Wait Long By The River

Jess Kelly - Sculptor/painter/all-round-maker on finding harmonies in the natural world and bringing them out through painstaking work and red wine

"With that work... I basically sat in my room and drank wine and ate chocolate and went through a lot of stanley knives."

All unintended, a theme is forming in the show: it can be very hard to pin down in, say, 140 characters just what it is an artist does. Jess Kelly is a sculptor, an engraver, a painter, an arranger of fruit, an embroiderer… she engages with everything except limits in her quest to point out how humanity reflects and embodies nature, and vice versa. On the other hand, Jess puts it thusly: "I did very little in the last few weeks except go home and embroider and move pears around." 

She’s a lover of language as well as art, which made speaking with her a real treat, particularly in the construction of the secret section at the end of the show. 

Jess’s current exhibition is called Still, Life and is running at Brunswick Art Space until the 31st of August… then her artwork might start turning up in unexpected locations around Footscray! We’ll all be keeping our eyes out, and if we find any, we’ll put them up on the facebook page at www.facebook.com/waitlongbytheriver

Tom Davis - Circus genius on relying on others as the foundation of his art, finding inspiration in tragedy, and the history of Australian circus

"Circus people will not be famous. People will know the name Leotard, not for the fact that he did the first triple on a trapeze, but because he was principle in inventing the leotard."

One sign of a true artist is that their character truly shines through in their work. Tom Davis performs circus with real talent and charm, in all sorts of ways*; most notably during a recent international tour with one of Australia's most prestigious circus troupes, Circus Oz. He's also an impresario, running his own troupe as Long Answers to Simple Questions. Their show Left, winner of the 2013 Gasworks Circus Showdown, opened our eyes to the thematic depth that can be brought to what Davis calls "a populist, low art medium like circus".

In this show we discuss working through grief, choosing an independent career over the mainstream, and why one of Australia's greatest celebrities didn't even get an obituary on her home soil. You can download the podcast at the bottom of this post, or on iTunes, just search for Wait Long By The River Podcast.

Check us out on Facebook or Twitter, and if you're in Melbourne, come check out our live shows, first Wednesday of every month at Some Velvet Morning.

 *His bio reads: "Deft in pass juggling, tumbling, and many manipulation and equilibristics skills, Tom can also base for banquine, pitching, push for teeterboard and knows basic adagio up to basing hand to hand." Deft is a real understatement when it comes to his juggling - he's a world quality performer in that specialty, having performed with some of the world's most respected jugglers from Europe and America.

Mandy Connell - on being brought up folk and the trouble it causes in a country town, folk as an ethnic group, and reviving ancient works

Mandy Connell is a folk festival favourite. She's quick, bright-hearted and liable to break into song mid-sentence. On stage she conjures up moods with an ease that comes from living her music. "I identify as folk," she says. "If there was an ethnic group you could call folk, that would be me. I'm there. I grew up in it, and I've always called myself folk... since before banjos were on t-shirts."

 With her band the Stray Hens she plays traditional folks songs, many of which are older than our country, and some of which are in languages she doesn't even speak. We cover all that in the podcast, as well as the minimum wage, the darkness underlying classic folk music, her life as a travelling singer, and growing up in country towns as the daughter of a troublesomely passionate and outspoken mother.

Max Barker - Punk theatre facilitator on finding creative work wherever you happen to be, the punk aesthetic as creative bravery, and making dramatic impro

"I've travelled around the world making theatre with different groups of people... It's what gives my life direction and meaning so I can find ways to do that, I don't need to have any training, I don't need to have any money, I don't need any kind of validation, I'll just keep doing it. It's what I believed when I was 17 and I still believe it now."

Max Barker found punk as a teenager and the ethos has never left him. It's in his work as a director, as a facilitator, and as a teacher, in community theatre and music and poetry slams. 

In this show Max runs us through what happens when you trust your desire to make art and you let your life follow along alongside. He has the time of his life down and out in a rundown sharehouse. He talks his way into teaching theatre to classes in Laos, Thailand and the Philippines - in between suspicious car trips with corrupt cops. He talks about the transition from breakfast beers to camomile tea, and how that still feels tuned in to his punk soul.

Do let us know what you think of the episode on twitter @LongByTheRiver or by reviewing us on iTunes!

Skyscraper Stan - Musical rascal on the realities of the hedonist lifestyl, the United States, finding space for music and friendly family competition

Skyscraper Stan is everything you could ever want in a guest. He’s hilarious, he’s got strong opinions, he’s humble, he’s a looker, and his music is the real deal. Even a microphone malfunction that makes me sound like an outer-space radio DJ couldn’t hurt this sparklehorse of a podcast.

Stan’s band, the Commission Flats, are fundraising for their new album, so go on – have a look. Buy a hipflask, or a drunken serenade! I guarantee their skills at both drinking and serenading.

Thanks a ton to John Guscott at Some Velvet Morning for recording, mixing, and fixing the show, and for putting us on all the time, and just for generally being a great guy.

We got a snappy recording of the live set Stan played after the interview – I’ll let you know on Facebook and Twitter when and where you can check it out.

Sarah Kaur - Visual/dance/theatre artist on weaving a narrative across media, discovering inspiration on Tinder, and the negotiations behind a successful arts festival

Wait Long By The River dreams big. It doesn't want to be 'just' a music podcast. It wants to explore creativity in all the forms that muses can take it. For every live recording of the podcast with a musical talent, we're going to record one at our Gold St studio with someone equally talented in another art form. 

Who better to start off with than Sarah Tamara Kaur. Her work explores dance with film, weaves projection into choreography, reimagines photography, and gets into the head of absence by creating things. Sounds mysterious, right? That's why we had to talk to her.

On top of all this hard creative cogitation, Kaur is a festival producer, adding her talents to the Canberran phenomenon of the You Are Here festival. She's been toured with her art to four continents, and once spent 45 minutes crowded into the back of a light-proofed moving van as it drove through the unsuspecting suburbs. 

In this episode we cover a lot of ground, so there are some links at the bottom to help you keep track of it all. Download the show, sit back and enjoy... and feel free to tweet your thoughts to @longbytheriver as you go. If you want more Kaur (once you've heard the podcast you'll realise that that rhymes) check out her page and You Are Here.

Rich Davies - Devil's Union bandleader talks growing up grunge, misdiagnosis, love, life philosophies, and the redemption of living to record your album

Rich Davies. It’s amazing he’s alive, let alone so light-hearted and happy to spin a yarn. As a child, Rich ran around the bars and music halls of Fife, Scotland, taking in the musical lifestyle of his roving folk-musician father. He rebelled against the raver culture of 90s Scotland, and fell in love with the guitar. In Melbourne, his life turned dark and everything began to fall apart. In this show, he takes us to the bottom of that well and then explains how he managed to lift himself out and become one of Melbourne’s standout performers as the front man of The Devil’s Union and Spun Rivals.

I was nervous about the first show, and I was pacing up and down the band-room of Some Velvet Morning. Rich blew in an hour early – punctuality is the politeness of princes – and as soon as he started talking, I knew the show was going to be a hit. His accent is rich and his honesty easy. Halfway through he took a deep breath, looked me in the eye, and said “are we going to open up that story, then? …There’s some things I haven’t told anybody.” I barely breathed for the next 30 minutes – rapt, and also trying not to ruin the moment with a ridiculous joke, which is my usual response to just about any stimulus.

You can download or stream the podcast using the bar below. Get in touch with us onFacebook or Twitter and give us some feedback!

Once you’ve listened to the podcast, I’m sure you’ll want some more Rich in your life. Watch this video, go to this Facebook page, or the official Devil’s Union website.

Love your work.

WLBTR