The guys from Green Stone Garden are on home turf to perform at the Darwin Festival. And they’ve brought big-sound back up: the Darwin Symphony Orchestra.
“I think it’s important for us,
in the community to look ‘out’ as well as ‘in,’
and figure out how we can make
the whole of Darwin appreciate
Darwin music and not cringe
and think ‘Oh it’s Darwin music.’”
To prepare you for an epic weekend this Thursday and Friday night, Green Stone Garden will perform collaborations with renowned brass instrumentalist extraordinaire Brian Manning; the talented David Garnham’s ‘Choir of Man’; and with members from the Darwin Symphony Orchestra (DSO).
That’s right, it’s a put your hands-in-the-air type celebration.
This week Aimee Mullins chatted with Mike Meston (guitar and lead vocals) and Paul Dopper (bass and vocals).
These boys are the definition of effortless classiness; and they’re taking Darwin music to a whole new level.
Aimee: How did the idea of working with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra begin?
Mike: Well, Marcel (keys and vocals) knows the manager of DSO and he started chatting about it and twisted the guy’s arm into working with us. After that they went to Edwina [Lunn], who’s the artistic director. She really liked the concept and it went from there. She also helped pushed it along – we’ve been lucky in that regard.
Aimee: And the songs, was it difficult to transition your own music to work in with the orchestra?
Mike: Basically we had a meeting on how to work with the DSO, and we got a guy in, Jeremy, who arranged our songs into string compositions. Jeremy listened to all our song recordings and then digitally notated [transposed] them for strings.
Aimee: Will this experience working with DSO impact your music in the future?
Mike: Jeremy asked me that, too. I guess in some ways I feel we already write songs that are pretty suited to [this format]. With Marcel (keys and vocal), he plays stuff that is kind of orchestral anyway. So I think our stuff will always be similar, just by the nature of what it is we write.
Aimee: So watch this space then?
Mike: Yes! We’d definitely like to tour [like this] one day. Opportunities come and go, but you also have to make opportunities, too. I think if we got the opportunity again we’d definitely go forward with it since it goes so well with our music.
Aimee: Are there any particular shows you guys will be attending at the Darwin festival?
Mike: We saw Midnight Juggernauts that was great; and You Am I, which was awesome.
Paul: Tonight we’re bummed on missing out on Jess Ribeiro and the Bone Collectors because we’re rehearsing this evening, but we are going to see Archie Roach’s ‘Into the Bloodstream’ show, and some comedy as well.
Mike: There’s a drama performance about boxing I also want to see, it’s kind of taken from [the point of view of?] these boxers who are interviewed. They go from being amateurs to real pros and it’s a play based on [direct] quotes. This story was created around snippets of what these [real] boxers have said.
Paul: We’re definitely attending a few shows during the festival. Once we’ve done our own gigs, we can get down to watching a few more performances.
Aimee: The last couple of days you’ve had quite a bit of media coverage including interviews with Zan Rowe on triple J, how’s all the fame handling going?
Mike: Ha ha, I don’t know about that. It’s kind of a process really, if you want to be in a successful band you have to give it time and let it grow organically. You have to make what you like really passionately and hope that other people get into it, too, I guess. Also listening to people, and taking in their advice. And you know, I don’t want to look at music and have to slog over it and make it work, I think we all just want to try to let it grow, and see where it takes us, I suppose.
Aimee: Is the music industry pretty tight-knit in Darwin?
Mike: It is with the music scene, which I think is a good and bad thing. I think it’s good in the sense that the community itself is really supportive and that’s great, it encourages people and you’re able to network with connections that have contacts around the world.
But I think it can also be a bit insular as well sometimes. I think it’s important for us in the community to look ‘out’ as well as ‘in,’ and figure out how we can make the whole of Darwin appreciate Darwin music and not cringe and think “Oh it’s Darwin music.”
Paul: I do think we play a type of Darwin music, which is an interesting thing, the laze and lushness that comes about.
Mike: We were on Triple J yesterday, and Zan asked us about that, too, and it’s really hard to describe. It’s a weird thing, the way it affects you is a real indirect connection.
Aimee: Who came up with the band name?
Paul and Mike: [Laughs]
Mike: Yeah, we had an altercation about the name, I mean I think it kind of represents how we sound now, but we don’t have anything to do with gardening or landscaping supplies. There is a company that is called Green Stone Garden in the UK.
Paul: Yes, I noticed that! They supply weed mat.
Mike: [Laughs]. Yeah I dreamt of the name and woke up saying it and, when we started off we started as an acoustic type/folky style and it seemed to suit that a bit more.
Aimee: So it was a subconscious process?
Mike: Yes, definitely subconscious.
Paul: Now it’s kind of stuck. It’s who we are.
Mike: Yes, and in a way it has defined us, but in the same token, it’s just a name.
Aimee: At least you know you have an alter ego as a weed mat seller.
Mike: Yes, if the band falls through, at least we know we have the Australian branch of Green Stone Garden to fall back on! A grand equity there!
Aimee: Following the Darwin Festival, you’re also supporting the Cat Empire in early September at Discovery [nightclub], will there be more upcoming shows for local fans before the year ends?
Mike: Yes there will be, we’ve got a few venues that we’ve been talking to, so there will be more. We try to kind of limit the shows and make them really special. I guess we also work on putting in a lot of effort into promoting and organising so that each show is a good event – not just another show.
When
Fri 16 Aug 7pm
Duration
1hr
Where
Tickets
Full $38
Conc & Group (8+) $34
Conc & Group (8+) $34
The weed mat humour was a really nice touch. Richard
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