MISS MARDY
- ballpointpressbne
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Writer: Joseph Maranta
Images: @Strydomphotos / @Joe.marantaa
Almost one year ago to the day, we first spoke with Miss Mardy.
Twelve months ago the quartet were brimming with exuberance and an air of impetuosity, fresh off their 2000s New York-revival-inspired debut, Back Of The Line. Continuing to define their sound with their follow-up single, Who Lives Like You, the-then quartet appeared to have found their mould, nestled firmly within the boundaries of their indie-alternative predecessors.
Despite this sound securing support slots for the likes of Radio Free Alice and The Murder Capital, the-now quintet have chosen to break all confines with their latest release, Joe Pesci.
Sonically evoking the spirit of a Jackson Pollock painting, the art-punk cacophony of unpredictable tempos, distortion, and ever-so-addictive chord progressions completely subverts expectations, entirely rewriting what listeners should come to expect from Miss Mardy.
Here is our catch-up with Danny, Pat, Tom, Rohan and Max.
JOE: Thanks for running it back fellas. You mentioned in our last chat that you wanted to distance yourself from comparisons to indie-rock acts of the 2000s, I think you’ve definitely achieved that with ‘Joe Pesci’, so how does it feel now that the song is out?
TOM: It feels really great! The only thing it's been compared to is the worst song ever, by my Mother.
But other than that, I’m very proud of it, and I think the rest of the band is too.
MAX: The idea that we sound like The Strokes for instance, it’s been in the back of my mind for a while now. We want people’s perspective on us to change, even more so than last time.
DANNY: Our intention with Joe Pesci was to signify that we’re moving towards something new.
JOE: This song is in stark contrast to your other two releases. I imagine it was recorded long after your first two singles?
DANNY: No it wasn’t, we recorded it a few months after finishing our first single Back of The Line.
I think this was the first song we wrote which sparked that change in our sound, where we stopped taking ourselves so seriously.
TOM: After we heard the first recordings, we hated it.
But it was so much fun to make, we had no cares when we were recording it, but that’s not to say we didn’t care about the final product or that we didn’t spend a lot of time working hard on it.
JOE: The track is obviously built on a very unorthodox sound, but do you mind explaining the ethos of its lyrics?
DANNY: The lyrics relate to maturing during adulthood.
MAX: It’s about that shift you go through, when you’re no longer relying on your parents to an extent after finishing school. When you really become your own person.
DANNY: But at the same time, you’re still trying to abuse your youth - falling into whatever anyone else is doing.
Trying to advance yourself and your life, while still being young and stupid.
JOE: I’d imagine you’d work yourselves into quite a state performing it live?
ROHAN: On the drums at least, you build up a bit of a tolerance to it. It’s more so thinking about what you’re going to play before you play it. You go into a bit of a flow state, It’s a bit of a dance.
TOM: I won’t go into specifics, but we have another silly song with a silly name, and it has a similar attitude to Joe Pesci. But playing those songs live, it’s very free. We play it as if no one is there, as if we’re in another room.
We like to imagine someone hearing those songs on the street and thinking, what the fuck is that?
That idea was, and still is, incredibly attractive to us, that’s what we want people to think when they hear us.
JOE: Whose Dad is boogying in the song's visualiser?
MAX: My Dad, he’s nuts.
Tom thought it’d be funny if we just got him to dance, and on the day of the video he’d brought down all of these clothes and we had to say no to half of them - one of them was just a thong dress.
We just made this poor guy dance to a song which is 190 BPM for about forty minutes straight, I was worried he was going to pass out.
TOM: We didn’t give him any direction, we just put the song on and told him to go.
JOE: You’ve had some pretty insane supporting slots recently, what was it like playing with Radio Free Alice and The Murder Capital?
ROHAN: It was actually my first gig with this band, so I was pretty nervous.
But having that connection with all of these guys, all of my worries went away pretty quickly and I could just focus on my role on stage. Having the trust with this band really helped.
MAX: Radio Free Alice and The Murder Capital were genuinely so cool.
DANNY: I got to meet the singer of The Murder Capital and he was so lovely. I was so nervous to meet him because I’d been listening to his music for so long, but he was just a human being.
TOM: The drummer of The Murder Capital came up to us during soundcheck and introduced himself to everyone, even though he would’ve been so exhausted - it confirmed our belief that Irish people are the coolest people on the planet.
The guys from Radio Free Alice were so nice and incredible too, they spoke to all of us after our set.
DANNY: I was in London with my family and they were playing in London while I was there, but they’d fully sold out their show already.
I’d been raving about them to my family all week, and I took a shot in the dark and messaged them on the band’s Instagram account since they had followed us back after we supported them.
They asked how many spots I needed on the door, and I said four, and they replied hell yeah brother, see you there!
MAX: It’s such a strange feeling listening to all of these artists for so long, and it’s not necessarily that you idolise them, but when you do meet them you realise they’re all people who enjoy the same things we do.
JOE: Do you each have a favourite Joe Pesci movie?
DANNY & ROHAN: Home Alone 2.
MAX & ROHAN: Goodfellas.
TOM: I watched Lethal Weapon 2 with my Dad recently and that was incredible. I think his character is representative of the song, because Joe Pesci himself is very, very small in that movie. He’s small in most movies actually, because he is quite small.
PAT: But he has a lot of ticker.
JOE: If New York is famous for its Mobster movies, what type of movies should Brisbane be famous for?
PAT: Isolation.
No but honestly, I’d say coming of age movies. I feel like once people here turn 18, so many of them want to leave as soon as possible. Even though Brisbane is a beautiful city, I think there are so many beautiful cities in Australia and across the world, so there’s a feeling of inevitability when it comes to leaving here.
JOE: You were on the Sister’s Inside lineup recently, so in that spirit – who is your GOAT Australian Female musician?
TOM: My favourite is Ullah right now. I saw her at BIGSOUND, and she was absolutely incredible.
DANNY: I’d have to say Maisie from The Belair Lip Bombs. She has such an influence on so many local bands in Australia.
PAT: Probably Courtney Barnett. It’s very beautiful how she can take mundane elements of Australian culture and turn it into something profound with her lyricism.
MAX: I’ve been on a big Tropical Fuck Storm kick lately, so everyone from that band… except for Gareth Liddiard.
ROHAN: I’d say Guppy.
JOE: Just finally, since we last spoke over a year ago – how has your outlook on Miss Mardy changed?
TOM: We’re a lot more focused on it now.
It feels like we’re building towards something currently. I'm not very professional with my vision, but I have a lot of confidence in what we’re doing - and the reception for Joe Pesci has given us a lot of confidence in our direction.
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