interview by Simon Sellars

‘Whatever Goes into the Mix’ was originally published in Subterrain magazine #2, July 2007.

Alan Pavlikas manages the Ozanam Community Centre’s band, Shallow Rabbit, which has released one CD and has had a documentary made about it (see Subetrrain #1). intrigued, I crashed one of their jam sessions and collared Alan, guitarist Keith and bassist A.J. and submitted them to a time-honoured ritual grilling.

How did you end up at the Centre?

KEITH: At one stage I was homeless, and I saw these guys on stage in North Melbourne, without a lead guitarist. And I thought, ‘They need me, and they’re doing the sort of material I love’. So I came out of 15 years’ retirement as a guitar player, and now they can’t make me stop again. It just won’t happen!

AJ: About 10 years ago, when I moved to Melbourne, I ended up on the street through circumstances beyond my control. And one of the people I met on the street brought me here for a meal and a coffee and I started off volunteering in the kitchen. But it’s always come back to the music for me. Over the last six or seven years it’s evolved and changed, and we’ve ended up with a great band out of it, because the Centre is a place where people can belong – as a community. The music program helps morale. We’ve got an energy happening between us and that translates to the rest of the Centre.

You did a gig recently at the O’Donnell Gardens in St Kilda. How did that go?

AJ: Ah, it flew by! Felt like we were on speed for 10 seconds.

KEITH: Yeah, it went smoothly except I stepped on my guitar lead and broke a string. But the band didn’t fall apart – it was fabulous! We only played 25 minutes, but we could have done three hours quite happily.

ALAN: And that’s apart of the work within the group. It’s not just about music, it’s also about working as a team. As things go wrong, we fix them on the run, because it’s all about how to support each other and how we canto translate that into everyday life.

What are your musical influences?

KEITH: Steve Marriott, the Small Faces, Ron Wood, Jeff Beck, Dave Gilmour, Pink Floyd – all the good stuff. Elvis Costello.

Obviously, you think today’s music is pretty crap.

KEITH: It’s absolute shit!

AJ: I’m trying to turn Keith onto a few heavy bands: Metallica, Disturbed, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters, Nirvana. I’m bringing him slowly around to the ways of the dark side.

Don’t you think Metallica have lost it, though? You can’t beat those first three albums.

AJ: Ah, no. People criticise them, but they just need to put the strainer back on the snare drum. But really, it’s an evolving, ever-changing sound. And that’s the sign of a bunch of true musicians, when they can change the sound as they grow older, and get away from their roots, and start exploring new and wonderful areas.

How did you get into music?

AJ: I’ve been performing as a clown for many, many years – doing magic tricks, juggling. But I’ve always felt most at home playing an instrument. I started off on keyboards when I was a little tiny tacker, and took up guitar shortly after, and then went onto bass. When I’m on stage it just feels like home.

KEITH: I went to school with a lot of Pommie immigrants, and of course they were all mad into the Stones and the Beatles. Anything that was British rock absolutely ruled, although they liked Hendrix, too, but that was alright because he made his name in England. And then the Small Faces put out a song called ‘Tin Soldier’ and I just had to get a guitar and learn how to play it. I begged the fuck out of me father until he bought me one!

What about you, Alan?

ALAN: I’m a full-time musician so my influences are very wide – everything from Shriekback to Tool, System of A Down, Jimi Hendrix, Peter Gabriel – because I have to work in many different styles. Same as the guys here. We’ve been doing a song-writing workshop, and we’ve ended up with a blues song out of it, something like the Masters’ Apprentices; another song that’s like Kraftwerk; and another one that’s like classic rock. It’s just whatever goes into the mix: we throw something in and it gets painted with the colour these guys provide. I mean, we could be doing country songs next week.

AJ: Hey, I doubt it!