Delving into Sydney’s underground music scene

Sydney is definitely not known for being the epicenter of music, or for dingy day clubs on a Tuesday catering dirty beats to those still out from the weekend. The underground scene in the harbor city definitely needs a face lift.
After years of clubbing in the same city, however, you do tend to find a few gems amongst the repetitive Ministry of Sound tunes blasting down the main strips of Kings Cross and Oxford Street.
One of these happens to be on the outskirts of the city, in a Lawn Bowls Club in Marrickville. The name to keep your eye out for is Mad Racket.
Simon Caldwell, promoter of Mad Racket, and James of Supermelody took some time out to have a chat to Sasha Mukhin about the event and music.

Sasha : Mad Racket has been the talk of the town – how did it all begin?
Simon : The four of us wanted to do a non-club night where we had no pressure to please a musically illiterate club manager, just so we could play the stuff we really wanted to, mainly the deeper side of house and techno, but really just what we feel like playing. We did a couple at Waverley Squash club before we moved to Marrickville.

Sasha : How did you land the Marrickville bowling club as the venue?
Simon : One of the Racketeers works around the corner and knew the room. We just went in and spoke to them and the rest is history.

Sasha : Does this mean you have to bring your own equipment down to the stands and truss?
Simon : Yes, we bring in all our own setup every time, except the mirror ball… that comes with the ceiling.

Sasha : How did you find out about Supermelody – and how long did it take you to get them over here from Melbourne?
Simon : He was recommended to us by a Melbourne friend, and we had James play as support for Jamie Lidell at the Corner on the last two tours Jamie did. He played pretty much solo those times, with some added percussion and interpretive dance thanks to a few of his mates.

Sasha : How did you come up with your name?
James : I owned a record studio called Supermelody, it seemed natural to use that as the name for the band.

Sasha : What is the most embarrassing moment you’ve had on-stage?
James : It was last night in Melbourne actually. We were on stage about to start the gig and we realised the synthesizers weren’t plugged in. So we had to get off and fix things up.

Sasha : Speaking of equipment, what sort of equipment do you use for live performances?
James : Roland Synthesizer, Drum Synths, Bass, Drums, Electric Guitar and a Korg Micro.

Sasha : What’s next in store for Mad Racket and yourself?
Simon : We have Mad Racket’s 12th Birthday coming up on October 23rd with special guest Daniel Bell (Detroit/7th City/Accelerate/DBX).

For more details about the next Mad Racket check out www.madracket.com.au.