A man who disregards authority with the utmost spirit, Ivan Beecroft has recently released his latest album Whatever. A mirror held directly in the faces of the powers that be, it’s a direct and powerful message brimming with his anti-establishmentarian attitudes.
In light of its release, we caught up with Beecroft for a chat.
Vitriol, veracity and a verbose sonic violence: we chat the latest album whatever with Melbourne’s Ivan Beecroft.
HAPPY: Hey Ivan, what’s going on? What are you up to at the moment?
IVAN: At the moment I am currently taking some time off until after Christmas as this year has been quite frenetic in a lot a ways, so I am feeling slightly burnt out from that.
HAPPY: So your new album Whatever is out there into the world. How have people been taking it?
IVAN: It’s been doing really well, there have been some great reviews. Overall there has been a positive response from everyone that has heard it so far, which has surprised me little bit as you never really know exactly what response you will get from people due to the eclectic tastes that a lot of people tend to have these days and the subjective nature of music in general. We sold out of the pre-order CDs in the first couple of weeks which was very unexpected.
HAPPY: It’s a pretty angry album, as far as I can tell. What started that feeling, and how did it develop into Whatever?
IVAN: To be honest, the album probably should not even exist, it was put together after I released the single Believe in March this year that did really well in the U.S. Half of the songs on the album were recorded three years ago and the other other half were recorded throughout this year. The title came from an ex-bandmate who used the term as a universal answer to practically everything. The anger that some of the songs exude come from my own personal experiences of being disadvantaged, marginalised and mistreated when I was working in factories as a steel worker around Melbourne.
I think the realisation that you were considered to be worthless and were to be used and abused and thrown out like an old shoe has had a lasting affect on me. Writing songs and playing music has always been a great relief valve for me to deal with the frustration and anxiety that came from working in an industry where the possibility of losing life and limb was always prevalent. I think the shock and sheer horror of having to watch your workmates suffer horrific injuries in front of you due to the callousness and negligent indifference that most employers treated their workers with has left a lasting impression on me. Writing songs and playing music for me was a form of therapy to cope with this. Having no money and being displaced on a regular basis on top of all this has probably fuelled a lot of resentment also.
So I can definitely say that all these experiences have been expressed lyrically and emotionally in Whatever which is probably more obvious in the first few tracks on the album, rather than the last four or five tracks.
HAPPY: Aside from what’s on the album, is there anything else you feel that strongly about?
IVAN: It would probably be a lot easier to ask me what doesn’t piss me off, where would I stop when it comes to things that do? I don’t think there would be enough room for any other articles on your blog if I tried to cover all of them. There is one thing that has recently got up my nose, and that is highly maddening as an independent, alternative artist, and that is constantly being pressured to conform to a certain set of rules and so-called norms in the music industry that have gradually crept in over a long period of time.
To someone like me who prides themselves on living as a non-conformist and who swears by the mantra “the rules are there ain’t no rules” this absolutely infuriates me. One other issue at the moment does upset me and that is the hard-heartedness of our federal government’s disgraceful treatment of refugees on Manus Island and the despicable treatment of the unemployed earlier this year by sending fines and debt collectors to the most vulnerable in our community. I won’t go on any further, that’s enough politics for one article, we can’t have whoever’s reading this dying of boredom, now can we?
HAPPY: The final track One Last Goodbye is about your father. Tell us about him a little.
IVAN: My father’s character is best described as the strong silent type. He wasn’t the sort of father that you would have a heart to heart with, he was more the sort of guy you could have a beer with and go to the football. My father was a fairly complex man who tended to not appear complicated to anyone other than us, if that makes any sense. Dad was born with a double cleft palate and double hare-lip and was very self-conscious of it, you would never have known this I only found this out recently.
I am pretty sure he was bullied unmercifully at school because of this, when I was very young I remember being very conscious of an inner pain and a certain dogged determination that he had, I am pretty sure this has rubbed off onto me. I was always encouraged to play music by both my parents, especially by my father as I knew that he loved music. A lot of Dad’s mates were really good sax players and he would have loved to have been a saxophonist himself but probably wasn’t able to due to his hare-lip. I am very thankful that they made sacrifices for me and that made sure that being poor didn’t interfere with giving me access to lessons and instruments as they both worked very low paying jobs.
I remember Dad being especially chuffed when I took up playing sax and his mates coming around to encourage me as well so I could tell he was really proud of me but he would never say so. His taste in music had a massive influence on me, he was into big band music and jazz, I used go through his record collection when he wasn’t home and listen to it and then pretend to him I wasn’t interested in it. My family and I have never really been able to come to terms with his sudden passing I am not sure if we ever will.
HAPPY: You seem to draw from a lot of sources, from Pink Floyd in the ’70s to more modern pub rock. Is there a period of music that you feel most strongly resonates with you?
IVAN: I would have to say the early ’90s as I found that period very interesting when it came to the bands and the music that was created in this period of time. Although ’70s punk rock has had a massive influence on me due to its accessibility with its politically motivated lyrical content, I still find this era of music and that particular movement at the time resonates strongly so I would have to combine the two equally.
HAPPY: How would you say Whatever differs from Dirty Lie, if you had to condense it into one sentence?
IVAN: When you compare those two albums I would definitely say that Whatever is more evolved in its songwriting than Dirty Lie.
HAPPY: Do you have any shows planned to show off the record?
IVAN: I have nothing planned for this year, I will be looking at 2018 at this stage to do some shows in Melbourne.
HAPPY: Are you working on anything new?
IVAN: There are some things in the pipeline at the moment, not sure how that will pan out for next year, there are some songs that I would like to experiment with but I have no idea if this will turn into something or not I will just have to wait and see.
HAPPY: Thanks for the chat!
IVAN: It’s been great talking to you.
