Brisbane-based record label Dew Process have come along way in their first five years. As well as signing landmark Australian acts like The Living End, Sarah Blasko and Bernard Fanning, they’ve become one of the primary organisers of the massive Splendour In The Grass festival. On the eve of the Dew Process Christmas party, which will also comemorate the label’s fifth anniversary, FasterLouder spoke to two of the label’s 2007 signings, Whitley and Yves Klein Blue, about Christmas shenigans and their plans for 2008.
2007 was particularly big for Yves Klein Blue, as frontman Micheal Tomlinson reminisces. “It has been a great year, winning the MTV competition and everything else.” MTVs Kickstart competition was designed to give exposure to young up and coming artists, and winning the competition gave Yves Klein Blue a chance to get a film clip made by MTV, as well as a cash prize. And 2008 promises to be even bigger for YKB. “Well,” Tomlinson reports, “we are going to release our EP [the much anticipated Yves Klein Blue Draw Attention To Themselves -ed] and then hopefully our first LP later in the year. In between we¹re hoping to cover as much of this country and others as we possibly can losing guitar leads and piano stands, hopefully with some great bands. And write a lot of music.”
Melbourne’s Whitley was another high profile signing for Dew Process in 2007, with the young man’s organic folk getting a lot of attention and airplay. But his new years resolutions are a little simpler than YKB. “To try to live simply, in a more sustainable fashion. And to go bodyboarding more.” Nothing about music? “It’s all a bit up in the air. I know for sure I will be working hard in some areas of music, and by the end of the year, I should have a body of work to show for it. I will still be playing shows!”
And his favourite memory of 2007? “Finding out I was playing at Falls this year. I have been going there since I was a teenager, and I used to tell my friends I’d play on the Falls stage one day…so it’s a pretty amazing feeling to know that I actually followed through with what seemed like an impossible dream.”
I asked Tomlinson if he had any new years resolutions to share. “Don¹t smoke. Make it big world wide. Avoid getting killed by Whitely. One of these is more attainable than the other,” was his cryptic response.
Tomlinson also took some time out to reminisce about family traditions from Christmas past. “Eating and then falling asleep face down in a bowl of cake is my favourite. I heard Chris¹ [bandmate Chris Banham -ed] family do yard glasses and have a crocodile mile though so I¹m going to go down there this Christmas.”
The Dew Process Christmas Party, which takes place Tuesday December 11 at the Zoo, will see both Whitely and Yves Klein Blue play sets along with Philadelphia’s Dr Dog. It will also see the return of the frenetic live show of Dew Process favourites The Grates, and I asked Whitely and Tomlinson the question which all the music world wants answered: If all four acts were to get on stage and play one Christmas carol, which one would it be?
“All I Want For Christmas Is You” (presumably in some kind of Love, Actually big-band style) responded Whitely, while Tomlinson had a little more to say. “First of all, it would be a grand occasion. Second, it wouldn’t be about the song, rather how many B-grade celebrities we could get along to sing with us. It would most likely be a swing version of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, where everyone would get to sing a line like on one of those Carols by Candlelight things on TV. And Richard Wilkins would be hosting.” God forbid.
Don’t miss the Dew Process Christmas Party (not hosted by Richard Wilkins)
Featuring the Grates, Dr Dog, Whitley and Yves Klein Blye,
Tuesday December 11 @ The Zoo, Ann Street Fortitude Valley
Tickets available through Rockinghorse, Skinny’s Music and www.thezoo.com.au
FasterLouder would also like to wish all at Dew Process a happy fifth anniversary, and look forward to many more years of great Australian and international music.
