Interview by Ali Williams
TAPE/OFF will be hitting the stages again bringing with them their beloved alt rock/groove punk sounds with them. Their first show for the year will be at Zed51 that effectively will kick off their tour. Drummer Branko Cosic caught up with HEAVY to chat about their return and their genuine excitement to be doing so. There’s a certain amusement in watching the bloke who normally on the other side of an interview asking the questions. Cosic spends a sizeable portion of his working life listening to other people between his Wednesday morning breakfast show, Unnecessary Knowledge, on 4ZZZ, working for the ABC, producing and engineering, and the various musical projects that keep claiming whatever hours remain, being the interviewee is not his usual position. The important part was that TAPE/OFF are heading to Zed51, and Cosic is very bloody happy about it.
The Brisbane four-piece have been around since 2009 and have never been a band interested in squeezing themselves neatly into one genre for administrative convenience. “Slacker rock” is the description Cosic reaches for first, but even he knows that only tells part of it.The foundations came from bands such as Gaslight Radio, Sandpit and Pollen, along with international favourites including Pavement. The appeal was in guitars that could remain clean without sacrificing volume or impact. Cosic, meanwhile, arrived at the drums with a serious Led Zeppelin habit and a fairly straightforward thought. “How can we mix the clean guitars with the big drums?”
That question became an early part of TAPE/OFF’s musical identity, and the answer has continued developing ever since. “That was sort of the start of the sound, and it’s just grown over the years.” There is no great mythology attached to it. Four musicians found common ground, kept playing, kept learning and eventually arrived at last year’s Fort Sensible feeling more certain about themselves than they had before. For Cosic, the album marked an important point in the band’s history because the process finally felt natural. “I think we finally figured out how to be the band that we wanted to be.”
Coming from a band that had already existed for well over a decade, that is a far more interesting statement than pretending every record emerged from some immaculate master plan. Time changes musicians. It changes taste, judgement and, in Cosic’s case, the ears of an engineer who now hears things in recordings he made years ago that he may approach differently today. That has led TAPE/OFF to consider returning to their first album, released in 2014. Not to replace it, and not because Cosic believes the songs have dated badly. Quite the opposite. “The songs are still there, and they still hold up, but I know at the time I was still cutting my teeth as an engineer.”
The original vinyl had a limited run, and requests for a repress have continued. Rather than simply sending the same master back into production, Cosic sees the possibility of revisiting the record with another decade of experience behind him. There is no grand announcement attached yet. It may happen. It may take time. TAPE/OFF are apparently comfortable with both concepts. Time between releases has never been particularly frightening to the band anyway. One member now lives in Melbourne, rehearsals require more organisation and everybody has an actual life outside the rehearsal room. That has created sizeable gaps between albums, but not a lack of interest in making another one. “Writing new tunes is very high on the agenda,” Cosic confirms.
Then there is Zed51. The festival will be TAPE/OFF’s first show of the year, and they are not planning on turning up with the standard four-piece configuration and calling it done. Fort Sensible featured a number of guests who were unable to join the band during its album launch shows, so Cosic is looking at Zed51’s considerably larger stage as an opportunity to bring some of those people into the live set. Details are staying under wraps for now. Even persistent enquiries about possible keys and, naturally, the vital issue of whether cowbell might be involved failed to produce classified information. What Cosic will confirm is that the set will be expanded. “We’re thinking of adding some friends to expand it out and flesh it out, especially on a bigger stage.”
For a band accustomed to clubs, the Parklands also presents another novelty: open air. TAPE/OFF have played larger Brisbane rooms including The Tivoli and The Triffid, but Zed51 will give their considerable volume somewhere different to go. Cosic is keen to hear what happens when a band accustomed to pushing sound through club Last years’ Zed50 bore witness parts of the staging physically rattling under the volume, which also gave the band a reasonable benchmark. If TAPE/OFF can get the triangles moving again, the job is done. Challenge accepted.
The attraction of Zed51 goes well beyond stage size for Cosic. The bill brings together artists he considers friends, peers and genuine musical heroes, including Mudhoney, Custard and The Mark Of Cain. For someone who has spent years working across radio, live music, recording and performance, Cosic has somehow avoided developing the irritating habit of pretending nothing impresses him anymore.He happily admits he was starstruck when Kim Salmon contacted him recently about a live Scientists recording Cosic had mixed years earlier that had finally appeared on vinyl. “This is THE Kim Salmon messaging me about this. I’m a bit starstruck, you know what I mean?”
Good. Anyone who reaches the point where Kim Salmon offering them a record becomes boring probably needs a week off. That genuine enthusiasm also explains why the discussion continually returns to community. Cosic has spent around 15 years at 4ZZZ, where Unnecessary Knowledge earned its name because a former co-host decided his brain contained an unreasonable quantity of music information. Every Wednesday from 6am to 9am, that information gets somewhere useful to go. He is also a firm believer that community radio carries considerably more weight than it is often credited for. Without the commercial ratings machinery surrounding larger broadcasters, stations such as 4ZZZ continue through subscribers, volunteers, listeners and people willing to keep local music audible.
The connection between that world and TAPE/OFF is not difficult to find. Both have survived because people continue turning up. Not every year needs an album. Not every show needs a marketing campaign pretending civilisation depends on ticket sales. Bands can have jobs, families, other projects and members living interstate and still remain bands. They can disappear from a stage for a while and return because somebody has written another riff worth pursuing. “We still enjoy it,” Cosic says. It is probably the cleanest explanation available.
There are already more shows ahead, including a January date with The Saints, and new TAPE/OFF material is firmly in the conversation. First, though, comes Zed51 where the band gets its biggest outdoor opportunity yet surrounded by musicians Cosic has spent years listening to, broadcasting, recording, playing beside and occasionally still being starstruck by. There is one that word that has been sits underneath all of it. Community. “That is the key word,” Cosic says. “It’s the community of people that surround you and enjoy it just as much as you do as well, and makes you feel like you fit in.” After more than fifteen years of TAPE/OFF, that sense of belonging clearly has not worn out. Neither, thankfully, has the urge to turn the amps up.
For all the deets on Zed51 full line up, https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/a104674f-86bd-47a1-8a0c-16ce8ff71f04
