Q&A Scene: Radi Safi – Circle

Tell us about your new single/ album/ tour?

Thylacine is the first single that Circle has official released since our 2012 album The Middle. I haven’t been too far away from music so it doesn’t actually feel like it was a hiatus but I’m glad to be sharing new music with the world again.

What’s your favourite work at this point in time?

For me that’s always been whatever I’m currently working on. It holds the most mystery and the most excitement. You hit your stride with an EP or album which can be considered a series of works (like an artist hanging a show of paintings) but even before you’re done you’ve already started thinking about the next lot, working through ideas or concepts that may have come to mind during the current series. I’m lucky enough to have a small studio where I can start to flesh out some of those ideas and right now I’m working on a concept album with 69 songs in it. I’d like to finish by September but we’ll see.

Tell us a quick, on the road or studio, anecdote.

Only the horror stories come to mind but they’re also the most funny. I used to take a lot of gear to shows which I quickly learned over time was a very bad idea. One of our very first shows was in Glebe and I had a pretty hefty set up that day. I patched my electric guitar wrong and was so fucking nervous I ended playing the whole set with no guitar sound and didn’t even notice.

What, or who, inspires you?

Mostly it’s things I find unique or beautiful especially if they exist despite adversity. From great works of art, to acts of kindness, to wildlife and of course great music. The new forms media we’re now seeing every day can be very inspiring. Great ideas. When you can really feel the intent behind a project, that’s pretty inspiring.

Which song do you wish you wrote?

All My Little Words by the Magnetic Fields.

What’s next for you?

Well there’s the single we’re putting out in a couple of weeks which we will hopefully follow up with clip and the EP. We’re not playing live shows at the moment so I’m being particularly challenged with how relevant a musical project can be without live shows.

What’s your scene?

It’s a bubble of creative insanity that I somehow created for myself but I’m also glad I did. I run my own business and also work from home which means I spend a lot of time working and socialising and sleeping in the same place. A lot of that is music related which keeps me balanced (aka sane).

 

THYLACINE

ˈθʌɪləsiːn,ˈθʌɪləsʌɪn,ˈθʌɪləsɪn/

noun

  1. A doglike carnivorous marsupial with stripes across the rump, found only in Tasmania. There have been no confirmed sightings since one was captured in 1933, and it is probably now extinct, also known as the Tasmanian Tiger.

Similar to the song’s muse, Sydney based rock outfit turned production project CIRCLE has not been seen in a while. After the success of 2012 single Fashion Me A Drum’, which reached a staggering 180K YouTube views, Circle took an indefinite hiatus to focus on a little thing called life. Fast-forward to 2017 and the synth rockers are back with a new assembly and their awe inspiring single THYLACINE.

THYLACINE delivers a transcendent melody over a punchy synth-bass accompanied by mashed-up marsupial samples all the while aptly approaching the complex concept of extinction and drawing parallels to Australia’s relationship with the indigenous community.

To accompany the single, Circle is releasing a haunting video that is explosive with old clipped footage of dispossession and slavery of the Tasmanian Aboriginals and the confinement of the Tasmanian tiger from the British colonisation.

Although the Tassie Tiger is considered extinct (we call conspiracy!) Circle captain Radi Safi has been hiding in plain site the whole time, albeit taking a break from the stage, Safi has successfully launched the highly influential Happy Mag and The Enmore Audio where Thylacine was recorded in Sydney’s music hub of Enmore.

Thylacine is available on Itunes and spotify 

For more information:

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About Mary Boukouvalas 1644 Articles
Mary is a photographer and a writer, specialising in music. She runs Rocklust.com where she endeavours to capture the passion of music in her photos whether it's live music photography, promotional band photos or portraits. She has photographed The Rolling Stones, KISS, Iggy Pop, AC/DC, Patti Smith, Joe Strummer, PULP, The Cult, The Damned, The Cure, Ian Brown, Interpol, MUDHONEY, The MELVINS, The Living End, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against The Machine, The Stone Roses –just to name a few - in Australia, USA, Europe and the Middle East. Her work has been published in Beat magazine, Rolling Stone magazine, Triple J magazine, The Age Newspaper, The Herald Sun, The Australian, Neos Kosmos, blistering.com, theaureview.com, noise11.com, music-news.com. She has a permanent photographic exhibition at The Corner Hotel in Richmond, Victoria Australia.