I had the opportunity to talk with musician Bär McKinnon from Melbourne band Umlaut. Bär has been playing live, recording and touring with the likes of Mr Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, Hasco Enjoyments, Neil Hamburger and Umlaut.
Umlaut has been making music since around 2005 and recently (July 2025) released their third full length album 'Desole', the first to feature Danny Heifetz on drums and the first album in which all songs have vocals.
We spoke about: The meaning of the album title, writing more heartfelt lyrics, changing song arrangements to keep things fresh, the stress of composing music for a tv show, the unheralded genius of Danny Heifetz and more.
Thank you to Bär for being generous with his time, Jean Lizza for helping to set this up and you for listening.
I recently had the opportunity to inteview artist/musician Chris Cobilis. Chris has been making music and art for the better part of 23 years with bands such as The Tigers, Smrts, Sabre Tooth Tigers, Abe Sada, Sexy Band, Zerodent, Trash Band 1987 and more.
Chris also has a very sprawling and diverse solo career, with several albums and film scores and collaborations. He has one foot in 'indie rock' and the other in 'experimental music', but his tentacles extend all over the place sonically.
We spoke about all things music, friendships, keeping those friendships, what 'making it' really means, unscheduled appearances in surf videos (!) and more.
http://www.chriscobilis.com/
Song snippets used in this interview:
Chris Cobilis - Prelude 1
Chris Cobilis (performed by Spektral Quartet and Kenneth Goldsmith) - The Sun As Narcissus Big Boy Prism
Chris Cobilis - Vulgar Meth Addict
The Tigers - Slayer Bells
The Tigers - Talking Cat Blues
The Tigers - The Tinsel Stage
Chris Cobilis - Double Satan
The Tigers - Out In My Boat
The Tigers - Doug Gillard Cramer's Jungle (remix)
The Tigers - Dilemma
The Tigers - Guy 90's Song (live)
Chris Cobilis - Dogswamp Drums
Chris Cobilis - Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe
The Tigers - Nicest Band
Sabre Tooth Tigers - Next Time Bring Yr Momma
Sabre Tooth Tigers - Ode To Friends Forever
Chris Cobilis (performed by Spektral Quartet and Kenneth Goldsmith)- Dust In The Gate
Chris Cobilis - Heritage Listed Darkness Park
Kueiju Lin and Friends- Full Moon Spiral
The Tigers - Nobody Cares About My Music (live)
Claire Pannell has been making music and art 'DIY' style for over 20 years, uncompromisingly on her own terms. We spoke about her early life playing in the underground New Zealand art and music scene, falling into a band and playing improvised music in New York, the motto behind starting Dog Park Records and more.
This is part one of an interview with Perth musician Predrag Delibasich. We talk at length about influences, growing up in Serbia, moving to Perth in the early 90's, various musical projects and how fanzines bring people together. Since this interview, Pex has formed Zerodent and plays electronic music under the name Alex Robokapov. If we find the second part, we will upload that too!
https://predragdelibasich.bandcamp.com/music
https://alexrobokapov.bandcamp.com/music
https://zerodent.bandcamp.com/album/soul-mender-2