Monster Children

Ken knows how to dance. Shit that was a funny episode.

Not only is Tabitha McGregor one of the creative brains behind Byron based THRILLS, she is damn handy with the pencil on paper. If you are anywhere near The Art Park this coming Friday until June 14th, you must go see this show. 

Here is one man that is not shy of a beer at sunrise. We may be three days late, but it's always beter late than never when you get an email from the Prince of Puerto Rico. 

IVI and HUF just released a limited collaboration based on Keith Hufnagel's signature frame, the Standard. Only 100 available at Huf or IVI online

COMUNE just debuted the first of a series “Shades Of Blackness” highlighting the personal and professional lives of their Drop City contributors. Kicking things of they created an intimate portrait of Warren Thomas, the man behind the band The Abigials, diving into his stuggles with life, drugs, and women. Worth a watch.

A few months ago I met this guy, Monte, at a bar and thought, “that dude has good hair.” Turns out his mates have good hair too and together they make music, as is expected by guys with good hair. The difference with these particular guys is that their music is actually impressive and is now on offer in their debut full-length album Hex.Lover.Killer. I asked my new mate Michael Tramonte for a quick lesson in all things Delta Riggs - which was great - but more importantly, I figured out why they call him Monte. 

Who are The Delta Riggs?

The Delta Riggs are Elliott Hammond, Alexander Ledlie Markwell, Simon McConnell, Tristan James & myself.

Where are you all from?

We are from all over the place really. Currently three of us reside in Sydney and the other two are still based in Melbourne. We all met growing up in South East Queensland at a young age. From there we all moved into a beautiful farmhouse amongst a 100 acre orange orchid in Peats Ridge. Six months of living, eating and breathing in each other’s pockets led us to migrate to Melbourne for a few years. This is where we really finessed and grew as a band and where we feel is home to the bands origins. 

How long have you guys been doing this together?

The band started as a fun, side project to a few other things in late 2007. It wasn't really until March 2010 that we took the form of what we are now and decided to manifest it into something a lot more serious.

Why did you produce the album yourselves?

It's something we had been doing for the first few EP releases and we really felt that we wanted the album to be 100% purely made from us. We had been talking to a couple of people that we were interested in being potential producers (Warren Ellis/ The Dirty Three and Britt Daniel/ Spoon & Divine FIts) but it really came down to conflicting schedules and a tight budget in the end. We are super proud of what we achieved with this album and have been garnering some great reviews, not only on the songs but also the production so we did all right!

How long did it take you and where did you record it?

We recorded the album over 6 days up at The Grove studios - inland and up the mountain from Gosford. It was a really picturesque and humble vibe up there. We had only ever spent 2 days in a studio so having the luxury of 6 days really let us hone in on certain tonal aspects and experiment with sounds more. We do record everything live in the studio for the most part which is always fun.  

How do you classify your sound? And don’t go on an artist rant about how music shouldn’t have categories… it does, so give me tangible evidence buddy!

(Laughs) I'll do my best. Starting out we were influenced heavily by blues and that classic 70's rock and roll sound. We all grew up listening to punk rock though so that started to sneak it's way back in there a couple years ago, which is evident in our previous two releases. We tend to listen to various music and everyone has quite impeccable and diverse taste in music. This record spans the genres a little which I quite like. There are the aforementioned styles in there, along with a touch of psych, soul, hip hop and R&B. Does that suffice? 

Who did the cover art for your album/how did it come about being the cover art?

It's actually a tangible piece of artwork that our good friend Andre Piguet had done last year using oil, pigment, resin and perspex on a hardwood frame. He does a lot of awesome stuff. The inside cover is a warped photograph that our pal Jay Quirk worked on. I love the contrast between the two images. On the front you have this darker, tactile image that is rather ambiguous and when you open up to the inside you are smacked with an image of vibrancy and wonderment. 

Rollingstone gave you guys a great review – well deserved, the album is great. It’s onto touring now, right? Where are you going and with whom?

Yeah we were very humbled with that review, RS is one of the meccas of music press so to get 4 stars out of 5 is amazing. Who gets 5 stars anyway? 

We just finished our national album tour and that was awesome. Our next bunch of shows is on the Andrew Stockdale (Wolfmother) tour for the new album. We are pretty much hitting everywhere and are super pumped to be back out there playing these songs again.  

What do you do with yourself day to day?

We all hold down steady and regular full time work in between all of the madness that is The Delta Riggs; it keeps you deferential in day to day life. Elliott and I have done a bit of session stuff together, we were Willy Masons band when he supported Mumford & Sons on their tour a few months back. Elliott is a rolling member of Wolfmother/ Andrew Stockdale too so we all keep very busy.  

Who wrote the bio on your website? It’s pretty good…actually your website is pretty impressive. I should get your guy to make me one… not that I’m doing anything worth a website.

I wrote that. The format of writing a standard band bio is such an old paradigm these days, so I submit that to the guys for a different angle and everyone was really into it. It gets the message across with a bit of personality and minimal wank.

Tickets to upcoming shows are still available (maybe). Go here to stalk their schedule.