Cardboard Cutouts used to be everywhere, but in an age of digital advertising, it’s rare that you’ll see them in the wild anymore unless you go to the cinema, and even those are starting to become a rare sight. But if you fancy a trip down to Toowoomba, you might just see four of them in their natural habitat. You also might catch a sighting of them tearing up the stages of Fortitude Valley, which is exactly how I managed to see them in action.
I actually used to live with their manager Harrison funnily enough and he’s been trying to get me onto these boys for a quite a while now. They should honestly give him a raise because he arranged all of this while traveling through the proud state of Utah. In the past, I’ve had a hard enough time trying to arrange band interviews with band managers I see every weekend in Brisbane! But I digress.
Last year, Cardboard Cutouts released their debut album Politics & Footy Tips, a perfect slice of Australiana, emo, and indie rock, blending raw, emotionally charged lyricism with a very ocker sensibility. This year, they’ve returned with their latest single Cheap Shirt, a track where they proudly wear their vulnerability on one sleeve and their defiance of life’s detractors on the other.
Appropriately enough, a Cheap Shirt is also the perfect thing to tie around your face when you go and steal a life size cutout of Vin Diesel when he inevitably makes another Fast and the Furious movie. Venturing to Tomcat before doors had even opened, I sat down with Cardboard Cutouts to find out what’s been hiding behind the print over a round of our Five Quickfire Questions!
Cardboard Cutouts are:
- Eliot Argus (Vocals, guitar) (Interviewed)
- Rohan Parker (Drums) (Interviewed)
- Sebastian Czaran (Bass)
- Campbell Patterson (Lead guitar) (Temporarily replaced by a laptop because he’s on parenting duties)
1. Politics & Footy Tips are two topics that are guaranteed to get people fired up at the pub. I’m not much of a follower of either, but do you have any red hot predictions for the next season or election?
Eliot: I think the Dolphins are gonna win the premiership. On the politics side… What do you think, Rowan?
Rowan: I feel like it’s gonna be Labor as long as Albo’s out.
Eliot: Okay, interesting. There you go.
OB: Well, I guess we’ll find out.
Eliot: Do you think Pauline’s gonna get up there or?
Rowan: Well maybe if Albo’s still there.
OB: If it happens, we’ll be posting about it!
2. Can you tell me A Story of Bottles, Numbers & Anxiety?
Eliot: Sometimes you know when you just have like a little bit too much to drink and then you just start counting things and you just start counting them over and over again, and then you get anxiety when you wake up and you’re hungover, and all of a sudden you’re in a Bunnings bathroom. And yeah, don’t want to go into too much more description with the Bunnings bathroom.
Rowan: It happened to you the other day! What were you drinking?
Eliot: I was drinking Jameson Dry and Limes.
Rowan: I was drinking um… The easy, hazy XPAs.
Elliot: Easy hazy XPAs. Mm.
OB: Are those the ones from Balter or?
Rowan: Yeah.
OB: Oh yeah, the full strength ones, those’ll send ya. They’re like six percent. If not seven. I’ve had them on an empty stomach before. Yeah, not great.
Eliot: Did you just say six-seven Quintin? I don’t know if that’s deliberate or not, but shame on you.
(We all laugh)
3. What’s something that you do Hourly & Daily?
Eliot: Ah, I love breathing. I love breathing in my nose. I’m a nose breather. I’m not a mouth breather. And I like clicking my feet together, um, like a little happy little leprechaun. What about you, Rowan?
Rowan: Uh, beatboxing crazy beats while thinking about completely unrelated things.
4. There are many things in life as artists that really ignite The Flame In Us. What’s something that always sparks creative inspiration in you?
Eliot: I’m really inspired by the mundane. Milk bottles are something that I’m really passionate about actually, and I’m disappointed that they got rid of milk cartons with the pictures and stuff on them. So yeah, that’s probably what ignites the flame in me. Milk cartons. Soy milk specifically. Do you have something?
Rowan: Ah, I’m the opposite. I like, look at something that’s overly complex, and then I just kinda go at it for hours, you know. Yeah, in terms of what inspires me musically, for sure.
Eliot: What’s the sort of complex thing though?
Rowan: I don’t know, like seeing a drummer on Instagram do some sort of stupid thing, and I’ll be like “Damn, that looks interesting. I’m gonna spend the next like ten hours practicing learning that!”.
5. Who’s someone that you always have Good Times with? Alternatively, we can conceal their identity if you so choose, who’s someone that you always have to Fake A Smile around?
Eliot: Ooh, okay.
Rowan: Seb.
Eliot: Seb.
Eliot (to Rowan): Is that the answer?
Rowan: Yeah, that’s my answer. Seb.
OB: So is that Good Times or Fake A Smile around?
Rowan: Both?
Eliot: Both!
Rowan: Do we have a serious answer for that one?
Eliot: Seb’s my serious answer. This is a very serious interview, Rowan. I’ve been taking this very seriously. Seb loves pickles, but that’s beside the point.
Bonus: 6. If you were to Ask Around, what’s something you’d be able to find within minutes?
Eliot: I think I would be able to find the answer to life, love, and you know, the understanding of the universe and everything.
Rowan: That’s a pretty good song title.
Eliot: The Understanding of Life, Love, and the Universe.
OB: Will it be on the next album?
Eliot: Oh, the next album is gonna be called Live, Laugh, Love.
And there we have it! The next Cardboard Cutouts album will be bringing back some of those early 2010’s vibes and making a house a home or whatever those signs were for. If Cheap Shirt was an indication of the direction they’re going in, I’m very keen to hear their next single, K-Mart Kitsch. But once again, I digress. Make sure to stream Cheap Shirt below and give them a follow on the socials as well:
All show photos by Dylan Hewitson-Bevis (@somethingcolouredblack). Press shot by Will Johnstone (@a_w.johnstone).
