Musicadium Blog

This week we are catching up with a special band to feature - The Bastard Children.  Artist Relations Manager, Sarah, caught up with the boys and questioned them about their music and the hirsuite pursuits (namely, their beards.)

From their MySpace:

“The twisted offspring of junkyard folk, old-world gypsy, ragged celtic & dirty blues. A multi-instrumental globe-hopping jaunt through the Australian musical landscape. The Bastard Children bring the wheeze of the accordion, the spilled blood of a dirty harmonica, the tearing of guitars, the scrape of the mandolins, banjos and more. A fast paced live show that leaps through various styles and instruments with all the urgency of a thirsty drunkard. Sordid, scandalous and superbly attired, these lads are, like it or not, bastards of their own diverse cultural heritage.  Grafted from the gnarled and twisted branches of Australia’s musical family tree, theirs is a sound plundered from their foreign forebears. The soil is rich and the roots go deep and, although their sounds may have originated from foreign shores, The Bastard Children conjure the ignoble birth of something distinctly Australian and undeniably good fun.”

1.     There seems to be a lot of great bearded musicians out there at the moment. Who are your favourite bearded songwriters? Do you think there is a correlation between growing a beard and writing good songs?
As a band we seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time discussing facial hair. It was only natural to get together with a band called The Beards for the Adelaide leg of our tour. This is band who write and perform songs exclusively about beards, we got on well. I think you can really hear a bearded recording, it’s like vinyl, it has a certain quality to it that’s hard to define but just works. I believe The Beatles did some of their finer work whilst bearded. The same is also true of The Band, Santa and to a lesser extent, Celine Dion.

2.    You play a lot of old-fashioned and interesting instruments. Are there any new/old and exciting ones you’re going to bring into the fold?
We’re all a bit obsessive when it comes to collecting instruments and they always seem to find their way into our recordings. I’m on the look out for a Fox hunting bugle at the moment and I’ve always wanted a pipe-organ but taking it to gigs could become a problem. It’s a great part of the writing process we you work with an instrument that is unfamiliar – you tend write differently when out of your comfort zone and take less traditional directions.

3.    If you could collaborate with any musicians (living or dead) who would they be?
I would love to work with Tom Waits, I’d probably be a little bit scared but I’d love to work with him in a studio environment and explore some of his techniques. His recording always have such an experimental style, he captures moments, textures, emotions masterfully.

4.    Have you ever had any adverse reactions to your name?
When we played the Edinburgh fringe we had a few old Spanish ladies take us to task when we were doing some promo. Not sure what was said but the word ‘Bastardos’ was being used and they didn’t look happy. My mother wasn’t a huge fan at first but my grandmother thinks it’s great – she’s been calling us Bastards for years anyway!

5.    You’re playing at the Apollo Music Festival next year which is huge. Apart from this, what’s next for the Bastard Children?
We’re back in the Converted 1970s brothel recording studio working on a new album at the moment which is has been intensive on both ears and liver. And we’re off to the UK next year to do a bunch of shows and return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe which is exciting. We’re hoping to build on the great responses we had last time and maybe meet some more fiery old Spanish ladies.

You can check out The Bastard Children’s music on

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 12:42 pm and is filed under Featured Artist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.