“I think that’s what we all have in common and why we enjoy each other’s company so much,” reflects Scarlette Baccini, the front lady of the Melbourne-based four-piece. “We get a real kick out of things that are a little bit unpleasant and uncomfortable. It’s easy to have a good time and it’s a bit novel to play with things that are dark.”
Baccini’s pretty self-deprecating – not only does she describe the band as dark, she also calls them nerdy. “It’s just true,” she laughs. “I studied science and I’m really into video games and so’s the drummer. We’ve all got our own separate little nerd fixations that we’re all into. Josh [Moult], the keyboard and synth player, and Nathan [Clark], who does beats, modify their own analogue synth modules. Josh actually builds the circuit boards at home and is obsessive about it. I think that’s another thing we have in common: obsessive, nerd personalities.” Hey-ho, nerd’s the new cool anyway, and obsession, in a positive light, is no more than attention to detail.
Dear Plastic are regularly compared to Bjork, owing to Baccini’s celestial vocals, but stylistically it’s somewhere between Massive Attack and Siouxsie and The Banshees, the latter being a good fit because they’re blacker.
That said, it should be made clear that the band are by no means a miserable bunch of fuckers and they can certainly have a laugh at themselves. Take their very first gig, for example, which is still the cause of some mirth. “We’d already started writing some songs with two of Josh’s friends when we got this random gig lined up at Revolver with the owner’s son who was 11 at the time. I was actually their babysitter and the Dad asked if we wanted to open for his son’s band and we said ok. So, we came up with a set and put it together but at the last minute, the other two guys decided to pull out, so Josh got his friend from high-school [Danny Cox] on board. We had to put something together in about two weeks and it was just dreadful. The kids were great though – they killed it.”
In a curious move, the band haven’t pegged themselves as the headliners for the launch of their excellent debut release The Thieves Are Babes. What? “We’ve got a really diverse lineup,” Baccini explains. “The people playing before us, Beloved Elk, are a bit garagey, a bit raw and really fun, whereas we’re a bit more melancholy and intense. Then after us we’ve got this brass boogaloo band playing, Let Your Hair Down Girls. They’re gonna do dancey brass-band stuff that should lift the mood a bit we hope. We also want to spend the rest of the night celebrating with everyone.”
Ok, so they may be a bit dark, but they like to party and they’ve got a sense of adventure too – just check out the cover art for their excellent debut release The Thieves Are Babes: that’s Baccini suspended Houdini style on the cover. “We actually got stunt guys in and I truly had to be upside down for ages doing that,” Baccini rues. “I felt like my head was going to explode.”
BY MEG CRAWFORD
