Indie band Cogel are playing this Saturday at Oxford Arts Factory. Ripe Community caught up with them to talk kareoke, Gary Busey and their debut EP.
Hello! Please tell us your name, your role in the band, and your favourite song to sing at karaoke.
Nic: Bonjour! I’m Nic (the other one). I’m singing and I play guitar. Karaoke song : “Lithium” from Nirvana.
Manfried: Good morning to you Gina. My name is Manfried, and I am Nick’s personal assistant. I will answer what I can, but Nick is a busy man. He plays guitar, sings a little bit, and finds any opportunity to include the theremin into songs. Still waiting for that first chance, come to think of it. His favourite song to sing at karaoke is Toto’s Africa.
Alex: Hello. My name is Alex. I’m the only female but as I have the shortest hair, I’m clearly the most masculine member of the band. Part of this masculinity means I have no personal assistants to help me…although I generally just use my charm to get everyone to do my bidding for me for free, ergo no need for the assistant. It’s how I roll. When I’m not batting my eyelids for benefits, I play violin, sing, hit stuff [mostly percussive instruments, but sometime the boys can get in the way], and [most importantly] clap my hands. Nothing like clapping your hands to a song. It’s been clinically proven to increase your serotonin levels. True story, I read it in a magazine last week so it must be right. I’m pretty sure Sia rate me as one of her key musical influences. My original fave karaoke song [Whitney’s I will always love you] was recently replaced at a business conference where I found myself in the somewhat unique position of being dressed like Zorro, singing Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” [the theme song I use to fondly reminisce about one of my ex boyfriends] with 11 [real life] accountants, also dressed as Zorro, doing the moves from the film clip as my backup dancers. Clearly this is now my new fave, and I’m working to get the Cogel boys to learn the LG moves. No Langers, you may not bring the theramin.
Lloyd: Lloyd Prescott, the younger half of the blood related rhythm section of the band. I play the bass guitar and am the only member who doesn’t sing on stage. At karaoke it’s gotta be Seal’s Kiss From A Rose.
Edward: Edward Prescott. I play drums and sing a little bit. At karaoke recently for a seedy birthday get together, my highlight was probably Nirvana’s ‘Lithium’ because everyone screamed along. My god, I was hoarse the next day though.
How did the band form?
Lloyd: Nic and Ed met each other through their girlfriends. Both being musical, they bonded over that. Nic had a few songs he had been working on by himself and wanted to flesh them out with a band. I was then asked by my brother to get involved. Nick and Alex soon joined a few months after this.
If Cogel was a movie what would be the tag line?
Manfried: The movie would be a softcore pornography, complementing the Aquarium video clip. It would be entitled “Cogel: Beneath the water”. Tagline would be “Holding your breath was never this sexy.”
Alex: “It’s like an Asian man trying to say ‘Call Girl’“ [too far?]
Lloyd: “We tried to get Gary Busey, but Nick Langley was all we could afford”
What are some of your musical influences?
Nic: Feist, Midlake, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Neil Young, Arcade Fire, Beck, Nirvana, Simon and Garfunkel, Guns and Roses, The Lemonheads…
Edward: I listen to everything. Currently devouring a lot of Americana sort of stuff, like Kurt Vile and Bill Callahan. Some of my all-time faves include Radiohead, Beatles, Neil Young, The Cure, and on and on it goes. Y’know, the good stuff.
Your single ‘Rocks on the Sun’ features backing vocals from Wally De Backer (aka Gotye). How did you score that feature?
Edward: I’ve known Wally for about 4 or 5 years. Originally met him through touring with his band The Basics. We kept in touch and he’s helped me with the odd musical thing here and there. The part he sings on ‘Rocks on the Sun’ is a harmony he was hearing in his head that he thought would lift the chorus. I feel lucky to have him as a friend, as he is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet and an exceptional musician.
Nic: We were playing a gig with Tash Parker (Wally De Backer’s girlfriend) and as we were rehearsing that day prior to the show – we were all gathered in my living room – Wally came up with a really nice harmony for the chorus of this song. He ended up singing it with us that night! He then told us he would be happy to sing on the recording as well. Quite an honor to have him on the track indeed! I should mention is the nicest guy.
Your sound has been described as “luscious” and “ethereal”. How would you describe it?
Edward: I don’t know who said that. I would describe it as a warm haloumi salad soaked in vinegar.
Alex: You know what – our older stuff is “luscious” and “ethereal”. Our newer stuff has a lovely gypsy / jungle feel to it I think. And just quietly, I like it.
Lloyd: Always a tough question. To me, our sound is characterised by its duality. At times our songs can seem simple and obvious, but there is often an underlying, subtle element that skews the track ever so slightly in an interesting direction.
Manfried: Nick gets asked this question often, and he rarely has an adequate answer. The best attempts involve adjectives such as “warming, introspective, rich and natural”. Might be able to work those into the Porno tagline.
The film clip for your song “Aquarium” was featured as “Indie of the Week” on Rage. Tell us a little bit about it.
Nick: Andrew Seaton, a young and very talented director contacted me after he’d heard the song on Triple J. He said he had wanted to pitch an idea for the song. We met and clicked straight away with the script. It was a real organic process, with minimal crew and set up. We shot it within two days (and a cold!). Everyone worked for free on this project. When the clip was done, we sent a tape to Rage and were all really excited about the news. Especially as it was both Andrew and the band’s first video clip ever made.
Are you planning on touring the EP?
Nick (Manfried): We toured Melbourne with good friend Tash parker in late 2010, and are only just now looking to play a couple more shows before locking in some more studio time. We feel that what we’ve released thus far is merely a taste of what’s to come on our new release.
Lloyd: Like Nick said, we have been busy doing a little writing. The first EP was done before Nick and Alex joined and wasn’t really toured. The new stuff we are working on is much more collaborative and as such, is quite different. Hopefully we hit the studio soon and get these new ideas down. I’m sure we will tour that one.
What can we expect from your set this Saturday at OAF?
Manfried: Expect a lot of nudity on Saturday. It’s all part of this grand marketing campaign for the aforementioned, yet-to-be-released Cogel film.
Alex: I bought a new dress. I’m pretty excited about that. Apart from that, you can expect 3 brand spankin’ never-before-heard-by-the-general-public songs which will make you dance like you’re a gypsy in the jungle. If you’re lucky, who knows – maybe this could be worked into Langers’ porn clip.
Thank you for your time! Any last words or shout outs?
Lloyd: Just a shout out to Gary Busey - we can and will kick Nick Langley out of the band if you wish to join.
Edward: I too, would like to offer a shout out to Gary Busey. I think joining this band could be just what he needs at this point in his career. It would be mutually beneficial.
Manfried: The only shout out I have is during Toto’s Africa. There’s nothing that 100 men or more could ever do.
Alex: Thanks to the I Forget Sorry crew for having us on their lineup – they’re a bunch of champions and I can’t wait for Saturday night.
Nic: Vive l’amour!
Check them out at: http://www.triplejunearthed.com/cogel
You can grab tickets to their gig here: http://www.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=46799&ref=moshtix&skin
For further information: http://cogelband.com/
