Jake Robertson shares his thoughts on Alien Nosejob and his other projects

Transmission 139: Interview with Jake Robertson

Jake Robertson is an Australian musician from the Central Coast, New South Wales, who moved to Geelong, Victoria, in 2010. He is a central figure in projects such as Alien Nosejob, Ausmuteants, Hierophants, Modal Melodies, Smarts, and The Frowning Clouds, releasing music through labels like Anti Fade Records and international imprints including Goner Records and Feel It Records. His projects span punk, garage, and experimental sounds, often marked by raw energy and inventive structures.

Robertson formed Ausmuteants in 2011, a band that gained international recognition for its frenetic style, while Alien Nosejob evolved from an anonymous solo effort to a versatile project exploring various genres. In addition to his music, he co-managed Aarght Records, contributing to Australia’s independent music scene.

Featured image: photo by Isobel Buckley 

What were some of the first records or artists that sparked your interest in music?

My Dad grew up in New Zealand in the 60’s, saw Chants RnB and The La De Da’s. My Mum saw the Easybeats and Donovan. My sister was into Kate Bush and PJ Harvey, my brother was into AC/DC and Dead Kennedys. So when I was growing up there was a lot of the above being played. When I was a kid I was obsessed with AC/DC (Strictly Bon era) and The Easybeats. There was probably some form of national pride in my tadpole mind. 

When I hit 11 or 12 and was ‘progressing’ beyond my families taste, I got really into Nu Metal and Pop Punk (Thanks Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater), which ultimately lead back to bands like The Misfits, Rancid / Op Ivy, The Specials and then through those bands I started listening to Fear, Black Flag, Jerry’s Kids, The Saints which lead back to The Missing Links, The Kinks, Syd Barrett…etc and then went back further to blind Blake, Memphis Minnie and pre-war blues stuff. For most of my life I’ve listened to a pretty wide range of music, but Punk / Garage / Hardcore subgenres are usually present somewhere.

Growing up in Central Coast, how did the local music scene (or lack of it) influence your creative direction?

There were definitely small music scenes in The Central Coast that I wasn’t really aware of, due to not having the internet. The place oozes ‘small town’ energy, but it’s geographically huge and there is not much Public Transport, so getting to the gigs that you do find out about is incredibly difficult without a car. Until I formed my own bands, I pretty much only ever saw my brothers band and my Dads bands which were awesome and a big push for me to try make something too. There was a bit more happening in Newcastle and Sydney. The first local shows I would go to, were noise / experimental shows in DIY spaces and little council festivals that would sometimes have punk and metal bands. When I got my first band together in around 2002 (We were 13/14, and influenced by Dead Kennedys / Operation Ivy..etc) we’d play and get booed off our school talent quest shows. It was like a not as good version of that ‘Chemotherapy – live Carmel High School’ video.

We eventually met some like minded kids in Sydney and played Punx Picnics and set up our own shows at PCYC’s, bowling alleys and wherever older friends were employed. We’d usually play with  Street Punk / Anarcho styled bands with spiky jackets and spikier hair. Their general narrow mindedness with music used to piss me off, which in turn deterred me from ever listening to Crass / Rudimentary Peni / Zounds…etc which are all bands I love now. some of the bands that really stood out from the rest in my memory from those days were Straight Jacket (nation), AVO, Headcheese, New Justice Team. 60’s inspired stuff also started seeping in my vision around this time. I remember seeing Shutdown 66 with Eddy Current, The Onyas and The Sailors in maybe 2006, that gig had a huge impact on me. I met a bunch of people 10-15 years older than me who were all playing in garage bands and I took a step away from hardcore and punk for a while.

When you moved to Geelong in 2010, how did the shift in environment impact your approach to making music?

When I moved to Geelong I was all of a sudden the old one (I was 20). Most people I hung out with were 2-4 years younger than me, were a lot more social than me and my mates back home, and most had an encyclopedic knowledge of music (Especially 60’s garage) and pop culture. I stopped going to punk/hardcore shows for a couple of years, mainly due to touring a lot with The Frowning Clouds and Hierophants. It was a really fun time and I felt like it was a place full of like minded people. The Frowning Clouds had a booking agent, which is something I hadn’t experienced before or since. We would often get billed with these boring, neo-psychedelic pop, throwback nostalgia bands or earnest, nick cave wannabe bands with ‘I’m gonna change the world’ eyes. There were a few diamonds in the rough, like The Living Eyes, The Clits, Cobwebbs, Straight Arrows and a few others, but for the most part, for a year or two, I was  seeing a lot of bands that I felt existed for the wrong reasons, were clueless to anything I considered cool and it started to bum me out. In 2010 or 2011 Clouds played a show with Thee Oh Sees, King Gizzard (opening haha, weird to think about) and Total Control. The latter completely blew me away. I’d seen / met most of them from their other bands (straight jacket / Eddy current / uv race). At that point Total Control reminded me of The Adolescents and Fear. The Paranoid Video 7” had just come out and it just hit me at a point I felt like I wasn’t enjoying much new music. 

Around that time I started Ausmuteants with Billy from living eyes as a 2 piece bedroom recording project. Early on the influences were the screamers, chrome, devo and Ramones. We started playing mainly in Melbourne and found a bunch of local bands that got me interested in going to gigs and starting new bands again. 

Do you recall a particular moment or experience that made you realize music was something you wanted to pursue seriously?

I think when I was In my early 20s I realised I didn’t want to pursue music seriously. For the brief period where I had a band with a booking agent and a manager, there’d be rules on what gigs you can and can’t play, and suggestions on what songs you can or can’t write and release. As a rule of thumb, if I get asked to play a gig by a band manager or an agent, I will more often than not politely decline. I wish them all the best, but it’s usually a sign associated with getting ripped off, treated like shit, sounding like shit and dealing with people who think their shit doesn’t stink. I’ve always viewed all forms of personal creativity as a hobby and if there’s ever a point in my life where it feels like a job, I cease being creative for that period. I think it’s pretty evident I have no interest in taking music seriously when Alien Nosejob releases too many albums of all different genres. It’s music industry poison.

What was it like running Aarght Records with Richard Stanley, and how did that experience influence your understanding of the industry?

It was awesome. In my eyes Aarght records was the best label in Australia at the time. Rich and I went to see Steve Albini give a talk on something to do with the music industry and when we were driving home I mentioned that Ausmuteants ‘Band of the Future’ album was all written and played him some demos. He seemed to like it, but told me he couldn’t be fucked doing the label by himself anymore (Aarght originally started as all 4 members of The Ooga Boogas, and each member slowly left). I told him I’d help him with some admin stuff. It was still Rich in the driver’s seat for the whole time I was helping, I only really took the reins for the Spotting 7”, The UV Race – Made in China album and the Ill Globo 7”. Rich had a similar outlook to music as me. He started playing music in high school with a noisey punk band called Hairy Pie which had a classic tape “Pick the peanuts out of my shit” and then pretty much up until I met him toured with The Onyas and self released records. He didn’t give a shit about the music industry and did the label because not many other people were. When a few bands associated with Aarght were getting a bit of attention overseas, and an international distribution company convinced us to join their team along with a bunch of other ‘independent’ labels, it all went a bit pear shaped… From then on the label felt more like a job than a hobby, it was the beginning of the end for me. I lost all interest in it and Rich did too. 

With so many projects on the go, how do you keep your creativity from burning out?

The ones that actually release something are the ones that don’t feel burnt out. There’s roughly 10 albums worth of unreleased stuff by bands that I was a part of. Maybe some will come out, maybe some won’t. It’s not really that important either way. The process of making it with friends was the fun part. I haven’t really written that much in the last year. It’s the least musical I’ve been since I was in high school. It’s pretty nice, I’ve just been watching movies, reading books, hanging with friends, worshipping my cat and playing playstation. I think the main thing is I only play music with friends. I find it funny that bands will audition for new members. Having a good hang out at band practice is far more important than having somebody who can recite the circle of fifths or knows what an aeolian mode is. Who gives a shit.

Turns the Colour of Bad Shit came together during a weekend recording session at a home studio. What was the vibe like during those sessions?

When I make an Alien Nosejob album, I usually have to make 2 demos before recording the final song. The first is more like a ‘feel’ or some ideas floating around, maybe different instrumentation in each verse or chorus and a few sections that may not make the final cut. Then I re-record the song with a complete structure, a drum machine and click track with enough space before the song starts so I can press record on the tape machine, then run to the drum kit before the count in. After I finished the 3rd (and usually final) version, I gave it a rough mix and thought it sounded really crap. So I hit up Mikey Young who is a bit of a sonic mastermind for advice and he told me that him and his partner / band mate / studio builder Raven were away for the weekend, but still had their home studio set up from the Green Child recording session the previous week. They were nice enough to let me have their house, studio and equipment for the whole weekend to re-record the album, whilst they were away. So the 4th version is what made it to the record. 

All of Mikey’s microphones and cables were already set up on the Green Child drum kit, so I just unplugged them from his interface and plugged them into my tape machine. I bought 6 red bulls, a bag of oranges and a bag of coffee and finished the last song as Mikey and Raven walked in the door. So, Up until they got home, I was tweaking from all of the energy drinks and physically exhausted, so you can imagine that the vibe was high. We got a laksa and chilled on the couch for a few hours and then I forgot about the record for 6 months. A while later I decided to put some saxophone on the album to give it a bit of an X-Ray Spex feel, so I asked my mate Alannah (Who is now playing with Alien Nosejob live band) to blow some horn. We did the whole thing in one session in my bedroom, took about 2 hours.

Do you see the album as a reaction to any personal or societal events from the past year?

Not intentionally. I guess a lot of the lyrics are incredibly morose and cynical, which goes hand in hand with the current state of this piece of shit planet. Quite a handful of the lyrics were written about corruption and abuse of power, but at least in my mind while I was writing, they were about events from 30+ years ago. Both corruption and abuse of power obviously still happens constantly and if I thought of myself as somebody who deserves a platform to preach about how to improve the world, maybe I’d give it a go, but, even though I believe I know the difference between right and wrong, and am utterly disgusted by many current issues, like greed, occupation and war, I don’t think I am smart enough to write about the current state of the world in a way that would benefit anybody. So I think it’s best to keep the majority of my opinions away from my records and keep them to myself and my actual friends.

Have you started experimenting with new ideas or concepts for the next record, and if so, how do they differ from what you explored on this album?

I never really write an album all at once. I kind of have 3 or 4 on the go at any given time and will just contribute little bits to whichever one I am feeling on the day. Lately I’ve mainly been listening to rap music, so I haven’t written much, as I don’t think I have what it takes to make anything in that style that is worthy of the time it takes to write.

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others