Project Description
Interview with
CAMERON MACKENZIE
from
HORSEHEAD
Interviewer: Connor Gutteridge
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Take us back to the beginning, how did Horsehead begin?
The singer (Andy Mclean) and myself we were in a couple of bands in the 80’s doing various things. There was kind of a movement in Melbourne at the end of the 80’s into the early 90’s, where there was a very powerful heavy rock thing happening. There was a few bands that I remember, in particular one called ‘Killing Time’ who were just really amazing, and they sort of had a pop aesthetic about them. They never really went on to do anything, but they had this one song that was incredible called ‘Ruby’s Mind’. There was also ‘Josie Jason and the Argonauts’ and ‘Jimi the human & Specter 7’, so there was just this rock thing going on.
Andy and I weren’t really cutting the mustard we thought so we decided to put together a band that was going to compete with this world that we were living in.
So, we just went about finding people and all the people ended up in Horsehead were already in other bands with varying degrees of success in their own terms. We just kind of formed this band and started playing covers just to get going.
Then we started writing tunes and the rest just sort of did its own thing and created its own energy and momentum.
How did your early influences reflect on your writing?
You are a reflection as a writer of what you are immersed in, it is what you are. You might try and think that you are being this channeler of some sort of creativity that comes from nowhere but you, that’s the dream. The more I’ve done it the more I’ve realised that it’s all about what’s around you and it all sort of changes.
People like David Bowie constantly had people wondering how he stayed ahead of the game as he almost created the changes and that is fascinating.
That’s very rare though, for the most part your responding and maybe your responding in a way that all of a sudden pops out in a way that feels new.
What have you been up to since the band split?
Personally, I have been in music, I produce people and I compose music. I have toured around with Mark Seymour from Hunters and Collectors, I’ve been his right-hand musical man for twenty years. I
did a lot of the writing and music production for a kids show called ‘Get Grubby TV’ and been involved with that. I’ve got a fairly widened set of skills and I employ them in a very widened varied way.
You have to be versatile, you don’t want to sit in a ditch and go broke, even some of the big actors that struggle because there is just to long between drinks, it’s unfortunate because they are really good. I’ve been very lucky.
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Is there any chance for more Horsehead music in the future?
I always say never say never, however I doubt it. I think the reason being why? The main thing that we have done here is getting all the music that we had scattered all over the place and not yet in any cohesive place where people could access it. This whole thing is to get it into one place with selling the boxset of L.P Vinyls for the big fans. More importantly for me is that in thirty years’ time some kid can roam around the internet and find this band called Horsehead and view all of its material in one place.
Whether it be Spotify or iTunes or whatever it may be. We didn’t have that, so that was the main thing was just to preserve and ratify the legacy of what we did. Then we thought that the record company has done a lot of work and put their faith in this outcome, so we will do a gig just to help promote the box set.
What can fans expect from the comeback show?
They can expect to hear (hoping) all the songs they want to hear. In the box set there is seventy odd songs and we won’t be playing seventy odd songs as we would be there all night and we don’t have the stamina. They can expect a blast from the past and a number of people that are on cloud nine. We will also be on cloud nine, it will be a really fun journey into our past, it will be like being at a wedding, everyone will be happy. We have no agenda and that is going to be lovely to do a gig with no agenda.
Have you got any stand out funny stories from your days touring with the band?
There are many many ridiculous stories from the round. One stand out story I remember is, I remember there being a competition between our sound guy and our lighting guy that every time we went on the road they had to go to KFC and get a 40-piece bucket each and eat it. The whole thing, it was a stupid amount of chicken, I remember them sitting in the back of this van and their stomachs were so distended. We were all like its not even rock and roll, its just really silly. The kind of carry on that we went on with was never really sex based we were actually a good bunch of guys, more just wholesome silliness. Back then it was just really silly, but it makes you laugh now, you make the world you want to live in.
Any Final plugs you would like to add?
I would like to thank Mark Erber-Alexander who is the creator of Golden Robot records because he forced us to do this. We’ve got him to thank for this actually happening, if he hadn’t have come along, we may have done it but because it really needed somebody to sound excited to get us off our arses, because it is so easy to just not. With a group of five its such a huge group of energies, without a big kind of dollar bill hanging in front of peoples faces motivation is hard to find. But we managed to do it and its all thanks to Mark. He is the man id like to plug, not with a bullet of course. The gig coming up on the first of February, there is still tickets available, but it will probably sell out. If you want to see the band that’s your only opportunity at this point in time.
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