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The Dairy Brothers.
If you’re a fan of Melbourne indie favourites Gus & Frank, you
may have seen the animated video for Miss My Maniac. Even if
you’re not, you should check out www.quenchstudios.com and see
the clip anyway, as well as more great work from local film
production house Quench Studios.
Quench was formed almost two years ago by school friends and filmmakers Tom Bettany and Nick Graalman, along with animator Chris Edser. "We just wanted to be under one name and start promoting that rather than just our independent names," Graalman tells me.
"We gave Nick the challenge of coming up with a name in a month ‘cause he couldn’t decide," Edser smiles.
The guys are not just responsible for music clips for local and interstate bands, but also advertisements and corporate video work, combining animation and striking visuals with an obvious sense of fun. However, music clips are where their real passion lies, according to Bettany. "We do other boring jobs to keep food on the table, but video clips are the most exciting and challenging. You’ve got three to four minutes and you’ve gotta work within that really rigid structure, yet you can kind of come up with all sorts of ideas and pretty much do anything within that short amount of time."
Quench Studios has become a full-time gig for Graalman and Bettany, while Edser teaches an animation class at Uni SA on the side. While enjoying their work immensely, the lack of any other sources of income has provided a challenge for the members of Quench. "You don’t get like a weekly pay cheque like you do in normal jobs," Bettany explains. "In this line of work, once in a while you just get a massive sum of money, and then you’ll have nothing for months. You have to make sure you don’t go on a big splurge, like a big massive pub crawl."
Edser laughs. "That’s what I did last summer!"
However, Quench Studios has been very busy since then. Bettany plays bass in local heroes The Dairy Brothers, who have seen airtime on Nova this year with their single Cow, and Quench has recently shot a live-action, milk-filled video for the song. "The story is that there’s a farm in the country, and Joel [Milkowski], our lead singer, is in love with the dairy maid who milks the cow there, but she happens to be our guitarist, J-Wah, in drag. And they flirt to the point of disgust for the other three members of the band, at which point we douse them in milk and an all-on-all milk fight ensues," says Bettany of the video. "And that’s the clip. It’s great."
The Dairy Brothers have garnered a bit of a reputation for their crazy stage antics, so surely it was tough keeping them still long enough to shoot a video? "We had a cow in this last film clip, so I think The Dairy Brothers, they were sort of easy to control compared to that," Edser explains. "We had to get this cow to stand in the right place..."
"...And not knock over the crane and the tripod and stuff," Graalman continues. "‘Cause we were doing a shot where the camera would go up on a crane as the cow was right there next to Joel, and it would always freak out the moment the camera went up. But it’s not so much about the cow: it’s more about the milk," he says plainly.
The video is being prepared for launch at a gig that will be the bands’ biggest of the year. Not only will there be the premiere of Cow, but the videos for other tracks Grapefruit and Never Gonna Be A Star will be featured, and to top it all off The Dairy Brothers set will feature animated visuals mixed live on the night by Edser. "I’ve got it cued up to interactive things, so it's gonna be mixed on the spot. I’m gonna be just controlling it live in response to the music," he says a little nervously. "Basically if I’m out of time it won’t matter too much, ‘cause these guys are visual enough to look at. It’s just adding to that whole Dairy Brothers visual experience, with dancing cows and milk cartons. It’s gonna be a pretty fun night."
If that ain’t enough reasons for you, the first hundred people in the door will receive a DVD of the band’s videos for free. Come on, people!
Matt Vesely
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The Dairy Brothers launch Cow at Jive on the Fri 16 Sept with Dexter Jones and Sledgehammock.
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