Damian Cowell by Damian Cowell

Damian Cowell once wrote a song called “I Was The Guy In TISM”

Anyone can say that though, can’t they?

What we do know is that Damian has released 21 albums since 2004, which in a strange coincidence happens to be when TISM played their very last shows (before last year – or did that really happen?)

And since 2004 Damian has released music under his own name, under the name ROOT!, the acronym DC3, and Damian Cowell’s Disco Machine.

So, what’s this all about then?

Here’s a CD with 20 of the best Damian Cowell tracks laid down in the studio ever. Lovingly compiled, remastered, and pressed onto a tiny plastic disc to promote Damian’s upcoming world tour (starting with Australia’s east coast but you know… eventually).

And there’s rare tracks on here too! New recordings, remixes, alternatives from the vaults. It’s all pretty good.

We were going to get a top Australian journo to interview Damian but MGM said we were already a week past deadline, so we told Damian we couldn’t come up with the hundred bucks that music press writers will grovelling accept these days so he’d have to interview himself.

DAMIAN COWELL TALKS TO DAMIAN COWELL ABOUT DAMIAN COWELL

Damian:
‘Damian Cowell’. Boring title for an album, isn’t it?
Damian:
I was going to do a compilation of my stuff with Tony Martin and call it ‘Tones and I’. Apparently, someone else stole that idea.

Damian:
What’s on it?
Damian:
Songs from my various projects – ROOT!, The DC3, Damian Cowell’s Disco Machine, the album I did for MONA and some bits and bobs.

Damian:
So, what, you’re just getting your fans to pay twice for these songs?
Damian:
Hang on! There’s a bunch of unreleased tracks on it!

Damian:
Surely there must be a serious conceptual framework behind this release.
Damian:
My Manager told me to stop hiding behind so called ‘democratic’ bands when in fact I write the words and most of the music, do the interviews, design the artwork and generally boss people around the whole time. ‘Establish you as a brand’, he told me. So this album is a sort of sampler. Like a hotel buffet breakfast - except without tourists pushing you out of the way for a fifth helping of bacon.

Damian:
There’s a new version of “Fuck I’m Dead” on the album, featuring your collaborators from ROOT! and The DC3, Henri Grawe and Douglas Lee Robertson. Surely, they must be annoyed that you’re taking all the credit.
Damian:
When they heard I was touring they left the country, so I figured I could sneak this out while they’re away.

Damian:
There’s some other pretty impressive contributors on it too – Tony Martin, Shaun Micallef, Celia Pacquola, Ella Hooper, even Lee Lin-Chin.
Damian:
Oh, they all get a mention. Just in really fine print.

Damian:
Some of these songs remind me of TISM.
Damian:
I was wondering how long before you’d bring that up.

Damian:
In the song Damian Cowell’s Disco Machine Part 1 you tell an Emperor’s New Clothes parable about how you accidentally released a silent track and everybody rushed out and bought it. Five years later, TISM releases a silent album and that’s exactly what happens.
Damian:
Complete co-incidence.

Damian:
There’s even a song on the album called I Was The Guy in TISM. You owe it to people to address the masked room-elephant.
Damian:
Three strikes! You’re out!

Damian:
But honestly, how are people meant to take you? There’s some seriously weighty subject matter on this album. Market Forces is a Huxleyesque depiction of free enterprise as a totalitarian coup, described as ‘remarkable’ by the late, great doyen of Melbourne radio Stephen Walker. Sanctuary and The Future Sound of Nostalgia are equally straight-faced. And yet… there’s Cool For Catamites. Is that the stupidest song ever written?
Damian:
I hope so.

Damian:
Why is the letter “a” in damian red? Are you alluding to your “A list” status as a legend of Australian music? Are you graphically denoting the hint of lurking doom in your seemingly facetious world view? Are you, deep down, an anarchist? The Antichrist?
Damian:
No. Everyone calls me Damien. It really shits me.

Damian Cowell. Writer. Musician. Singer. Charlatan.

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