by Casper Johansson in New Music, Video on Wednesday 25 April 2007

Melbourne duo Children Collide are a restless shake of indie pop, all skewered melodies over tapering, restless basslines. We recently exchanged emails with singer and guitarist Johnny. How do you feel the Australian music scene is going at the moment? It tends to go through troughs and peaks. Which is it in now? ‘Hard one to answer really. There are a lot of amazing bands around at the moment. However, it is a weird time with a very tentative music industry not always willing to take chances; and most interesting music is seen to be a risk. By that I mean that anything decent is going to be slightly original and hence slightly untried and unpredictable in it’s appeal. So I’d say it’s in a creative peak but a slump as far as industry faith and support is concerned’.


Is life on the road: a) fun b) tiring c) dirty d) noisy e) all of the above? ‘Well, all of the above and more. Fun cos you’re playing music and partying every night. Tiring cos you don’t sleep much when you share a room with two snorers. Dirty cos you never get to wash your clothes. Noisy… see (b) tiring and add bars, nightclubs and drunk people’.

Tell us briefly about the most memorable live show that Children Collide have played. ‘For the audience, probably the ones we can’t remember. For me personally, it’s a toss up between The Great Escape festival in Sydney a couple of weeks back, mainly due to the amazing energy of the audience and a warehouse party we played last year. I’d love to do more warehouse parties. The Flying Nun showcase at SXSW was also pretty memorable’.

How many children does it take to change an amp valve? ‘Ummmm…..Carlton Draught?’