Whipped Cream Chargers prefer to make up their own genre to describe themselves, depending on their current frame of mind. Sometimes it’s ‘dole-wop’, sometimes it’s ‘Sloth-wave’ or my favourite ‘Post Coital Punk’. Today Lucas D.H George (he sings and plays guitar) prefers to describe their sound as swing. Whichever way you look at it, this young Sydney band have enough inner city quirkiness about them to make some great music. With a new album almost ready for release and a few shows lined up, Lucas tells Music Feeds all about the origin of the band name and why the devil isn’t much of a giver after all.
MF: What’s going down in the Whipped Cream Chargers world?
L: We have just finished the mixing for our first album. We are all getting way too drunk and talking about how much we need to become centred and focussed and not drink so much. We are also talking about all the treasure we will be privy to. We found a map, you see – just have to follow it.
MF: For the uninitiated, describe the Whipped Cream Chargers sound?
L: We swing.
MF: Does the name of the band come from those cartridges used in old school soda streams?
L: I only know a couple of functions for those lovely little silver things; one of them is whipping cream. But, the story of where the name came from is not so simple as that; a witch approached me once and said that an important thing would happen as far as the music I make goes on the day of Newtown Festival, she had foreseen it.
On that day Jeff and I walked to Newtown through Erskineville to meet Louis and go to the festival. Along the way we found a box of books that had such things in it as ‘The Revenge Handbook’, Volumes 1 & 2; a guide to poisons and antidotes; some books by William S. Burroughs; and a collection of books about spirituality. We were on acid at the time, so things started taking on symbolic significance. Louis was waiting for us in Newtown, and as the day progressed the level of coincidence (‘synchronicity’?) grew and it all seemed perfectly placed to explode the mind. The books all seemed to have peculiar significance; every time I ate something I would find that that food was poisonous… some time in the afternoon we started on the laughing gas and Anto began quoting William Burroughs, even though she had never read any of his works… someone put on ‘Electroma’… we three were sitting there, paralyzed with fear and disgust as the other people in the room talked about what colour helmet they would prefer… Louis and I did one together and burst into tears, we looked at each other, embraced, realising at the same time how immensely beautiful but infinitely fucked this world is. I looked down at the box that had furnished this revelation and our name was on it.
MF: Will the ‘Whippettes’ be making an appearance at the Kaleidoscope gig?
L: Unfortunately not. There has been a split in the Whippettes leadership, there is a power struggle going on. Some one burnt down their parliament house and now the shadow Whippette is vying for an absolute dictatorship that will last for a thousand years, or at least till the new order is in place and self-sufficient.
MF: What’s your favourite part of the Sydney scene?
L: Sydney is a strange place. Within the last few years, all of my favourite bands have been Sydney bands; the talent is here, but the innovative music comes from and is fostered within a very small circle. We are not supported here by outside influence as much; often we are restricted further by new laws about noise and licensing. It is thus a harder place to start out and work through. I think that part of the reason why my favourite bands have been so good is because it hasn’t been easy for them; if you can put up with the facts of your existence here, then it is soon realised that the music has to be made out of a genuine need on the part of the artists rather than because of wide ranging support and potential profitability. It also means that so many good bands have disappeared in the last few years because they are big fishes in a small pond and escape seems futile. So I guess the gauntlet is my favourite thing, but also my least favourite.
MF: Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to play guitar, what would you exchange your soul to the dark lord for?
L: Probably the same. I visited the Crossroads once; the devil didn’t seem to be much of a giver. I reckon there are other archetypes that are much more pleasant to deal with if you want stuff. My brother told me once that you can sell your soul to a particular Indian deity and if you do then he will allow you to be successful at one thing, at the cost of everything else. If the best three things in life are wine, women and song, then which one would you pick?
MF: Why should we see Whipped Cream Chargers play?
What is this, a job interview?
MF: What would be the first song you’d put onto a mix tape?
Lancelot Link – Evolution Revolution
Whipped Cream Chargers play Mum @ Worldbar this Friday September 24th on the Music Feeds Stage
