The Brag

A Weird Island-Tribe-Holiday-Lounge-Nightmare-Vibe
By Amelia Schmidt

After hanging out with Richard In Your Mind for morning coffees after the Brag’s lab-coat photo-shoot, I can now safely say that not only are they one of the best bands in Sydney, but they have some of the best stories, too. The five piece have just disembarked from their magical mystery tour around the country with Sydney compadres Cloud Control, only to start getting excited about their own tour and album launch – for their second album My Volcano. But before that, we have some tales to tell…

The story of Richard In Your Mind – part indie rock, part synth pop, part psychedelic distorted guitar, part white man hip hop – begins with the young, eponymous Richard Cartwright. “I was probably 18 or something,” says the Richard, chilled-out front man for the band and raconteur extraordinaire, who punctuates most things with “cooool…” and bubbles over with a genuine, zen-like energy. “I was trying to get my email to be richardsmind@yahoo.com, but Yahoo said I couldn’t have that, so I found richardinyourmind@. The first show we ever had was a solo show at the Mandarin Club that Levins booked. He asked, ‘What’s your stage name?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know.’ – and because I’d been writing to him on email he said, ‘How about Richard In Your Mind?’ And I said that it sounded fine, so it was that!”

Conrad Richters (bass) and Richard met at the end of high school, but the music really started to happen when Conrad moved into Richard’s Annandale house nine years ago. “We used to have a thing called Magic Theatre, which was like an open mic night, only with no mic,” Richard explains. “People would come and do music, or show films. It was just this party, and it would be as small as twelve or as big as seventy people. The Magnetic Heads played there heaps – and that’s how we know Pat, our drummer, who is also our neighbour – and The Bedroom Philosopher played there…”

I go to speak, but Richard continues; with every story just slightly more amazing than you thought it could be, I learn quickly to just try and let it flow. “There were some really crazy, experimental things like when a guy, Fabien, from Germany, came along and opened the garage door, drove a car into it and gaffer-taped himself to the front of the car, pouring water on himself, and then the car drove away. That was his artwork.” Born of an email, some tape and a magical garage, Richard In Your Mind released their first album The Future Prehistoric on Broken Stone Records in 2007. They were soon after joined by Jordy Lane (aka Shady Lane), and recorded their Summertime EP last year.

It was when they began recording this newer stuff that the force-of-nature that is SPOD (Brent Griffin) was also added to the mix – originally to produce, but later to the actual band. “It really wasn’t until we decided that we were going to mix with Brent that it was suddenly, ‘Cool, we’re making the album!’” says Richard. But the band soon found they’d spent all their pocket money on tracks they weren’t satisfied with. “And that doesn’t equate, when you spend heaps of money and you’re not really happy, so Brent said, ‘Hey you guys can tie me up and use me as a slave for a year for next to nothing and come and drink my coffee.’”

“I was thinking more like a month, and it kind of stretched into a year,” Brent interrupts. “Mainly because I think half the time we were meant to be doing stuff we just kind of went and had steaks and beers. It was a good year.”

Joining the band was something Brent had wanted to do for a while. “I judge a good band by how jealous I am of them, and I was very jealous,” he says, remembering the first time he heard RIYM. “You hear a good band and think, ‘I want to make that music. I want to be involved with that.’” With all of these creative minds together, I wonder whether writing the music is a complicated process – but actually, the song writing has always been Richard’s responsibility. “I generally come up with what the song sort of is from beginning, but it’s quite different for lots of the songs,” he explains. Some tracks he’ll record straight onto the computer, but others he likes to test drive. “I like doing a solo show every now and then because Conrad comes along and watches it. So I always do new songs, and he’ll say, ‘We should do that song, but instead of strumming, we’ll go dupdupdupdupdup’ [guitar movements] – sorry, I don’t know how you’ll write that down,” Richard apologises to me, but Conrad supports him: “It would be more boring if you’d said ‘So instead of lengthy strummed barre chords we’ve decided to do simple staccato notes on the A string, like so.”

I think this brings us roughly to My Volcano, a holiday of an album which spans genres and vibes, and transports you to far away places. It’s as tight as a psychadelic album should be, contrasting the swirling guitar solos with strange, dream-like lyrics, all underscored by SPOD’s beats and synth-pop. With reference points like Beck, Ween, the Flaming Lips and the Eels, there’s a sense of humour and genuine personality that drives the music of Richard in Your Mind.

“At some point, it started having this weird island-tribal-holiday-lounge-nightmare vibe,” says Richard. “I think it was quite early on that I thought maybe the first album was in space and this one was on an island. And the island is a holiday destination but it’s rugged there, with more mystery – Bermuda triangles and stuff.” And what about the album title, My Volcano? Are there volcanoes on this island? What does Richard think of Iceland? “I don’t think much of it. That’s why Rice Is Nice paid a lot of money to explode it with a giant volcano. As long as nobody died too much, I think it’s been really good timing!”

The visual design of the album reflects this whole island-disaster-holiday concept, thanks to the lovely ladies at Greedy Hen – except for the inner booklet, which Richard tells me he photographed himself. “With my camera phone, but I did it through a crystal!” Probably no real surprises there; this is, after all, the same man who describes the forthcoming launch party thusly: “I was thinking I was going to wear some furry pants, some beads and maybe five painted lines on my chest, representing each one of us, and then in the middle of the tribal jam of ‘Flower of the Heart’ I’ll put on the lion’s head. And we’ll be like sho-ba-cho-ba-jo-ba-jah!”

Who: Richard In Your Mind
What: My Volcano is out now on Rice Is Nice
When: July 3
Where: Spectrum