ARTIST: Hi-Tec Emotions
Hi-Tec Emotion’s Ema Dunstan, Jess Lakatosh and Mackenzie Randall have a chat with us following the release of their debut album Hard to Handle.
1. If you had to re-imagine your sound as a food, how would you describe it?
We are salt and vinegar chips, Imax popcorn and popping candy.
2. And as an animal?
A cat
3. And as a TV series character?
The Powerpuff Girls.
4. What’s one of your favourite musical moments? give us a youtube link and a precise point.
Kate Bush- The Big Sky. At the 2.45 mark its super uplifting, super strong, heaps of vox layers and killer drums and hand claps.
5. MINI MIX-TAPE
Make us a mini youtube mixtape!
Tell us a little about each track
Bitumen / Drowned
Jess- Everyone go see Bitumen. Look at how easy they make it look. I love Kate’s vocals. They are bitter, bored, poisonous and sly. The drum machine delivers dry beats before the guitars and bass attack you with grit and sharp edges all over the place. Theirs is a big emotive sound. It shows no mercy.
Spike Fuck / Tomorrow we get Healthy
Jess- Spike’s sound is epic and luscious yet somehow minimal in this song. It sounds like a haunting journey which is lethargic but rolling on forward. Like seriously it’s all about the juxtapositions. To me it sounds like nostalgic regret and hope. Her voice is so knowing. It’s perfect.
Go Genre Everything / Everyday Robots
Jess- Go Genre Everything were and are literally legendary. Jen and Zac created magic together in this outfit for 12 years. The things they could do with just a guitar, drums and vocals were so rich and varied. They put on immersive art spectaculars which transported you to another world and took months and months to organise. Their music is at once joyful and deliberately challenging. Amusing and serious. It delights my heart. Today this track seems to encapsulate all of that. They were completely inspirational to Ema and I when we were starting to play in bands and Jen continues to delight me with her current outfits – check out Squirrel Pancake and Is There a Hotline?
Honey Bane / Girl on The Run
Ema- Really powerful lyrics detailing the story of a woman’s life, dealing with subjects like no money, lack of food, falling pregnant etc. The story details all her hardships but her power to keep fighting and moving forward to live. Super catchy. Super important to me when I heard it a couple years ago. I could relate to a lot of the lyrics and felt like a girl on the run myself. The sounds at the end of the song are amazing as well, and still gives me a surprise when I hear it.
Anne Cessna & Essendon Airport / Talking to Cleopatra
Ema- My partner introduced me to this band. Based in Melbourne in the 80s they used synths and other instruments in a really dancey, fun way. This song is one of my favourites. The vocalist reminds me of the woman from the bizarre tv show Muligrubs. Plodding beat and tempo and really interesting use of instruments particularly the synths. I love her almost childlike deadpan vocals and the lyrics make me smile. Super inspiring and sounds like it could fit in very easily in Melbourne today.
6. THE GOOD SON GAME
Refer to this classic scene from “The Good Son”.
You have 2 great artists hanging over the edge of the cliff, and you have one hand hanging on to each of them. They’re both slipping. You need to let go of one artist to save the other, or lose them both. Time’s a-tickin’.
The one you drop will now only exist in your mind, you can never hear their songs again.
Who do you drop?
So this is a totally brutal question. We are traumatised that we have to drop some truly
inspirational women but here we go… Let’s hope it never comes to this.
PATTI SMITH or JOAN JETT
Joan Jett (sorry)
KATE BUSH or YOKO ONO
Yoko Ono (sorry)
7. What’s in your musical pipeline this year?
Well we’ve just released our album so we are riding that wave into the new year, playing our first festival at Paradise Music Festival this month, and playing a bunch of shows in the coming months, even a one in Ballarat which will be an absolute treat.
We are all so overwhelmed by the positive vibes with our release, it’s something we’ve been working hard towards for months and the support we’ve received has been phenomenal. But we already have plans for new, fun and exciting things. We’ve got new songs in the making. Perhaps a 7 inch in the future. And we are super keen to organise a tour, maybe up the east coast.
8. What can we expect to see at your next gig?
Our next show is an instore at Record Paradise in Brunswick on Saturday November 12th. That’s in a few days! We are pleased to be playing an all-ages show and hope some children will come along, mainly to inspire everyone with their dance moves. You’ll be able to buy a physical copy of our album ‘Hard to Handle’ and also, you know, heaps of other music because it’s a record store. It’s a fantastic place to browse and bag some great music. Come along early – we’re on from 4pm.
PLUG YR GIG!
DATE: 12 November 2016 – 4pm
VENUE: RECORD PARADISE, 15 Union Street, Brunswick, Melbourne
Facebook event here
