Fun Machine

BMA caught up with Bec Taylor and Chris Endrey, one half of locally illustrious merchants of madness FUN MACHINE, after the announcement of their Philadelphia Grand Jury support slot, happening at ANU on Friday Feb 17. 

You guys are unpigeonholeable. Pop, rock, funk, soul; I could throw them all at you, and then some. How do you classify your music?

We very consciously do whatever we want to do naturally, something Chris describes as cheeky but Bec calls jungle pop; either way, picture rats having sex in a garbage bag overflowing with warm fat. It’ll help to take your mind off of things.

Who or what are your influences?

I think we’re all in love with ideas and their expression, but we’re all from such different backgrounds they take different aesthetic form. You could make a Venn diagram for everyone and only James Fahy and The Beatles would make the middle. Maybe the Gorillaz. Bec loves Debussy, Feist and Kasha. Ramsay is in Germany ‘til next week and can’t deny that he loves High School Musical 2 and his My Little Pony collection. Crosby lost his virginity to Ben Folds. And I don’t mean his music. Chris would eat his own liver to see Otis Redding, has now had five dreams about meeting Jack White and will ultimately marry  Saul Williams.

How did you find each other?

We all went to playgroup together. Ramsay was trying to meet divorced mums, Crosby was there for nap time, Chris was pocketing fruit and Bec kept excitedly stammering something about “fresh meat”.

Tell us about the ups and downs, the dreams and hopes, the trials and tribulations of your debut EP, More is More?

Actually it was all a bit of a mystery. We booked the recording while Chris was in Hungary and it turned out that we wrote four of the five tracks in the week we recorded. We were lucky to be in the capable hands of Glebe Studios’ Dan Nash, who guided Bec onto the organ and didn’t mind Ramsay just being Ramsay. Always lifting his dress up and weeing all over his pony collection.

Any plans for your next recording?

Oh definitely! Cool Runnings onto VHS. It should be on soon, to get people excited about the Wintlympics. There’s a clever trick where you stop during the ads so when you rewatch it you don’t have to fast forward through them, but I never remember to do it.

I am very eager to know about your writing process. Wherever do all your magic little lines come from? Were you guys always this clever, witty and charming? 

They’re all just old Spike Milligan lines convulsively screeched by Rod Quantock at fruit loops too far dissolved in apple juice. Plus one time Ramsay vomited on stage.  

These facts may be related.  

What’s your opinion of the local scene?

Well, there’s a fairly low ceiling for most local musos because of the spread population and limited money, but that ultimately makes it one of the better places in Australia to explore music. The venues we do have can collectively host most styles, but the painful absence of great middle-sized venues inspires house parties and open mic nights like Pedestrian Orchestra to fill the gap. There’s no illusion of money or anything so everyone’s just expressing themselves naturally in different ways. It’s beautiful to see and a privilege to be a part of.

What’s your opinion of the local scene? 

Well, there’s a fairly low ceiling for most local musos because of the spread population and limited money, but that ultimately makes it one of the better places in Australia to explore music. The venues we do have can collectively host most styles, but the painful absence of great middle-sized venues inspires house parties and open mic nights like Pedestrian Orchestra to fill the gap. There’s no illusion of money or anything so everyone’s just expressing themselves naturally in different ways. It’s beautiful to see and a privilege to be a part of.  

How do you feel about the term ‘novelty band’? Or do you embrace it with open arms? 

We’ve been performing a full spectrum of material through all stages of the band. When we started playing with just a few songs people liked them and said we could get a one-hit wonder on the radio, now with the EP and live shows which more often than not feature at least one debut song, we believe we’ve shown there’s depth all the way through and it’s only growing. 

I would walk away today if I thought we’d become a novelty band. We love trying new things; sometimes this involves horrific themes you dance to and sometimes it’s just necessary for Crosby to doll-up as a priest with no pants.  

I think it’s a zero sum game and the people that can’t take us seriously are probably just busy taking themselves too seriously.  

Semantics are for filing cabinets, the Swiss and linguists; shut the fuck up and have a good time. 

Is world domination or something close to it on the cards for Fun Machine? 

Again, something for the Swiss. But we are planning a Eurotour! If you have an old money chateau or your sister runs Glastonbury or Sziget, please help us.   

Is there anything else at all that you’d like to add? 

If you append, ‘for a girl’ to, ‘you’re a great drummer;’ you only strengthen my case for legalising fourth-trimester abortion.