Live on 3CR, 7th December 2013

As probably none of you would know, a few months ago I recorded a live set and was interviewed for 3CR's Saturday evening program Let Your Freak Flag Fly.

The host of the program is the wonderfully decent Michael Smith. I sent him the first two records late last year (under the very safe assumption he hadn't heard them) as a long shot that he might play a track on his program. He played all 17 minutes of "Because We Have Things In Common" and invited me on the program for an interview and to record a live set.

I decided to record it all on the preceding Thursday before it went to air, just so I could do a re-take if I wasn't happy with anything, and it allowed him to cut it all together and just let it roll come Saturday afternoon instead of me and him moving around between songs and chatting as the program was going to air.

He met me at the door on a wet December evening and was incredibly accommodating. He was taking out his Thursday night to be there for someone who was too insecure and probably, essentially, not professional enough to do it all on the fly.

I was a disaster. I think I ended up redoing each song a couple of times because I tightened up and wasn't happy with how I was sounding. Realistically, I sounded bad. And I know that because that's I have on all the takes I did that night on my computer, and what was broadcast.

I don't think I want to "release" any of it, except for Slink Away, which I've uploaded to the SoundCloud to accompany the interview. On the whole, my vocal performance is too bad.

This will go down in the annals of forgotten Melbourne music history. I remember 10 years ago the cassette recordings Danny and I had of Danny's early demos recorded on the four track, and I'd put some bass over the top of it. And we'd have these recordings, maybe several of the same song, across several cassettes. We knew these specific recordings were never really for anyone, but I loved having this document of these moments and periods of optimism and development.

I feel like I let the station down too, and I felt like I let down Michael too. The vocal takes overall are too off, and the levels I set the vocals and backing tracks in relation to each other are either too high or too low and inconsistent throughout the tracks, and I let down all the effort Michael put into recording and accommodating me. Sometimes some things you just have to do for yourself if no one else. Sometimes you have to do something for someone else though. Sometimes you do it for both. For all the preparation and rehearsals I did for this, I really don't think I honoured either.