The Brag

The Clean
It’s Getting Better All The Time
By Mikey Carr

The Clean could be one of the most influential bands you’ve never heard. Formed in 1978 in Dunedin, New Zealand, a town that’s now known as a hotbed of musical creativity that birthed acts like The Dead C and The Bats (not to mention the seminal Flying Nun label), The Clean’s punk and 60s garage-inspired music has been cited as an influence by bands as disparate as Yo La Tengo, Pavement and Nirvana. “Well it’s just astonishing, just beyond our wildest dreams,” founding member David Kilgour tells me on the eve of their Australian tour. “If you told me in the early days that we were going to keep doing this – that we were going to tour the world and that other musicians were going to pick up guitars because of us, and all that sort of stuff – I would never have believed you. Even when we were having our success in the early days, I never dreamed I’d leave the country and go and tour overseas. That was just beyond any idea or dream at all.”

With a core lineup that consists of David and his brother Hamish, with The Bats frontman and guitarist Robert Scott having taken over bass duties early on, The Clean have built a strong cult following over the last 33 years. In fact, Flying Nun bands have recently experienced somewhat of a renaissance in popular culture. The Clean themselves have found a burgeoning number of young people attending their shows, with their music taking on a new relevance in the face of the current indie rock and DIY scenes. “When we toured Europe last year the audiences were pretty split down the middle, half old people and half young kids, which we found really surprising,” David says, in his soft Kiwi accent. “It just keeps growing every year; there’s always a few more people at the shows – especially overseas – just carrying on the interest, which is just amazing for us.”

Although they’ve never enjoyed the same level of success as the bands that they inspired, the Clean have never held any bitterness. “Well you know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” David says cheerfully. “There might have been a brief moment there when we were just like, ‘Well bugger you’ – but I’ve just had such a wonderful life,” he laughs. “I’ve had times when I didn’t have money, I’ve had times when I doubted what I was doing musically or as an artist, I’ve had times when I’ve just felt like I was rolling around after my own tail and I’ve had times when I’ve just stopped everything for a year or so. But generally I’ve just had such a wonderful life, a wonderful musical life. I can’t complain at all.”

It’s this attitude, this love of the music, that has made the legacy of The Clean so enduring. There’s a sort of unpolished honesty to their songs that can’t be faked, built through years of playing out of passion, and nothing else. While there have been massive gaps of inactivity where members have pursued other projects, they’ve all kept up an almost constant dedication to their craft. “It’s great to follow something that you love, and actually make a living out of it,” David says. “For me, it just doesn’t get any better than that.”

With: Smudge, Sonny & The Sunsets
Where: The Factory Theatre
When: Wednesday March 9