“I always bring all my issues
back to Hitler, I think he started a lot of this UFO movement
a long time ago. He started a secret society and the beliefs
I have read have told me basically that Hitler was actually
taken away by UFOs, but they never found his body...you
see a lot of cave drawings from Egyptians and even some
Indians, there’s a lot of UFOs or images in the sky
and some of them actually have a Nazi symbol. There’s
the thought that maybe Hitler was going back and forth through
time.”
It
is a shade before midday, the sun is beating down on me too
viciously and the interview location for the enigmatic Jamie
Barrett has been shifted from the Plough Inn to the ambiguously
located Chinese temple. Perhaps it has something to do with
an until-now dormant alcoholic gene suddenly firing into action
or perhaps it’s the fact that I have zigzagged my way
across Brisbane to be here on time, but I stop by the Plough
Inn anyway, for a quickie.
Reaching
the business end of the jug I start wondering whether my carefully
prepared questions will be any match for the sheer unpredictability
of The Red Paintings front man and as simply as that, anxiety
kicks in. What if he...when will they...I calm myself and
then the big question arises: how will I recognise him?
As
I flick through my questions, now listening to the Kimono-wearing
Barrett as he muses on Hitler, foetuses in jars and talking
animals (all the while painting abstract emotions and greeting
international tourists), my anxieties are allayed. Now the
fear sets in.
“I
think crop circles are definitely signs, even though there’s
a movie about it. Crop circles are pretty amazing, aliens
in general. I think there’s gunna be a time when all
truth will be revealed...the Roswell incident was enough evidence
for the whole world to go ‘hang on a second, what’s
going on?’ Maybe just one race of the visitors...have
made a deal with the United Nations or just the American government,
that at a certain time in the future...they’ll take
control of this whole planet and whoever they’ve made
that deal with will be a part of that and who cares about
the human race, it’ll be wiped out.
“I’ve
always been wanting the world to move forward in the way that
lets get people’s minds open. What if there were Aliens
that were coming into our planet and interfering with feelings,
thoughts and politics even and changing the way we go? If
not work with it, then maybe even work against it as in the
idea of ‘okay, UFO’s are coming, let’s have
our own ideas when they do come and so okay, what about this?
And then make them think rather than make us think, ‘cos
I think that’s what Aliens come to do, to make us think.”
Barrett’s
description of visitors, aliens and extra-terrestrials are
complex and multi-layered. He tells cautionary tales that
alternate between the aliens as blood-thirsty conquerors that
are plotting with conspiring government, magnanimous saviors
come to enlighten and inspire and even, he hopes, performing
musicians.
“The
only thing I can do from now on is I'm gunna have to talk
to some people from outer space and bring UFOs in and we wanna
actually come in, in a UFO, and actually have it land on stage
and then we come out and have visitors from outer space actually
talk to people onstage and then we play round them as backdrop
music.”
The
Red Paintings are alternatively famous and infamous for their
bizarre performance art approach to their orchestrated sci-fi
art rock shows, incorporating everything from geishas, gladiators,
china dolls, live stage painters, camp nineteen fifties newsreel
footage and now it seems, the possibility of actual UFOs.
Kimonos and green bottle dresses may all be stock standard
but one thing you will never see Mr Barrett sporting is the
humble blue singlet. “In Victoria...the blue singlets
that tradies wear, we call ‘em wife beaters.”
So what would they say to those that would make accusations
that the band and their orgy of live stage painting violins
and sci-fi are all a bit, well...pretentious? “(Laughs)
I’d say they should join our band, see what they think.”
Class
war aside, listening to him speak passionately about his music,
sci-fi and art, it’s hard to avoid thinking that this
interview could itself be an extension of that performance
art, the theatrics of a Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie perhaps?
Or maybe it goes more deeply into his psyche; do Aliens represent
manifestations of the darker sides of humanity projected on
an unearthly scapegoat? Does Barrett see a destiny for himself
that cannot simply be retained to the confines of a single
planet, or does he simply truly believe?
Speaking
to him about the new album title The Revolution Is Never Coming,
my instincts suggest that perhaps all of these have some relevance,
but the latter is probably closest to the truth (not least
of all due to his having been quoted as saying he wants to
be the first band to play on Mars). “My revolution could
be when the Aliens actually come and then things change when
we go to another planet and we can breathe again and you don’t
have to pay for water, water’s not gunna be polluted.
Animals aren’t dying, they might even speak. That would
be a revolution for me.”
It’s
not all sci-fi though, the new release captures Barrett’s
unusual writing style in full flight. “At times I tend
to be a little emotionally unstable. When I write I find that
one minute you flow like a stream, (and) all of a sudden it’s
like you’ve fallen off a cliff. Your body’s just
fallen apart, you’re slowly getting yourself back together
again...then suddenly fall apart again...which I guess is
exciting for people...I think watching The Red Paintings is
definitely like watching a very surreal movie like some French
movie...you never know what to expect.”
And
that‘s before you even read the lyrics! In the age of
terror it appears that artists everywhere feel the theme entering
into their own creative spaces. “This album’s
heaps fuckin different from anything I've ever released I
reckon definitely. There’s a song I have on there called
‘Dead Children’. Some of the lyrics speak about
foetuses in a jar and abortion and gas chambers. Little kids
having their clothes ripped off and their head shaved and
being put in gas chambers...the visuals that I’ve put
into this backdrop are really scary, I'm a bit worried about
the reaction the public are gunna have. I think some people
might even walk away from (it), some of these visuals are
definitely gunna have shock value“
People
walking away is the least of concerns for The Red Paintings,
if past crowd behaviour is anything to go by. “We had
one guy who was painting for us just went crazy, ran out the
front of the venue and just started painting cars red…while
they were actually driving, not stationary. I didn’t
know if it was a good thing or a bad thing...this time on
the tour we’re gunna definitely be asking the public
to come on stage and be painting.”
The
stage may well be the safest place to stand if Jamie’s
dreams are anything to go by. “I don’t feel that
I'm influenced by music. I think I'm influenced by the dreams
I have most definitely, because the majority of songs I write
are an expansion from my dreams and how I feel as well. ‘Stackhat’,
which I had this creative dream with meteorites coming down,
buildings getting crushed...whenever I play that song I visualise
the dream too. I was at Livid and I remember thinking ‘imagine
if it happened here! We’re playing and these meteorites,
at a pretty big festival, and all these people getting crushed
and we’re just playing’, like, it’d be so
crazy.” Livid though, was more than just an opportunity
to wreak havoc on a fleeing populace. It was a chance to touch
people, so was there a lot of touching? “Yeah there
was after the show, which was kinda strange having people
like coming up and taking photos and stuff. Having to give
a few hugs and sign a few boobs.”
From
painting the town red car by car, to signing the breasts of
young adoring fans, the rock star future looks to be just
over the horizon for the band that started the ‘New
Dirt’ movement and the orchestrated sci-fi art rock
genre. Certainly though, there is one ambition he must have
considered; some choice words he’s carefully prepared
for the imminent arrival of ‘the others’? So what
then would our newly appointed ambassador offer our interstellar
guests by way of welcome or warning? “Look out for Nickleback.”
As far as four word’s go, I think there is something
in that for all of us.
The
Red Paintings play Ric’s (Nov5), insert national tour,
Edinburgh Castle (Dec5), The Mustang Bar (Dec11), and Sands
Tavern (Dec12).
Daniel
Gill
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