MusicJournoThe Bigots
July 11th 2006 14:08
The Bigots are a Canberra-based two-piece who play dirty, rockin' punk. They are Tim (Vocals, bass) and Joel (drums). I think Joel recently moved to Melbourne so they're pretty much kaput at the moment.
Anyway, they were around for a while and I did this interview with Tim when they played at the Pink Palace in Melbourne last year. I'm in bold...
Yeah! Questions and everything!
Nah, just a few notes from when I was watching you just before.
You type notes when you watch bands?!
No, they’re written on the back (referring to a piece of paper with typed notes on it)
Oh, I was impressed – until you told me you didn’t type them.
So, you guys have been going for about 8 years?
I think since 1996.
How did you get together?
By just being drunk mates.
What other bands were you in before this?
No bands before the Bigots, Joel was in some indie bands years ago, but that was way back in the early 90s.
Bit a far stretch.
Yeah but we’ve been in a bunch of bands together… DDS we were in together, and me and Ben from Draft Dodger were in the Pallbearers together, and we were in another skate punk band together called Johnno and the Trannies.
So with your whole guitar/bass setup – how’d that come about? (Tim has a guitar that has been modified to act as a bass at the same time – see dodgy diagram)
Partly due to not being able to find a bassplayer who suited our style of hanging around and being dumb. But also because other people told us we couldn’t do it so I was like ‘fuck them’ and I made it happen.
Did you design it yourself?
No design went into it, it was only… just… doing. No design, and just desire. It was desire over design. I just figured it out, you put a bass string on and tune it to the same as the E string of the guitar and you play with a big bar chord, and you play it fast and it’s cool.
Does that limit what you play though?
No, no, it doesn’t limit us at all. We can’t play much better than that at all… it does limit us a lot but it only limits us to cool songs so we’re fine with that, y’know? All it stop us doing is playing hard songs we can’t do.
I noticed you played a lot of songs (at the Pink Palace farewell show) you hadn’t played in about 5 years, how’d that go?
It was hard, we pulled out a bunch of old numbers for the crusty old Melbourne crew and songs we hadn’t played in five or six years at least – hadn’t jammed, thought about or done anything to – and just for fun really, the Pink Palace has got so much history for us.
I noticed on the wall (a wall in the Pink Palace is covered in flyers of past shows) that you guys had played down here a few times.
Yeah we’ve played here a bunch of times over the years so it holds a lot memories as it were.
Any plans to come to Sydney anytime soon?
I dunno, the last couple of times we played in Sydney at the Bat and Ball a little while ago, a couple of times, we seem to only go down well in Punks Picnics and I dunno, Sydney’s got a weird vibe to it these days… ever since all the bands like Welfare and those sort of bands stopped playing. I don’t feel like we’ve got any friends in Sydney. I dunno where it sits. I love Sydney as a city, I have lots of fun, I like the pizza shops on Enmore road. I just don’t think the Bigots appeal to the kids very well.
It’s all fads though.
Exactly, that’s it. They just don’t know what’s good for them.
And you guys have got kids I understand?
Both of us do, yeah.
How does that go with the whole band thing?
We’ve also had that… Joel was a father early and the whole time we’ve been in a band we’ve had children involved so it’s always been involved, so we’ve always had children involved, our band has always been kid-positive and always involved in the same relationship with children.
So do your kids like the band?
Oh yeah, they come and see us at the Punk in the Park and so on in Canberra and they come along and watch. They ask other people’s other kids what bands their parents play in. They think it’s normal. One of the teases I’ve heard from Joel’s daughter, she was teasing one of these other kids cause his dad wasn’t punk.
Coming back to the guitar before we finish, how did you get the second input on there, did you build it yourself?
Yeah just drill it; chop it up, drill it in, fucking screw it down.
Did it take a while to get it to work?
Oh… years. Years of fucking around. But it’s better now than what it ever was.
Yeah, it sounded pretty cool. Anything else you want to say, anything towards Sydney?
No, I’ve got nothing to do with Sydney apart from the fact that I think rioting with cops is cool, like – smash it up. And maybe – if you want – invite the Bigots over, that’s cool by us too. Turkish pizzas are hot. Bang!
Cheers
I want that printed.
Tim currently plays bass for Canberra punk band Fallujah City Rockers
Anyway, they were around for a while and I did this interview with Tim when they played at the Pink Palace in Melbourne last year. I'm in bold...
Diagram of Tim's Guitar/Bass hybrid
Nah, just a few notes from when I was watching you just before.
You type notes when you watch bands?!
No, they’re written on the back (referring to a piece of paper with typed notes on it)
Oh, I was impressed – until you told me you didn’t type them.
So, you guys have been going for about 8 years?
I think since 1996.
How did you get together?
By just being drunk mates.
What other bands were you in before this?
No bands before the Bigots, Joel was in some indie bands years ago, but that was way back in the early 90s.
Bit a far stretch.
Yeah but we’ve been in a bunch of bands together… DDS we were in together, and me and Ben from Draft Dodger were in the Pallbearers together, and we were in another skate punk band together called Johnno and the Trannies.
So with your whole guitar/bass setup – how’d that come about? (Tim has a guitar that has been modified to act as a bass at the same time – see dodgy diagram)
Did you design it yourself?
No design went into it, it was only… just… doing. No design, and just desire. It was desire over design. I just figured it out, you put a bass string on and tune it to the same as the E string of the guitar and you play with a big bar chord, and you play it fast and it’s cool.
Does that limit what you play though?
No, no, it doesn’t limit us at all. We can’t play much better than that at all… it does limit us a lot but it only limits us to cool songs so we’re fine with that, y’know? All it stop us doing is playing hard songs we can’t do.
I noticed you played a lot of songs (at the Pink Palace farewell show) you hadn’t played in about 5 years, how’d that go?
It was hard, we pulled out a bunch of old numbers for the crusty old Melbourne crew and songs we hadn’t played in five or six years at least – hadn’t jammed, thought about or done anything to – and just for fun really, the Pink Palace has got so much history for us.
I noticed on the wall (a wall in the Pink Palace is covered in flyers of past shows) that you guys had played down here a few times.
Yeah we’ve played here a bunch of times over the years so it holds a lot memories as it were.
Any plans to come to Sydney anytime soon?
I dunno, the last couple of times we played in Sydney at the Bat and Ball a little while ago, a couple of times, we seem to only go down well in Punks Picnics and I dunno, Sydney’s got a weird vibe to it these days… ever since all the bands like Welfare and those sort of bands stopped playing. I don’t feel like we’ve got any friends in Sydney. I dunno where it sits. I love Sydney as a city, I have lots of fun, I like the pizza shops on Enmore road. I just don’t think the Bigots appeal to the kids very well.
It’s all fads though.
Exactly, that’s it. They just don’t know what’s good for them.
And you guys have got kids I understand?
Both of us do, yeah.
How does that go with the whole band thing?
We’ve also had that… Joel was a father early and the whole time we’ve been in a band we’ve had children involved so it’s always been involved, so we’ve always had children involved, our band has always been kid-positive and always involved in the same relationship with children.
So do your kids like the band?
Oh yeah, they come and see us at the Punk in the Park and so on in Canberra and they come along and watch. They ask other people’s other kids what bands their parents play in. They think it’s normal. One of the teases I’ve heard from Joel’s daughter, she was teasing one of these other kids cause his dad wasn’t punk.
Coming back to the guitar before we finish, how did you get the second input on there, did you build it yourself?
Yeah just drill it; chop it up, drill it in, fucking screw it down.
Did it take a while to get it to work?
Oh… years. Years of fucking around. But it’s better now than what it ever was.
Yeah, it sounded pretty cool. Anything else you want to say, anything towards Sydney?
No, I’ve got nothing to do with Sydney apart from the fact that I think rioting with cops is cool, like – smash it up. And maybe – if you want – invite the Bigots over, that’s cool by us too. Turkish pizzas are hot. Bang!
Cheers
I want that printed.
Tim currently plays bass for Canberra punk band Fallujah City Rockers
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