I wrote recently about my excitement about the release of Griff the Invisible, and the film’s soundtrack penned by Sydney band Kids at Risk. So I was thrilled to recently catch up with Sep Caton to talk about his band’s involvement with the movie, the lead single “Doing The Best That We Can,” and the upcoming tour.
You’ve just written the soundtrack for the upcoming Aussie film Griff the Invisible. Why did you want to be involved with this movie?
The filmmaker Leon Ford, who wrote and directed the film, and also the producer Nicole O’Donohue are friends of everybody in the band, and we had known about this film coming for quite some time. And anybody who had heard about it, no matter what sort of field you were in, you just wanted to be a part of this film. Every actor in town wanted an audition, anybody who’s on a crew just wanted to be a part of it. It was something special, and you could tell that by the very first time you read the script.
So at first I was at a party with Leon and he was talking a little bit about the music and just some songs by some other Australian bands that he wanted to put in there, and I said about one of the songs he wanted to put in there “Hey, I do a really good cover of that! How about I whack something down for you, you can have a quick listen, and if you like it you can use that; might be a bit cheaper” and yada yada, it just kept going on and on.
And eventually we went in for a meeting with the filmmakers, and they showed us the set and everything. We were just so excited. And they said “Well we also need a score” and we said “We’ll do that!” “And we need some other songs …” “Oh we’ll do that!” And by the end of that meeting we walked out with the soundtrack in our hands basically. So yeah, it was a great opportunity.
Is there any difference approaching writing a film soundtrack compared to a regular band recording?
Oh definitely. When you’re doing something for yourself you basically write for you, but when you’re writing for a film there’s a certain part of you that says “I need to put myself into the head of that character,” and that’s what we did. We basically with this movie approached it “What would this character, what would the song be in his head as he’s walking down the street?” or “What would she be hearing and humming to herself as she’s going about her business?” And that’s what we sort of did; we put ourselves in the minds of the characters and that’s where it came from.
The first single “Doing the Best That We Can” sounds great. Was it as much fun to record as it is to listen to?
It was. It was fast and furious, I’ve got to say. I think we did the whole recording for that song in around 45 minutes, at the very end of the recording process. It was just something we went “Here we go” whack-whack-whack-whack-whack. It didn’t have a place in the film at the time; it was just something we’d been working on that sounded great. We just had a lot of fun with it. Originally it wasn’t going to be a single or anything but it was one of those songs that if anyone’s heard it, 10 minutes later you hear them humming it, then an hour later they’re still humming it, then the next day walking down the stairs still humming it. So we went “Oh right, hello, we’d better do something with this song.” So yeah, eventually it became the single.
This movie’s picking up some real global buzz after being accepted into film festivals in Toronto and Berlin. Are you guys hoping to capitalise on that international attention and take your music overseas?
We’d be crazy not to, wouldn’t we? We originally had plans to go to Berlin; not to play or anything but to be there for the film. We were really just so proud of it, we wanted to be there for the filmmakers. But we’d like to capitalise on this however we can overseas, and here at home as well. We’re certainly hoping to make the most of it.
You’ll be appearing at local film festivals and premieres to promote the movie and your work with it. That’s a very different scene for musicians. Are you looking forward to it?
Yes, we are actually. They’re related worlds, but they’re certainly a bit different. The funny thing is with Kids at Risk, is that many of us have a film or television background, whether in front or behind the camera. So it’s not exactly a new world to us, but it is fun to collide our two worlds together.
You’re going to be blogging about your adventures on your website. How important is that sort of communication in helping you connect to your fans and find new ones?
Well, to be honest, I’m not 100% sure. It isn’t something that’s very familiar to us as a band. This is the first time I’ve ever started blogging. I’m quite enjoying it; having said that most of my blog’s about “What the hell do I blog about?” But it’s a really nice way to access whatever fans we have out there. It’s a really nice way to access them and talk directly to them. So it is a lot of fun and it’s a whole new world for me, so I’m quite excited by it.
I hear that you’ll also be doing what you do best and touring around the country to coincide with the film’s release. Are you looking forward to getting back out on the road?
Oh definitely. We love to play. And there are a whole lot of places that we haven’t played. We’ve mainly just been playing in Sydney and up and down the New South Wales coast really, so to get to broaden our horizons is very exciting.
What can punters expect when they see you live?
Well, to be honest, they can expect something very different to the Griff soundtrack. The Griff soundtrack is mostly acoustic, mostly very pop sensibility. We were basically writing for anybody, from children to n-thy year olds with that film. Kids at Risk itself is a bit more of a face-melter. We’re fast and furious. We’re a little bit crazy. We like to call it ADHD rock. Quite often we have gigs which are separated into two types of people: the people who stand down the front and just throw themselves into each other – it’s lovely to see the mosh coming back to Sydney venues – and the other half is the people who stand at the back with a confused look on their faces thinking “What the hell is going on here?”
After the promotion of the soundtrack dies down, what’s next for the band?
Yes, we’re already making a fiendish little plan as to what comes next, but I’m going to keep that under my hat.
Griff the Invisible hits Aussie theatres on March 17, and we can expect to see Kids at Risk touring around the country somewhere around there. Look out for the dates here once they’re announced!
Image used with permission from Positive Feedback