Shake Appeal is a column that highlights new garage and garage-adjacent releases. In recent months, this column has featured various projects from Sydney's Angela Garrick, a.k.a. Angie, including records by Ruined Fortune, Southern Comfort, and her solo work. This week, Straight Arrows release their new album Rising (stream it in full below), and to mark the occasion, Evan Minsker conducted a discography-spanning email interview with Angie.
Pitchfork: What's being a member of Straight Arrows like compared to your other projects?
A: Straight Arrows is essentially Owen [Penglis'] project. He asked me to play bass and that's basically where it began! It has been interesting experience as it's exposed me to an environment none of my other bands have had, like the crowd surfing and singing along, haha.
Pitchfork: What's the ideal listening environment for Straight Arrows?
A: I guess the ideal listening environment would be at a party, with people dancing and having a good time.
Pitchfork: Do you have favorite songs you've worked on with that band?
A: My favourite song would be ones like "Magic Sceptre" or "Fruits of the Forest"—the ones that pull towards weirder sounds and imagery.
Visuals by Angie
Pitchfork: Let's talk about your solo work as Angie—how does that work differ from your work with other bands?
A: I guess "Angie" just started as I had all these other ideas that didn't seem to fit with the collaborations I had going. They slowly developed by themselves and became complete in my head on my own. I guess also a lot of lyrics I write with themes that are quite oblique yet universal, hence when writing collaboratively each person can connect and mesh these ideas on their own prospective experiences, whereas these songs were more specific, and in turn I guess personal.
I love writing words. I do it every day. I guess it was a chance to use a lot of things that I couldn't with other people… especially with Jack [Mannix from Circle Pit] as we wrote lyrics together most of the time. I also wanted the challenge of working on my own, as I can be a bit of a pushover, and just agree for the sake of agreeing, so it was also an exercise in trying to formulate an opinion when I find that quite difficult.
Pitchfork: Do you remember when you decided to start making solo work?
A: I started writing the songs that became Turning while I was in Europe a few years ago. I was on a trip that was quite open-ended—travelling with my sister around Croatia and Turkey. I was completely enthralled but also restless and insatiable, as I was surrounded by incredible strange landscapes and vast amounts of spare time (possibly for the first time in my adult life).
These melodies started forming then, and existed only as vocal melodies in my head or as words written down in my notebooks that held some unknown resonance—for years. I guess for some unknown reason then last year I just started forming them together and writing music around them and it just all fell together. It was very serendipitous!
Photo by Jack Mannix
Pitchfork: Do you have more Angie records planned?
A: I've just finished a 2nd LP, called Free Agent. I could definitely say I'm more "comfortable" with this one. It was written in France when I was living alone in this small apartment in the middle of last year's winter. I would pace up and down the 1.5 metre space I had in my studio to stay warm and those footsteps, I guess, became a strange psychotic metronome and the songs just fell out from there. A close friend had died suddenly, I was obsessed with true crime documentaries, I was mugged whilst there. I was so happy to be completely alone for the first time, not talking to anyone for perhaps five days was this strange delight and the social interactions I did have were truly thrilling. It was primal living at its best! I hope that shows. It has some rock songs, some songs recorded on an old organ with no guitars at all, and a track recorded on synth while I was in Brazil last November. It's certainly different!
Pitchfork: How would you encourage people to hear Turning?
A: Turning to me is very dark. It's a strange thing to be committed to vinyl. Its terrifying! I think maybe people are too scared to talk to me about it. I haven't' really gotten much feedback from people about it apart from reading reviews. But I would hope that people would listen to it lying on the floor of their bedroom, looking at the ceiling. And I guess feeling and understanding the feelings conveyed as being something they could relate to. There is a lot of charged emotions flying around on that record, it's pained the way I guess I want more rock and roll to be.
Pitchfork: Tell me about Southern Comfort—how did that band come together?
A: Southern Comfort is my friend Harriet Hudson and I, who hails from Queensland but moved to Sydney for a few reasons, one of those was to play guitar in Circle Pit. We lived together in a few different houses just the two of us, and ended up writing songs together at home, in a very relaxed style with initially no agenda. It's more a studio project/friendship than a band, because Harriet now lives in Melbourne. For the HoZac 7" that just came out, I had flown down to Melbourne to record it. We live far away from each other but I guess its one of those things where you have like minds, and want similar things, it seems that sometimes things just happen easily when there are obstacles such as distance to deal with.
Pitchfork: Any plans to record a full album?
A: We'd love to do a LP and have talked about it. There are a few songs lying around that I would really like to get out there. They're really dark, with amazing guitar parts that Harriet has written. There's a lot to explore. I guess the thing with SC is its kinda meshing together the thematic and vocal elements of '60s girl pop, and then the musical side of '70s rock music. We want to be girls singing about swimming and boys and these kinda often superficial yet common issues, but execute the music in a way that is perhaps a bit more complex than usual.
Pitchfork: Do you have a favorite thing you've done with Harriet?
A: I love Southern Comfort because it really showcases how talented Harriet is with creating vocal melodies and guitar soloing. Her other projects (Miss Destiny and Good God in particular) are also incredible. I love collaborating with people and Harriet is one of the best because she's calm and has a positive attitude. I do love this unreleased song we have called "Unnatural" which conveys this really strange feeling we had while subletting this house that was beautiful but very scary, and we could never figure out why! We were always scared when we were going to sleep! This song captures that feeling, and that time of our lives, but rather than scaring me makes me laugh now.
Pitchfork: How did Ruined Fortune come about?
A: Ruined Fortune kinda rose out of the 'ashes' of Circle Pit I guess, I was still flying off the buzz of it, and was trying to create something that had a similar energy, but I guess with a darker streak—hoping to be stranger, weirder. It came together with Nic Warnock (RIP Society) and the first 7" came out soon after that. We took a while to finish on the LP but it is finally out.
Pitchfork: What's it like being in that band?
A: I clash with Nic a lot. We are completely different personalities. He's very bull-headed, organized, systematic about things. I'm very (without trying to sound like a hippy, ha) whimsical, shy, more instinctual I guess in my approach to music and I guess social interactions haha. The band itself has a great dynamic. The other players (Sam Chiplin and John Duncan) are great to play with and live it sounds heavy as hell.
Ruined Fortune: "Black and Red" on SoundCloud.
Pitchfork: What's the ideal listening environment for Ruined Fortune records?
A: I would say that listening to Circle Pit would be with friends over, or at a party—but with Angie and Ruined Fortune, I feel its more contemplative so I would say perhaps in a more solitary mode! When you're alone and looking for something but you don't know what.
Pitchfork: Tell me about how Circle Pit came about.
A: I met Jack when I was a teenager. I first saw him sitting at a bus stop—he was about 13. I became completely fascinated by him, and told myself that he was my 'project.' I had to know him! He was just so completely unique. I didn't know what to think of him. I couldn't tell if he was a man or a woman. He was this strange awkward character. I eventually met him through some mutual friends and we began playing music together over time in other projects. Circle Pit began when I could say we reached a new level or maturity at a similar time that I guess beaconed us towards more complex thematic and musical territories. The other projects were more dictated by others or collaborative in a group sense. This was our first chance to write and sing and be equal.
Being in Circle Pit has been amazing and incomparable experience. It has provided me with some of the greatest moments of my life, but also some of the most challenging. It really broke my heart seeing Jack dealing with drug problems and broke the back of the band that was at the time on an amazing roll. I don't regret anything though.
Photo by Jack Mannix
Pitchfork: What's the status of Circle Pit?
A: Circle Pit is now defunct at this stage… but echoes remain... and a record that is yet to be released. Jack and I have been writing some music together under a new pseudonym, Gloss. It's a relaxed bedroom project. I could say we have been going out to dinner and chatting for many hours more than anything else, which is always the way it's gotta be with your oldest friend.
Pitchfork: What's your favorite Circle Pit tune?
A: My favourite recorded song would maybe be "Honey" (Hardly Art 7") or "Wicked Wicked Time" + "Neon Idol", which are on the "lost" 12" which is yet to be released. "Honey" felt like the first love song I could write, and it was so hopeful. Jack's guitar solo on it he just wrote on the spot, and it was more perfect than anything I could ever come up with. He programmed all the drumming and instrumentation, and it was a truly great thing to work on with him. "Wicked Time"is the first song we ever wrote together, and ironically the last song we ever recorded as Circle Pit. It was just the two of us, without the band, howling and trying to replicate this sense of our former selves. I hope I can get the masters finally and it can see the light of day. I guess time will tell!
Visuals by Angie