SXSW 2015: Ball Park Music Interview

Interviewer: Brittany Robinson, 

Interviewees: Sam Cromack, Jennifer Boyce, Paul Furness, Dean Hanson, and Daniel Hanson

 

Ball Park Music is an Australian indie rock band with a pop overtone. Their latest release Puddinghead is filled with awesome tunes like “Everything is Shit Except My Friends” and “She Only Loves Me When I’m There”, this band has taken over the Australian airwaves and are gaining popularity all over the world, especially in the United States and Europe. I had the amazing opportunity to interview this even more amazing band, which was nothing but full of smiles.

How do you like Texas so far?

Jen: I’m really enjoying it!

Daniel: Yeah! We love it. It’s probably one of the friendliest places we’ve ever traveled to, abroad as well, which has been really nice.

Here in Austin we have this slogan called “Keep Austin Weird”, so what is one of the weirdest things you’ve seen on tour, or at a show?

Sam: We had a pretty funny moment this morning; Jen even put on twitter #overheard at SXSW. We walked by two people who were having a chat and the lady said to her friend, she said… What did she say?

Jen: She goes, “Oh hey, did you know giraffes are kosher?” And the guy was like, “What?” and she’s like, “Yeah, you know, if you had to eat one”

You guys are approaching the one-year anniversary of Puddinghead, how did fans react to it and what did it do for your band.

Daniel: I think the reaction was pretty good and it grew quite nicely in Australia. So far it has received the best results out of any record that we’ve had out. I feel back home it really strengthened our fan base but oversees it was more of international record. It’s released in Europe now and has a release date in the UK. Hopefully, one day we will get one in the US. It was a nice step forward for us.

Something I’ve been wondering for a while is, what is up with the cover art? It confuses me.

Sam: Why does it confuse you?

It’s an owl, and the owl’s head reminds me of an apple. It’s also dressed like Shakespeare, and there is a random butterfly. Like, it’s not a casual thing.

Jenn: You nailed it! That’s exactly what it is. It’s a collage.

Sam: I did the artwork; it’s all just collages that I made. I never went in with any clear idea of what I was going to do; I just had all these pictures cut out and improvised. Yeah, it was just a little theme that started to emerge. I think that’s why I chose the owl head in the first place, because it does kind of look like an apple-with the seeds. Then I put a bunch of other fruits on his head, and then the albums called Puddinghead. I don’t know, it was all just little bit convenient?

Jen: Weird?

Sam: Yeah, I think a lot of people think there is this deep meaning

Like this deep message like, “I was going through a lot of turmoil one time”.

Sam: Yes! There’s never a deep message, not with us *laughs*

If you could combine your band with any band here at SXSW who would it be and what would the name be?

Jen: I would want to combine our band with Bad Bad Not Good.

Sam: Yeah, that would be pretty fun. We really like their band. In terms of getting a good name, we’ve seen some pretty funny band names. I think we saw one called ‘Thousand Foot Whale Claw’, which is pretty funny.

Jenn: We looked through the list the other day, and there were some amazing ones.

Sam: Oh, the best one I’ve seen so far is Diarrhea Planet.

So are you thinking of renaming the band. You know? Rethinking some choices?

Sam: Yeah, so disappointed we didn’t think about that first.

Well, Ball Park Music is always on tour. Do you have any pre-show ritual that you do?

Daniel: Not usually. A lot of the times we do all hands in and then pick something ridiculous to shout on the count of three, and then get ready to go. Try to regroup before the show.

Jen: We generally just sit around and eat and drink and just sit quietly and be boring.

Sam was a barista! If Ball Park Music could be described as any beverage, what would it be and why?

Sam: I was actually thinking about how, you know, every band has their own sound; and how some bands heavily associate themselves with a particular drug. I was thinking we were a booze band, I reckon. With like a few energetic and happy times.

Would it be a brown one or liquid (clear), what type?

Danny: brown booze

Sam: Like a brown spirit or a beer, with a Jim thrown in there.

Jen: So like some brown spirit cocktail with a chaser

Are you currently writing or preparing for any upcoming releases?  You guys basically produce album after album every year. What’s coming up?

Sam: It’s never something that’s on or off. I think we are always thinking about new music. For a little while in February we were working on some new stuff, but that’s all we got to report so far. We haven’t committed to anything new. I’d say we will probably plans to develop a new a release at the end of this year or the start of next year. We will be chipping away at in our spare time.

 

You can find more of Ball Park Music at facebook.com/ballparkmusic  or you can follow them on twitter @ballparkmusic

Intro/Outro song- “Everything is Shit Except My Friendships” by Ball Park Music