Brand New Math | christchurchmusic.org.nz

brand new math the press christchurch 10th October 2008 c/o Pop Tart www.stuff.co.nz/thepress
VICKI ANDERSON adds up the minutes talking to Brand New Math's Brad Fafejta.

Hey Brad, thanks for talking to me. I think Brand New Math's EP, Moustache Party, is superb. I just watched the video for Idiot Savant on YouTube and it gives new meaning to the term "barbershop" in relation to music. Why so hirsute?
Ha. I'm the barber in the video. We're not as hairy now. We're out of the moustache business now. We played Camp A Low Hum and we did a bit of a moustache theme and I drew the album art on the album and that ended up being hairy so it just, er, grew, from there. We did start growing moustaches. The whole EP release has been about us learning how to release stuff. We did the recording and mixing and we thought that was it, then realised that we had to tell people about it and make a music video. I think they're playing it on MTV and C4 but I've yet to see it.

Tell me about making the EP. It was recorded at the Depot wasn't it?
Yes, our bassist Calum Gunn works there so we got to use it for nothing when it was free. Calum did this really mammoth effort and mixed it all himself. We did the vocals in this old-school abandoned theatre, the Victoria Theatre. It was a bit spooky actually. We sat in there for a night drinking brandy and making noise into the microphone. It was a lot of fun.

Walking Talking Animals is another great song on the EP.
Oh, thanks.

And Space Food.
That one was an accident . . .

The best things in life often are.
Yeah, it's your classic four in the morning making music in your bedroom sound I guess.

Idiot Savant is an instant classic - what inspired you?
I'm an art student. It's about going to art shows and how you're expected to act a certain way. When I first went to art school we used to go to shows and I'd end up running around the art gallery enjoying myself which was, apparently, wrong and terribly uncultured of me.

Ha. I always end up standing next to someone in a beret who wants to know what "emotions" the artwork is evoking or some such pretentious shite.
Exactly.

Any thoughts on your next theme? Plans for the future?
We thought about a burger party in November but we're not sure how messy that would get or how people would dress exactly. There's the whole "buns" problem. We're heading over to Australia next month to support Cut Off Your Hands so we're looking forward to that and we're hoping to release another EP, too.

I hope it all goes well for you. Enjoy your visit to Christchurch.
Saturday: Brand New Math with the Tiger Tones and Bang! Bang! Eche! at Dux de Lux, 9pm. Free. Also all-ages gig at Red Panda HQ, with Tiger Tones, Bang! Bang! Eche!