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Expatriate.
So, you haven't heard much about Sydney rockers Expatriate?
Well, you certainly will in the coming weeks as they release
their debut CD-EP, followed by a tour of the country later in
the year. You may have heard their first single The Spaces
Between on Triple J, either in its original form or as a
remix by Decoder Ring. Either way, it's a damn catchy alternative
rock tune, and if it's any indication of what is to come from
the band in the future, I'd say their future is looking pretty
bright.
Given how good their music is, it's only natural to discuss the background and inspiration of main man Ben King, who grew up in both Indonesia and Australia. "It was pretty amazing - my dad worked over there, and he still does," the vocalist and guitarist explains. "But I was born in Sydney, and then we went over and I spent 12 years or something there, and went to this pretty cool international school. It had over 50 different nationalities and it was kind of like going to the UN to school, and everyone was really into the arts and sports. It was just a really great mix of people and nothing was dissed as being something you couldn't do.
"It was a pretty utopian experience, because you go there and you have like a driver and a maid; not because you're that wealthy but because when you're there as a foreigner that's what tends to be what happens," King adds. "So it wasn't typical growing up in a suburb of Sydney. And we moved around a lot, back and forth between Australia and Jakarta. The media here always beats up Indonesia as some sort of hot bed of Muslim or Islamic fundamentalism, but it's not really - it's such tiny pockets of places over there that have it. But when Suharto was at his peak, it was an interesting time to be young and take it in."
With his life sounding like a smorgasbord of cultures, interests, travel, people and a whole variety of other experiences, has King's childhood in Indonesia's capital wormed its way into the music? "At some sort of level it has worked its way in, I think, because Jakarta is this massive city of eight million people," he says, "and there's just this urgency there and people tend to just live to survive and not necessarily live to enjoy all the sort of spoils of materialism and life outside of just feeding yourself... I can't really explain it, but the thrust of it has come into the music in ways. Some of the music is kind of aggressive and urgent, I think, and that comes from growing up and being exposed to a city like that."
When I suggest the music sounds controlled yet as if there's something trying to break out from underneath the control, King agrees. "That's how I'd describe the music - and Jakarta. It's just a crazy place, and I like our music to get pretty crazy... It's a pretty romantic place in a way, there's just this mass of people moving around bumping into one another, and at night there's people out on the street and talking. It's sort of this halfway point between a Western city and something that harks back to the Third World."
For someone who's grown up in the hustle and bustle of an Asian capital, in a different culture and with a completely different experience on life, King's take on Sydney, his current home base, is interesting.
"I think Sydney's great," he states simply, before adding: "I think it's gone up its arse a bit since the Olympics. There's just this bullshit in Sydney now, with 'scenes' and fashion... I don't know, it's not a city where I feel entirely comfortable to be honest. I feel more comfortable walking through Chinatown, because it just reminds me of my childhood. Sydney feels like a bit of a smaller city, smaller town [compared] to somewhere in Asia, where you just literally step outside and there's just people, especially at night. It's a great city - I shouldn't complain about it too much."
King admits he's restless, and a dreamer - some of the other elements that come through in the Expatriate sound. "I'm pretty rational at the same time, though," he adds. "Sometimes I have a really myopic view on things or how they should be done. I get that from my dad: he's an accountant so he's so anal, and I think I've had that come out in me. And it comes out in the music as well - I just want everything to be in its right place!"
Ann Marie Sosnowski
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'The Spaces Between' is out now through Dew Process/UMG.
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