A Pseudo Future Feature Brill = (L-R) Brian Canham, Dave Stuart, Zoran Romich, Andy McIvor, Darren Danielson Sometimes the best bands out there never make it to America. Bands like Sparks, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Wet Wet Wet, The Specials, Ultravox, Yazoo, The Smiths, Toyah, Visage, The Beautiful South and The Communards have many huge hits in their homelands yet never got the hit here to push them into international stardom. Is America too finicky about imported music or is it the radio stations? You won't buy what you haven't heard. And in 1987, America heard Pseudo Echo. Formed in 1982 it took America 5 years to notice them. Pseudo Echo attacked the charts with a #6 hit remake of "Funkytown" which was previously a hit for Lipps, Inc. in 1980. Yet, a few wrong steps took them out of the picture. We talked with singer/songwriter Brian Canham about Pseudo Echo and beyond. 80snut: So how're you doing? Canham: I'm doing great, thanks. 80snut: Doing a little touring? Canham: Yeah, we've been gigging around. I've been touring with Brill for the past 12 or so months now. 80snut: See, I heard you had been doing some work with Pseudo Echo recently too. Canham: Yes, we've also put that back together. 80snut: So you are working both projects at the same time? Canham: <laughing> It's kind of a start. It's pretty good because they are different outlets. Brill is a much more organic, acoustic/electric, yet traditional sounding. 80snut: Who would you compare the sound to? Canham: Not really much. It's predominantly guitar sounding with keyboard textures. It's a very 60's influence. Brill is a good outlet for me. I didn't want to twist Pseudo Echo into something it wasn't. So it made sense to do it as a different band and project. 80snut: I heard that while performing live you were doing some versions of your Pseudo Echo material. Canham: Well, we do and that is kind of bizarre too because we do them in the flavor of Brill. Which is kind of weird doing it that way. 80snut: Any comments from the fans on how that comes out? Canham: Oh yeah, a lot of people seem pretty impressed by it in the difference and the reworking of it. With Brill being more 60's influenced and Pseudo Echo being a pure 80's dance sound, the Brill cover versions of the Pseudo Echo songs sound older and more 60's. 80snut: Well, what got you into music to begin with? Canham: My father was a bit of an amateur musician, a horn player. So I always had it around me as a kid. Also even though my parents weren't really serious musicians, they were music buffs and really into music. Some of the more unusual stuff like Jose Feliciano... definitely the more melodic stuff. So it was a real unusual influence at a young age. 80snut: Do you think that helped you develop into a songwriter later? Canham: Definitely, because it was all about songs rather than the playing. All the bands from whom I was influenced, it was definitely song oriented. 80snut: Do you think you are starting to enjoy playing more now? Canham: You know, I love playing. I do. But song writing is something that lasts. It's a challenge too. It's probably only now that I'm starting to appreciate the talent of the songwriter more than I was younger having a hand writing hits. It's something you often take for granted. 80snut: Well, let's go back a bit to the formation of Pseudo Echo. What brought the keyboard out front? Canham: It's really funny. In that period, we are talking the early 80's, it was quite a stale sort of rock sound. We call it pub rock here because it seemed all the bands were doing the rounds and there was nothing exciting just bland rock and roll. And I think, they just sounded like they were starting out as a band, the sound of a garage band. I think that changed for us once I discovered this band, which you would probably know but they aren't that well known in Australia, called Styx. Now that was one of my really first influences that made me think "this is what it's all about." It had keyboards, big production and it just didn't sound like the local Aussie music scene. It really made me want to get a band and sound like that big produced sound. I was obsessed by it. I wanted to know what gave it that kind of sound. I used to listen to them over and over to analyze just what it was. I think that's where I first got my interest in production. I then started thinking that it was the keyboards. They could produce a sound that a four piece or even five piece guitar band couldn't do. That was when I went and found someone who could play keyboards. Back in that period everyone played drums, bass and guitar... there were hardly any keyboard players. It was an almost 'nerdy' thing to do. So, when I finally found a keyboard player, that was when Pseudo Echo was born. 80snut: And then like a movement, some other bands started popping up like Icehouse... Canham: That's exactly right, I'd seen Icehouse in my late teens supporting a band called The Stranglers who were still in their more punk years. And they were one of the first bands that were getting it together and moving away from pub rock. I was excited by it, they were still more guitar dominated but they were definitely the forerunners of that. 80snut: Actually, I tend to put Iva Davies (Icehouse) and your work in the same area. You really put a lot into your song writing and the message behind it. Canham: He's a real talent, that guy. He's a really big influence on me from a local point of view. I wasn't really influenced by a lot of local stuff but Iva would definitely be one of them. 80snut: So why do you think it took so long for America to catch on? Canham: Well, I think with Australian bands there has always been this real naivety with management and labels. They were in an infancy when it came to overseas. Men At Work were one of the few bands to do it up to that time. But it mainly had to do with management and labels. And once we got with a manager who'd had some international success and experience, that's when it happened for us. 80snut: I don't even think your first album got released over here. Canham: Well our first album, Autumnal Park sold only 50,000 to 100,000 units. A pretty quiet album but it did set the band up. We got a bit of airplay from that album. We actually got a track added to a movie. It was one of Fox's Friday The 13th movies. It was a track called "His Eyes" so it was more cult followish. 80snut: I've gotta go look for that now. Canham: It's a great track too. We've just added it back into the set when we've been playing. Just for the sake of it. 80snut: Would you say it's one of the darker songs you've ever written? Canham: Oh definitely, very gothic sounding. 80snut: And of course right after that was Love An Adventure which is a phenomenal album. There are so many different styles in there. Canham: Yeah. We were discovering a lot of new things there and broadening our influences. 80snut: Now, how did "Funkytown" come to mind as a cover? Canham: Well, in Australia, it wasn't on the original version of Love An Adventure because we did it between projects. As you probably know, albums take forever to get released in America than released in Australia. And it's just that thing that they are never sure what they've got. It's probably different now but in the 80's they were guessing and never sure about things. And I remember they had some mixed feelings about us recording "Funkytown". They thought it was a bad idea and that it probably wouldn't happen. 80snut: They thought it was too cheesy-pop for what you were doing at the time. Canham: They thought "nah, no one's gonna go for that." It was only after my persistence that they put it on there. I threw a tantrum and said "no, it's going on there!" <laughing> 80snut: Who's idea was it to record it? Canham: It was my idea. 80snut: You really wanted it. Canham: I was just out of it. I had this real vibe about it. It was a song I knew from my teen years and I thought it was the right time. The 80's were the perfect time for these kind of covers. The obvious thing to do was change the production on the song. That's really hard to do now. So many styles of production are in use now. You have this real disco 70's sound, grungy 90's and they are all running parallel. In the 80's, that sound was the new sound - the fat reverb, drum machine sounds, bass synth and things. Not that it was easy, but it was clear on what I wanted to do with the track. 80snut: So when did it get released there? Canham: It was basically released 8 months after the Love An Adventure album. It was kind of where we didn't know if we'd have a new album out soon or not. So what it was, we just did the song to fill the gap. It was just a one off single and it went through the roof, it went crazy, it was #1 here for something like 13 weeks. So they re-released the album with it added. 80snut: So what happened with the follow-up The Race? Canham: It was a really weird move in our career. You have to remember that period was a changing time in 80's music. The bands were getting heavier. You had bands like Poison and Van Halen starting to happen again. So it was hard for us to stick on our guns and not follow suit a bit. Personally, I wanted to stick on our guns. I think we were on to something and I wanted to but you have to face that thing where you sound out of date for awhile or look like you are lagging behind. A couple new guys had joined the band then that were really pushing to go this heavy way. I kinda wasn't too comfortable with it. It was a weird thing, they wanted to go with a new image and a new sound and everything. And I though, well... if we go slightly with the sound but retain our image now because it is important to keep your identity. But, I was a young guy. I didn't really stand up for for what I believed in as much and tended to be out-voted so I wound up going along with it. Probably one of the biggest regrets of my career. But in the end, things panned out. 80snut: Of course, a lot of the criticism on the album was that it wasn't what they were expecting. Especially when it's co-produced by Julian Mendelsohn who is more noted for his work with electronics. Canham: Julian was quite surprised when he came to work on the album. He came to us knowing mainly the first two albums and freaked out. When he heard the drumming we mixed he said "This is terrible. Let's get some machines, we need that big fat 80's sound." With the addition of new members, I think egos got in the way. They were young. They wanted to prove themselves as players also. 80snut: It meant you had to expand yourself as a writer too. With the different production techniques involved. Canham: That's right, actually it went back to early influences of mine. If you listen to The Race you'll hear a lot of influences like Styx. There's a lot of that going on in there. People might not be able to pick it up without knowing it. I was actually getting nostalgic on that record really. It was definitely a lot of my teenage influences coming out. As with Julian, we remain really good mates and might wind up doing another record together. 80snut: That'd be a new Pseudo Echo album? Canham: Probably a Pseudo record, I think. 80snut: Now after The Race you pretty put things on hold to do production work. Canham: Yes, we had a falling out with the U.S. label and management was falling apart. Bad managerial decisions, BMG pulling the album from stock, but it had some good early reviews. You learn so much from this kind of thing. 80snut: So you put your production experience to work for you and started producing your drummer's band Chocolate Starfish. Canham: They are actually a huge band here right now. Another story about bad managerial decisions. They had the world at their hands. Seymour Stein from Sire records personally flew in to see them while in the studio. We all met him in the studio and he was genuinely excited. He wanted to sign the band. The manager was a young guy, a hustler, and obviously said the wrong thing and suddenly everything went sour. He tried to play a few labels off each other and didn't really know that these people converse with each other. A real bummer because they were so on it. 80snut: How did you start producing them? Canham: Well, I went to school with a couple of those guys. They are a bit younger than me. They sort of knew me from when I was starting Pseudo Echo. They always sort of respected me as the "producer/songwriter guy". So when they started that band they thought it would be good working with someone they felt comfortable with, weren't intimidated by, but they respected his ideas. It was a very relaxed working environment. 80snut: So when did you decide to reform Pseudo Echo? Canham: Well, basically, we started Brill maybe two years ago now. With Brill we signed to a really small label. Purely because we weren't sure about going with a big label again. We'd all had so much experience with them. It looks good when your hot and that's great. But with a new project we wanted a label that we could deal with directly. So we toured a lot, got things happening, and said "we'll see what happens with it in the States". Feel it out a bit. Momentum Records is really on the case. They seem so much more enthusiastic and a bit more professional about the whole thing. We have 100% faith in them. So we though rather than burn it out here in Australia by keeping playing and losing the vibe ourselves, to put it on hold and let it catch up. Because it's a new record in the States so we don't want to kind of murder it here. 80snut: I have yet to hear the new album but I've heard some tracks. But there has been a lot of talk about the first single "MaryAnn" and Gilligan's Island. Is this about her? Canham: <laughing> It is. I sort of had a t.v. obsession as a kid. There's also another song about another woman from a very obscure show on the album. But Gilligan's Island was the mainstream one I wrote about. I often found it interesting in my later years hearing how MaryAnn was popular. And I found it funny because a lot of people would figure Ginger would be it. She was the bombshell and MaryAnn was the "girl next-door". I found it interesting she was so popular because of that. She wasn't intimidating. She was down-to-earth and likable. She made a great topic for a song. And the whole thing about her "coconut cream pies" and all kind of being immortalized. 80snut: It would be nice to get an endorsement from Dawn Wells on the single. Canham: Actually, she's really keen to doing something with us too. They notified our management. 80snut: That'd be a hilarious video! Canham: A little cameo or something. 80snut: I also heard you have new material you've been working on with Pseudo. Canham: Yeah, that's right. We've been doing that too. It's pretty hard going when you are working in two different directions. But it's still challenging artistically and it's important for me to have those sort of outlets. I need to have different flavors and move amongst them. That's what I enjoy about producing myself too. 80snut: Especially being able to write and say "This is a more Pseudo song than a Brill song." Canham: I definitely find that happens. The Pseudo songs are a different tint, I find they are based on more of a production sound and direction. Where as the Brill stuff is a little more satisfying for me because it comes from the heart and I'm not worried if you can dance to it or if it's the right keyboard sound. Brill is all about the song from the heart and it's really gratifying to do. We love doing shows locally. Even if it's a few hundred people, we are just happy to be out to do the songs. The band sounds great. It's sweet and and has this amazing sound. 80snut: Any chance of touring America? Canham: Well, we are dying to come over. <laughing> The question now is logistics and making it viable now. There has been some talk about doing a double header. One for Pseudo Echo which would probably bring more people and doing some separate smaller shows with Brill. 80snut: I'd love to see you bring out your label mates David Sterry and the rest of Real Life out with you. Canham: The whole retro-package. It's definitely something we've been talking about. It's just trying to tie it all in. We also have to think that we don't want one of our projects to overshadow the other when on tour. With playing things Pseudo Echo or Brill because they are both equally important to us. It's incredibly hard timing to work it out so one doesn't take over the other. 80snut: Performance-wise you'd think it'd be really difficult to play as one act and come back out as another. Canham: Well, sometimes we do. Because Darren Danielson and I are in both bands, it is sometimes like that. 80snut: Darren is in Pseudo also? Canham: When we reformed it, he was the logical choice for drummer. I didn't get some of the guys because it just wasn't the right chemistry with some of the original members. Pierre (Gigliotti) our original bass/synth player and I started the band and we figured it made sense to use someone we both grew up with also. It had that sort of feeling, right from the start. It felt like he was part of it anyway. It's a great working environment for both bands. If we came over we'd probably do a whole run across the country with Pseudo and then we'd do some smaller club shows with Brill. Keeping them separate yet utilize the time while we're over there. 80snut: What else do you have in the works. Canham: I'm just writing some new Brill stuff for a follow-up. And we're just about to start recording some new Pseudo work. 80snut: How many songs do you have ready for that one? Canham: Well, it's quite an unusual thing we are doing with the Pseudo's. Our first album, Autumnal Park, was never released on cd. 80snut: You are going to redo some of those tracks? Canham: We had immense requests from people trying to get it on cd. The label doesn't want to re-release it. So we said, "Ok, well...we'll record a live show. Do the whole album plus our hits." See in America we didn't have as many hits. In Australia we've had 7 Top 10 hits. So when I say "live", Pseudo Echo live is so close to a studio sound because it's all electronic. It's like a studio record with an audience run-on. So it's still a great listening record. So we've done that and we've also some some year 2000 mixes of "Funkytown" also some new material to go with it. It'll most likely be a double cd. Probably four or five new songs, the mixes, and the live material. 80snut: Last, but definately not least: As a songwriter what would you say is your favorite song you've written? Canham: I'd have to say that "Love An Adventure" would be my favourite PE song, but I think my favorite song of all that I've written would be "Jean" (on the new Brill album). This song makes me feel really good, as it was the first song I wrote with Brill in mind, kind of a new begining. It also (as with our new single "Mary Ann") is about a girl from a 60's tv series. The show was called Randall & Hopkirk: Deceased (My Partner, The Ghost in the USA), and Jean (Annette Andre) was the female star: widow of the ghost! You can go into the past and find many examples of bands that had their share of sunshine. When the rain came in, they bought a boat and sailed away never to be seen again. Yet, Pseudo Echo, sat through the rain and knew that sunshine was still out there in one form or another. Pseudo Echo has grown roots, had a child of it's own (Brill) but hasn't gone away. They got better. In Brill you can hear a new life, heart and sense of humor that the world never saw with Pseudo Echo. The new Brill album was released in the U.S. in May and has already caused a stir in Australia. You can hear samples of Brill's music at http://www.momentumrecords.com/Brill/brill.htm Martin Hennessy III Home