A CONVERSATION WITH JESSE DAVIDSON AND BEN ZUBRECKYJ
Some Ways in Which the Aesthetic and Musical Tensions Present at Jesse Davidson’s Headline Show at Shebeen Aligned:
- The braiding together of the strange and familiar:
- The illusion of the laissez-faire:
- False impression. The door at Shebeen after 10pm shuts, and if the security staff’s lanyards aren’t exposed, the entrance to Shebeen just looks like two guys dressed in black, slumped against the wall of a weather spoiled shed. Similarly Jesse Davidson quite enjoys giving off a false impression. If you were to listen to the music of Jesse Davidson without witnessing it live, you would think it’s simply full of the same untempered heartbreak, the same naked sentiment—which it is, but not purely. “It’s way easier being a jokester onstage” Davidson admits, “way easier than being really serious and sad. I really like making that kind of music but I don’t really like the vibe of artists who are really ‘deep’ and ‘dark’…”
How Venue and Artist Further Colluded in an Exemplary Exhibition of Awkward-tainment
- The venue created the perfect situation for an awkward interaction. The wooden bleachers at the far end of the band room were the very furthest point from the stage and an ideal place to sit after a long day of standing on public transport, or place to slump against while scrolling comfortably through tumblr. Or a place to simply build small fortresses of social exclusivity with groups of friends. The result was a large black apron of empty space that billowed from the lip of the stage. Some of this space was then perfectly furnished with a small clump of bleary drunks. No one , especially them, had any idea why they were there. But soon after the band took over all Awkward-tainment duties. These duties included:
A. Jokes. “What did Courtney Love say to Kurt Cobain before she shot him? This is gonna be a big hole”
B. Dedications. BEN: This next song is dedicated to those lads in the front row, probably on pills or some shit. Shut your dicks up and listen to some music. JESSE: C’mon boys, be sad. It’s sad time now.
C. Multiple promises of impressions, with only two resulting from a long string of assurances. Both impressions were of Michael Caine (different vintages)
D. Playing ‘Back in Black’ for a prolonged period of time at the start of their set, goading people into moving to the front
Best Celebrity Impressions Undertaken by Ben Zubreckyj Over the Course of the Evening
Ben Zubreckyj’s ‘Key to Good Impressions’ (Which He Broke)
- “The key to good impressions is doing people that noone really knows” [Rule broken onstage during the Michael Caine young and old comparison]
Things—As He Disintegrates Beer Labels Between His Fingers and Glances Over His Shoulder Every 30 or So Seconds—That I Imagine Jesse Davidson is Thinking About During Our Interview
- The the slow creeping doubt that gnaws at the fringe of his brain. The doubt that rushes into you post-show in regional cities, where people show up to fill themselves with liquor and dance to DJ Dan-O, not to actually see you play. The doubt that crawls inside you before you play club shows in major cities, where noone shows up because there’s so much on already, and they simply don’t need to. [*Author’s Note: This is unlikely]
- Girls?
- How he wants his new material to sound. After hearing how contemporaries on bigger stages have smoothed down their live sound, both Jesse and Ben are intent to file down some (please not all) of their sharp edges. There’s also some serious talk about something slightly more electronic, of triggering samples and digital percussion from Ben, and “more bass” from Jesse. It’s definitely on their brains.
- About death. Or more specifically, if you drank a pint of beer from every different country represented on Shebeen’s exotic drink menu, would you be clinically dead?
Ben Zubreckyj Describes Jesse Davidson’s Musical Role
[Said in effervescent, loving voice]
“His guitar playing is different to other players, he hasn’t played in bands or anything before. It’s not rhythm, it’s a much fuller sound, much more dynamic.”
Ben Zubreckyj Describes Ben Zubreckyj’s Musical Role
- “It’s mainly just me actually. Benny and the Davidsons.”
Is expanding. Becoming an increasingly collaborative process, and starting to move into new areas of technology.
Opportunities Regional Australia Took on Jesse Davidson’s Previous Tour (With Ball Park Music) to Reiterate Its Reputation for Excesses of Honesty
IN DARWIN: “They were just like: ‘Yeah we’re just here cos no one ever plays in Darwin’…”
IN “A NORTHEASTERN TASMANIAN TOWN THAT RHYMES WITH CURNIE” (*Name withheld but probably pretty easy to guess): The owner of a particular establishment found it pretty easy to say to Jesse Davidson what he really thought. And what he really though was poison. “He called us a ‘second rate gook band’…” [*Author’s Note: Holy Shit.]
IN PERTH: “We played an underage show in Perth and after the show all of the kids wanted autographs. They clearly had no idea who I was, they were just like: ‘this guy’s sick, he played in the show!’…”
The TV Show Most Likely to Feature the song ‘Ocean’ in a Contemplative Car Ride Scene, Where Unspoken Sexual Tension is Developing Between Two Main Characters
- JESSIE DAVIDSON: Seinfeld!
- BEN ZUBRECKYJ: Skins, season one…
Does the Obsession of Youth in Music and Focus on His Age Ever Frustrate Jesse Davidson?
- “I don’t really care. I guess it’s a little bit annoying”.
[*Author’s Note: I think my obsession of the obsession of youth in music was probably more irritating overall]
Some Furnishings That I Feel Would Have More Fully Completed the Carpeted Hole in the Floor That the Bulk of the Interview Was Conducted In. (So Things That Complement a Sort of Pan-Exotic Atmosphere of Red Hues, Dark, Sunken Corners and Warm Globes of Light, Thrown by Candles and Small Lamps)
For Cool Accidents
