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Dave Mann Collective.
Songwriter Dave Mann and his band, known as his Collective,
were last in Adelaide a scant six months ago for the launch
of the 'Wake Up' CD-EP. Since then Dave and Co have put the
finishing touches to their debut album 'Endless Page' and they've
left the comfort of their Perth homes for life on the road to
play to their ever growing fanbase, and maybe peddle a few copies
of their new CD along the way.
Mann is speaking from Byron Bay, where he's just about to set up for a soundcheck. "It's quite difficult to book tours and some venues are very hard to get into," he sighs when I mention their apparently erratic touring schedule. "There's too few venues and lots of bands so you've got to take what you can get in terms of the dates so we're doing a little bit of backtracking. Like, we're in Byron Bay at the moment and then tomorrow we've got to drive back to Queensland [where they played a few nights earlier] but it's really only a couple of hours drive. Being from Western Australia, most major towns are about five hours apart so it's no big thing for us because we're used to travelling long distances by road; but it just looks bad on paper when you see it by what states we're going to: first to Queensland, down to New South Wales, then back to Queensland, then New South Wales and then we're calling into Adelaide on the way from Melbourne and then we've got a stack of dates back in Perth and WA. We're in a hire car at the moment, but after Sydney it's all going to be by plane." It doesn't stop there; no sooner do they get home it's back to QLD and NSW, with more shows to follow back in WA. However, Mann's looking forward to visiting Adelaide again.
"It went great," Mann declares of their previous show, "it was the highlight of the last tour, that's for sure. The Grace Emily is a kind of unassuming room, yet it turned out to be a great gig where everyone got into it even though they may not know your music. It was better than what we expected; it was my second time that I'd played there but the first time we'd been there as a band, and we sold quite a lot of CDs that night."
And that's no small issue. "The income is very insecure," he admits, since turning to music fulltime, "and it's very hard to get used to when you used to have a regular income. You kind of hope you can get through the next week and buy food and pay the rent, but somehow or other if you put your trust into things it kind of works, so it's weird. I made the decision a couple of years ago, and that's what you have to do if you're going to make a living out of music. You have to make the decision that that's what you're going to do no matter what obstacles come your way."
So how have the guys coping nutritionally on the road? "Well, we've actually been buying a lot of healthy stuff," he laughs. "And we're cooking and making soup as much as we can because that's the cheapest way to go. So it's worked out both cheap and healthy because roadhouse food can really drag you down after a while, it's hideous. Come to think about it, food is pretty much one of our main focuses. As soon as we wake up its like, 'What's for breakfast?' Then it's the same for lunch and dinner, and then we get to play. On the east coast it's a little less common [for venues to feed you] than what we're used to," he hints. "In WA it's kind of a standard thing that they'll just throw a meal at you. When you're feeding five or six mouths every night food becomes quite a big expense, so if you can get a free meal it saves your pockets hugely," he laughs.
So here's your chance to not only hear some really great music but to do some good too by taking along some canned food or other such non-perishables in order to help keep the Collective on the road. I'm sure they'd appreciate it.
Steve Jones
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The Dave Mann Collective launch 'Endless Page' at the Grace Emily on Sun 19 June.
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