Interview: Augie March

By Chris Wood

Interview with Edmondo Ammendola

Augie March

Success can sometimes be a heavy burden to bear. Not so, however, for enigmatic Augie March bassist Edmondo Amendola, who baulks at the notion of fame and popularity.

Although being quite successful themselves, you get the feeling that Edmondo and is poetically inclined buddies would still be the same even if they had not risen to the lofty heights of the Australian music scene that they currently occupy.

WebWombatMusic's Chris Wood was lucky enough to catch up with Edmondo to discuss what the future holds for the Augies, country football and the complexities of archery.

You're known as one of Australia's premiere alternative-folk rock bands. Considering this success you've had, do you feel any outward pressure to gloss up your music?

Yeah we're actually entertaining the idea of making some music that's a bit more chart-worthy. Something a little more dance-like.

Really???

You never know. It’s a strange world and strange things happen. But really, I guess the pressure is there to become a raging pop success. But you know what? We never will.

We're just too hairy and too ugly… [Laughs].

You’ve got to be really good looking eh? I mean, forget about the music, it all starts with looks. In all seriousness, you’ve got to be good looking. And we are not!

However we do play some good music and Glenn writes some good songs. I like to think that helps us.

Most people identify your music as uniquely Australian. Is this something you consciously hold onto?

I suppose I’m referring to your use of the banjo, mandolin and use of the term "The Keepa" as a song title.

I guess that Glenn’s always got his turns of phrase, and his little ways of creating an atmosphere within a song lyrically. Those boys (the others) grew up in the country And I think Glenn out of most people sort of, oh I’ve gotta sneeze…

Bless you!

Sorry about that. It’s been around for months now. I hope it’s not this swine flu thing. But yeah, Glenn’s from the country, and he uses this imagery every now and then. I guess he’s trying to get it out of his system.

He didn’t have aspirations of opening for Australia at some stage?

I think he played football for Tatandra in his teens. I could be totally wrong though. But yeah, all those guys are into their sport.

Personally, I don’t really know what sport is but I keep getting told about it. It has to do with blokes and balls. But sport is apparently something a lot of people are into it. And Glenn’s also right into it.

Correct if I’m wrong, but you were studying Jazz when you all began playing music together?

Yeah, I failed miserably

At Jazz? Or at the Augie March stuff?

At everything. I’m trying to fail at Augie March. I think I’m getting there [Chuckles]. I failed at this TAFE course that I was doing. They took my bass lessons away from me before I even had any because I failed my keyboard exam. It was like a domino effect.

But yeah, that’s where Adam (Donovan) and I met. We didn’t really hang out or anything, but I played bass on a couple of his recital pieces. And he came up one day and said that there was this guy who wants to get a band together and just have a jam.

He’s going to bring his songs in and we’re going to do it this weekend. And he asked if I wanted to come down too.

This is Glenn Richard’s you’re talking about?

Yeah, so that was the beginning. That fateful Saturday back in ‘93.

I have noticed that on a couple of tracks a little bit of Jazz creeps in. Is this intentional?

I think it’s unconscious. We never strive to go out and deliberately do anything. The only person in this band who does that is Glenn. All I think he strives to do is write good music. Good songs with good lyrics. And for the rest of us, it’s a matter of, “If it feels good, do it.”

We don’t consciously say to ourselves, “this is going to be a Jazz song”, or “This one’s going to be a ball-tearer of a rock tune”, or “This one’s going to be a fast frenetic country tune”. I think if we did do that it would all sound a little too contrived.

So there’s no moments where someone goes in and says, I wanna put in a little Mellow Jazz line here?

Absolutely not. The dynamic has definitely changed since Kiernan joined the band. I suppose he kind of let loose on Strange Bird. But truth be told, we’re not that good. We’re not like Frank Zappa. We’re not able to just make something happen in a totally authentic way.

Everyone in this band listens to all kinds of different music. If everyone went and did their own thing, it would all sound a bit like a mish mash of different sounds. There would be all sorts of shit going on.

You couldn’t do the whole genre-hopping approach like Ween?

I don’t think any of us would be able to tolerate or manage that. I suppose that’s why we all play in other bands.

So you all play outside of Augie March?

Yeah we all have other stuff going on. I was in a band called The Beautiful Few for a while. I played keyboard and the guitar, and made noises and played drum machines.

I’m surprised they let you play the keyboard even though you failed your first piano lesson?

Yeah, well it was a battery powered keyboard. And the keys are so small that my finger doesn’t really fit on one key.

So you kind of hit two keys at a time.

Yeah

That’s pretty efficient I think...

Yeah, I failed miserably at me keyboard class. But let’s just say that I had fun playing battery powered keyboards and running them through all manner of delay pedals. It’s just a lot of fun playing around with sounds and writing dinky little pop songs and having them on the radio when you never thought they would be played.

It’s fun doing stuff outside the band.

Adam Donovan was in Something For Kates touring band a while ago. Kiernan Box plays in the Black Eyed Susans. Glenn played with Toni Collete. And Dave Williams plays with Deborah Conway. So we do other things to keep ourselves focused.

I suppose it helps with your own sanity. You can’t be too limited creatively.

True that, as they say on the mid-north coast.

I’m not really familiar that, but I’ll accept it nonetheless.

Yeah it’s some kind of hippy thing. I’m not endorsing it. I’m just trying it on... [Laughs]

As far as your film clips go, you’ve got some real corkers. The Cold Acre and Little Wonder come to mind. You guys seem to really enjoy making these little quirky videos. Is that a fair assessment?

Yeah, they can be humorous to watch. Cold Acre was the hardest to make because it was so damn cold…and because we had to push a giant rock up a hill.

Not many bands work that hard for their film clips. I suppose that shows how dedicated you guys are [Laughs]...

Funny you mention that because I had to learn how to use a bow and arrow the day before. There was this thing you’ve got to do with your wrist, and there’s a flicking actions.

Everyone on set was really on edge because they knew that I didn’t know how to use one. In the clip I had to shoot a bird that was already dead. Every time we shot it, everyone cleared out because they were so worried about where the arrow would go.

They’re really dangerous weapons. And I had to use the blade tip when I shot the bird, otherwise it wouldn’t stay in the bird.

Truth be told, I really liked it. And I actually became pretty good at hitting the target after a while.

Maybe there’s a new career waiting for you.

Archery for Australia in the Olympics. I like it! It’s something to look forward to after the band is finished.

Now you have this tour coming up, aptly titled "Watch Me Set My Strange Sun You Bloody Choir". And you have certain members of The Drones appearing with you.

Now on your website, you’ll like it if you like your coffee dark and strong with a dash of fire water. I’m just a little worried, am I going to like it if I don’t like my coffee that strong and hot?

Yeah, you probably will. By all accounts it’ll end up being weak with a lot of mild and three sugars. I think Glenn was hoping it would be really rough and dirty.

That must be the whole manliness footy thing creeping in again.

We’re just a bunch of milky suburban-ites. We play music and all. Those Drones kids, they’re the real deal. They’re all really skinny and wiry, they don’t eat. All they do is drink and smoke, and tour the world and rock-out, and sleep on people’s floors. And we’re just milky…

And have good diets and get a lot of sleep?

Yeah, kind of. Maybe!

After the tour you’re taking a well-earned breather. And you’re all going to your various side projects.  Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Well Glenn’s going to make a solo record, which I know a lot of people are waiting on with baited breath. And he’s wanted to do that for a long time. I’m so glad he’s doing that. I think most people are glad that he’s doing that. The fans. Our manager.

Lots of people are probably into the idea. We (The Band) tend to overpower the song sometimes. Glenn might get annoyed at that. Rightly so.

So yeah, Glenn will be doing that.  I’m looking for other work. I’ve started playing with some other people. I’m really just looking at playing other music with other people possibly going overseas. Adam Donovan is going to go to Switzerland

I didn’t really see that coming!

As you do when you’re a rich, famous rock guitarist like he is.

It’s the natural progression of rock n’ roll don’t you think?

Yeah, move to a nice neutral country. Where there’s a lot of milk and money.

It’s all starting to make sense now!

I don’t know what Dave’s going to do. He’ll work and play in about 50 different bands I think. As for Kiernan, you’ll find him in  Hardware Lane on a Thursday or a Friday night cutting it up on some old Jazz standards with the keyboard. And that’s it really.

We’ll all go and do our separate things. If and when we come back together, it’ll be nice.

Augie March is touring Australia from May 2009.