What's on Angela's Dish?

Wed 25th Oct, 2006 in Features

Sibling rivalry is the secret ingredient behind Angela’s Dish’s catchy and melodic pop/rock songs.

The songwriting team of brothers Michael and Joshua Harris portrays simple structures, interesting guitar and beautiful vocal melody – but it does not roll off the tongue so easily.

It comes from putting each other down, or at least that is according to older brother and vocalist/guitarist Michael. “We both write songs and if I’ve written something that I think is good and he thinks is crap or vice versa, we’ll just cut each other down and say, ‘that is bad man’ and that can sometimes lead to a fight,” he said.

“The flipside to that is we both know that it is good sometimes. We’ll write a song straight away and both of us will go yeah that’s good and then we know. It is kind of good. It cuts out a lot of crappy songs. They don’t even get to the demo stage because we can tell between us that it is not good.

“Generally though, when we’re writing we are okay. We are pretty similar so we get along most of the time. Sometimes it’s bad if we both disagree on something because we’ve both got the same sort of passive aggressive thing. It doesn’t really mend very easily.”

You would never have thought so much bitching goes into Angelas Dish’s songs and even though the songwriting duo are in their early stages, they have made it clear on their second EP My Body Is An Ashtray that they have an ear for making good pop/rock tunes. The brothers only became serious about songwriting and playing guitar after finishing school, before that their dad would give them freebie lessons with his guitar on the couch.

The band is currently working on new material to release a full-length album in the near future because they are sick of playing the old songs every night. “Especially the second song on the EP, Screaming,” Michael admits. “It is actually pretty old. I think we wrote that before we wrote most of the songs that are on Lie Die, our first EP. We’re just over that one. But having it on the EP gives it a bit of a touch. It is new to everyone else. It is fun playing like Lock You Out acoustically because people are really getting into that and that is still really fresh for us. But the other ones are like ‘ow’ and we can’t wait to move on.

“We’ve been working on an album even before this EP came out. We’re putting all of our eggs in one basket with this album. There was talk of doing a little single, maybe releasing a single just to radio and Internet, but I think the album will probably be the next thing we do.”

My friends and I nicknamed Michael Extreme Darren at a recent show in Fitzroy, Melbourne because he looks like comedian Chris Lilley who plays the Jackass wannabe character. Michael didn’t seem to mind when I brought it up during our conversation, as he still has no idea who the mastermind behind the ABC hit series We Can Be Heroes is. Instead he shared the rare moment when he feel asleep during his first ever concert as a 10-year-old.

“The first concert I ever went to was a John Farnham concert,” Michael said. “My parents just listened to pop. My dad liked Bob Dylan, which I think was probably a subconscious thing especially with lyrics. They listened to pop like Phil Collins Greatest Hits, that was always on or John Farnham as I said or Cold Chisel. Just mainstream rock and roll.

“The first CDs I bought were heavy metal. I was right into Metallica and Sepultura. All that full on core stuff, even like Cannibal Corpse. I soon grew out of it. I wasn’t angry enough to keep getting into it.”

The four-piece from Gosford are modest when it comes to their approach to the industry and despite awesome support tours with big Aussie acts Gyroscope, After The Fall and Behind Crimson Eyes they remain a complete cred band. All they do is tour. They have just come off the Boomtown Showdown tour with The Getaway Plan, In Fiction, Horsell Common and other label mates, but will remain on the road until the end of November for a bunch of their own dates with long time friends, Something With Numbers.

“Our first shows two or three years ago were with Something With Numbers. This is the first time we have gotten to do a proper tour with them, so we are looking forward to it,” Michael said. “It is full time for Josh and I, and it basically is for the other boys, except they have jobs they can go back to. Scotty (Mitchell) teaches drums when he is not on tour, and Pete (Clarke) is the only one with a proper job. He is a cabinet maker.”

Perfect Distraction tour dates:
October 26: Key Largo, Terrigal (over 18)
October 27: Annandale Hotel, Sydney (over 18)
October 28: Annandale Hotel, Sydney (all ages)
November 2: Ruby’s Lounge, Belgrave (over 18)
November 3: East Brunswick Club, Melbourne (over 18)
November 4: Enigma Bar, Adelaide (over 18)
November 9: Great Northern Hotel, Bryon Bay (over 18)
November 10: The Globe, Brisbane (over 18)
November 11: Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta (over 18)
November 23: Republic Bar, Hobart (over 18)
November 24: Siroccos Nightclub, Burnie (over 18)
November 25: James Hotel, Launceston (over 18)