Today, we take a small break from graff interviews to delve into another aspect of the Brisbane creative scene - music. In this interview we have a chance to talk to Liam Matsen. A local who is taking the future into his own hands and wrestling his way through the process of starting a music label with a debut vinyl release on Good Food records. Q: First of all, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. For reasons we’ll touch on later - you happen to have a bit more of it on your hands than usual though not by choice. So let's get this started. How did this adventure kick off and what is Good Food records about? L: I grew up in the Brisbane punk and hardcore era so I’ve always had an appreciation for underground, independent music and been a collector of it myself. One day I looked at the albums in my collection and just kind of said. ‘Well, why can’t I do this myself? I have the skills and I have enough connections in the respective scenes’ and I just sort of decided to take it into my own hands and cut all the middlemen out. I use it to promote my mates' bands and just anything I want to see released. Drudge - Good Food records (2023) Q: That sounds like the essence of punk right there, very do it yourself. Home made jackets, photocopied gig flyers - that kind of stuff. L: I’ve always been a believer in the saying if you want something done properly do it yourself. I had a go about ten years ago and set up a bedroom label before releasing a couple of cassettes and CDs. But being young and having a million other interests it just fell into obscurity. Q: From what we’ve talked about before - this time is more focused due to your current circumstances. Mainly that you broke your fucking back - how did that happen? L: Well it’s still ongoing! But it’s a lot better than it was, I’ve been able to walk around a bit lately which is a bit of a milestone for me. I was at a punk and hardcore show and as you do there, was climbing up and stage diving and then the second last song of the last band just miscalculated and missed and hit the ground. Q: Hold on - what music is good enough to break your back to? And what band are we talking about here for Good Food records? L: They called Drudge, a five piece influenced by 80’s hardcore cro mag Poison Idea kind of stuff mixed with modern traits of faster beats as for breaking my back the band was Burst from New Caledonia, a group from the pacific islands near Vanuatu. Q: Did you know straight away something was wrong? L: I knew that I’d done something, but it felt more like I’d pulled a muscle in my back, I just gasped for air and instantly got back up and limped to the side. Spent the remainder of the show there, skipped the after party and just went home. As soon as I got back and sat down - I’ve broken ribs before and just thought to myself ‘oh that's that's what it was’. But the x-rays showed my back as well. During the initial week I couldn’t locate the pain because it was just everywhere. All up it took about five days before I had the strength to even try to go to the hospital or the doctor. I went to the ER but gave up after a few hours and just went to a GP the next day. Q: Most people would agree that is a hell of a lot to deal with, but you mentioned on your social media that it became almost a meditative experience? L: At first it wasn’t. Long story short I was in a bit of a rough patch mentally anyway and not really looking after myself. My back was something that had happened that I couldn’t do anything about now and it was up to me how I handled it. I had another project of drawing for a mates brand which I’d been putting off and I got into it and got it finished. From there, it just lit a fire under me that used to be there a few years ago and put a lot of things in perspective. I was physically incapacitated when I’m used to being outside all day. Q: It’s interesting you say that, about perspective. I have a friend who was in a serious car crash and he said it made him rethink his problems. He told me it was like ‘What scale are they - really? Am I giving them the weight I should in the bigger picture?’ Was this similar? L: Pretty much yeah. Okay I went through that, but it could have been so much worse - I got very lucky. I will be able to walk again. It made me think - what was it I was even fretting about before this? When you’re up against such a serious issue, it really all gets put in perspective. Which is often hard to do unless something bad happens unfortunately. Q: It’s not the way you want to earn that kind of perspective. Are you expecting full recovery? L: Yes, I have another CT scan booked in a month and then keep doing the physio.Then if those clear I’m good to go back to work and start living as normal again. Q: Speaking of work - are you in the creative industry? L: No. I’m an electrician by trade, I quit my job when I was taking art seriously the first time - when I was getting features in galleries and murals to see how far I could go without steady income. It worked and I was getting by, but I wasn’t comfortably getting by. One week you might get a few grand for a mural which is sweet. But then you don’t know when the next month’s rent is coming from after that so you still have to live like you’re on centrelink wages Q: That kind of artist experience, hand to mouth. It’s not for everyone, I couldn’t do it. Almost everybody I’ve talked to in the creative industry has a day job. It might be adjacent - they might even work a job that feeds into it but they still have one. Photography, graphic design, tattooing and so on. Something that hopefully gives them freedom to travel. Norway - Photo by Liam Matsen Speaking of which, have you done much travel and has it impacted your work? L: Initially it wasn’t too much of an impact or experience in a creative sense at all - I was just at a point where I wanted to leave Australia and try something new and see where I end up. Since then its subconsciously leaked into my work, shaping my identity Q: I think that it’s very important to travel because it gives you perspective on just how big the world is and that the people you’re reading about on your phone or in the paper are real. L: All that separates us is our position on the earth and our birth circumstance. Q: Well said! Where have you been in your exploration of the earth? L: I started in Norway, a lot of black metal traces its origins to that area and I wanted to go see all the churches that were burned and all the gnarly shit to do with that scene. I ended up staying there longer than I thought I would and then bounced around Scandinavia, down through Europe. Q: The Scandis seem to have such a strange, angular creative output too. Whether it comes to art, or music, or film they have such a specific energy L: I think the best word I could find for it is melancholic which I think is translated from their experience living in that environment. It’s cold and very isolated, beautiful vast scenery which has a kind of cathartic melancholy to it that I see in the artistic scenes coming from there. Photo by Liam Matsen Q: You said earlier the Scandis are considered the cradle of black metal isn’t it, could you elaborate on that? L: Norway is yes. Well, technically England which was the first wave with an album by Venom called ‘Black Metal’ (1982) which is where the phrase came from. But it wasn’t the black metal you’re thinking of - it was more dark evil rock and roll. From that sound bands like Bathory (1983), Hellhammer (1982-1984) spawned. From Sweden and Switzerland respectively. They were your first wave of black metal and that was very raw, more like traditional heavy metal but with darker themes. Then the Norwegians took it from there at about 88 to 91. Q: After this pilgrimage to the heart of black metal, where was next? L: After mainland europe, I went over to Hawaii and the US, Canada, Mexico and a little bit of Central America as one big journey over a few consistent years. Through the states and Mexico, into Belize and a little bit of Guatemala sort of just working my way down to Panama and then through the last of central america before columbia but unfortunately I didn’t make it that far before I had to return due to family reasons. Q: What's your Vegas story? Everyone always has one from that place. L: Considering what happens there it’s not actually that wild - I got into town at 4am and was only meant to stay the night and a friend of a friend was picking me up to go camping in the Nevada desert. So I went to see the strip at night and met this Swedish guy and English dude who were really cool and I said hey I’m in town for the night and I want to see the strip. They were like okay open your mouth - some LSD was chucked in and it became visually more like Fear and Loathing style! It was the wildest trip, just characters everywhere with how intense and full on and lit up that city is. Abandonment - Photo by Liam Matsen Q: I cannot imagine a more Vegas introduction to Vegas than that! Looking back as you are now, what countries have impacted you the most? L: Definitely Norway, I’m biassed but that's my hands down favourite. Iceland was a big one - almost otherworldly environments every season in a day. Very spread out population so it creates the mood you are even more dwarfed by the space. Q: I hope to be able to see Europe some day, there is just such an intense amount of history over there. But for now let's jump back to Australia and the other thread of this story - the music scene. What was your musical upbringing in punk and hardcore here in Brisbane? L: One of my first shows would have been Parkway Drives first Brisbane show in 2006. I was still in high school and unsure if it was even an all ages gig so I got someone to double stamp me in - it was at a place called the Lions Den which is long gone now. Q: So this period was your introduction to the music scene? L: To the live side of things, yes, I’ve always been interested in it. But wasn’t old enough to visit any of the shows. Q: What set you on the road to establishing your own label time given that you said you’d had a stab at it before? Abandonment, Brisbane - (2023) L: Perpetual boredom and understanding my own head a bit more now. Knowing my own abilities and that I’m capable of doing these things. So literally just - why not? If I can do it, I might as well be doing something and it gives me a sense of fulfilment to contribute to the community and give back. Mutual gain for myself and the band and hopefully anyone who consumes it I guess Q: Changing gears, you mentioned earlier that you’d dabbled in Urbex and it was a strong inspiration for you - can you talk a bit more about that? L: As a kid I would find abandoned overgrown places in the bush. The mood, the visuals of something man made being consumed again by nature and forgotten - it has a sense of wonder. Like what happened here, who were all these people who came through and left their mark it just creates its own story. Just because the building has expired its purpose doesn't mean it can’t take on a new life by being forgotten and found again by the curious. My main focus was abandoned houses, they were my favourite - still are. Because of the aesthetics, seeing parts collapsed or just frozen in time. Or things that have been left in a hurry, still furnished. It’s so otherworldly when you come across it, it’s like stepping through a time machine and being the only one here in the world right now. Q: Obviously a picture tells a thousand words but experiencing it in person really puts into perspective the permanency of anything. My usual talk is graffiti which, as I often say, is so ephemeral 99.9% of it is gone in three years. Abandonment - Photo by Liam Matsen Q: Do you have any memorable urbex experiences you’d like to share? L: One of my favourites was when I was in the outskirts of Berlin the first time I went there. I went mainly because I’d heard through other people how many abandoned things existed there due to world war 1, world war 2 and the industrial changes at the time lots of stuff from the separation between east and west. So much has just been left, it’s a playground. My favourite one history wise was this massive , basically a whole train station you get off and the whole town has been abandoned, a world hospital from world war one and two, underground tunnels, so many buildings overgrown. Apparently hitler was treated there in World War 1, so much happened in this place. I ended up sleeping there a few nights in a swag, it was so eerie. Q: Back to the music talk - let's talk about the process of making Vinyl from the start. Did you have a hand in doing the master recordings? L: No, a friend of ours recorded it at GDI Studios - Louis Gaudet is his name, he’s a really good dude. It’s a friend's band that I back and want to show my support for. That's a big part of why I started my own label. Lately I feel there has been a new wave of Brisbane punk and hardcore and I was like okay cool I’ve had a few years off travelling and doing my own things and now I’m back, and as I see the new wave starting up I asked myself how can I take part? Q: So you feel you have developed the necessary skills required, in that time? L: 100 percent, I feel all the other things we’ve spoken about have funnelled into this. Once I got motivated and decided I was going to do that I sat down and drew the cover design and the back. Constructed the layout and went from there. It’s cool, it being my little project where I do the artwork, source the materials, cut and glue the vinyl sleeves myself. I looked into doing it (the vinyl production) in Brisbane but unfortunately it was cheaper overseas for an experimental first run. I opted for lathe cut record instead of pressed, lathe cut is cut in real time with a lathe cutting the grooves from the outside in. Pretty much the same way it plays, they’re running the actual audio through the needle and it cuts in real time. It’s a small run to begin with, only 35 mainly produced for the collectors and made by one guy from start to finish. Q: Brisbane venues, is there a lot that have come and gone over the years? L: Essentially all the ones I went to, the places still exist but they’re not used to shows anymore. My first introduction was the princess theatre, which is ironically starting up shows again now. They put their first hardcore act in I want to say ten years the other week. I wasn’t able to go due to my injuries. It was a big staple point for Brisbane punk and hardcore around the later 2000s to mid 2010. Then there was Fat Louies - the bar in the city. It’s still there but they don’t do shows any more. They had this tiny dance floor and an older punk dude used to volunteer to run the sound and put bands on every sunday night. L: Chris Brownbill who is also an audio engineer in Brisbane, used to have a warehouse in albion right near the mill called Sun Distortion, he had his own studio and in the rest of the warehouse he built a little stage out of palettes. It ran for a few years and supported local bands, and had some international ones come through from time to time - some of my wilder shows were there. Q: Brisbane versus elsewhere in the art scene, are we a lost cause? L: I don’t like to accept defeat but there have definitely been some heavy blows for generations, it definitely still exists if you know where to find it and there are a lot of people still fighting the good fight. More so than anything I hope to encourage other people to get into it, you can do it. You don’t need something to exist already, get a bunch of mates together and start working. It might not be much and you might not create a scene but if you get enough movement going eventually something will catch fire. Q: Do you have advice for anyone who wants to do a similar creative output to you, any lessons you'd impart? L: To directly quote yoda - do or do not there is no try. Just Do. It’s so much easier said than done and it sounds simple but - if you’re reading this. Follow your interest and just start, and if you don’t know how to start, start anywhere just see what happens. Q: Any shout outs? L: To Drudge! Also, pretty much any band in Brisbane that’s out there doing it and keeping the scene live and creating this new wave. To visual artists that inspire me, Antonio, Emmanuel Moore. The bands and scene in general and anyone reading along who shows that niche interest and keeps people like yourself keen to document it, and thank you for doing that. Q: Much appreciated! So, where can people see more of Drudge? L: They’re on spotify, and a bandcamp - I also made a music video for them as well that you can check out on the good food account. Q: Thank you for your time! Socials - See inlay for details Instagram Liam - @matsen.art Good Food - @good.good.food.food Drudge - @drudgehxc