THUMP favourites Moon Holiday (Alexandra Ward) and Cassius Select (Lavurn Lee) make excellent music. They also make great conversation. Some deep insights were shared when they sat down to chat with other ahead of their upcoming shows. First up, Moon Holiday asks Cassius Select some personal questions.Alex: Lavurn, how do you feel in the five minutes just before you play a show as Cassius Select?
Lavurn: Increasingly I feel calm before a Cassius set, almost bored. After playing live for a few years now I understand where the initial anxiety and fear and adrenaline came from, and it was always external: audience, vibe, sound system, drugs. But nowadays I cuddle into myself, close the door and go in. I think it's a state that allows me to have a level of control in what I'm about to do. I try not to get hyped up by the vibe of the room or the people because it isn't about catering to a room, it's about picking it into little pieces.Alex: Is there a mascot for the tour? (Yes there certainly is). If so, could you tell us a bit about it?
Lavurn: Yes there is a mascot. It's a gutted pigeon laying on asphalt. I think we both enjoy the idea of turning something inside out, devaluing something, pulling it apart. It's what we wanna do to the cities we play. We're not here to entertain, we're here to open up that back door u thought you didn't have.Alex: Do you ever feel like music is ruining your life? I do sometimes, but I don't really mind, it's funny. Don't say you love music Lavurn, if you do, save that for the TV channels. Tell me the worst thing about being a music guy.
Lavurn: I feel like music is constantly ruining my life, and then making it bloom again. I don't mind either, i think that's a very important quality in any pursuit. A certain level of risk needs to be involved in order to make any of it worth doing. I never feel 100% about anything I do in my life and the ambiguity of how an artist can operate gives way to the paradox of choice, and that doubt informs everything. So music confuses everything, and then sometimes makes everything make sense, or makes everything disappear, I don't know.Alex: What is the scariest thing that has happened to you lately?
Lavurn: To be honest the scariest thing that has happened has been reclaiming responsibility for my future again, feeling 'pressure' from myself to grow, to evolve, to learn new things again. The scariest thing is the future, haha, and it hasn't happened to me yet, so I guess I didn't answer that.Alex: What kind of advance in music technology would make you actually read an article about that sort of thing online? Portability? Invisibility? Edibility?
Lavurn: Hmmm i never bother to read any of that stuff either but i think id like to see an instrument that somehow is organic. A sentient thing. Something that is alive, that would make me leave a tab open for it.Alex: Mantras are something you've spoken about, they're also something I run through a lot. Do you ever speak to yourself out loud in public?
Lavurn: I really enjoy mantras as a lyrical device, but I dont use it in my own life. I think I have trouble believing my own words. If I'm ever vocally addressing myself it's mostly by singing. I'll sing in public sometimes, but pretty timidly, which I guess defeats the whole point entirely.Alex: I can hear violence and the ridiculing of 'masculinity' and just a lot of deconstructive challenging in Cassius Select, and that's a good thing. It seems like a new kind of punk to me. Have you ever been into that ethos?
Lavurn: Yeah, I think I'm only coming into that sort of thinking now, I'm a late bloomer in that sense, at least in terms of thinking about it on a public scale. I've always struggled with masculinity in my personal life, it only seems to makes sense to me when it is being challenged, when it's being pushed up again something else. I dont get into contact with much of the academia of it but if that's how the music can be read it must mean I'm channelling it. The violence comes into play I think from just being an angry kid, and consolidating those years of anger and discontent.Lavurn: I've never asked but now I'm curious as to where the name Moon Holiday came from? If it's a boring answer I still wanna know.
Alex: It's only medium boring. I had an ex-boyfriend once who had a terribly broken leg and he would increasingly dream up wild mobility scenarios to live out vicariously whilst he slept. One of them was him holidaying to the moon (no spacecraft necessary) and flying through the air. The sad but childlike thing appealed to me so I coined the name for myself (selfish) there and then.Lavurn: Do you have any desire to pursue your musical career overseas? I struggle with both the fear and possibility of what lies beyond.
Alex: I only want to do that if I can do well here first. I've travelled alone a lot in the past and know just how baseless you can get. Music in Sydney has become a community for me and it's pulled me out of a lot of things. I'll take music wherever it goes but you won't find me moving to bloody Brooklyn or whatever just to 'try it out'. I like my lush life here too much.Lavurn: When was the last time you cried? I've been crying a lot lately and to be honest it makes me happy, even if the source is sadness.
Alex: I'm glad you asked this, I love crying too, it's such a release. I last did it on the weekend when I was overwhelmed with affection for someone, but feeling a lot of fear of the unknown as well and then nerves got the better of me. It was quite beautiful.Lavurn: Is anger an emotion you are stimulated by? I'm extremely motivated by it.
Alex: I'm not surprised by that. For me it informs the way I act as a woman actually, so it does kind of bleed into my music because I think about gender and sexuality a lot. True story - two days ago I had a fight with a stranger in a vegan restaurant. I reckon I won. So I've got that rage inside me. Getting anger OUT is the main thing. If you can do it through music that's fantastic, you'll always avoid narrowing your vision. Anger can make you blind unless you rid yourself of it I think.Lavurn: Are you ashamed of your past work? I've definitely felt that with a lot the old Guerre songs
Alex: Oh, totally. But at the same time I'm proud that I have work I can feel ashamed of. I'd much rather have that so that I can see how far I've come and what headspace I used to be in, even if people want to laugh at it later. At least I was trying stuff out when I could easily have felt stupid and stopped.Lavurn: Do you use music as a means to open up romantic possibilities? I have. But I found a love isolated from that.
Alex: I have done, and depending on my 'target' I'll decide how much or how little to push the music angle. If I'm not serious about someone I'll actually use music as a barrier, pretend to be way more busy than I am and blame it on Moon Holiday stuff. If I'm really in love, I'll go full romantic, writing songs for the person and showing them and that sort of thing. I think you can find love with or without having music in common, but you have to have some sort of shared world view. Everything must be simultaneously horrible, beautiful and so funny you could die laughing. This is perhaps some type of creative thinking that can exist between anyone. Long gone are the days when I'd use being in a band to pash guys at house parties.Lavurn: Everyone knows the world is fucked. It's all I've been hearing. It's been jammed into my head. How do we consolidate that? What next? Is doom something you're into?
Alex: Doom is probably one of my favourite subjects. When I was a child, really young, I was sure the world would end at any minute. I knew it was a possibility but I had no ability to rationalise that fact, so I used to imagine scenarios until I was basically kid-suicidal. The Ripe is going to have to put a mental health contact line on the bottom of this interview. Good! I'm serious here! My parents would calm me down by telling me that one day I'd have a job and I'd care more about that than the sun exploding at any time, which I think is way more symbolic of what's wrong with the world. Anyway. I deal with this by being quite existential and living my life exactly as I want, all of the time. Except for right now, I'm at work. LOL.See Moon Holiday and Cassius Select perform together on their upcoming tour:
Melbourne, Shebeen September 12th
Sydney, Civic Underground September 13th
Brisbane, Alhambra, September 19th
Adelaide, Format Festival October 10th
Lavurn: Increasingly I feel calm before a Cassius set, almost bored. After playing live for a few years now I understand where the initial anxiety and fear and adrenaline came from, and it was always external: audience, vibe, sound system, drugs. But nowadays I cuddle into myself, close the door and go in. I think it's a state that allows me to have a level of control in what I'm about to do. I try not to get hyped up by the vibe of the room or the people because it isn't about catering to a room, it's about picking it into little pieces.
Advertisement
Lavurn: Yes there is a mascot. It's a gutted pigeon laying on asphalt. I think we both enjoy the idea of turning something inside out, devaluing something, pulling it apart. It's what we wanna do to the cities we play. We're not here to entertain, we're here to open up that back door u thought you didn't have.Alex: Do you ever feel like music is ruining your life? I do sometimes, but I don't really mind, it's funny. Don't say you love music Lavurn, if you do, save that for the TV channels. Tell me the worst thing about being a music guy.
Lavurn: I feel like music is constantly ruining my life, and then making it bloom again. I don't mind either, i think that's a very important quality in any pursuit. A certain level of risk needs to be involved in order to make any of it worth doing. I never feel 100% about anything I do in my life and the ambiguity of how an artist can operate gives way to the paradox of choice, and that doubt informs everything. So music confuses everything, and then sometimes makes everything make sense, or makes everything disappear, I don't know.Alex: What is the scariest thing that has happened to you lately?
Lavurn: To be honest the scariest thing that has happened has been reclaiming responsibility for my future again, feeling 'pressure' from myself to grow, to evolve, to learn new things again. The scariest thing is the future, haha, and it hasn't happened to me yet, so I guess I didn't answer that.
Advertisement
Lavurn: Hmmm i never bother to read any of that stuff either but i think id like to see an instrument that somehow is organic. A sentient thing. Something that is alive, that would make me leave a tab open for it.Alex: Mantras are something you've spoken about, they're also something I run through a lot. Do you ever speak to yourself out loud in public?
Lavurn: I really enjoy mantras as a lyrical device, but I dont use it in my own life. I think I have trouble believing my own words. If I'm ever vocally addressing myself it's mostly by singing. I'll sing in public sometimes, but pretty timidly, which I guess defeats the whole point entirely.Alex: I can hear violence and the ridiculing of 'masculinity' and just a lot of deconstructive challenging in Cassius Select, and that's a good thing. It seems like a new kind of punk to me. Have you ever been into that ethos?
Lavurn: Yeah, I think I'm only coming into that sort of thinking now, I'm a late bloomer in that sense, at least in terms of thinking about it on a public scale. I've always struggled with masculinity in my personal life, it only seems to makes sense to me when it is being challenged, when it's being pushed up again something else. I dont get into contact with much of the academia of it but if that's how the music can be read it must mean I'm channelling it. The violence comes into play I think from just being an angry kid, and consolidating those years of anger and discontent.
Advertisement
Alex: It's only medium boring. I had an ex-boyfriend once who had a terribly broken leg and he would increasingly dream up wild mobility scenarios to live out vicariously whilst he slept. One of them was him holidaying to the moon (no spacecraft necessary) and flying through the air. The sad but childlike thing appealed to me so I coined the name for myself (selfish) there and then.Lavurn: Do you have any desire to pursue your musical career overseas? I struggle with both the fear and possibility of what lies beyond.
Alex: I only want to do that if I can do well here first. I've travelled alone a lot in the past and know just how baseless you can get. Music in Sydney has become a community for me and it's pulled me out of a lot of things. I'll take music wherever it goes but you won't find me moving to bloody Brooklyn or whatever just to 'try it out'. I like my lush life here too much.Lavurn: When was the last time you cried? I've been crying a lot lately and to be honest it makes me happy, even if the source is sadness.
Alex: I'm glad you asked this, I love crying too, it's such a release. I last did it on the weekend when I was overwhelmed with affection for someone, but feeling a lot of fear of the unknown as well and then nerves got the better of me. It was quite beautiful.
Advertisement
Alex: I'm not surprised by that. For me it informs the way I act as a woman actually, so it does kind of bleed into my music because I think about gender and sexuality a lot. True story - two days ago I had a fight with a stranger in a vegan restaurant. I reckon I won. So I've got that rage inside me. Getting anger OUT is the main thing. If you can do it through music that's fantastic, you'll always avoid narrowing your vision. Anger can make you blind unless you rid yourself of it I think.Lavurn: Are you ashamed of your past work? I've definitely felt that with a lot the old Guerre songs
Alex: Oh, totally. But at the same time I'm proud that I have work I can feel ashamed of. I'd much rather have that so that I can see how far I've come and what headspace I used to be in, even if people want to laugh at it later. At least I was trying stuff out when I could easily have felt stupid and stopped.Lavurn: Do you use music as a means to open up romantic possibilities? I have. But I found a love isolated from that.
Alex: I have done, and depending on my 'target' I'll decide how much or how little to push the music angle. If I'm not serious about someone I'll actually use music as a barrier, pretend to be way more busy than I am and blame it on Moon Holiday stuff. If I'm really in love, I'll go full romantic, writing songs for the person and showing them and that sort of thing. I think you can find love with or without having music in common, but you have to have some sort of shared world view. Everything must be simultaneously horrible, beautiful and so funny you could die laughing. This is perhaps some type of creative thinking that can exist between anyone. Long gone are the days when I'd use being in a band to pash guys at house parties.Lavurn: Everyone knows the world is fucked. It's all I've been hearing. It's been jammed into my head. How do we consolidate that? What next? Is doom something you're into?
Alex: Doom is probably one of my favourite subjects. When I was a child, really young, I was sure the world would end at any minute. I knew it was a possibility but I had no ability to rationalise that fact, so I used to imagine scenarios until I was basically kid-suicidal. The Ripe is going to have to put a mental health contact line on the bottom of this interview. Good! I'm serious here! My parents would calm me down by telling me that one day I'd have a job and I'd care more about that than the sun exploding at any time, which I think is way more symbolic of what's wrong with the world. Anyway. I deal with this by being quite existential and living my life exactly as I want, all of the time. Except for right now, I'm at work. LOL.See Moon Holiday and Cassius Select perform together on their upcoming tour:
Melbourne, Shebeen September 12th
Sydney, Civic Underground September 13th
Brisbane, Alhambra, September 19th
Adelaide, Format Festival October 10th