Granite Island Discs: Nick O’Connor
Carclew’s Music Specialist Nick O’Connor shares his top five songs of all time, his favourite SA act and more.
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What five songs would you take to a desert island?
1. Cyndi Lauper – ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’. I’m an ‘80s kid with two older sisters and this sprang to mind first, so I’m going with it. I also think if I’m alone on a desert island, some pepped-up Cyndi vibes will be super handy.
2. Bon Jovi – ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’. It’s a massive anthem bound to drag me through some tricky hurdles.
3. Elliott Smith – ‘Son of Sam’. For the quiet times. I don’t know how this song’s sadness translates to connectedness, but it does.
4. MGMT – ‘Me and Michael’. Something cruisy for an afternoon of lying around on the beach once the day’s hunting and shelter maintenance has occurred. I originally heard the lyric as ‘me and my girl’, but MGMT are too rad for that.
5. The Animals – ‘We Gotta Get Outta This Place’. It’s all in the name, really.
If you could only pick one, what would it be?
That is a savage question. What sort of nasty game is this? If it’s only one, I’m probably going to pivot to something deep and faceless like Jojo Mayer's ‘Tetrastigm’. I don’t think lyrics are gonna help you on repeat – may as well go down an electro portal with delicious live drums for six minutes.
What’s your favourite album?
OOF. Maybe Tame Impala, Currents? Caribou’s Honey and Daphni’s Cherry are currently on repeat. But then there is Michael Jackson’s Thriller, [and] Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet. Oh man, and Regurgitator’s Tu-Plang! Another savage line of questioning. Primus’ Sailing the Seas of Cheese; Radiohead’s OK Computer; Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois; Gorillaz Demon Days. Mate! Too many. OK the winner is, for the sake of ending this misery... Currents.
What’s your favourite song by an SA artist/band?
Fave SA act at the moment is Awnings. They don’t seem to have any releases out and don’t really talk at all when they play live, so the song titles are elusive. But the math rock force is super strong, the riff/section writing is amazing and the execution is crazy. Also fanning on Cringetrender – SA’s vital anti-pop superhero. Please millionaires, see what I see and give this artist a huge budget. I feel like their vision is a solution for us all.
Favourite music-related memory?
Maybe my first gig at the Cranker? My older sister Catherine took me to see a band called Mr Brown ages ago, probably in 1995. It was loud and stank of ciggies and beer – I was hooked. I couldn’t believe life could be so raw and immediate. That or maybe dancing like a possessed spirit behind the curtain on stage at Enmore Theatre during a Jungle Giants set on their Quiet Ferocity tour. My band, Heaps Good Friends, were supporting them at the time, and I got to sneak around venues a lot. Or maybe just in my home studio chasing music down the rabbit hole. If you’re reading this, you know it goes deep and it’s beautiful down there. It’s great when music’s beauty overcomes you.
