

Skip and Munoz, the surfing stuntmen-in-drag for the Gidget movies became lifelong friends on that trip. The WindandSea gang hung around Sydney for a week, and their unwieldly Hollywood entourage included a couple of 35mm cameramen, [sic] a director, producer, continuity, make-up, stills guy, lighting, sound and general gophers. With the surfers, all up about 35 personnel. Heavy going! The whole concept of a travelogue film had to be altered because of the short-board revolution they had landed smack-bang in the middle of. The movie was released as The Fantastic Plastic Machine, showing how dramatic the shock of the big change was. They shot a make- shift contest at Long Reef and Palm Beach where all the Aussies were on eight foot- ers, and all the yanks were on nine sixers. (McTavish, 2009, p. 373)

From this encounter with the late 1960s Australian surf culture, emerged the U.S. made film The Fantastic Plastic Machine, which was filmed and directed by John Severson, produced by Lowell and Eric Blum, and financed by the WindandSea surf club in California with an upbeat style jazz-soul score by composer and arranger Harry Betts. It starts off interestingly enough with the narrator, a young Jay North, bemoaning the fact that “four thousand people a

26 day are moving to California and that the beaches are becoming as crowded as the freeways”, thereby giving us a pretty strong reason to want to get away to some new uncrowded and exotic surfing locations like Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.

The opening dialog from this film seems to be a fitting way to introduce Morning Of The Earth’s place in surf film history. As the 1970s began, so did the wider consciousness of the surf and music communities at large. There was an abundance of new music being created alongside the film and television industries. The realisation of Morning Of The Earth was well placed to take advantage of the rapidly expanding Australian film and music culture. Popular surf magazine Tracks, which still thrives online as a magazine and community, had their office at Whale Beach on Sydney’s northern beaches, and was also an important supportive player in the early 1970s. This was where director Albe Falzon was working as editor when he started making Morning Of The Earth, and says,

The only thing I had in mind was that I wanted to make something that was inspirational and beautiful, and that was it you know, and keep it in a natural simple way, which I think is what we achieved. But you know, we didn’t have a piece of paper with all the points and what we were going to do in the film, it just unfolded really naturally like that. (Falzon, personal interview, 22nd August 2015)

Morning Of The Earth has endured as one of the most popular surf films of all time, revered and enjoyed around the globe by surfing and music communities alike. Perhaps it is the natural way the film unfolds that leads us to wonder why Morning Of The Earth is the iconic film that it is, and that,

To ride ocean waves is to connect to the very beauty and purity of that order of things. In that moment, when we are deep inside a wave, we are experiencing a state of bliss, the very essence of a life in harmony. (Falzon 2014)

This quality I believe, is intrinsic not only to the film, but to the music that is the soundtrack.

2.1 Surf music

The history of ‘surf music’ is vibrant and diverse. Ever since the surf music style started to emerge in the late 1950s there have been many aspects of surf history documented using

27 combined media of music and film. Celebrated author Phil Jarratt, leading Australian surf historian, (and one-time editor with Albe Falzon of Tracks Magazine) mentions that,

By the end of the 1950s surfing was beginning to find its voice along the Californian coast and in small pockets elsewhere in the world, but its industry and nascent media were still very much cottage industry affairs. Surfing’s devotees loved the sport lifestyle and culture to death, but there were too few of them for the real business world to take any notice, and there were vast centres of population, notably the heartland of the U.S. and most of Europe—where no-one had even heard of surfing, or if they had, could certainly not grasp the power it exerted over its adherents, nor understand the dream factory its imagery could inspire. (Jarratt 2010, p. 50, 51)

‘Surf music’ is defined by the fact that it is connected with surfing and the lifestyle that surrounds it. There is not so much a particular surf style or genre, although there have been a number of definite trends based on the periodisation of the music and film artefacts beginning in the late 1950s. By the mid-1960s there were many local and overseas music groups being identified as surf music bands, such as Dick Dale, The Belairs, The Ventures, The Beach Boys, The Sunsets, and The Atlantics. Cooley notes here that,

There are numerous other examples of instrumental-rock pieces recorded before 1961 that later came to be considered Surf Music, even though they were not written with surfing in mind. The Ventures exemplify this. Formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington, the band would become the most successful instrumental-rock, guitar- led band of all time. They later were called a surf band only by oblique association, since Surf Music became the default genre name for instrumental-rock bands. Thus while the genre Surf Music has real connections to Southern California surfing in that some surfers in 1961 claimed the music as their own, the genre of instrumental rock was already in place, and many subsequent bands took on the label Surf Music for their music even though they did not surf. (Cooley, 2014)

Not all the artists who contributed music for the film were surfers, and even though this being the case, these and other artists went on to influence many writers and performers, filmmakers, and musicians who have risen to prominence over the past five decades to influence emerging surf music styles.

Says Chris Moss, Australian music was well and truly coming to the fore—and Morning Of The Earth was at the forefront:

In that by design or by default, you had the Morning Of The Earth album being made by the best musicians in Australia at that time; they were all revered in different bands and different circumstances, so it was the perfect storm, in that the revolution that was happening in surfing and music met together, and the end result is something that is still as powerful today as the day it was done in 1972. (Moss, personal interview, 6th November 2015)

In the Australian and overseas music scenes, there were also many bands starting to experiment with new ways of making music without following established cultural or ‘pop’ formulas. With Morning Of The Earth being released in 1972, artists such as Tamam Shud, Ticket, and Brian Cadd had been approached to contribute their musical styles to support the film imagery that was becoming Morning Of The Earth. These artists were all creators and performers of original music and it was a time for breaking the barriers to see what could come out of expanding music ideas in pursuit of free expression of the film / music / art forms in this instance, and how it could be applied and aligned to the film-making concepts of the day.

2.2 Eastern Origins

Surf music has allowed more people across different creative cultures to become closer to surf cinema as an expressive art form, with many styles of surf music having been inspired and played. As Stephen McParland notes here,

Surf music’s first wave thundered shore bound in 1961 in America and early 1963 Downunder. It was of typhonic proportions and (particularly) in Australia, devastated the existing indigenous teenage population’s musical psyche, yet it too was soon similarly inundated by a wave of Beatlemania in the early months of 1964. (McParland 2004 153)

Initially, surf guitar musicality seems to have stemmed from European cultures. This strand has been attributed to Dick Dale, guitarist and musician with American and Lebanese heritage, who began playing his culturally different style of music in ballrooms and dancehalls in California during the late 1950s, where like-minded surfers would congregate to socialise and be a part of the bourgeoning surf music and culture experience. As Steve Holgate recalls Dick Dale’s response as to how his style developed:

‘I didn’t really think of it as surf music’, he says now. But when he began to play his unique high-energy sound at concerts in the beach towns near Los Angeles, his fellow surfers quickly dubbed him the King of the Surf Guitar. To anyone who knew him, the sound of the surf came across strongly in his music. (Holgate, 2006)

Dick Dale explored the sound of the electric guitar and pursued its possibilities. His use of heavy strings and fast tremolo (percussive) playing style helped him to express the power of big wave surfing through his guitar playing. Leo Fender, inventor of Fender electric guitars also worked with Dale by putting together the first 100 watt guitar amp enabling Dale to be able to play at considerable volume without blowing up the amplifier or speakers, which until then had been a reoccurring problem. In an excerpt from Dick Dale’s history website, we read that,

He met Leo Fender, the guitar and amplifier Guru, and Leo asked Dale to play his new creation, the Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. The minute Dale picked up the guitar, Leo Fender broke into uncontrolled laughter and disbelief, as he was watching Dale play a right-handed guitar upside down and backwards, Dale was playing a right-handed guitar left-handed and changing the chords in his head, then transposing the chords to his hands to create a sound never heard before. Leo Fender gave the Fender Stratocaster guitar along with a Fender guitar amplifier to Dale and told him to ‘beat it to death’ and tell him what he thought of it. Dale took the guitar and started to beat it to death, and he blew up Leo Fender's amp and blew out the speaker. Dale proceeded to blow up forty nine amps and speakers; they would actually catch on fire. Leo would say, 'Dick, why do you have to play so loud?' Dale would explain that he wanted to create the sound of Gene Krupa the famous jazz drummer that created the sounds of the native dancers in the jungles along with the roar of mother nature's creature's and the roar of the ocean. (Dale, L., 1999)

Yale Strom also notes the musical structure and format Dick Dale applied from his cultural roots to his emerging guitar style. The connection to his ancestral music heritage was a force he tapped into to realise a new way of musical expression alongside new technological advances by way of the amplified electric guitar. Strom adds here that,

Misirlou—The Egyptian—is played in distinctive Arab modalities and has characteristic Eastern Mediterranean syncopated rhythms that usually are played by the drums. So, for a guy (Dale) who claims that he is playing the drums even when he is on guitar, the solution came quickly. Dale said that he got up the next day and started playing the tune slowly, then with increasing speed, bringing in the lightning-

fast rhythms of the tarabaki, until he had what he needed. Misirlou remains perhaps Dale’s most widely recognized tune, especially after its use as the theme music for the 1994 hit film Pulp Fiction. More recently, the Black-Eyed Peas have recycled the tune as part of their latest hit, Pump It. (Strom in Holgate, 2006)

The musical components, scales and rhythms from this part of the world were introduced by way of musicians with family ties to such middle-eastern countries, and as such were able to interweave their music culture into a more modern form that was spontaneously unfolding and being applied as the background to the new and evolving surf culture in the U.S. Bronia Kornhauser states that,

Misirlou is an example of music transcending national and ethnic boundaries. Practices of appropriation and transformation are fundamental to the genealogy of the melody, starting with the varied Middle Eastern and Mediterranean borrowings that obscure its origins and including its reincarnations as ‘exotica’, surf rock anthem or topic of American retro media culture capable of carrying contrived meanings that can also be parodied. (Kornhauser 2010, p. 201)

There have indeed been many versions of Misirlou recorded and interpreted by various artists, stemming from early 20th century semi-orchestrated arrangements through to modern studio produced pop and rap examples. Chuchiaro (2011), says of Misirlou here that,

The most famous Greek version for it has however been by Nicholas Roubanis who has been getting the credits for it, in fact the Black Eyed Peas credit him for their version. Nicholas Roubanis released his jazzed version in 1941 and became erroneously known as the author of the song, while it was Michalis Patrinos rebetiko band who first performed the song in 1927 in Athens, Greece, even though they are also not the original authors but just the first ones to have performed the song through a group. Rebetika songs had a style that originated with the Greek refugees from Asia Minor in Turkey and partly explains the musical style of the song, may I say, very “Aladdin-like”. (Chuchiaro, 2011)

Although the original composer cannot be identified, it would seem that Misirlou has been reinterpreted, performed and recorded many times. There were Australian surf bands in the 60s who also embraced and applied their country of origin’s music roots to the playing and performing of this new style of music. One band in particular, The Atlantics, had a major influence on Australian popular culture by way of their huge 1963 surf music hit,

‘Bombora’—an indigenous Australian (Dharuk people) term for large sea waves. Jim Skiathitis, who co-wrote Bombora with drummer Peter A. Hood, referred to Misirlou saying,

Misirlou is the name of a beautiful Turkish girl back in the days of the Ottoman Empire, and this song is an erotic hymn to her oriental exotic beauty. I don't know if you had listened to the genuine original version which this one is, but I have listened to a lot of punk and surf versions of it and its melody seems to fit perfectly with these kinds of music. (Skiathitis, J. personal communication 12th March 2019)

We see here that there appears to be a general awareness and familiarity in music circles regarding Misirlou which spans many cultures, emanating from Eastern Mediterranean Europe reaching across to Western culture. I asked Jim Skiathitis if The Atlantics music was influenced at all by the fact that some members of the band were of European lineage, with connections to Greece and other Eastern European countries and he replied that most definitely yes—their music roots had an influence on the music written and performed by the band back in the 1960s:

The Atlantics had the advantage of having twin lead guitarists, both highly proficient on solo work and both capable of pushing the band along with a driving rhythm. It was this, together with the band members European cultural influences (largely Greek with some Yugoslav and Hungarian—all members came to Australia as child migrants) that gave their music that passionate edge over other local bands of their day. (The Atlantics, 2013)

Middle Eastern music culture not only had an effect on Dick Dale with his emerging surf music style in the U.S. during the 1960s, but also had an effect on emerging surf music bands like The Atlantics and The Denvermen in Australia during that period. These non-western music influences appear to be a fundamental part of surf music as we know it, but it still remains to be verified as to how and why the music of today’s surf music artists relates to those early music cultures.

The spheres of influence of Arabic musical tradition extend beyond the Middle East and can be found, in varying degrees, in the majority of countries in the wider Mediterranean region, a situation that is an outcome of empire-building generations earlier. Anthropologist Tullia Magrini describes the Mediterranean region ‘as a place where the number of musical practices with strictly local significance is enormous. It is also a place of intense cultural interaction between the countries around its shorelines’. (Kornhauser 2010, p. 196)

One theory could be that the Eastern European music cultures appears to inspire a certain longing and romanticism that aligns itself with being connected to the sea and its ancient ties with those cultures. Cooley (2019) notes the moment he realised the deep connection between music and surf:

The wakeup moment was when I was on Kauai. I went to a ukulele shop and this guy says, ‘Surfing and music are the same thing; sound and ocean waves are the same thing.’ It was beautiful, and it kept coming up. In my book, I cite a wonderful writer named Gavin Pretor-Pinney, who wrote a book called The Wave Watcher’s Companion (2010) and he says the same thing—light waves, sound waves, and ocean waves all really act on the same principle. That really helped me understand what these surfers were talking about. (Cooley, T., interview, Men’s Journal, 2019)

The idea of making music related to the movement and flow of the ocean seems to have no limits as to its influence, style or direction, making it a boundless area for those inclined to apply their creativity towards surf films. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990) comments in Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience that,

The idea of flow is identical to the feeling of being in the zone or in the groove. The flow state is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully immersed in what they are doing. This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterized by a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns (time, food, ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p. 27)

For the purposes of my QUT project, surf music will be defined as any style that can be used alongside surfing related media. Today we see young emerging bands acquiring and using certain aspects of the old styles to inject into the way they see their style of today’s music unfolding. Timony (2017) states that,

The last 10 years has seen an increasing number of bands that can loosely be grouped under the name “indie surf”— bands that are not in and of themselves surf bands (and most would never claim that genre tag), but who take advantage of one or more of the elements of surf to give their music a bright shot of California sunshine no matter their country of origin, chosen subject matter, or primary genre of choice. There are, of course, many bands who do play very traditional surf rock,

or who rely so heavily on the genre’s nostalgia factor that it’s impossible to describe them any other way, but indie surf bands distinguish themselves by using only certain elements of the genre. (Timony, M. 2017)

Culturally, it is significant to link music and films from earlier eras to see how modern approaches regarding content and medium have changed the way these films are viewed, and how the impact of the film can be changed by the reworking of the music.

While contributing artists could have been asked to create a new soundtrack after simply listening to the original, I decided to ask the artists to re-record the original soundtrack. While active and critical listening can provide insights and perspectives on the use of music in the original soundtrack, performing and recording the original soundtrack requires a more complete musical immersion in the materials, sounds and textures of the original film. Once the artists had experienced the soundtrack at a performative level, the creative process of reinterpreting the soundtrack came from a lived experience of musical engagement. It is also exciting to witness how the new artist takes into consideration the past music style with the present and how they reinterpret the original soundtrack across to becoming a part of their current creative focus—that of aligning new music with the original film.

3.0 HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF PRODUCTION

The use of practice-based research methods to explore the role that Morning Of The Earth provides a creative platform for emerging contemporary artists to engage with this seminal film. There is a strong historic line of stylistic innovation running from the early emergence of surf music until now. In 1971 the recording of the soundtrack to the film Morning Of The Earth was a “various artists” effort, featuring the music and songwriting skills of popular bands and solo artists of the time. Some of the tracks were chosen by the producers of the film because of their musical or lyrical relevance, while other tracks were the realisation of ideas created after briefings with the producers, as in the case of the band, Tamam Shud. For Morning Of The Earth, the Tamam Shud tracks Bali Waters, See The Swells, and First Things First, were written with focus on specific scene information (verbal from film maker Albe) and emerging geographical themes. Some of the other artists had totally different briefs. As Brian Cadd recalls,

The album was so tremendous. The brief was that there was no brief! So, we just sat around and imagined what sort of themes lyrically might fit a surfing ideology— basically the ‘hippie dropout’ model—and then played the music the way we wanted. (O’Donnell, 2010)

While some artists were trying to interpret what they thought the ‘surf music’ model should be, other artists were actually living the surfing lifestyle through their music. Tamam Shud were one of these artists and had a direct social connection with Albe Falzon, in that he used to drop into the band’s rehearsals from time to time. He was familiar with the spontaneous nature of our music and how we were inspired by our connection to the surfing lifestyle and music culture. Falzon originally approached Tamam Shud exclusively to do the soundtrack for Morning Of The Earth, but that changed when film producer David Elfick became involved. His idea to use various artists was suggested and taken up, and here recalls how he and Albe Falzon generated the initial budget to pay for the soundtrack recording:

And then of course we got to the music. I thought, well I wasn’t just going to stick in songs that were already around. George Greenough had got the band, The Farm, and recorded The Inner Most Limits of Pure Fun (1976) soundtrack with them. I had contacts in the music industry, and Peter Stiegrad who worked for J. Walter Thomson, who were the advertising agents for Pan Am airlines and knew me, well that evolved into me meeting G. Wayne Thomas. We wanted to use Tamam Shud, and Albe

suggested we go to the newly formed Australian Film Development Corporation, and we went in there with our thongs on, and terrified them and got some money—not to do the movie, but to do the soundtrack. (Elfick, personal interview, 5th November 2015)

Various artists came to contribute to the Morning Of The Earth soundtrack in different ways. For instance, Sydney northern beaches surf magazine Tracks ran a contest inviting writers to submit short stories. The winning entry came from musician and surfer Peter Howe, and he says here that,

The Tracks competition I won was for a surfing short story. When I went up to David Elfick’s place at Palm Beach to pick up the prize I mentioned to Albe and David I was a guitarist. David said he'd like to hear me play and I just happened to have a guitar in the car. I played one of my tunes and David got excited and joked that he'd make me a star. I said I didn't want to be a star but I'd love to write music for surf movies. He told me to write a song and I came back with the I'm Alive. At the time I wrote this I was working at a boat shed in Palm Beach in Sydney. I'd leave for work early and catch a surf on the way, often at my favourite reef break. The silky grey early morning barrels gave me the feeling that created this music. My song wasn’t a pop song—my song was just a guy playing a guitar trying to give the person that was listening to it an idea of what it was like to be surfing. (Howe, 2011)

Peter Howe’s song I’m Alive has gone on to inspire many people with its atmospheric acoustic guitar and flute treatment. This is so much so in fact, that Australian film producer and artistic media spearhead David Minear of Bombora Creative decided to use two words from Peter’s lyrics to use as the title for his superb live music performance surf music DVD, ‘Delightful Rain’ (2006).

It is also of note that Peter Howe and I wrote and performed songs for Bombora Creative’s ‘Delightful Rain’ Project in 2006, and then went on to co-write and record three more albums to date. The first of these three released on 3rd April 2009 was ‘Pictures of the Coast’, which is a musical reflection upon a sailing journey taken by Peter Howe along the east coast of Australia. As Bombora’s description says:

‘Pictures of the Coast’ will make you want to pack up and sail away. Indefinitely. Cool, coastal acoustic from two of Australia’s finest surf guitarists—Peter Howe (Morning Of The Earth) and Tim Gaze (Tamam Shud, Ariel, Kahvas Jute, Rose Tattoo and more). This is a musical journey—surfing, sailing, and living along

Australia’s east coast. Peter and Tim’s sound pictures will transport you to some remarkable places and experiences. (Bombora, 2009)

The effect of having been involved in writing and performing music from the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack has had a definite influence on these subsequent projects involving Peter, me and many other artists. If those previous experiences had not occurred, it is unlikely that the subsequent surfing and water-related musical projects that I have been involved with would have ever transpired.

Another artist to contribute to Morning Of The Earth also came to it in a unique way. John J. Francis, who wrote and performed the beautifully rambling song, Simple Ben, says of his experience with the soundtrack,

You see, the only reason Simple Ben ended up on the soundtrack was because G. Wayne Thomas had booked Copperfield Studios to put down some of the other artists songs and / or backing tracks that were to go into the movie. I was the sound engineer for the sessions and had gone in early to check the gear and set up the studio. After completing those tasks there was still some time before the session was due to start, so I decided to listen to Simple Ben, on which I had done a final mix the previous day. It was about halfway through when G. Wayne turned up for his session. He listened to the rest of the song then asked to hear it right through. At the end he said he thought it would fit into this movie soundtrack he was about to do, and would I be interested in putting it in. I agreed. I gave the ok for it to be used and away they went with a copy of it. And that's how it ended up in the movie. A fortunate set of circumstances really. (Francis, J., personal communication, September 12, 2016)

This organic, evolutionary method reflects how the whole Morning Of The Earth concept was realised, starting with director Albe Falzon. As he has said, he saw it as simply filming the way he was living, which also connects with the way a lot of the music for the soundtrack was being put together. Tamam Shud lived to surf, and to create and play emerging music of the time in step with how they lived. Peter Howe was inspired to write the music he did because of his reflections on his daily surfing and sailing experiences. Similarly, with John J. Francis, his growing experience as a musician and sound engineer inspired him to write and record the classic song, Simple Ben, which highlights a reflective conversation that ensues between a traveler and Simple Ben as they journey along the road.

The imagery supported by these and the other music pieces in Morning Of The Earth appears to be responsible not only for the ongoing inspiration apparent in subsequent film and music releases connected to the surfing genre, but for a way of life as well. Brian Cadd recalls a discussion he had about Morning Of The Earth with a teenage surfer working behind the counter in a Los Angeles surf shop—upon sighting two box sets of Morning Of The Earth,

I don’t believe those are there—that’s an Australian one—I can’t believe you know that one”, to which the young surfer replied, “That’s not an Australian one, that’s the one! Know it? That’s absolutely seminal—surfers my age, we watch that movie—we own that movie—we take so much out of that movie in terms of how we create our lifestyle. (Cadd, personal interview, 1st February 2017)

This would seem to reinforce the idea that Morning Of The Earth has been an inspiration for movie makers and musicians, and also an influence on the emergent lifestyles of the young surfing populace. The connection here to our Australian contribution seems to be profound, as our influence spreads to those who were initially seen as the originators of surfing’s popular film and music cultures.

4.0 METHODS

4.1 Research Design Flow Chart for Creative Projects One and Two

4.2 Step 1: Choosing and recruiting artists/bands

In early discussions with my supervisor Professor Phil Graham, regarding the recruitment of music artists and bands for these projects, the idea of enlisting current and past QUT connected students and artists was a positive way to proceed, because to test the film we need to explore the narrative, which in this instance is the music of the soundtrack.

Here was a creative and varied group of emerging artists connected to QUT presenting me with the ideal place to start. The first step with the recruitment process was that QUT supervisor Professor Graham and I decided the Indie 100 project not only highlighted emerging artists latest releases into the mainstream, but that here was a resource of young talent connected to QUT. I then proceeded to listen to various artists’ recordings from the Indie 100 project with the aim of seeing which candidates may have inherent qualities that could be aligned with similar nuances to the original soundtrack artists from 1971.

For instance, in seeking an artist to cover a Brian Cadd song from the soundtrack, I started seeking bands or artists that featured or included piano, as this is what Brian Cadd’s song style encompassed. When artist Zinia Chan was brought to my attention by a QUT staff member, her style of piano playing to me was reminiscent of some of the work Brian had

39 done on the soundtrack, so Zinia went on the list to be contacted and approached to be involved in the projects. Initially the process of choosing relevant artists continued along these lines, but not all artists were chosen through the Indie 100 project. As my projects continued and unavoidable personnel changes occurred, some artists were contacted on the recommendation of a colleague (engineer or student) who may have known of an artist they thought might be suitable and willing to contribute. Thus not all artists were ‘screened’ but were contacted after being suggested by QUT staff or artists already involved in the project. Ultimately, the project’s outcome relied on involving eighteen different artists or groups and assigning each group a music piece to cover from the original soundtrack.

4.3 Step 2: Briefing the Artists

Initially the individual artists and bands were emailed a brief of my DCI project, which included my introduction to them, an outline of Morning Of The Earth Creative Projects One and Two, a cue sheet listing the running order of the music in the original film, and a link to the film so they could watch the footage and hear the original music tracks. The use of email correspondence was a thorough way of contacting many potential artists at the same time with all the relevant information and also provided an instant connection with the artist regarding ongoing communications. Once an artist was onboard to record and contribute, we then held an initial meeting regarding the next step of going into the studio to record.

4.4 Step 3: Studio and Recording Planning

The recording projects commenced at QUT Gasworks Studios in Newstead, Brisbane on Wednesday 30th October 2015. We had only really begun there when it was announced that the studio would be closed in December 2015 and could be continued in the new studios planned for QUT Kelvin Grove campus in Z9 Block opening in June 2016. That put a hold on the projects for six months until the new studios resumed operations but was worth the wait—the new QUT studios materialising as a world class facility.

As overall project director and producer, I initiated the process of booking studio personnel (engineer, operator etc.) which was then was mediated by QUT staff and studio personnel. Then when an artist or band was available to record, I contacted the studio to see if that date was available, and if so, would then re-confirm with the artist. This process happened for each recording session that I needed to book an artist for, either by contacting studio staff, or taking advantage of the online studio booking service started at Z9 studios. At times there

40 were also cancellations by artists or studio personnel, necessitating that the booking procedure begin again. This process could be a lengthy exercise on occasion, as not everyone was available at the same time.

4.5 Step 4: Creative Leadership and Production Facilitation

During my experience in the music industry and in many recording scenarios, I have encountered three broad styles of producer. The first is the ‘hands on’, or fifth member of the band style of producer or facilitator, being that this person will offer suggestions as to possible musical or arrangement changes, if they feel the situation warrants these things, perhaps due to the recording session becoming stale or untenable. The second style of producer is the person in the control room, who is there on behalf of ‘the client’ to keep an eye on proceedings; keeping the session on track in a timely fashion and basically being an overseer and not so much a creative advisor. Thirdly, I have found there to be the conceptual producer who is directing and shaping with an outcome in mind, whether it be commercial or creative.

My role as executive artistic director and session producer also became that of facilitator, due to the fact that these current projects ideally needed to rely on the input from artists and studio personnel working together freely to put into practice their creative ideas to realize the influence of the film on new outcomes. This being the case, a certain flowing freedom was established during recording sessions as much as possible with the view to ensuring a continuous output of ideas and reflection-in-action—the spontaneous flow of the work being a main focus— a creative situation not unlike how the original film was made in 1970.

4.6 Step 5: Mixdown

The purpose of audio mixing is to sonically balance the various single tracks recorded in the session by adjusting various parameters, such as volume level, tonality (EQ) and position in the mix—in this case, placement in the stereo field. These parameters can be adjusted very finely to suit the overall performance and delivery of the music. Instruments can also be premixed in groups to supply initial balance (drum kit for instance) and then finely adjusted as the mixdown progresses to toward a final mix (the rendering of a stereo file). The result should deliver a sonically balanced listening experience and be dynamically positioned so as to bring the listener into the performance.

The software used to record the artists in the studio at QUT was Avid ProTools, which I also used in the mixdown process. When we neared the final recording phase for Creative Projects One and Two, there were additional QUT staff who also assisted with the mixdown process. I completed my track mixing in the Z9 studio block at Kelvin Grove because it is a best practice professional studio space and uses the latest versions of mixdown software. This also helped avoid any issues I may have encountered if I were to use different versions of the software at other locations.

4.7 Step 6: Laying the music against films 1 & 2

With Creative Projects One and Two, the process of laying the music against the video differs somewhat due to the fact that the music tracks for Creative Project One were essentially all covers of the songs from the original soundtrack, and the music tracks for Creative Project Two are all new pieces chosen by the artist. With this in mind, it seems that in order to represent the Creative Project One Renewed soundtrack appropriately we would need to lay the music in at points aligning to the original placement. This was my initial thought, however, because most of the Creative Project One covers were not exact copies of the originals, some flexibility was required regarding track placement. On reflection, this was in fact how the original soundtrack was laid to Morning Of The Earth by Albe Falzon and G. Wayne Thomas.

Once each song had been selected for the sequence it was then laid into the film where it was felt worked best. Some film sequences use a song in its entirety. Additionally, other sequences used part of the song as a reprise, as there are places in the film where the music track is faded in or out at the start or finish of a film sequence, re-enforcing the spontaneous nature of the film. For both Creative Projects One and Two I am going to follow this method of laying the music into the video with the intent of keeping intact the spirit of improvisation experienced through the aligning of the original soundtrack by G. Wayne Thomas and Albe Falzon in 1971.

4.8 Step 7: Final mixes and mastering the completed soundtracks

Once the final soundtrack sequences for Creative Projects One and Two were assembled and aligned with the films, they were then imported into Logic audio application for mastering, whereby audio levels for each final recording (eighteen in each soundtrack) were compared and adjusted, and then sonically balanced by the mild use of EQ and Limiter plug-ins to balance the overall frequency and final output stage audio level compressor/limiting. With

42 this final master balancing and overall levelling completed, the entire audio sequence was then rendered into a complete 105 minute stereo soundtrack file and then reimported back into Logic where it was realigned and rendered along with the film as the final audio/video production.

Undertaking this task at QUT has also helped support the authenticity of the project on a production and post-production level. I could not have envisaged a project of this scope being undertaken anywhere but in a totally specialized space, and to this end QUT is unique, due to the quality of the recording and mixdown spaces and the professionalism of the entire QUT staff.

5.0 METHODOLOGY

This project uses a performative (Haseman 2006) methodology. By artists reinvigorating the Morning Of The Earth soundtrack and then testing the film’s influence by seeking a response, signifies core issues of my investigation. It combines practice-based research, interviews and participant observation. Framing these DCI creative projects as performative research recognises that practice is at the center of the projects and seeing them through a media ecology perspective illustrates that changes in technology are intrinsic to the outcome of the research. Undertaking these two projects will identify current trends and the completion of these projects should give us a unique vantage point from which to examine the ongoing effect of surf films on music in (Australian) popular culture.

With the re-recording of the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack in mind, the idea of recruiting new and emerging creative music artists in an attempt to reflect upon and revitalize Morning Of The Earth as a medium seemed an appropriate way forward to investigate my research question. With the artists initial immersion into Creative Project One, my assumption was that the artist would engage aural and artistic music skills to interpret and perform their rendition of the original soundtrack piece they were assigned, and the notion of supplying lead sheets or chord charts never arose. That is not to say of course that the artist didn’t write their own chord charts etc. as a guide for themselves and the musicians they may have worked with.

When the Morning Of The Earth music was first recorded at Melbourne’s TCS Channel 9 studios in 1971, there were many different artists involved. These were popular emerging and professional music artists of that era, all with varying degrees of skill and experience. At that time, the chance to record original music for a surf movie soundtrack was a great opportunity to help realise the connection between music and film, and to be part of the creative flow linked to the expanding surf music and film ideology of the day.

The method I used of approaching the artist and giving them a particular song to record has seems to have positive implications. I had considered letting the artist choose which song they would like to record, but this process may have become complicated with various artists possibly vying to record the same song. Part of my brief to the new artists was to watch the film so as to experience the footage that was aligned to the piece they were to re-record from the original soundtrack. This is one advantage that the original artists didn’t have for the most part in 1970 but were given titles to work from instead. For example, Tamam Shud were told

44 that there was a section being filmed in Bali; hence the creation of the music track Bali Waters; another section which was big wave riding, hence the music track See The Swells, and so on. Actual footage of these scenes was not viewed, so the related music track was imagined by way of discussion and suggestion only.

For this project, artists listen to the original music and view the film then use that experience to inform their creative practice. By reflecting upon the audio and visual media from the original Morning Of The Earth, the artist can take full advantage to expand their creative potential and discover new ways of approaching their positive contribution to the project.

5.1 Interviews

Interviews conducted with the participants from the original Morning Of The Earth have taken place at various locations around Australia. They have been undertaken using a ‘one on one’ approach between interviewer and interviewee, either by filming and /or by audio recording. The interview process can be one with fluctuating outcomes as is also noted by Howard Becker and Blanche Geer (1957):

The difficulties in analysing change and process on the basis of interview material are particularly important because it is precisely in discussing changes in themselves and their surroundings that interviewees are least likely or able to give an accurate account of events. (Becker-Geer, 1957, pp.28-32)

The outcomes and correlation of these interviews remains in flux, as responses to Creative Projects One and Two become apparent.

5.2 Participant observation

My interviews were conducted as part of participant observation methods. They include filming the sessions and documenting my personal reflections on the process with field-notes and interviews, both with participating artists during the re-recording process, and with historical participants in the original film and soundtrack production. (See Interview Appendices). As DeWalt and DeWalt (2011) state, participant-observation is:

A method in which a researcher takes part in the daily activities, ritual, interactions, and events of a group of people as one of the means of learning the explicit and tacit aspects of their life routine and their culture. (DeWalt, 2011)

The nature of these interviews vary from structured questions, to open ended interview styles. In this excerpt, Albe Falzon describes the materialisation of Morning Of The Earth as he sees it and says,

It was unintentional that we did that—but, in a way that’s how we were living—it’s not like we set out to do a sustainable film about the beautiful environment—I think that embracing the fact that we wanted to make a beautiful film on surfing, really covered all the ground and these aspects came through in a natural way, like the alternative form of living, so people and surfers were exploring that area and moving into those areas at that time in their migration from the city to the country, and the country soul in surfing that took over at that time, there was a real movement towards natural living, so without realising it we just followed that path and filmed it. (Falzon, personal interview, 23rd November 2015)

As the artists worked, I filmed and photographed snippets of their work practices for reference and discussed the nature of their work with them by way of separate reflective interviews recorded after the completion of their recording sessions at the end of each day.

The artists differed greatly in their style of response due to the ways in which they approached creating their versions of the music pieces, and also how they were responding to their progress within the project at the time; whether recording, discussing the treatment of the music, or setting up in the studio. As Spradley (2016) points out:

When ethnographers study other cultures, they must deal with the three fundamentals of human experience: what people know, what people do, and the things people make and use. When each of these are learned and shared by members of some group, we speak of them as cultural behaviour, cultural knowledge and cultural artefacts. (Spradley, 2016)

The way in which the artist interviews link across the project material and the observations that have been made through this process should illustrate how the original soundtrack has influenced each artist approached in constructing their new version of the soundtrack, thereby acknowledging and reinforcing the awareness of Morning Of The Earth as a medium.

I found by presenting the artists with the opportunity to rework the soundtracks that it brought out a willingness in them to explore their technical and creative artistic skills. The nature of Morning Of The Earth as a lifestyle cultural artefact seems to inspire an openness that points towards the musician to be unhindered by any preconceived ideas or approaches.

Morning Of The Earth is based in a realisation of awareness, therefore allowing participating artists to empathise and explore those currents. As Dan James from music group Drawn From Bees recalls during our interview,

You're off the land – like, as soon as you go on the land everything that you have to do crashes down on you; when you're away from the land, you are disconnected from everything—disconnected form the technology, disconnected from being always in communication with everybody - you're not hitting 'like' on Facebook, you're not looking at a whole bunch of crap that one hour later, you go “I just wasted one hour of my life”—it's just you and the ocean, and I get that feeling from music when I play, you know—you lose time, and you're just flowing and you lose time. (James, personal interview, 8th November 2015)

James’s statement here seems to be a recognition of the energy and dynamics of the ocean and the freedom of a surfing lifestyle, expressed in musical terms. By participating in the reworking of the Morning Of The Earth soundtrack, it has been enlightening to see the extent of innovation generated by new artists. Everyone involved has been excited to be part of the project and responses so far suggest that Morning Of The Earth, both in musical and cultural terms, continues to be of great inspiration to original and current artists alike.

I have conducted a total of sixteen filmed and / or audio / interviews, including original Morning Of The Earth artists and production personnel, current artists and industry professionals, totaling a time of seven hours and twenty-seven minutes. This body of interview data including video log footage and photos is archived and stored as content to be compiled into a separate research documentary project. See also Appendices A: to P: for interview transcripts included in this paper.

5.3 Practice-based research: Describing the practice and its place.

For my DCI recording sessions involving Creative Projects One and Two, I have recruited eighteen artists or groups to each undertake the task of recording:

1. For Creative Project One: A cover or renewed version of a song from the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack and, 2. For Creative Project Two: A response to that by way of writing and recording a second original song.

Brad Haseman (2006) has this to say about the practice-based aspects of creativity, stating:

These are practice-based research strategies and include: the reflective practitioner (embracing reflection-inaction and reflection-on-action); participant research; participatory research; collaborative inquiry, and action research. Invariably these strategies reinterpret what is meant by ‘an original contribution to knowledge’. Rather than contribute to the intellectual or conceptual architecture of a discipline, these research enterprises are concerned with the improvement of practice, and new epistemologies of practice distilled from the insider’s understandings of action in context. (Haseman 2006)

These research methods will serve to help make us aware that recording music today is a far more flexible and detailed exercise than it was forty-five years ago. The recording studio environment then was almost hallowed ground for many musicians and producers because those spaces were reserved for the serious (commercial) business of recording that had only two or three broadcast media functions: radio, TV or film. Initially, as the projects producer I had envisaged the re-recording process to follow along the lines of how the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack was recorded in 1971; that being, each band or artist coming into the studio and performing with their bands all mic’d up and recording ‘live’ versions until there was a great ‘take’. This historical approach was the usual way to record a music session in the 1970s and is indeed a far cry from the flexibility of today’s recording and production techniques.

In comparison, today each artist can control their own best-practice method of composing, recording and performance outcomes. The varying recording processes regarding these new Morning Of The Earth projects has served to illustrate different methods used by artists for the current pre-production and recording practices. When the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack was recorded, everyone (musicians and recording personnel) had to be at the studio at the same time to record, (as a live band) and the producer managed the session from behind the glass. In many instances there was little communication between producer and artist. Each had their role to play, unlike today where often the artist controls music performance and production techniques combined to envisage the required outcome of a project. In comparison, today’s creative environment serves to bring the roles of musician and producer together in a far more connective and communicable way, with each role supporting the other. As Boyd and Fales (1983) suggest:

The process of creating and clarifying the meanings of experiences in terms of self in relation to both self and world. The outcome of this process is changed conceptual perspectives. (Boyd & Fales, 1983, p. 101)

My response initially to this development was questioning whether this method of working in the studio on this project was appropriate but, as we continued, I realised that this was exactly what needed to occur, because as a research project it needed to be able to unfold into new areas of inventiveness unrestricted—to be able to make use of current studio production and recording techniques in an environment of freedom and creativity. Having said this, some artists did record the very same way we did in 1971; that is, traditionally ‘live’ as a band or unit for the most part, going for a great take and then overdubbing any extra parts that may be required. Other artists decided they would do pre-production or mapping away from QUT before coming into the studio to record; for example, track some drums or synth parts or put their arrangement together, so when it came time to record in the QUT studio, they already knew the framework they were working within and could then make use of specific instruments and equipment that they desired to complete their recordings.

There were also artists who arrived with their own equipment and proceeded to track electronically using keyboards and guitars recording one part of the song at a time; a verse, then a pre-chorus, then a chorus, until the whole arrangement had been completed and then edited back together afterwards. Because of the digital nature of recording, it is far easier to arrange song sequences in the studio section by section (if one so desires) than it was in 1971, due to the fact that recording with software these days is an audio-visual timeline scenario and can be resumed seamlessly from any edit point. As Paul Théberge (1997) from the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture (Music) argued:

Recent innovations in musical technology thus pose two kinds of problems for musicians: On the one hand, they alter the structure of musical practice and concepts of what music is and can be; and, on the other, they place musicians and musical practice in a new relationship with consumer practices and with consumer society as a whole. (Théberge 1997: p. 3)

This evolution of practice is reflected with the recording projects I have undertaken here, and to move one step further, I also note here the criticisms of theoretical perspectives informed by McLuhan’s view of media. They fall under the broad category of ‘technological determinism’ (e.g. Fleck and Howells, 2001).

Technological determinism is the notion that technology is the driving force of a society’s history and culture. That is, the idea that technology is something that happens to culture and business, and that we are powerless to control or choose our reactions to it. And while it may seem that a media ecology approach demands that conclusion, in fact the ecological framework offers a subtler relationship than mere cause and effect. As with any environmental shift, it is necessary to adapt in order to survive and thrive when the technological environment shifts. However, adaptations are not caused by environmental change, but are developed in response to them. That is to say, we choose our responses and so our uses of technology are socially negotiated. (Anderton, Dubber, and James, 2012, p. 17)

There is a relation of ‘mutual conditioning’ going on between medium and message (Kendall and Wickham, 1999) regarding recording techniques that I have focused upon in presenting the opportunity to new artists of re-imaging the soundtrack by rewriting it. The fact that the technology of recording music has evolved constantly since its inception approximately one hundred and sixty years ago presents us with an ever-changing and flexible work-space within which to create and put forward ideas, using various technological methods to do so, with the musician also being the producer as many times as not. As Kendall and Wickham state,

Technologies, then, are resources which can be used, and in being used, they lead to a reorganisation of the whole ‘socio-technical system’. Technological systems are always being constructed and reconstructed. (Kendall and Wickham 1999, p.79)

As the technology changes, so too do the creative opportunities within which to invent and expand therefore, the idea of determinism controlling the outcome of these works appears to not be as inflexible as one may imagine, and in fact may not apply at all. The artists involved in the rerecording of these two DCI project soundtracks will no doubt be adapting and combining differing methods connected to recording in realising their creative outcomes.

Media have some unlikely and unforeseen effects. The internet means that anyone who has access can also have their own media publishing site, whether the content be text, music, video, or mixtures of all these. There have also been challenges to traditional creative industry models and roles. The record industry and the surfing industry have both survived major shifts, fragmenting into new digital models with outcomes being realised at this stage. These changes have partly resulted in the fact that the artist now has more control over their creative input and output than in previous times, as the tools that were once only operated by

50 stand-alone technicians have now become available to the creative practitioner—a change that many an artist felt was essentially a natural progression and which is becoming more the norm in today’s creative music environment.

Forty-five years ago, it was not uncommon in the analogue tape era for an engineer or producer to do “hard” edits, by way of physically slicing tape with a razor blade at the edit point; an irreversible act requiring a high degree of accuracy. John French, leading Australian producer and engineer who recorded the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack, mixed one section of a multi-track tape at a time: verse, then pre-chorus, then chorus and so on, mixing each section as he went to two-track stereo, then editing all the pre-mixed sections back together onto a single two-track stereo master tape. John French recently explained to me that,

Even when mixing automation emerged in the early 1970s, I still used to cut it all together by hand – I preferred it to automation – to moving faders and all that thing, because I swore that moving faders (automated) never actually went back to the same position. I reckon they were inaccurate – I could hear the difference in levels. (French, personal interview 9th December 2016)

It would appear that John French was not convinced regarding emerging automation technology in the linear audio world of 1971. Today, none of the constraints of linear irreversibility apply, allowing for greater experimentation while production remains in a state of flux, right up until the digital rendering of a final audio mix file.

For the purpose of these two QUT projects, the array of new compositional, recording and production tools available serve to propel the artist into un-charted territory as they apply these techniques to the task of reworking and reimagining two soundtracks influenced by Morning Of The Earth.

5.4 The Practitioner’s Lens: Situating the Practitioner

My first instrument playing moments were on piano and my first guitar playing experiences occurred around 1962 when I started ‘borrowing’ my older brother Rick’s nylon string guitar out of the cupboard while he was at work. Songs like House Of The Rising Sun and the first Beatles songs were reaching my ears and I was intrigued and inspired to explore and learn how to play. I was also starting to hear my first guitar instrumental music by way of bands

51 like Hank Marvin and the Shadows and was in awe of this melodic music played on twangy electric guitar. In fact, I had heard the Shadows and was playing their songs before I had heard of Dick Dale, so I came to the original ‘surf music’ style from the future in a way—not unlike how I came to the blues. I had heard the U.K. blues bands like John Mayall and Fleetwood Mac as a young teenager before I had any connected realisation that ‘the blues’ as a geographic music style was a product of earlier African-American history.

By 1966 I had already been a keen surfer for two years, being a weekend regular at Sydney’s Manly Beach, which was about two kilometres from where we lived. I would carry my 8’6” Shane surfboard with its concave nose down to the beach and back home again. Even though I was still at school, I had been playing in bands for about a year and used to go to the local halls and surf clubs to see popular groups playing. It was an exciting time seeing Sydney bands like ‘The Ninth Cycle’, ‘Clapham Junction’, and ‘The Plastic Tears’ playing the then current sounds from bands like Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience and hearing those sounds being emulated by musicians not much older than myself.

My first music recording experience was in 1966 at Radio 2SM in Sydney. The drummer’s father was keen to get our guitar, bass and drum trio to write and record a demo for Holden cars. Then there was the follow-up recording session not long after at the then ABC Artransa Park Studios in Frenchs Forest, but the final commercial never went to air. That didn’t matter—it was the recording that had me hooked and that has continued up until the present day.

I left school at the end of third year high school after completing exams in late 1968 to follow my music dream. By September 1969 I was still surfing, and had also become a member of 1960s surf band, Tamam Shud. When film maker Albe Falzon asked us if we would like to do the music for his new film back in 1971, I was experiencing the challenge of being involved with an Australian band following the dream of writing, creating and performing original material live, whereas many bands at that time were happy just playing covers. So when this opportunity arose it was exciting, creatively and professionally. My first album recording experience was with Tamam Shud in 1970 and was titled Goolutionites And The Real People which was tracked pretty much ‘live’ (except for some guitar, piano and vocal overdubs) in twelve hours at United Sound Studios in Ultimo, Sydney, was produced by the late industry legend John Bromell and engineered by Spencer Lee. In the same year I also recorded with

52 the band Kahvas Jute the album, Wide Open, recorded at Festival Studios, Sydney, and produced and engineered by Pat Aulton.

My first job as an independent session musician was in 1972, when I recorded the acoustic guitar parts on Russell Morris’s classic hit song, Wings of an Eagle, produced by Peter Dawkins and engineered by John French. The late Peter Dawkins also produced 1970s band from Melbourne, Ariel, of which I was an original member involved in recording the band’s first album at EMI, Sydney in 1973. All this activity at such an early age gave me immeasurable profile in the creative industries of the day. At the time I didn’t realise how influential these recording experiences would be for my career, or how they would influence other artists and the culture at large.

As it turned out, those early recordings led to a lifelong career in music which has included playing, writing, performing and recording with some of the world’s best-known artists, including Jon Lord (Deep Purple), George Young and Stevie Wright (The Easybeats, ACDC), Bob Daisley (Black Sabbath, Ossie Osbourne, Garry Moore), and Australian artists Jimmy Barnes (Cold Chisel), Rose Tattoo, Ross Wilson (Daddy Cool), and many others. It has also led to being involved in production and composition for film, feature and documentary, and other commercial music recordings.

Being involved continuously with music and recording over the past four decades has put me in a position of being able to reflect upon how the recording industry has evolved, and through personal experience be able to compare how artists create in the ever-changing landscape of sound recording and production. This is certainly the case regarding the re- recording of two new Morning Of The Earth soundtracks for my Doctor of Creative Industries at QUT in 2015, the spontaneous nature of which I hope to see unfold through the artists as they apply their skills to realising the new soundtracks by way of the film’s influence.

In 1971 the only way an artist, musician or band could get to record in a studio was either by way of having a recording deal in place with a major company, where any musicians’ fees were paid by them, or being hired as a session musician to either play on someone’s record, a soundtrack or an advertising campaign. There were no ‘home’ studios we knew of in Sydney, although there were some already operating in the U.S.—Brother Recording Studios is an example, owned and used by The Beach Boys starting from around mid-1967. The recording experience back then was mainly connected to industry—one that most musicians looked

53 upon in their career as something that helped reinforce their credibility and overall standing in the music business. To me, as a creative extension of skills and professionalism, the recording studio was the ultimate environment for capturing expression and experimentation.

By the mid-1980s, things were starting to change as far as the emergence of the digital realm and computer-assisted technologies for recording. It was becoming apparent that recording studios were now being set up by private people in smaller spaces at home or in a small commercial area. Equipment was becoming cheaper and less cumbersome—hardware items were becoming smaller units or being scrapped altogether—or redesigned as digital components and integrated as software to be used in conjunction with recording systems.

Maureen Droney, recalling on what the recording studios have come to be in today's music industry said,

In some ways we've come full circle—we've gone back to being small and entrepreneurial. People still look to commercial studios when they have something to offer that they can't do at home. But, as it is, the recording studio business started with people starting small, funky studios, oftentimes in bedrooms and garages. (Droney, 2017)

By the early 1990s I was involved in setting up a professional recording studio in Sydney with like-minded others because we were finding that the recording options for creative musicians were limited, being exclusive and expensive. We wanted to create; to have an accessible recording space in which to record; and to start producing other artists. As a studio concern, we achieved much of what we wanted to, having recorded many soundtracks for surf industry videos and special documentary features, along with commercial work for A&R departments of record companies (artist production, mixdown etc.), and also wildlife features which aired on various cable networks (overseas) at the time. We also hired out the studio to other artists and companies for recording, production and mixdown. In retrospect, I probably owe a large part of my production and recording success to my early involvement as a creative recording artist with the Morning Of The Earth soundtrack, because that spearheaded me into a lifelong connection with music, recording and surf films, encouraging me to continue to explore and expand upon the relationships between these media, culminating with this professional QUT DCI research project.

6.0 THE CREATIVE WORKS

6.1 Creative Project One and Creative Project Two links

Instructors / examiners: Please play each of these films in sequence.

Link to Morning Of The Earth - Original film https://youtu.be/vtCPfxCvdI4

Link to Morning Of The Earth - Creative Project One - Renewed https://youtu.be/7ANNVrhX0Yk

Link to Morning Of The Earth - Creative Project Two - Reimagined https://youtu.be/EBqsCkJS8AU

6.2 Researcher’s response to Creative Project One: Reworked soundtrack

The film, having asserted its realism onto the music artist to create, reinforces the approach I have taken in bringing these DCI research projects to life; that is the testing of the film. It also appears that the act of reworking the soundtracks has presented us with many more choices by way of reflecting upon previously imagined criteria and applying to them our own sets or styles of interpretation via their influence.

Looking at the effect of the outcome involving the Renewed music and original film combination, I feel that the approach musically seems to have less density and more openness overall than a lot of the original soundtrack recordings, and that perhaps in comparison this is because of the analogue audio quality from 1971, or perhaps due to the way that the music arrangements and production was approached during that time—regardless, the new renditions appear to be more open and sonically clear than the originals, thereby delivering a different aural representation to the listener.

The new renditions all seem to work well with the original film footage irrespective of pace or nuance, which reinforces the strength of the film itself, and in fact I’m finding that there is a definite smoothness with this first Renewed soundtrack. Even though there are different approaches artists have used with some of the re-arrangements, I think that this helps to bring out aspects and connectivity with the film footage in ways not yet experienced, culminating in a very positive audio visual event.

6.3 Researcher’s response to Creative Project Two: Reimagined soundtrack

The effect of the New Reimagined soundtrack in Creative Project Two has breathed new life into Morning Of The Earth as a viewing and listening experience. It could be seen to present an even more relaxed and open experience across the footage compared to that of Film Creative Project One, as the artist becomes unshackled from the form and structure of the original songs and totally immersed within the film’s influence. Perhaps this is due to the very nature of the how the film was initially perceived, with a feeling of spontaneous flow and freedom projecting much of the original film’s intent from start to finish.

With this in mind we see a new shape to the film and a restrengthening between the connection of the original film’s imagery and its influence on today’s current music artists. By presenting this film to the new artists we see and hear new energy and impact emanating from the powerful original images. To me, Film Creative Project Two’s Reimagined soundtrack displays a wide scope of styles as a creative work that links well with the scenic journey being portrayed. With both of these DCI projects I have found that encouraging the creative ideas of contemporary artists allows fresh insights and outcomes otherwise missed by working with say, just one music producer. As the guide for these projects, I see that the production outcomes have been realised by the artists’ application of skills and their willingness to embrace the concept of reworking, and then reimagining the Morning Of The Earth soundtracks as an intrinsic and valued creative research event.

7.0 DESCRIPTION OF PRACTICE

The purpose of this chapter is to critique the research design and its implementation. I involved eighteen new and emerging artists from Brisbane in the project using QUT’s Gasworks recording studios and Z Block Studios at Kelvin Grove to record the new soundtracks to the original footage. At the start of the recording process, I envisioned the method used to re-interpret the soundtracks as unfolding along the lines used for recording the original 1971 soundtrack wherever possible; that is, the artist record ‘live’ and do overdubs as needed, but to keep the live performance aspect intact and to help retain the ‘organic’ connection between the music and the film.

However, as the recording sessions for my QUT projects developed, various writing and recording methods emerged. For instance, a band may have chosen to record ‘live’ as a unit, whereas a solo artist may have chosen to layer their music composition by adding one voice or instrument at a time—using overdubbing as a method. Additionally, other artists also chose to pre-record tracks at another location before finalising a session at QUT studios. I have re-recorded versions of all of the music from the film soundtrack, both featured and incidental, with artists contributing and using different recording methods. By doing this, the entire soundtrack for Morning Of The Earth can be presented as a continuous listening experience using the incidental pieces to balance and join the feature music songs and sequences as per the original soundtrack associated with the film.

As mentioned previously, the process I used initially to recruit artists was by way of the Indie 100 project. This was a good place to start, as there was a wealth of new talent from which to choose. By listening to recordings of these artists I was able to compare them with the original artists from 1971 and decide which artist to approach and which cover song I would assign to them. As the projects developed it was necessary for me to recruit additional artists and personnel using different methods, for instance, by contacting other music staff at QUT and notifying them that I was looking for artists to contribute. I also sought to enlist other professional artists from outside the academic arena to include a variety of contributors in an attempt to make use of as many different artist’s influences as possible. This mixture of skill levels and experience was an echo of the original project and the result is evidenced by the quality and diversity of recordings that have emerged.

Materials delivered as the creative brief to the artist included outlines and purpose for both projects, describing that to test the film as a medium, the artist record a version of one of the

57 songs, then write and record another reflective piece of their own to take the original songs place as part of the new soundtrack. A link to the original film was also given to the contributing artists. It is also worth noting that perhaps if each artist had been given a more concise brief concerning the music piece they were interpreting, outcomes may have been quite different, however, it was important that the onus be on the artist regarding the interpretation of their allotted piece of film. There were some unexpected outcomes.

My thoughts were that each artist would record a fairly close version of the original song, but after the first recording session this idea was challenged. The first artist (Big Dead) recorded and delivered a very different version of their cover to the original version of the song. At this point, it became apparent that the creative focus was already in full swing and that Creative Project One should be encouraged to continue along these lines, as Big Dead seemed to be well advanced in their reflective idiom. This opened up an exciting window of realisation because the true value of each artists way of arranging and producing their music could now be looked at with the added advantage of having more freedom of creativity from the outset of Creative Project One and not just from the start of the responses needed for Creative Project Two. This in turn has led I believe to a more informative and critical experience all round for the artists and these DCI projects generally.

Because these two creative projects were completed through the QUT workplace and workspace, it has been necessary to operate for the most part within the unique framework that is QUT. To be able to work in and make use of a world-class recording facility within a university is extremely gratifying. Access to the studios occurred when it was meant to, with artists and staff always conducting themselves in a professional manner. If there was any equipment required by the artist, QUT staff were always ready to supply and set this up for the recordings. If these projects were taking place in a commercial studio the situation would undoubtedly be different, as there would be other constraints and workplace issues.

Also, the fact that I wasn’t watching the clock due to budget restraints was a bonus for all involved with the recording because we could concentrate on the task of recording rather than being aware of the time limits, as is often the case within a commercial studio scenario. This meant that the artist could take the time they needed to make sure they had completed their tasks as well as they could and not feel rushed. This in turn helped to deliver quality performances and positive connectivity in the recording space.

There are many ways people work to gain and realise results, and this in itself is a kind of learning curve. Going into the recording sessions with an open mind towards the artist’s creative ideas and being willing to let go of any preconception to the original soundtrack was an appropriate way to approach these projects, as it encouraged new results instead of hindering outcomes by way of opinion or control. I oversaw what the artist was doing creatively—I didn’t ask or suggest that they change their approaches to how they were interpreting the projects, so the artist needing to have complete autonomy is how I have tested the effect of the film as a medium. This way the artist was free as a creative agent to explore their ideas and apply their practice regarding the research project. I think that because Morning Of The Earth is ostensibly a research project, I was more comfortable in the knowledge that as the recordings emerged, it was by way of the artist having complete autonomy within the project that was a major force behind it.

The task of mixing the recordings from Creative Projects One and Two has been a fulfilling experience. What I observed through the mixdown process was the emergence of the differences in performance and sonic dynamics per track. What we have now are two diverse and extremely creative soundtracks aligned to the original film showcasing Morning Of The Earth’s influence as a unique popular and cultural medium. Every contributing artist has had something new to offer, whether it be by way of arrangement, instrumentation or performance.

Initially I had intended to mix all the music for both projects myself, but as recordings became completed and interest in mixing became apparent, some mixes were completed by available QUT studio production staff and artists who had also helped work on the recordings. I found that by encouraging production staff to be included at the post-production stage helped shape the project’s standing by strengthening its connectivity between those who were involved thereby presenting a more sonically cohesive result. The fact that there are different mixdown engineers across these two soundtracks also throws open the opportunity to see even more influences via mixdown interpretation, expanding the scope of the film’s influence even further into the audio engineering arena. This differs from the mixdown that took place on the original soundtrack in 1971, whereby all the music was mixed by the same engineer.

Due to the scope of this project (thirty-six multi-track recording sessions plus that number again for mixdown sessions) it has taken three years to complete the recording and mixdown

59 process as time permitted. Subsequently, all audio mastering and laying of film soundtracks One and Two is now complete. It has been interesting to listen to the final mixes of the projects and to see the effect the film has had on these new recordings. The emotional range of the new music opens up new sensory experiences with the film compared to the original soundtrack and film combination, and there seems to be definite trends occurring. For instance, there are moments where the new soundtrack piece may be of a different intensity or tempo and have different instrumentation. These moments that occur throughout the new audio visual journey of Morning Of The Earth, serve to highlight many instances by way of a modern music approach and its connection with the film.

With all the individual artists multi-track recordings having been mixed and mastered, engineer James See and I then started assembling the two final soundtracks. This process involved the need for the audio tracks to be aligned alongside the film by way of importing both the new soundtracks and the film into Logic software program.

For Creative Project One, some artists invariably produced versions that differ in varying degrees from the original, not only sonically and arrangement wise, but also in varying durations. Adopting Falzon’s approach of laying the new projects’ soundtracks into the film seemed to be an appropriate place to start. In saying this, I examined the way Falzon had positioned the music in the original film and decided that a similar technique could work in this instance. That is, by not merely using whole songs in their entirety, but to fade pieces of music used more than once in and out of various segments, as Falzon had done with the original film. Initially, I deemed the song durations of the Renewed soundtrack as potentially problematic, because in some cases they did not align with the original soundtrack pieces time-wise. However, in the original 1972 film the songs were not only assigned to various scenes in total but aligned and /or faded in or out at any point deemed workable by the editor, thereby keeping the combination of film and music alignment flexible, and not reliant on music and film being hard cut together from scene to scene. With this flexible approach in mind, I commenced laying the soundtracks back against the original sequence of vision. The idea of keeping the flow of music and vision needed to be addressed and in doing so, I found that having a flexible plan to support how the music was laid in seemed appropriate and to work well. Where it was deemed suitable, I aligned the first (Reworked) soundtrack in similar ways to how the original film music pieces were placed, but due to some of the first soundtrack pieces being different versions to the originals, this was not always possible, so as

60 the new music pieces were aligned, new points of entry and exit were compared, examined and decided upon, to bring a flowing and connected experience to the viewer.

With the second (Reimagined) soundtrack I had the task of accomplishing the alignment of new music to the original film. This became a very creative and enjoyable task by way of ascertaining the dynamic motion and effect between the soundtrack and the footage as I made decisions on where to place music in the timeline, and as it transpires, the task of aligning the musical tracks against the vision was in its own way very similar to that enacted by Falzon for the original film. This creative and flexible process of syncing music with image created an entirely new outcome and demonstrates how the influence of the original film’s production methods could successfully be explored and transcribed over to these two new projects with positive results, presenting some interesting and unforeseen amalgamations and editing opportunities as the film supports the new soundtracks. Additionally, these outcomes can be tested as emerging data as part of the planned video documentary on the making of these QUT DCI projects.

8.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

It is encouraging to look back at the ways in which contemporary musicians respond artistically to Morning Of The Earth. By inviting current artists to reinterpret the soundtrack to the film, new opportunities to apply creative practice have been realised that may not have occurred otherwise. By offering the film to test as a medium, a fresh approach has been taken by emerging music artists using current recording practice to compose and perform new audio content. When first enlisting the artists to partake in these projects, my brief was essentially a two-part request;

x after viewing the film the artist was to recreate one of the music tracks from the original soundtrack, and then, after reflecting on this experience (Creative Project One); x a response to the film would be created by replacing the original piece with a new composition, designed to fit into the same place in the movie (Creative Project Two).

These second response tracks from each artist would then be made up into a new soundtrack aligned to the original film, thereby setting the stage for the film to be tested as a culturally influential entity.

The first artist to go into the studio approached their initial recording by reinventing the arrangement, making it almost unrecognizable, but at the same time throwing the creative arena wide-open. It appears that while the artist was being influenced by Morning Of The Earth, that the original film can be seen as the medium for this creative energy. Through this experience it seemed that the creativity and openness that were at the narrative core of the film were working on the artist in an as yet unseen way, and I needed to take notice of this and not hinder it.

These were emerging artists that were feeling their way creatively in a contemporary professional studio environment, focusing on their craft, familiar with writing and playing their own compositions. Here we have artists developing as writers and performers of original music, just like those who had contributed to the original film soundtrack in 1971, but with more input and control as to the final outcome of their music than that recorded by John French and produced by G. Wayne Thomas at TCS Studios in Melbourne over forty-five years ago.

8.1 Reflections on what could be done differently

In reflecting on my role as the project executive producer and director, I think that were I to attempt a creative project of this scope again I may look at doing some tasks differently. For instance, in the initial stages of finding potential creative contributors I think that an interview process could have been useful, instead of conducting the interviews at the completion of recordings. This would have given me more information about the artist and their thoughts prior to starting the recording sessions and may have assisted with the outline of my initial brief to the artist.

Also, I think that the preliminary meetings could possibly have taken place in a controlled or neutral environment, thereby setting the tone in a more focused way pertaining to the artists creative role, as initial meetings often took place in social environments rather than academic or professional ones. Having said this, I am seeing that there is a certain controlling mechanism coming into play here by way of a set location, and I am still questioning whether that is an ideal way to approach a creative project in the initial stages. Additionally, there was also the problem of availability with everyone connected in a group or band being able to meet at the same time and place.

The interview approach I used with each artist involved asking the same group of leading questions with open-ended interview style. In most instances I managed to interview artists on the day they completed their final recording session. On reflection I may have been able to plan the interview process differently by requesting the artist come in on an additional day but owing to artist availability, conducting the interviews on the same day was deemed the most manageable way to proceed so as to gather the immediate effect and reflections experienced by the artists.

It is possible that I could have supplied more contextual information about the film, such as links to reviews and other articles referring to Morning Of The Earth, or some exposition of the film’s history and its influence on surfing culture around the world. This may have levelled out the range of awareness of the movie among the participants. Ultimately, though, the outcome that resulted from Creative Project One was an intuitive, creative one, and the research quest—to test the film and its influence as a medium—was not to make identical copies of the original soundtracks.

Additionally, recording may have had different outcomes if I had suggested to the artist that there should be a certain amount of time (fixed time frame) taken for reflection between the

63 first and second project recordings, say for example, three months. Most artists did take time between responses as far as recording goes, and there were some artists that recorded both responses during the same session day—either out of necessity due to time constraints, and/or because the artist had taken sufficient time to reflect between projects and was ready to complete both responses on the same day. Ideally, if there had been a budget available to artists I may have been able to entice the artists to be available at certain points within a time frame, e.g., like being booked or hired for a recording session, so the timeline of the recording project could be carefully mapped out. This is perhaps a professional consideration and not really applicable for a project of this nature, which involved many people (eighteen bands and / or artists) contributing their skills gratis and as time permitted from October 2015, until December 2018.

Although the research conditions were perhaps not always ideal, it has been an interesting and rewarding process to record not only one, but two related soundtracks to the original Morning Of The Earth footage, testing how the film has been the medium for the generation of new music created and recorded using current available and emerging methods; how it has inspired the artists involved, and how these recreated soundtracks have affected audiences who have seen the new films. It still remains for me to do more comparisons between the outcomes of the soundtracks as the consequences become apparent through reflection on, and evaluation of the gathered audio, visual and interview data, ideally resulting in a video documentary encompassing the making of these creative works for my QUT DCI.

8.2 Artist responses to the Creative Works

Musician and songwriter Seaton Fell-Smith from Jakarta Criers describes his experience with Creative Project One, having rearranged and recorded their cover version of Dream Chant by NZ band Ticket:

I think it was a great opportunity to take a song from a completely different era and interpret it our own way and put our sort of spin on it, and I think it was probably a song that we wouldn’t have chosen or mucked around with . . . It was an opportunity to approach doing a song that wasn’t really our style I guess, and really that is the beauty of it—you can take something very different to what you’re used to and have your way with it. (Jakarta Criers, personal interview, 31st July 2016)

This novel experience challenged the artist by introducing Morning Of The Earth’s very unique set of relationships between surfing, music and film, and then allowing these influences to help the artist shape new content through current best recording and compositional scenarios. ‘Surf music’ itself has opened up over the decades and evolved from the classic surf guitar style of the early 1960s to encompass today an ever-widening range of instrumentation and styles. This project continues that evolution.

As artist Port Royal reflected during the interview done after their recording session:

It’s been a big challenge for us and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed the process— improvisation-wise, and our response track, Baby Don’t Know was the first song we wrote subsequent to recording the Brian Cadd track, Sure Feels Good. We continued to progress from that influence to realise the desired outcome and I think that tracking the songs as an almost totally live recording has helped to connect our music to the influence of the film. Also, being able to record using different spaces within the studio, but all connected sonically really helped—we had the luxury of being set up in different spaces to avoid spill, but we could all see each other, so the ‘live’ recording experience worked well for us and our music. (Port Royal, personal interview, 28th November 2016)

This reflects how the chosen production technique of recording ‘live’ has supported the artist in their endeavours to help realise a cohesive working outcome.

Artist Andrew Taylor also found that the experience with Morning Of The Earth pushed the edges of his practice. Working with Tim Van Der Heijde, they recorded First Things First for Creative Project One, and response track, By The Sea for Creative Project Two said,

We did the majority of our arranging at the home studio to an almost complete state, then brought it into QUT to finish. It was the first time that I had done a recording not using real drums and bass, so technology (e.g. using electronic MIDI to trigger samples) actually played quite a large part in the implementation of our music for this project—not so much as a convenience, but as part of the style of music we are influenced by. (Andrew Taylor, personal interview, 29th August 2016)

Even though technology is not the main factor, it can be seen as an important aspect of responding to the themes of creativity and freedom of thought expressed in the film. This was also expressed by artist Zinia Chan, speaking about how technology shaped her recording of Brian Cadd’s Cockfight Bali Reworked, and response track Cockfight Bali Reprise;

I'm not sure how the original was recorded, but I assume through a tape machine. You can definitely hear that more rustic kind of sound in a way. I guess technology these days can play a beneficial role, in that a lot of different plug-ins and outboard gear available can kind of mimic that sound. You can't quite get it as close, but it's a lot easier than miking straight through to the desk and running it through the actual tape machine. It makes the process a lot easier and more comfortable. (Zinia Chan, personal interview, 27th October 2015)

The fact that technology is used as a reference by both Taylor and Chan (2016 & 2015) regarding their music recording process and how it affects the overall sound serves to support the fact that modern recording technology plays a pivotal role in the music’s creativity and final sonic outcome.

Salliana Campbell, musician and songwriter who recorded the Peter Howe tracks I’m Alive and Bm Piano Slide digs into the heart of the film in this comment, made after seeing the two new projects,

I wasn’t aware of Morning Of The Earth until I had the privilege of touring with the live show around Australia in 2012. I became immersed in the songs then, and my inclination to contribute something for this project needed to be something earthy, real, rootsy and spiritual. It’s such an iconic soundtrack. I’ve loved hearing what all the other artists have contributed and the fresh take. (Salliana Campbell, email response, 24th June 2019)

There are many such reflections. Some engage with technological process; some report on themes and mood and emotions; some contain memory—and they combine to provide an overall view of how the artist approached their writing and recording methods and how these things along with Morning Of The Earth helped influence their creative outcomes for the new soundtracks.

8.3 Creative Industry responses to the Creative Works

The idea of recording two new soundtracks being influenced by Morning Of The Earth has provoked some positive responses from those in the creative industries who deem the film to

66 have had a strong influence on them during their careers. David Minear from Bombora Creative, having seen the two new DCI versions of Morning Of The Earth said,

Bloody hell—the idea works well—exceptionally well. Both versions. Being a massive fan of the original Morning Of The Earth I had my doubts, but these have been washed away beautifully. Both new versions give the original footage new meaning, new interpretation and a new sense of worth. Somehow it places the footage in a historic sense (like a social documentary) while the soundtrack is respectful of the past but totally contemporary and captivating. (David Minear, email response, 24th June 2019)

And Terry Fitzgerald, surf industry leader who featured as a surfer in the original Morning Of The Earth film, responds to the two new soundtracks saying,

How good is this? Surfing from the roots, even more timeless with a 21st century soundtrack. Yew! (Terry Fitzgerald, email response, 19th June 2019)

It is clear here that Morning Of The Earth has a defined historic position in our culture, and that the new work has only enhanced what is a very precious memory. By tampering with such an icon, this experiment could have drawn very different responses, but these reflections from people who hold the original in such high regard show that the spirit inherent in the film has permeated the new work.

8.4 Audience responses to QUT screening of both versions of the film

After completion of the Creative Project One and Two soundtracks, both films were screened to a capacity audience at QUT Kelvin Grove on 15th November 2018 as part of the QUT CreateX cultural event. The film was shown on a wide screen LED HD screen with the audio being channelled through a quality sound system. It was exciting for me to be in the audience to watch the Creative Project Two film (Reimagined soundtrack) and then to take part in a Q&A session with Dr. John Willsteed, G. Wayne Thomas (original Morning Of The Earth music producer 1971), Dr. Sean Maher and Assoc. Prof. Michael Whelan.

During the Q&A, one audience member said of the experience:

I've probably watched that movie more than any other movie in my life, and it was very strange at the start because I realised that a lot of the emotion around the movie is tied to the music of the movie, and I just got to re-watch the movie that I haven't seen for such a long time, because when I watch it with the original soundtrack, I'm so taken in by the soundtrack that I forget to watch the movie! (Audience member, Morning Of The Earth screening 15th November 2018)

This strong relationship between the film’s visual content, its music and memory was also noted by another audience member:

It’s an interesting thing, because I think you can't help carry through the music that has already been done—cultural baggage perhaps? That's why we feel attached to this new music. (Audience member, Morning Of The Earth screening 15th November 2018)

The screening also unearthed thoughts as to how the film could have been researched by using a different reinterpretation; as one person stated,

I was just wondering if you thought of letting them (the artists) do it the other way around? Like, recording the (new original) songs, then cutting the film to them. Let them watch the film and say you have to manufacture a soundtrack to this. Then saying to them, OK—this is the original soundtrack. (Audience member, Morning Of The Earth screening 15th November 2018)

I find this previous statement compelling, as it presents yet another way of looking at the power of the original film as a comparative inspiration rather than that of an initial influence. It would seem that the film with the Creative Project Two Reimagined soundtrack aroused interest and discussion for those who have seen and heard it. This being the case, perhaps this DCI project could be seen as a model of practice for contemporary artists and musicians across other disciplines, the researcher immersing themselves in the material, the style, the textures, and the themes of iconic artworks, in order to discover new relationships and to reinvigorate interest in these works. The scope of this project relies on reinterpreting the music—the soundtrack—as this is the medium which allows for collaboration with multiple artists reflecting the original relationship. Other aspects such as film making techniques and editing styles, or film-music compositional practices involving other wordless films, could be examined if one were to undertake a similar project of this nature using different lenses. These and other emerging possibilities could be aligned with this project model as points of

68 departure for other similar creative works being revisited and explored, whether it be music, film or any other discipline of creative works, in order to interrogate our relationship with our cultural icons.

9.0 CONCLUSION

The aims of my Doctor of Creative Industries program were to use the original Morning Of The Earth film as a catalyst for creative musical exploration; to record a new version of the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack with emerging artists; and to then create new original music recorded using practice-based research methods by the same artists in response to the original Morning Of The Earth film. My creative input as a composer and performer into the Morning Of The Earth film soundtrack in 1971 has continued to inspire me now as a director and producer with fellow musicians to revisit this seminal work, and these aims were devised to address the primary research questions that have percolated in my mind over the past fifty years as a professional musician;

Why has the Morning Of The Earth film and soundtrack had such a profound influence on the surfing and popular culture, and how does it continue to do so?

There is a certain role nostalgia plays when reimagining or reworking objects from past eras. The very idea of aligning an existing body of work (Morning Of The Earth) with not one, but two new soundtrack components would seem to place a particular value on what has gone before. Perhaps nostalgia, being one of the lenses through which we observe and interpret cultural media from the past, can also explain why people who enjoyed Morning Of The Earth in 1972 still enjoy watching the film and listening to the soundtrack today. Today we see a growing nostalgic marketplace where film, music, clothes and art resurface and rekindle the imagination of not only those who have experienced these times first-hand, but also of those who are drawn to these things for the first time. By combining the old with the new, the past with the present, we allow ourselves to tap into the core of the initial idea or emotion as seen from today’s creative and technological environment.

Morning Of The Earth is about more than just surfing; it explores the evolving lifestyle choices being made by young people at the time, focusing on industry (the design and employment of surf related hardware), and survival (subsistence through organic agriculture), as well as the urge to travel and experience other places and other cultures. These core themes were informing the artists’ reflective creative responses. It would appear that once we give ourselves permission to be open in the same way the film and its inhabitants are, we can then proceed with the actual task of creating. The inspiration and the making entwine and produce a totally new outcome with its own dynamic range of tangible and examinable results.

The vision behind reworking the film music soundtrack from Morning Of The Earth was firstly to gauge what influence and inspiration Morning Of The Earth might provide to new and emerging artists, and secondly, to revitalize the original music using current trends and practices in the recording studio. I did this by bringing a group of young artists together to create their own versions of these songs, using the latest compositional and recording tools as a way of connecting them to the project via Creative Project One, and then to give them the creative freedom to create a new work for a new soundtrack, Creative Project Two.

Morning Of The Earth has functioned here as a medium, where the content, imagery and style of the original has played a powerful part in inspiring each artist to look further afield creatively and technologically. Just as the original music artists became inspired by the film’s conceptual relevance, so we come to see that some of the same notions embodied in the film are also relevant today, such as the search for a more meaningful and connected living experience through awareness of our surroundings and living more harmoniously. The new artists immersed themselves in the imagery of Morning Of The Earth as a flow of filmic impressions open to individual interpretation, clearing the way for the artist to respond in a current context using contemporary techniques and methods.

That the film itself has enthused and inspired the artist to create, legitimizes the approach I have taken in bringing this DCI research project to life by applying a modern recording process. The act of reworking has presented us with many more choices in how we interpret the film and its many parts. With the Morning Of The Earth creative projects, I am seeing that these choices can be expanded upon as we progress to help us imagine and create new and varied outcomes.

In Creative Project One, the artist engaged with the compositional and recording process by putting together a version of a (probably unfamiliar) song in the context of an unfamiliar film. In Creative Project Two however, the artist had developed a particular attitude or position after connecting to the soundtrack and the film, drawing upon this for their evolving ideas in this new creative context. This evolution was enabled by having time for reflection; by the embedding of theme, message and aesthetic in working on Creative Project One; and by life and musical experience.

Creative Project Two was a deeper and more personal experience for the artists involved. The artist could now reflect and work to create new work aligned with the influences derived

71 from their involvement with Creative Project One’s sessions. In some instances, the artists recorded away from the QUT studios and then brought these sessions in for embellishment and completion, a model which serves to reinforce artist control and the notion of self- production. This differs quite dramatically from the way the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack was recorded, in which a single music producer controlled the general workflow and had some curatorial influence over the recorded outcomes of all the artists, even though these artists were recording their own original music for the film.

It was the Creative Project Two soundtrack that ultimately provided the opportunity for the artists to create new music, shaped by their experiences with the original film, the testing of which I am continuing to examine. With this in mind, there were many highlights during the recording sessions that are documented by way of interviews and field notes as appendices to this paper. I found that the artists contributions were of a very high standard, with thoughtful and considered pre-production and production practices. Instrumentally and technically the work presented was excellent and I was impressed with the artists’ interpretations.

There were also two instances of artists who contributed to Creative Project One but were not able to continue with Creative Project Two. This meant that additional recruitment had to take place. In an example of my role as executive producer, I decided to replace an artist because the style of what was being conveyed didn’t sit well with how I felt the film should be portrayed. Decisions made through my involvement in this project, not only as executive producer but as artistic director were at times not easy to make, but ultimately through these I feel the outcome for these Creative Projects is more representative and strongly connected to the style and expression of the original film as an influence. The role I played in coordinating and supporting the artistic and day to day studio session outcomes of these projects is one that has steadily developed through many years’ experience as a practicing composer and producer of music and recording professional, and which I believe has served to enable me to confidently steer these creative projects to comparable and examinable outcomes.

From my initial introduction to postgraduate research in 2013 relating to this professional DCI; the recruitment process where artists were chosen and introductions were made; the project management of the recording sessions; and then to the final outcomes of the two new versions of the film, this has been a detailed, dense and extremely worthwhile creative endeavour. Ultimately, the enlightening thing is that we have been able to take a creative work from 1972 and through immersion in current practice use this as an opportunity to bring

72 not only the content and vision of the film to a new band of musicians, but to engage them in a supportive creative process that allowed them to connect with the content and find a new creative voice for themselves.

Additionally, as seen, there have been incredibly positive responses to our preliminary screenings by way of the Q&A session held with audience members, and some reflective and positive responses from artists and industry. To be also writing a thesis about this journey is an experience I will look back on with enjoyment, especially towards the artists and staff who came on board to help realise this part of my DCI projects. And now there are two more versions of Morning Of The Earth—one of them has the same film soundtrack but newly performed and interpreted by the project artists, and then there is the second new soundtrack created and performed by the same artists, again not only bringing the music, but the music and the film to a whole other range of audiences.

Morning Of The Earth was undertaken by film maker Albe Falzon in 1970 not only as a reflective work influenced by the music and social realities of the time, but also as a creatively improvised statement with its own inherent values. When asked about how he saw the relevance of Morning Of The Earth, Falzon said,

That’s what music and film offers I think - it offers people the opportunity to be inspired and look at themselves and look at their own truths because that's creativity, and they sit down, and they listen to it and they see it, and it can change their life. And that's the reason I got into the film initially, not because I just wanted to have fun and go surfing—it's because I really wanted to use film as a medium to inspire and uplift people and make them realise—show them—take the blinkers off their eyes and say this planet is a beautiful planet and you have a golden opportunity being here—don't waste it. (Falzon, personal interview, 22nd August 2015)

The strong characteristics purportedly contained in Morning Of The Earth also appear to have influenced the current day artist in their quest to recreate and revitalise the music’s connection to the film and its ideology through their use and engagement with modern compositional and recording techniques. I believe that this opportunity was grasped by our emerging artists, making a new statement, a new film, and that this will have implications in the years to come as other creative works become available to explore and reimagine.

10.0 IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

When the idea of researching Morning Of The Earth was first proposed, the initial question being asked was why has this film had such a lasting presence and influence upon subsequent generations of film makers and music artists alike? It has been demonstrated by way of interviews and references that Morning Of The Earth has never been far from the forefront of surf film ideology, and that this strength of existent belief has also had much to do with the endurance of Morning Of The Earth as an influential medium. Part of the film’s appeal is due to its organic narrative structure, and this is reflected in the way the film was made, and also how the music was integrated into the film. This connected organic process required a committed and thoughtful effort from all those involved, from the director through to the surfers and music artists, without whom Morning Of The Earth and indeed these two creative projects would never have materialised.

Similarly, the collective outcomes from my DCI project model could be looked upon as a speculative body of work available to be referenced by musicians, students and researchers alike, regarding future iterations of this style of project; whether it be testing music, film or other creative artistic media which help to identify and expose pre-existing cultural works as important influential events. There are a range of films in pivotal genres; whether they are surfing films, road movies, gothic horror etc., where soundtracks could be revisited and used as a stepping off point for new artists. It's not just contained to film; it could be that there are land-mark creative works in a number of disciplines, whether it is theatre, dance or any number of creative works where artists can take this model and apply a creative process working with contemporary artists to breathe new life into seminal repertoire.

At the completion of Creative Projects One and Two, and as the new content is explored, compared and tested, further research will ideally involve additional interviews with the artists reflecting their experience of seeing and hearing the two new soundtracks and, what they feel has emerged through them from being involved with these projects. Filming of artists took place during the recording sessions, which captured various aspects of their workplace environment—the studio and control room—and showing us the way that the artist delivered their creative content. This data could be used to outline the construction of DCI projects as an additional avenue of research.

The next iteration of this work could be the production of a film where a documentary can be created from the body of archival footage already recorded and available from interviews and observations conducted, creating an in-depth record of this process to make explicit my re- creative journey to a general public audience. In addition to the proposed documentary film, it is possible that new research into the cultural connection between music evolution and global societies linked to the world’s oceans be explored by way of an ethnomusicological enquiry concerning geographical music origins, related forms and influences up to the present day.

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APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: Albe Falzon — Historical Interview Transcript

Interview transcript: Albe Falzon (2015)

Interview with: Albe Falzon re ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on 23rd November 2015 at Albe’s home in Eungai Rail, NSW

ALBE FALZON:

The thing with this sunscreen is that it’s made by this yogi who lives in Bali – it’s all natural ingredients right? You can put it on in the morning before you go surfing and you’ll come home at night and it’s still on and it’s unbelievable – I don’t know how they’ll ever have any commercial success because one tin last for ever – I’m still using the first one—no chemicals..

It was unintentional that we did that – but, in a way that’s how we were living – it’s not like we set out to do a sustainable film about the beautiful environment. I think that embracing the fact that we wanted to make a beautiful film on surfing, really covered al he ground. And these aspects came through on a natural way, like the alternative form of living. So people and surfers were exploring that area and moving into those areas at that time in their migration from the city to the country, and the country soul in surfing that took over at that time, there was a real movement towards natural living, so with—out realising it we just followed that path and filmed it..

The only thing I had in mind was that I wanted to make something that was inspirational and beautiful, and that was it you know and keep it in a natural simple way which I think is what we achieved but you know, we didn’t have a piece of paper with all the points and what we were going to do in the film, it just unfolded really naturally like that..

I think your life has a purpose.. everyone’s life has a purpose and some people realise that purpose early, and some people realise it later, and some people never realise it and I was really fortunate in my life that when I was 15 I understood the purpose without intentionally thinking “Oh what’s the purpose of my life”..

I just had this purpose that was in there and it unfolded and came out through the way that I was living and through surfing, and through the film. So I was fortunate to follow that purpose, and the film was the result of that. And I think if people who see the film can get that from the film, they follow their heart, and do what they love, then the purpose of their life will unfold naturally, whatever it may be, whether it’s music, art, literature whatever and I was really blessed in a way..

TIM GAZE:

I think about that and I think about what happens to other people and whatever information they might have if they've grown or if they're young, or they might have a thing where they want to do music or they might have thus other information come in — and they think yeah, music' like this, make sure you always get paid, make sure you always do this, get that etc — and all this info, for a young person — that can really start steering you, and before you know it, you’re looking at all the things that don't matter as the things you think matter and you wonder why you're having such a hard time because you're not focused on your heart..

AF:

Yeah I think that's well also it's a ceiling, you know, it's like it’s kind of stopping you from expanding in consciousness. It's like the outcome has to be controlled and we were fortunate with the film that we never — we didn't have a control stick, and we didn't have a ceiling — we had no—one over the top of us saying well, this is the way it's gotta be, we weren't really in for the program of the government, and the education system and the religious system, and the economic system. We were kind of naturally finding our own path through that. We were kind of snaking our way through all those gates and it was easy for us to be alternative, because we were alternative — we were living truthfully, and I think that's why TRACKS Magazine was successful at the time, because it reflected the truth of what people were really interested in, and I think that's why the film was received the way it was, because it touched that note that exists in everyone, but you know , we caught in the program! (laughs) Ya gotta watch out — is it the green pill or the blue pill??

TG:

The real stuff — it's like the more you find out about that the more you want to follow that..

AF:

Yeah that's the truth

TG:

It's what works..

AF:

Yeah..

There's no religion higher than truth, you know and that's the thing about life you know, and we stumble through it when we are young we're caught up, you know, they put you on the program, so often you don't get a chance to develop your own inner qualities, they're suppressed, and I escaped from that because I didn't subscribe to the education system. I left school and surfing was the vehicle that helped me do that, because when I was 15 and just

83 starting to wake up, and started surfing, and that really woke me up, and I jumped out of the education system and that was the best thing in the world for me, then I became self— educated by following my own path and direction and exploring other areas, and it took me round the world twenty times, and I did the things that were natural for me, and they worked because I was truthful. And I think that's what young people—it was kind of squashed then. I don't know what it is now—I'm sort of disconnected to a lot of that now, but I think you've just got to let creativity flourish. Sometimes it's just better to allow people to find their own way through the jungle, cos it is a jungle out there on that level.

TG:

That's interesting. I was talking to a person today, how is /was in an education system, but they were all for people being spontaneous even though they said, well ideally a student needs to know how to do this or that, but in the end, what I want them to be is spontaneous with they're creativity.

AF:

Well that's why I think now, the Steiner schools are a great education system for young people because they explore those possibilities in young people. I mean if you're young and you go to a Steiner school for example and your inclination is to pick up a guitar, or a camera, or a paintbrush, then they give you all the tools to encourage and to help you develop that, instead of putting you on the program, and just putting you down the path where, you know, you become a cog in the wheel. And I would have probably stayed in the education system you know had my parents been , you know a bit more aware—they were really poor you know, I'm sure the Steiner schools were functioning , or just beginning to function then, but if there was a Steiner school available at that time, I would have loved it, but it wasn't to be so I went surfing—that was my Steiner school!! (laughs) There's something about Steiner..

TG:

There's something about Albe — (laughs). Yep, I'm doing an interview with Albe, and I've been told, that Albe's a hard man to catch and you've said to me on more than one occasion when I was trying to organise the times for an interview, “If the surf is running mate, I'm not around”, and I just go, that's just so good, that's great, because that's your passion, doing for you what it needs to do for you in return for it.

AF:

It makes me happy and I think it's important that we be happy in our lives. The Dalai Lama said that everyone deserves to be happy and you know kindness and happiness are really simple things and it's not like you need a university degree to understand that . But if you can live your life you know being happy and kind to people, then you're automatically in

84 harmony with those people and your environment, so everything works for you. You know it's like it’s almost like it's magnetic because you set up the field then and attract that to you. Now if you go down the other path, where you turn on the television it's fear, fear, mayhem, mayhem, look out, we'll watch you, well, you know, that's not taking you anywhere. It's like it's almost reversed in a way, it's so bizarre, so I just go and surf, because it makes me happy, and if I'm happy I can influence and help other people, just being happy, then that's infectious because it's like a domino—if you give it's like your music—you play good music to someone and they feel good as a result of that music, then they're going to go home to their family or they’re going to go to their girlfriend or their boyfriend, or they're painting pictures, it's going to be a better picture as a result of your contribution. It might only be a drop, but we have no idea how much that drop effects people and change their life. So surfing for me on a day to day basis cos I only live today —I mean I live totally in the moment and make no plans and adjust everything according to that day, and then if I can go surfing during that day, if it's possible, then I do it. If someone said to you if you only had one day on planet Earth, how would you like to spend it? You start to think about the things that are really important that make you happy and make everyone in your vicinity friends and family happy, I think I'm just going to sit down under a tree and play my guitar all day. I think I'm going to paddle out at Crescent Head and ride some waves..(laughs..) When you close your eyes late on you just go 'thank you..'

I mean I've had waves at Crescent Heads, I've surfed waves and I’ve come in and I've gone, if I was to die right now I'd be really happy—it's not that I am, but like, one day I will, like all of us, but how do you want to go? You want to live moment to moment so when the time comes, you just fly—you're not there with a drip in your arm complaining about oh, I just lost all my money, you know it's gotta be joy and go for it—that’s' what music and film offers I think—it offers people the opportunity to be inspired and look at themselves and look at their own truths because that's creativity and they sit down and they listen to it and they see it, and it can change their life. And that's the reason I got into the film initially, not because I just wanted to have fun and go surfing and it's because I really wanted to use film as a medium to inspire and uplift people and make them realise — show them — take the blinkers off their eyes and say this planet is a beautiful planet and you have a golden opportunity being here — don't waste it..

And I think that's underneath it all, that's what that all is about and your contribution was important to it—I was listening to it the other day and it was just a really good thing the way the music comes together. I mean, it's just incredible when you listen to it. I watched it two nights ago for the first time—I had to get a cue sheet done for it so I listened to it again, and I hadn't done that for a while because you see parts of it, but I watched the whole thing again, and I thought, you know it's just amazing that there's ebb and flow of the music through the film—it’s like a wave—it's like the ocean—you get these beautiful melodic pieces, and you've got sort of classical instrumental pieces there and then you've got like Jimi Hendrix type pieces there with Ticket, Gamelan and different things — you've got such a variety of

85 sound in it you know and I think that for me, the sound is a narrative—you know, of the film, you know, it crosses all boundaries—you don't really need to describe to people unless you're making a full dramatic film.

TG:

That was what was so different about your film at the time, was that there was no spoken word or dialogue. It was narrative—one moment..

AF:

That's all it was Tim — one moment..

TG:

That was very exciting when that opportunity came around — I remember how excited I was just as a kid, you know, 17 or 18 years old and it was great, it gave us and Lindsay as the main writer, like just—the way he interpreted—I just couldn't believe how well he interpreted what the film gave to him and what he gave back musically—because we were rehearsing it and going through it—I just though this is beautiful—Bali Waters is a beautiful piece of music and wherever this came from, however it's been inspired, by yourself, and then Lindsay—to someone like Lindsay who went 'yeah, that’s what he does’—it was wonderful— so open..

AF:

Well some of it too you know — when I look at it the way it was technically put together as well, there are moments in Bali Waters where it's so perfectly in sync with the footage — like — there's a scene at um its Rusty—you're playing a long with the tune and then Rusty comes up and there's this lift in the music and he come up from behind the wave and surfaces on this wave that he's riding—just as the music moves into this other dimension—and I just looked at this again the other night and thought this is so perfect—you know we didn't lay the tracks and cut the music because we didn't—it was kind of a reverse way round—I can't remember actually doing any editing to tracks—it was like we cut the film and then those sections were given to various people and then the music was composed looking at those sections and because of our time frame at the end I don’t remember ever fine tuning it—it was just like OK we'll just marry it—the editing was in the music so it was up to the musicians then to interpret and have those ebb and flows in their tracks to fit in with the changes in the film— normally it's the other way round—you lay the bed down, and then you cut the film and ideally as a film maker that would have been perfect for me because then I could really fine tune it. But none of the film to my knowledge —I can't remember was done where I had the beds down and then cut the film. Pretty amazing.

TG:

You were doing other things as well — you were experimenting with that technology then — you were doing like, big slow motion triple handling of film and I'm not sure what you would call that technique..

AF:

Yeah, triple printing and slowing it down because I didn't do much in camera — I mean we were pretty limited and we were relying on the effects to get those dissolves and the speed right and the colour tones and so on — which in today's world it's like, effortless — you can do a thousand changes in 5 seconds you know, but back then you couldn't do that — my mind was actually into the technologies that are available now — in the process of laying the effects and so on at were thinking like me that were more technically inclined and then started developing up these programs and now the programs are available to every single person on the planet to make a film..

TG:

Anyone who's got a Go Pro..

AF:

Yeah, they just go and make a film — like in BANG —

TG:

I was at Noosa last year and I was on the beach — it was about 5 o'clock in the afternoon and I'm looking out at the surf and I thought I saw something — what that? — there's a flash of light coming out of that wave — what is going on — flashbacksville or what? And there it was again and then it clicked — the guys riding the wave had a camera on his head and he's filming something — oh, of course — a Go Pro — so they go out in the day and film stuff, come home in the afternoon, edit it and put it up on line and it's done in like, 3 hours and I'm thinking, is that making a movie? I guess it is. I don't know — there's different ways, isn't there..

AF:

Well there is because the thing is, it's like um Francis Coppola said it— I remember when he made Apocalypse Now, and his wife made that film and they were interviewing him afterwards and he was talking about the film makers of the future. This was like way back before any of the miniature cameras were available and he said the future is not going to be in Hollywood, it's going to be by young kids who are going to go out and make these films. And he said they'll just be available everywhere and 30 years later that's what's happening —

87 every second surfboard on the ocean has got a little Go Pro rig on the front where you put your camera — and everyone is a star in their own movie. You know, filming themselves inside barrels and doing things that — you know and they 're really good — I mean it's really hi tech and hi quality..

TG:

It's the same with music these days as well..

What do you think about MOTE soundtrack being released a few different times and then the movie being released a few different times re-edited? Then the film Spirit of Akasha with Andrew Kidman etc. How did you feel about all the re-releases etc? Were you surprised, puzzled, glad?

AF:

I'm pretty detached from it actually — you know I think it is what it is, and I live my life now, and it's great in a way, because it's like, your first love—it was my first film and I said pretty much everything I wanted to say in film. I mean, I could go back and make another film now and it'd be different, but it'd still reflect the same thing. Basically it'd just be about the beauty of the planet, and you know I think if people can get that out of it and they are uplifted by it, then that's great. For me personally, I'm pretty stoked if someone paddles by and — they don't say much but they look up and go “I really love your film..” you know, out of the blue — you're out there surfing in the water and, you know, it's just — it's really I think it's probably like painting a picture — you paint a picture for two reasons — you paint it because that's who you are, but you also paint it because you want people to see something in it and that's something that you want to implant in the film or in your music, or in the painting, is an intangible quality that I think is running and existing through all of us which gets lost, and that's the beauty of it. If people pick up MOTE and use it in any way they want, now, go for it. You know, that's what it was made for. It was made for people to look at themselves and the beauty of the world, so I'm kind of humbled in a way that someone (Warners) wants to go and put half a million dollars in the making of a film now (Spirit Of Akasha) about the making of MOTE and where does it fit into today's world. And that's cool because you know, they had another look at it, but you can't actually step back into that again — it's like a different now and then — it's kind of different.

I still feel the same — probably I'm a little more refined in my thinking now, than I was then, but I still basically feel the same about life — it's just a bit more ingrained and I'm firmer and definitely on the path now — I don't step off the path now — totally — you know, when you're on that wave, you're on that wave.

TG:

When I first started doing this Uni project, and it was suggested that I should perhaps do a — you know, some kind of a doctorate, whatever, I went oh, a doctorate? What am I going to do? What can I do ? (laughs) And then it was a guy out of QUT, one of their legal people, who was a surfer, Brian Fitzgerald. He knew who I was, and he knew about MOTE and I met up with him through one of my supervisors, Prof Phil Graham. He said Tim, before you go darting out around the world trying to research all this stuff you think is there, (Albe laughs) — try looking at your own history and going back to see what happened with you back then with that film and your music, and I just thought — huh?? He said that's where I should be looking — you were there, you've experienced that. So thankfully to him, and Phil, they pulled me up a bit and presented me with an opportunity to focus on an attainable starting point for my project and thesis.

AF:

Sometimes we look at greener pastures and we just want to go over there, but it's right where we are, but we just don't see it. Sometimes it takes a little hint from someone who can go 'why don't you just have a look at that'. And you know that happens all the time with us but we miss it most of the time — because people are too preoccupied with their mind and the destination where they are going — they lose sight of where they are —

TG:

They're not back here where they should be or could be I guess..

AF:

I think it's really important that people stay focused in that..

TG:

Well it's great being able to work with some young artists — young music artists — the ones that I've recorded music with so far for this project and that I've interviewed, all reckon that this is a great idea. They are all really glad to be able to do it — they're glad of the opportunity, and they like the idea of doing a version of one of the tracks from the original soundtrack and then thinking and reflecting about that and then doing another original one later to take the place of that, to make a new soundtrack. IT's giving them really good ideas and positive outlooks.

AF:

I wonder why there is that interest with young people in looking over their shoulder and not looking where they are or searching into the future — they're kind of— there's definitely a

89 group of people on all those levels of creativity, where they look at periods back there — you know and I wonder why that is —

TG:

Maybe because that's back there, that was all new and emerging musically and ..I get the feeling sometimes that at this point with music in the world, or some music anyway, that it's become really simplified again or something — it's almost like it's at a point where some people are going, what else are we going to do here — where else can we take this or where else can we be inventive, or what influences can we use ..

AF:

Do you think creativity is being stifled by the overload on technologies and information that's available? Do you think it’s actually part of the program, where it actually limits you rather than opens you up? (Great question Albe!!).

TG:

I've got a feeling that's partially true Albe..

AF:

We didn’t have that in the '70's — we were all open, you know it's not like — and now, it's streamlined to such a point that it's like how I was talking earlier, everything gets condensed in, and being condensed like that, you're sitting in the middle of it and you can't actually see — the intuition's not functioning because you're lower mind is so caught up with what's going on, you're being bombarded all the time on all these different layers, and you can't actually see — you're intuition is being stifled — you can't actually create something — you can't create the new music that's waiting to come through — because of the overload on the information that's squashing you into that little atom.

TG:

Forty years ago the tools that we used — you know the difference between picking up a guitar or playing and instrument — the difference between that, and then being in a situation where you've got a bank of computers, and hardware and electronic things that do all these different controlled functions — is like they become the instruments to a point and you can be technically controlled. For instance, you might be sitting doing a recording, and instead of just recording it on a medium and that's that, you might record it and go, wait a minute, that sounds a bit funny — I'll just go and edit that — the next thing you know you're doing all this hard deep editing and you're spending all this time editing one guitar note —

90 and that's not the flow of musical spontaneity coming out, that's getting technical and stopping..

AF:

Well yeah it's getting caught up with the technology and losing sight of the essence of where and what the music — of where it's coming from and what it's trying to tell you and say ..

TG:

Some of them get a balancing act where they go 'Oh no — I'm still in touch with my music — I'm still doing my music — I'm still playing, but I'm going to have this technical stuff too — and like it's not unheard of to have — there'll be people with several different technologies — they'll be working with them all at the same time..

AF:

Yeah.. I like that story of Bruce Springsteen when he did his demo at his house for his recent album — he did the whole demo of all the tracks he wanted — took it into the record company — they loved it, then gave him a motza of money to go out and redo it, and they redid the whole thing with all this technology and all the bands and everything behind him and when they listened to it, they went back to the original demos and released that..(laughs)

TG:

That's right, that's right..

AF:

I think that says it all. You know, really — I mean, so it's not really the technology that makes the sound, its' you — it's the artist..

TG:

And first ones — those first renditions you come out with ..

AF:

I think that was with John J Francis— I don't remember if it's true or not, but I think that's what John J did with Simple Ben. I think Wayne said that they'd been recording in the studio and he did a one take on it late at night and that one take of Simple Ben was the one that we used in the film and they said, let's just do this, and they did it and that was it and that was the one and it's such a classic piece you know.

*NOTE — Since this interview John J Francis has recently told me that it was actually a recording that he had done in his own studio which was the one they used for the MOTE soundtrack.

And I think that's what's great — in listening to the music — cos I'm you know, I don't understand how the clock works — on anything, cameras or cars or music — but I know what I hear and what I like and I can hear the subtleties in sounds and shifts in tones and colours and things like that — and for me that whole soundtrack — there's a rawness — there's a quality to it in its rawness — today, you don't get because we have so much available to change that note — like you said — you spend that time going into that note and getting that one note right — and you get it right, but you lose something —

TG:

You can get it right, and then everything either side of it doesn't sound right again so it’s all weird — it's a weird thing..

AF:

And I think that we kind of in a way — not we, but I think at the time because of the technologies and the instruments available, there was a you know, oh let's just put this down late at night 'cos we're tired and we've got this one track and we want to finish it — do boom boom — there — done. And I think there's a lot to be said for that — it's like, if you get inspired to do something, if you've got an empty canvas, and you've got the paints and you just go over there and you paint it up, that's it, you know and it doesn't matter how many times you overload it, doesn't matter how good the paint is, it's that moment that you put that paint on the canvas. That's the decisive moment in creativity and I think it works on all levels, whether you're writing, you can rewrite a sentence a million times , but it's the first note that comes to you I think is the most important note — whether it's a note for an entire project , like a 90 minute film — for me, it was make something beautiful — that was the mantra and because I loved surfing it was easy after that — it was easy, because I just photographed beauty the way it was travelling up the coast, so you get it down to the real essence of what you want to say, and then covers everything. I think that a really...

You know when I went to India one time to make a film it was really interesting — years later I went to India to an ashram to make a film — I had no idea — I was on a plane and in 24 hours up in the Raja Yoga Centre up at Mount Abu, in this beautiful place with rose gardens, and everything, and I went in there and they said just come in and make a film — I had no idea what kind of film I was going to make — no—one gave me brief — I was on the plane and out of there in 24 hours — and I was sitting in tis rose garden with this lovely older Indian man, and all the teachers there were women — their average age was around ninety two years old, and they were radiant — been yogis all their lives, from the age of eight or nine or ten — sure as the day is the day is bright, beautiful crystal clear eyes and just

92 gems, you know — didn't say much, but just beautiful — anyhow, I was sitting out in the garden and the only man there was the teacher — I said I gotta make this film toy know — I said well, what would you like me to do, he said, just make it beautiful. That was my brief — (laughs..) I thought, oh, OK — that sounds good — so I spent the next three weeks just wandering around — no—one telling me or guiding me or directing me and it was just and incredible brief to have — ( laughs..)

I mean, what do you want to do with your life?

TG:

I want it to be useful, I want it to be of value to those around me, and to myself

AF:

Well that's important..

TG:

It's like what I said to this lady I went see about teaching today, she said, well this is kind of what I'm looking for, but what if I want to be able to contribute some knowledge across here in another area, and she sort of went, we may be able to do that, but she wasn't sure about that — and I'm thinking well, you need to be able to contribute ..

AF:

You know sometime people come up to you and they say well, what are you doing? You know, or what are you going to do? I have a bit of a problem answering that question — about what am I doing, and then occasionally I'll just ask myself, and I'll look around you know, here, and I'll be sitting here and it's really quiet and I think, actually sometimes you're making more of a contribution by just sitting still — and actually doing nothing — you know, and I think that every thought you have in your heart and your mind goes out into the world and beyond just like every thought you have comes into your mind — from outside..

So being here in this place, sitting here — it's kind of like if you're in the program, or part of the program, you can feel like you're making no contribution, because of your isolation — but then I feel more unified with humans and the natural world and the cosmos by being isolated — here — and I think intuition is really important on our lives you know, as creative entities I think that it's like Einstein and Mozart, you know the great scientists — you know — I just think that the contribution you can make often comes by just being in a quiet space outside and inside of yourself.

And that's when you actually hear the sounds that make great music.

So having said that, I feel unity through isolation as really and important quality for absorbing intuition and thoughts that can make a major contribution to our world. You don't have to be on the program — you can be totally separate from it you know, and away from it — it's just being awake and in touch. And I think that's why people surf, whether they recognise it or not — I think it takes them to a place that they don't get on land, and it's very subtle. And maybe musicians get it when they play or mountain climbers get it when they walk up a mountain, or people that walk through forests and the natural environment — they are hearing things that are putting them more in tune with their real selves — and it makes them in a way forerunners for the rest of humanity, because 98% of humanity is on a program — they're on program and they never get the opportunity to develop their intuition — and that's where the great works come from — the great pieces of music — they come from you being tuned into these wonderful fields that are available to us and then bringing them down through your mind to your brain to the strings and then you create this sound — it's like painting pictures isn't it? It's the same thing, and I think surfing allows people the opportunity to be more intuitive, because when you get on a wave, what happens is, you empty your mind — you become mindless in a way which is really great because when it's open like that, it's receptive — you hear things — subtle things that come into you. This is why I think that all these great surfers like Kelly Slater, and those people — sure, they're on the program, but you know — can you imagine, he's been inside this vortex of energy more than most people on the planet, and there's a part of him that's on the program because he's a realist and he's got to live in the world and pay his bills etc., but there's another part of him that's highly tuned, and it comes from riding waves. And great things come from that.

TG:

I know what you mean about that thing — about emptying your mind — I feel that when I've been surfing — I don't surf a lot, but the last time ...

AF:

You get it through music ..

TG:

I get it through music, but I don't get it through music how I get it through surfing—it's a different thing — it's more effective — the surfing thing does more — whether it's the oxygen or there's something about it — it's like it's that feeling of empty clarity — especially when you're coming out of the water — when you're out there—by tapping into that, it's like your freedom..

AF:

It makes you a better person — it reinforces who you really are — because you know what — the program programs you to — pulls you — it programs you to — and that's the way the system works — all systems are like that— that's what they do — they work to make everything function — this is the system and it's working a certain way — but with every loss there's a gain, and with every gain there's a loss, and I think that surfing's a you know — it keeps you tapped in to your real self. And that's what I love about it and I think if you're a musician or a doctor or a scientist it's just going to make you a better musician, or a better scientist or doctor, you know — it's a beautiful thing to do, and our life is just like a little window — and it's great to be able to create all these things, but you got to enrich your own life as well — and look at the joy you have been given, which is a little window on planet earth for a short period of time..

I don't think it has to do with realising your mortality — I think it's an awareness that come from being awake to life — and in a way you can shut down to a lot of the things , but when you shut down to a lot of those things that exist in that plane that we function on as humans, at the same time it opens up other things that are available to you and those other things that are available to you enrich your life enormously.

TG:

Yeah, they are more tangible than you realise..

AF:

Yeah they're beautiful—like, there's no going back — once you actually get a taste of that there's no going back. It's like anyone surfing — once you get a real taste of surfing what is does for you on an inner level — that really subtle feel of riding a wave and being disconnected to the world but connected to those finer feels, you never — that's why I think people go in whether they recognise it or not, they keep going back and riding more waves because it takes them to a place that they feel really comfortable in.

That's why I surf man — I just — it just takes you to a beautiful place — we're limited — we might have one minute — we might have a thousand years — Tibetans say nobody knows what's going to come next — your next life or your next breath— which is going to come first? Age has nothing to do with it and that's a realist point of view so you don't waste those moments, you just stay really close to the things you love — if you love playing music, just fucking play music — just play music — don't think about how you're going to earn money or how you're gonna live, play music and it'll come to you — all those other things will come to you—you love it and that love, then becomes the expression through your work — and people respond to it on every level ..and that's how I live now —I mean I've always lived like it, but I'm much more conscious of it now because I realise that we only have a limited period of time here, and we've been fortunate that we're been able to have these great opportunities to create things along the way — and it's not going to stop because one of my

95 dreams, or ideas was that I wanted to grow old gracefully, but at the same time I wanted to be creative right up until the time I died — and part of that was to be healthy, so that I could function, creatively, and right up to the time and the window shut in this world, I could do really nice things and create things you know, and there's no stopping that for anyone that's really creative — you're a musician — you can die with a guitar in your hand playing a song — I mean, there's nothing to stop you..

It doesn't deter me at all — I'm so open to life and what it offers — I mean Tony Hussein, who I met in the Maldives, when I first went there shooting a film in India, he was living there — this guy from Maroubra — and he went there on a voyage around the world and he sailed in there with his friend, and it was heaven — beautiful waves, no—one there, and they're surfing on these thousands of islands — all empty — and then they went off to continue their voyage and then a month or two later he said to his mate, I'm going back to the Maldives — and he went back, and he never left there.

And he married a Maldivian girl, converted to Islam, he had children and surfed all his life there and he kept sort of quiet — he just lived a really quiet life, but he told some of his friends in Maroubra and they came over and surfed there, but he had surfed there for twenty years on these unbelievably beautiful picture post card waves with just a couple of people and his wife and children and he lived there and had a really beautiful life, and then he decided I'm gonna share it and open it up, and he started telling people about it and they opened up Atoll Adventures I think it was, and then everyone started to — now it's a big destination but, but one of the islands he loved most that had this left hander and right hander on it, the left hander was his favourite wave and he had any choice of hundreds of locations, so he built his house right on the point of this island — he was such a beautiful guy Tony — and when I went there he said, 'oh, you know what?

Why don't I meet you tomorrow morning and I'll take you out in boat to some of these little places — he said I saw MOTE — he said and it was a really beautiful film and I'd just like to take you somewhere. An the next morning I went out with him, he took me to these islands mate — and they were so close together, and every wave was like magical — it was a perfect day — rights — lefts — crystal clear water — sun out, light off shore — it was like a dream — he said' where do you want to surf? ' wow... yeah but one of the islands he surfed that was his favourite place where he ended up building his house, and he opened it up, then five years ago I went over there and stayed with him, and two years ago he was surfing there and he went out and he was really healthy you know, really beautiful family, and he went out to his favourite break, got this incredible head high or bit bigger wave, surfed it all the way through, did a pull out, had a major heart attack with a big smile on his face and dropped dead on the spot.. fuck, how was that?

That's what I man about living your life — you know, being absolutely 100% true to your self — you know, he was healthy, everything was — he was so kind to people, he was so

96 happy all the time, gentleman, had a beautiful family, you know, followed his heart, and was out on a beautiful day, and that was the way he left this world, and I just thinks that's really important you know — you're going to leave the way you live — and I think it's really important to make decisions in your life where you just follow that path and that', if you’re playing music Tim, stay there — surfing's really important to me and man I love it, it’s like you know, it's the closest thing I'll get to playing music is riding a wave — and that's what it is — and everything after that is just no problems — you can do whatever.

END

APPENDIX B: Brian Cadd — Historical Interview Transcript

Interview transcript: Brian Cadd (2015)

Interview re: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on 2nd February 2017 at Brian’s home in Byron Bay, NSW.

TIM GAZE:

Hi Mr Brian Cadd, thank you for having this interview today with myself, I very much appreciate it, about my Morning Of The Earth thesis and my testing of the Morning Of The Earth film as a medium so to speak, so thanks for doing this today.

BRIAN CADD:

Cool.

TG:

Now Brian, you have been quoted as saying that, as far as doing the Morning Of The Earth soundtrack goes, that 'the brief was, there was no brief'. Do you feel that this way of looking at realising the soundtrack was a supportive and free way to work, alongside the way the film was being made by Albe at that time?

BC:

I think they actually, although we didn't know at the time, I think they actually went hand in hand. The fact that theirs was a very analogue way of doing things, a very what you find is what you shoot and then afterwards you know you put it in the film, it suited the way we did the film, it suited the way we did the music. So when we got approached, what happened was Wayne asked me, he'd heard about this TCS, Big Goose, and all of those players and it turned out to be Duncan McGuire and a lot of the guys from Doug Parkinson's band, and we were all doing lots of stuff. We were doing lots of jingles and things, we were doing lots of jingles and things at that time, in TCS with John French and it was really a fabulous little team and we got to do a comedy duo album, and you know we did the Bloodstone album for Russell Morris, we were all just flying along there doing it, and so he rang and he said "Listen", G Wayne rang me, and he said "I've got the project - Warners have given me the project and I've recorded some stuff in Sydney with some surf people, obviously meeting you guys and others, and he said but "I've got a whole lot more that I want to do. I want to come to Melbourne and do some stuff". So I said okay let me sort out some songs and whatever and he said, "oh no no, we'll just do it in the studio." And I said "Well, that's not sort of how I write." and he said, "Well that's how we'll write this one." You know, he was pretty, you

98 know he was pretty, definite about, you know that we would do it that way, and I guess what he was trying to do was not have any of us have millions of preconceptions, you know? The free-wheeling film itself would've perhaps been laughed at a bit if it had've been a really structured, you know what I'm saying, a really structured traditional...

TG:

Like The Endless Summer where there was a narration 'now we're going to here and now there. That kind of thing?

BC:

So it actually just fell into place in the sense that he'd be, we'd just sort of say what about we talk about the remoteness of the surfing world in terms of the regular community, and that sort of stuff was really easy because musicians automatically fall in that place. That's what they, that's where they operate. We were way outside the centre of gravity and loved it, it was great. So the idea of doing the film which was also about that, enabled us to write songs like 'Come With Me', things like that, for me anyway, and then 'Making It On Your Own' was a similar vein in the sense that I sort of imagined what it would be like to be living in a surfing community. It wasn't something that I'd ever done. But I was trying to make the parallel between living in a musician's community which is not dissimilar in a lot of ways, they depend on each other they don't depend a lot on normal outside people, they run separate races from society. Or similar I would have thought, and that's how those kinds of things worked for me in terms of coming up with the songs. The interesting part about the recording process was that we were actually basically all anarchists, we just all had this whatever will be will be - and the same went for John French. And I imagine that's what he would've told you too. And the same with G. Wayne - G. Wayne, God love him, he just basically let us go and turned up every day and would say perhaps 'Maybe not quite that long' or 'Maybe we need to solo longer', but that was really what he was doing, the rest of it was just up to us jamming these tracks in effect. And you can tell by some of the tracks they sort of aren't really ordered. They're not organised. They go for a while then they...

TG:

Sort of just drift...

BC:

Yeah and then they ..let's have a bit of a sing. And they were really done on purpose and a lot of the time I wouldn't have all the words you know, and we'd just sing the same verse you know and then you'd come in again and afterwards we'd go, when you think about it because it'd only just happened the majority of the idea. It wasn't like I sat at home and wrote all these things and then turned up at TCS. I might've actually had a bit of an idea in the car on the

99 way in or I might've had a bit of a play before I came in and maybe gotten a little bit of a melody but certainly not fully constructed, nowhere near. And in that regard one great thing was, three great things were, 1) G. Wayne allowed that process and 2) John French recorded all and everything all the time, and 3) the players actually were almost like an ensemble group of actors - they just, they just played the audio scene until the end. So it wasn't 'Oh Geez if we do that again we won't get on the radio!" There was no concept of it being on the radio! It was only ever about fitting into the film.

TG:

That's really great to hear that. I didn't realise that it was so much like that for you and with the music then. This is the first time that I've ever talked about it and that's great. That's really good because that really supports the way that the film was being made and what Albe says about how he went about making the film. He just had this - something about - I just want it to be great stuff. I just want it to be really good, but he had no preconceived ideas about it so, it's interesting to hear that you say someone like G. Wayne who had done pop stuff and structured stuff in his career as an artist I guess you should say - to be turning his thinking like full 180...and saying to you, well here's the brief - there is no brief. That's really good.

BC:

Yeah. There is no brief! And you know that fabulous laugh he has...And you'd say to him well, where should we go with this and he'd go, well you tell me? That's a dream project - like I don't think I've ever had that happen more than a couple of times in my life. The only other time it happened, really, and this was much more structured than this, but then that was with Alvin Purple and that was because the director had no clue about what the music should be. I mean I - this may not finish up there - but I went into Tim Burstall called me in to do the album and to do the soundtrack and we had a spotting session, which we never did with Morning Of The Earth. We never even saw it we were just told about it, but this one I went in and he said, 'Okay now just take some notes'. And he goes through and he rolls out the credits and he said 'See that there? Where the door shuts? I just want what, what there!' So I write 'what, what'. ?? We'll come back to what in a minute. And then she's going on the tram! When she moves everything I want what what what what!....And right then I realised he didn't have a clue about anything. I was absolutely handed a free rein. But that was a free rein with a movie that was already edited and timed and everything.

TG:

OK. Alright.

BC:

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The structure in the studio was really traditional, really traditional. We didn't have ???? back then???? We just had time clocks so we'd go..this is a seventeen second stint so we'd have to get it, so it'd finish up at seventeen seconds or better still so it finished up at sixteen you could put a bit of an echo fade on it. And they go 'Oh perfect.' With Morning Of The Earth we had none of that we were absolutely uncobbled by anything.

TG:

Yeah. Which is fantastic really!

BC:

Stunning!

TG:

No restrictions. No restrictions on what you can create and how you do it or for how long.

BC:

No. That's right and I think that it's fair to say that it was a combination of the people involved that allowed that to work, because you could have put that same situation in any number of studios, in any number of cities, with any number of musicians and if you had've picked that traditional arranger, maybe something like Bruce Rowland, it would never have happened. He'd have to see the vision, he'd have to find out how long it is, he'd need to know when the guy fell off the surfboard and that's not about what that film was about. It's not a direct reference to the film. It's sort of ambient referent if you like.

TG:

More supportive.

BC:

Yeah. Musical ambience which is sensational and its great fun but they were in the forms of songs and the reason that they're in the form of songs is because there was no dialogue. I said, that's when G. Wayne was first in, I said so well are we going to get to hear what the dialogue is, and he said 'Oh there's no dialogue. It's just a film about surfing.' It was so far away from any of our limited experiences in terms of what we'd done in the studio with film before. It was for us, as you said earlier, it was a complete 180 degree turn for us too, but a most welcome one.

TG:

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It was timely too I guess because you had artists like yourself and John J. Francis and Peter Howe and Tamam Shud or whatever, different people, all kind of artists of the time who were emerging at the time as well so the style of music that was going on lent itself, or the way that those people all worked - because they all did it differently to what you're talking about. Some of us saw some things, or we were told there was a scene about Bali in it, we'd like a bit of Bali or what about this? Or John J recorded it himself, he had a song he did himself, he recorded himself. In those days it was almost unheard of for a musician to record their own stuff in the studio. It was very, only just starting to happen.

BC:

Yeah that's right.

TG:

And the style, I come to the country thing because I read something that Albe said the other day about some of the music and the way that the surfers were portrayed as how they lived was because they were living in the country as well. So I thought about your style of music - not that your strict country but - you have a bit of a nod to that area in your style, definitely.

BC:

Oh sure.

TG:

And I thought that's interesting that that's sort of joined up as a thing as well.

BC:

Well I think, yeah yeah, and perhaps the two points there are that A) we were all up and coming, that we were all not really tied down to specific images. I mean you guys had the best image out of all us because you guys were at least an established surf band, you know so.

TG:

Supposedly.

BC:

Yeah within the framework of how music was back then, you know and I'd come out of this ridiculous pop background, with nursery rhyme songs and stuff, and then Axiom was a bit more. And that was a bit closer to the country rock thing. I suppose it really was, wasn't it?

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But so it suited me on both those areas and I think that the idea of tying in ostensibly country and country rock kind of artists and writers particularly, whether it was absolutely planned or whether G. Wayne just lucked onto it as to whether it happened because he just got all of us and that's where we went with it. And I don't know enough of the background, because I only know what happened with us. I don't know what happened to any of you.

TG:

Well initially Albe approached Tamam Shud first and said, 'Would you guys do the soundtrack to my new movie?' Because he used to drop in to the house on the way home and whatever and we went "Oh yeah, sure', and then it came about that somehow David Elfick had got involved with Albe and then one thing led to another, and then we were told there's going to be more people on the soundtrack and initially, we went - Tamam Shud went 'Huh? What do you mean?' but then the more I thought about it, that it was great how that happened really. Because that really opened it up across the current music that was happening at the time in Australia. So to involve all more artists was really a great thing.

BC:

But it was a pretty good A&R call because the artists that were on that roster could clash and there could have been. You know if G. Wayne had been under the thumb of Warner's A&R for instance, and I've got to say Paul Turner gave him, he said the same thing - we have no expectations - there's no brief to this - let's just suck it and see - so he got a great record company cradle to lie in to begin with, but if you think about it if they had've been a much more tenacious A&R approach then he wouldn't have been able to have just all of us reprobates, there would've had to have been a Colleen Hewitt or a Doug Parkinson or a... Which wouldn't necessarily have been bad...

TG:

No but it wouldn't have been the same.

BC:

No it just wouldn't have had that same raw feel where, 'We don't really know what we're doing but we're having a great time' feel. And the more ordered it would have become the stranger I think it would have been for Albe to even fit the music in. Because it wouldn't have been free flowing it would have just been, you know...

TG:

I think that's what enabled Albe to continue with it. If it had've been like that he would have felt those restraints straight away and, I reckon he just would have reacted and gone 'Ah this

103 isn't working for me' because he loves that spontaneous flow stuff. He's right there with that when he's talking about his film making, so it was a really different outcome for all of that, that was really good how that worked out with that. Well we talked about - how do you see your musical style connectivity with the soundtrack, well we mentioned its country kind of thing but I guess there's more of a spontaneous thing really, that we found out.

BC:

Just as a little codicil the idea of it being, as you said, driven by the concept that surfies were basically swimming hippies, hippies - surfing hippies - lifestyle wise and they lived a very alternate lifestyle and you know in the back of Kombis and on the beaches and I don't know how really how true all that was but I have to believe a lot of it was, there was a misconception in fact about that being country because country in Australia in 1972 was cows and sheep and apple orchards and you know, so this would not have been a strictly speaking country lifestyle even though it was not in the city, do you know what I mean? And also not country musically because in our, you know, fairly sad little scene back in the seventies, I don't mean any disrespect to anyone, but our country music scene all through that period just lay there. There were no Troys .. We weren't that long getting over that, what's that guy with the mad hat?

TG:

You’re not talking about Slim are you?

BC:

No the one before him. The one with the big buck teeth?

TG:

Oh, Chad. Chad Morgan.

BC:

Yeah. They were still doing Chad Morgan and Slim and digging that sort of symbol or ilk so it wasn't country music oriented so much and it wasn't country lifestyle in the traditional sense of both of those. So both of those turned out to be 'alt/' as they would say nowadays.

TG:

Yes. Yeah. Because they were doing things like, as you see in the film, you know there's, you'll see some people - some surfing people and they've got their house somewhere, presumably on the North coast of New South Wales not far from the beach, you know, in an old house.

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Might've been a cow or two around, a bonfire, growing a couple of vegetables, shaping a surfboard but they were out there...very simple—looking for that.

BC:

And communal.

TG:

And communal. Yes.

BC:

But not within the greater community. Separate from the greater community.

TG:

Definitely. Away from the cities, I'm leaving the city and I'm going to go and get some truth, that kind of thing.

BC:

And I suppose there's some reflections in some of the lyrics and so in terms of that search because it was in the greater picture - it was the same with all of us musically, you know in the sixties, we all went through the sixties and did all the things we should and shouldn't have done, and went all the places musically that no-one had ever been before. So if there is a subtext perhaps that is it. That you can do this by defining it musically or by pictorially or you can do it sociologically, you could say the bigger truth about all this is how people lived within that community, and then music came into that community you know because whether it was just then with a transistor radio on around a fire at night, or a bloke with an acoustic guitar or they all went to Manly and saw you guys playing - music was a very, very powerful thing for them.

TG:

It was in fact. That's interesting you say that because I've noticed with surfing community things through the years that a lot of times if you - say you go and do a gig somewhere and that's just like surf-related people, they tend to support you more than like a general rock'n'roll thing. It's more that they'll know where you were twenty years ago on this day, or they were there or they've got these albums or they've got this and, and they're very, very supportive musically I've found.

BC:

105

That's right, and I can tell you I think a big factor in that is the ownership. They own you - not that they really own you but your theirs, you're one of them. Not in any great difference I suppose in the old days in the fifties in the States with the R'n'B people, or even the blues fraternity and they're audiences were generally segregated perhaps in the forties and fifties but nevertheless they were absolute, they were so passionate about it that they would really support whatever was going in those days. That was one of the secrets of Motown was that, you know Motown became a Black Label. A specific mainstream pop Black label. So they've immediately got millions of black Americans on their side, you know so they'd look in the charts and they'd watch the Motown and the Chess Records first before any of the milk and toast CBS stuff, you know. Don't you agree?

TG:

Yeah that's right.

BC:

So I think in a strange way - not in a strange way, and in exactly the same way surf music claims its' musical heroes and in that way we'd support them, much like instead of one act - a whole bunch of acts and not a whole lot of fan clubs but one big fan club.

TG:

Yes. Yes and the amount of times that people actually voice that and say, "The Morning Of The Earth Soundtrack, man - you know that music to me - what that did for me, I lived my life'. I've had people say, 'I've put my life in that direction - that's what made me do things or follow this or it was the soundtrack to my life.' You know, that's what they say. And that it made them think that way and it made them aware, it just seemed like it was a real eye- opener for a lot of people. It brought that awareness out for a lot of people. They loved it.

BC:

They were already doing it, it was already here, you know up the coast, all over the place. But it wasn't consolidated, and maybe the fact that that movie was such a startling movie for its time, it was so powerful and so strong and so successful and all-encompassing, and maybe that was not only a focus for them in terms of their communities, like saying god there was a lot of us, but we've also got this endorsement from mainstream you know, music people you know they love this. This is our life and they're writing about it and they're talking about it and they're singing about it. Instead of being those who were whacked out around a campfire at nine o'clock at night on a beach somewhere these people are in the studio and they're making songs and writing tunes and lyrics and it's all talking about us.

TG:

106

Sort of semi-legitimising the stuff that wasn't legitimised.

BC: I'm telling you I think they found that a, I don't know it's hard for me to know but, but I think there's every chance that they found that really supportive for what they were doing and a bit of a nod - not from the establishment because we certainly weren't that, but at least from people in a different but similar playing field, or playing area that, you know, cause we did, I remember us, even though I come from Perth and I was a surfer only as a kid and that's when they had boards the size of Kombi vans, you know, so most of us, we'd surf at Scarborough and places like that and we'd just body surf, but we did. We hitched there and surfed after school.

TG:

So there's still that connection..

BC:

So the connection was I sort of got it but except that the community wasn't there then. Just everybody who surfed. But there wasn't the alternate lifestyle. That was pointed out by the film and confirmed by almost another set of alternate lifestyle people.

TG:

Right. There's the connection.

BC:

Right there. And that went 'bang bang' on both levels and so everyone was in the same place and if I could just tell you this story, let me tell you this story, and I don't know how relevant this is, I don't know whether I've told you this before but in the nineties, I came back here in the mid-nineties and my son and several members of the family were living in Los Angeles at that time, and he was about fifteen or sixteen or something and they had this shop, this store called Valley something....Valley Works or Valley Sports or Valley something. Valley Surf. Valsurf. That's what it was and they were massive surfing stores where you could get everything, you know, you could get all the boards, where you could get all the other stuff and the thing and the t-shirts and you know, all that stuff. And they had tons of music and there were a lot of these, there was a chain of these things all up and down the California coast and, but they also had skateboards and he was a mad skater right? Skate boarder, so I went in there to get him a new skateboard. And I noticed all this surfing gear in there and in the middle of the store there was a locked see-through glass box cupboard - big display case and in it, it had all the albums you could get, CD's and things and then there was a whole row of surf specific DVD's, and there were two copies - boxed copies of Morning Of The Earth. So this is 1995, this is LA, this is not anything to do with what we did and there was a kid on

107 the jump there, over there who was about to try and sell me something, who would've been lucky to be twenty-one and I said to him "I can't believe those are there! That's an Australian release!". And he said, "Oh no, that's not an Australian one that's THE one." And I said "What? I can't believe you guys know it?" And he said, "Know it" he said "That's absolutely seminal. That's you know, kids my age watch that movie. We own that movie. We take so much out of that movie in terms of how we create our current lifestyle", and I'm thinking, 'God I wish Albe was standing here!' Because that stunned me, that! So I said, "Do you sell many?" and he said "Oh yeah we have to keep ordering it all the time. They have to keep making them, because we can sell as many as we can get". This is '95.

TG:

And this is in another country, this is in the US.

BC:

Admittedly southern California is sort of not that different - it’s like an annex of Australia, or we are an annex of them if you like because we have very similar lifestyles and that was directed at the surfing fraternity, like we were talking about, but I just thought out of all of the stuff that's happened, that was happening then and then happened subsequently, looked at all the surf films that have ever been made this twenty-one year old kid is telling me that THAT film is the seminal surfing movie!

TG:

Unbelievable!

BC:

I'm saying it because I had no clue what we were talking about! And he got his skateboard.

TG:

That's wild!

BC:

Isn't that wild? And I don't know that I've ever told that more than a couple of times.

TG:

I don't think I've ever heard you tell that one, say that before I don't think.

BC:

108

And what's really annoying is that I didn't put it in the book now that I think about it. Anyway.

TG:

Oh well, you can have this one back! That's great. That's really terrific, that kind of leads me actually into the soundtrack to Morning Of The Earth as you say has actually been released several times since the 70s since it was made in 1971. What, do you know what triggered the idea of presenting Morning Of The Earth as a live show for the first time, I think it was 2009, I'm not sure, '08 or '09 was it, the first time? And, so what triggered that? Where did that idea come from Brian, where did that instigate - where it started?

BC:

Absolutely. First of all you don't have to give me that story back. I'm glad if you use that story. Please do! I'm not gonna write another book like that so better that the story comes out somehow.

TG:

Oh OK..

BC:

So anyway the way that happened was, because my wife and I happened, and that's exactly what happened. It wasn't anyone else's, it wasn't like Albe thought of it or like Warners tried to rejig up the soundtrack again, or you know any of the film companies wanted to have another go. It wasn't like that. When we got together, we got together because of Morning Of The Earth, as you know and then once we'd gotten together and we were living together and all that sort of stuff, I don't exactly know but I know that she had the original thought because she just said, you know this Morning Of The Earth stuff, I've been listening to it - that was one of the first albums, might've even been the first album she ever bought and she remembers going on the train into Brashes in Melbourne and buying it, she was fifteen or fourteen at that point. Even younger perhaps, and she was from suburban Brighton in Melbourne - she didn't surf. I always found that so amazing. That so many...

TG:

So she's connected up with that as well.

BC:

Yeah! And I couldn't imagine why people who didn't surf or didn't ever see that community...

109

TG:

So it's gone across the culture a bit, hasn't it?

BC:

Oh a long way across. But she still didn't know terribly much about the movie and certainly didn't know anything about Albe, or even the journey that we all took to get all those things together. But you know as we were there together all the time and we gradually started talking about it and she—you could tell she was fascinated on two levels. She was fascinated because it wasn't a traditional - you think about it as a promoter. It's not a traditional soundtrack.

TG:

No.

BC:

It's a whole series of amazing either pieces or story/songs. That's a promoter's dream. You know to be able to put half a dozen acts on a big stage and then to unbelievably to be able to play a film that doesn't have any sound. God! That's like two kisses from God right there, isn't it? You know in terms of starting with the idea for a show and then from then she took it to Chuggy, and then Chuggy said 'Let's do it' and off we went from there. But I have to say that as far as I can remember there was never any other impetus to talk about it other than the two of us.

TG:

No industry stuff, nobody from with anything to do from the film saying anything, nothing like that. It was all just realised.

BC:

One of the great things about her dream was because she wasn't from our era. She was way, way, way after us but she saw perhaps more than someone from our era would, she saw it as a stage show instantly. But not a stage show that you put in a theatre, but like a rock show, like, you know, like a big rock show which is exactly how it turned out in the end, and when you think about it I think the only people who had ever done it before her were the Elvis Presley family, and they still go around the world doing this, because my friend Ronnie Tutt the drummer is in the band.

TG:

110

Oh is that the one that I've just seen recently being publicised there's an Elvis show?

BC:

Yeah this is about the tenth time. They go all around the world and they do exactly the same thing. The difference is that they have stripped Elvis's voice right, so he goes on and sings on a film or a video, and the band plays it on stage. And that's the only time as far as we can find that anyone had actually done live music to static film and this was like a DREAM version of that because it had no rules! So she didn't need to be tied to anything, she didn't have to look at the script of the film in order to figure out how to do things.

TG:

No restraints so she could put the film, put the stage show together how she needed to, as a producer, I would say, and that astounded me because when I realised how much work had gone into that and all the things that had been timed, and all the other bits and pieces that had gone into it, it's quite a complex piece of work, that stage presentation.

BC:

Unbelievably so. And they had, you know quite a few people, Jamie Rigg was invaluable as the conductor if you like, the MD, because he was the one, he was the only one that had the feed. The rest of us, when you were told to go onstage and you played you just played your song. It wasn't up to you to fit into the film, you had nothing to do with it. Like I didn't. All those other people who were involved backstage were the ones who had to keep making sure that I didn't play in your song, and you didn't play a solo in, you know, Lior's song. So I think it was, how about this, it's probably as unique a theatrical opportunity as the film and the soundtrack were in their own right.

TG:

Ah interesting, yes indeed. It's great isn't it that that came from that and it's got just as much depth in it, framework wise.

BC:

It reached across twenty, oh no thirty years or something.

TG:

Yeah. More. Yeah more. Seventy, eighty, ninety, twenty, that's thirty. Then up into the forty, over forty because it went out after that as well.

BC:

111

So it reached over forty and it reached across time and connected.

TG:

Yes!

BC:

It's absolutely amazing!

TG:

That's fantastic really, isn't it? I was going to ask you what you thought about, I don't know how connective this is but I put a mention here to the reimagined film Spirit of Akasha that came out, and that was almost like a forty year nod to the original, to Morning Of The Earth but it wasn't called that, and it was a re-recording. They actually re-recorded the soundtrack with newer artists I guess and they had even some other things from the original artists as well I guess. Not sure whether that's totally relevant, what about if I say this? This interview and that's what it's about - what I'm doing, this is for my university stuff so I'm testing Morning Of The Earth film as a medium by re-recording two soundtracks with new artists, that's what I'm doing. So they record an original - a version of the original that they want to do - they do their own version of it - and then they come back with another piece that they've written totally away from it and then I'll make a soundtrack up out of all those pieces, so I'm testing the film as a medium. The footage - how the film actually affects their musical thinking I guess you could say. From that angle how important do you see Morning Of The Earth's effect as a film on Australian popular culture - Australian popular music culture. I guess we've been talking about that a bit but it seems to connect. How do you see that?

BC:

You don't want me to connect the two films?

TG:

You can if you wish.

BC:

Well it's probably better I don't because I'm not a fan. And I found the process...

TG:

Whatever you say is interesting.

112

BC:

Well I found it wasn't, I mean I really liked everyone involved in it and that, but I found the process too strict. But I'd been there before - you and I were in the original line-up so you know, our version of what a Morning Of The Earth film should feel like and be like creatively and everything came from forty years backwards across the abyss, in fact it was more than forty years at that point, whereas the people who were making the new film were a lot younger than us and they came at it from a viewpoint of being in a very very very established music and film industry, and that can't help but to steer them in directions that we didn't have. And if we go back to all the earlier things we were saying that would be my negative feeling about it and also this is not sour grapes because God I love people recording our songs and it's absolutely fantastic but, I wondered when they started with some of those new artists whether the new artists were really even vaguely from that world or whether they were people that the record company had decided or the producers had decided they're young and happening so they should sing Timmy's song and he's a guitar player so he should play on Timmy's other song.

TG:

So it was a different, it was a different platform totally from the original?

BC:

I found that the only country thing about it was where he lived. What was his name?

TG:

Andrew?

BC:

Yeah Andrew. It was a really big place with cows in the rear view. It was an actual working farm, you know!

TG:

That's right.

BC:

But it's here it's around the north coast.

TG:

113

It's interesting how the younger people, twenty years younger have come up through that and that opportunity came up for him to do that, and then the bands that have come into that and the way it was put together, um, I guess he might've tried to get some of the spontaneous thing but a lot of it probably wasn't like that, as you're saying. It wasn't done in the same way.

BC:

And it's really fairly impossible for it to be, you know it was a totally different world. But this is just something I'll make as an observation and you know, you just use the bits - it's just kind of relative in the sense that there's a show that Amanda's just done which is with the Sydney Symphony and that was a Bowie show. When Bowie died and the Sydney Symphony asked her to put the show together it was because it was couched from the Sydney Symphony over if you like, and it was as much about getting the Sydney Symphony things to play, you know which is a great motivation, but when she decided to put the people together in the cast she found people who had connected with Bowie. Not just artists that she wanted to have on the stage show that could have sung Heroes fabulously, but artists who actually were fans like Deborah Conway, and Timmy Rogers they were absolute fans, and their brief was 'Don't be David Bowie but give us the essence that you felt when he turned you on'. How's that for a brief?

TG:

Great!

BC:

And if you saw the show you'd see, I mean Deborah Conway and Tim particularly were just stunning because they did exactly that. And Deborah for instance is a woman and you know singing very intense male Bowie personal songs. It was stunning and I think the true, the reason that worked is because they were asked to interpret what the songs meant to them.

TG:

Right.

BC:

Now I'm not sure that happened on Akasha, I don't know I could be wrong.

TG:

All depends, I don't know how the ideas were directed with that, I'm not sure, but that's great to hear that though.

114

BC:

Yeah it's an interesting point, isn't it?

TG:

It is. It's like handing back the, that's like saying to the artists well you're the one that's experienced the energy, let it go through you and experience how that's going to be?

BC:

Tell us how it is from your paradigm. Only your paradigm. And that's what's wrong with when people put together Beatles shows, the endless Beatles musicals and theatricals and things like that, and they go 'Now who are we going to find to play George?" Don't find anyone to play George, find somebody called Alan who can only play Alan but he can tell you what George means to him. Anyway I could go on and on about this?

TG:

Yeah well that’s great.

BC:

So what was the original question?

TG:

Because I was just saying how it's gone across the culture I guess - Australian popular culture really and we've kind of established that.

BC:

Well there's a thought about it, and the thought I had about it and really only when we started to do the Akasha thing together, and we were fooling around and stuff and I thought at that point I thought, and I'd been going backwards and forwards to Nashville and I was experiencing what was then not anywhere near the same size as it is now, but the very beginnings of Americana, and it wasn't a genre at that point. It was just a few radio stations and some radicals like John Prine and John Hiatt saying well we don't want to be called country because we're not. We're American roots artists. And everyone went well what's that? But gradually over the space of maybe ten years now that is now, actually Americana is now more powerful internationally than country music is, and it sells more numbers which is amazing. Who would've thought that?

TG:

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So it's almost like a truth, it's almost like a truth coming through it all because it's solidarity in that it's kind of real.

BC:

You think about what we were talking about fifteen minutes ago that in Australia you could say that Australian surf music became, built its own genre in the same way and that over the course of these fifty years since, you know, it's been around, because it's been around through Bombora and all The Atlantics, I mean it didn't just start with us. You know the whole thing has been going since forever.

TG:

Of course.

BC:

And music involved in it has been going forever and a long time. But over the last forty or fifty years it’s become its own genre. And I think you know that's a very powerful thing for a form of music to be, not to be something, and this is what's wrong with us now, is that everything gets lumped into pop or rock or RNB, rap and if you don't fit into any of those things you're dead in the water because they have no way of thinking outside of that square - well if you don't do that we can't get you on one of those radio stations...

TG:

Or, well what are we going to do with you?

BC:

That's right. Why would we spend the money on you if we can't promote you in this predefined promotional track that we've designed. So what we're doing is we're saying in order for you to be an artist for us you have to be an artist that can travel along our pre- destined lines. That's the wrong way around, it's always been the wrong way around. It's always been the other way around. You could never say to Paul Simon - I want you to make an album for me and because I want to sell it in the Grampian Mountains, you know or I want to sell it in Sweden - nobody told him what albums to make. He's making his own albums. Anyway that's a bit of a bugbear with me but I think it's powerful.

TG:

That's true though, it's got to come from, well it might sound funny but, it's got to come from the heart of where you need to deliver your creativity. If it's not going to be like that it's got

116 no substance and it won't stand up anyway and no matter how hard you try to follow that predetermined line if you're not there it's not going to be, it won't be there.

BC:

And that is why I think because the formula became reversed that now the formulaic stuff that's happening has a cut off period. It might be thirty-four year old’s or forty-five year old’s or whatever, and there's an enormous, I think it's younger than that, and you know our kids the great majority of them don't like what's going on now, and even our eighteen year old has many more artists and people from the past than he does of what's now and he's like right now, you know. And you know my forty year old sons they're Led Zeppelin freaks and they have been since they were sixteen. So I wonder whether what's happening is that as this part of the industry plots or charts these courses, these narrow choices, courses that head towards narrow radio and narrow media and narrow performance opportunities, are gradually going to get kind of sidelined because look at all the little great festivals and things that go on now, you know, Coachella's full of everyone from The Stones down to fourteen year old's in terms of artists and it's the same for the audience, and they're not following any channels they're just following the music. It gives me a feeling of optimism in a way that that's happening.

TG:

I hope you're right that's good, that's a good thing. That needs to stay strong for, especially for young people's spirits I think because they've got to know they can be creative it's so important for them to be creative about what they're doing and not just being told this is the line, because that's not going to work. Unfortunately I guess I - you see it with schools and stuff as you would have seen yourself I guess, that there's less arts supported and less music. They don't do art - kids, they don't do Art anymore in the school, it just takes up too much time. No art.

BC:

Hmm. And resources.

TG:

Yeah definitely whatever. You know it's got to be more kind of, and I go - I love it. You know I love it. Every time I hear my kid play the piano I just go 'Hallelujah! More of that!" Playing music or whatever. Or Dad we missed our guitar lesson! Oh okay alright. So or even playing stuff if he's being creative. I just figure it's so important that he's following his spontaneity to help him, you know to help kids realise their own plausibility and possibility as to what they can do and what they can contribute in a creative way you know.

BC:

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And they still haven't, they haven't had their uniqueness beaten out of them but they will if they get into the traditional record companies’ structure - company structures that are now, then... And it's so sad to see them on some of the television shows and these are really great young singers and great young players and they're conforming to the line that's being driven, not by the major record companies that owns the major soundtrack for the series but the television people as well. And television people always been like that. If it's not this kind of a sports show it's not going on in the evening, it's going on at 11 o'clock in the morning. They determine the creativity. That may not, that's probably not a bad thing with television but if we go full circle back to where we started with all of this, we go back to the time when creativity drove everything. Your record was as clever as you were. And they took that clever record and they threw it out there and the audiences decided it was clever and they bought it.

TG:

It was believable, a lot of that time was a lot believable. I saw a venue the other day, that had like twenty posters, twenty bills, about who was performing at their venue over the period of the next month or so, and I went along and as I read each one it slowly dawned on me that each one of those posters was to do with a tribute show. Except for one - which was an Australian artist - as my wife said, 'Well he'll probably just do a tribute to himself anyway'.

BC:

That's what they're becoming.

TG:

But I thought that's pretty, it used to be - it's like original bands had kudos and cred and it was interesting and it was creative and people went along and enjoyed it all. They loved it for what it was because it was different - it was new and different, but now it seems to have changed it's like well, a lot of it does anyway. I see a lot of live show stuff, live band stuff seems to be a tribute to this, or a tribute to that or a tribute to this. I'm not saying bad or good, I'm just going 'What about the other stuff? What about the original stuff and what about the artists that follow that? Not much room for them at the moment I feel.

BC:

No I did this show up on the Murray last weekend and it was a show that had a very, very broad range of young kids. It was on the river and it was the end of ski season, water-ski seasons so there was young people there and oldies and ancients and you know, went all the way from sixteen to all the way onward, and I got to talking to a few people after the show and one couple who were only in their sort of forties or whatever it was and they said 'We were just so happy that it's not a copy of you. We get so few actual artists here. We get all the music but we don't get any of the artists. And I thought, you know, that speaks volumes about

118 the fact that a) the young artists aren't being able to drive audiences into venues, you think about it because if they were like when we were young, our audience went out every chance they could and danced and bought records, and signed t-shirts and you know, they were nuts about it. These people aren't - they can get it on their phone and on their ear pods. They don't go to audience, I mean shows - they don't go to shows. The people who go to shows are the people who didn't get to see Creedence Clearwater and they didn't get to see Bowie and that wasn't even because they were dead it was because their era missed it. They were two or less, so it seems to me even though it's a rotten system, it's a good nod to the music of the periods, because it is virtually the only way they're going to get it and they're not interested in what's going on now.

TG:

That's really interesting. That's really good so actually that makes a lot of sense. So they are passionate about it but they didn't get to see it live so it's the next best thing I guess to seeing it live.

BC:

That's all they got. And all of us who were around when the original was around gives us, makes us nuts. In essence it's a great nod to Creedence, and all those cover bands, all the Queen cover bands.

TG:

Yeah, to live performance.

BC: Yeah I mean we know how great it was because we were there. These people weren't able to be there so they go along and see reasonable facsimiles that keep the music alive. That's a positive. It's not a system I like but it's positive.

TG:

Interesting take on that. That's good. Good observation Brian. Fantastic. That's really good. So I don't really have any other main questions, that's pretty good I think.

BC:

Alright.

TG:

Are you happy with that? Do you think? Would you like to add anything yourself or have any observations to do with? I mean...

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BC:

The one last observation is that when we did the shows, when we all did the live shows, the most startling thing about it and it’s not really, when you think about it shouldn't be startling, but in our musical world under normal circumstances this very rarely happens that we'd look out, and I remember we did Bluesfest and I'd looked out into the audience and there was three generations of surfers standing there all together in a family. You could see someone my age who's obviously the Grandfather one, and his son or daughter or whatever who was there, and then there was a son or a daughter or a couple, and they're all standing there together and they're obviously from the same family, so that film and our music started with Granddad and it's as fresh today for those kids - they were all singing. I don't know whether you noticed it but they were - everyone sang all the words all the time! Regardless of whether they were eighteen or eighty and THAT'S pretty powerful!

TG:

It is. It is indeed! More proof that it's an enigma really.

BC:

It is. It is. It's absolutely an enigma. There's very few parallels.

TG:

Wonderful! Thank you Brian for today.

BC:

Thank you darling.

TG:

Thank you for that lovely interview. Terrific.

END

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APPENDIX C: Chris Moss — Historical Interview Transcript

Interview re: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on Monday 6th July 2015 at EMG offices, Suite 2, 29-33 Pittwater Road, Many Beach, Sydney, N.S.W.

TIM GAZE

Hi Chris, thanks for doing this interview today. How did you first get involved in the Australian record business?

CHRIS MOSS

My time goes right back to 1977 and I actually started there with what was the Australian Record Company that became CBS records, and I worked for them for 20 years — and then about 1999 went across to Warner Music and was there for about 8 years. Each company would do mutual compilations etc.,

TG:

So with MOTE, back when it was made in 1971, I was talking to G. Wayne yesterday who said to say hi and I assumed you were connected with MOTE when that was being promoted back then.

CM:

Well the thing then was that basically the album was actually released pre me being involved with record companies at all and my primary association was through Albe and surfing because I've always been a surfer — a surfer first and so I had a relationship with all the guys and things like that when it was put together , so that was the relationship and then as fate has it or irony, I ended up working within the record company environment — and then when I moved into work with Warners Music it was a time when we remastered all the national archive — we had a budget where that actual soundtrack was remastered and looked after and the film was restored and everything else — and at that time in 1995 we put together and released a 30th anniversary package. So as afar s the nation archive is concerned, MOTE is considered and historical artefact from Australian history and has been restored and slotted into the archive as such, which is really quite remarkable. And the other thing is — the scenario with albums within record companies, is usually they have to sell a certain amount per year for them to warrant it staying in the catalogue — and that number has changed over the years, but it's got to be enough to make them want to continue to do it and I think I could

121 comfortably say that MOTE is one record that basically has continued to remain in the record company's catalogue for the 45 year period — it's never been taken out of that catalogue.

TG:

What was your reaction when it clocked up that gold record in those days for a soundtrack?

CM:

Well remarkable really — it was just such an incredible thing when it hit the deck — I mean — what actually happened is of course it was right in that nexus where surfing was changing dramatically and Nat Young was having such an unbelievable impact on everything that was going on — and Bob McTavish and George Greenough and that transition.. So it was all just happening at that time, so the amount of excitement and stuff that was going on with that alone and then for there to basically be a movie to be made at that point in time — the impact of that was just extreme for everybody — it was a game changer for the whole world. And the thing was that Australian music was like well Doug Parkinson was coming to the fore and it was getting stronger and stronger and you know by design or by default what actually happened — when Duncan McGuire and all those great musicians — you know, the whole album ended up being made by who were the best musicians in Australia at that time, and they were all revered and in different bands for different reasons and circumstances, so it was the perfect storm in that the revolution that was happening in surfing and the revolution that was happening in music all met together and the end result was something that is as powerful today as it was the day it was done.

TG:

To hear that being said by you Chris is a really good thing —I mean that really bolsters hat a lot of people think and it solidifies it.

CM:

Did you see — in the package that we did in 1995 — we redid the booklet and it's a 30 page booklet, and what I did was I got G. Wayne to do the tree of all the musicians that played on it — I might have it here somewhere — I'll have a look for it and see if it's here..

TG:

Where you involved in both surfing and music at the same time or did you come to these separately?

CM:

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Surfing was the first thing — it was always the escape from everything of course and you know, I'd done the years of trawling through from Torquay to Coolangatta and Gold Coast and all that sort of stuff and travelled the country and dragged the family all over the world surfing — and was just lucky enough that it sort of came at a time when I had to get a real job it was within music. And my first entry into music side of surfing were with CBS records at the time — and Nat had done the History Of Surfing. So he'd written a book and then he wanted to put the book to film which they did a great documentary on that — and of course Nat basically approached surf historian Stephen Mc Parland for his historical knowledge of all the recordings and film etc., and we worked together and went through all of the amazing amount of early recordings of guitars and things like that — Australian acts and artists and ended up putting together that soundtrack which is an embryo of the big hits of the day and the moment with Little Pattie and Russell Morris — we sort of had a synergy there with The Denvermen and all that type of thing — and those specifically related to surfing.

TG:

It's wonderful to look at the early Australian surfing culture — there is such a wealth of material and so many people doing things in those days — and as we see with someone like Stephen Mc Parland putting the history of it together and having all that content there — it's a mind blower when you actually see his archive — and you didn't realise there was so much going on ..

CM:

And so much — I mean he's put those volumes together Waltzing The Plank etc., and I think he's done an appendix to the original now as well. And even now he's finishing off another book — he wrote some volumes on the Beach Boys producer Gary Usher as well and it's a 3 part volume — massive..

TG:

How did you find the creative industries when you started in music? Did you find that they worked together well, or was it a constantly inventive time trying to work them into connecting?

CM:

It was a much simpler time in that live music and recorded music was your entertainment — going back to pre-DVD — pre video games, so you had movies and you had music in one sense or another. So it was a lot simpler as in what was on the table and what was involved — you know now days you've got corporations and companies and everybody's looking for music to be their leg up by way of content for their websites and everything else. So you’ve got a far broader fabric of businesses and people involved in music nowadays and I think the

123 unfortunate side to that a lot of them aren't involved because they are involved in the music, they are involved because of what they can extract from it for their own benefit. And that is undermining things a great deal. You know, and in the days gone by it was music for music and the people that owned the record companies owned them because they were music lovers — the people that played did what they did because they loved music — not because of what music was going to give to them — make them rich or otherwise — I think it's fair to say that right up until we hit the 1980s or whatever that most people got involved in music not because they thought it was going to be a financial career for them — I mean that happened by default and ended up being what it did on any front, whereas now you've sort of got career students for the return rather than the music.

TG:

So they’re reasoning about what they can get from it before they even play gigs etc., — take the course at TAFE as a career kind of thing..

CM:

And going back onto the media side of things, I suppose people that are record companies in a way had the monopoly in that you could only take music to radio if you were in a record company — you could only get something distributed to a retailer if you were in a record company —

TG:

As an artist you had to prove something to be able to get through a door then..

CM:

Absolutely — it was a really small door — and I suppose you can look at that in two ways as well — it was a really small door and difficult for people to get through, and if you did get through that door, it pretty well assured you of some aspect of success — because there was not a lot that got through it. They were — the record companies — almost the arbiters of quality — whereas what happens now, people have got access to everything — you can get your own distribution, you can do your own recording at home, you can get your own promotion — you can do everything — you can get your music to the world on the internet and everything else, and of course what it's sort of done is it's diluted the litter a little bit — in the quality that is rising is basically not as strong as it was, where it was contained in corralled and developed and nurtured and looked after..

TG:

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So all that aspect and that groundswell of stuff people had as their inherited strengths is not there so much now. There’s no connection with the roots so much — it's pretty much open slather..

CM:

And you know for me, just on a personal front I think the dilution started with the advent of CDs — in that when it was vinyl you could only get 23 minutes a side so you had to decide which was going to go — which songs were going to make that 46 minute vinyl album cut— and it was a very critical process to make sure you had the strongest of what you had that ended up on that record. The minute the CD came along it went on to 80 minutes and basically a lot of the outtakes — a lot of the songs that were probably not deserving to be on the album — you know that whole thing where albums had a strength that existed within the time period — it just started to dilute because everything could go on the album, so you ended up with probably — instead of 10 killer songs you ended up with 20 tracks on the album and you got 5 good ones and the rest were fillers..

TG:

Because you could — not necessarily because you should..

CM:

That sum it up for me in such a big way — because you could doesn't make it worthy, it's because you could..

TG:

It seems that because of those control factors and frames, that people worked and concentrated on what they needed to get done as there were certain restraints that you had to work within — and even as G. Wayne said, at the end he had to find room for the song Open Up Your Heart, which was the single they needed to use to promote MOTE because the single was an afterthought, not a prerequisite — so it wasn't planned, but that song ended up in the only place on the film soundtrack where there was room — and that was over the closing titles — unbelievable how that worked out — people would sell their Granny for that spot these days — serendipitous to say the least for G. Wayne and the film.

CM:

So there you are — dumbfounded at what you've just seen — stunned buy you know, the beauty of the film and the content that you've just witnessed and to sit there and that's what washes over you — fantastic..

TG:

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So without those frameworks to work within — or steering factors — a format ..

CM:

You know it was definitely a monopoly — there's no doubt about that — you sort of had four or five companies that controlled everything and unless you went through their door you didn't go through anything at all, and there was a downside to that, but there's also an upside to it in a way — you've got a situation now where somebody records an album and the company looks at that album and they want and immediate return from that , and the reality is the development of an artist is going to take 2 or 3 records before you get to the point that you do. And they had the vision and were prepared to make the financial investment to see that through, whereas now, it's just not there — I mean that model — it doesn't exist at all. Nowadays, everything is built around the return — it's either a financial institution or some great corporation owns most of the record companies..

TG:

So less room for the creative aspect to be nurtured within that framework?

CM:

Definitely within the larger companies and the default of that is that it sends it back to the independents which you know, the independents have always been the farming ground for the majors..

TG:

So they farm it and they're prepared to give more side over to the creative aspects of it having a good turn out after 2 or 3 albums perhaps..

CM:

They’ll let somebody else struggle and lose the money and then when it gets to a point they'll just swoop in and pick it up and ..

TG:

What would they be offering then?

CM: The opportunity for monetary return that would exist within what a record company could offer — and they would do that in volume, so they could give you volume that nobody else could even come close to through the network that they had of media, distribution, manufacture and so on, and international association relationships and things like that, so the domino that was associated with a record company was far greater than you known what

126 could be achieved anywhere else ...But of course that's in days gone by again, because in those days you're talking about — and this is right up until the 1980s — an artist consignment deal with a record company you might get two or 3 dollars a record. If you're an established artist it could be anything up to five or six dollars a record. Now you're lucky if you getting thirty cents a record and a great deal of the revenues are on streaming as opposed to physical sales and digital sales are greatly diminished by way of what the returns are on that front as well. So the returns have just cascaded dramatically — and the issue of how the whole industry is in is that I think that the great expectation was that digital would take over physical and digital would be ten times larger than what physical would and there would be smaller margins but bigger volume and the reality is that digital is still yet to replace the volumes of the hay days of physical really — it just hasn't stepped in and replaced it, so to speak..

TG:

It's relying on a different format really — downloads versus physical...

CM:

And do you know the irony is? The consumption of music has probably never been greater than it ever has at any time in the history, but the way that people's appetites and the way they consume music now — a lot of it now is basically the illegal side, the streaming side, copying, it just doesn't come back to that small funnel which is the major companies ..

TG:

It is the major companies that are buying the main streaming companies as well isn't it? Don't they actually own those companies?

CM:

Yes they do—they have interests in them..

TG:

So they are trying to control that model as well to try and get the income back through I guess..

CM:

Well you know the interesting thing here is what happens when the guys from Napster walks through the door of the record companies and said "I've got new music frontier — I can give you this technology all I need to you to do is give me your repertoire and I will put it out digitally using the peer to peer model." And of course what a lot of people don't realise is that

127 the bigger part of what the record companies made by way of profit was done through the fact that their distribution and their manufacture and they owned the printing plants and the owned the pressing plants and they charged retailers money to actually send records out them — the physical records — so a big part of what their revenue was, was the whole box and dice — not just selling the records but everything that went with it. So Mr. Napster walked through the door and said I can get rid of all of that for you, it was like they weren't interested. So believing that copyright was on their side, they literally said go away sonny — when we do it we'll do what we want to do with our situation in the way that we want to do it and we'll continue to own it. And of course that was the single biggest mistake that was ever made and they're still paying the price and they'll never recover form it because he turned around and said well if you won't do it with me I'll go and do it by myself and he headed off with the absolute benefit of technology and he developed that technology, and they never even through to look through the door for the next 5 years and then when they did they were so far behind the 8 Ball that they could never ever recover, and they still haven't. And of course they all worked on the basis which is happening everywhere now with Uber, with taxis and things like that, if you've got a copyright on something that you've paid for and you've been given by a government, you're entitled to it and it belongs to you, well it doesn't anymore. People now take what they want. When iTunes came along the record companies were totally on their knees — it was probably a matter of months before the whole thing had collapsed and that's when Steve Jobs came along with iTunes, and he'd been proposing his model for quite some time and it became so bad for the record companies that they were forced into a corner and had to accept what he proposed. And there's a great example for me — that being Kazar was the biggest illegal down—loader at the time and they had 25 million subscribers and you could go onto their site any time of day or night and see that there was never less than 3 million people on their site — and that was only one — they were the biggest at the time. When iTunes hit the deck it cascaded I think within the space of around 8 months — Kazar's subscriptions were down to 3 million — and then eventually they disintegrated and they had to get legal because it fell apart. What that did was show that if you give people the opportunity to be honest, they would rather be honest and buy music legally. If you don't give them that opportunity then they're quite happy to be dishonest. That was the biggest quantum shift that happened in that situation.

TG:

That's remarkable — we were only talking the other day and going well, hold on — what's the point of — as a band or a music person making music — instead of putting up on all these streaming sites just put it up over here — and say you can get it here — — you can't steal it and we're not going to give it all to you — we might give some to you — but this where you get it. So with that in mind we're thinking that's a good way to go instead of going to all the streaming sited and spreading it all out that way..

CM:

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And convenience is the whole thing as well you know—as in if you make people jump through a whole lot of hoops then they'll get through the 3rd one and go fuck it, I'm out of here you know? So they want it, and they want it now and you make it that easy for them and it's fine — you can have the best of both worlds now, because you can own it and control it — you can set up your own environment where you direct people to — then you can also go through independent distributors like an MGM who will aggregate all of those distributors for you and also make it available to them as well. Once again, it doesn't have to be — it doesn't have to all sit in corner anymore — it can be whatever you want it to be across however you want it to be..

TG:

People are also looking at the re—emergence of vinyl as a medium. So what they're thinking is they've got the digital but they'd really like to do a run of vinyl. It sounds good, feels right etc.,

CM:

It's terrific — the vinyl is increasing dramatically and it's getting larger and larger — is it replacing anything? No, but it's becoming the spoke that makes up music in total — it's an arm that has returned and has now got a place and I've gone back to buying vinyl and listening to vinyl — I pull out all my old records and I'm playing them and new release as well instead of the CD..

TG:

There's something about the supportive mechanism playing a vinyl record brings to the music itself because it's something that you do — you pull it out of the cover, you look at the artwork, you go wow, ok — you place it on a turntable, you get the playing arm, you run — it absorbs you — it become part of what heat music is — and that's what it was then — but without that — if you're just doing a file on the download and there's no art or reference — hold on wait a minute — music is more emotive than that..

CM:

And not only that — as how it's inside your body, your mind, your soul kind of thing — whereas opposed to hat it was about back then — the music, but now in a great many respects, the music is about everything it's associated with — not the music itself—and that's the dilution, and the other thing which I think is remarkably tragic, is that you've got a whole generation now that doesn't know what audio actually sounds like — they've only ever listened to compressed music — they consume everything compressed — and it's just remarkable I mean whatever they think is terrific, well they haven't even heard it — they have got no idea about audio quality or depth etc. —

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It's such a shift in listening to something digitally and then putting a needle on a piece of vinyl — it's just — even the difference with a CD to compression and thing like that is still remarkable and the way that people have consumed it — the way they understand it — they've been lobotomized and dumbed down. You've got somebody listening to a digital file going this is great — but really it has all been enhanced by — it's the age old thing — you never used to buy Japanese speakers because they made them sound like how people wanted to hear them — had nothing to do with what the sound was..

TG:

Amazing stuff Mr. Moss, this is great — you needed to do this. So to the business model with MOTE and how it worked — how businesses combined to support the film and the music — was there new thinking needing to be addressed regarding the outcome of how the film and the music was going to work as a package?

CM:

Yeah well the film with the soundtrack — when you look at how music was with the surf community it was doing its thing — there was some established acts — Tamam Shud, Brian Cadd etc., Brian was sort off not so much there actually — he was more he Bootleg family side and that Melbourne mafia — it was almost like that little group that Wayne brought together which was quite serendipitous — in itself in that he looked at it and brought the best musicians that were in the market together at the one single time to do it, and some were involved in surfing and some had no idea what surfing was — but it was quite remarkable that those songs got written and the lyrics and the way that everybody picked up the empathy of what surfing meant and what surfing did — you know, there was the perfect marriage of the two arts really — and that's exactly what it was, and emotionally they both pushed the same button which enabled something as great as it was to actually happen..

TG:

And G. Wayne and I were talking about that yesterday and how Brian said how "the brief was, there was no brief". I love that but because there were so many different types of player and musician, like John J Francis, close to the earth type style and then bands like Ticket who were pretty alternative — and then form left of centre Peter Howe with beautiful acoustic music — so an incredible combination of — Terry Hannagan as well — so diverse but as far as getting the job done and getting it to work needed to go, there was a person there who was in charge and that was the movie's producer, David Elfick.

CM:

Well it was his vision — and I suppose that goes back that he's been the unsung in this really — in that obviously David was the man at the time, had Tracks magazine and Albe was the

130 editor and basically how that evolved between the pair of them being in the `pressure cooker they were in at the time — but ultimately none of it would have happened if it wasn't for David — David was that person that sat right at the top and oversaw everything — probably oversaw everything Albe did on his front and everything from the music side, he well and truly was without doubt the executive producer of what we now as MOTE for all sense and purposes really..

TG:

Yes, I mean Albe has said there was never any grand plan, but David really did set the outline by way of how and what they were making had cohesion, steerage and where it needs to go..like G. Wayne said, here had to be somebody in that role..

CM:

And you know, David's the guys who picked G. Wayne — he sort of was the person with the vision bringing together the geniuses that delivered the result that he wants to realise, yeah..

TG:

How do you see the influence of previous creators passed on to the contemporary surf film and music makers?

CM:

You know I think the way that say the 2012 film Spirit Of Akasha came about for instance, is quite remarkable in itself in that I had a surf shop at the time, and John O' Donnell and Toby Creswell I think had just written a book which is the 100 Greatest Australian Albums Of All Time. The 100th album happened to be MOTE, and English gentleman by the name of Tony Harlow who runs Warner Music now, read the article and was intrigued and did the research and found the film and the soundtrack and listened to it and he walked into my surf shop and said that why has nobody done anything with this in 40 years? So I explained to him that there's lots of people that wanted to do it who had approached Albe — people from major surf companies, and many others, and that Albe was quite protective of the whole thing and wouldn't agree to anything, and ultimately it's iconic and you wouldn't want to fuck with it because if you tried to you'd wreck it, and nobody would want that responsibility. So he went away for 3 or 4 months and he came back through the door and he said well, if you were to think about doing something, who would you have to go to and who would have to agree? Am basically said to him at the time well, obviously you can't do anything without Albe, there's no way anything would happen of course, so he's got to agree — and the only person that I personally feel that could go anywhere near doing it is Andrew Kidman — who is really Albe's protege when it comes to film making and he's a musician and understands the process ..

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TG:

Next generation kind of thing as well..

CM:

So he basically went away again and came back a little bit later and said well, would you ask Albe? And so I said, OK, I'll give Albe a call and have a chat — so I had a conversation with Albe and explained to him what the thought process was and we were thinking about possibly with Andrew and how we might go about it — you know — thinking he'd do what he always did — smile and nod, say thanks a lot and then nothing would happen. And to my absolute horror he came back and he said, yeah, I'd love to do it. If ever I was going to do it I'd do it with you and Andrew, and that's the only way I'd ever consider doing it. So that's where it all evolved, so Warner Music gracefully stepped in and supplied everything, budgets, and enabled us to be able to do it.

TG:

So they saw the value in it obviously?

CM:

Yeah — well the fact that it was such a powerful thing that had been contained in Australia — to a large extent outside of the surfing community so they saw a worldwide vision with it, and Tony's real vision was to actually get into paying tribute to the original movie, was to go beyond the shores of Australia and talk to international acts that were successful and see whether they would be interested in being part of the project. And it was remarkable just how many people knew particularly when it went offshore..and spoke to acts worldwide and things like that — they were familiar with MOTE and the music one way and another had been an influence upon them — as well as the film — it was incredibly serendipitous thing in the way it all came together.

TG:

Wonderful to know that people overseas had heard it, seen it and had been influence by it — this is a very important aspect..

CM:

Incredible, and you know the other side of it as well is there are also some people involved who weren't familiar with it previously — which is Wilco's band — and they have a side project and they had not heard the original soundtrack — until one day when Andrew played it to them — they were here for Bluesfest with Wilco and they were just completely knocked off their feet — they couldn't believe it — they were stunned — and so much so that right

132 now, that's where Andrew is with the film at the Solid Sound Festival with that band and actually performing the music to the film in the States. MOTE is well and truly musically and visually — it's quite a holy grail really. Without doubt been rite of passage for any surfer over the last 40 years — it's like the minute you get on a surfboard that's the first thing you've got to go and do — is watch and listen..

TG:

By which means do the modern content producers and designers endeavour to continue the evolution of surfing related outcomes?

CM:

I think you've also got the likes of beats and the diversity of music and where it all sort of comes from now, and you've just got so much of that music that's starting to permeate through you know, what musicians and producers are doing with sound in the present day — even Caimans did a track for us — they're a beat based outfit, and you listen to what they did and really what they did is stepped back to that period — there was a uniqueness and an unbelievably definable sound that came out of that evolution, that finds itself in the fabric of a lot of music that you listen to now. In one way or another how they were exposed to it and I suppose one of the great legacies — if there is such a thing — of streaming and that type of thing and access to music — in a day gone by people would sort of get into a box of music of what they liked and what they listened to and what they identifies with and they didn't have the opportunity to spread their wings further by being exposed to a lot of other stuff because radio was shuttered and unless you bought it and listened to it or listened to the radio that was the only way you were going to get it, and now what happens is you sort of have kids that are growing up and the diversity of what they are able to be exposed to is monumental — and from what's actually happening from a compositional and song writing angle now that's where the strength of it's starting to come from, because they're all drawing from something — you know The Beatles drew from Chuck Berry — and people drew from The Beatles — you've got to have mentors and people hat influence you that take you in the path that you go..

TG:

They're very important, aren't they? That's why the creative part needs to be nurtured and prolonged and continued. Even when the music business changed there are still people just doing it because they want and need to do it..

CM:

Absolutely, and they are at the core of it and they always will be — I mean basically the talent rises to the top kind of thing — you are always going to have the things that are being

133 creative for the turnover aspect — they'll run up the hill and fall back down again. But the ones that count and that are there for the right reasons — they're the ones that stay and they're the ones that make a difference and make an impact. Well and truly..

TG:

Is here anything you would do differently re MOTE or Spirit Of Akasha regarding promotion or production?

CM:

Having not being a part of the original MOTE, I can't imagine wanting anything to be different about the way it is — and I think that time has proven that in no uncertain terms — it gave a direction to a generation really — as I said before, it is a rite of passage really — the aspect of surfing, and probably a great deal with the music as well. So it's become a reference point for generations since. And the thing from our point of view with the Spirit Of Akasha I suppose, is there is a lot that goes back — you asked the questions earlier — what was different then as opposed to now — and I think we would have dearly loved it to have been like it was then because there' so many things that is has got to be a part of and so many things that you've got to go through — it dilutes that path — you know there are so many more things that are out there that people have access to entertain them or be involved with so...back then you put a single on the radio and it charted and it became its own path..

What we sort of found which is a lovely thing in a way, is that it's a lot more holistic — a lot more organic and it doesn't give you the fruits of financial success but it certainly gives you the fruits of an emotional success as in the important think. We felt very strict about how this came together with the record company — they proposed a lot of artists to get involved in the soundtrack and that was from Greenday to Pearl Jam etc, and the go was if they gave us complete artistic control and we knocked back some big name international artists on the basis that they didn't have the empathy and they weren't a fit for the soundtrack, so everybody had to pass and acid test before they became involved in the project in anyway whatsoever..

TG:

I can imagine Andrew being right on top of that..

CM:

Absolutely — even to the point — it's quite funny actually — once again it's what you know and what you don't — I'd have to honestly say that there was — Group Love was proposed by the record company — not an act that we would have considered — and we listened to their music an looked at their videos and things like that and it just didn't feel like a marriage at all in any way, and then we discovered that Andrew — in Group Love there is also a surfer

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— a very ardent surfer and we spoke to him and went through the whole thing and they ended up writing a song which we think is one of the stand outs on the whole sound track..so, never say never. And by default we had a track that Brian Wilson wrote in 1980 which basically he'd never done anything with and just sat in his vault for the right time and he right place and as it turned out he sort of became aware of the soundtrack being made and was very keen to put the track forward..

TG:

Fantastic. It’s great such great communication going on this level — back then you certainly didn't get anywhere near top acts and record companies didn't talk to artists generally either. Now it seems that pretty much anyone might — I saw that Keith Richards the other day up on Facebook showing his new guitar — great stuff — and I'm old world think, hey you're from The Rolling Stones!

CM:

You did a double take and you think now, is that really Keith Richards, or has somebody using his name ..

TG:

And I said to my wife Kath, is that really him? And she said, ‘Yeah that’s really him — he often puts posts up on Facebook. Or maybe his publicist..’

CM:

But you know that's the thing — the evolution of technology the pluses and he minuses — and the good and the bad — the communication access to people — the old barriers don't exist anymore.

TG:

That really helps because if you want to get on that human connection, you can. And it can kick off from that connection..which is great—instead of stuff being set up to be exclusive all the time..

CM:

The irony is that with MGMT — Andrew the Wing Gardens as well — they're on Sony and we knew that they were surfers because they'd come out and they'd come to the surf shop and buy books and things like that when they came to Australia — so knowing that they were surfers — Andrew just sent the email to Andrew and sure enough it's like yeah love it, love the soundtrack, love the whole thing. We’d love to be involved and everything took place

135 without the record company and without the management — which was great until they all found out and the shit hit the fan. They said you can't do that, but we can and we did..and he did the song and it was incredible.

TG:

Well that's best of both as well isn't — instead of it all being tied up and then not being able to communicate. It’s a lot more flexible the way it is now..

Chris that was great you talk and get your knowledge and experience across all that..

Much obliged..

END

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APPENDIX D: David Elfick — Historical Interview Transcript

Interview re: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI Project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on Sat 4th July 2015 at David’s home in Bondi, N.S.W.

DAVID ELFICK

As one of the creators of the film this will of course be from my point of view, so it's only my point of view. That's what it will be..

TIM GAZE

That's why I've come to see you.

DE:

So I'll just give you a bit of background about me which will give you some idea about where MOTE sprung from.

I did an arts degree at University of NSW —there were no film courses anywhere in Australia in those days of the 1960s and graduated in 1968 and did dram as an academic subject for a Bachelor of Arts. And of course NSW also had the NIDA on campus so the drama department was very strong there. So it was a very interesting place to be and the 1960s was a very creative time so I was very involved in the University Drama Club and produced a number of plays and acted in them and stage managed them and ran the Drama Club. I was the vice president for a while. So, that sort of encouraged my entrepreneurial spirit at university —I mean an Arts degree is just a general education really, and I started a movie called The Hard Word which was a 23 minute black and white movie probably best forgotten, as the lead actor wasn't very good, namely me.

It was fun — we made a movie and so on — I was very interested in film and I extended my entrepreneurial skills by working in a music magazine called Go—Set. As soon as I left university I took over the Sydney office and built it up to be a really powerful office, because while Melbourne was the centre of the music scene, all the record companies were based in Sydney apart from the small independents like Mushroom. So I tapped into the bigger companies and got on well with them and Go—Set was a powerful magazine. It used to sell 50,000 copies a week. It was fantastic for me — I get to meet The Rolling Stones, and The Small Faces and got Barry Gibb to sing a love song to my girlfriend on the steps of our house, which unfortunately is lost — that would have been a good thing to have — so that was the beginning, and of course I was very keen to promote Sydney bands and interesting

137 things that young people were doing, because Go—Set was a combination of two words – Go—Go and Jet Set.

So we were looking for anything that might work. Every other magazine was owned by big corporations, and this was owned by two university students from Melbourne, a rock and roll promoter and me in Sydney. I didn't own it; I was the start employee because I'd built Sydney up from nothing to be the powerhouse of the organisation. So I was like the fourth partner. And it was a raging success — when I started the job it was just me and a telephone and soon I had six employees and photographers and journalists and things — it was really great fun to do.

TG:

Weren't you at Crows Nest in Sydney?

DE:

Before we were at Crows Nest we were on Elizabeth Street in the city and what was great about it was that you met fantastic people who were doing really creative things which were terrific. They’d come into Go—Set — so someone who's started a fashion shop would come in and we'd dress a band up in all their clothes and give them a two—page spread in Go Set and suddenly their shop would take off in Paddington. I was really good and the kids loved the magazine and what I learnt out of that was that it was a weekly newspaper publication — was that you've got to listen to the pulse of the kids and feedback to them what they are interested in. Every other magazine was older — people in their 30's playing journalist writing about 'youth culture'. We were part of it — we were a bit older than the readers but we were part of the whole thing.

One day a guy called Paul Witzig walked in who die a film called Evolution with a band called Tamam Shud. I immediately took to Paul because he was an interesting original character — a surfer, a sort of tall blonde Viking type guy — lived in a great old beach house at Whale Beach, and we hit it off straight away, and I said I want to get behind Evolution so I did publicity in the magazine about it and I thought surf movies are a great thing, they're very independent, we don't have much of a film industry, his looks really good. The most interesting thing about it was that I liked the band, Tamam Shud and I got to hang out around the area of Whale Beach and I can't remember quite when it was but Go—Set then moved to our own office at Crows Nest.

So talking to Paul about the band, I said you know, you've got to get a record — you have to have a soundtrack, and they said well we haven't got a soundtrack — Paul had just recorded the tracks and that's how we've done it. So I spoke with CBS — a very powerful record company because the guys I got along with well, a guy called Des Stein, and John Bromell and Barry Kimberley from Essex Music, and I said, look let's get behind this band — it's the

138 surf sound, it's the west coast of America, let's get behind it. So Barry and John signed Tamam Shud as songwriters, and I persuaded CBS to record the band playing the soundtrack to Evolution and they recorded it in one day — a live recording — and I got Go—Set photographer Phillip Morris to take the shots of the record cover and the cover shots were taken up at the Shud' house at Whale Beach and I really helped Paul with his movie.

TG:

I hadn't realised that was the part you played in all that — only finding that out now.

DE:

I can remember vividly that day we took the cover photo in their house in Whale Beach. So, that was it and the time had come — I'd done Go—Set for 3 years and it had afforded me travel — I'd been to England and met a lot of the bands and things, so life was pretty good. I wanted to kind of move on and own my own magazine. We did the first Rolling Stone magazine in Australia but it was published under the name of Revolutions. So what we did we took stories from RS magazine and mixed them with Australian stories. And of course RS was very interested in music but it was also interested in the counterculture which was the big thing from 1968 onwards — it was social revolution. And Revolution didn't work as a magazine — it was too risqué — it threatened society too much — the name wasn't a good name — so they used to buy copies and just put them under the counter and then return them and so they didn't have them. So the magazine was having problems and I wanted to move on from doing the Top 40 sort of Teeny Bopper Go—Set stuff, which was great fun but I was interested in another challenge.

I met John Witzig who was Paul's brother and Albe Falzon and they both ran the two surfing magazines, which were Surfing World and Surfer — this was how Tracks started. They were colour glossy magazines with fairly dull stories of what I did in my holidays — I went surfing etc., and they were beautifully visual because of the colour photographs but they were editorially inert because, well Albe wasn't a writer — he was a photographer — and the stories were so out of date because the used to get the colour separations done in Singapore and Hong Kong that took 3 months to get them back. So the magazine was like 5 months old when it came out so if anything happened it was 5 months ago. So there was no immediacy — it was like and essay with nice photos. And they had no editorial leg — Bob Evans was a very good surfer but he made a surfing movie every year which I thought were OK but they were like sports films and a bit crass .

There was a whole — you know, it was drugs versus alcohol — drugs being marijuana — and Bob was an old drinker and we were pot smokers, so you know, the music industry were pot smokers. So I `helped with Tamam Shud and I was interested in what surf music was and I'd been to America and hung out with the guys from Rolling Stone in San Francisco — you know, the whole psychedelic era was fantastic.

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And I came back and thought — and San Francisco was the epicentre of the counter—culture and to go back to university — there were definite counter—culture elements beginning at NSW university when I was there like the architecture faculty had Buck—minster Fuller who had built geodesic domes on the campus and I got the architectural faculty — the young guys who were the experimental film makers too, to build the sets for the drama club. So all this stuff was checker—boarding my background.

So I went to Albe and John and I said "Let's start our own surfing magazine like Go—Set. It's going to be a newspaper but it'll come out once a month, but a week before it comes out we can be writing about this or that happening and let's embrace the counterculture" because I realise that with Revolution a counter cultural magazine wouldn't have a ready market, but a surf magazine would. Surfing was very counter cultural. I'd been born and bred in Maroubra but moved away from the beach when I was 12 years old — and went back to living near the beach at Bronte and Randwick when I went to university and now I was living up at Whale Beach and wanting to do something — I though a surfing magazine with a counter—cultural element — we'll have the market of the surfies and a ready—made market.

We found a backer — John Witzig found the backer I think — and I said to the other two guys bale out from your magazine and let's own it. And of course what that did was destabilize the other two magazines when the two editors left and we had a new magazine. And so that's how Tracks magazine began. The very first issue had a picture of Newcastle steelworks on the cover, because it covered the Newcastle surf contest. They didn't even publish who won — it was all about who got stoned and who did this and it was also like Go—Set — it reflected the values of the readers so we had a readers page which had the funniest letters and soon became the page that everyone liked to read because we published the most amusing letters and it became a real focus of the magazine.

It reflected what the audience wanted — but it also pushed the boundaries and it dealt with the environment , it dealt with rutile mining of the beaches, but it also looked at the revolution in surfboard design and people like George Greenough and other great innovators. And Albe had helped Bob Evans — and both Albe and John W were extremely good photographers and Albe had been working on a lot of Bob Evans's films as a cameraman and was keen to make his own movies. And the way surf movies were made was you spent a year sort of traveling round with people shooting some surfing and doing funny things to the camera which weren't that funny often — and then you ripped off some music from musicians — the great surfing tradition of ripping off people music — and talking about hoe honest they all are. And then you just stick it on a movie and you show the movie and you don't pay any royalties. That wasn't Paul Witzig — Paul got a band and it worked out. But Evolution and Inner Most Limits of Pure Fun both just had soundtracks and they were both made before MOTE. And there was also an American movie which was more of a straight movie but did fantastic stuff with infra—red film called Pacific Vibrations by John Severson, who was a very famous American photographer.

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So it had George Greenough, Paul W and Severson, and I noted what they were doing with their films and also me having made a movie at university, when I was at Go Set I used to do a lot of the interviews with overseas artists for GTK which was a live music show made by the ABC in Sydney. Then I made some experimental films for them as well and also new people from the Sydney filmmakers co—op. So Albe was making his 'The Sea Is Mine' — he shot footage in Victoria and Bells Beach, and so I said to Albe why don't we combine and make the movie together. And I came from Go Set with my goodbye terms of departure — a contra—deal with Pan Am airlines for the back page of the magazine in exchange for airfares which allowed the Go Set journalists to go to England and America and other places.

And when I left — because we had an institutional advertiser it meant that Fender Guitars came in because Pan Am were in there, so that was my motivation, but I also had this big handful of airfares. So I said when I left I want to take the airfare contra with me so I did. That was assigned to me. So I had the ability to buy the airfares. So I said to Albe I had these airfares — we can travel — so that meant we could shoot footage in Indonesia, which was a place prole talked about as a surfing frontier — the airport had just been put in at Bali, and also the surfing mecca being Hawaii . So Albe said OK — let's do it together — so firstly Albe went up the coast and shot more footage and Tracks was working well, and I was very keen that the counter—cultural value were incorporated into the movie, because I thought that Paul had touched on it with Evolution but it was about the evolution of the short board and I thought that the values in Tracks should be shown in Morning Of The Earth.

So Albe's film The Sea Is Mine became Morning Of The Earth and our first overseas journey was with a former American surfing champion Rusty Miller — and Stephen Cooney — a hot young Narrabeen surfer — we went to Bali — and Bali was of course a whole other Asian Culture which we wanted to work into the movie. Kuta Beach was thatch huts and dirt roads and Albe was very adventurous and knew where the surf was coming for — as we landed we saw this break near the airport and Albe went out with some guys on motorbikes and had discovered Uluwatu. He came back and said there' this great break — let's go out there, so the four of us went out there carrying all the equipment and the road stopped a kilometre or so from the cliff and we hiked in there and we found the now famous cave that goes down to the water. So the waves ever shot of Uluwatu was Albe's camera on Morning Of The Earth. And that's where I made my only appearance in the film — it's my hair arm holding the chillum. Cameo appearance. And Albe had shot all this wonderful infra—red photography — so MOTE was coming along and Tracks was coming along and Nat Young was in it, and Nat was good and Albe filmed on Nat's farm — the late Baddy Treloar and other guys up the coast and Stephen went on journeys up the coast and hung out with some of his heroes which was good, Nat being a Narrabeen boy originally — Albe used the airfares to go to Hawaii and shoot the Christmas swells and get Barry Kanaiaupuni and Jerry Lopez and all those people in it — so that was all good.

141

We then started editing the film and I felt that it would be good to bring in someone who wasn't going to cut it just like a surfing movie, and to see what experimental films were doing, a la the Sydney Film Co—op and the very big experimental film movement in Germany — Albe Toms had gone to Germany and shown his experimental films. His films were too abstract for my taste — but Albe had edited it with Bob Evans, so Albe knew how to cut a surfing sequence and Albe Toms would bring the counter—cultural experimental film mind to the film, like putting in the flash of the sunrise, but that's very experimental film style, and so the editing (and I always felt a shame that Albe Toms didn't get an editing credit — he should have got at least a co—editing credit). So Albe Toms was brought in — you know, I'm producing the film and I think Albe set Albe up in an editing room under Albe Falzon's house in Whale Beach Road, and it was good because we could go off and do Tracks and Albe Toms could fiddle round with the film. It wouldn’t have been good if Albe Toms edited it, and it would have been a different film if Albe Falzon had edited it, but the fusion of the two .. and both Albe’s had a repour and they were both strong willed which was good, so there was a creative friction there as well..and the film was much better for it.

Then of course we got to the music — and I thought well, I wasn't going to rip off people — just take songs that existed and stick them anywhere.. George Greenough — he had got the band, The Farm and they'd recorded the soundtrack to The Inner Most Limits Of Pure Fun — and so I had contacts in the music industry and Peter Stiegrad who worked for J. Walter Thomson (Ad Agency for Pan Am etc.) who knew me — somehow that evolved into meeting G. Wayne Thomas and of course I wanted to use Tamam Shud — and G. Wayne Thomas had a production company called Isis and Albe Falzon suggested we go to the newly formed Australian Film Development Corporation, and we went in there with our things on and terrified them and got some money to do not to do the movie, but to do the soundtrack and to buy to Ikzon projectors to take the film around the country and show it.

So it was that was that Barry Mackenzie and MOTE were the two first films financed by the new AFDC. To Albe Falzon's credit he was the one who let's go in and get into this so we went in there and there was a very straight guy called Tom Stacey who was an accountant and a girl called Nardeen Hollard , and we came in with our things on — probably had a couple of spliffs in the panel van before we went in — but anyway, we charmed them or terrified them or a bit of both, and I think we got 25K Dollars so we could do the soundtrack — so we gave some of that to G Wayne and some to production company Isis and of course people like Brian Cadd would have known me through Go—Set because of his band Axiom and the Bootleg Family etc., and we talked to many people and we also found people like Peter Howe..

TG:

Interesting as I am going to see Peter Howe tomorrow — he said he answered a contest through Tracks and he sent in some music ?

142

DE:

That's right. Well we thought let's open it up , and that goes back to the whole Go—Set thing of reader participation — there's a lot of surfers’ strum guitars — I guess Jack Johnson is the best example of that. So we thought this was a natural thing to try and run a competition through Tracks — you know we plugged our movie mercilessly in Tracks and so Wayne, Albe and myself put together the soundtrack by way of choosing the bands and of course Tamam Shud contributed greatly to it — and that's how the movie was made. We publicised it ourselves — Isis had an output deal with Warner Brothers so we had a bid company behind our soundtrack and I knew Paul Turner from Warner Bros really well, because I knew him when he worked for Polygram — they were a smaller label that I always gave good publicity to. So Paul and I were on good terms. I could ring up the managing director of Warner Bros records. John Bromell was on side — he was great — he was pushing MOTE. So it all helped — music publishers put out sheets that went to radio stations. We went into see John Brennan from 2SM — because the single from the movie, Open Up Your Heart wasn't even in the movie — the movie was finished but the radio station wanted that track in the movie, so G. Wayne ended up putting over the closing credits — the only spare space left. It's a fairly abstract art where the music is plonked opposite a sequence.

TG:

I thought there may have been a bit more to it than that — we did tracks like Bali Waters channelled towards the sequence title or geographic aspects.?

DE:

Yeah — Ideally, but I mean you'd look at the film and play music tracks to fit it and its genesis was like, looking at Bob Evans's stuff was that you took a bit of music and then just fitted the pictures to it, so you'd take a song and fit it that way. And so songs that were like Simple Ben was already recorded. And there was Ticket which whose tracks were also already recorded..

TG:

Yes Ticket weren't on the original soundtrack album release — their songs were released on subsequent reissues of the soundtrack.

DE:

Yes, Ticket had some really edgy stuff for the Hawaiian sequence and of course Tamam Shud were like our composer band that did music that filled in for other sections like Bali and big wave sequences with See The Swells etc. And of course I had been a fan of the band for a long time.

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TG:

It's great to be finding out about your connection with the film — it's looking like that without you none of it would have happened — you were looking after ait it steering it — and making sure it had a good outcome. In those days we were just doing music going along for the ride really — we weren't anywhere near as organised as someone like yourself , so without that...

DE:

Well MOTE had the philosophy of Tracks Magazine woven into it through the songs and images and it was a counter—cultural movie. I mean it didn't have the best waves or the best surfing of all the surfing movies that were around — it had good surfing I'm not denoting that — but what it had was — I think that Albe Falzon is an extremely gifted photographer and I think that he was aware of the experimental element of Pacific Vibrations and The Innermost Limits Of Pure Fun which took the camera where it had never been before inside a wave — but all of that creative experimentation — the opening of the film for example with all those caves in Bali — it's beautiful stuff with all that infra—red photography. And while in some ways the movie and the soundtrack is crude it reflects and honesty and a purity of the times which sophistication may have in fact ruined. It is like and experimental film in many ways. Bob Evans's films always had like a relentless commentary on them — wise cracks and stuff. So with MOTE we got a thing that evolved from Albe’s vision of every surfer’s vision of the purity of the sport and the lifestyle and it was a lifestyle movie in fact if you look at all these lifestyle shows it was a lifestyle movie in a way.

Certainly Turn On, Tune In and Drop Out was the mantra — tune in being tune into the world but also music — music was such a big thing — a social revolutionary thing in those days. I mean that's probably why the film succeeded — it didn't succeed particularly in America, because Pacific Vibrations and the big film makers in America were Mc Gilvrey — Freeman — they made better versions of Bob Evans movies. They were very good — Jim Freeman and Greg Mc Gilvrey were real business men and surfing in America was not so counter—cultural as it was in Australia — it was much more a sport and they made high quality sports films and our film was just — I took MOTE to America and showed it to people and in San Francisco they all thought it was fantastic, but when we showed it at the Santa Monica Civic, people went a long and kind of liked it but everyone wanted to be stoked and everyone wanted to see Corky Carroll or whoever the latest surf start was — David Nuuhiwa you know, at so and so, and also more sort of male jock — Jan and Dean, Beach Boys like that.

It’s interesting that there is a very strong surfing cult in San Francisco — freezing up there — O'Neill Wetsuits is from there. San Francisco showing MOTE — they got it much more — than they did at say Laguna Beach, or Huntington Pier area where it's a big surfing culture but it was pretty straight — although drugs were around, it was straighter. I mean our champions Nat Young and people — and that was the big gulf that Midget Farrelly world

144 surf champ in 1964. The counter culture started in 1968 and we were much more that counter culture — guys like George Greenough who were and still are much more counter cultural — his mother took a lot of acid (everyday) but not George — George is a genius — of all the people I have met in my life, George is a true genius who when we made Crystal Voyager you were with a guy who had taken an army war surplus catalogue, see a high speed camera from Vietnam jet all encased in armour—plate steel, buy it from the war surplus catalogue, get a hacksaw, saw the cover off, take all the insides out, realise that it was this way and if you were surfing it had to be this way, because it had to fit in your back — recalibrate everything and then with no shoes on go down to Pacific Lenses with his own hand drawn images, and even Georges handwriting — he writes all over the place and then say this is the lens I've designed to fit in this thing, and they'd go who are you ?? This guy with hair all over the place no shoes, and then George says I'll pay you to build it, and the go ok, we'll do it so they build a fisheye lens which fits on the camera.

He's a genius — a genius. When he built that boat in Crystal Voyager — he gets a sailing boat — if I want to go across the reef I need a retractable keel so he works it all out — and I need it this shape, so he goes down to the junk metal yard and buys all the scrap metal and then gets his mother’s vacuum cleaner and builds a blast furnace in the dirt in his back garden, then starts melting all this scrap metal down and then with no shoes on — he's got a wooden plank going up and he's got to pour the keel into the boat — so he's got a tin can with a bit of wire on it on a hook and he gets molten lead and he's running up the thing and pouring it.. and you're going, this is incredible how he's doing this. And then you ask him to talk about it and he says he only spilled lead on my foot twice. George is always tongue in cheek — you know he's got a fantastic sense of humour and you never know if he's having you on — he's always having you of. So George and meeting people like that through MOTE was wonderful.

That's why MOTE is a unique film and why all these years later it's dear in many people's hearts, because it was a highly original surf film — it was derivative also — from Evolution, Pacific Vibrations and so on. With artists the one thing you can do is say write me a song about this — Brian Cadd wrote 'take my hand and be free' in his song Come With Me. It could be a love song, but also in the movie it's the love of the ocean — you embrace the ocean — you take its hand and you're free. And so in having no brief he had a brief because he had the images of the film — he had the name MOTE — MOTE came from prime minister Nehru because Bali was a Hindu country — we're sitting in Bali and I’m reading all the history — during that time I went to India a lot etc — there were whole stories on India that I wrote for tracks —all about how they recycle things and how they're closer to the earth than we are and maybe industrialised societies could learn from under developed societies — could be that maybe development is not such a great thing — and prime minister Nehru saw the beauty of Bali and said this is the morning of the world. And then Albe did those incredible shots of the sun coming through the cave at Bali, and then we thought rather than world, Earth is the planet, while world has a different context — it's world map.

145

And so we thought the tag line was 'One ocean once covered the world' — because the world is covered 4/5th's by ocean anyway I think — 'One ocean once covered the world — it was the Morning Of The Earth'. So it has a sort of spiritual poetic feel to it, but it also gave us a thing to look at in the film and we decided that there'd be no cars , no high rise buildings, there's no modern things at all — no cars, just the ocean — —people creating things, hand built houses, surfboards, adventured. So it's like a fantasy in three unspoilt lands — that was the other tag line — 'One ocean once covered the world — it was the Morning Of The Earth — a fantasy in three unspoilt lands. That was our brief — that was in our heads and of course we had someone like Wayne who was like a very commercial pop song writer — but you have to realise though, having worked in Go—Set I never looked down on people who wrote pop songs, in England pop songs are the greatest songwriters ever — the pop song writers — so Wayne's an enormous talent, and it didn't frighten Albe or I that he was a jingle writer for an ad agency — that didn't worry us because he could take the idea and turn it into something that was accessible to our audience — we needed that hit song for the movie and Open Up Your Heart is a great song.

That's the fusion.. What happened at the end of Go—Set was that they got people in who didn't enjoy the kids thing— they kind of looked down at it a bit and it kind of went sour after that because the thing about embracing your audience and being almost part of your audience which is what it is, listening to them and almost extending them as an unelected leader — you're taking it further because you've got your finger on the pulse but it's also your pulse. And that's the interesting thing, and that's why Go—Set succeeded initially and why Tracks succeeded and why MOTE succeeded — the boys at Go—Set were really clever that they ran a university magazine called Lot's Wife — ah at Monash Uni which was a very new university — and two of them were there — and they worked on the university paper — papers used to be printed by letterpress which was hot metal press and then you started the photographic process off offset printing where you could put as many photos in as you want . Lots Wife was the first Uni paper to use offset printing — using the plates — And at university they said let's do a music magazine using this technique, and the printer gave them credit and they got Peter Raphael in from the music industry who managed Max Merritt and The Meteors and all these great bands.

Then you had the synergy of the finger on the pulse of the music industry — the technology of how to make a magazine, because they were student newspaper editors and they were independent so he could do what they liked and that attracted people like Stephen McLean who was a fantastic writer and Molly Meldrum and all these great people — really talented — just sucked into the magazine. And that's the template we took to Tracks magazine. And when you look at Spirit Of Akasha I think they had a good go, but not sure what they were actually trying to achieve and I wasn't that impressed by it I have to say — it's not the grumpy old man saying anything — MOTE is not about anyone's ego it's about what it is as a cultural identity. And I think that parts of that show really started to work but if you're going to make a film about MOTE you needed more intellectual rigor to examine it, or you just make a new

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MOTE and keep on harking back to it. But just do it again — do it again — do it your way — anyway I though Spirit of Akasha was a bit of a hybrid — it was a clumsy evening — it wasn't ..were you playing on stage?

TG:

At the Sydney Opera House? Yes, Peter Howe and I played that night. We did the Shud track First Things First from MOTE. We were part of the live entertainment part of that evening, and then the film..

DE:

It’s great that Andrew loves the movie and all that — it's fabulous —

TG:

He's the next generation I guess, really. It’s different now because back then it was like you had people doing certain tasks usually — and now you have people doing lots of tasks, so Andrew is being not only — when I met him he was playing guitar in a band, but he's gone on to be the film maker, editor, writer etc — he does all different kinds of projects — I guess in this day and age a lot of people feel that they have to be able to do all those things with their projects to bring them about..

DE:

Well yes, Albe was a cameraman and an editor and in those days and we'd be laying the soundtrack and things — it's kind of easier to do it digitally — I mean the actual physical task — it was a craft to do it then — it was like the `difference between drawing a plan on a computer today which is still hard to do and you have to know the programs and all that, but physically drawing a plan with a sharpened pencil and a set square and a piece of paper was just as hard, probably harder — because you had to think it all out yourself — the computer couldn't think anything out for you, so like the dexterity skills of cutting as oppose to typing in the code for when you want that cross fade to happen — it does it for you.

TG:

There's something about that other way though, which makes you think as much as you can about what you are going to need to do — I'm going to need to do this edit, so I've got to really focus on that and I've got to know that this is really here I need to do this edit, and I need to commit to it, and once you're committed to it you can't change it or fix it.

DE:

147

Well that was the disadvantage of it and advantage in some ways — but now you can try anything quickly — the problem being you cut up the work print and you cut up the sound track and you try and see if it works — so you've chopped it all up and you put it together and it doesn't quite work — and on bigger budget films that I've worked on you then go and reorder the rushes because it was chopped up so much that you just couldn't feel it — so you've got something that — the rhythm wasn't quite right — it wasn't a bad idea but you didn't quite get it there but you couldn't just take it all to bits as it was before then reassemble it, so it had its advantages in that sometimes you really had to think the thing out before you did it, but it's disadvantage was that if you didn't quite get it right it was harder to fix. And also you might have had a good idea but it wasn't that great and idea but it stimulated another idea but you'd already chopped it all up. Now I've just got to take this call because I think. Time is 8.33 am ..

TG:

Thanks David incredible..

END

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APPENDIX E: G. Wayne Thomas — Historical Interview Transcript

Interview re: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI Project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on Sun 5th July 2015 at Balmain Hotel, Sydney, NSW.

TIM GAZE

What was immediate reaction when you were approached to produce the soundtrack for MOTE?

G WAYNE THOMAS

It sounded like a good idea — David (Elfick) and Albe (Falzon) came into my office — I was working for Warner Bros — at the time and I was head of A+R ,but I'd had — the first record I'd produced and wrote had gone to number 2 I think and David had heard the B—side of it, and he really liked the production, and he really liked the production the B—side even through that wasn't the hit side of the single — and they came and they met me — it was quite funny actually cos they said they wanted to meet G Wayne Thomas and I said I am G Wayne Thomas and they no no, no, you're the A+R guy and I said no, I'm the same guy. Warner Bros put the G in front of my name because there was the drummer in a band called Flake, whose name was Wayne Thomas, and that's how I became G Wayne Thomas — the real name is Graham but I've never been called that. David was very good — Albe was sort of vague — not quite sure — certain nudges on the way to capture his attention rather than being definitive about what he wanted —

TG:

Maybe that's why the film is the way it is because of the way Albe likes to let things travel with their own energy without constraint or decisions made too quickly..

GW:

Well it was — and because there was no real story in the sense, it was always a bit difficult for everyone involved to actually get a firm grasp on what exactly we were doing, and none of us really 100% knew what the end result was going to be even though we pretended we did. because we had to look as if we knew what we were doing.

TG:

But looking back that looks like that was quite a good thing..

GW:

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It was it was, because it gave — it didn't lock the music into any one band , or any one style or any one great theme, like it allowed a lot of different themes to really function around the sequences of the film rather than having a direct train of thought..

TG:

Because I remember when Albe said to us, I'd like Tamam Shud to do the soundtrack to the film, oh yeah, that's be great we'll do the soundtrack, we got all excited and everything and then you came on board, and it changed to , oh no we're going to get some other people to do some music , and at the time we went 'ohhh ...' but in reality, that was a really good thing — because it opened the scope right up to a lot more of what was going on with Australian and New Zealand band as well across the board..

GW:

That's right — but see I didn't know that they'd even approached you — see, they never told me that — they actually came to me and said they want me to basically put it together for them and so I spent a lot more time with David than I did with Albe. I don't know why — David was probably the unifying elemental force really in the whole thing, and organisationally keeping in touch with David all the time kept the momentum of it going, which was a good thing, as he has proved in later life. David has gone on to become a very successful film producer and very good at it, so you know..

TG:

So amongst all the free thinking and open ended scenarios, at least there was one person most people seemed to go back to David and he was like a lynch pin — he liked the open ended-ness but he had the vision of the direction as well ..

GW:

That it had to be tidied up and kept neat and the final end up as a package ..

TG:

To be screened and shown — that's pretty neat isn't it?

GW:

Yeah, David always seemed to have a clear idea where it was going with what outcome he wanted from the film. So `he was good like that..

TG:

Did you help decide who was going to be on the soundtrack, or were you presented with the artist list so to speak..

GW:

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No, I pretty much decided — except that they wanted you guys (Tamam Shud) to be involved, and the only other definitive thing was we had to record the song from the guy who'd won the song writing contest that was held in TRACKS magazine, which was Peter Howe's song, I’m Alive which is fantastic how that came about — that's a little gem that one. Well, the prize was to do a song for the film. So those were the only real criteria — so we sort of thought about — and I didn't really — what I really did was — see I knew John J's song — and I thought that the song would really fit — the kind of style and , I knew the Peter Howe song.

I hadn't heard your stuff at that point I don't think — but what it was we'd probably needed some writers that could specifically write for it — and it was sort of like Shud knew the lifestyle and knew the deal with the surfing culture — and what can I say that I wasn't particularly au fait with it really — I'm not a surfer and I wasn't a surfer — but I understood it but I didn't really participate in it. So then it came down to who would I get, and I liked the band Ticket out of New Zealand and I liked what Brian Cadd was doing, so I basically just rang them up, and basically said, this is the project we're doing, can we talk about it, so I did — I just basically rang an then got in touch with you guys, blah blah blah — I think David E actually did mote of the liaising with you guys — more than I did..

TG:

He may done because we knew him — he'd been around for a long while previously as a friend of the bands, and editor of Go Set magazine — he lived locally to us as well in the northern beaches — and we'd see him on the way to the beach etc — you know that kind of stuff. And he knew Lindsay pretty well I think..

GW:

Then I wanted to record it in Melbourne because at the time there was no 16 track studio in Sydney — that's why it was recorded in Melbourne — and we were going to do it at Armstrong's in Melbourne, but then John French the engineer at TCS — I ran into him somewhere and we had a chat about Roger Savage — who was running Armstrong's at the time, and he said, mate, it's going to be difficult for us to do it because of your time frame — maybe you should speak to John French at TCS, so I did, and that's how we ended up recording at TCS, so..

And also you have to remember in those days, there was no SMPTE code, so you couldn't time lock anything or run to the footage — and truth be known, the footage we had wasn't even cut — they were bits that Albe thought he might want to use or not use, or he liked this bit, or didn't like that bit. He’d say, “I'm going to cut that out, no don't worry about that bit” etc. etc., so I really only saw some partial takes. I had Albe come down and show us and the musos, cos we used some session guys as well, particularly in Brian Cadd's band, on his songs, and on my songs, and they complimented a few other tracks, so it was difficult because we had sort of some rough idea of the sequence, but we didn't have a finished film..

151

TG:

So you still had that unknown outcome energy happening with the film as well as the music. Dancing around and having to improvise as you go ..

GW:

That's it, even when it came to editing, we edited the film and the music, both at the same time..

TG:

I didn't know that either..

GW:

Yeah — well I did most of that with Albe — I would cut the music — if actually listen to the film soundtrack, the original film soundtrack, cos Albe has re—cut that film quite a few times since it got transferred to tape — he's actually had a few little cracks at it. So it's actually a different film. But not markedly so — in some areas when we were putting it together we were just putting it together in 16 mm — and frame counting all the stuff. So to get a time sequence we had to count every bloody frame —

TG:

So you were working on a Steenbeck editor?

GW:

No, no — nothing as sophisticated as that — this was just an old Moviola and an edit desk. A razor blade and an edit block — you know..? Do the best you can, son..(laughs..)

TG:

Epic — and you can't undo that !! Do you think working like that — having to make un— doable decisions made the working experience more creative in a way?

GW:

Yep — because you make the decision and go — yep, that'll work, then do it and it's done — finite..committed..

TG:

Not like today where you can still be in multi mix mode and totally flexible right up until the last render. And you can still go back even then. A little bit of a lack of finality there?

GW:

Well sometimes I think maybe too many options —

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TG:

So you can lose the travel and the focus of where you want to go because you're dipping off to the edit points and aspects all the time..

GW:

Yeah, that's right. When you're doing it in finality mode, you've got to keep it all in view, and I mean I don't think there are any really rough edits in the final cut, but I mean there was some pretty severe editing at times..

TG:

A couple of quick fades etc ..

GW:

It hung together pretty well. But as I said, it was done with basically no technology at all..

TG:

That's right — it was part of it, but there were — I remember reading a great article by Keith Beattie out of Canberra, about how Albe did some of those edits — and the super slow motion things that he got into and how long they took to do, even with the technology then..

GW:

Yeah, over—crank the camera and things like that..yeah, great..and that's how you had to do things in those days..they were your options — pushing the envelope — let's see what this baby can do..

TG:

It wasn't all packed up in software — this is how you this, this is how you do that..

GW:

That's right. There were no instructions..do the best you can..

TG:

Wayne, so was the recording process one of discovery — was there room to experiment with new technology of the day, via the recording studio — were there opportunities to muck around in the studio with gear in there — did you think about much of that stuff?

GW:

Yes, to some degree there was — there were only two 16 track studios in Australia in 1970 — Armstrong’s and TCS, both in Melbourne. And Sydney had only 8 track studios — so 16 tracks gave us another 8 tracks to play with and add more stuff to — so to get some of the harmonies right, over dub the guitars, blah blah blah, that sort of stuff, which with and 8 track you would have run out of tracks, then you'd be pre mixing stuff down, comping etc..yeah

153 yeah..so I guess in some way that was sort of new for most of us really, because, well the Sydney guys particularly, because we hadn't worked with 16 tracks ..and John French was you know, a pretty innovative engineer, and some of the sounds he was pulling for the time, and that sort of thing — well they still sound up today I think..you know, it doesn't sound that dated I don't think.

And that's really John French's work — in the sense that the way he put it together — I must say that technically I'm not that au fait with all that — I mean I — one lesson I had learned from working with Patrick Flynn and these guys was that if it sounds good, it probably is good. Trust your ears..you know, so and that was basically the premise that I worked on — if it sounded good it was good. So the technology — it wasn't that great in those days — I mean all the echo lines and delay lines — they were old EMT plates — they weren't electronic delay lines or anything like that — they were all physical plates — the EMT plate was about 40 foot long and to change anything you had to turn this big handle — that changed the delay — all that sort of stuff — like on a fire engine. Amazing..

So there wasn't really a great deal of electronic technology around..it was really just beginning to come into the business. This is 1971 — just starting to realise more multi tracking facilities etc. We couldn't time shift any of the media we'd recorded — we couldn't put one track slightly forward of another track in the mix. It has to all be physically played like that..

TG:

So it came down to performance and live music in the end..

GW:

Which I reckon is a great thing, because everyone who played on it actually played — that was the art and craft — live playing — and recorded as a band — the bands with rhythm section takes etc..

TG:

I remember that — I remember doing the final leads or vocals separately..

GW:

And a couple of the leads we overdubbed, bits and pieces — then overdubbed the woodwinds and the strings and that sort of thing..

TG:

Nigel was telling me today how Peter Jones, who arranged the strings etc for MOTE, said to Nigel, because they'd pre—recorded the strings apparently? — and Peter called Nigel on the phone with a metronome and said, this is the time sequence tempo, this is it — now go in and play it with no syncing, so they would record the strings later without Nigel’s drums, with no reference except the metronome..

154

GW: That'd be right, because they weren't there — and because the string sections — because they were booked as a call — which was 3 hours — so we used to try and do as much in the 3 hours as we could, so even if the rest of the band weren't there, we'd record that string section to that song that we actually hadn't finished. We would just do it over the backing track, otherwise if they went over their 3 hours we had to pay them another 3 hours, ouch..expensive.

TG:

So there's all that kind of organisation as well that's got to go into all that — that production side as well — it's nailing what you need when you need it, so you don't blow it out budget wise and all that sort of stuff..

GW:

And you've got to pick the days you can do it, cos you want certain players, because the string players as you know, they sound as a string section, they don't sound as a lead instrument in the sense they don't necessarily play right on the beat, so it's better to have string players who are experienced in the studio who know to play right up on it and still sound like a section, so it actually becomes tighter and doesn't become all wishy washy, and lose its integrity. So you have to balance that timing with availability and players etc. I mean as you know, it can change — day to day — and you have to be ready for that..

TG:

Did the artists bring much to the recording sessions as afar as being creative towards like final outcomes for the soundtrack? Was there a fair bit of that, did you find?

GW:

Yes they did — because all of the artists all had their own approach to the way they performed and the way that they played their own music within their own grooves as it were — and they were quite rehearsed, because mostly as with you guys Tamam Shud, you had already been playing this material live 2 or 3 times a week at performances and gigs — and your rhythm section was a lot different to, say Cadd's which was really he session guys and I used the same guys, which was Duncan McGuire on bass, Mark Kennedy on drums, Caddy on piano of course, and Billy Green on guitar, who was from Doug Parkinson's band — Billy played most of the acoustic guitars, and a lot of the leads were played by Tim Piper..

TG:

I remember doing a bit of acoustic guitar work on your songs as well. So that's what I thought was interesting — that there was — your outlook on that was — OK, I've got different players, and all of a sudden there would be a different group of people from the whole lot of us, there was another group looked at or formed within the group overall, to say do this bit — like you got Nigel and myself from the Shud to do the drums and bass tracks to MOTE theme, so that was different again, and I thought that was a really good thing

155 because, you used people that were in the project but who weren't necessarily session people, but a couple here, a couple there, to change it — I thought that was a good thing..

GW:

Yeah, like could you please do a bass line for us here, cos Duncan couldn't make it or wasn't around etc. Yeah we did a fair bit of chopping and changing like that. You got to remember — at the time everyone involved were actually pretty good players, so everyone could take a bit of a role doing other things and pull it off easily because they were good players, that was one object with the whole thing and another thing I'd learnt years ago — if you're going to be good, get the best you can possibly afford — or get the best around you that you can, which is what I attempted to do, hence McGuire, Kennedy, Cadd. You guys in the Shud, all good proven players..good feel, know how to be spontaneous in the studio etc.., so it worked out to be a happy mix, because they'd think that the contribution across all of the sections of it — there's various bits of everybody on all sorts of bits of tracks..

TG:

I really like that fact and aspect that gives it it's difference and its colour and its different energy levels etc.. That’s pretty important I reckon..

GW:

Yeah I think so too because when anybody goes to something like that, and they maybe haven't been playing it that long , they often bring a spontaneity — even when they actually think in their head they're learning it — and another thing I was thinking about the lead solo in Open Up Your Heart, when the guitar player was recording it, Johnny French turned to me and said, mate, he'll want to run this 5 or 6 times — so we'll start recording from the second take — because his 3rd or 4th takes will probably be the best ..

TG:

Oh — interesting that this was John's slant on it..

GW:

Yeah, and that's what we did — and I think it's the 2nd take that was uses. But he wanted to go on because he was going to get it perfect (laughs) and you'd know about that TG (laughs)..

TG:

Yeah, I know all right — I've learnt from that mistake..(laughs) — often now we will do things — sometimes in sessions now we'll have a yak and we'll think about it — we'll have a listen — won't actually play anything — talk, think, listen — let's have a run — push red — go, get the first one — first one is the one I try to grab — without trying too hard — because if you start going over into 4 or 5 and 6 and 7 — it's like you're crushing the spontaneity out of it. That can happen. Then you overcompensate and lose the feel and initial excitement.

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Then trouble. Good to keep it a little on the edge of unknowing — keep you on your toes..little bit of tentativeness ..pulls it back a bit behind the beat — a good place to be..

GW:

I agree..yeah..I think a lot of stuff I hear I think my God, machines. Then it's all quantised, nah...you know, tracks DO move, and they breathe, the tempo does shift — ever so slightly — you know, and that's the performance of the song..

TG:

That's the people — without that — that's what I find about working with sequenced drum machines etc — they're not breathing so I can't breathe — I prefer to work with humans who are — you know, the energy's doing what it should. It’s moving , it's breathing, it's giving, it's taking, giving, taking, — it's like it's a good balance..

GW:

I remember once, I was doing a series of commercials, and they wanted a 3 minute thing for their sales presentation which was basically two or three versions of the commercial strung together. So we did it, and there's a dreadful drum error — in the middle of one of the transitions — and I'm listening to it — thinking, well it doesn't actually sound too bad — they're only going to hear it once, so bugger it you know. We left it if. I ended up having to re—record the whole commercial — again and again, until I realised what they wanted was the bloody mistake back in it..cripes..you can’t figure..

TG:

So they wanted the realism of the feel that was connected to that mistake..

GW:

Yeah, but I didn't get it. Until I realised that they actually wanted the mistake in there — crazy..

TG:

So back to MOTE — we talked about how having different music people playing different spontaneous roles helped with the outcome of the music for the soundtrack album —

GW:

Yes, and I think we only had 10 days to record and mix the whole project — 10 or 12 days — the soundtrack is a longer than the album, there's a whole lot more stuff in the soundtrack than the album, which initially was only 12 songs — there are at least 18 pieces in the soundtrack with Ticket, and additional solo pieces from Caddy etc, and Gamelan solo piece, John Sangster — he was in EMI experimenting with putting these tubular bells in water — and moving them up and down — and doing all that, and we recorded it while he was trying to work out how to do something and tune these bells — he wanted to be able to record them

157 and measure them so he could get the pitch right by lowering them in and out of the water and I recorded them, and I said John, can I use a bit of that — and he said sure, go for your life..

TG:

So the great John Sangster contributed to MOTE as well — that fantastic — he was a legend in Australian jazz, and music generally. I remember he used to love right on Narrabeen lake in Sydney — loved the water I'm thinking..

GW:

Yep, great opportunity and chance that that happened — I just happened to be there that day when he was doing it — wasn't planned or anything at all — that was great — I thought that's really usable in the MOTE project. And I asked him and he said yeah, I’m only just trying to work out the tuning of these things..

TG:

So all this kind of thing effects the outcome one way or another..

GW: Certainly.

TG:

So who were your main liaisons regarding the outcome of the soundtrack? Was it the film producer, David Elfick, the director, the record company — how did these people’s opinions and outlooks help shape the soundtrack overall — did their opinions actually do that or?

GW:

Yes, there are quite a few interesting things there — Paul Turner, who at the time was my boss at Warners, and the chairman of Warner Bros Australia, said to me, without us doing that album, Warner Bros would never have had a recording section in Australia. Because, as you know, it was Australia's first Gold soundtrack and all that, and he said the Americans were just amazed that this little record company which was really a subsidiary, and was really only distributing licensed product form America and the UK in Australia, was all of a sudden producing this music independently of their own, and it was being successful — that's why it was a lease tape deal — they didn't have a recording budget — so that's why Peter and I (who were Isis Productions) had funded most of it and Albe Falzon and David Elfick through in about 3 or 4 grand I think, but it actually cost about 12 or 14 thousand — a lot for those days.

So the outcomes were influenced the record co because in the case of Open Up Your Heart for example (G Wayne Thomas' single from the movie), became a hit — I never finished that song — David, when we'd just about wrapped everything up, and I had frame counted all the scenes and I had worked it out — I had it in pretty good shape — in my head and my page — I had pages of stuff — I'd been doing the arithmetic — I had to, otherwise it was not going to fit together ..

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So David was onto me — he said so what if you've got it wrong — thanks David — he said can we do one more song — just in case — oh no, really? So we had the rhythm section there, so I did the rhythm track — I actually went in and wrote something in about 10 mins — just recorded the backing track and a rough vocal — that was if. And then, David had tied it up with 2SM radio, to promote the film and buying some ads and things like that — and 2SM wanted to pick the single, so David sent them over a tape of all the songs that were on the soundtrack, saying OK — you pick the single and we'll get Warners to release it as a single..

And by this stage the film is pretty much cut — and finished and we didn't use the extra song — it wasn't in it — so that was cool — and I'm saying to David, see I told you I got it right. We don't need it, so we could have saved me doing that — and harassing the hell out me. So the tape of everything is sent to 2SM and they ring up about a week later and say, the very last song on the tape is the hit — what's it called? Open Up Your Heart? It can't be — it's not in the film. And it wasn't —

So they said you gotta find somewhere to put it, because it's the hit, and I said mate, we've run out of money, it's just a backing track, blah blah blah, I'm copping hell over the money already spent, stress building — nobody knows what the outcome is going to be — what are we going to do now? And Brennan said, well how much do you need to finish it? And I said mate, I don't know — couple of grand, something like that — we have to call strings again, tidy it up, you know, studio session — make it presentable — and he said as part of our advertising deal we'll pay for it. So I went back to Melbourne, pulled out the track and tidied it up the best we could. And then it still wasn't in the film ..

TG:

So where did that leave you?

GW:

Well, they put it over the end titles ...

TG:

Right...ah, man..that's insane.. that's really..clever thinking going on there..

GW:

Well I don't know what people were thinking, or just sheer expediency —

TG:

But the pressure of what are we going to do?? That's great. Here’s a place — and that's good because that's a great place for a hit track — on the end titles..

GW:

Well probably right, but certainly wasn't planned...

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TG:

I heard one on the end of a film only the other day — closing titles — Ed Sheerin — Lord Of The Rings — The Hobbit..

GW:

Well ours only ended up there out of sheer necessity — almost accidental. So it did have a lot of influence on how things were with the marketing people, the record company, saying that there wouldn't have been a recording section in Australia, MOTE was a success, and Paul always gave me great credit for that. He said, fantastic.

TG:

Really great to hear this — it gives an insight which people don't realise — they just go in and they don't think about those things that occur and transpire — as part of the creative journey — of putting together something like MOTE —

GW:

And trying to save your arse at the same time. The mother of invention saves the day..

TG:

So were you surprised when the soundtrack notched up sales of the first Gold soundtrack in Australia? Were you surprised that that happened?

GW:

Sure — nobody had thought about that at all. Also because the surfing culture then was nothing like the surfing culture now. I mean all surfers were considered bums and dole bludgers..

TG:

Yeah they didn't get much of a look in — the whole culture was not looked upon very kindly — by the straights I guess you'd say..

GW:

And the mainstream media used to hammer the surfies and their lifestyle mercilessly —

TG:

Yes they did, on reflection..

GW:

So the idea that a surfing film could be a success was really not considered — it was kind of like , oh well if it gets out there we'll get our money back and we've made a pretty good little film and pretty good little soundtrack. So no, a big surprise to see it do so well..

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And then my single, Open Up Your Heart went to number one, and the station then wouldn't play it in South Australia due to a political DJ problem, and by the by, some pretty ugly stuff went on in those days as well to do with airplay etc, so it's not new. The great person in all of this was John Brennan — he stuck by us solid with the advice and what to do with the marketing work and it was good — he was the music director at 2SM.

TG:

Great how 2SM came in and role played all that for MOTE — a big help..

GW:

Yes, a massive help. You know because they liked it — which was also kind of unusual because it's the Catholics you know — 2 Santa Maria —

TG:

So the people running the radio station were passionate about music..

GW:

That's right..

TG:

So if they liked it in that area they'd help — so it's not just a business for them. They’re in there because they dig the music ..they dig radio, they did communications, they dig if. The youth market, the burgeoning of the marketplace since the 60's went well for them. Kids finally had money, whereas the previous generation, kids didn't have money..

So, how did you see the combination of media working in those days?

GW:

Well the film had one major disadvantage in that it was only 16 mm — so it could only be shown in town halls and venues like that back then — the major theatres couldn't run it because all they ran was 35 or 70 mm...and there was talk of sometime — David wanted to go to a company in America called MS Transform I think it was called, who could blow up 16 mm to 35 or 70 without losing any quality..but it was very very expensive to print — I think it was about 18 — 20 grand a print — and so yeah, David worked out for the number of prints they'd need for a general theatre release was going to outweigh the potential.

Going to the movies in those days was a dollar — not 20 bucks like it is now — or more you know so they never did that, so therefore the distribution of the film was limited, in the sense that it was run up and down the coast in town halls and surf clubs and stuff like that, on a 16 mm projector — and the same thing happened in South Africa, and various other parts of the world, and the perennial story — everyone that was running the film would put the money in their pocket and vamoose — where's the takings — must have lost them..!!

TG:

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So you're restricted by the films 16 mm format..

GW:

Yes and by the method of distribution, so its success — it's place in the surfing history timeline, is well warranted, because it really didn't have the kind of general distribution that a surfing film would have, so it speaks volumes for the film.. that it got through those boundaries and the restrictions, and it still managed to cut through —

TG:

So how would you approach producing this kind of soundtrack today if you were to redo it — would you follow previous approaches used , or embrace different ways perhaps working to the digital age, file sharing, remote recording etc — that kind of thing or do you think that the outcome of it was really pursuant to the fact that it was all done with people together in the same space for the most part the energy that took place ..

GW:

I think I'd do it the old way like that, because as we talked about earlier, I dig the live performance of music and think it's more important than just the production of it. You know I mean like, all the quantize stuff — the capturing — the performance level is really what gives it life — it’s what makes the music breath, so I think I would definitely go back and do it the same sort of way — and if I could be so harsh, to say I listened to the Akasha soundtrack — and they sort of went back and did it that way — but they didn't follow the basic premise of even being a good musician — I mean Simple Ben is really only the simple thing — they're not in tune. They don’t start and finish at the same time — they don't meet at the same break at the same time. It’s a little bit too open ended, too amateur..letting too much go rather than having a few ground rules in place — which is one thing we did do. And I feel those frameworks are still relative now..

TG:

So maybe that's the new way of being experimental. Pushing that stuff a bit further etc..

GW:

But if you're a musician, you think you'd tune up. I mean, can't you hear it? If it sounds good, it probably is good, if it sounds rubbish, it probably is rubbish..

TG:

There are different schools on that — sometimes you'll get two guitars slightly out of tune with each other and voila — you have a chorus effect, but not if they are too far out of tune with each other...

GW:

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I'd probably go back to working with humans because of what they contributed and the kind of people they are. Particularly the way they looked at it and the way they felt about it. David and Albe contributed a lot by being there and Albe's vagueness probably contributed in that people had a little more freedom with things, and David bossing us all around — you need to have that..to keep it all focused etc., we need to walk out of here with this and it has to translate — which it did.

Some of that can certainly be luck but it was an emerging film as were the bands and their music at that time — a lot then with the rock thing and the bands in the 70's and the interesting thing about the bands and people we used, they all went on to very good careers as great players etc., even though they weren't necessarily nationally known or anything at the time. Some of the bands like Tamam Shud and others — you were very popular — but you didn't have a national audience.

TG:

That's because we were left of centre and we were doing something like we did for the soundtrack — that's where we were at — we're not going to go on Countdown etc — that's not us — were saying about Molly the other day — God bless him, he did do much for Australian music, but with bands like us etc, where was he going to put us? What's he going to do with us? He needed those popular bands to make the television show — showbiz. And the audience was 14 year old girls, so and even some of the bands that did go on there like Cold Chisel, who wrecked the joint, and wrecked the set and caused utter chaos — so that's great. You know what? I think that's pretty good — that's pretty good G. Wayne — that's fantastic — many thanks for that..

GW:

No worries — anything you need or catch up on or clarify, just give us a call mate. I’m happy to help..

TG:

Thanks G. Wayne Thomas.

END

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APPENDIX F: Terry Fitzgerald — Historical Interview Transcript

Interview re: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI Project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on Sun 28th June 2015 at Newport Beach, Sydney N.S.W.

TIM GAZE

So Terry, how did you feel at the time about your being included as one of the main surfers in Morning Of The Earth?

TERRY FITZGERALD

Well, at the time without being too obtuse, we really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into —

TG:

I guess Albe didn't either really..

TF:

I don't think any of us did — like in hindsight, that wonderful powerful thing, obviously it was a great career move, and one that I think that everyone involved in the project at the time was looking off into I don't know what as far as their futures or careers or lives — MOTE obviously affected everybody and it was a launching pad for my career, particularly with surfboards and all the rest of it. But at the time, it was more an escape—you the little sequences were just being in the right place at the right time, there was probably some escapism in it—I don't know that the Hawaiian section was escaping, that was more a search for knowledge—as far as a surfboard shaper and surfing was concerned — man that's a tough question..

TG:

I guess it is, yeah, but it’s interesting that reflect back on at least having a knowledge at that time or an awareness that it was going to be good for your career or for other people’s careers, or for a jumping off point for an onward career — even though the film itself was meant to be a whole look at what was going on at the time in an evolving culture..

TF:

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Well, I don't know you know, at the time surfing was going through this catharsis — in some ways it was cutting off the past and in the same step it was looking for direction and the tangents of the direction. I guess Albe and David Elfick, in the surf side of it, and then the guys who did the music from the other side of it — G Wayne Thomas and Brian Cadd etc., there were so many spokes to the hub —

TG:

Yes that's true thinking about that whole thing now — because not only for your surfing from your side of it but the side of the music for those artists who were involved — it was doing a similar thing really..

TF:

Yes the overview I think was choosing people who represented strong directions as far as where they were going with their genre — like whether it be surfing or music or whatever and by focusing on people with that character or personality or style or whatever, but the strength of what people were doing is what was captured particularly in the surfing side of it and then the music being overlaid also captured those people who were making statements at that time and perhaps that's the inner strength of the movie again in hindsight. What were you thinking at the time? It was like hey mate, let's toss a coin let's roll the dice and cut the pack and look out Jack because this is just what we've got.

TG:

That's right. It’s great because when you look at it like that and looking now, it's like because of the idea of that film being made, it presented this nucleus of an area that was going to support all these other people in what they were doing — without them really knowing it at the time, but that's kind of what it did — it drew them together but gave them a direction outward as well..

TF:

Exposure? I think there was a definite benefit of exposure were interesting—it seemed like there were some people who capitalized on it — some people who didn't — some people who were involved use that to lead to other success — you know, blah blah but going back to at the time, nobody in their right mind would have predicted what Morning Of The Earth became—no one had a crystal ball..

TG:

It was amazing how it got embraced across the board so much and how people are still..

TF:

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Maybe because I think — like everybody in the surf — look what was born out of it, like Tracks magazine — which was representative of Australian surfing for the past 45 years — and careers were born out of it — myths were born out of it (laughs)

TG:

And people who believe in it so much that they basically don't let it go — it's part of what they do and of who they are and what they relate to with everything they are doing, so ..

TF:

Well that's kind of flattering that that is what it's become from some viewpoints, but look, MOTE in its entirety encapsulated a freedom of spirit and escapism that represented the times and I think quite honestly it was the purity of the thing in the sense there was no real agendas — there was no real corporatisation, there was nothing that surfing became after the fact that was thought of prior to the fact apart from — I think that David Elfick had the vision to market it and produce it the way he did on his side of things — and that was a first for sure.

TG:

That was pretty astute probably..

TF:

Astute — yes, but he probably wasn't the first — if you go back to the film 5 Summer Stories which came after Morning Of The Earth — or even back to The Endless Summer, which is a different thing all together, but I think what it encapsulated was a first, but the surfing and the people involved — there was an innocence and a purity of the times but there were also a lot of bloody questions you know—not only with the changes to society in Australia, but changes to people’s perception as to how their career paths were placed — if you told someone you were going to be a professional surfer, well you were looked at as if you had spots of leprosy you know..

TG:

Almost like a professional musician really..

TF:

Well, I was just about to say that..(laughs)

TG:

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It seems like the film provoked a lot of people onto thinking about what was real and important — how was the future going to pan out for us..

TF:

This is all after the fact stuff Tim—what you're almost doing, and what I guess some do is they almost question the result and then look for what created it — in reality go back to then — 'Hey TF, you're going to Hawaii yeah, I'm going over there – well I'll come over and take some shots and see what happens, ok cool — there's a cyclone off the north coast — Kirra is gonna be pumping OK, I'll fly up — see you in the morning, roll the dice, cut the pack — and we're going to Bells — jump in Albe, we'll see what's down there' and on.. There was no real preconceived list of post-it notes and a story board — it was just roll out the door — sun's up, surf's up — and you happened to be at the right place at the right time — how fantastic is that? So whether you choose to accept that there's some sort of laws of coincidence or the universe provides or whatever, the reality is that it was and started out as a couple of guys making a movie with a vision that drew in surfers and musicians that represented all of these different tangents that at that given point in time, and the net result was greater than the sum of the parts.

TG:

Wow, beautifully put TF — I can really feel that — it makes me think of Albe — it's that thing of just letting it roll out and just happen — there's no preconceived — it's going to gather its own energy and its own momentum.

TF:

That's what it was and you read it in the cover of The Rolling Stone..

TG:

Maybe that's what people like about it so much — no agenda ..which is a way of thinking..

TF:

And that comes back to the essence of what people were doing at the time — it was really about just going surfing — or being — I guess there was a degree of mate—ship in it — there's essence of adventure and a connection between the people involved on various levels — but it was like, people just came together, did their bit, went off, and got on with the rest of their lives. Some took advantage of it, some didn't—some took advantage of others connected to the film — it was a pretty energetic and creative period, and how you took advantage of things and what you did with them — that came from within — the medium that was provided to you whether it was print, music, film or whatever sure you could take

167 those tools and use them as assets and God I hate business speak, but the reality is, is what life turns up is what life is and mate, that's part of our culture — that's part of us — and I can only be thankful that I was a part of it, because it became a huge part of — what created who I am and what I've done — but ..

TG:

You could look on your being there at the time as a contribution really, couldn't you? You contributed..

TF:

Is it? Well did I contribute, or did that contribute to me? See the bloody movie — this is what gives you the shits about Morning Of The Earth I swear — people just go 'ahh — MOTE created' and then you go hold on a minute, well maybe we created, but no it created — and then you're in this lock step of going what came and who and why went where—Oh my God, see?? And then that maybe in itself is the real centre of the purity of the thing — is that people yearn for what was and what could have been, and that's what's created the longevity ...but it's not, and it wasn't and it never set out to be..(laughs)

TG:

But the fact of the matter is, the reason we are doing this is because of the effect it had on Australian popular culture..

TF:

No, no stop. The reason I'm doing this Tim Gaze is because you're my mate, and that's it. And Albe is my mate and that's that. And let's get some focus on this thing you know—and that's all it was in the beginning — was a bunch of guys doing stuff with their mates — and here we are 43 years and 6 months and 18 days later, and still doing it..bloody surfing — fucks you up, doesn't it?

TG:

You were saying before—"Tim, as a musician how do you get yourself ready to do gigs and stuff?” Because I'm still performing at my age and I said, “How do you do that — you've just been surfing at Jeffries Bay — how do you get ready to tackle that?” What you didn't surf? Of course you surfed — so that's in the blood, in the psych — that's going to keep going forever..

TF:

Yeah..

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TG:

And that's what drives us..

TF:

Mate I wish somebody would just put a cork in the bottle that MOTE — like the essence to MOTE can we bottle it and sell it — I'm sure Albe will find a way — (both laugh)

TG:

So you're saying to Albe that there's more to it than just wanting to make a good surf film, on the other side of it I guess..

TF:

On the other side..

TG:

Well that's where we go to isn't it — that's the other part of what people do—they're creative but they also market things and they do all that kind of stuff ..

TF:

Come on, let's walk over to Kim's shop..

TG: Tanks Terry – great interview..

END

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APPENDIX G: Andrew Taylor and Tim Vander Heiden Interview transcript

Interview: re ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on Monday, 29 August 2016, at Z9 Studios QUT Brisbane

TIM GAZE

That's rolling. And that's rolling. I'm sure that's rolling. Okay, Andrew Taylor and Tim Van Der Heiden. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you for the wonderful music you've contributed to this project. It's fantastic, it's had a really nice outcome so far, so good on you guys. Just got a couple questions for you. How did you initially feel about the idea of redoing a song from the original Morning Of The Earth soundtrack, and then writing a subsequent music piece for the new soundtrack?

ANDREW TAYLOR:

What—how did we feel about it?

TG:

Yeah, they just feel about doing that. What did you think about the idea?

AT:

I thought it was pretty cool. I think the movies pretty iconic and it's pretty well known around the place and what not and yeah, we just listened to and some of the songs that we and stuff and whatever and I thought it was pretty cool felt pretty good about and the funny thing was is I just written this song and it was just bad nowhere and it's funny because then when one of the other came on it was kind of like it was just one sitting there ready to go. Yeah, so it's kind of like it's really strange how that worked out.

TG:

OK, so you didn't like I say didn't write a reflective one off the back of the first one and that kind of thing that that's okay.

AT:

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That's all no, it's kind of yeah, actually I tell you the truth it was kind of there but it wasn't in its full stage yet. I only had like some kind of repeats itself but I only had the first bit. But after I'd finished First Things First it helped finish if the second song response, so that's how it kind of worked — with the whole thing, yeah..

TIM VANDER HEIDEN

It kind of sounded like with the song that you'd written and I guess the theme of what the movie is just sort of seemed to fit.

TG:

Yes both the pieces that you've done and worked on seemed to fit very well and it sounds like you've put time in and enjoyed what you're doing and that way you have put that music together is great — very enlightening for me..

AT:

Yes we watched over the section a few times so we could get a bit of a feel for it and like, what the music that fitted over it, because surfing movies always , well through the 90's whatever, it's always pump music you know? So quick stuff — relentless — but MOTE had a different vibe to it — chilled — yeah, they were just having fun — people having fun surfing which is sort of a — it's all pro now these days..

TG:

So the pictures had an effect on your ideas..

AT:

Yeah we watched over it and tried to find something that would fit that mood and feel and what not and that is what we ended up coming up with..

TVH:

I think we had a talk about what we like in a cover too, and I was talking about my favourite covers are ones — you listen to the song and it's like that artist wrote that original song —

171 it's not really a note for note exact replica but if that person was to write that song how would it sound? Thant conversation and the verse you first came up with — that was just spot on — if Andrew had written that song I think that's how it would have turned out and that's how it ended up the way it did..

AT:

Yeah, that true, eh..

TG:

Yes a very strong interpretation I thought the work that you guys have done..

AT:

It just sort of came out like that — that's why I was kind of stoked about it —it's just really natural and it's a great song. It's hard not to split into both versions—I'd be singing half of one then singing half of the other—and getting this mix up—outcome was good though..

TG:

Did the instrumentation of the original music track play a part in the way you approached the arrangements of the new versions that you did?

TVH:

For anything in my head, like guitar tones and stuff I was thinking of going in an opposite direction just to be a bit opposite — in line with that too I guess I thought if I was playing on this what would I have played, and I guess that's sort of maybe where it came from..

AT:

It's hard not to put a guitar solo in there — it was yeah, that was hard — all I could hear was this guitar solo and piano — it was really hard not to do that — because on the track it was really strong and vocals — I remember a few times like , I can just hear this ..

TG:

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Well the way you guys have done it you have extracted a new mood out of it — I'm getting a new slant and feel coming through it — which seems to me to work really well. I’m hearing you playing and recording it and I'm seeing some of the footage in my head, this is working great, so it's a nice thing that you've reflected from the pictures as well it's worked out that way—very strong..

AT:

What beneficial part did music technology play for you in the recording of the new soundtracks?

AT:

Oh a huge part. We did the majority of it at home. We have a little studio at home and we put a lot of it together and then brought it in as a full session. Normally I'd play with drums and bass on tracks but this is just the Tim and I — and the drums were MIDI from a little piano keyboard — so it was pretty much the first time I'd done a song which didn't incorporate real live drums and the live bass track — it was kind of like this — yes, a lot of technology influence here..

TVH:

Like with what we listened to too, not just I guess convenience, with the technology but also the style and that sort of lends itself to the use of the technology, so I think that's really where it comes from. Probably even more than just the convenience of the fact that neither of us play drums but it reflects the kind of sound we kind of wanted as well..

TG:

I guess that these tracks you have done doesn't have a lot of drums going on — more rhythmic stuff going on isn't there—layers of rhythmic things..

AT:

Yeah — that 6 beat thing kept on coming up — keeping the meter going — the shakers and stuff — I think technology plays a huge part hey..

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TG:

Yeah I guess recording elsewhere then bringing your whole session into to QUT — transferring it over into ProTools..

AT:

Yes to hear the quality that you can get nowadays in a home studio — it's crazy — the technology that's out there — I guess it's just money isn't it..

TG:

Digital gear makes it mobile, compact and transportable..

AT:

But you can't beat — with those vocals we did in hear at QUT — you can't beat that real studio sound — like some things you can't do with great hardware, like mics etc., but the there—the room sound — you can grab a hold of that — it makes the sound real..

TG:

So technology and studio environment played a big part for you guys..

AT:

Yes very definitely..

TG:

So do you find the content of earlier projects lie MOTE can inspire new ideas for current projects or for anything you may work on in the future, or after having experienced the way this has come about and the thought processes and the different things that have happened?

AT:

Yes, I think definitely the relaxed thing — I think that nowadays it's like all bam! — everything on the click track and quantized — like it's all perfect you know — like, First

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Things First, like you can tell they're all just chilling — everyone is just hanging out — and its' great — it just sounds good the way it's come out and played — it's got that relaxed vibe and I think if that gets lost nowadays a little bit it's too regimented and time controlled — too rigid and too perfect — that human element — are humans playing this, is this even a human voice, or what is this?

TG:

Well that's great because you guys have addressed this — you've done sequenced bits and pie es and you've done looped bits and pieces — machines sure but with humans — you're mixing it up but you're still keeping the feel in there and the human side of it which is obviously a very important aspect to you guys ..

AT:

And I think that's where that inspired that — I think that listening to a lot of 70's stuff does inspire more music for now than there is — there is so much music out there — I guess through the 70's it was experimental. Back then maybe you could do cool stuff and not be afraid of what people were going to think so much you just did whatever felt great and I think there is a lot to learn from that in future music ..

TG:

I guess in those days it was the film that inspired us when they said would you like to do some music — so the film inspired us — and all we did was play music live — that was the only way we did music was live pretty well — so that's how we reflected upon it, but you guys have been reflecting upon those things as well, which is great..

AT:

Yeah it's been great watching the movie and seeing what life feels like back then — that process whatever — so yeah — we had a great time doing this — really good.

TG:

I've had a great time too — it's been great to hear how you've treated this music and the project and the work you've put in on it — it's worked really well..

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AT:

It's been a good little project to pull something apart and put it back together the way it you think you'd like to hear it—it seemed to go well in the studio as well — just putting the parts down — it was pretty seamless.

TG:

Plus with the amount of pre—production you guys did it was good to have that — you had a lot of stuff ready to go which was organised — you had been painting your picture and putting your colours together before you came in to do your final stuff here so that was a bonus really..

AT:

Yeah that was good because we’d be sitting there and like, we know what we want to hear so it when it came time for recording it's going the right way..

TG:

And now we just need to go to post—production after this ..

AT:

I'm really excited to see how this will go after it's all done ..

TG:

I'm sure it will be a positive outcome ..

Many Thanks to you Andrew and Tim

END

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APPENDIX H: Jessica Keble and Beau Simpson—Interview transcript

Interview with: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI project, QUT, Brisbane

Interviewed by Tim Gaze Interviewed on 12th Dec 2016 Z9 studios, QUT Brisbane

TIM GAZE:

How did you feel about doing a cover of a song from the original MOTE soundtrack and then responding with a subsequent piece from the new soundtrack for Creative Project Two?

JESSICA KEBLE:

I guess we found it not too bad actually because we'd done this kind of thing in Creative Performer module — a song that was well known and deconstructed and put it back together in the way that we felt was comfortable. So I think we took that on—board when we were working on this cover and we thought OK — so what elements of this song are strong, what elements really reflect with us, and then we tried to tailor it to our instrumentation and our feel and that kind of stuff..

BEAU SIMPSON:

The song already has a natural kind of sound through it — it's very easy going — we do covers gigs already so we already deconstruct some songs and put them together our way and to have a song that's not very electronic and already quite open — it was kind of fun to do a song like this.

JK:

Yeah cos we've had to deconstruct a few Foo Fighters songs as well to make into just acoustic guitar and shaker — so it was a good experience for us to keep doing that as well.

TG:

Yes it was nice to see you come in and work how you do live with just the piano or guitar and vocals — that sort of treatment seemed to really work with you — yeah nice good idea. Did you find that this was a reflective process and how did he original piece help influence your second original song for Creative Project Two?

JK:

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This was definitely crafted around having to change songs to make them fit not only our sound but our gigs as well as we play a lot of market gigs and cafes and things like that so we have to kind of tone things down and give the audience, so it's not taking away from them enjoying their food or the markets themselves so yeah, this is definitely reflective for us. The original track influenced our song as, so he's gone home — and been like yeah it's OK I'm OK but really, he's gone home and he's realising he's not OK and I didn't realise that until I got home, and didn't realise how much damage I actually did until I got home and there's no—one else there and I've gone to my isolated place or whatever it was and realised O my gosh I actually did do something either really stupid or really crazy and this just hasn't worked out, so especially the line 'I didn't know how much damage I did until I fell', now he's reflecting on should I or shouldn't I have done that—that kind of thing..

BS:

So basically we took what we thought was the narrative of the original song and tried to channel it through how we would do in that situation, not necessarily like would do something like big and great and we'd be awesome etc–we just sort of went OK things don't always go the way that, I'll be alright, it's yes sometimes you are, sometimes not, but you go through the process and you try and get out of whatever spot you're in..

JK:

Yeah I guess it's like trying to make a positive outlook on a really negative situation and then you go, hold on, I actually I really did screw up..

BS:

The original song already does that really well because it's so cool and relaxed, you forget that it's even trying to talk about something that's happened—I'll be alright—it's like ignoring the other stuff.

TG:

It's obvious that you've really thought about this extension off the back of that so that's really interesting—you immersed yourselves in it which seems apparent. Did the instrumentation of the original music track play a part in the way you approached the arrangement of the new versions?

JK:

Oh definitely — especially that the song was written for piano and the first time I heard it I just knew yep, this is written for piano—this piano part is absolutely beautiful and that was something that I didn't want to take out of the song when we recreated it, and I said to Beau,

178 we're leaving the piano bit in—I'll reduce it a little bit so that it sits with our acoustic duo but I don't want to take that piano predominance out of there—it was just so beautiful and I thought it needs to stay in.

BS:

With that being said, as since we obviously kept some of the instrumentation the same and the piano and guitar, we sort of channelled what we do naturally with gigs when we only have a piano and guitar and vocals — and certainly made it a lot easier having a song like this because we already had he instruments. We had to play around with the textures and dynamics a little bit — but it doesn't really go through any big up and down changes but then again we still need to manipulate the dynamics that are there within our arrangement. First verse is low, then second verse a bit up on that — then the next verse back down again..

JK:

And I feel that instead of that making the song kind of laid back it brings out the emotional struggle within it — yeah.. I feel like doing ups and downs and dynamics and variation in texture and timbre and all that kind of stuff actually — bringing out more of the emotion of the song instead of it being really laid back ..

TG:

It sounds like you have been on an exploratory mission with this which is great feedback. And I notice with your reflective second response that you had different approach again because you made definite decisions about how you wanted to do it off the back of it with instrumentation etc.

JK:

Yeah — most of our originals are just guitar vocals and some shaker — most are just guitar and vocals and we thought we might as well make the reflective track exactly how we would make and original — so our covers usually have piano and vocals and guitar to make it all about broader but our originals are very stripped back and very soft and sweet type thing, so ..

BS:

And since for the guitar is usually the only other accompaniment it sort of has to both be — provide some underscore melody, provide the rhythm, the bass, all these different roles and strum — it's like so with the verses you'll hear fist verse first half picking up near the bridge so it’s very sharp but the volume is not quite as loud because of the sharpness of it — it's perceived as louder and then it turns to strumming and then OK there's dynamics have changed a bit, then next verse it becomes quite rhythmical and provides something new and

179 then at the end of the second verse back to picking again before we hot the chorus, making up for the lack of drums doing that as well — the guitar has to do some rhythm — it can't just play straight chords — it's got to have a strong sense of rhythm with it which is the way I do some strumming so hard — just the pure force provides a rhythmic..

JK:

Yes most of our originals also go like that — they like fly and they change quite a lot as well so we try to make sure that our acoustic originals are fitting the bill of being acoustic but — so we can explore how we cannot make the song boring in the acoustic genre kind of thing — which has been really cool — so yeah we've kept the same kind of attitude going into writing the reflective track..

TG:

Do you find that the content of earlier projects like MOTE films made a while ago can inspire new ideas with current projects — in some way or form?

BS:

Will I reckon with this track — since the way some of the instruments have been like EQ'ed and mixed — particularly with the drums — like I can imagine so many producers — they spend so long getting the drums so right that they sound electronic — and with this it sounds though it almost — in some bits it sounds kind of flat — instead of it sounding like it's been eq like so, it sounds like it has more mids — and some producers would go, oh no — it's horrible, then that simply by casting the other way it's like they're missing a new opportunity to try and explore whereas by having the drums EQ'ed like that it's actually allowing you to feel something different and that then lends some the easiness and openness of it..

JK:

I guess that people go, oh, the drums sound like they're under water — oh it's just because of the old technology back then, but they don't actually go well, hang on — maybe they wanted it to sound like that — and maybe they wanted it to be flat lined and in mids so something else took over and like maybe another instrument was prominent, instead of just drums, but like, these days so many producers like even when we're recording — like we spent 3 hours trying to get the drum track — I'm going, really? There's more important things to worry about so I guess..

TG:

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This is really interesting hearing you say this — because it was only two nights ago that I interviewed the person that recorded the original soundtrack in 1971 and he told me, he never use EQ across any of the stuff he did —it was all flat and all mic placement, so it was where you put the mic to get the sound — because he was of the opinion that when you started using EQ he was taking things away from the original recording, so that's the way he thought — so what you guys are saying is extremely reflective upon his technique — there was a sonic purpose behind it as it turns out..

JK:

It definitely adds something to it in that I know —well most people say oh it's got that like "vintage" feel to it and I'm going, well it actually adds something to the track — it's flat for a reason — it actually highlights the guitar and the piano part a little bit more prominently and also — even the vocal line — the drums then don't take away from everything else that's going on — which sometimes on a lot of tracks, because now they use EQ, sometimes the drums get EQ'ed so much that you're listening to that instead of listening to what is supposed to be more prominent, like vocals and piano and it's not just like sitting in the background — its more prominent..

TG:

Because they've had more treatment — there is more going on and it's taking away from the other areas ..

BS:

You'll have 5 hours to record and they'll spend two and a half of those EQ-ing drums — and at the end it sounds exactly like an electronic kit rather than an acoustic kit — and that defeats the purpose — and I'm a guitarist and with our other band Crimson Nights I have all these pedals — I'm even actually making my own guitar because I'm very big on — you've got to have your own sound and , and that goes on to a producer — he has to have his own way to do stuff as well — it's like you hear that tom fill to a song — they sound unique — for the record we do like the drums in this song — because they work with the song. So they sound like that on the original because that's the way he wanted them to sound, not because he couldn't make them sound different if he wanted to..

TG: John French was thinking about it, you're thinking about it — so it interesting to see that people back then were thinking about it the same way you are — in various ways you are thinking about the same type of stuff — really in a way — you’re with how it sounds, and why it sounds that way and questioning it or thinking about that, which is great—alright..

Thank you Jessica and Beau for your contribution to this DCI research project.

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APPENDIX I: Chris Perren— Interview transcript

Interview re: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI Project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on Thursday, 1st December 2016 at UQ Studios, St Lucia, Brisbane

TIM GAZE:

Hi Chris Perren — thank you for your incredible contribution to my DCI project and good to finally meet in person after all this time. So you were just saying before when you were doing your version of the MOTE theme, you asked did many people do kind of copycat versions of the originals — which is a good question because my answer to that was — some people did but some didn't — and you're one of the people that hasn't either — with from what you were just saying before and that's great..

CHRIS PERREN:

Well I think that ours is like, necessarily different in the instrumentation for starters — because, you know, we got the string quartet etc — well, there is strings in the original, but, they're not as prominent as they tend to be on our ensemble, so like, that was something to work in, but when I first went at it, I think the thing that I was really trying to do, was to rewrite the song in a way that is closer to what I normally do the kind of music that I normally write — and it didn’t really work, because, I don't know, I think it as too different — there was something about — like in the DNA of the original song that just defied my approach — my desire to wrangle it into something else — you know what I mean, so I felt like I was really pushing a square peg into a round hole — and it really worked a lot better when I transcribed it — so I just transcribed the original song, note for note, which I originally wouldn't have thought necessary, and maybe it wasn't necessary, but it was part of the process and um, and then from there it was easier to tell what was essential and what was not essential and then just sort of distribute it amongst the instruments — and throw out what 's not needed and add new stuff where necessary, but..

TG:

That's pretty detailed treatment Chris — pretty impressive way to look at working it..

CP:

Yes, well thank you ! (laughs..)

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TG:

I wouldn't have thought of that much length to go to, but that's pretty in depth..

CP:

Well if I was playing with a rock band, I probably wouldn't have and as you can probably relate to, you don't need to because everyone sort of can. In a rock band you rehearse and things have this organic way of falling into place I think, like you just play it sort of gels on a basic level and no-one's got a stand with music con it in front of them, so it has this organic way of locking into place. It feels more organic to me whereas I do both approaches — and this approach of using music on a stand with musicians reading music is so different, and one of the things is that things don't evolve in the rehearsal room as reliably as they can do in a rock band, so whatever you get onto the paper and bring into that first rehearsal ha to be pretty close to what you want it to be because it's not. There are things that evolve, but not in the way that a rock band does — you know and not in the way that a rock band takes things and without really talking about it, can turn it into something really new and unique — I think when you're working with musicians and notated music, there's a real limit to how much that can develop in the room, so..

TG:

More like fine changes that happen within the general scope of what you've already put together..

CP:

Yeah, that's right and it's things like dynamics, like you need to be listening to this person when this happens, and you know, those sorts of things. That’s what tend to emerge—fine tuning — so I guess, I appreciate you saying you know, it's a lot of detail to go to, but it's also more necessary in that kind of process, because at some point I'm going to have to notate it anyway, so..

TG:

So you did this with all real string players as well on board ..

CP:

Yes — our band is — I play bass and guitar, and a drummer and pianist, and then we have four string players, so, cello, viola, two violins — that's always our line-up—so yeah, with this band it's always a case of bringing in music on paper because it's just how we work you know..

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TG:

That's fantastic — I wasn’t exactly sure how you worked , because I hadn't met you before today — which is bizarre isn't it? (laughs)

CP:

And you've got so many artists working on this project..

TG:

And everyone is doing different things to different degrees —there's rock bands, and there's solo people — so yeah, it's amazing seeing it coming together with things evolving as they are and coming to meet you today and being aware of the work that you've been doing because you're doing the theme — the actual MOTE theme, so you're approach is a different one again with your people in your group, so that's pretty fantastic..

As you were saying the original had a string arrangement by Peter Jones, he is the person who did that way back then and that always kind of impressed me — I was impressed that this guy came along and put these string arrangements over this electric music, and I thought wow, and it reminded me of the second Elton John album Madman Across The Water with lots of cellos and string treatment etc., — rich — and I was very impressed, so this is great that you have done this contribution..

CP:

It was a great string arrangement, so I pretty much just copied it for that, because it’s a really tasteful arrangement— and I think that one of the most impactful moments is that big gliss right up in the middle of the song — and that's like obviously had to keep that — but then the thing that was interesting actually was that there's also a choir — so a big production — um and so we didn't have the choir aspect and I replaced — when the choir comes in I replaced that with strings — then the issue was trying to then use strings to do strings things whilst not losing that choral texture — if you know what I mean — then I had to split them up and have them both trying fill that in..

TG:

You'd have to keep them separate as well I guess — which would be a bit tricky with if it's the similar dynamic in sound..

CP:

Yeah, and I don't think it really ended up being particularly separate — once the strings come in in the original, and in our cover version copy that, I think after that it's just sort of like a

184 big — more sound — I didn't try too hard to arrange it so that you heard the choral texture sort of thing, separately, but then it's like big chords, big thick chords, blending, and there's the piano in there doing stuff as well — so it’s sort of — after that point it's all sort of – no holds barred.(laughs..).

TG:

Which is great really, it's nice to have that kind of spontaneity even within that scope — you've still got spontaneity going on with your dynamic ranges etc. which is pretty special— wonderful..

CP:

Did you want to talk at all about the cover — the reflective track?

TG:

Was your reflective piece influenced by the first one you did?

CP:

I tried to be influenced by the first track—especially by that original track, but as I said earlier, it really is quite different to the music that I write — I don't know, like in a way I can't quite put my finger on it because the chords are similar to the chords I use, the melodies aren't so different, not that different —

TG:

So maybe the way it was put together initially — I think that might help if I explain that to you..

CP:

Yeah..

TG:

I actually played acoustic guitar and bass on the original recording, which is not unlike what you did with these two pieces — at the time I happened to be there doing something else, and Wayne said to me “How about you and Nige — could you play bass on this theme”, and I went, oh, OK — I'll have a go.. so It's really simple — it's just a descending E, D, C#, C progression — and I think that's all it is with the bass part — so it's fairly limited, there's not much creativity going on there with the bass part — and that acoustic is just a strumming piece with a few little melodies here and there at the intro then between some of the vocal

185 lines — and it just goes on, so I guess there's not a lot of change in that dynamic of the bed track — bass and drums and acoustic guitar component — could that be a part of the — did it maybe not go enough places for what you're used to?

CP:

Maybe, or it's not that it didn't go places, but it went places in a really textural dynamic sort of way — that I think I would not be confident to do — like it's almost like I wouldn't trust dynamics and timbre as a tool to go that far, but it definitely does — it works perfectly in the original track — but I think you know like, I would be so self-conscious — all I'd need new chords, or I need something else that's like in the materials of melody and harmony to change it to something else, but it doesn't — it's not what it does, and it actually doesn't need to and it's maybe, in that way I feel like I learnt something from it you know, like especially the way the climax happens before the drums come in, in a way?

TG:

That's true — it does do that, doesn't it?

CP:

Interesting — it's very unusual — you would see normally that , I reckon, that big drum fill — boom boom — that would come at the same time as everything else climaxed — but it doesn't — it comes like four bars later..

TG:

That's my mate Nigel on drums — Nigel might have just been — yeah, I'm gonna do this because I know what Nige is like and he's a very creative kind of dude, he's an artist as well as a musician and he always likes stuff that's just a little — different — I mean the way he interpreted that, even all those years ago, his creative trait is left of centre — great..

CP:

It's interesting — I mean I don't see composing music as this sort of balance of like having things that are clear — a pure sort of clarity of something — you know, like this is the moment when we do this — and all do it together — that's clarity, and on the other hand, there's complexity and density and cloudiness maybe, like where — and that's where unpredictability comes from and interest I think, like and that's a really good example of that — it's like you could've gone down the road of complete clarity and said like this is the climax, as most people may do...but then it's a really bold choice not to do that and I really like that —it's really cool..

TG:

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I think there was a lot of that with the film too — the film was made that way — Albe made the film that way — it was totally spontaneous — it just started with imagery that he shot on the first day — no plan — at the time when he was at Kirra Beach and the surf was running and holy crap, that's Michael Petersen surfing out there — I'm going to film this ..and it started with that kind of a thing. Spontaneity ..and interest picked up as he went and different things happened like that, so I guess similar things happened with the music I guess as well— it's kind of odd..

CP:

Well, in a way, I think that ethos might have influenced the reflective piece a little bit — but also I think that the film definitely did and seeing the piece the way it sits in the world of the film, and that way it connects with the visuals definitely was something that I had in mind in writing the new work — probably more that than trying to be inspired by the chords or the rhythms or anything like that — it was more like trying to evoke a mood in the same sort of way ..

TG:

So it was a direct reflection that occurred with your second piece from the footage.

CP:

I think so, yeah..

TG:

That's great — that's the kind of thing I'm looking for — that's what I want to research — those kinds of things and connections so it's great to hear you say that..

CP:

Well the film was interesting for me because it like, not having been around in the 70's to experience this culture, it was interesting to view it that way — there's something about it we don't see much anymore — and maybe it's that connection between surfing culture and this really ambitious spiritualism..

TG:

Yes it does tend towards that kind of area, like a searching of energies and systems that are still spontaneous as well but that improve outlook—like the whole thing about caring about the planet, living a lifestyle that's got some meaning to it — that doesn't encroach on being negative about other things and keeping positive about what's important — those kind of things I guess — those ideas have been around for a long time — anti—pollution, all that

187 kind of stuff, and not making the seas filthy etc — they were serious about finding a lifestyle that supports harmonious living with the planet and that was a big part of that film as well..

CP:

Yes, I found that really interesting — and it definitely has a Psychedelic—ness to it — and whether that was because it was in the 70's, or whether it as a deliberate way of articulating a feeling or something — I don't know, but I feel like as a 30 year old in 2016 — in the face of all of that, I sometimes feel like I'm part of a very anxious culture — do you know what I mean? Like an uncertainty that that breeds particular—ness — you know, because you can't control anything and so you try and control everything to aw sage that feeling of being out of control so I felt quite challenged by what was coming from the film culturally — you know, that feeling of carefree—ness, but also very genuine spirituality and the real genuine search for the answers, and for a meaning..

TG:

Right on — you're in touch with this because the guys that made the film, Albe Falzon, is very much like that and very spiritually motivated — he's also a very worldly guy as well but he's into stuff being done the right way — with the right reasons, and when he made the film it was like that — he wanted to bring out all the good stuff — the awareness and connectivity which helps us be in a positive light with our views on a global scale so he'll be glad to hear your comments, I'm sure — when he finally does, because I interviewed him about six months ago, as well, and that was great too and it's great having all these view points and different people’s reactions to how the film made them feel, or what they saw from it and how it affected them personally, and for where we're at right now, musically..

TG:

Thanks Chris for all your hard work and inspiration and the interview today.

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APPENDIX J: Dan James – Drawn From Bees—Interview transcript

Interview re ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on Monday 9th November 2015 at Gasworks QUT Studios 83 Doggett St, Newstead QLD

TIM GAZE:

What did you think about being asked to contribute to this new MOTE soundtrack project?

DAN JAMES:

Well I think it’s a privilege to be asked to do it — I mean it's a fantastic idea and it really appeals to my creative side anyway — I've always been a musician that is incredibly interested in projects that have high artistic value — and what I particularly like about this one, is there's the slightly creative reinterpretation that as soon as I heard the song as well I was into it, so there's the music, but to me I really like the idea of getting a song, letting it sit with you and then reinterpreting that song — that's the thing that probably attracted me the most, and the imagery of the waves crashing down — there is some really beautiful imagery in the film to work with.

TG:

What did the original soundtrack inspire in you with your approach to recording the new version of the piece you have just done during the last couple of days?

DJ:

Actually, I really liked its simplicity — I say after we did a really complicated one — but that's the thing I like most about it — there's this simplicity to it — there's a beauty and the voice on it — it's so raw and beautiful — and it feels a little bit like he's pushing up to it and it feels a little bit on edge and I always like hearing that...

TG:

Do you see any similarity in the way you have recorded this work compared to how the original soundtrack was recorded over 40 years ago — like in an analogue fashion in those days I guess..

DJ:

189

Well that's a tough question — we did it in A) in Gasworks Studio so to an extent we were using the big consoles and that sort of thing, your saying 40 years ago? Wow — time happened — so they would have been doing up to 24 tracks of tape — I'm assuming..

TG:

16 tracks I think..

DJ:

16 tracks?

TG:

Yes, because that was the main reason the original soundtrack was recorded in Melbourne — they were one of only two 16 track machines in the country at that time at TCS Channel 9 — the other was at Armstrong's Recording Studios in South Melbourne.

DJ:

Well if it was only 15 tracks we've already blown the roof off it, because we are already on 40 tracks or so with Pro Tools — but I think — now days you have the ability to take the best of what came through the tape studios and the analogue gear and it's what audio has done that I find really fascinating is they've taken the analogue stuff and they tried to integrate it with the digital stuff rather than just discarding it, and going — we're moving to digital, which I think to an extent photography did? Is they went “You mean we don't have to spend hours in a dark room like shaking canisters like idiots”— so we don't have to spend hours and hours in dark rooms of our life — it's a good reason not to and I'm pretty sure with tape as well a lot of tape engineers went “You mean I don't have to cut tape anymore?”

So to me digital has become the tape but it's more manipulative, and obviously it's non— linear, and you don't get the inherent problems you get with tape which is drift, and calibration all that sort of thing — or phase drift as well so as the tapes speed up and slow down you get phasing issues and of course instant and infinite editing possibilities, the trap with that being that you can get stuck up your own backside — and that's really hard — you know — double up the acoustic guitar — why not — that takes longer, but you are just doing it because you can sometimes — and I think we do it because we can, but, I think sometimes the only thing that I've seen that kind of makes me think digital is a bit of a trap, is people who don't commit on the analogue side before they put it to digital, so they're holding back — and my theory has always been don't hold back — make the mistake — you won't make it again — commit more before you hit the digital..

190

TG:

Like being prepared..

DJ:

Knowing the analogue side — it's important to know all of that ..it's the history of our craft, and also it sounds great, and it does a thing that digital doesn't quite do yet and it probably will, but I also just like the workflow of say, choose it, get your sound, commit, walk away whereas with digital, you know, you can tweak for days, and you come back and listen to the original sound, and go oh, I've just ruined it.

TG:

So live and learn — more is not necessarily better..

DJ:

Not necessarily and you know, commit—as a wise woman once said to me—make a decision and go with it — don't be paralysed because you've got infinite decisions..

TG:

Did the instrumentation of the original music tracks play a part in the way you approached the arrangements of the new versions you have undertaken?

DJ:

Yes, very much—it's the o reason we brought the 12 string guitar into the session—straight away — I mean for us —12 string guitars are romantic — and incredibly beautiful things and a lot of the acoustic instrumentation was very much fed by the original instrumentation. I really like the guitar solo in it — but I don't think that guitar soloing is our thing — so with the middle parts we like to write these ideas that kind of come together and become more a part of the song as well and we're and thought we're not going to do a better guitar solo — it's a great guitar solo so I thought, that's the point where I wanted to really jump and manipulate things a bit..

TG:

Which you did too — lots of nice guitar parts going on there as well — with the 12 string and also the low chordal close harmony things you were doing.. very warm sounding pieces..

DJ:

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Yes, that was Don and I listening to the song late in the evening and thinking, how can we make it so it's not strumming the whole time — and then came up with that little bottom end riff, and I think yeah, it's just pretty and flows in a lovely way..

TG:

Did music technology play a beneficial part of you in the recording of the new soundtracks?

DJ:

In the recording of the new soundtracks, yes, but I'm going to go back to how I started out as and audio engineer, and I'm going to say music technology did a really fascinating thing for me in that when I started recording I was working at a school and I wanted to record some of the bands that the kids were doing in the school.. and I was working out of a tiny room that used to be a toilet block and I get like a little crappy Line 6 POD unit, and I started recording kids through that and what happened is, sure — they're not like a big analogue amp or anything like that, but before I ever touched a VOX AC 15, and AC 30 and Fender Deluxe, or a Hi Watt, or a Matchless D30, before I touched any of those amp, I knew what they sounded like.

I knew how I wanted to mic them up, and I had a pretty good idea at a rough guess as to how they would come out sounding — and it turns out, I mean those guys who did the amp modelling for those digital multi effects processors were like 90 % there, so like any time I wanted to, I could walk into a studio and go, we're going to need a Marshall for that, or no Plexi — hold the Plexi — make it a JT 45, or something like that. I kind of want that half Marshall half Fender sound—I know that — never played a JT 45, but I can tell you all the Vox's, Fenders and Marshall's that I've picked up — every time I've played into them I've gone, that's the sound I expect.

So all of a sudden this massive digital playground — and not just that, I mean with the Universal Audio stuff, they do those digital emulations of analogue gear — there are a couple of pieces of gear that the first time I walked into the studio I'd never used in hardware before — but I knew how to use them straight away. Walked straight up and went that, that, that came out exactly as I expected it.. it was kind of funny actually — the bands saying, oh you've used this a lot before, and I'm like yes, yes I have..pretty wild..

TG:

I think that's great and that's another nod to the preparation aspect as well I feel in a way— being up on these things before you get into it is really good.

DJ:

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I Think the reason I started with all the preparation thing is because I — as a musician, I actually started recording in a band because I couldn't afford producers any more — it was literally just a financial decision of, I need to learn how to do this ..and at the time I was working at a school and there were a lot of students who needed recording so I just started recording them—just learned the stuff and then t's cool to be able to walk into a studio and say no, this is the sound I want, not I want it to be warmer, or it's just not poopfy enough or something like that.

I don't want to say that — I want to say ‘Now I want you to throw it through a thermionic culture and smash the crap out of it..'cos that's what I want..or I want to use that LA-2A, but I don't want to use the gain, so I want you to turn the gain all the way up, turn the compression down, so I can really get it smashing through that output stage, and run that LA—2A hot and use that to distort the hell out of things’ — that's what Jack White does and it sounds really cool..

TG:

It's a big difference knowing what and when you need do instead of guessing..

DJ: Well if you've experimented with the sound — played around with it, even if it's just on computer, you've got a better idea..yeah..

TG:

How would you describe the connection between film and music cultures pursuant to surfing and its lifestyle — do you have any viewpoints on that?

DJ:

You know, coming from a long line of surfing people (laughs) I'm not a surfer, but I have met quite a few surfers who films..

TG:

Great...

DJ: ..

And especially now I mean with these Go Pro things it's almost becoming a part of the lifestyle — you can make these amazing videos with this amazing technology and I think it has for a long time, surfers as human beings are generally connected with nature and all the surfers I have met have been very creative people. And they're people who think a lot — maybe because it's out on the waves and you get a lot of time to think and reflect—when you're on the waves..

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TG:

There's a smoothness about the ocean and when you're out on the water. I remember Bob MacTavish, one of Australia's iconic surfing and board designing pioneers saying to me about what surfing did for him on a daily basis and how it affected him—his being out on the water puts everything back into perspective — that things were put back in their respective compartments and balanced..

DJ:

You're off the land — like as soon as you go on the land everything that you have to do crashes down on you..when you're away from the land, you are disconnected from everything..disconnected form the technology, disconnected from being always in communication with everybody — you're not hitting 'like' on Facebook, you're not looking at a whole bunch of crap that one hour later, you go I just wasted one hour of my life..it's just you and the ocean..and I get that feeling from music when I play, you know — you lose time and you're just flowing and you lose time...

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APPENDIX K: Evan Setiawan—Interview transcript

Interview re: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on 17th January 2017 at Z Block QUT Studios, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane

TIM GAZE:

Thanks for contributing and sharing your music for this MOTE project

EVAN SETIAWAN:

It's great actually — I had fun..

TG:

How did you feel about being asked to contribute to this MOTE Project?

ES:

To be honest, I had no idea about what MPTE was — I looked up the video on You-tube to see quickly what it was all about, but other than that I thought it was just surf music and I know you Tim, from teaching together prior to this project and so if anything I was glad that you asked and I wanted to help out somehow..

TG:

That's great Evan — it's been great doing the music versions with you because of your musicality and you experience and heritage — it was interesting — when we were looking at the Gamelan idea that was the response track you've done for Creative Project Two that was really interesting with all the 16th notes you've put in there..

ES:

I think this track has been pretty great to do — the whole project very interesting to me because I was born in Java, and I'd go to Bali very frequently when I was younger — and so I wrote First Scene really, just drawing back on my memory — it's not strictly a Gamelan piece — I don't like to say this is a Gamelan piece — it's my take of what I remember when I lived the first 12 years of my life in Indonesia — and it’s my take of it. So it's interesting because I don't know how real Gamelan players would feel or what they would think of this piece ...

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TG:

What part did music technology play for you in the recording of the new soundtracks?

ES:

I think with being able to do multi — tracking etc as you when we were recording a lot of these parts — not all of the parts were notated per se — but technology allowed us to us a click track, and having this amazing facility enabling us to be able to play a little bit more — to be spontaneous and to be able to do that as opposed to being well rehearsed from the word go, which is my experience with the classical setting. I think that having this technology means that we can be kind of candid with music making and see where it goes, and if we like it we keep it, and if we don't like it we can just delete it and just do it again, so I think that's great..

TG: Thanks Evan — terrific music.

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APPENDIX L: Seaton Fell-Smith from Jakarta Criers—Interview transcript

Interview re: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on 31st July 2016 at Z9 Studios, QUT, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane

TIM GAZE:

Hi Seaton — How did you feel about redoing a song from the original MOTE soundtrack and then responding with a subsequent track for Creative Project Two?

SEATON FELL-SMITH

I think it was a great opportunity to take a song from a completely different era and interpret it in our own way and put our sort of spin on it. I think it also was a song that we more than likely wouldn't have chosen to do so there's a challenge in that sense because we hadn't really sat together and tried to work out a song that we probably wouldn't have otherwise chosen but it was a great opportunity to take a song that didn't resonate with us to start with. I guess that it is the beauty of covers is that you can take it and have your way with it. We definitely had to think about how we were going to interpret it and how we were going to make it work — but I think we did a pretty good job and sort of came out pretty well..yeah.

TG:

Taking the footage into account what made you decide to give your version of the original piece the treatment that you did?

SFS:

I think we wanted to try to take the cover and put our own spin on it — but because it's such an old film it's a classic — very raw — the background of the film — it's like a lot of surfers starting out — traveling on not much budget — they just sort of out completely exploring new places very raw, so we wanted to keep the recording process and do everything pretty raw as well — keep that live sound and keep it raw and mirror the film in that sense but still put our own spin on it — it still sort of sounds like the Jakarta Criers though..yeah..

TG:

Do you feel that the original film footage helped to inspire the way in which you approached arranging and performing both pieces?

SFS:

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To be honest I'd have to say no — because we had our original — I guess it was fairly well written to a certain extent — we had other songs to choose from but we thought this one probably suit it the most — we'd written most of it, but we hadn't quite finished it — the original piece was a very kind of organic type song — pretty 90's sounding if you like? And we grew up through the 90's and 2ks surfing and going to the beach and things like that and so that song to us — the MOTE made us think that that song was the one to use — that resonated with us — yeah that's the thing behind it..

TG:

Did the instrumentation of the original music track play a part in the way you approached the arrangements of the new versions, and were there any specific sounds that inspired you to try something new?

SFS:

I think the looseness of the cover Dream Chant in the guitar work and in the way it just changes all the time key changes etc, it sort of put an emphasis on us not focusing too much on perfection per se. It's a good point — more of a sort yeah, let's not sit here and do 12 takes — and try and get this perfect — it's like let's just sort of feel it until it feels right, and get the vibe right..

TG:

More of an inspiration kind of thing?

SFS: Yeah..

TG:

Do you feel that the nature of the original footage has a time related characteristic, and if so, was this a consideration of what your finished recording sounded like, or does the footage appear as an open timeless artefact?

SFS:

I think it definitely has a link to a definite time period — I guess from we're sort of — we followed surfing pretty closely so the old boards and single fins and just the classic turns and things like that you know, you don't see that anymore — but the looseness the way the track tries to stay away from that perfection element sort of gives it that ..surfing culture in a way — she'll be right..not that we recorded it with the she'll be right attitude..

TG:

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What beneficial part did music technology play for you in the recording of the new soundtracks, and do you see any similarity in the way recorded this work to how the original soundtrack was recorded?

SFS:

I think — it's a completely different game to what it is now. Obviously we didn't record the music in that era but I think it would be pretty chalk and cheese — was that original song tracked live as a band back then or would they have recorded separately?

TG:

Mostly live as a band with some overdubs — minimal..

SFS:

Which is completely different to what we did really isn't it? That's capturing a band sound as is — you know — but I think recording these days has obviously changed and we stuck to the formula that we've used for all our recording work which is lay down your rhythm — and then overdub..

TG:

But that’s kind of not too dissimilar in how we did some of our tracks back then — and that's what I noticed about how you guys work — you worked live and you all played locked in together — bass, drums and guitar all going down at the same time — so to me that's what created the feel really..

SFS:

I think as we talked about getting the feel than rather the perfection and doing things 12 times — the vibe is the go and keeping as live as possible is great — an old school type of feel I guess — and touching on the 60, 70's recording process..

TG:

Do you think doing it that way helps bring the listener in to a more meaningful experience because of the way it's been recorded and as a continuous process with people working together?

SFS:

I think that really depends on the listener — I think the listeners that are like musicians and surfers to a certain extent may get it like that — definitely not hot boarding or radio B-105

199 style, but I think that's the kind of..I think that people who appreciate good music know when a song has been over produced. and that they would appreciate the recording style of these songs, if not the songs themselves — you never know..could get lucky..

TG:

Do you find that the content of earlier projects like MOTE can inspire new ideas for current projects you might be working on?

SFS:

I think that any opportunity to go into a studio and record or do something different from an artistic point of view with music always leads to something — yeah, like we could be sitting here recording then you might just stumble across a riff and then that turns into something else ..It's the saying 'yes' to the opportunities in life that lead to other opportunities, and that's just how life works. I think when you involve yourself in projects like this — maybe not specifically the idea of MOTE — although whenever you get together and record and build something new then other things come from that.

TG:

Those experiences become part of your work history..your output..

SFS:

Every time you have a recording studio experience you take a part of that away with you. The last time we went into the studio it was completely different to the way that we'd done this project, but we'd taken parts of that into this process in terms of probably the arrangements of the songs. And then there's things we definitely didn't do for this project — that we've done in the past, so yeah..it's just a good opportunity to get into the studio and get more experienced as you go along.

TG:

Yes the difference between taking the opportunity and not taking it speaks for itself in a lot of ways..so to you what are the most meaningful aspects and outcomes about putting music to this kind of film research project?

SFS:

From a personal point of view — it's nice giving tribute to something that has a meaningful artistic context — it’s nice to see the project you were doing an the connection you have to it and it's nice to be able to contribute to that — being part of the local Brisbane scene without sitting down and trying to make any commercial gain from it — just good to do it—I think

200 we've grown up interested in the surfing culture — and the film and the impact it had back then in the 70's and the impact that it still has on people, and so it's just a really good opportunity for us to do it — and we're pretty honoured to be involved and to be a part of it..thanks..

TG:

Thanks Seaton and Jakarta Criers for all that you contributed — top job and talk soon.

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APPENDIX M: Lawson Doyle from Port Royal—Interview transcript

Interview re: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze 28/11/2016 at Z9 Studios QUT, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane.

TIM GAZE:

What did you think initially about being asked to contribute to rerecording of the MOTE soundtrack for this DCI research project?

LAWSON DOYLE:

Well I asked my old man about it and he is a big fan of the original movie and a nice piece of Australian royalty with Brian Cadd etc—rock and roll music — and it's good to be a part of it and contribute our little bit to the puzzle of rock and roll — the longevity — I think we're always looking for something new to do and we don't do many covers — a big challenge for us and we really enjoyed doing the project..

TG:

Did the original soundtrack inspire you with your approach to recording the new soundtrack version of the piece you have done — your response to Creative Project One — how much of a connection was there?

LD:

I'd like to say it was inspired by the time period era — the song we wrote was inspired by the Brian Cadd we covered — Sure Feels Good — so maybe that was all the inspiration we needed, not necessarily trying to force ourselves to write something based on another song but it was sort of in the back of our minds — the need to progress and write new music ..

TG:

Did you see any similarity in the way that you recorded this work compared to how the original soundtrack may was recorded 45 years ago?

LD:

I think in terms of like the piano — the bass is kind of the same and the instrumental choice — we put our own touch go do it like we do, but ours definitely follows that sort of shape and feel and chord progressions and everything..we like to think we captured the same

202 vibe ..The miking of the drum kit has changed over time — I think the drums sound a bit more produced in this version but — there's a bit more depth — in a lot of ways similar and a lot of ways a modern touch as well, so..

TG:

Yes it's definitely a live feel approach which is what you guys have done which is like the original idea I guess, all recorded at once and pretty well all down together then bits and pieces added — you captured the feel really well I thought — great..

Did the instrumentation of the original music track play a part in the way you approached the arrangement of the new versions?

LD:

Can't really answer that one ..

TG:

Were there any specific sounds that inspired you to try something new but in keeping with the overall scope of the music ?

LD:

Yeah harmonica? We'd been wanting to bring harmonica into the band for a while, so this sort of tipped it off — like we almost had to do it and it was a good choice — just getting better at it really — I wanted more of it — it just brings that extra element — there's not much of that around at the moment — but you can be a four—piece rock and roll band and there's not enough of that extra little bit — apart from sax or something?

TG:

That's great just that extra expression — bit of colour — just to balance it up a bit more..one little additive makes a big difference to the overall dynamic delivery..

LD:

Even with blues piano — you don't hear that approach much these days at all — anymore, which is a bit of a sad thing, but it's good to bring that back in and have that as a difference and have the harmonica over the top — a nice blend —

TG:

Yeah, once you get hose flavours you can start experimenting and putting them to use —

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LD:

Yeah..

TG:

What beneficial part did music technology play for you in the recording of the new soundtracks? Do you see that as a big part?

LD:

Well having a really good sound engineer — but also like, yeah, I think definitely — like having the live set up but all in different rooms so you can record live without the bleed and that kind of thing, because we're a different live group too and I think that makes a big difference to your motivation and vibe and drive of the song — it needs us all in the moment — sort of thing rather than having us all separately play and having the bleed in the room and so on..you can feel more isolated otherwise — that was a big thing…

TG:

Yeah because in those days a lot of it was live — it was in one big room — but you can still all play together and still be a bit shut off with baffles etc — some people like to keep the full bleed I guess, but that can make it hard to control..

LD:

The first time we tried to play live in a different room — it worked phenomenally — we kind of kept that groove between us all whilst not having that bleed — that crisp cleanness. So..

TG:

So the idea of everybody being here at the same time in the same place to do the music is pretty important for how you guys are working..

LD:

Yep, yes for sure..

TG:

That's something you can't capture any other way really..people can record all kinds of ways these days I guess — in fact they have for this project..

TG:

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Do you find that earlier projects relating to surf films and music can inspire new ideas — has that sort of helped you guys along with this?

LD: Absolutely — I think having an awareness of also like the following and being part of the scene — understanding that is like more of an historical and cultural thing — definitely makes a difference as to how you approach a track. We got lucky with that song because it suits our style — it would have been a different story if we'd ended up a with a song that was a bit more mellow — it was just the blues feel that say really well — that was the big thing regardless of the whole movie and everything .. surfing has kind of always had that kind of connection — like Beach Boys and earlier — there's always been this kind of integrated thing — the music going along with the pumping feel of going surfing along with the music and it's kind of cool that it has this Australian feel to it — that vibe and then creating our own on top ..

TG:

Yes, surf and music has always been pretty strong..so it's good to be aware of how that can all word. So thanks to you guys ..you did a great job.

Thanks Lawson.

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APPENDIX N: Seaton Fell-Smith—Interview transcript

Interview re: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on Monday, 5th December 2016 at Z9 Studios, QUT, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane.

TIM GAZE:

What did you initially think about being asked to contribute to the rerecording of the MOTE soundtrack?

SEATON FELL—SMITH:

Oh well, I went through the 5 senses — you know, flattery, grief, remorse.. aha..no, I was pretty happy — I got involved in the project with my band Jakarta Criers originally, and then we were talking about me playing acoustic and yeah the offer to contribute was nice — it's a cool project..

TG:

Actually I have been pleasantly surprised today to realise just how experienced an acoustic player you are ..and the emotive way you brought your music out — its sounding really good — nicely played and picked and thought about..

SFS:

Yeah, I've been playing a lot in DADGAD tuning, which is an open D tuning — and it lends itself to fairly expressive kind of playing I guess and actually works really well with the acoustic track that was on there — Uluwatu — which was awesome, so yeah everything with it just came together..

TG:

It was great because the guy who originally did it, Peter Howe was saying he did a double drop—D tuning which is fine and the DADGAD gives it that little bit of an extra — that one string difference — B down to A — just gives it that little bit of a..

SFS:

I think it gives it a pretty old sort of sound — old Celtic perhaps? rich heritage kind of sound..

206

TG:

It's amazing what one different note can do. What if anything did the original soundtrack inspire in you with your approach to recording the new soundtrack version of the piece you have done? Like with Uluwatu? Did the original give you much scope in that?

SFS:

Look if I just listened to the music by itself — I'm not sure what sort of result I would have got — but the combination of the music with the visual — I actually found was quite strong — in the original — it brought that particular scene across really well — which is more effective in the like lifestyle side of what they were doing — I tried to emulate it to a certain extent with my own spin on it and just kind of hoped for the best..

TG:

Yeah well you did well. Were there any specific sounds that inspired you to try something new but in keeping with the overall scope of the music ?

SFS:

Ah yeah — some of the scale notes that the flute was playing were interesting and bits of discordant and I kind of went with that a little bit — I probably didn't go as far as they did with the discordant sort of sound because it's not my natural sort of style — but — I quite liked that and thought that was an interesting sort of juxtaposition between a more melodic sort of easy going guitar in the back and then the sort of slightly off lead at some points — I think I got a bit of inspiration from that..

TG:

I noticed when you were doing your overdubbing part in Uluwatu that you were looking at those kinds of notes melodically up higher sort of register that worked n really well — similar to what the flute part?

SFS:

I think the flute was a bit more prominent in the mix than the lead that I did will probably be. Slightly different dynamic between the led and the rhythm..

TG:

I think with those guys they were kind of thrown in and told to play..

SFS:

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Oh well so was I Tim (laughs)

TG:

That's right — you were, you were, and you have done admirably well—I think you've done the original music fine justice with how you've approached it—is there anything else you'd like to add about what you've contributed — like any surf side connection?

SFS:

Well, it is nice to be personally artistically involved in — to me, in particular that scene really sort of hit me — that simple sort of lifestyle they were living — it's kind of nice just to have a part of that somehow — you know, even though I wasn't actually there living that lifestyle — there was still a human connection there..

TG:

It's good isn't because they’re sort of realising how important that stuff is in making them feel good about the way that they were living..

SFS:

Yeah I liked it the simplicity in the song reflects it well..

TG:

Thanks Seaton — for your words and your music ..terrific.

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APPENDIX O: Joe Saxby from These Guy—Interview transcript

Interview re: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on Friday 13th November 2015 at QUT Gasworks Studio, 83 Doggett Street, Newstead, Brisbane.

TIM GAZE:

By the sound of what you have been putting together over the last few days, there has definitely been a lot of good thought gone into this work , and I can hear in the outcomes of what you're doing that you've taken those original ideas and worked with them towards what you want to realise — this is fantastic, yeah..

TG:

So taking the film footage into account, what made you decide to give your version of the original piece the treatment that you did?

JOE SAXBY:

I think I just did what I did, you know. It’s the These Guy ethos really. Talking with Josh before, it's all just intuition really. I think we gave it the Brittany Spears kind of go really — love all that stuff really but it also sounds like an ad for a 3 star resort—our version—don't know if that was intentional..

TG:

Yes, there is a certain breeziness in the G. Wayne Thomas track that you did. Your use of chord work etc., was very open I think and lends itself to a lot of spontaneous additions which has turned out really great I reckon. Did you feel that this was a reflective process and di you feel the first original piece influence your second reflective piece that you did?

JS:

Ahh, the second one was pretty different to the first one. I think they're saying different things entirely and ah, it wasn't so much reflected. I think I just watched that scene with the original song in it and tried to make my own soundtrack to it to capture the vibe—the good vibes that were going..

TG:

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Which you did, too, which is great..

So how do you see the new piece of music you've written and recorded aligning itself with the original footage and do you feel that your new piece has brought something out of the original footage, and if it has, what do you think might have come out of that?

JS:

I think it's got more of an obviously melancholier vibe and getting back, also like a nostalgia. I think we were talking about the time like, that the movie was made and how things are like extremely different not. There might be like a nostalgia and I think the songs inspired by water — one of those songs that have got a petty warped guitar sound — I'm really bad — I haven't actually watched all the footage but when we were making it I thought yeah, it’s sort of like our take on it was like what a shame, no-one kind of does this anymore—everyone just should try and relax again kind of thing—a nice sentiment..

TG:

That’s pretty cool yeah, that's great because they were trying to do that back then I guess was trying to leave all the stress behind and start realising..

JS:

It's even more relevant now these days — world is crazy..

TG:

Well there's so much more of the other going on now, isn't there? You know, the stress factors..

JS:

Constant distractions and the like..

TG:

So do you feel that the nature of the original footage has a time related characteristic, and if so was this a consideration towards the nature of what your finished recordings sounded like, or does the film footage appear as and open timeless artefact?

JS:

210

It's definitely got a timeline aspect due it's aesthetic — the film and they were and they set that properly just like the artefact gave it — yeah that effected if. The way it sounds — I keep bringing it up, but the guitar samples we used sound really old..

TG:

What beneficial pet did music technology play for you in the recording of the new soundtracks and did you see any similarity to the way you recorded this work?

JS:

These Guys pretty much owes its life to Ableton — yeah, I think..

TG:

Yeah it seems like a really useful tool for what you are trying to get across..

JS:

I'd probably say very little, like maybe These Guy is a good representation of you know, the way modernism is, as opposed to how they made Morning Of The Earth. Like yeah, very contemporary way of making it stick..

TG:

It’s been great watching you guys work, in fact, very enjoyable — seeing how you unfold your music — and good outcomes with it as well and how the pre—production was planned out..

JS:

We owe a lot to the way we make our recordings to modern technology for ease of editing, and you know pitching things up in Ableton and sequencing and all that too, it helps us a lot. We're definitely all fans of analogue — I just don't understand a lot about it all — I wish I did..

TG:

But you have a very strong music component — it's not all technology — instrumentally and vocally and musically all across the board is all very strong too, that's what really has had an impression on me — which has been great..

TG:

211

Do you find that the content of earlier films like this one can inspire new ideas for say, current projects you might be working on or do you glean anything out of that for current times?

JS:

Yeah, well this whole thing like, us coming out with new ideas based on listening — there was a new thing to try — just like revisiting the film for the first time — representing a very specific time that was free and easy — not all the way through but has a very nice vibe..

TG:

Well thanks guys very much for your considerable contribution.

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APPENDIX P: Zinia Chan—Interview transcript

Interview re: ‘Morning Of The Earth’ DCI project

Interviewed by Tim Gaze on Tues 27th October 2015 at QUT Gasworks Studios 83 Doggett Street, Newstead, Brisbane.

TIM GAZE:

What do you think about being asked to contribute to the rerecording of the MOTE soundtrack?

ZINIA CHAN:

I thought it was quite interesting — especially seeing the actual film itself — it's a cult film — it's quite known amongst the surfers and what not — it's very different to what I've done before and especially the scene I've been allocated — for me that was quite — it spoke to me in a way — for the people — my scene is like — chickens fighting and they've got knives attached to their legs and for me that's brutal and cruel — but the music that's on top of it — when I heard it, it was quite — like a kind of happiness nostalgic song? And it's very thought provoking, so that makes me you know, very interested, contributing to it.

TG:

So what if anything, did the original soundtrack inspire in you with your approach to recording the new soundtrack version of the piece you have done?

ZC:

The original pianist, Brian Cadd, he did some quite arpeggiated sounds, and he was you know, there wasn't much minor sounding kind of chords in there — it was all very happy — but it wasn't just happy, it was like nostalgic in it's kind of sound, and I think that's what I took away from it — and added it to reworking the original piece.

TG:

Do you see any similarity in the way that you have recorded this work compared to how the original soundtrack was recorded over 40 years ago?

ZC:

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I think definitely in a way I tried to keep the start quite similar which is — I think important to fit it in to that kind of style and also the action you know that kind of is seen within the scenes — the fighting scenes and what not and — yeah, like , I could have recorded it in my own style or a different style, but I had chosen to keep a similar feel. Specially to fit in with the setting of it, which is in Bali..

TG:

I guess with Brian Cadd when they recorded him, they recorded him in the studio similarly to this where they mic’d him up at piano —so it wasn't done electronically. It wasn't done on an electronic instrument — it was done on an acoustic piano..

ZC:

I think there is some differences — like in his I do hear kind of you know, some setting chord progressions you would find back in the 90's, but I think I kind of veered away from that a bit and made it more minimalist and had everything blending a bit more..

TG:

Yes, you have definitely captured the flow of the piece very well.. yes..

ZC:

I guess keeping it piano though is significant, like we could have added other instrumentation but it was important to keep it kind of minimal — that kind of nostalgic — more thought provoking instead of making it like an action scene..

TG:

Because you are aware of how the music was put together and recorded for the original soundtrack, did those formats play a role in the way that you approached put ting your own version together — the second version?

ZC:

I think definitely — instead of putting too much thought into it, like arranging it too much before? I kind of just watched the film and played along to it so it's more spontaneous — yeah, instead of just making it exactly how I would probably write it — yeah..

TG:

So it's more of an open approach — there is more leeway with it — yes..

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ZC:

So it comes more from the heart instead of you know like having more defined musical theory ..

TG:

Yes—I think that's pretty important with this film — I think that what you are saying is right, because it seems to help capture the essence of what's going on with the footage, and that's what we're doing — we're looking at the footage as our inspiration, so that seems to be working pretty well..

TG:

What beneficial part did music technology play for you in the recording of the new soundtracks?

ZC:

That's an interesting question. I guess like in comparison to the original work.

TG: Yes..

ZC:

I'm not sure how the original was recorded — I guess I assume through a tape machine you can definitely hear that kind of more rustic kind of sound — in a way I guess technology these days could have played a beneficial role in that a lot of different plug-ins and outboard gear that we can use to kind of mimic that kind of sound — you can't quite get it as close, but, and it's a lot easier especially now, well maybe not easier, but like originally just miking straight through to the desk — sort of running it through the actual tape machine and everything, so makes the process a lot easier — more comfortable..

TG:

I guess it has sort of been similar in a way, except we weren't going to tape — we were going to disc — in a similar way..

ZC:

And it makes it easier to — because it is a more improvised spontaneous kind of session, I could just quickly redo another take, instead of like waiting for the tape machine to roll back and I guess that's beneficial to me in that kind of mindset..

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TG:

That's interesting you say that because earlier on in the session today, you did ask about whether we needed to be able to edit this up to the film, and we then discussed that — which is interesting because I thought, we can go back to where we don't really need to do that, even though we can do that very easily digitally, but it's nice to have that analogue viewpoint where you just have the one piece of music in — maybe don't fiddle with it too much from an editing pint of view if we can help it..

ZC:

Yes, and I think it's nice in that the expression throughout the pieces is more fluid and more cohesive..

TG:

Yes, definitely, that seems to be the way. How would you describe the connection between the film and music cultures pursuant to surfing and its lifestyle?

ZC:

I did watch the film so I feel like you know, that the music does really reflect the culture of surfing — it's very relaxing, very upbeat, really happy, and its' a very happy kind of vibe and everyone's socialising and like they all get together and surf and it's a very calming and lovely kind of environment, but then the scene that I did is in Bali where the surf is great, but then there's this kind of other culture where animals fighting with each other is what they do? And that is considered normal, and then for me it's kind of a bit jarring — having this beautiful scene and lifestyle, and then going into this place where animal cruelty is what they do as a hobby, and I think — it's kind of part of it I guess, where you kind of see these things and there's nothing you can really do about it—so, but it's good to kind of bring it to acknowledgement..

TG:

Yes, it's interesting how the filmmaker decided to include that footage in the film — it always struck me as kind of, oh I wonder why — it's like — but it's almost like that's the balance of things right there — you've got all this really great stuff going on, but there always seems to be a balance side of it that throws it..

ZC:

Yeah you don't appreciate what's good until you see the other side of what's happening — yeah..

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TG:

Do you find that the content of earlier projects like this one made 40 years ago, relating music and surf films, can inspire new ideas for music for you?

ZC:

I think what's really interesting about this film is that you can tell the person is filming it just because he loves the culture of surfing and he's adding music to it — he has such a passion that kind of shines through — so I think it definitely inspires and good to remember not to just do things for what people like, but to follow what your passion is about..

TG:

That's a great answer Zinia — thanks for that interview and for your beautiful music contribution to this research project..

END INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS

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APPENDIX Q: Links to Films.

Instructors / examiners: Please play each of these films in sequence.

Link to Morning Of The Earth - Original film

https://youtu.be/vtCPfxCvdI4

Link to Morning Of The Earth - Creative Project One - Renewed https://youtu.be/7ANNVrhX0Yk

Link to Morning Of The Earth - Creative Project Two - Reimagined https://youtu.be/EBqsCkJS8AU

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APPENDIX R: Links To Recordings — Music Tracks: (audio only)

Artist: Chris Perren and Nonsemble

Track 1.a Morning Of The Earth (reworked)– Creative Project One response

https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/chris-perren-mote-1/s-Pq3Us

Track 1.b Morning Of The Earth (reimagined) - Chris Perren and Nonsemble –

Creative Project Two response

https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/chris-perren-mote-2/s-yZ0Tm

Artist: Big Dead

Track 2.a See The Swells (reworked) – Creative Project One response

https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/mote-big-deadsee-the-swells/s-6CPfD

Track 2.b Swells (original) – by Big Dead – Creative Project Two response

https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/mote-big-dead-original/s-wC2WT

Artist: These Guy

Track 3.a Getting Back (reworked) - Creative Project One response

https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/these-guy-getting-back-mix/s-gXEVt

Track 3.b Board Guys (original) - These Guy - Creative Project Two response

https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/these-guy-board-guys-mix/s-ao3Ax

Artist: Seaton Fell-Smith

Track 4.a Uluwatu (reworked) - Creative Project One response

219 https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/uluwatu-peter-howe-seaton-fell-smith/s-

BMfKs

Track 4.b One Point Zero (original) - Seaton Fell-Smith –– Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/seaton-fell-smith-one-point-zero/s-K52TR

Artist: Salliana Campbell

Track 5.a I’m Alive (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/im-alive/s-ouzQ2

Track 5.b Bm Piano Slide (original) – Salliana Campbell – Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/bm-piano-slide-salliana-campbell/s-lkRqR

Artist: Beau et Belle

Track 6.a I’ll Be Alright (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/ill-be-alright-beaue-et-bell/s-XjBT6

Track 6.b Autumn (original)– Beau et Belle – Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/beau-et-belle-autumn/s-oc5Qw

Artist: John Willsteed

Track 7.a Simple Ben (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/john-wilsteed-simple-ben-cover-mix-final1/s- e6oIy

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Track 7.b Work Life Balance (original) – John Willsteed – Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/john-willsteed-work-life-balance/s-0vETa

Artist: Evan Setiawan

Track 8.a Bali Waters (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/evan-setiawan-mote-bali-waters/s-IvWDb

Track 8.b First Scene (original) – Evan Setiawan – Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/first-scene-evan-setiawan/s-CtNmb

Artist: Jakarta Criers

Track 9.a Dream Chant (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/dream-chant-by-ticket-jakarta-criers/s-ni3Ag

Track 9.b Cable Ties (original) – Jakarta Criers – Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/jakarta-criers-cable-ties/s-q6lbz

Artist: Nicholas Ng

Track 10.a Gamelan (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/nicholas-ng-gamelan/s-KcsiM

Track 10.b Gamelan 2 (original) – Nicholas Ng - Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/nicholas-ng-gamelan-2/s-bYaxl

Artist: Zinia Chan

Track 11.a Cock Fight Bali (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/zinia-chan-cock-fight-bali-mote_1/s-0Mitv

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Track 11.b Cock Fight Bali reprise (original) - Zinia Chane –– Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/zinia-chan-original-mote/s-0UvAU

Artist: Simon Gardner

Track 12.a Awake (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/simon-gardner-awake-final-mix/s-Es2dM

Track 12.b Awake Reprise (original) - Simon Gardner – Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/awake-reprise-mix-v2/s-lkCuq

Artist: PortRoyal

Track 13.a Sure Feels Good (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/mote-port-royal-sure-feels/s-bT4RG

Track 13.b My Honey Baby (original) – Port Royal – Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/mote-port-royal-my-honey-bab/s-KvEc8

Artist: Drawn From Bees

Track 14.a Day Comes (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/day-comes/s-7hOVY

Track 14.b Two Faces (original) – Drawn From Bees – Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/two-faces-final/s-Q2iwM

Artist: Andrew Taylor

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Track 15.a First Things First (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/mote-andrew-taylor-first-thi/s-QsWp7

Track 15.b By the Sea – (original) Andrew Taylor - Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/mote-andrew-taylor-by-the-sea/s-8p8tN

Artist: Lonely Hearts Club

Track 16.a Making It On Your Own (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/making-it-on-your-own-lonely-hearts-club/s-

EVi7Y

Track 16.b Just Sayin’ (original) Lonely Hearts Club – Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/just-sayin-lonely-hearts-club/s-q7B2U

Artist: Crimson Nights

Track 17.a Come With Me (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/come-with-me-crimson-nights/s-jMAH7

Track 17.b Welcome Me Home (original) - Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/welcome-me-home-crimson-nights/s-3PetN

Artist: Belrose

Track 18.a Open Up Your Heart (reworked) - Creative Project One response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/open-up-your-heart-belrose/s-z51qm

Track 18.b Milton (original) - Creative Project Two response https://soundcloud.com/user-556595235/milton-belrose/s-eL1st

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APPENDIX S: Field Notes Creative Projects One and Two

Artist / Band : Big Dead

Creative Project One song title:

‘See The Swells’ written by Lindsay Bjerre – Duration: 00:6:45 @ 04:30:00

Day 1 – Tracking @ Gasworks Studios

Wed 30th, Thursday 1st September 2015 12pm – 8pm

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Produced: Tim Gaze

Asst: Stuart Whitely, Josh Coxon

Cam — Keys and Guitar

Josh – Guitars and Vocals

Lachlan – Bass and Bass Clarinet

Nathan – Drums

Lee — Saxes

See The Swells originally written by Lindsay Bjerre, arranged by band, Tamam Shud and recorded at TCS Channel 9 Melbourne. Engineered by John French and produced by G. Wayne Thomas.

Big Dead will record this song ‘live’ in sections and then they will take the recorded ‘stems’ out to another studio to do some editing and refinements. Drums are set up in main recording room, with bass amp in sectioned off area, so minimal spill. Guitar amps are also miked up in main room but with sound baffles in place, not unlike the way the gear was set up for the original recording sessions in 1971. They are recording to a click track, piano first, then the band comes in after a while. They are also recording different takes and sections of this piece with different players playing different instruments to gain maximum output from their instrumental availability. I am noticing that there seems to be a method of recording here – and it seems to accommodate the digital scheme. There is a 24 track tape machine in the studio that doesn’t see much use these days. It would seem that a tape machine is designed for recording take after take of a ‘live ‘ band, whereas with digital recording you can record any way you wish starting anywhere and finishing anywhere etc. and with one or two or however many instruments you may want to do.

This version of See The Swells reminds me of some of the work that Andrew Kidman has done with his soundtracks – very thoughtful, spatial, and evocative. Also the use

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of loop station for extended and additional atmospheric effect adds a new dimension to the whole picture/music experience. So with modern day recording we see not only the playing of instruments as a group performance, but also the additional application of separate techniques and outside influences that combine to give us a new combination of textures as a whole.

Originally the 1971 instrumental line up for this song was, Bass, Drums, Percussion, Electric Rhythm Guitar, Electric Lead Guitar, Flute, and Vocals.

The Big Dead instrumental line up for their recording of this song, is: Drums, Bass, Guitar, Piano, saxophone, bass clarinet…similar to the original instrumentation for Tamam Shud..

Creative Project Two song title: ‘Swells’

Today, Sean Fabre Simmons will start to film the projects recording and interview processes.

The guys have started to run through their new arrangement of the Creative Project Two piece they are doing. Initially the piece only ran for 3:24, so because the original piece ‘See The Swells’ runs for 6:22, a new arrangement needs to be put together to reflect this.

While I am enjoying watching and listening to the guys do this session, I am finding that in comparison to how I work within this scenario, that the whole process is being rehearsed in the studio, and that pre—production at rehearsal level is not that evident. When we recorded the original soundtrack, we were playing live very regularly, so the music was familiar and rehearsed. Today’s situation seems different whereas we were playing all the time, a lot of today’s bands don’t seem to be playing as much.

I am finding that in this scenario there appears to be less concrete decision making occurring – it’s like everything is always in a state of flux and there is a different kind of framework functioning – not as much playing going on generally compared with when we did this – there are long periods of non— playing — it was all playing with us – you couldn’t shut us up, but maybe this is because of new technology and the options it gives us to spend more time on arrangement and editing outcomes (editing was only minimally possible 40 years ago). I must admit it can be easy to get involved in lengthy editing scenarios, but in the end if I am doing a solo or something like that, I find that the most satisfying way to achieve a positive outcome is to play the piece over and over until I get a suitably relevant and dynamic take, so minimal editing required.

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Artist / Band : Nicholas Ng – Gamelan Theme and Variation

Creative Project One song title:

‘Gamelan Theme’ written and performed by Obscure @ 00:10:52 in film

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Gamelan Variation’ Written and performed by Nicholas Ng

Day 3 – Tracking @ Gasworks Studios

Tues 13th, October 2015 — 12pm – 8pm

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Produced: Tim Gaze,

Nicholas Ng – plays Chinese Lute – Pipa, Chinese fiddle, Chinese flute.

Spontaneous performance of interpretive Gamelan music today at Gasworks by Nicholas Ng – more instrument info to follow from Nicholas. No electronic tuning reference used – he firstly tuned the lute to his own flute, but then engineer Josh played some reference notes on piano to tune to. Unfortunately with the nature of organic acoustic instruments, sometimes because of temperature etc, comfortable tuning is not possible and today we saw that the flute would not respond to tuning so we had to omit it from the recording, which is a shame, but we will endeavour to use the fiddle as an extra melody instrument. We have also double tracked the fiddle to get a harmony part interplay, along with gongs and bells. Sounding fabulous..

Mix down – Day 12 — Monday 24th Oct – at Z9 QUT, Studio 522

Mix down Engineer: Josh Tuck

Creative Project One song title: ‘Gamelan Theme’ written and performed by Obscure @ 10:52 in film

Creative Project Two song title: ‘Gamelan Variation’ Written and performed by Nicholas Ng

With the combination of acoustic traditional Chinese instruments – Lute, fiddle and flute, Josh’s mixing approach is one of attaining balance and scope for buoyancy. He lute sound has quite a hard front to the sound but has a soft sound overall. The fiddle has an almost vocal sound quality with breath and vibrato. Percussively, the high bells tinkle away and add more atmosphere.

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Artist / Band : Zinia Chan – Theme and Variation

Creative Project One song title: ‘Cockfight Bali’ – by Brian Cadd – performed by Zinia Chan @ 00:36:15 in film

Day 4 – Tracking @ Gasworks Studios

Tues 27th, October 2015 — 10pm – 8pm

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Produced: Tim Gaze,

Zinia Chan – Steinway Baby Grand piano

Zinia Interview filmed by Ash Cassel who has started working on the project in a photographic capacity in conjunction with Sean Faber (relocated to Melbourne but still involved as filmmaker for this project)

Zinia recorded a few takes of the first interpretation of Brian Cadd’s piano pieces for the Bali cock fight sequence – firstly a couple of takes in the studio and then a couple of more takes as she watched the footage to gain more spontaneity with the music to film aspect. Some very thoughtful and provocative playing and performance outcomes were achieved with this session today.

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Cockfight Bali Rerise’ Written and performed by Zinia Chan

Zinia also recorded her second reflective piece today, taking into account Brian Cadd’s notational choices and steering as she said more toward the use of major and minor aspects. In any case her modal notation choices work very well with the footage in a sparse and open manner with plenty of room for thought and reflection on the content of the footage.

Mix down – Day 12 Monday 24th Oct 2016 – at Z9 QUT, Studio 522

Mix down Engineer: Josh Tuck

1st Song Title: ‘Cockfight Bali’ at 36:15 in film – by Brian Cadd – performed by Zinia Chan

2nd Song Title: ‘Cockfight Bali Reprise’ Written and performed by Zinia Chan

This mix for these two pieces is being approached as a wide spatial stereo image with a semi dark ambience – not too many high frequencies with warm low midrange strengths and presence. Some low frequencies have also needed to be added. Also some automated reverbs have been used and close mics pulled back for spatial effect. The fade has also been modified due to the sustain pedal being released before notes had finished resonating. Two close mics and two rom mics were used in the recording of these pieces. We are also side-chaining a

227 reverb to these tracks so when audio levels drop the reverb becomes present, adding subtle reverberation aspects at low audio levels, thereby increasing overall landscape and support.

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Artist / Band : Dan James - Drawn From Bees

Creative Project One Song Title:

‘Day Comes’ – by G Wayne Thomas @ 00:47:30 in film

Day 5 – Tracking @ Gasworks Studios

Sat 7th November 2015 — 10pm – 8pm

Engineer: Rhys Tyack

Assistant – Nicholas Winkley

Produced: Tim Gaze

Dan James – Guitar s and vocals, co—produce, engineer

Stewart Riddle – Bass and Vocals

Matthew Wedmaier — Drums and Vocals

Don Le – Bass, Guitars, engineer

At this point the idea behind ‘Drawn From Bees’ recording will be with an acoustic drum kit, bass, acoustic 12 string guitar, 6 string acoustic guitars, and guide vocals. The band have brought in an array of guitars, guitar character pedals – (Tech 21 pedals for older British amp profiles), Sans Amp bass preamp, Tech 21 Bass preamp (chained together in series), various hardware processors, Line 6 multi—effect guitar processor pedals, various analogue pedals (Roland drive, custom Octave pedal, custom RAT pedal with multiple model release updates (these last two made by Dan James) and triggers for synths etc. This group has a very open attitude towards being spontaneous regarding the recording process and instrumentation and are very hands on with getting the exact sounds and textures they are looking for. Tempo is starting at 74bpm before tracking.

There were a few takes of the initial song recorded. After good takes were recorded, drum editing was started at around 4pm and then replacement of guide tracks was commenced.

First task was to edit drum takes and get in sync with timing etc, then first replacement track was bass guitar, then next, shakers and tambourine and percussion (sensible sequence to help lock in the groove for remaining tracking).

Day 6 – Sunday 8th November 2015 – 12pm continued.

Pull session back up in Pro—Tools – first instrument recorded today is 12 string acoustic guitar track in live room – EQ’ed – then next, 6 string capo-ed strumming track to balance up acoustic buoyancy. Don is also sampling a kick and snare hit, and one 12 string note for alignment points to do with any possible phasing issues.

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(Query?) Electric guitar track was next with open tuning approach picking – then same guitar played through a POD HD500X module to create a synthesiser sounding track with expanding and swell multi timbral effect – like voices – modulating — reverb with phasing. Next Electric guitar track by Dan was a totally saturated and overdriven guitar sound playing in low strings as single note melody in choruses. Vocal track next..

Observation:

Have noticed that these MOTE sessions have opened up a realisation whereby during the recording process there can be several tasks being done at once with the guys / engineers in the studio (often the same people as in the band), so there might be someone working on ideas on a synth while the guitar player is doing takes for the session, and conversations taking place also – all at the same time in the same room – not sure how people can focus fully on any one task working this way.

Mixed by Tim Gaze — Day 13 Monday 31st Oct 2016– at Z9 QUT, Studio 522

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Two Faces’ – by Dan James, Don Le and Stew Riddle @ 00:47:30 in film

Day 20 – Tracking @ KG Z Block

Wed 11th Jan 2017 10 am – 6 pm.

Engineer: Dan James and Don Le

Produced: Dan, Don and Stew.

Dan James – Guitars and vocals, co—produce, engineer

Stewart Riddle – Bass and Vocals

James See – Drums.

Don Le – Bass, Guitars, engineer

Dan James and Don Le have arrived for today’s session with their session on a hard drive and put together in a software DAW package called Reaper (used by Dan at Brisbane Boys College). This is a very intuitive tracking, editing and mixing DAW that can work alongside Pro Tools. An interesting mixture of recording techniques being used today. Dan has brought in some baffles to use with recording vocals and is using his own technique to attain just the right vocal reflections within the room, by draping material (cloth) between the baffles, thereby negating any reflective frequency cancellation from bounce back into the vocal mike. He will record these vocals later on.

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Don is doing acoustic guitar takes now in studio – fingerpicking part – miked up. Sounding great but converters have started to drop out and stop working – technical difficulty. They have saved one take from two and edited together to render new file. There is a problem with the syncing of Pro Tools and Reaper so the software needs to be resynced so everything runs together.

Tech problem work around found – the sample rate needed to go back to 48k from 96k as syncing was problematic at the higher sample conversion rate (analogue to digital – digital to analogue) of the two linked Lynx audio signal converters.

Drums next – no click track used, so just playing to feel and deciding how to arrange them. Experimenting with snare sounds – blanket on, blanket off – rim shots, centre snares etc. – working great – just working through dynamic fills into choruses etc. Also the guys are going to do extra cymbal wash takes to spread the effect using mallet hits and swells. Dan persisted with the cymbal ideas until they eventually came up with a mallet ride sound that was actually in tune with the track. It adds significantly to the overall ambience and atmosphere of the instrumental scope of the music.

Next is glockenspiel, and then tambourine. Then main vocals using two mics — a ribbon mic and a small condenser mic, so the two can be combined and placed in the mix accordingly. Stew is guiding the vocal session with Dan and Don is engineering.

On another note, it’s amazing watching these guys work – these days it’s not uncommon for people in the studio recording scenario to make multi—decisions on the spur of the moment – Don just replied to Dan’s questions about how many mics to use on his backing vocal takes. Don said one mic – if it’s the low vocal part he would use the condenser Shoeps mic which tend to be a toppy sounding unit, – the high part, the ribbon mic, which has a duller sound — all in the same answer. Very quick decision making with these guys and they all work very well together with positive directive flow – great job with their two pieces.

Just comping sessions now and will save – they will mix second piece.

Mixed by Dan James and Don Le

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Artist / Band : These Guy

Creative Project One: Creative Project One:

‘Getting Back’ – by G Wayne Thomas @ 00:06:12 in film

Day 6 – Tracking @ Gasworks Studios

Wed 11th November 2015 — 10pm – 6pm

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Assistant Engineer – Jamie Pettersen

Produced: Tim Gaze,

Joe Saxby – Guitars and vocals, synth arrange, Abelton co—produce, engineer

Josh Coxon – Guitars

Eddie L’Estrange – Drums

Joe Saxby has bought in files of pre—production work that he has done prior to this session – various synths, a bass track, some drums etc. These tracks will be added to with ‘live’ performance takes of drums, guitars and vocals that we’ll do during the recording session and add to the pre produced tracks. Josh Coxon is using some vintage pedals – an old Roland Chorus CE 1 – a fairly rare and excellent sounding pedal – all straight into the desk for recording – no guitar amp as such, just the preamp from a Universal Audio LA—610 compressor/ limiter and a little reverb. Some really colourful guitar sounds coming out for this session, featuring delays, modulation, compression etc. Josh has also double tracked guitar using a series of chord inversions which are voiced to accentuate the harmonic nuances within the chord structure. Joe also decided to try and acoustic guitar track just playing the tonic major chord throughout the verse structure to create a binding tension not unlike the effect of a drone or sympathetic rhythm part. This idea seems to work very well in this instance. Drum tracks are being debated as to whether or not to record the kit in two passes – one with just kick, snare and toms, and then overdub cymbals, or to just baffle the kit off to ensure lower levels and less spill into overheads? Also the waves sound effects used in track were recorded in Brighton, U.K. during winter!! Then Joe put a delay effect over the wave to enhance the flow and timing of the wave breaking along the seawall where it was recorded. There are also BV’s, hand claps and Tamborine being recorded.

This is a very different version to the original from the soundtrack, not unlike how Big Dead approached doing their version of ‘See The Swells’ – interesting to see the influence of the original track with the first piece and in the first instance with what These Guy have done. I feel this adds even more credence to the fact that MOTE is a very influential medium.

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Engineer: Josh Tuck

Preliminary setup – edit drums and rough balance explored along with level adjustments and checking where the recording’s aesthetics is heading. Initially the drummer played along with pre—recorded stems that were recorded elsewhere and brought into the recording sessions, which presents an interesting angle – by way of how this band combine their analogue approach mixed with digital work.

Mix down Engineer: Josh Tuck

Mixdown continued. Drums have been quantized (Beat Detective) to sit in time as they tend to wander a little and also there are some quite complex hi—hat features and kick drum accents that needed pulling into line so as to make the whole feel precise yet relaxed. Result is a comfortable combination of instruments played in real time, and sequenced electronic music parts. We are also experimenting with reverb tail times and qualities making sure that those chosen are suitable for the texture of the combined audio sources making up the multitrack. Also working on the intro before band starts so as to make strong.

Mixed by Tim Gaze — Day 13 Monday 31st Oct 2016– at Z9 QUT, Studio 522

Artist / Band – These Guy

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Board Guys’ — written and performed by artist These Guy

Day 6 – Tracking @ Gasworks Studios

Wed 11th November 2015 — 10pm – 6pm

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Assistant Engineer – Jamie Pettersen

Produced: Tim Gaze,

Joe Saxby – Guitar s and vocals, synth arrange, Ableton ‘live’, co—produce, engineer

Josh Coxon – Guitars

Eddie L’Estrange – Drums

This second composition ‘Board Guys’ is These Guy reflective piece from recording the first piece. Running at 180bpm it is at a brisk tempo across a two chord round idea — some great use of major 7th and altered chord work from Josh Coxon, whose guitar pickups are custom made in Adelaide by Mick Brierley. They deliver a more subtle and less harsh tone from the top three strings but still a full rich balanced sound across the string range. This piece also has a tempo change near the end, which is not

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marked off in time, the effect of which is a floating outro with no tempo restraints and freedom towards outcome.

Thursday 12th November – session continued.. 10.30am

Josh Coxon started with guitar tracking this morning at 10:30am – more colourful and sound effected delay type stuff – 16th note rhythm track double tracked – then some solo stuff with delays and modulation, using a Strymon delay pedal for elongated loop style delays on guitar actually sounds like another instrument – very cool and is adjustable as the track rolls by..

Next is tambourine, gong…vocals to go.. Three part is good and working great in the choruses — reflective about why are the old surfers (board guys) are so bored — not surfing anymore etc? Musically and technically, a very interesting and spontaneous approach to realising the effect and outcome of expression.

Mix down –Tim Gaze — Day 12 Monday 24th Oct 2016 – at Z9 QUT, Studio 522 – 3pm *Note—There is a break in recording now until Semester Two, 2016, where we resume at the new Z Block Studios at QUT Kelvin Grove.

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Artist / Band : Jakarta Criers

Sunday 10th July 2016 – Recording recommenced today in the new Z Block Studio facility at QUT Kelvin Grove, Brisbane.

Creative Project One song title:

‘Dream Chant’ (by Ticket) @ 00:31:41 in film

Day 7 – Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Sunday 10th July 2016

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Assistant Engineer – Simon Andrew Nelson

Produced: Tim Gaze,

Will Rowles — Bass

Will Logan — Drums

James Walker – Guitar and Vocals

Allard Humphries — Keyboards

Seaton Fell—Smith — Lead Guitar

Today we see the recommencement of Creative Project One with the Jakarta Criers in the new QUT studios at Kelvin Grove. The guys have arrived and are going through the arrangement for the recording of their version of Dream Chant (Ticket) as they stand around with one guitar in one of the recording rooms and its sounding great. Starting with Drums, bass and guitar as scratch tracks and sounding very modern and exciting – great sounds from these guys – nice and live. Slightly U2-ish effect, with drums and bass playing great surf style feel and guitar with lines and rhythm — nice and open sounding. Guys are working dynamically through the tracking and working the music up as they go.. Intro, verse, Chorus, Inst, post chorus, then repeat all x 1 – interesting arrangement ideas getting worked here as well. Bed tracks done, so now vocal recording set up is going ahead. Some nice vocal harmony is going down too. With all vocals done by James double tracking his parts.

Continuing to track same day..

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Cable Ties’ by Jakarta Criers.

Written by Will, Will, James and Seaton

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Starting out with drums, bass and guitar scratch tracks again for this second reflective song for Creative Project Two. A take has been selected and agreed upon, and we will return on July 31st to continue.

For now we will continue back to doing Dream Chant with synth overdub using a Roland Juno – 60 synth – patch 24!!

Will continue on Sunday 31st.

Sunday 31st August 2016

Creative Project Two song: – ‘Cable Ties’ continued..

Engineer: Simon Andrew Nelson

Produced: Tim Gaze, and Jakarta Criers

Will Rowles — Bass

Will Logan — Drums

James Walker – Guitar and Vocals

Allard Humphries — Keyboards

Seaton Fell—Smith — Lead Guitar

We have taken up where we left off on Sunday 10th July – Seaton Fell—Smith is doing additional guitars today. Vocals were done in the last 3 weeks at Jakarta Criers own studio and will be flown into the existing sessions we have done at QUT which we are running today. The first guitar overdub will be using an Epiphone Sheridan semi acoustic electric guitar through reverb and overdrive effects – a shimmering kind of surf sound. Seaton is also experimenting with doing additional solo work over the other lead melody part – working on getting the best combo of notes and sounds to complement existing part, so they track together but not exactly the same part, making it a spontaneous and open sounding and wide stereo outcome. He is also doing another rhythm part in Drop – D to support initial rhythm part done in previous day’s session – working great and completed ready to mix.

Going back now to overdub guitars on the initial Dream Chant track – Fender Telecaster Deluxe guitar using a delay effect on single note arpeggio style chord work and using major pentatonic scale choice, playing double stopping in fourths as well – nice effect. The modern day Strymon® delay being used for this has an effect called ‘tape saturation’, which mimics the sound that analogue tape echo machines generated pre the advent of digital effect units. Plus the use of an Ampeg guitar amp combo with 2 x 10” speakers (one not working!)

Mixed by Tim Gaze — Day 13 Monday 31st Oct 2016– at Z9 QUT, Studio 522

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Artist / Band : Andrew Taylor

Monday 22nd August 2016

Creative Project One song title:

‘First Things First’ (by Tim Gaze) @ 00:50:18 in film

Day 8 – Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Assistant Engineer: None

Produced: Tim Gaze

Acoustic Guitar and Vocals, Pre Recorded Arrangement: Andrew Taylor

Electric Guitars: Tim Van Der Heijde

Today see us in the studio with Andrew Taylor, doing his version of First Things First, by Tamam Shud.

A difficult start to the recording day by way of conflicting DAW session software – Pro Tools and Logic – have spent the first two hours working out how to re—render and shift or export audio and midi tracks from Logic program over to Pro Tools program in QUT studio.

(Flesh out more about his kind of problem that can occur in studio sessions)

Josh and Andrew have finally worked out a way of exporting the tracks across so we can use in Pro Tools. The technique of saving and exporting sessions as OMF (Open Media Format) files was not able to be used – it seems that recording software is becoming more proprietary and harder to use across other software applications, making the recording scenario more inflexible, as each company tries to control how you use their product.

We are now ready to re—record Andrew’s acoustic guitar — he has restrung and been miked up and just testing now before break. We are using two Shoeps mics on the acoustic and is sounding great.

Nice treatment Andrew has done on First Things First — with ascending acoustic picking part using open strings and moving chords up and down the fretboard – new arrangement as well which is a nice departure from the original. He has also added quite a bit of extra instrumentation to help support the initial guitar and vocal idea. This is a great argument for being prepared – there has been a lot of pre—production work done on this, ultimately making today’s tracking experience a smoother journey than if he had not done so.

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Creative Project Two song title:

‘By The Sea’ by Andrew Taylor

Monday August 22nd, 2016.

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Pre—Production: Andrew Taylor

Produced: Tim Gaze

Acoustic Guitar and Vocals, Pre Recorded Arrangement: Andrew Taylor

Electric Guitars: Tim Van Der Heijde

For Andrew’s reflective original song, ‘By The Sea’, one idea was to record the acoustic guitar part in sections, and then loop it, thereby opening up the possibilities of making some of the postproduction aspects work more interestingly. Having said that, we are also looking at doing whole takes as well to get the spontaneous aspect as well. We are also working with different accented click tracks as well.

Monday August 29th, 2016.

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Pre—Production: Andrew Taylor

Produced: Tim Gaze

Today we are starting with main vocal parts using a Neumann Type U87 A vocal mic. Andrew has used the past week to do some additional tracking of guitars at his own studio, but today in Z9 Studio we are concentrating on tracking final main vocals, some electric guitars, and also some additional percussion.

These items are all of the analogue format recorded in real time, like when we recorded back in 1971.

Andrew is starting with vocals on By The Sea, building with BV’s first and then will do main vocal take. There are a few different parts to do – 3 backing vocal parts for buoyancy, and then a main vocal.

We then move onto doing the main vocal for First Things First – we are recording multiple takes of this to get the one we want – old style recording — Andrew has bought his own click tracks in this time for his own timing references – once again, Andrew’s pre—production preparation work has made today’s tracking experience more concise. He has done quality pre—production work on both these songs.

Next Andrew is doing live cymbal swells with mallets for particular dynamic expression as builds in and out of various parts of the arrangements of both songs.

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There were MIDI cymbal put in initially, but real live cymbal swells add a more realistic dynamic to the recording.

He is also rerecording some repetitive vocal passes that could be looped, but are being recorded in real time instead, but could be looped later if necessary.

Tim is doing guitars as well now with timed delays and tremolo parts – all designed as flavours and colours.

Mixed by Tim Gaze — Day 13 Monday 31st Oct 2016– at Z9 QUT, Studio 522

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Band / Artist : Simon Gardner

Creative Project One song title: ‘Awake’ by Ticket @ 00:39:02 in film

Delivered via Dropbox on 10th March 2018

Creative Project Two song title: ‘Awake Reprise’ by Simon Gardner

Delivered via Dropbox on 15th March 2018

*Both tracks Recorded and mixed off site. See p. 28

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Artist / Band : Port Royal

Monday 21st November 2016 Song:

Creative Project One song title:

‘Sure Feels Good’ by Brian Cadd @ 00:43:28 in film

Day 15 – Tracking @ Z Block Studios 10 am —8 pm

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Assistant Engineer:

Produced: Tim Gaze

Lawson Doyle: Guitars and vocals

Christopher Cayzer: Guitars and Vocals

Connor Arnold: Bass and vocals

Chase Brodie: Drums

Today we start with drum set up and level check – going well with drummer Chris getting a tough sound out of the kit. The rest of the band are also tracking live, after sorting tempo, click track etc. Band is just settling into the feel of the song and going well. Guide vocal will be done after initial band bed take is done. Josh getting balances with kit and bass, guitars etc., and EQ-ing. After lunch, and we’re doing takes for guide vocal now. Then going for bass and band takes.

Monday 21st November – continued.

Tracking guitars and vocals, BV’s and Tambourine, and we are actually working between the two songs, going back and forward with additional tracking, so tambourine, then BV’s, then main vocals, then guitar soloing, electric keyboards, and harmonica. Guitar is being recorded using Twin Reverb amp – clean sound with plenty of bite. Vocals next, starting at 4:38pm and harmonica takes continuing as well.

Monday 21st November 2016 cont.…

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Baby Don’t Know’ by Chris Cayzer and Lawson Doyle, arranged by Port Royal.

Day 15 – Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Produced: Tim Gaze

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New tracking started with live band scenario. Done – Now BV’s for Song 2. Also doing doubles of guitar tracks and using different tones etc., to rebalance dynamic picture with good tone from Les Paul Deluxe guitar and Fender Stratocaster combination. Nice cross rhythm work with the two guitars — semi funk rhythms at times – handclaps as well – shaping up to be a cool original song – well put together.

Mixed by Tim Gaze — Monday 8th May 2017– at Z9 QUT, Studio 522

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Artist / Band – John Willsteed and John Busby and Co

Monday 5th November 2016

Day 17 – Tracking @ Z Block Studios 10am – 2pm

Creative Project One song title:

‘Simple Ben’ by John J Francis @ 00:19:53 in film

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Produced: Tim Gaze

John Willsteed: Acoustic 6 string, acoustic 12—string, banjo

Coojee Timms: Drums and vocals

Luke Peacock: Percussion and acoustic piano..

Today we have Coojee Timms coming into drum, Luke Peacock to percuss, play acoustic piano. They’ll both be singing. I’ll be playing. I’ll bring in a bass, but not sure if it’ll need it. 93bpm click track. At this point John will record acoustic and drums, piano and guide vocals and then take away to keep adding instrumentation. The original of this tune by John J Francis was recorded by him in his own studio and then he overdubbed his own instrumentation. This was pretty landmark for 1970.

So drums, acoustic guitar, guide vocal and percussive shaker has been recorded first. Then Luke put down a piano part, and John then put down a fretless bass part.

The original instrumental arrangement by John J Francis was acoustic guitar, vocals, mandolin, banjo? This is a similar instrumental arrangement to the original, except that there is new recording will be acoustic guitar, vocals, 12 string guitar, acoustic piano, banjo BVs.

Continued on Monday 12th June 2017 Artist – John Willsteed and Coojee Timms – 10 am – 6pm

Day 23 – Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Engineer: Brad Columbine

Produced: John Willsteed and Tim Gaze

JW and CT are in today to continue on with their rendition of Simple Ben. Coojee will start with a vocal track. John is going through the lyrics as we go to make sure the lyric content is correct. There are also timing issues to be verified as we go. We

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are also making sure that the mic distance is correct for levels as well – dynamic vocal delivery options. John is now going over the final vocal takes with Coojee and they are doing final vocal takes – they are doing a very thorough job on this to make it right. Next is John with a tenor banjo track, then a lap steel slide guitar track. These have been put through the same amp.

Artist / Band– John Willsteed – 10am – 5pm, Monday 12th June 2017

Day 23 – Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Work / Life Balance’ by John Willsteed

3:00 pm same day. Next John is starting off his reflective piece for Project 2. Brad has imported track data from the previous session because he wants to use the drums and shaker for this second piece. John is now recording a guitar track, then another guitar track, and is also running a loop from his phone that will be used as well. He will ten upload the session to Dropbox and then continue to work on this at home then bring back into the QUT studio next session. This is a compilation of different musical things that is a work in the making – almost spontaneous as it unfolds, but at a tempo of 92 bpm.

Continued on Monday 24th July 2017 at 2pm Z Block studio, Day 26 – John Willsteed and Brad Columbine.

John has stated that he is following what the film has given him for this piece as reflective – that the story which unfolds across this footage is the main influence for this song. We are going to get the video footage up on the big screen so we can see the effect of the music with the film. John mentioned how the flow of the music — the falling chord sequence is pivotal to the watery effect he is looking for to express the feeling coming across in the film story. Today we will start with acoustic guitar played along to a previously recorded session John has put together comprising of a slowed down drum track from previous session, and also some reverse drum loop fills that swell in and out of the main track. John is also looking at using a Gretsch baritone guitar, a Fender 12 string electric, a Martin acoustic 6 string, a Maton JB4 fretless electric bass, and a Fender Stratocaster guitar. So just setting up mics etc., and John will record the first acoustic track. Song idea is in 6/8 at 69.4 bpm.

He is now going to record a second acoustic part (double) to enhance the stereo effect and to gain a wider sonic landscape of the acoustics. Brad (engineer) has used minimal EQ on second acoustic guitar – added a little at 2dB at 12K and 2dB cut at 700 — then compressed at 2 to 1 and less than 1.5 dB of gain reduction. Next is fretless bass track – John is doing in the studio. John’s approach is to play a mixture

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of tonic and harmony notes for the bass part – this seems to be working well with the dynamics of the surfing footage – the ups and downs and speed of the riders within the waves – nice bass takes Mr Willsteed.

Next is electric slide guitar – John is using the Fender Strat as a lap steel this time – he says it sounds ‘more contained’ that way for this application. Some choice melodic ideas taking place here across the various chord changes with the slide guitar (also using tremolo). Next John will do a track of baritone guitar, which is tuned down to B, a 4th down from regular guitar tuning, giving a deeper more resounding tone. Some chord work and single note playing are being used to draw out the sounds John is envisioning during reflection in action. There are other melodic influences at work here as well from an older time regarding the style of music from the 60s etc. Baritone solo stuff going great. John is just doing a rough balance after completing his tracking so he can get an idea how things will balance up in the final mix. John has run the session now with the film as well, so he can recant.

Simple Ben Session Continued 8th March 2018 — John Willsteed — Guitars overdubs

Artist – John Willsteed and John Busby and Co – 11am – 3pm, Thursday 8th March 2018

Day 32 – Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Creative Project One song ‘Simple Ben’ – by John J Francis

Engineer: James See

Produced: Tim Gaze

John Willsteed: Electric 6 string,

John is doing electric guitar overdubs today – James has pulled up a deep reverb sound to support the style of playing John is using to elaborate over the backing track. The quality of this recording has a natural spontaneous feeling about how it has been tracked – works well with the way the story unfolds as per the original song performance.

On to overdubbing guitar for the response track – the feel of this piece of music is a more relaxed style of thing – so it will be of interest to see how this piece of music works with the original pictures. It does have a very surf and sunset vibe about it. John is just running electric guitar lines spontaneously along with previously recorded takes of other melody instruments i.e.; baritone and slide guitar single note phrases.

I spoke to Willsteed about doing a comparison if the new soundtrack with the old and the effect the music has upon the listener or how say a sequence of 3 tracks travels

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compared to how 3 new songs in sequence work in with the film. I need to question how this works and the outcome comparison.

Thursday 20th July 2018 – John and James continued mixing final version of his response track – Work /Life Balance at Z Block. I could not be here today for this but will catch up with him and get some details. Still some more to do – John is going to replace the drum loop as it is not suitable. x This is the last track to go into the soundtrack 9th November 2018 – see end of notes.

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Artist / Band : Seaton Fell-Smith

Monday 5th November 2016

Creative Project One song title:

‘Uluwatu’ – by Peter Howe @ 00:10:52 in film

Day 17 – Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Produced: Tim Gaze

Seaton Fell—Smith – Acoustic and atmospheric guitars

An interesting viewpoint of East meets West with this rendition of Uluwatu, which was originally recorded at PACT studios, Sussex Street, Haymarket, in Sydney, 1970 – the performance being by Peter Howe playing double drop D tuned acoustic guitar in a picking style, and a flute player, whose name was never listed on this recording.

After Seaton arrived today to do his two tracks, I rang Peter Howe at about 4.45pm to verify guitar tuning used, as Seaton and I were discussing – (he is tuned to DADGAD) – whereas Peter Howe was tuned to double drop D. The treatment Seaton is using is solo acoustic guitar picking for the main instrumental part, and then and ambient guitar track for the colour and dynamic effect, so two guitars solo left and right, finger picking style.

Artist – Seaton Fell—Smith and Michael Ellis– 4pm to 8pm, Monday 5th November 2016

Monday 5th November 2016

Day 17 – Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Creative Project Two song title:

‘One Point Zero ‘by Seaton Fell—Smith

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Produced: Tim Gaze

Seaton Fell—Smith – Acoustic and atmospheric guitars

Michael Ellis – Drums, Percussion

A beautiful original reflective picking piece garnered from the Uluwatu connection – this performance conveys the overall feeling exuded by the subtle quality of these instrumental guitars – and the sensitive way in which they are played and realised by

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working as well with a percussive presence from Michael – a mixture of hand body percussion and kick drum rhythm.

Mixed down both tracks at Z9 — Thursday 22nd June 2017 – Tim Gaze 11 am.

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Artist / Band : Jessica Keble and Beau Simpson ‘Beau et Belle’

Monday 12th December 2016

Day 18 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Creative Project One song title:

‘I’ll Be Alright’ by Terry Hannagan @ 00:16:00 in film

Engineer: Josh Tuck

Today Jesse and Beau have come in to record their two song versions. Instrumental line up is baby grand piano, acoustic guitar, bass guitar and shaker percussion. The original is a piano written piece, so this would appear to be a good way to approach this song by Terry Hannagan. The artists are keeping the arrangement simple and in keeping to the way they perform ‘live’ as a duo and recording the piano and guitar with guide vocal.

We will then come back and over dub the instrumentation i.e.; piano etc. along with the guide vocal, then redo the vocal final. Guitar redo is next with Beau doing acoustic picking part – arpeggios and additional riffs being overdubbed etc. through intro verses and choruses.

We are having a few technical difficulties this morning with the Pro Tools click track not generating, so no guide tempo to track with, but Josh has found a workaround – he opened a previous Seaton Fell Smith session from last week, re imported today’s relevant data and used click track from that session, so all good to continue.

Jesse and Beau are also well rehearsed and prepared so tracking is going smoothly.

Jesse is doing vocal on this last.

Artist –– ‘Beau et Belle’ — Jesse Keble and Beau Simpson

Monday 12th December 2016

Day 18 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Autumn’ by Jesse Keble and Beau Simpson

The original song that Jesse and Beau are doing for their reflective piece is acoustic guitar and vocals only. Just deciding whether to use a click track on this song as it is just guitar and vocal – deciding tempo..144 bpm it if. Great little song this – nice vocal melody and good feel to it. Jesse is just going leave it as a single vocal rendition – no harmonies – which gives this song a singular reflective quality.

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Mixdown – 21st June 2017 –

Tim Gaze did mixes of both Beau et Belle songs today at QUT in Rm 522.

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Artist / Band : Evan Setiawan and Ensemble

Tuesday 10th January 2017

Day 19 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Creative Project One song title:

‘Bali Waters’ by Lindsay Bjerre @ 00:27:33 in film

Engineer: James See

Produced: Tim Gaze

Evan Setiawan – Violin and Cello

Tim Gaze – Acoustic guitars

Chris Gilbert — Basses

Timo Sutinen – Percussion

We have started this session with a set—up of percussion, electric bass, acoustic guitar and violin. We had a preliminary run—through and rehearsal and then proceeded to get miked up for the session proper. Percussion was miked up in the main live room, and acoustic guitar was lined up and miked up in an adjoining live room with the door open so we could have a little spill. The violin was miked up in a separate space, and bass was lined out of the control room. Headphone mixes were attained via separate mixing modules, so a comfortable instrument balance was attained. The overall feel of this version of Bali Waters is a light version inspired by the original – similar tempo, but only using some of the components used previously – i.e.; percussion, guitar and bass. The original track featured flute and electric guitar instrumental solos, along with a full drum kit, but we decided that a streamlined approach would still bring out the strengths inherent in this piece, as it is strong melodically and rhythmically. Certain instrumental features were repeated in this new version, such as call and response cadences originally played with the flute now being interpreted by the violin. Certain vocal harmonies have also been placed strategically to enhance the final 8 bars of the choruses. A very buoyant and open effect has been realised by recording with minimal instrumentation and is still very much connected to the watery aspect this track originally brought forth in its compositional and rhythmic structure.

Artist –– ‘Evan Setiawan’ cont..

Tuesday 17th January 2017

Day 21 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

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Creative Project Two song title:

‘First Scene’ by Evan Setiawan

Engineer: James See

Produced: Tim Gaze

Evan Setiawan – Violin and Cello

Tim Gaze – Acoustic guitars

This piece started life as an Evan Setiawan original, mapped out and arranged via notation.

Evan and Tim then went about seeing how this piece might be transformed using a strong rhythmic guitar foundation, drop tuned to C, to support the various 16th note arpeggio groups arranged for violin. We rehearsed this piece twice on two different days – the second time, an hour and a half before venturing into the studio to record. We first tried to record to a click track at 130 bpm but found that the strict machine like tempo hindered the style of the interplay that Evan and I needed to settle into the right dynamic zone. So we just recorded it without a metronomic reference and that worked fine, with the outcome being a lot freer rhythmically and dynamically – a really tasty piece of music well suited to this project. It should also be mentioned that Evan’s Javanese roots figure strongly with this piece, there being a nod to the notation and playing style of the Gamelan, a predominant Javanese musical instrument and reflective of the area where Evan grew up. He used to travel to Bali from Java regularly when he was a boy, but that was a long time after Albe Falzon shot surf footage for MOTE there in 1970.

James See mixed both track 27th June 2018

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Artist / Band : Chris Perren and Nonsemble

Creative Project One song title:

‘Morning Of The Earth’ by G Wayne Thomas@ 00:00:45:00

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Morning Of The Earth Re-imagined’ by Chris Perren and Nonsemble

Both of these Chris Perren and Nonsemble tracks were recorded off site, hence no date reference as to exact days and times due to non-communication. Had Meeting today Tuesday 29th November 2016 at UQ Studios with Chris Perren to listen to his two final tracks, his version of the theme, Morning Of The Earth, and his second reflective track,.

Also did filmed interview and discussed concept envisaged for his mix and the scope of his recording. He will get stems or mix sessions to me soon – he did top work – all real string section material.

Mixed down both tracks 23rd June 2017 at Z Block 12pm

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Artist / Band –– ‘Salliana Campbell’

Monday 5th June 2017

Day 22 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Creative Project One song title:

‘I’m Alive’ by Peter Howe @ 00:12:42:00

Engineer: James See

Musicians: Salliana, James See and Tim Gaze

At this point, today’s session with Salliana will be her rendition of Peter Howe’s song, ‘I’m Alive’. Salliana plans to use a selection of acoustic instruments with unique flavours; a hammer dulcimer, a nyckelharpa, which is a Swedish traditional instrument, a violin, and also a baby grand piano. Interesting that all these instruments are stringed, and that they can all be used to play chords, the dulcimer and nyckelharpa being of the chordophone family.

Salliana is starting off with the hammer dulcimer. A beautiful semi – piano like sound with calibration anomalies due to pairs and triplets of strings tuned to the same note but slightly varied pitch, which give the note that chorusing effect, but more subtle and open – natural. James is just putting a slight compression over the stereo mics before recording. He is also building a custom click track (tempo) for Salliana to play along with, as the factory pre—set clicks are all too harsh and quite unmusical. This seems to be working well, so with one more tune up to the hammer dulcimer, we should be ready to do a take.

We are recording this piece a section at a time – first section tempo is 147 bpm, then the next section will be have tempo at 195 bpm. Quite a tempo shift but seems to work well with what Salliana is needing to express instrumentally.

Piano is next – James has miked up the Kawai baby grand and Salliana is taking some run—throughs to see what dynamic will suit to support the hammer dulcimer. Interestingly the dulcimer is also strung in a similar way to a piano, and both instruments are struck with a hammer of some description.

So with piano now done, vocals are next. These have and interesting meter as this version is in 6/8, unlike the original which was in 4/4, so phrasing and timing are different and need to be adjusted. We are also looking at timing vocals at intro to each section after chorus. Salliana is now adding harmonies as well. These have issues as well, because of initial melodic structure and note choice across certain chords.

Now Salliana is recording the violin and the process is one of being choosy with phrases and reinforcing the arrangement and working with existing notation from

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previous instrumental tracking. There is also harmony work and double tracking being explored in the scope of the arrangement.

Mixed by James See 27th June 2018

Artist : ‘Salliana Campbell’ cont.. 9.30 am

Monday 26th June 2017

Day 24 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Bm Piano Slide’ by Salliana Campbell

Engineer and co—producer: James See

Musicians: Tim Gaze, Salliana Campbell and James See.

Today we are starting with some editing of Salliana’s version previously recorded of ‘I’m Alive’. We are re—editing string tracks for dissonance problem, checking and adding lower vocal harmony and general tidy up. Also Salliana is going through her violin takes using the parts from each take that suits and is doing a comp track. Discussing putting drums on ‘I’m Alive’ – James may do these at some stage. Interview to be done.

We are recording this piece live as a three piece unit – Salliana playing piano, Tim on guitar and James on bass. We recorded three takes and kept the final one.

Mixed by James See 27th June 2018

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Artist / Band : Crimson Nights — Jessica Keble and Band

Thursday 20th July 2017

Day 25 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Creative Project One song title:

‘Come With Me’, by Brian Cadd @ 01:07:58:00

Engineer Co—producer: James See

Jesse Keble – keyboards and vocals

Beau Simpson – guitars and vocals

Mitch Mc Laurie — bass

Saul Saragossi – drums

Firstly we are getting the drum kit miked up, then we will record everything else ‘live’ with amps and line outs – bass, keyboards etc. We will do a guide vocal to start with to get backing down. In fact, they might start with the reflective song first, as they have them both ready to record. Guitar and bass are being tested first – bass is lined and miked, guitar is two mics, so either can be used to re—amp if necessary. Also testing guide vocal mic and keyboard together before we start tracking. Just testing drums now – getting fold back right in headphones etc. and pulling a drum kit sound. We are running click track tempo in studio so everyone can keep time and tempo steady. Recording from 1:45 pm. We are doing various takes to get the best version on the day – just settling into the session. New tempo was increased from 146 to 150 bpm. OK – got a good drum take – need to now re—record the piano and 2nd guitar part, then fix up bass part. That is done, so now doing organ/piano part – adding texture to bed track and working well. Now piano arpeggio track as well. Adding guitar solo tracks now. Great sound using chorus, overdrive, and distortion effects. Just having break now before tracking the reflective Part Two song, ‘Welcome Me Home’

Monday 18th September 2017 – continued..10.30 am

Day 27 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Jess has started doing the vocal takes this morning and they are working great – very dynamic treatment – stark but strong. This music version is working well – Jess and Beau have given new modern life into this piece taking it back to a two chord structure for the choruses that ebbs and flows with use of electric guitar lines that feature with the vocal. It has become very evocative and strident.

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Artist / Band –– Crimson Nights — Jessica Keble and band

Thursday 20th July 2017

Day 25 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Welcome Me Home’, by Beau Simpson and Saul Saragossi

Engineer, co—producer: James See

This original song in response to the Brian Cadd song is the same format recording and playing wise – drums, bass, guitar and keyboards and vocals. We will start doing takes now with guide vocal etc. similar in sequence to the first recording we did today. This is interesting getting the tempo right – had to speed it up by 3 bpm from 137 to 140. Also we had to take the accent out of every 1st beat so the click track can run smoothly across the 7/8 feel being generated in this song without accenting. So we have a drum and bass track – just need to do keys (piano and organ) and guitars now, then come back on another day to do vocals.

Monday 18th September 2017 – continued..10.30 am

Day 27 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Jess is now doing the second song’s vocals — 10 50 am – going great. A very lilting delivery in 7/8 is giving the song and performance an ‘off kilter’ kind of feel about it – like a whirling rotary feel – very dramatic and quite demanding. Great use of major and minor changes as well. Jess is having a couple of goes at his vocal due to the eclectic quality of the framework and time signature. Some deep strong melody work going on here making it quite striking.

Mixed by James See 27th June 2018

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Artist / Band: Riley Smith & Lonely Hearts Club

Monday 31st July 2017 2 pm

Day 26 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Creative Project One song title:

‘Makin’ It On Your Own’, by Brian Cadd @ 00:54:10:00

Engineer, Co—producer: James See

Ellen Rafferty – Vocals

Riley Smith – guitars and vocals

Duncan Adamson — bass

Joshua Aldred – drums and BVs

Ellen has said that their version of this song sounds a little like the original, but with a more modern slant. She kept the vocal melody similar but didn’t copy it directly. It will be interesting to hear how these folks have interpreted this song because of the piano aspect – it was written on piano. The other guys – bass, drums and guitars are setting up now, so we will see what gives. I think these folks are pretty organised so it should be smooth. Riley said he will get the live components today then lay up some pre—recorded stems to add later. Riley will take sessions with him today and then continue to work on these then return later to mix. Just setting up click to record now, but then mightn’t use it – in fact, no click has been used for this. Still deciding whether to use certain feels for verses and choruses, so still arranging this piece as they are going. A few takes done and last one is a keeper. So, this is done bed wise, and on to the reflective track.

Friday 23rd March 2018 – Ellen Rafferty vocals continued at 2 pm

Day 32 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

James See is set up and ready to record Ellen vocals. Just listening back to the original vocal takes from previous session for Ellen to refamiliarize herself with. Just setting levels with compressor etc.

Looks like James is going to record section by section to grab the best vocal takes, so verses first. James is taking 3 of each verse etc so he can do a vocal comp track – which is a new track comprising the best parts of each of the 3 takes and building a new track from that. Same with choruses – record 3 takes then do comp track. Ellen’s vocals are pretty relaxed for this version making it kind of whimsical and free – very

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cruisy treatment that works well. Ellen is now going to do some harmony vocals as well on the last choruses out.

Artist – Riley Smith – Lonely Hearts Club

Monday 31st July 2017 4pm

Day 26 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Just Saying’, by Rafferty, Smith, Adamson and Aldred

Engineer Co—producer: James See.

We are now exporting previously recorded audio files / tracks to use in the session for the next song. We will copy these to a hard drive then import them into Pro Tools so we can have them to record with. Yet another new way of working is being experienced here. These recordings have a young sound to them, which reminds me of when I played on the original soundtrack – I was 18. Click track being used for this because of pre—existing audio files. We are dropping in as we go this time – so as to get a continuous take – this music is still new to the band so it’s getting there. Still dropping in for the last choruses but getting there. Riley is now going to do some overdubs guitar in the control room adding melodies and single line motifs. Doing some harmony single notes as well now…

The band will come back to finish off guitars and vocals etc in a couple of weeks – all good.

Monday 18th September 2017 – continued..2 pm – to be continued on another day,,

Day 27 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Thursday 22nd Feb 2018 – continued at 11 am

Day 30 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Riley Smith to continue today finishing his two tracks.

First up Riley is redoing his rhythm guitars and vocals on the response track – ‘Just Sayin’. James has Riley lined up through into the Twin Fender amp in the ‘live’ room – playing Telecaster – great crisp sound. We ae going for a complete rhythm take and then come back and get the solo work. Nice effects board with stereo reverb and other tasty treats. Riley is just getting his sounds balanced for this rhythm track – mixture of chorus, reverb and slight overdrive sound experimenting with long delay sounds – extended almost loop like quality and also phasing sound with undulating pitch shift – frequency sweep here as well...

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Trying out some long chord placements of song as backing or supporting treatments using reverbs and delays...

Friday 2nd March 2018 – continued at 2 pm

Day 31 Tracking @ Z Block Studios

Continuing with Ellen Rafferty doing vocals today...she has arrived at 2:30 pm and we should start soon – just listening to the playback of the track to refamiliarize — it was June 2017 since Ellen did the initial vocal. Just setting up tracking now with Ellen testing the mix. James is setting optimum levels – this is all pretty relaxed and easy session wise – Ellen just warming up..1st take now..2:48 pm – just adjusting the Teletronix compressor a little – was running a bit hard crushing the air out of it a bit. The bridge is being questioned by Ellen at the moment – saying she might leave vocals out here and there due to interesting instrumental aspect. Less is more approach being a positive idea. Just running verse takes now after first run through. All going well so far. Riley has just taken over operations – James stepped out, so some fun. So, 5 or 6 takes of each verse and chorus as we go etc. Choruses now layering up some similar forms (stacks) and then some spontaneous takes. Large multitrack formats enable us to do many takes for volume and support. A lot more time consuming and space usage with using previous tape format – almost unachievable to any great degree.

Now some harmony work on these takes to expand the colour and texture.

Just talking with James See regarding this session – we have noticed that the drums is probably the weakest link with these two song recordings, but on reflection, these are all young players and at least they are giving this opportunity their best shot and this brings about learning and experience, so it’s great really, to have some tentative moments of slightly unknown aspects – gives it all a fresh feel and vibrant quality.

We will have to book another session to do the vocals on the first song – will rebook asap.

Mixed by James See and Kayne Hunnam 27th June 2018

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Artist / Band : Belrose

Thursday 16th November 2017

Day 28 – Z9 Kelvin Grove

Creative Project One Song title:

‘Open Up Your Heart’ written by G. Wayne Thomas @ 01:12:25:00

Engineer: James See

Produced: Tim Gaze,

Engineers: James See and (Andy Ward – initial setup)

Mixed by Kayne Hunnam

Produced: Tim Gaze

Jayden Lynch — Vocals/Rhythm Guitar

Zac Caughey — Bass Guitar

Jason Overton — Drums

Today we have new (2016) band, Belrose coming in to track their version of ‘Open up Your Heart’. Irony is this song was the last song in the movie (plays out over the credits) and this session is the last full band tracking session in the project. The personnel is the same except for drummer Jonty Harris, who is being replaced by Jason Overton for today’s session. ‘Belrose’ is a 4 piece traditional 2 guitar, bass and drums line up. Jayden has reinterpreted the feel for this version from a straight 4/4 to a dotted or shuffle (eighth note triplet feel) and it’s working well – written round the guitar. Jayden is using a 15 watt Orange guitar amp head through 1 x 12 vintage Celestion speaker. This new feel also lends itself very well to the way the lyrics scan. Jayden is recording a scratch guitar track with vocals, along with the drum takes so we get a good drum take which can then be added to as the session continues. This is taking some time as we are testing the versions Jason is recording and there are some technical issues that are being improved upon, so quite a few takes to get to a satisfactory outcome – good production work by Jayden and James here in sifting through and focusing on the different takes.

Next Jayden is recording his rhythm guitar track – Strat sounding good solid – nice slightly overdriven sound for the rhythm – using good chords with varied extension choices from verses to choruses. The first guitar part is now being double tracked to give it more body — James and Jayden are deciding which pickups to use for the second guitar part – it was neck pickup for the first, and for the second they are using the middle and bridge pickups, which creates an out of phase sound which adds a shimmer to the overall effect. Jayden has just recorded a bass track as well. He is now

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doing the vocals – 4 x tracks of main melody and some harmony parts to follow. The multiple vocals have a great sound to them – a natural chorusing effect. Vocals are done, so now we will do additional lead guitar takes — icing on the cake. Guitar solos ae going great – very bluesy and suit the track well – just finding the right licks and riffs.

Mixed by James See 27th June 2018

Artist / Belrose

Creative Project Two song title:

‘Milton’, written by Jayden Lynch

Engineer: James See

Produced: Tim Gaze,

Day 29 – Z9 Kelvin Grove

Wednesday 29th November…10 am –

Different personnel for this track. (The Triple J’s..hah! ;)

Jayden Lynch – Vocals / Rhythm Guitar and Bass

Jake Barry — Lead Guitar

Jonty Harris — Drums

Continued..

Today we see a different approach again undertaken with tracking.

Setting the tempo at 109 bpm

Today we will start with amp modelling on the guide guitar and then track to the drums with that, then come back and replace the guitar with an amp sound later. So far this new song seems to be working really well as far ‘feel’ goes and the action sequence at the end of the film is supporting this track well. The guys are debating how to reinforce the guitar riffs and rhythms etc. – whether to leave things out to gain more dynamic tension and keep the track sounding open and transparent. Jonty is then playing the kit so James See can get the kit sound happening with the different mics; kick, snare, hats, 1 x rack tom, 1 x floor tom, 2 x overheads (stereo). Overheads are being channelled through an EMI Chandler limiter compressor. Jonty is running (recording) to a click track. James is overseeing this performance as well – going well – nice carefree attitude as track opens up and drums let loose. So drums are done and James is just editing the separate takes together seamlessly, so as the whole drums takes are edited together. Next is guitar tracking – Jayden is setting up his amp now,

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then mic up, and he will play in the control room while his amp is the live room. Jayden is playing a Telecaster guitar using the middle switch (both pickups – which are single coil P 90’s) for his first take of this guitar part – using a dry slightly gained up guitar sound. After listening back Jayden is now recording the guitar track bit by bit to get tempo accuracy and tight performance with the drum track. Jake the other guitar player is now starting to put his parts down. He is using a heavily reverb / delay effect and an overdriven sound for this part. Jake is also using varying degrees of modulation that effects the delay sound (echo) and can be adjusted accordingly using low or high pass EQ. Also the tone that’s being generated with this guitar pass is very flexible – it changes gradually across the sustained notes – groovy — just getting the right take now – like the old days – doing take after take until you get the right one – a very spontaneous experience relying on organic human connectivity and expression. We are now double tracking his solo an octave higher for the first part, then doubling in fifths for the second part – pretty wild effect. Also just checking outro sounds for spatial treatment for the end. Hayden has just put a bass part down and that went well – just the bass through an API preamp straight into the control panel – lovely. Next is vocals. Great vocal range being used here – sounding very buoyant and aloft. James is taking Hayden through the sequence for this recording — vocal arrangement is going great. Just double tracking now some octave doubling and that’s pretty much it for this besides the mixdown, which will be done by James See.

Mixed by James See 27th June 2018

END FIELD NOTES

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APPENDIX T: QUT CreateX Q&A Screening Transcript

Q & A transcript: Tim Gaze, G. Wayne Thomas and Dr. Sean Maher (2018)

Re ‘Morning Of The Earth – Creative Project Two film screening.

Facilitated by Dr. John Willsteed at QUT Kelvin Grove on 15th November 2018 as part of the QUT CreateX cultural event.

John Willsteed:

Who was involved first? G. Wayne Thomas or Tim Gaze?

G. Wayne Thomas:

In the original MOTE?

JW:

Yeah yeah..

GW:

Both pretty much around the same time — I was at Warner’s and Tim and the boys were in the band on the peninsula — around Newport area in Sydney. It was real it was good — dogs and surfboards and that kind of stuff — and music – a great a fantastic way to live — it was good for a kid — I was 17 years old..

JW:

It's really interesting at this time in your life — here in the middle of your life you've returned to this thing that's so important when you were a young man..

TG:

It's true and I didn't realise it at the time because it took a couple of people to sort of make me aware of the fact that if I was going to do something of a Doctoral nature, instead of maybe thinking about going out into the world and researching everything, maybe I should have a look in my own backyard mate, so that was a nice thing that was suggested to me by a couple of people, and the person that's sitting over there in fact, Brian Fitzgerald — thanks to you Brian.. I've had some wonderful help and inspiration and support with my experience doing this at QUT — it's been really good.

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JW:

And what do you think about it now that ..

GW:

And it's also different music — I thought that some of it was actually quite interesting — I thought it was pretty good really — but also I have to say that Albe has recut this film a couple of times — that is not the last version that I saw — there's a whole lot of other shots in there that weren't in there before, and there's a whole lot of stuff cut out. So obviously he's changed it fairly radically – well, probably only to me because I know what he original was — it's been recut at least 3 or 4 times.

JW:

And it's a move with no talking OK — so the room for — when it comes to putting music to pictures, there's so much room in it — and it can be interpreted in so many different ways — yeah I'm just kind of interested and Timmy what do you think about this new version — how do you feel — I'll make a point — I reckon some of these people made this music without looking at this movie —

TG:

But that's OK — that's alright you know because, that's exactly what happened with the original film as well..

GW:

It did ..there was no SMPTE code and no film lock — no nothing — you had to count the frames —

TG:

That's right, and there were no rushes — well, some people saw some rushes but a lot of us didn’t. Albe would just say 'I'm doing this sequence about Bali — so Lindsay would go, oh Bali — OK I’ll write a song called Bali Waters — so it was imagination which was great, really good — we were talking before — it's the spontaneous nature of how the film came about, which subliminally is such a big part of what makes it so special I reckon — and what's given the film it's longevity and the interest across popular culture — and even Albe says, 'There was no plan – no dot—points'.

JW:

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That's a good point for you to step in on you know, talking about how this film fits into the Australian Popular Culture and Australian Film Culture..

Dr. Sean Maher:

Thank you John and thank you for inviting me — and look, it's been a real privilege to watch it — and to see this kind of artefact really from Australian Culture. These films were so important in the rebirth of our film industry and us connecting to our culture I think — I mean there's a great tradition of these films being four—walled and pitched to the audiences in Australia that they weren't backed from overseas or local investors and producers and they were done by the surfing community themselves, so it's great to see — it's like been given a new life and they occupy I think a really special place — and they tell us so much. Like I was really struck by the rawness and the minimal elements that are going — there's an experimental element that you see on screen but then actually surfing culture — there's like this beautiful literally documenting of surf culture without the logos, without all the corporate sponsor ship — it's really just people in nature — it really struck a chord like and early environmental awareness that's coming through you know and the beauty of the images and the ocean, So it's an absolutely stunning artefact from our culture and I'm just so grateful that you guys have restored it.

JW:

It was very big for Albe wasn't it — not just about the surfing but about nature and ..

GW:

He was very anti contest and anti—surfing contest — he was more about the ease with surfing and the connection and nature and living the lifestyle — he didn't like the commercial side of it at all — he still doesn't — even though from that grew the big surf companies..

JW:

And you know he was one of the team that started the first TRACKS Magazine with David Elfick and Albe and I had some emails about coming up to this screening tonight, and he was really big on — I'm so happy that Tim has done this thing and it's so fantastic that people still look at this movie — and I hate human beings — if there's more than two people in a room I can't stand it, so — he was never going to come but we asked him to come and he the letter from him is so sweet — so what else should we talk about..

TG:

He's an amazing person — I went down to his house to interview him, and I finally tracked him down — I walked around the corner of his house, down near Eungai Rail in NSW, I

266 walked around the corner and I stopped — there he was standing there with two kangaroos — feeding these kangaroos — just standing there feeding them — and he said to me 'Tim, meet my brothers and sisters'.. incredible person — just wild — just fantastic stuff..

JW:

So look we've talked a little bit — does anybody have any questions that they might like to ask? That man there in the stripy shirt..

Man in Audience:

I've probably watched that movie more than any other movie in my life, and it was very strange at the start because I realised that a lot of the emotion around the movie is tied to the music of the movie, and I just got to re—watch the movie that I haven't seen for such a long time, because when I watch it with the original soundtrack, I'm so taken in by the soundtrack that I forget to watch the movie!

SM:

The interesting thing is it's been recently discovered in America and it's actually been released on vinyl in America — the original soundtrack — I mean like it's only 40 years after it was made — it's sort of weird ..

TG:

I love this business — you keep finding out about things all the time — I only just found that out then. That’s fantastic..

SM:

It's a really good point to make you know — these things they're bound together aren't they — the pictures and that music ..

Man in Audience:

I saw the movie again for the first time tonight..again..

GW:

And to hear what the different music brings to it, so that's a good thing..

JW:

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Absolutely and that opens up more for you and that's a whole other layer of meaning and you know — I mean everybody has their different takes on the little bit of movie that they (the artist) did — you know I got my seven and a half minutes of — I was hoping for like three. But I ended up with this big long thing and had to figure out what to do with it, and it was really great sitting there and just watching this thing — watching it over and over — and it's an odd movie because it's just a whole bunch of stuff that he's kind of whacked together and made something out of, and so I was kind of trying to find the story in my seven and a half minutes whether there was some kind of narrative going on or because he just moves from here to here and he swings backwards and forwards but he does do these beautiful things where he gives you these little glimpses of what's coming up and what's happened before — so he keeps kind of tying up these big circles through the movie with ah..you know but most of it is guys on boards in water — that's really brutally most of it..

SM:

Just an excuse to be immersed in that moment just like the surfers are themselves you just kind of feel like — you're just meditating in space and the shallow depth of field is just bigger — and water and I just find it ..

JW:

Sculpture. You wanted to say something?

Brian Fitzgerald:

I'd like to ask a couple of questions. Both about the old and the new — but Tim lets' start with you. This is part of a much bigger project which I don't know much about — so how does this all fit together with the work you've been doing with John — why have you done these soundtracks and how does it all fit together with your Doctorate stuff..

JW:

Why??

BF:

In 2 minutes ..

TG:

That's a huge question. Well, there are two projects — this is the second project which we have just seen tonight — the first project is the artists are doing renditions of the original music in the soundtrack — their versions of the originals, so that's the one that is going to show on Saturday — so that is Creative Project One, this is Creative Project Two — there's

268 the original film and soundtrack of course as well, so three instances all up. But this also tacks onto to my professional Doctorate DCI — that's what I'm doing that's what this is part of. So is that what you're asking — what this is? So there is a thesis as well..

BF:

So how has this all come together as a project and in a sentence tell us what have you got to say..

TG:

We're testing the film to see why it's had the effect that it's had and the longevity through the last 50 years in Australian Popular Culture and surfing culture as well. Its' known around the world — even young people know of it, but not only do they know of it, they say that MOTE is the movie where we get our stuff from — we glean stuff from that film, so it's had a huge effect on popular culture through the years — so the idea was to test the film by giving new music people an opportunity to interpret the music for themselves and see what could come out of that and to see why and how — I'm still working on that part of it — I don't know the outcome of that yes. Still working on it.

JW:

Yeah but I reckon Tim that it's really interesting that the stripy shirt man — he you know, not that little one — you made a fantastic point before, because Tim's process—can I say a few words?

TG:

Please do John..

JW:

Tim's process was a little bit like — he had the idea but the reality is ok — here's this movie and there's the bit that you're going to do — so for me that is alright — I've got to make this song seven and a half minutes long — it's got to match the one that was already there, it's got to be the same length, can't be any longer or shorter , it's got to have all the same verses and choruses and everything — and as part of that process I watched the movie over and over again — you know you see it more and more times and so you're kind of picking up all this stuff from it, and so then you get a to a point where you just go, righto — that old theme that’s gone know, so I mute that say and now I've just got these pictures — but there's some story in those pictures you know, that I've gleaned from making this music and watching the movie and so then that story kind of comes out. So the process of remaking the old music is like a doorway into the new music, and the new music then — it has the effect on you that you

269 just described before. So there's a real kind of journey that has some power in it or something like that, and there' something about Tim's writing is going to hopefully tease some of that stuff out. There are so many different ways to describe this but really it's about keeping this film alive in culture and seeing how it affects people and that's just what you've expressed before.

Man in Audience:

The music was strangely familiar and not at all disparaging — it just sat beautifully with it and at no time did I wish I was hearing the old soundtrack.

JW:

That's really interesting isn't it?

Man in Audience:

To me it had that certain 70's feeling to it, like Pink Floyd — Dark Side Of The Moon etc.. And the female presence and the acoustic guitars and with percussion and it built gradually — there was a definite progression the film — I can picture those sounds then. I have the original soundtrack on vinyl — this was a reinterpretation.

JW:

Interestingly, the original was directed by somebody who was saying — you know I want this here and I want that there — and this one there was none of that — Tim's not making any direction to these artists — they can do whatever you like in the time that you have..

Man in Audience:

But it has all those directions flowing through it you know — from the original..

TG:

That's right — the spontaneous nature — it seems like it was the right thing to do to — the artist came in and had their music in there right, so I thought — the first project that they did when they were going to do the renditions of the original soundtrack, I was thinking, oh you know, they're going to come in and I'll hear the song and it'd sound like the that etc., and then the first band to record — big left hand turn — sounded nothing like it and this is the first soundtrack — I'm thinking maybe the second soundtrack might sound really different, so from the word go that approach happened in the first soundtrack so that blew me out of the water, so I thought, am I going to control this and go no, it's got to be like — then I thought about it, and I went — no, if the artist are getting affected this way by the movie now, just let it all happen, because that's what Albe did. Tonight is the first time I have seen this film —

270 nobody has seen this this new version yet, so it's probably too early to say too much — we'll watch it again and maybe get more from its next time round..

Man in Audience:

There are a couple of questions about the music — one was when you compare old soundtracks — I'm not sure whether you're allowed to do that — there are some instrumentals in place of the classic songs — some of the music sounded a bit like the old songs — were these songs written for the soundtrack?

TG:

These ones tonight?

Man in Audience:

Yes..

TG:

The pieces of music tonight are the reflections by the artist off the first soundtrack — they've heard the first soundtrack, they've then recorded a version of the first soundtrack, and then this one is a totally new soundtrack again. It's their reflection of their experience of rerecording the first soundtrack. so it's their original music — really none of it is meant to be a copy of anything that's been done in the original soundtrack.

Man in Audience:

I heard a reference in the new soundtrack that seemed to align to Nat Young — being older and looking back — did you hear that?

JW:

It's a moot point — it's a little bit hard to ascertain whether people dragged along stuff they had already that they though suitable, or whether they made fresh stuff. So the thing that you talked about which was the John J Francis Simple Ben, that was the one that I did, so in the screening next Saturday there's a version I did of Simple Ben, but for me it was about — there was a guy shaping this board and then he’s at the beach and he keeps coming backwards and forwards all the time, so my response I called Work Life Balance — and it was about him working but in his mind going I just want to be there — yes, I was intrigued by how many people did instrumental responses, because there were no instructions and most of the people that did this stuff do singing as a rule — singer songwriters etc — Chris Perren Nonsemble who did the opening music — they are and instrumental group.

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Man in Audience:

Was just wondering if you thought of letting them do it the other way around? Like recording the songs, then cutting the film? Let them watch the film and say you have to manufacture a soundtrack to this? Then saying to them, ok — this is the original soundtrack..

JW:

It would be very hard wouldn't it? I mean with some if the young guys it would have been easy because they would never have seen the film ..

Man in Audience:

Because I think you can't help carry through the music that has already been done — cultural baggage? That's why we feel attached to the new stuff..

JW:

Yes I think that's really true, although at the same time — for my seven and a half minutes, I didn't feel at all — moving as far away as I could from the JJ Francis song felt really good — I got to play guitar and make it all about the guitars — it's always just got to be all about the guitars..(laughs..)

Man in Audience:

How did you organise say what Brian Cadd was going to play on the original soundtrack? I can kind of imagine you guys sitting down and watching it — how did you go about that?

GW:

Well we didn't really have many rushes — but we had bits and pieces actually a lot of credit should go to David Elfick — because he's the one that actually pulled the whole thing together — and he was the one who tried to keep Albe on track — saying no Albe, you can't do this or that etc., and it was very loose — so we sort of had a sequence — but we didn't really have all the footage — we had some songs we liked that we knew we would make fit — so it's a bit of a combination of both — and then the hit that came out of the film, was my song, Open Up Your Heart, but that wasn't even in the film proper. 2SM radio rang up and said — they had a tape of the whole soundtrack and OUYH wasn't in the film, so they said you have to put it in the film — it's a hit. And I said the film is finished and it's not there. So it ended up over the end titles, and they proved to be right — it was a hit — a massive hit.

TG:

Yep, we had radio behind us — they played it..

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GW:

So, it was give and take..

Man in Audience:

So did you guys sit around and jam it up etc?

GW:

No, not really — Cadd and I sat down and worked a little — and Tim and Tamam Shud pretty much just did what they wanted in line with descriptions of the film..

TG:

Yeah Lindsay got the ideas for the Tamam Shud music — he wrote Sea The Swells and Bali Waters, and I wrote First Things First — and they were kind of our imaginings about the movie, so we did rehearse that stuff and of course, we were playing it live all the time as well doing gigs back then, so by the time we got to the recording in the studio we would have played it many times.

GW:

So then Brian and I basically figured out what else we needed to do and then we also had Peter Howe — who actually won a short story contest in Tracks magazine to have his music put in the film — I actually ran into him recently — and he was saying how he was terrified when he came into the studio — and then you were putting this flute on there — and he just left. Then years later he said to me fantastic — what you did with that was great — but at the time I couldn't comprehend what you were doing and why you were doing it whatever — it was years later he really appreciated it — that's actually not bad..

JW:

I don't wear a timepiece..

TG:

And that was one take too, wasn't it?

GW:

Yep — bang — one take — done – gone..

TG:

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Spontaneous..

JW:

There's some really beautiful music on the original soundtrack — really spectacular, when I hear it now I'm 61 and so I guess I was 12 or 13 when this movie was made, and they're such strong songs — they last extremely well..

GW:

Well they're all pretty clever people — Cadd, Terry Hannigan, etc — great songs..

JW:

I love lots of things about that soundtrack..

GW:

It wasn't made to be a hit — it was made to fit the film as best we could and see what happens..

Man in Audience:

Robert Foster from The Go Betweens wrote a great article about MOTE..

JW:

After Michael Peterson died — it's a really beautiful piece in the conversation in Dec Jan 2012 — and he talks about the film and he talks about MP — it's a really great piece of writing so — easily found online ..

Man in Audience:

This one was he talks about the singer songwriter, and he points out that we had all these great song writers on the MOTE album, and that a number of them came to prominence, you GW, JJ Francis etc..

GW:

There's probably a thing in play there — I was A&R manager for Warner Bros then, so when I rang them up, they wanted to do it — if you know what I mean — so ..

JW:

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It's a confluence of things — 69, 70, GTK starts on ABC TV there's the opportunity to see local stuff on TV the release of a soundtrack album, which probably hadn't really happened up until that point, and it was the first Gold record for a soundtrack in Australia — and JJ radio as well — got behind it as well.

GW:

It was Platinum back in 1980..

Assoc. Prof. Michael Whelan:

What I think is terrific about Tim's project is that he's drawn together some terrific musicians, and immersed them in repertoire they won't be playing, that they wouldn't have experienced, and let them as a stage one, explore that repertoire and learn those materials and then use that as a point of departure. I think as a model of practice that it's a fantastic model for contemporary artists and musicians and for other disciplines as well, whether it's film makers etc. To immerse themselves in some classic artefacts like this as projects, and to immerse themselves in the material, the style, the textures, and then reclaim them as their own and give it a new life — it's a wonderful model of reviewing and acknowledging and paying homage to some substantial works of art.

JW:

It's true — Michaels' not an academic — he works for the main roads department..

MW:

Used to..

Man in Audience:

Would there be any chance of releasing that soundtrack or the versions of the ones on Saturday?

TG:

There would be a way to work that out — it could be looked at. It's been touted and suggested — people have asked about this getting a commercial release — it will be looked into.

JW:

It's a can of worms all that stuff — but all possible. Tim you should just release all the new recordings — certainly all the responses.

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GW:

David Elfick went on to be a huge film maker — back then no one had done this before ..

JW:

And it's amazing that a first go like that has lasted so well and is so great to watch — it's a really wonderful film. G Wayne thanks for coming all the way to Brisbane for this and Tim..

TG:

G. Wayne and David Elfick always seemed so focused and like they really knew what they were doing — and I was in awe of David — he would say stuff and I would think, wow this guy is so together — amazing..

JW:

Thank you all for coming — it's been lovely having you here in our lovely place at QUT — and if any of you want to come along on Saturday, the other screening is happening so hopefully see you then.

TG:

Just would like to thanks the artists — they all had so much to offer and they came and did it and turned up and did interviews and a big thanks to all of them — Cheers.

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APPENDIX U: Logistics

Ethics

This project is conducted under QUT Research Ethics approval number 1500000335

Creative works-exegesis weighting

80 percent Creative work 20 percent exegesis.

Recordings

Recordings so far total 36 complete artist multi track studio / session recordings of various lengths encompassing music audio content of DCI Creative Projects One and Two.

Interviews:

There are a total of sixteen interviews transcripts (taken from recorded AV media) highlighting original artists and production personnel, current artists and industry professionals, totaling a time of 7 Hours and 27 minutes.

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