Former Serious Young Insects & Boom Crash Opera guitarist/songwriter and noted theatrical composer and sound designer Peter Farnan returns to his spiritual ‘home’ – the beloved new St Kilda venue George Lane is located directly below the site of Melbourne’s famed post-punk hub the Crystal Ballroom – as he returns to his post-punk art-pop roots to launch new solo album Home
Home album launch at George Lane on Saturday February 25 features special guest and fellow Crystal Ballroom habitué Catherine McQuade, of the Ears.
Here is the official video for ‘I’m Singing Again’:
“Each song on Peter Farnan’s Home is like a little cinematic masterpiece – camera, lights, action! Every word and note and chord and instrument conduct us up and down a magical red carpet ride that you don’t want to hop off, such are the surprises and delights along the way,” says Charles Jenkins.
Melbourne’s Peter Farnan – co-founder of legendary post-punk band Serious Young Insectsand later Boom Crash Opera guitarist/songwriter, and more recently a noted theatrical composer and sound designer – is set to return to his spiritual ‘home’ to launch his new solo album Home.
Reflecting his return to his art-pop roots on the new album, Farnan’s launch will take place at St Kilda’s George Lane venue, at the back of the historic George Hotel, and directly beneath the site of Melbourne’s legendary post-post hub the Crystal Ballroom. This is where Farnan and Serious Young Insects formulated their ideas and cut their teeth alongside the likes of the Boys Next Door/Birthday Party, the Models, a nascent Hunters & Collectors, and, perhaps most significantly, the Ears, whose Catherine McQuade will be joining Peter for his album launch.
The Ears, famously, were the group upon who Richard Lowenstein’s film Dogs In Space was based, and Peter Farnan’s history with the band goes back to the beginning; as well as guesting with the band live he recorded the group’s first demo, which included the only recording of the song which Lowenstein borrowed for the title of his film – “Dogs In Space”. More recently Farnan, who these days researches modern song composition and teaches sound design at Melbourne University, has written about his Ballroom days in David Nichols and Sophie Perillo’s 2020 collection Urban Australia and Post-Punk: Exploring Dogs In Space.
Peter Farnan‘s new solo album, Home, sees him returning to his art-pop roots with music that is both idiosyncratic and universal, and which echoes some of the artists – The Beatles, Eno, Talking Heads, and in particular XTC, who Serious Young Insects opened for at the Crystal Ballroom within months of forming – who first inspired him.
Home is the work of a mature performer with lyrical concerns to match, who has carried his edgy musical sensibility through the years.
“My new album attempts to combine the personal and the political in an art-pop frame,”says Peter. “I love pop; ‘pop’ in its purest sense – a tight form that strives to communicate, meaningfully, with infectious energy and imagination.
“I love the brevity, compression and economy of the pop song form. When it’s effective it can infect the listener with complex feelings and ideas. I want to set off truth bombs.
“The songs on Home wrestle with the passing of time, buried histories, community, political populism, pernicious religion, the end of the world, the end of the street, the start of something special, mortality and blissful release. I try to make them both reassuring and slightly unsettling; at once humorous and dark.
“My partner and daughters sing throughout; a sweet, ghostly choir, they are sometimes reassuring, sometimes disturbing. My former bandmate Richard Pleasance makes a brilliant contribution to “As The River Flows”, playing guitars, cello, bass and unsettling noises. Elsewhere my oldest daughter forms a mini orchestra on viola and violin. Drums are supplied by stalwart Melbourne drummer Ben Wiesner (ex The Audreys) and up and coming talent, Soren Maryasin. Otherwise, I play all instruments and produce.”
For his Home album launch, Peter Farnan has assembled a band called the Home Bodies, featuring long term collaborator and noted record producer Kalju Tonuma and Megan Bernard (Yothu Yindi, Liz Stringer). Special guest Catherine McQuade, who was a long-term member of Deckchairs Overboard following the Ears, has herself recently brought together all of her experience as an award-winning film composer, chanteuse and bass player and released an album titled Kiss Him Goodbye, a rich, dream pop mix of Jazz, Latin, Classical, electronica and ‘60s film score references.
Peter Farnan – Home Album Launch (George Lane Matinee Sessions)
with Catherine McQuade’s Perfect Storm and special guest Rebecca Barnard
Saturday 25 February 2023 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM
at George Lane
1, George Lane, St Kilda VIC 3182
Tickets available now