BIGSOUND 2019 Artist Focus: Obscura Hail

Answered by: Sean Conran – vocals and guitar 

Give us a short description of your music: A late-night routine of recording hastily thrown together wall-of-sound folk-pop-punk through ad-hoc bedroom methods, inspired by a fear of memory loss and video game encounters. Simultaneously too many, and not enough harmonies.

Which acts are on your must-see list at BIGSOUND? There are plenty worth catching, and with some friends playing it's hard to really narrow it down. We'll go out on a limb and see something we wouldn't normally listen to, and soak it in.

Why should people come and see you among the many amazing bands at BIGSOUND? We'd like to think we're surprising. Each song is a different kind of condiment – delicate, thrashy, harmonic, discordant. It's a blunderbuss of flavours. Overall it's Disney meets Tim Burton. Dark but wrapped in a nice pink bow.

What music trends do you think are dominating right now, and do you have any predictions for the coming year? Soul, dream-pop and indie-rock are shining pretty strong in my periphery, which is great, but I think we can expect the unconventional or indefinable, like TMBG or Laurie Anderson, and for punk to make a super-strong comeback considering all the injustices coming to light.

In your career to date, what have been the key watershed moments?  Supporting Kele Okereke of Bloc Party on his east coast tour and frightening him when tapping his shoulder while he slept. Having an anxiety attack during a solo set to no one but the main touring band, thinking it's my fault the room’s (Rad Bar) empty in 2013. 

What industry lessons would you like to take away from the BIGSOUND conference? This is corporate espionage. We want to assimilate all knowledge, industry secrets and everyone's phone numbers for prank calling. You don't know if you can work with something until you've prank called them. The aim is world domination through mischief.

What do you identify as the most pressing issue impacting the Australian music industry at present? The idea that it's a competition for validation, propagated by the social media machine. How do we preserve artistic intent and feel like we're enough? Be sincere, don't give up, and listen to those who are strong voices for their community, who also highlight wider issues affecting all humans.

What is the best bit of advice you've been given to prepare for your time at BIGSOUND? Know what you want for your set and how to communicate it clearly with your sound engineer. Musical clarity comes first. You can work out the whys later.

When and where is your BIGSOUND showcase? 3 Sep, The Lucky Cock, 10.30pm.