What could be worse than getting sick on an overseas holiday? Probably having your blood sucked by a mosquito and coming back with Dengue Fever, which is what happened to Mat, one half of Mother And Son. Back at full health, Mat talked to The Flog about going straight into recording while still down with the fever, the creation of their wonderful animated clip and she showdown that will be when they play with 5.6.7.8’s (The infamous Japanese band who played during the Kill Bill scene with O-Ren Ishii and the Crazy 88).

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FBi :: Hello, hello. How is your day going?

Mat :: My day was really good. I’ve been watching Eddie Murphy’s ‘Delirious’ and laughing lots. I’m on school holidays and it’s the last week, so I’m enjoying the time off before I go back and teach the little monkeys some lessons.

So, as far as I can tell, you’re two dudes. Who’s the mother and who’s the son?

You guessed right and have asked the quintessential question for us. We always give the same answer to this and that is, the mother roles change all the time. I’m a late ass, so Bodie generally plays the mother role and gets up me to make sure I get to shows on time. On the other hand, I’m not really a drinker so once we get to a show he’s the one that usual takes all the drink tickets and gets loose whilst I’ll play the mother card and drop him home (or to another bar on my way home). It works well, I say.

You call yourself a ‘garage, surfabilly, swamp duo’. That’s a big mix! Is this ‘swamp’ as in swamp-pop of 1950s Louisiana, like Phil Phillips, etc? Or do you or do you guys go romping and stomping and call it ‘swamping’?

Well, the swamp category comes more from our early recordings where we literally had two microphones to record an EP with. The sound that came out was a tad muddy and our style is just loose so it was swampy sounding. We do have pretty dark song called ‘Creature From The Swamp’, but it has no resemblance to swamp rock. I’d have to say our sound now rides between authentic surf rock n roll and garage music.

What’s the story behind your song ‘Mosquito’ and ‘Dengue Fever’?

Man, I caught the Fever when I was surfing in Colombia. It hit me on the plane coming home and I had to go straight into recording our album. Wasn’t fun. But yeah, we had been playing these two instrumentals as show openers and recorded them both. One sounds like a mosquito buzzing away and the other one hits you like Dengue Fever. Bad description, I know, but they are worth a listen.

How did you know you had contracted the fever? (Or do we not really want to know about the symptoms?)

I didn’t know ’til later. I mean, the symptoms are the same as any major flu, but with Dengue it can last for months, or even a year. I had some blood tests and the results came in later. We still hadn’t named these songs so it seemed fitting to name them ‘Mosquito and Dengue Fever’.

Your new stop motion clip for ‘Mosquito’ & ‘Dengue Fever’ is great! It reminds me of looking at specimens in a petri dish during science class. Tell me about the creation process.

It is like that. Tonnes of ripped up paper making all kinds of creatures that we get to watch do their thing. We were just extremely lucky really. We randomly received an email from Alex Frost asking if he could use ‘Mosquito’ for a University assignment. Of course we agreed and didn’t hear back from Alex until a few months later. Alex then sends us the link and both Bodie and myself were blown away with his talents and asked if he could do another one to ‘Dengue Fever’, as both instrumentals fit together. Fortunately he agreed and he has just done the best job.

The clip was filmed over ten days and contains over 4,500 individually shot frames. During production Alex Forrest used these handmade paper cut outs and thread to paint his picture which follows the journey of parasite in the form of a mosquito. It’s really amazing to watch.

I really want to plug his website if that’s ok: http://www.alexforrest.com.au/

You’re supporting Japan’s wonderful 5.6.7.8’s next week! Do you think the night will be a show down like the scene in Kill Bill with O-Ren Ishii and the Crazy 88?

Ha! You know your Kill Bill characters. To be honest I saw Kill Bill when it was released and haven’t watched it again since but we are just so happy to be supporting the 5,6,7,8’s. Yes, it’s going to be a show down, but that’s just because you have three hot bands playing. Big plug to our mates LaMancha Negra who are also on the bill. Those guys will pack the nunchucks!

What’s your all time favourite Tarantino Film?

Oh man, I’m the worst person to ask that question. This is the mother coming out of me but I hate violent films. Ha. If I had to choose one, though, it would be True Romance, which Tarantino wrote. From memory, Brad Pitt plays a pretty funny grunge bong smoker in it.

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Who :: Mother And Son and  LaMancha Negra support the 5.6.7.8’s
When :: This Thursday 24th Jan
Where :: Oxford Art Factory
How Much?  $35 and you can buy them here.

Read more from Jayne Cheeseman here.