Empty Exchange: COSMIC PSYCHOS

True free spirits are gems that are few and far between. You know who I’m talking about, those rare birds that are unabashedly themselves, who do what makes them happy, who don’t associate success with happiness. The Cosmic Psychos are those rare birds. Trade in those Tevas for some work boots and your Kombucha for a PBR: The Psychos are a new breed of free spirit - a group of men who aren't driven by profit and who represent a sense of songwriting as honest as Daniel Johnston. I had the pleasure of sitting with the Psychos to discuss that damn kangaroo problem, why the Psychos never made it rich, the price you play for playing in America, and what makes it all worth it...

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ASHEIGH DYE: WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE GROWING UP ON A FARM IN AUSTRALIA? WHAT INITIALLY INSPIRED YOU TO START WRITING MUSIC?ROSS KNIGHT: I guess it just might have been boredom. And being at the right age at the right time when the entire punk rock thing happened in the mid 70’s. I sort of caught on to that. Ya know, it couldn’t have been any worse in life being stuck miles away, in a town with a horrible a farm, where the sun’s shining and you can ride your motorbike all day, and you can go fishing and shooting. It’s terribly depressing. Your parents feed you three good meals a day. Life couldn’t have been any worse.AD: So you have a song called ‘Dead Roo’, how many kangaroos do you see, on average, dead or alive?RK: Thousands.DEAN MULLER: Some dead ones, heaps of live ones. In fact I saw a live one recently that was dead as soon as I saw it.AD: Oh wow, really?DM: Yeah, I hit it with my car.AD: [Laughs] so they’re kind of like the deer of Australia?RK: Even worse! They’re everywhere at the moment.DM: Well, they’re protected at the moment; they aren’t allowed to be killed anymore.AD: I’ve heard they’re kind of mean. I’ve seen a lot of internet clips of kangaroos kicking people.DM: They can be when they’re mating.RK: You’ve tried to mate with kangaroos?DM: No. They tried to mate with me. I had to run away really fast and climb a tree.RK: I knew a farmer whose dog chased some kangaroos into a dam and it tried to drown the dog. So he [the farmer] went to try and save the dog and they tried to drown him.AD: Wow. So that was a lot of kangaroo talk. You guys have been said to be a part of the Yobb lifestyle. Can you tell me what that’s all about?RK: Well I think people have tried to pigeonhole us for many years and I think just ‘cause we, I dunno…DM: Don’t comply to the kind of ‘dress em up’ kind of punk rocker thing.RK: We just look like your average punter that drinks in a pub and wanders around aimlessly.JOHN ONYA: I used to wear white boots. But not anymore, I got too old.  White boots are for the young.AD: Your band has gone through some significant line up changes over the years, how do you think it has affected the Psycho’s sound?RK: Probably not all, because it’s a dumb sound that you cant break out of, but it has affected a sound a bit. I reckon the line-up now is the best we’ve ever been.DM: Awe, shucks. You should have said “it’s the shittiest we’ve ever been lets go back to the old days”RK: The good thing about the change of line up is that it is the same basic formula but it sounds a lot different with another guitar player and another drummer. For me, I just play the same boring bass right from day one. I’m finding it really good. Really, really good.DM: The sound of the bass is the thing that makes it unique. It’s the first thing that hits you. It’s a very, very unique sound; its really one of the most important things about the band, the songwriting and that sound of the bass. The rest of us could be replaced tomorrow as long as he’s still there.RK: I don’t think so.AD: What was it like working with Butch Vig, for Blokes You Can Trust, compared to other producers you’ve worked with?RK: He was a great bloke to work with. The funny thing was, because I haven’t really got much to do with the music industry, I sort of know of some of the work he had done but I never realized he was such a big, respected producer. It didn’t even matter, because he was one of the nicest blokes in the world. It was really good. We all got along well. We could not have had a better time. It was fun.DM: We’ve had a pretty good run all the way though. There have been a couple rotten bastards along the way, but you run in them everywhere. I reckon they’re less than 5%.JO: Yea, that’s life.AD: What was it like having a film made about you guys, and the band as a whole? Was it weird hearing what people like Butch Vig, Eddie Vedder etc had to say about your influence?RK: Hilarious, weird, a bit confusing.DM: American’s love that though don’t they; it’s the American dream, the silver screen. To be immortalized that way.AD: That’s very true; everyone just wants their story to be important enough for people to pay attention.DM: Whereas I can’t even watch it anymore. I see it and cringe.AD: How many times have you guys watched it?RK: Maybe once or twice.AD: That seems like plenty. What are your favorite memories from the US tour, so far?DM: This is my first time in the states. It’s just been fantastic all the way. New York was great. Seattle was great. LA was fantastic. I got a shower in LA it felt really good.AD: Ross, John do you have any that stick out from before this tour?RK: It’s really hard. I had a really good tour a couple of times with the Cows, a tour with The Melvins stands out. What a great band to have the privilege to see every night for two weeks.JO: Twenty times in a row!RK: I felt really lucky to get to see them like that. I never got sick of them, how could you? If the Cosmic Psychos were serious about making money we’d probably play in Europe. We’d do one or two shows.DM: We’d all get face-lifts[laughter]RK: It costs us a lot of money to play in America, and we don’t have a lot of money. We were lucky enough to do really well in Australia in our last tour to invest $45,000 bucks to lose money to come here. I love playing in the states. Mac [John Onya] has played here before with his other band so it was hard to explain to Dean. It’s not like Europe. You don’t get plate loads of food, you don’t get shit loads of money, the crowds are smaller but you have a better time.DM: It’s hard to find a bathroom. In Europe they love their bathroomsJO: Especially in San Francisco at 4:30 in the morning.AD: What’s an ideal day for you guys back in Australia?RK: A day offJO: A whole week-end off.RK: For me an ideal day would be to have a lovely day with my two kids and speak to these two on the phone.  Between the three of us a perfect day would be to plan a band practice and not do anything. Just sit down and drink a beer. We’ve done that many times. Dean’s got a studio at his place, which is only an hour from mine, Mac will fly downJO: If there’s a gig or somethingRK: But then we haven’t seen each other in a month so we just sit around drinking and catching up.DM: Sometimes we bring out the Casio and get down on some synth music and record some rubbishAD: That all sounds pretty fun, like you are really living the dream. How did you guys meet if you’re all so spread out?JO:  I met Ross over 20 years ago but I met him properly about 17 years ago because my band The Onyas toured with the Cosmic Psychos in Europe. That would have been about ’96 and we’ve just know each other ever since.RK: When did I meet you? [Dean].DM: Well I lived in a house with your sister, Melissa, and her boyfriend, Kerian, asked me to come down to your place and jam with him. That was in the early 90’sAD: So you guys were saying that an ideal day for you would be a day off, a day with out work. It’s been said you’re a working man’s band, so is this something easy for you guys to indentify with?RK: Well, we’ve all got jobs and don’t rely on music for anything other than entertaining the three of us.DM: Rock stars have nothing to write songs about if there’s nothing going on in your life. If you’re just in hotel rooms or on airplanes, and all your sandwiches have the crusts cut off you’re not experiencing anything.RK: There are very intelligent and smart people in the rock business that can write songs because that’s what they are put on this earth to do. Unfortunately – or fortunately, for us – we weren’t put on this earth to write songs.[Laughter]AD: So if you could only drink one thing, other than water, for the rest of time, what would it be?RK: Beer! Let’s be greedy and say the best beers in the world!DM: PBR! A workingman’s beer.JO: Chartreuse.[Laughter]RK: Well, you guys can’t have any of mine when you get sick of those!AD: OK, for my closing question I have to ask, why shouldn’t you drink with the Cosmic Psychos?DM: Can I answer a question with a question?AD: Go for it.DM: Why should you?RK: I suppose we do have a reputation. It was on purpose, but a lot of people did end up very sick when drinking with us.