RICHARD CARTWRIGHT OF RICHARD IN YOUR MIND

Hi Richard and thanks for taking the time out to speak with us at Musicology.

​Firstly congratulations on the new record Super Love Brain and single All I Can Do. The clip for the single is another psychedelic freak out. Can you provide a little insight into its construction and how the storyboard for this took shape?

Thanks very much! It’s great to have it all finally coming out! I consider myself still quite an amateur or DIY clip maker, but I do find the process really fun. It’s easier, usually, if you have a clear idea of what the shape should be, but that wasn’t really the case in this instance! I knew I wanted an abstract abundance of saturated trippy visuals and to refer back to the lyrics in places, but not necessarily a clear narrative. Really it was a lot of time experimenting with footage. We did a couple of sessions with a green screen at Richie’s house, so we had us playing the song. I filmed an oscilloscope I bought from a garage sale with the drum track running through it. Bits of footage from my phone like my dog Ravi looking anxious, and a little bit of stuff from a visit to New York. I wanted there to be a colour theme of sorts, so lots of the kaleidoscopey stuff is from the album cover and other artworks from Myles Hesket (who did the cover) zoomed in and effected. I just played around until we had loads of weird stuff! I’m in awe of SPOD and the clips he makes, he comes up with clear creative ideas and executes them quickly and spectacularly, I’m think I’m more, as they say these days, a hot mess.

There was an extreme dichotomy in the subject matter that was at the heart of this album. On the one hand, the elation of your first born child and on the other, the untimely passing of a loved one. Was there a desire to have the music on this album encapsulate the cyclic nature of life that can only be summed up through the medium of music and cathartic release it provides?

In a way yes, there is loss and change, creation and destruction as themes on the album, but there are a couple of points in the album where I stand back and try and be content and grateful, because what I have is very wonderful. So yeah there’s a life cycle in there, and the attempt to be cool with its ebbs and flows. I do think it’s a miracle that if you write a song, or get creative, around a difficult thing in your life it can change the way you feel, suddenly there’s something new growing, you’ve spent some time exploring the experience, and through an alchemy you can change the flavour of hurt into something sweeter.

As an extension to the art form of crystallising a time and sentiment, the cover art is said to be a summation of the album itself. What is it exactly that you see in it and that of which it is saying to the world?

In the art work I see a kind of abstract map of a place, (or life or a mind). There are all these running channels, layers, houses and pyramids, some are made of different colours like rays of rainbow light. The channels and layers are kind of like roads or built up experiences and memories with peaks. Some of these towers/roads end at ecstatic swirling vortexes, but within these you can see a small dark tower, standing out against the magic rays. It is the swirl of life and mind, and all together it is beautiful, the colours are sort of sun faded with nostalgia like an old photograph, yet the blues are clear and fresh. So I guess the album is hopefully a little like that, stories and glimpses of moments and ideas that, all together, tell the story of a life/mind.

You are always at the van guard of experimental and psychedelic sounds but stylistically, in what ways did you want to push the sonic boundaries for Super Love Brain?

I don’t know if it’s a stuffy thing to say, but I think we wanted a bit more of a mature and cohesive album this time round. Haha, pushing boundaries for us is trying to rein it in a bit! There were countless demos we looked at in the beginning, but we found ourselves focussing less on the insane ones and more on the ‘Bandy’ song ones. We did less production sample editing stuff and more live instrument things. We used some nice instruments like double bass, grand piano, a little clarinet, and there is heaps of the Wurlitzer 200a on it, once you play one of these you want it everywhere you can put it! One of the most wonderful elements of this album came from the first RIYM recordings with Carlos Adura on drums. Our beloved RIYM Timer n drummer Pat Torres moved to NY a few years ago and Carlos came on board. Carlos is so skilful AND intuitive that making music becomes so easy and a joy. He did things we wouldn’t expect but were perfect, often in one take. So he really helped steer the albums direction. In regards to specific songs, Sunwater is probably the most far out song on the album. It was put together in a backward kind of way. We started with a layer of improvised synth note oscillations and then another underneath it, jamming along in a very abstract way, and then doing it again until we had this swirling jumble of synths with a sort of dynamic flow. Then we built a song structure underneath with Conrad doing the singing. Then we got Carlos to jam on it with drums as the last thing. So, a pretty backwards way to write a song, but it sounds cool I think.

Can you elaborate on the equilateral and connected constructs of the ‘Super’, the ‘Love’ and the ‘Brain’ that the album explores?

It’s about ecstatic experience I think! And the question of what existence is! Super is kind of a miracle word, things that are more than expected. Super is peak experience, so often we write songs about things that stick out, super things, but also it’s cool that mundane things can be super as well, if you look through the super lens. Love is a huge word that encapsulates a lot and seems to be at the core of almost everything. I don’t’ know if love is the ‘meaning’ of life, but it could be. Brain is the functioning physical organ that is responsible for how we experience Superness and Love and reality. But what is it? If I’m thinking a thought, where is that thought coming from? How did it get there? The brain might be just a really fun interesting piece of evolution or is it the doorway to the ultra-world. I have no answers for what life and consciousness is, but one of the things I enjoy most is thinking about it.

Being your 5th studio album and having performed with so many amazing artists and individuals over the years, during this time has there been any particular instances where someone has spoken some words of wisdom to you that really resonated with you and altered the way you approach your craft?

Some really great words I remember from Simon “Berkfinger’ Berckleman of Philidelphia Grand Jury and studio wizard of countless amazing recordings, said if he had to go minimalist for a recording studio he would have a good pre amp and an sm58 mic, the idea being if you have good songs, that’s all you need! And though he has so much cool gear in his wonderful studio and I have collected a fair amount of fun toys, it’s that core principal, focus on the idea, capture the feeling, don’t get caught up in the technology, just go! Not that many people have given specific advice really but one time that comes to mind was Stav from Blue Juice at a party pretty early on in our formation gave me some advice, words to the effect of “just find one thing and do it well” Which I think is excellent advice especially if you want to be successful. But I took it as a kind of challenge to do the opposite, because I didn’t want to do one thing I wanted to do all the things!

How would you describe your evolution as a band in so much as the way you have all as individuals as well as that as artists, matured over the years and expanded upon the RIYM experience whilst retaining the signature sounds of the band?

We have had a number of different members over the years with Conrad and I as the core throughout, but I think the common thread is that we have always been, and worked with, explorers. We have always been open to what might naturally come out, never stressing too much on how we think we should be and just being how we are. For us there has never been much money or anything going round so it’s had to be about the fun and love of doing it. As far as maturing I think we’ve just honed our skills a bit better, we get better recorded sounds faster, we can identify which ideas are worth following, when to stop experimenting and when to go further, that kind of stuff.

Known for your vibrant live performance and ever changing sets which can feature anything from leaf blowers, candle light vigils and AFL regalia, what is it that makes a show truly memorable for yourself as much as the audience?

A show is really memorable when we and the audience are all there focussed together, and I think putting a bit of effort into bringing some lasers, or strobes, or confetti canons, or the leaf blower dragon, or one time when we borrowed all these tropical tree cut outs from a travel agent, helps invite an audience into the world of the music. A memorable show really has lots to do with the audience, I really look for smiles and laughter, we’re not really a funny band but I do hope we help to create joyful situations.