USER, is Andrew Nunns and Frank Galgano, an amazing electro post punk duo from Melbourne!

Releasing their debut album ‘Dimensions, Prisms and Waves’ in 2019, USER demonstrated they were a DIY force to be reckoned with. Andrew Nunns (The Black Heart Death Cult, Autohaze, Underground Lovers, GB3/Kilbey, Lime Spiders) and Frank Galgano (The Lamp, HAL, Euphoric Amoeba) – who comprise the duo – armed themselves with an iPad, a Fender Jaguar, a couple of retro synthesisers, a bottle of red (or two), a Windows 98 PC and Acid Pro 4 software and embarked on a journey to take listeners along an 80s electronica-fused-grunge-down-tempo-soundtrack trip.

With a limited edition run of vinyl records produced, the band worked with 33 different artists to create 100 different covers including musician/artist Kim Salmon, Archibald nominee William Luke, Japanese Printmaker Kyoko Imazu, internationally renowned street artist RONE, famed photographer Chris Budgeon and many more.

Following the success of this release, the duo were ready in early 2020 to deliver their sophomore album ‘REHASHREMAKEREMODEL’.

“Post-punk shoegaze rave”

Would you like to talk a bit about your background?

Andrew Nunns: Musically, I have never had a lesson. I have taught myself everything by listening and watching. I think discovering garage psychedelic rock and punk certainly helped with my musical education. I love a bit of the DIY attitude. Currently I’m guitaring in USER and drumming in The Black Heart Death Cult.

What was your first musical experience?

Andrew: When I was 8 (1979) I discovered Kiss, the music, the make up, the costumes, the stage show and the mystery drew me in. I would put on mimed performances with my older brother and younger sister in the backyard for my parents and grandparents, even pretending to smash the guitar, well tennis racquet, it was a hoot. My first actual performance playing a real instrument (drums) was when I was 10 at High School. We were called “The Exposure” and played various covers like, ‘Jump’ by Van Halen, ‘Smoke on the Water’ by Deep Purple, ‘Like a Hurricane’ by Neil Young, etc. Very young and still learning our craft but it was a real buzz to receive applause. Addictive they say!!!

You were part of Underground Lovers.

Andrew: My band before Underground Lovers was Autohaze. We (Autohaze) did a tour around Australia with Underground Lovers in 1995 and got on very well. So when Derek left Underground Lovers in 1997 I was called upon to fill the drum stool. I was with Underground Lovers till 2002. We toured Australia several times, recorded and it was a fabulous time for music. A massive highlight was an Australia wide tour with Grant McLennan (Go Betweens) in solo mode supporting us. We were blown away every night watching Grant, he is the most amazing songwriter and performer. My last show with Underground Lovers was supporting New Order at The Metro Melbourne 2002, what a show to finish my time with them.

How about GB3?

Andrew: GB3 is the solo project of Glenn Bennie, guitarist from Underground Lovers. I was lucky enough to be involved as the drummer. After the New Order support show Underground Lovers went on a hiatus. So Glenn started this solo project with various permanent, semi permanent and guest members playing live and recording. These have included Steve Kilbey (The Church), Sarah Blasko, Adalita (Magic Dirt), Ricky Maymi (BJM), oh the list goes on. We recorded 3 albums, ‘Circlework’ (2003), ‘Emptiness Is Our Business’ (2006) and ‘Damaged/Controlled’ (2010) and did some minor touring of Australia. I have heard there is a 4th album in the can but it’s only Glenn and Steve Kilbey. Due for release next year (2021) is also the word on the street.

Then there’s Autohaze and Lime Spiders as well.

Andrew: I joined Autohaze in 1995 and loved every minute of it. We toured Australia several times and USA once with a showcase gig in New York at the CMJ Festival. We wrapped up being a semi full time band in 1998. Life got in the way for all of us. We released some great records to glowing reviews both here and overseas. We still play sporadically and enjoy the buzz, there is talk of a possible third album being recorded in 2021 and a retrospective album as well.

I was asked to join Lime Spiders in 2017, I was a huge fan back in the day so I could not say no. A bit of a Rock Star movie moment. There was a headline gig booked in Spain, Leon at The Purple Weekend Festival. We rehearsed like crazy and did one fantastic show in Sydney before we flew out. The Purple Weekend show was amazing, in fact the whole festival was top notch. I am dying to go back. Things turned a bit sour with the singer after the show and I left the band as did the others who I am still very good friends with. Even though it turned sour, if someone said would you do it again, it would be a HELL YES!!!!

I also play drums in Cub Callaway and the Revolutionnairs which includes Phil Hall (ex Lime Spiders) on bass.

And your partner in USER, Frank Galgano was part of The Lamp, HAL and Euphoric Amoeba.

Frank Galgano: HAL was a solo project based in Sydney between 1999 and 2000 that began my journey into electronic music production, releasing a 5 track EP. This was the first time that the song ‘Lucid’ was created. It describes the first time that I experienced astral travelling (also known as out of body experience), hence the title ‘Lucid’, because visually I’d never seen anything clearer. This track was also performed with the 2004 Trio Euphoric Amoeba with Lou Tsokas on drums and Andrew Raven on guitar and vocals. This track also went on to be played with The Lamp consisting of Andrew Nunns (drums), Mark Newbound (guitar), Liza V. (synth) and myself on bass & vox. We released the album ‘Winter’ in 2008. ‘Lucid VI’ on ‘REHASHREMAKEREMODEL’ sees the track move from an ambient chill track on HAL to a more psychedelic folk rock track with ‘Euphoric Amoeba’, to an epic 13 min psych rock trip with The Lamp and now is alive as a heartbeat pounding D drone drenched Lynchian trip with USER.

A while back you started a band that is really dear to my heart, The Black Heart Death Cult. What’s the story behind this group and what can you say about the self-titled album that was released via Oak Island Records?

Andrew: Back in 1995 I hadn’t played in a band for about 5 years, I saw one of my favourite bands Hoodoo Gurus were looking for a drummer. I was very keen to try out and wanted to test myself and see if I still had my drum chops. I tried out and got very close, in the words of Maxwell Smart, missed it by that much, but also got massively inspired to play again. That’s when I saw The Black Heart Death Cult ad looking for a drummer. I thought the name TBHDCult was a winner and the dude who came up with that up must have some crazy vision. Auditioned and got the gig. The dude with the vision singer/guitarist/songwriter Sasha L Smith is into all the stupid stuff I love like Bad News, The Young Ones, etc. so we got on like a house on fire. We started rehearsing, gigging and crafting the songs based on Sasha’s vision. When it was time to record the debut album Sasha had organised Ricky Maymi (BJM) to produce the record. Ricky didn’t make the connection I was in the band so when I walked through the door it’s was a GB3 reunion!!! Ricky as the producer did an amazing job, pushed us and helped in so many ways. The song ‘She’s a Believer’ originally was half the tempo it is now. I remember Ricky saying speed it up, make it exciting, play more rolls. I did and we nailed it in two takes. I feel proud of the debut TBHDCult, we put a lot of work into it and feel blessed it was received so well. TBHDCult Album No 2 ‘Sonic Mantras’ is finished and will be out early next year (2021). It’s got a nice fuzzed out gloomy vibe to it and was written well before the shit hit the fan. Eg, the song ‘Trees’ has a chorus of “And it’s easy to see that we need more trees…and less of us….”. There also some very tasty album art by the legend Adam Pobiak.

“50’s housewives taking LSD”

So how did you and Frank Galgano decide to start USER? And what’s the concept behind it?

Andrew: Frank and I have been friends for years and played together in The Lamp. At a party in 2015 we decided to form a two piece feast with no intentions of playing live. But this time I’m not on drums, I’m moving to guitar. Just record stuff that’s been floating around in our heads over the years in Frank’s home studio and see what happens. So regular Monday nights are decided upon, beats are laid down, then extras are added, songs are coming together, we are digging the sounds with them all being instrumental or featuring spoken word dialogue of 50’s housewives taking LSD. We hand the tracks out to friends who love what they hear. We are somewhat surprised as we are only pleasing ourselves with what we record. We then ask a few guest singers in to record vocals. We are then asked to play live at the WARSS (Deon from TBHDCult, his electro gloom project) cassette launch. We give it a shot and wow we love it. It translated to the live setting perfect. From that show we are offered more shows, wowzers we are surprised and humbled. We also decide at this point to have a permanent 3rd member, the projector. Frank comes from an audio visual background so he makes video clips that go with the songs that add a trippy visual element to our live shows. Here’s one for ‘Mischief’.

You’re currently promoting a brand new release, ‘REHASHREMAKEREMODEL’. Can you share some further details how your latest album was recorded

Andrew: ‘REHASHREMAKEREMODEL’, our second album, was recorded in Frank’s home studio. The album title encompasses the whole album, from the songs to the cover art to the remixing to the making of the covers. The songs on ‘REHASHREMAKEREMODEL’ are either songs that we were going to thrown away that didn’t make the first album or covers of songs from our previous bands. Bowie always says “never throw anything away”.

<a href="https://user10.bandcamp.com/album/rehashremakeremodel">REHASHREMAKEREMODEL by USER</a>

An example is the song ‘Anita Starlight’ originally an instrumental that didn’t really float our boat and was scrapped for the first record. Then we saw our friend Amy Jackson sing with her band Cynthia. We liked her voice and asked her “would she like to sing on a track of ours”.

Amy agreed but we didn’t have a specific track so we remixed ‘Anita’ and gave it a more electro gloom vibe. Then Amy added her vocals which took it to another level. Her take on the current world, bushfires, climate change, BLM, COVID-19 sit perfectly with the song. We do now wonder why didn’t we persist with this song earlier but time and timing is the key here. Other songs like ‘DLAM20’ is from my old early 90’s band RHINO and ‘Lucid’ which is from Frank’s solo project HAL. In fact the album was ready to go in early 2020 but then COVID-19 hit as well as Frank’s Windows 98 computer dying a massive death. We thought that’s it, the album’s gone and yes we didn’t back it up to an external hard drive. After receiving parts from overseas Frank was able to rebuild and retrieve the files but had to remix or “REHASHREMAKEREMODEL” most tracks.

How would you compare your latest album to debut album ‘Dimensions, Prisms and Waves’?

Andrew: Our second album ‘REHASHREMAKEREMODEL’ is a 8 track post-punk shoegaze rave odyssey that is making a statement. Definitely bigger sounds. ‘Dimensions, Prisms and Waves’ is possibly a tad more gloomy. Both albums sit well with each other.

How would you describe your sound?

Andrew: I find it hard to say so here’s what others have said. “Imagine Portishead being whipped by Trent Reznor NIN.”, “An Electronic Post-Punk Odyssey.”, “Your music makes me trip without drugs.”, “A goth rave shoegaze mind bend, at a post-punk disco.”.

There’s a limited edition run of vinyl records produced, the band worked with 33 different artists to create 100 different covers including musician/artist Kim Salmon, Archibald nominee William Luke, Japanese Printmaker Kyoko Imazu, internationally renowned street artist RONE, famed photographer Chris Budgeon and many more.

Andrew: For our debut album ‘Dimensions, Prisms and Waves’ we spent a lot of time on it getting it perfect. So it deserved more than a single design for the cover and vinyl. That’s when we decided to press 100 records using recycled vinyl and request every vinyl to be individual. Splatters, swirls, etc. With that locked in we then asked 33 creative friends if they could produce 3 pieces of art for the covers (making 99 individual designs) with our original design being the 100th. Once the art was supplied we then glued every front and back cover ourselves.

For ‘REHASHREMAKEREMODEL’ we wanted to do something similar but on a smaller scale. We stumbled upon an America artist Tim Klein who makes puzzle montage art. Using thrift shop puzzles he combines 2 or 3 together into the one single piece of art. These fit together as the cutting forms used are all the same. When we contacted Tim and explained about our album concept, he agreed it was a perfect match. Pressing 100 records again, this time a red and black splatter to match our logo, we chose 10 different pieces of Tim’s art for the covers, so there’s 10 options to choose from when you purchase. Or you can buy all 10 and have the full set. It was a full upcycled effort on the covers. The cardboard covers are print over runs from a local Melbourne pressing plant, the new cover art is printed using soy based ink on the backs of poster over runs. We then glue each front and back cover and press. Using items that we’re destined for landfill gives us a great feeling, every little bit helps.

We also do limited edition runs on 7” singles too, 16 units only never ever to be produced again, covers hand made and upcycled.

How do you usually approach music making?

Andrew: I never sit down and think I’ll write something, it’s always a case of it has to come to me. There’s various ways that I’m inspired, it could be a beat I hear or I might hum something in the shower.

On ‘REHASHREMAKEREMODEL’ an example is the song ‘The Whole World Is Becoming More Vanilla By The Day’. It was inspired by a German Billboard. A friend posted a pic on FB and the German billboard had English writing. He commented that the world is becoming more vanilla. I understood what he meant, you want to go overseas and get lost in the country you are in, not reading English signs or billboards, even asking a local for directions as you can’t read anything, I love that side of travelling. Anyway the vanilla statement go me agitated. I needed a punishing riff and remembered Kim Salmon (The Scientists) saying F# is a angry note. So I based a fuzzed out riff around that then added a beat and took it to Frank’s. We layed it down and added more and more. Once finished as an instrumental we then sat on it for a month, we then decided it needed vox action. We asked Melbourne legend Lisa Gibbs (The Moth Body) to add some lyrics and vocals. We didn’t explain about the music backstory, we wanted it to got to another place. Lisa’s lyrics feature David Lynch’s ominous statement generator mixed with Leo Johnson’s autopsy report and that time she fell into another dimension. We could not have asked for a better end result.

How are you coping with the current world situation?

Andrew: We had a pretty heavy lockdown here in Melbourne Australia, I personally coped ok but I know others who didn’t. I just wanted to stay safe and did so. We have been very lucky here.
I feel for anyone who’s been effected by it both here and overseas.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

Andrew: Favourites
X – ‘Aspirations’
Scientists- ‘Heading for a Trauma’
‘Nuggets’ – Box Set
Twin Peaks – Original S/T

New Music/recommendations
Kimono Drag Queens – ‘Songs of Worship’
Bohren & Der Club Of Gore – ‘Patchouli Blue’
Semiotics Department Of Heteronyms – self titled
Claire Birchall- ‘Running in Slow Motion’

Frank:
Favourites
Thom Yorke – ‘Anima’
The Presets – ‘Apocalypso’
Radiohead – ‘In Rainbows’
Pink Floyd – ‘Wish You Were Here’

New Music/recommendations
The Acid – ‘Liminal’
The Howling Fog – ‘Drifting’
The Cold Field – ‘Black River’
Hearts and Rockets – ‘Power’

Thank you. Last word is yours.

Andrew: Thank you Klemen for approaching us, we hope your followers dig our sounds, we’d love to get to Europe once this Covid shit storm is over. TBHDCult would love to tour as well. Our limited edition album is available to purchase from our Bandcamp page. Everyone take care. Andrew & Frank

Klemen Breznikar

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