Wons Phreely

I played guitar with Sydney-based singer/songwriter Wons Phreely many years ago. And now, while my guitar is gathering dust in someone’s closet, Wons has kicked on to bigger and better things. Many times over. His new EP – The Rules Of Nature – is out, and there is a mighty fine clip to go with it. To make it he invited some MySpace friends from around the world to download the music and lyrics to the song and film themselves singing along with it. And so they did. The result is very entertaining indeed. We interviewed Wons recently about his new EP and all the good things that come with it. So what’s been up? ‘Oh lots of excitement. I just found out that I’ll be playing at my fourth festival for the year – Splendour in the Grass – with acts like Arctic Monkeys, Lilly Allen, and Kaisers amongst others’. You’ve done quite a bit of traversing between Sydney and Melbourne over the past year or so. Which city has it over the other as far as music goes and why? ‘Hmmm, that be a good question. My first reaction would be Melbourne because those Melbo Trash know how to enjoy life and get into having fun at great pubs and cafes. But I think Sydney has other things going for it too. The audiences may not know how to have as much fun, but the bands and the venues are stepping up’. The EP was recorded a while back. How does it sit with you now? ‘It sits great with me now. The original recording did start a while back but then I went to New York for about five weeks and wrote three new tracks which I ended up adding to the other sessions when I got back. Plus I was still re-working the whole thing until just before mastering. I did a session mixing in Melbourne too with Jonathan Burnside, who has done some pretty cool things. I also made these little sound experiments in my bedroom that I added in between some of the EP tracks’. Do all your songs begin life as gently strummed chords on an acoustic guitar or do you sometimes work with a riff or a lyric? ‘Yeah, cool question. I like to know how other people write songs. I subscribe to “there is no particular one way”. But I would have to say it’s probably lyrics most of the time that I come up with first. But other times it could be a riff. Actually I started using my keyboard a lot to write songs lately. I love the piano so much. Problem is having one that’s nice enough to play live, and me being able to play nice enough live! I have also stared using my new loop pedal to write ideas with’. What would be the ideal Wons Phreely bill and where would you fit into the mix? ‘Oh, that would have to have Billy Bragg, then Jarvis Cocker. I saw him play recently and he is a perfect solo artist. It’s like he has a bit of all my favourites in him, like Bowie and Morrissey. I guess they could be on the bill as they’re still very much alive. And me? Well ideally I would headline, but you know, I’d just be happy to play a few songs after Beck’s set’. What’s one line from another songwriter that you would steal and claim as your own if you could? ‘How about “My favourite parks are car parks, Grass is something you smoke, birds is something you shag, Take your year in Province and shove it right up your arse”. That’s a lyric by Jarvis Cocker. I’d steal that, though I don’t endorse smoking in any form’.

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