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Centipede.
The electronic ambience that is Centipede first came to my attention down here in Adelaide when they went around the country supporting Bluebottle Kiss and Big Heavy Stuff earlier in the year. They really seemed an odd choice - a comparatively unheard-of electronic act supporting two of the country's most renowned guitar bands. But then this Sydney two-piece gets a lot of respect from the Sydney rock crowd, and they've worked mighty hard to earn it.
These impressive rock credentials are a huge drawcard for this electronic act. "Centipede itself, there's only two of us, me and Tanith [Sherman, who contributes the overwhelming majority of the vocals]," explains Yaniv Finkelstein. "The other guys just play live with us, but everything that's recorded is just the two of us."
But when you see Centipede live, you're likely to spot two familiar faces - Nick Kennedy, Sydney's most prolific drummer, and David Trump, the production genius behind a handful of my favourite Australian records.
"Trumpy's like our best friend and stuff, but when we first met him, it was like, he did 'Covered In Bruises!' [Big Heavy Stuff's 1995 EP. Trump also recorded BHS' 1997 album 'Maximum Sincere', this year's 'Dear Friends And Enemies' and Bluebottle Kiss' 'Revenge Is Slow'.] So definitely he had that aura about him. But he's awesome, he's irreplaceable.
"We always had the intention that when we'd play live, we would do it as a full band. It took a long time to actually make it happen, in the beginning it would take us six months to work out how to play a damn song. But we've sort of worked out how to translate the songs now, and having Nick Kennedy in the band as well, he can always interpret those crazy electronic beats and stuff... So it works really well."
Whilst there is no argument that Kennedy is one of Australia's greatest drummers, it must be difficult finding the time to rehearse - he's in more bands than there are days of the week, including BHS, Knievel...
"Yeah, he is, he is such a drum slut!" Finkelstein laughs. "It's true, and I have no problems telling him that myself. He's on tour at the moment with The Cops and Todd Sparrow." I interject to shout my enthusiasm for Todd Sparrow and their brilliant debut record. "Oh, how good is it?" Finkelstein agrees. "It's awesome, I love it - I mean, what a band..."
Overall, I get the feeling that Finkelstein's first taste of success leaves him excited and a little confused. "My first band was with Tanith, and her first band was with me," he recalls. "So the two of us have been writing together for ten years, under different bands. It's only with Centipede that we've said, 'let's just do it the two of us.' Our dream was always to do an album, but how long it takes, it's scary... I wanted to do ten by now!"
Ben Revi
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Centipede's 'Save Your Cool Soul' is out now through MGM.
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