Q&A
Tell us about your new single/ album/ tour?
I just did a book/CD Launch at the Mechanics Institute Theatre in Brunswick with guests including Caroline Kennedy and Dave Graney reading selections from my new book ‘Plinth and Other Stories’ and me and my band This Is The Show playing music from the new EP ‘Fingers’.
This Is The Show (T.I.T.S.) are drawn from the worlds of be bop jazz, opera and Melbourne post punk.
Listen to their swirling magnificence here:
https://malcolmhill.bandcamp.com/track/i-want-you-back
Malcolm Hill & This Is The Show
‘Fingers’
1.My Big Motorbike
2.I Want You Back
3.Revolution Now
4.Carry On
5.Buddy Bolden Came To Play
6.In The Mood
THE SONGS
Big Motorbike
A gospel rock song about riding your Big Motorbike to that big intersection in the sky where Jesus is one of those annoying scabby looking guys who want to wipe your windscreen who decides wether you get a green yellow or red light into the afterlife
I Want You Back
A Walker Brothers/ Phil Spector style EPIC production complete with timpanis, strings & trumpet
Revolution Now
A young woman stands silently at the entrance to a Tube Station holding a sign saying Revolution Now as the army of worker drones march past.
Carry On
An old soldiers song inspired by a trip through northern Victoria on the way back from the Murray river and a chance meeting with a very old relative in Nagambie
Buddy Bolden Came to Play
Inspired by the great trumpeter Buddy Bolden (the creator of Jazz) as written about in the novel Coming Through Slaughter and in Ken Burns Jazz doco.
Featuring trumpet by Eamon Mcnelis from the great Melbourne band Flap
In the Mood
‘Take me to the room with the women weaving
They’ve been there since time began
Wrap that golden thread
Around my head’
Inspired by Robert Grave’s The White Goddess
How would you describe your sound in food form and why?
Thai fish curry. Hot and spicy and your gets your juices flowing!
Which song resonates most strongly and why?
‘Buddy Bolden Came To Play’
This song is about the first jazz trumpeter in New Orleans in 1910 who is said to have invented jazz. I like to try and imagine how people listening to this new crazy music for the first time reacted.
Any on the road anecdotes?
At our CD launch we had a character called Jana, an old style communist from Croatia in a Soviet Union military uniform , going around playfully whipping people on the bum and telling them to buy the CD
Where do you draw inspiration from?
Great songwriters, great performers, stories in the local newspapers, french movies, acoustic psychedelic music, 1960s soul music, my fellow Melbourne musicians
What’s next for you?
Gigs in Brunswick, Ripponlea, Clifton Hill and Northcote, then a book launch of ‘Plinth and Other Stories’ presented by Brunswick Street Bookstore on Thursday June 11 at the Provincial Hotel in Fitzroy where I will be playing songs and guests will be reading selections from my stories
What’s your scene?
“Malcolm Hill is a lifetime member of the Melbourne Music Mafia and part of the ratpack of post punk Melbourne artists who have been keepin’ it real across diverse art forms for thirty years.”
About Malcolm Hill
Malcolm Hill is a musician, writer and theatre maker. He was born and raised in Geelong and currently lives in Melbourne. Malcolm has written hundreds of songs and unique performance events, appearing on stage, radio and TV across Australia. He has been called ‘The Last of the Wild Bohemians’ but these days is a Mild Bohemian. A fully paid up lifetime member of the Melbourne Music Mafia, Malcolm Hill has always spread his interests wide and far often writing about Australia in a variety of forms, from Rock Opera, folk/punk, Theatre and Short Story.
Malcolm Hill & This Is The Show
Upcoming Gigs
Apr 29th Wed Retreat Hotel Brunswick
May 3rd Sunday Lyrebird lounge Ripponlea
May 14 Thurs Some Velvet Morning Clifton Hill
May 31 Sun 3pm Bar 303 Northcote
June 11th Thurs Provincial Hotel Fitzroy (book launch) presented by Brunswick Bookstore
Jul 12 Sun Living Legends night Leaps & Bounds festival
July 26th Sun Retreat Htl supporting Harry Howard NDE
