The Role of Surf Music in the Development of Australian Popular
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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 1 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 2 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 3 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. 5 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. 6 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.