Towels

Any given night of any given week in a Melbourne inner city household, housemates who don’t have the emotional depth to tell each other that they’re in love with each other are writing music. The bond that’s created by playing in time and tune with another person has a certain purity to it that can’t be explained in words, because words are open to interpretation via the muddying factor of tone and context. James Carthew, Tom Zimmer and Zayd Thring are three former housemates who, when they lived together in 2009, coerced and coalesced over a common passion for a D.I.Y approach to making music, UFOs and the paranormal world. The expansive and at times mind-altering beats and rhythms created became the basis of the music of their band Towels which launch their 3.5 inch floppy disc (yes, that’s right, a floppy disc) this Friday at The Worker’s Club. But now it’s time start believing in aliens as Beat talks to all three Towels’ members – please note that Zayd Thrings’ answers gyrate between truthful and psychedelic.

The song Whitley Strieber makes me warm when I listen to it. How was that song was written and what feelings does it elicits in you?

CARTHEW: “It elicits nostalgia from the time was written. Not warmth so much, but people find warmth in different places, be it drugs, music or even believing that there’s something bigger than them that abducts them, like Whitely does. [Whitley Strieber is a famous American sci-fi novelist who believes that he was abducted by aliens].”

ZIMMER: “We all feel a deep connection to the paranormal world, we’ve all seen ghosts, UFOs and bunyips creeping around the streets of North Melbourne on warm summer nights. This song is an homage to Whitley, one of the first dudes to get up on the soap box and admit that he got anally probed.”

THRING: “This was a song written a couple years back in East Collingwood, the place where I was born and my mother raised me up good to just chill out max and relax all cool. It is also where I learned my skills in the majestic game of basketball.”

So sci-fi nerds in the US love the track Whitley Strieber and have picked it up to use on a compilation that raises awareness for alien abductees. What’s been the correspondence so far with these ‘people’?

CARTHEW: “It’s helped some believers come to terms with there experience… other people just like the song.”

ZIMMER: “All it means is that we’ve hit our target market: Trekkie hillbilly gamers in Tucson.”

THRING: “Lots of computer sex; this is relevant to my interests.”

Is your dream to play The X-Files fan functions and end up having sex with a Dana Scully impersonator?

CARTHEW: “I think Zayd would prefer to end up with Mulder’s little sister who was abducted because she’s younger and more mysterious.”

ZIMMER: “I’d be more inclined to get a wristy from John Doggett dressed as Terminator T1000, but we’ll take what we can get. “

THRING: “This is relevant to my interests.”

Are you seriously releasing a 3.5inch floppy disc? How the fuck do you fit a song on a compact disc when you can’t even save more than three word documents on there?

CARTHEW: “The songs come in the form of MIDI, a computer music format that’s still used today. It uses your computer to play back the song, so instead of hearing us play and sing the songs, your computer does it. The idea of releasing a floppy is sort of a nostalgic thing; music is free via the internet, so artists are trying to find new ways of releasing music in more desirable formats, such as cassettes and vinyl so that people will want physical package as an artefact not just as means of getting at the music (see Brian Eno’s latest release for example). So we thought we would take it further (maybe even too far?) and give people the chance to get our material on floppy disc. Also if you have an early 2000’s phone you can also use them as polyphonic ringtones!”

ZIMMER: “Midi, brah.

THRING: “We give them to Tom.”

What frame of mind should people bring to your launch this Friday at The Workers Club?

CARTHEW: “Whatever frame of mind they want, with psychedelic piano duo Footy and Melbourne darlings Rat Vs Possum who are on the cusp of taking over the world, you’ll probably leave with something.”

ZIMMER: “Eat a footlong meatball sub with ranch dressing, and jog all the way to the gig. This is how Towels should be experienced.”

THRING: “Something brass. Not flimsy from the Kodak shop. Babies from the 1950’s would match our light show. My life has become innumerable in its senses to many televisions.”

If you want a copy of their unique release, 3.5 floppy disc just Facebook Zayd as he is the only one with that name on the social network.