The roar of a guitar amp stack bellows across the band room, out over the bowlo green, and into the coastal Bryon Bay air. It’s a Sunday and usually, Splendour in the Grass would be in full swing. But this year, the festival is conspicuously absent. Not that that’s a bad thing for us. A few local gigs have popped up in its place, and it’s here at the Bangalow Bowls Club that Quintin, Dakota, and I (Shelvo) have come to interview Byron Bay rabblerousers Mini Skirt.
We’re watching Wet Season play when in walks the people’s man of Byron, the raspy voice word slinger, Jacob Boylan. Once we meet, I give him the special gift of a custom-made Cronulla Sharks VB bottle (thank you Mitch Sansom for that), and we are all instant mates!
The interview was held in the back balcony area of the Bowlo and I have to say it was the loudest interview I have ever done. It was like being at the Ekka accompanied by the cacophony of a thousand rainbow lorikeets in a glass capsule. However, we made do and hunkered down over a precariously balanced table, and laughed our way through it all with grit and grins, despite the entire population of the North Coast coming up to say g’day to the lads during the interview. I even avoided any reminder of the 2024 State of Origin result that week, phew!
Members
Jacob Boylan: Vocals
Cam Campbell: Guitar
Jesse Pumphrey: Bass
Jacob Pumphrey: Drums (not interviewed but photographed later on)
In “other” Jacob’s place was Drew, a good mate of theirs and the vocalist of Cam’s other band, Chrome Cell Torture.
1. Has there ever been a time where you’ve wanted to do something a bit out there as a band, or even just in your own life, only to get shut down by the Fun Police?
Jacob: Nah, not really. I don’t think we pay enough attention to it.
Jesse: I don’t think we do either. I think we’re a bit on our own world.
Jacob: I used to try to wear a nightie to get into the RSL in Cronulla growing up, and they wouldn’t let you in with a nightie. That’s probably one thing, you know, trying to splash out yeah!
Jesse: I don’t think we pay that much attention to it.
Jacob: Sometimes Cam buys himself guitar pedals, and then fun polices himself and never uses them!
OB: Ow! Spicy!
Cam: Hey! You (Jacob) fun policed me the other day when I said I wanted to remix a song and you just thumbs downed me in the group chat!
(General group laughter ensues)
So maybe it’s that!
OB: Maybe a side project is on the way Cam?
Cam: Yeah, maybe ha-ha!
2. Can you name another band or artist out there who you reckon are the Face of the Future in the Australian music scene?
Jacob: There’s some groms from around here, Love Banana. I watched them the other day, fairly different to us, but I really like them, a good live show. Yeah, I dunno.
Jesse: Yeah, I dunno either.
Jacob: We’ve been a bit tapped out…
Cam: The 745 are good.
Jesse: We haven’t really toured in the last year. So, we haven’t seen a great deal of other support bands so there’s nothing that’s jumping out at us, I guess.
Jacob: Well, the thing is we haven’t been trying very hard!
Cam: What about The 745? From that thing Fitzy put on in Adelaide?
Jesse: Yeah! They were really good.
OB: (Fighting the urge to do a dad joke, I am losing here) Are Love Banana from Coffs Harbour?
Jacob: Ha! No, they are from the Goldy, but live around here.
3. Back in 2020, you guys proclaimed that you were all Pretty sick of it all. It’s been a few years since then, so I’m interested to know what’s the number one thing you’re Pretty sick of in 2024.
Cam: Playing live shows! Ha-ha-ha.
Jesse: This is our first one for the year that’s pretty obvious… I don’t know. What are you sick of Jacob?
Jacob: Work, yeah digging holes.
Jesse: Yeah, digging holes, banging nails, we all work on the job site. But then, I’d kind of rather be doing that then playing music full time honestly. But nothing that we are really sick of.
Jacob: I wrote that song (Pretty) really ever before Covid. I guess there’s really just an overall feeling of general defeat now. I can’t even be bothered to be upset about something.
OB: I listen to the lyrics of Dying Majority now and what should have been a Yes vote for Indigenous Voice to Parliament. And the entire time, the dying majority, it’s just captured the feeling of disappointment you know? That’s one thing I’m extremely fucking sick of. How right those lyrics have become.
Jacob: Yeah, I guess it’s like… There’s been not losses, but a lot of down stuff that’s happened. This year’s been… I’m sure a lot of people have been doing this, but I’ve just been trying to tap out of everything a little bit and find some good stuff to put my energy into. But like you said, the vote was just so disappointing.
Drew: Here’s something I’m pretty sick of. Everyone sorta just had to find a hobby during that period of Covid and now when I’m going to play live shows again, there’s always a thing in the back of my mind where I’m like “Yeah, am I going to play the show, get sick, have to take a week off work?”. That excitement of going to play shows and being with friends just comes with a really big catch at the moment. I feel like that just takes some of the passion out of it. It comes with this additional step of anxiety.
OB: At least in Brisbane, while some of the bigger stuff has been shut down, you see the smaller stuff getting bigger too, the smaller venues, which is good to see.
Jacob: Yeah, even like alternative venues like the Bowlo. Three years ago, there wasn’t really any gigs here and now everyone has kinda like decentralised a bit, and so there are more venues doing stuff like this, which is cool.
Jesse: And it’s fitting for the size of bands that happen in Australia. It’s like there’s this massive disconnect between at this size and level and then the…
Jacob: The big jump to like the ARIA charts.
Jesse: Yeah, the two hundred to five hundred cap venues and there’s this massive jump to like the…
Jacob: The Tivoli and The Enmore or something.
Jesse: So, I think it’s important that they just keep running a many small shows as possible. It’s just the only way for good bands to make a name for themselves.
Drew: This is definitely only venue in the Northern Rivers with like less than three hundred capacity where you can see bands and it’s sick.
Jacob: That consistently puts on shows too.
Drew: Yeah, and see some really good bands. It’s better than going to the Vales and seeing just the weirdest jam band or some reggae fusion band cover band. It’s just so absurd. This is really the only place with less than five hundred cap for bands to play and it really fills that gap.
OB: Well as soon as we heard you were on the bill, we said “That’s it, we are going and we don’t care how far south of Tweed we have to drive to see you!”.
Jacob: Thanks! I’m glad you feel that way! I wish we felt the same about playing in Brisbane, (when we do it) it’s like ah fark!
Cam: When you play in Brisbane and it’s the wrong side of the fucken… daylight savings. You go on between eleven-thirty or midnight or something, then you finish at one and have to drive home and you’re home at like three.
OB: Ah I’m sorry about that, it’s the Dying Majority that kept it! (not having daylight savings in QLD).
Jesse: Yeah, it is easier to play in Sydney than Brissie at the moment!
Cam: Most of the time we’re like, we’ll play if we’re opening!
(Note: Keep this in mind Jed, wink, wink!)
4. Continuing on with the hot takes, society is rapidly changing these days. Is there a topic or issue where you feel like part of the Dying Majority? In other words, is there anything that you’re siding with the Boomers on?
Jacob: Oh yeah definitely, there’ll be funny stuff. Like my mum will call me or bring something up with me, because she’s heard something on Radio National, or seen something on ABC News and be like “Did you hear about this?”. And I’ll be like “Yeah Mum, I did know about it”. And she’ll be like “That’s outrageous, I can’t believe it!”.
So yeah, I think it just takes a while longer for some things to trickle into the avenues that older generations get their information from. It’s just like a delayed thing, they’re not always like innately “anti-everything”, or like “unaware”, they are just very dependent on the more traditional media outlets for their information.
Drew: People like our age are very quick to react to things but by the time things get to people like my parents for example, so many people have told them so many completely different things about what’s going on. They watch A Current Affair and it’s like all this fucking scare news, I’m like “No, dad it’s not like that at all”. Like when the internet went out for a day and you couldn’t use EFTPOS I was like “Oh alright”, but I feel mainstream media is out to scare older people (about stuff like that).
Cam: My mum rang me a couple of weeks ago and said “Did you know the government sold the ownership of the HECS debt?”. I’m like “Yeah I’ve got a $57,000 uni bill, yeah I definitely know!”.
Jacob: Mum’s like “What I thought it was still free? Isn’t Gough still in?”
OB: As we are all laughing, we are not laughing at your predicament just the discussion here Cam…
Cam: Oh, it doesn’t matter I’m rich!
Drew: He’s so rich he bought a cheap body board on the internet and got scammed again. He’s the only adult I know who’s been scammed twice.
Cam: Yeah, I am a boomer!
Jacob: The only two people I know who have been scammed online are mum and Cam!
OB: That’s definitely going in!
(We all laugh)
5. Bad//Dreems and Mini Skirt are both known for their socially conscious lyrics about the state of modern Australia. With this in mind, is there a track out there that you’d like to team up with your contemporaries to cover together?
Jesse: That would be hard.
Cam: Yeah, they’ve done some great ones already.
Jacob: I was listening the other day to Woody Guthrie’s Tear the Fascists Down, and it was quite funny… I was like “This song is so good,” but (at the same time) I was also thinking of how the lyrics haven’t aged so well since World War Two, but the idea’s powerful. But (when he’s singing) he’s like “Thanks to Russia and to China”, and you’re like “Oh Jesus!”.
Jesse: AC (Alex Cameron) the guitarist from Baddies, he is so talented. He’s has had his finger on the pulse for so long with his choices.
OB: We will be asking them this same question too, so you can peek at each other’s answers
Jacob: Whatever they say, we will go with whatever they reckon.
Jesse: We support them. Look at where they are and look at where we are, so whatever they say is probably a good one!
OB: Is there a probable track?
Jesse: I’ve talked to Alex about some collaborations about music and maybe some really small management things because we’ve never really had management. We were talking about maybe teaming up in a way to access more remote shows, and bringing music to different places in Australia.
Jacob: I think a collab probably more on that level, rather than doing a song together. We’d be a nightmare of a band to collaborate with to be honest.
Jesse: You’ve already copped how late we were getting back to you and the back and forth (about getting this interview done).
OB: No! You’re no different to any other bands, you’ve been great!
Jacob: We’ve been doing the same cover since we started, because we can’t decide on another one. That’s like seven years now! So, to try and decide on one with someone else, and throw four maybe five other people in the mix!
Cam: It’s probably not even written yet! Yeah, the song we’re covering is probably not written yet.
Drew: You see probably the biggest misconception people have about bands is that (rehearsing is easy). Rehearsing is a fucking nightmare! It’s the worst thing ever. They (your band members) say “What are we doing today? and you say “Rehearsing!” And they go “Oh fuck! I’ll be there at eight,” and you say, “Well we start at five!”.
Jacob: Well, we were there… eventually. And it’s always nice to see the lads of course but playing the songs wasn’t that fun.
Cam: Yeah, we played for three hours (beat), we were out of there in forty minutes…
OB: And sinking beers for the rest.
Mini Skirt: Yeah!
Drew: Yeah, doing the set once, having ten ciggies and then going home. You’re like “Ah fuck we didn’t do anything!”.
Jesse: Ah, we had two rehearsals in total (for this show), we are good to go. Don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine!
Drew: Hey Cam do you remember your songs?
(Cam shakes his head)
Jacob: We played a couple of the songs in the second rehearsal too!
Jesse: Yeah, we actually played songs in that second rehearsal so it should be a good set.
Mini Skirt! What a bunch of loveable characters whom made us laugh the entire time. The snag that comes with doing these interviews is that you become aware once again of how hard doing music has become in recent years. But with that also comes a deep need to promote independent Australian music to the world and to continue to volunteer to support the industry by being front at centre at as many gigs as possible. In hindsight despite the noise, doing the interview in that spot made it even more evident what a valued part of the community Mini Skirt are in Byron Bay.
Later on, Jesse introduced us to his expecting partner, and they shared the excitement of awaiting their own mini-Mini Skirt!
A special thanks to Dakota (@strictly.sentimental) for getting these shots of the band despite all the punters trying their best to make it into the shots!
Mini Skirt self-admittedly haven’t been up to much recently, but after dusting off the cobwebs at Bangalow, they’ve got two shows coming up. Firstly they’re set to play the Bloomfield Festival in Buangla at the end of August. Then they’ll be opening for The Saints in Byron at the end of November, how good!