Welcome to Pop Rocks Radio, as always I am your host Bijan. My guest today is a legend in the world of power pop, garage rock, and all things fuzzed out and melodic. From The Stems to DM3, Datura4 and his solo work, he is behind some of the coolest music to ever come out of Australia. He has a great new single, Apple of Life, out now on Alive Records, along with his latest single with The Stems. called Deep Freeze on Cheersquad Records and Tapes. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, Dom Mariani. Dom, thanks so much for being here. Thanks for inviting me along. this is really a thrill for me. So I'm really excited. I'm trying not to geek out, but I can't promise anything. So you are in Perth, Yeah, in Fremantle actually, that's a small port town just south of Perth. Well, you know, I actually want to talk about Perth a little bit later on, but my first question for you, you have multiple bands, a thriving solo career, a family, a day job, you are consistently putting out new music. When do you sleep? I don't sleep very well actually. had a rough night last night. You know, I don't do much else really. You know, I a couple of hobbies but generally, yeah, it's the music and I do architectural work. I work for myself so I have my own sort of, I guess, private practice. And yeah, I just try and fit the two together. Make them work alongside each other. I'm sorry. Sometimes I'm busier with the music, sometimes I'm busy with the architectural work, but yeah, I did some studies when I was younger and got qualified and worked for a short period of time. then my ambition was to be a rock and roll star. But yeah, that sort of worked out for a little while. The Stems did quite well. And then when that sort of ended, I went back to the day job, I started a family and I thought, I've got to pay the bills somehow, otherwise they're to kick me out. So yeah, I did that. ⁓ Took time out, you know, to do various projects like the Someloves recording and I was still signed to a label at the time. So I took a good six months out to do that. ⁓ DM3 again, you know, a few tours here and there, go to Europe. Japan and been to the States a couple of times, but not to do any extensive touring, just things like South by Southwest and the odd show in New York. Apart from that, you know, just I'm obsessed with music. So I didn't think I'd still be doing it, to be honest, at my age now. But in a way, you know, it of keeps me going and still got a big interest in doing it and the various projects I've had have kept me kind of busy and entertained, I guess, as a musician, a songwriter. I'll bet. I knew about many of your bands, but as I was looking into it more, I had no idea how many projects you still have concurrent now. ⁓ And we're going to talk about as many of them as we can. But I do want to talk about the new music that you have right now. Tell me about the new single, Apple of Life. This is your... your second solo single that you've put out this year. Where did it come from creatively and is it pointing the way to a full album? Yeah, well, it's the title track of the album. It seemed obvious at the time. ⁓ I've been working on these things for, I guess, the last four years in between the Datura4 band, which is the band that I'm really playing more so with these days. The Stems also comes back and plays various shows and tours at least once or twice a year. But yeah, Apple of Life, ⁓ it didn't really fit with the Datura4 thing and as well as The Stems thing. It's more of the kind of pop guitar stuff that I do. ⁓ I accumulated a number of tunes and yeah, just sort of slowly chipped away at this solo album. I thought I'd be finished with it a lot sooner than later, but I finally finished it. And Apple of Life, yeah, it pretty much, it's just about... growing up and getting older and going out there and experiencing the things that come your way with life, all the facets of life, love and hate and all the things that come with it. Well, you you kind of touched on ⁓ one thing. I know, you know, this track, along with your earlier solo album, Homespun Blues & Greens, they have their own distinct feel compared to a lot of your band work. When you sit down to write a song, the song comes out. ⁓ Do you look at it and say, okay, this doesn't fit with any of my band, so I'll release it as a solo track. Do you just sit down and write? ⁓ you know, with that solo project in mind. I don't have any routine or anything like that. ⁓ Generally, I'll pick up the guitar and ⁓ what comes is sometimes a song and it usually happens in the morning when I've picked up the guitar and I've got some nothing cluttering in my head. I've come up with a riff or sometimes if I'm sitting on a train or something like that, I'll come up with some lyrics. and jot them down on my phone. yeah, I don't have specific routines or anything like that. ⁓ I guess the pop stuff, they kind of coexist for me. I love lots of different styles of music, obviously. And one minute I'll be sitting down and writing some kind of surf instrumental. The next minute I'll... you know, come up with some, I guess the song is more of a pop style. And then there's the Datura4 stuff, which is more linked to my guitar style, I guess, growing up as a young guitar player, was very much into heavy blues guitar players. But yeah, I'm into that as well. So yeah, I don't really have, can't sort of... give you any secrets there, I'm sorry, but yeah, it just happens. Yeah. I've heard you mentioned before too, you mentioned that growing up you were into heavy guitar stuff. I've also heard you mentioned that influences like Creedence or The Beatles. The single that you released earlier this year, Jangleland, backed with the cover of Day After Day. ⁓ great album, really love that. Those feel like love letters to both The Byrds and Badfinger. How have those bands shaped your writing? in a fairly big way really. I was always, I guess, attracted to sort of melodic music as a kid. I remember hearing Day After Day on the radio and thinking what a fantastic song it was. At that time I really didn't know much about the band or anything like that. I just heard the song on the radio and loved it. And as I got more into music and discovered all these bands like Badfinger and Obviously the Beatles were quite big and we all knew about them. And Creedence Clearwater Revival connected in a way that, again, as a young guy starting to play guitar, learning how to play the guitar, Creedence songs were quite easy to play. But also they just had a real immediate sort of rocky and catchy kind of vibe to them, which, again, listening to... the transistor radio, that song could be blasting out and I'm thinking, is that that Creedence Clearwater Revival band again? Wow, it sounds, yeah, that's them again. And they had so many hits at the time and it kind of coincided with me being like, you know, 14, 13, 14 years old. And they'd probably broken up by then, but they were still getting lots of airplay on the radio. yeah, the Beatles, Bee Gees I loved a lot. They were quite being played quite a bit on the radio T-Rex and yeah people like that. Well, you know, you mentioned being 13, 14, and you started playing in bands when you were a teenager too, correct? Yeah, I a high school band. We started off as an instrumental band. ⁓ My guitar teacher was very much into The Shadows and all that kind of thing. So ⁓ I learned to play a few of those tunes like Apache and yeah, FBI and things like that. So we started off as an instrumental band. was three of us to start with. We didn't have a drummer and we're all playing guitars. Then one guy said, I'll play bass and we found a drummer and that was my high school band and we were called Impact. And from then that band changed its name very many, many times, actually, as we kind of progressed as a band and we got more into lots or got into lots of other other music. ⁓ We played a lot of Creedence, couple of guys on the band were into the Bee Gees and they introduced me to the Bee Gees, which I know. ⁓ I'm to this day because I really love those guys. And, you know, The Monkees were a big influence growing up, you know, coming home from school and seeing the TV show. And then as we got more and more into it, you know, we started finding out about bands like Led Zeppelin and, you know, your heavier bands. that was me as a sort of late teenager. So how did you go from there to the band The Gostarts? Yeah, that's an interesting question that one. Again, ⁓ the band I was in, two of the guys that were in my high school band, we carried on and I can't recall the name we had before the guys' nuts. It was the Nitwits. Yeah, that's right. was called the Nitwits. It was like a new wave band. we were, you know, as musical trends came along, we were kind of... buying the records and getting into those sort of sounds. And The Gostarts was pretty much ⁓ part of that sort of new wave scene, or the music that we would try to play. We started off as a very 60s influenced band, but as we progressed, we were listening to some of the English bands that were coming through at the time. And we were influenced by them for a little while, but after a while, I kind of... I got little bit sick of that. I didn't think that was really me. And then I formed The Stems pretty much. Some of the guys wanted to get into more kind of artier, darker stuff. And I wasn't really wanting to go that way. I was more of a melody man. And I just said, look, I've had enough of The Gostarts. And I'm forming my own band, which is going to be 60s, styles, garage rock. yeah. That's... the rest is history, I guess? Yeah, I love to talk about The Stems. When you were starting out with The Stems, seemed that this is, I'm seeing early 80s, maybe 83, somewhere around there. Australia seemed to really be having this golden moment where all these great bands were breaking through. And I mean, a wide range of bands. Besides The Stems, was like, I mean, Hoodoo Gurus, The Church, INXS Lime Spiders, I mean, the list just goes on and on and on. don't have a concept of how tight-knit a community across Australia, the music community is, but did you feel like you guys were part of ⁓ some sort of wider movement at the time or because of the influences that you were bringing to it, was The Stems' sound just so unique and apart from everyone else? I there seemed to be a, I felt there was a movement away from the kind of synth bands that were quite popular at the time, sort of stuff that was coming out of ⁓ the UK. Like Australia very much at the time was absorbing a lot of UK trans music and a lot of those bands that were coming through the early 80s, we're talking sort of after the sort of new wave thing, which was more sort of bands like Elvis Costello, your Rockpile and Blondie and things like that. It started to get very kind of synth orientated keyboards, which I wasn't really a big fan of myself. And I think there was quite a few of us that felt that way and were in the same boat. So we all picked up our guitars and were channeling, know, just rock and roll music that we really like, three chords. ⁓ And that happened to be for me was like 60s garage. and 60s music. And the Hoodoo Gurus were one band that sort of came through and were one of the first of that sort of I guess wave. They came through Perth a few times and The Scientists was another one that were more like swamp ⁓ rock and went and them a few times and I formed The Stems coincidentally not long after or around the same time. So it seemed to be a few like-minded people and bands that were digging the same sort of music and all of a sudden it started to get some kind of momentum. was a few labels on the east coast like Citadel, Waterfront, the Go Go that were putting out these independent singles and The Stems were lucky enough to get on the, were on the Citadel label with the first single and it just kind of snowballed from there. We just seemed to time it very well. with a lot of the other things that were going on at the time. The inner city sound. So you signed with Citadel and then you went to Sydney. mean, had you been out of Perth much before that? No, we're pretty much Perth based for pretty much most of our career or the lifespan of the band. We started in Perth and we ⁓ amassed a nice little following and we thought, well, the next step now is we've got to record something and release a single. We had a manager at the time, sort of a guy who just latched onto us and said, I'll be your manager, I don't want anything. But he took the tape or cassette tape across to the East Coast and had a meeting with the guy from Citadel, John Needham, and he liked it and then offered to release the single. And ⁓ yeah, it just went from there. So on the strength of that, we actually went to Sydney and stayed in Sydney for four months. And I think that was a pretty good move. You it was a bold move because we're so far away from Sydney and we drove across the Nullarbor. took us a couple of days to get there. yeah, we just, you know, staying with different friends and stuff like Darryl Mather, who I played with in the Someloves shared a house with him. He'd been in the Lime Spiders, and so I got to meet him. He came across the Perth during the Christmas break and saw us play and came up to us and said, I love you guys. I'm going to tell everybody about you guys when I go back to Sydney. So John Needham. I think already knew about us. And yeah, we spent four months there and did quite a few gigs and built a following very, very quickly. yeah, it just sort of snowballed from there. Were there a lot of, I mean, differences between the two scenes? What was going on in Perth versus Sydney? Was it really dramatic, the difference? Sydney was very vibrant at the time with the inner city rock and roll scene. Like you mentioned some bands like the Lime Spiders, the Screaming Tribesmen was another one. was Radio Birdman. It's been a band that at the time weren't as successful, weren't that successful, but they were kind of a legendary status. And a lot of bands were picking up on that band again. So they were held in... fairly high regard and from that band there was The New Christs and there's the Sonnyboys ⁓ obviously came a little bit before, ⁓ Died Pretty was another band. The Moffs who released a single at the same time as us I recall, both released their singles on the same day. ⁓ But yeah, Perth was a lot smaller scene, know Sydney was where it was at. We had to go to Sydney obviously these days Everyone can base themselves in their own city and have degrees of success. But back in the 80s, ⁓ I guess even the 70s, it must have been the same. You had to go to Sydney or Melbourne to try and make some kind of impact on the Australian scene. The Stems to me are such an interesting band and just an interesting story because you released your debut in 1987, debut album At First Sight Violets Are Blue and it was a huge success. mean, really huge success. But then the band called it a day soon after that. Before I ask my question, I mean, do you want to comment on that? I know where you're going. Yeah, it was a shame really. ⁓ I look back on it now, we were pretty young at the time and we made a few mistakes, made some bad calls, but everything was going great. Everything we seemed to do seemed to go well for us. Every single that we released and EPs and even the album, they all topped the charts. Our crowds were getting bigger and bigger. Our audience was changing a little bit. Obviously, as we got more popular, ⁓ we lost some of the more hardened punk rock fans, but ⁓ we gained a whole new audience, obviously. Our album cracked the mainstream charts and all that kind of thing. It was all looking really good, but just, ⁓ yeah, we'd done a lot of touring. Things inside the band weren't going very well. The management, we made a terrible mistake there. Got the wrong management. And it was basically myself who called it a day. just, I couldn't handle it anymore. So I just said, look, I've had enough and walked out of the band and the band didn't carry on. So it was quite a dramatic end. And the label weren't very happy about it, that's for sure. because they invested quite a bit of time and obviously some money in the band. yeah, that's what happened. I mean, it's band stuff, right? mean, that's... Yeah, it happens and we're just one of many. Well, you know, the thing that really ⁓ blows me away about The Stems is the next full album of stems music didn't come out for 20 years, know, 2007 Heads Up right? And in those 20 years, you guys had gone from being this great new band, you were legends at that point. ⁓ What do you think it was about? it? you know, about the band or that first record that kept the story alive all that time. ⁓ I can't put my finger on that, but I guess it's like any kind of music, if it resonates with enough people, ⁓ you know, really take it to their heart. You know, people still remember who you are. And that was one thing that really surprised me when, you know, we did a reunion 10 years after the band had split. And we just did a local, one major local show and then one sort of little bit south of Perth here and they were massive and you know we thought wow this is incredible you know and the following year we got asked to do a festival and and that was it pretty much and all of us were kind of in that period of our lives where you know we had young kids and we weren't sure if we really wanted to take it on as a full-time thing anymore so it was really just a one-offs and it wasn't until 2003 that someone came along and said, hey, I think you guys should tour again because there seems to be a lot of interest in your band. There's interest in a lot of bands of your kind of ilk. What do you think? And we said, well, yeah, OK. So we were quite cautious about it. We just like took a few gigs in Perth and a couple on the East Coast to see how it went. And the show sold out. And it was an amazing tour. And we kind of went, yeah, this is good. Maybe we should keep doing this, not every week, but maybe once every three or four months or six months and see how far it can go. And it got to the point where it was really going well. And we thought, well, we should do another album. And we ended up recording this second album, which was Heads Up. And yeah, it's really just kept going since then. Since 2003, we've been not... playing all the time, but we've done quite a bit of touring and when time permits, I guess when everyone's kind of in the same space and we're available, we really like to do it. And the band's better than it's ever been playing live. It's a good live band, very good live band. ⁓ We've become, I guess, a bit more R &B with the stuff that we do now. You probably sensed that with the last few singles that we've released, but It's keeping that kind of Stems garage rock with some melody. is, you know, that's what I do. Like, I think one thing that I can say that I'm good at is I can write pretty good melodies and, um, catchy tunes, you know? So that, think that's always been the key with me. And I guess that comes from listening to bands like the Beatles and the Creedence when every song that they were writing was a potential single. Yes, it can. And I've always had that kind of, I guess, thing. If I write a song, it's got to be an immediate hit. It's a potential hit. Not that they ever become hits or anything like that. I'm not delusional at all. That's the way I apply that craft. You know, I have to say this and because you're here and because I'm a geek, guess, but for me, the kickoff for Sad Girl, the second song on the album, to me, that is akin to the count in on I Saw Her Standing There. It's like you hear that and you just know you're in for a kick-ass rock song. No matter how many times I hear it, how many years go by, it still does it to me every time. You know, there's no question there. just wanted to tell you that. I love that. Yeah. You you mentioned your live band now. The last iteration of the band with the original guitarist, Richard Lane ended, think 2009-ish. Since then, I mean, some of the guitar players you've had are, I mean, amazing. Davy Lane, who has a great solo album out now. And it's also been with bands like You Am I and Ashley Naylor from the band Even. Another great band. With these other guitar players that you've had play with the band, ⁓ I mean, do you encourage them to put their own stamp on the music or is everybody just kind of ⁓ gel around that Stems sound? Yeah, I guess, yeah, they bring their own thing, you know, like Davey, obviously from You Am I he's younger than us, but, you know, he's a great live performer and it's great guitar player. Ashley as well, you know, he's sort of versed in all that stuff we love. You know, he can play jangle, he can play rock, he's just He's an all-round guitarist. Like he always says, I like two styles of music it's 60s and 70s. And so he fits in perfectly with what we're all about, we're not trying to reinvent anything, but we're just trying to do the best we can within the music that we like. And we still love that stuff. So those guys are perfect because they're into it as well. It's just great to meet guys that are like-minded and into the same music we can talk about the same bands and get carried away about certain things you know it's we're just music lovers. You released a single last year, Falling From The Sky. You have the new single that came out a couple months ago, Deep Freeze. Maybe another album coming for The Stems? Yeah we're working on some stuff now just put down a few demos so I've got Dave coming over tomorrow morning, that's Dave Shaw drummer he's got a couple of tunes as well so yeah we're sort of working away at getting an album out there it'll be next year this album will come out so yeah I think so far so good I think the songs we've got are pretty good. Any chance you're going to tour with the album too? There's always a chance. Definitely Europe, Europe's always been good to us and myself over the years, so I've done a fair bit over there. Generally, it's Spain, Italy and a bit of France and sometimes I get up to Scandinavia and Germany. But yeah, I think there'll be some kind of touring. I don't know about the States anymore, but if someone wants to bring us over, I'm into it. Did the Stems ever play the States originally when you guys were together? Not in the day, no. We did a Little Steven's big festival he put on, which was I think 2005, the Underground Garage Festival. That was in New York, we did that. We came over for South by Southwest and we played Maxwell's in New Jersey. So not a lot of gigs in the States, but yeah, we... than those few. I know Little Steven is big fan of The Stems. think that's a good fan to have. It was quite unusual the way that all happened. He's got his radio show, The Underground Garage, and his personal assistant reached out to me one day with an email, and I wasn't sure if it was a bogus email or not, asking for more music. He'd never heard of The Stems actually. He connected with me via DM3. He'd been playing some DM3 on his radio station or his show. And I sent him a bunch of stuff, some CDs, and included The Stems in there. And he was like, straight back to me. Who are these Stems you know? Thought we were from the 60s. But I said, no, we were from the 80s, you know? And then he was touring out here with Bruce Springsteen, and he wanted to meet me. And that's how I... I got to meet him and struck up some kind of friendship relationship. And over the years, he's been very kind. So being a big supporter of my music and when he does tour, he always invites me to go on to the shows and catch up. Great. It's very cool. So before The Stems folded, you had actually started playing, you mentioned The Someloves. Someloves and DM3 over here, really big cult following. You recorded the album Something Or Other in, I think, 1989 in the US with Mitch Easter. Was that, were you a fan? Was that something the band chose to work with him or was that a label thing? We put Mitch forward to the label. Darryl Mather, the other half of The Someloves He and I, like I said, met during The Stems period and then we went there and ⁓ shared a house with him for four months. And during that period, we connected on music and a lot of music that we both liked. And a lot of that was the power pop thing. You your band's like your Badfinger and Raspberries and all that kind of thing. And he was wanting to record a single. He said, we should do something. Let's record a single. So before we went back to Perth, we recorded our first single, which was It's My Time and the B-side was Don't Talk About Us. And it did really well. It came out on Citadel. And from there, we kept in touch and we said, let's do something else later on. And we ended up recording another single, Know You Now. And Know You Now came out just after The Stems had broken up. the label weren't too happy that The Stems had broken up, but I pitched The Someloves I said, look, I've got this other side project. Would you be interested in releasing that on Mushroom? And they said, yes, we'd. you'll really like it. And they released that. And then from there, we talked about doing an album. And in the meantime, Darryl had made some kind of contact with Mitch back in the days when people used to write letters. And he wrote him a letter to say, you know, love your music. And we were fans, obviously, Let's Active and he produced R.E.M., which we both enjoyed the first few albums. And from there, it was a The connection was we had this song called Know You Now and ⁓ a couple of other tracks that we were going to use for the B-side. We got into talking with the label and said, we'd love to work with this guy Mitch Easter, that's okay. And they said, yeah, well, that sounds great. Why don't we fly you over and you can meet him and you can mix the songs. We'd already recorded the tracks. So that's how we got to meet Mitch and we went down to his Drive-In Studio there in Winston-Salem and sat in while he mixed the tracks and got on pretty well with him and we said, if we do an album, we'd to, love you to be involved. And that's how that all happened. So Darryl and I set about writing a bunch of songs. Darryl lived in Sydney, I lived in Perth. Darryl came over. We spent three or four months sort of writing and honing the tunes and then... what happened was we planned to go to the States to record the whole album and mix it, but something had happened down in his town and I think there was a big tornado or something had gone through and ripped up most of the town. So he decided to stay back at that time. And we started the album without him here in Perth. in Planet Studios where we recorded the Stems album and then we went across and did a bunch more recording and mixed the album with him. So that's how that sort of came about. Was your first time in the US? Well, it was there the year before when we mixed a single. Yeah. So we mixed, we were there in 88. We went over, I think it was about a week, and we caught up with Mitch and met a bunch of people, went and saw some bands. We were in New York for a few days and we saw Robyn Hitchcock and The Feelies I think it was, at the Beacon Theatre. We drove down and... That's awesome. ⁓ we called into Washington and caught up with Tommy Keene. So we were on a bit of a guitar pop sort of pilgrimage there. And we went and saw a band called the Original Sins with him. A band from, I don't know where they were from, but they were good. And then made our way down to Winston-Salem and met Mitch. But that was cool. And Chris Stamey was there. I remember I was a big fan of The dB's So it's nice to meet him. Wow, that's awesome. Yeah. I bet they're producing that album for Citadel probably eased the blow a little bit from losing The Stems. Yeah, it was a great experience and kept the friendship going with Mitch and he was involved in the DM3 recordings as well, the mixing on the first two and some tracks on the third. DM3, I mean, that's another band, like I said, has got really a strong cult following here. I mean, when the band was active, did you feel that? I knew there were some people that really liked the band. I've made a few ⁓ contacts in the States that were into the band. But Europe seemed to really like the band. We toured ⁓ Europe a few times and yeah, we had a few things come out on a label there. And that was really heartening because at the time, I decided not to do The Someloves anymore. That sort of came to an end. And DM3 was my sort of local band that I'd formed with a couple of other guys and yeah, it's holding down a day job and rehearsing at night and playing on the weekend kind of thing. And we got asked to do a festival in Denmark called Roskilde. And that was the first time we ventured out of Australia pretty much, or my first time. play music. And from there we had a couple of smaller gigs in France and Germany and Italy. And it made me realize that, man, is it some kind of following here. I should come back and do a bit more playing. And yeah, that's how that band sort of, I guess, kept going through the European tours that we did. We'd go to Europe and we'd have a pretty good following and have a great time. So... It kind of kept that project going for quite a while. When you think about that band? Is there a particular song that you think captures the essence of what that band is about? First single Foolish, yeah, I like that. And a few off the second album, which I quite like. It's Second Floor I think. I really like that song. Yeah, there's a few that I think captured the essence of that band. One Times, Two Times Devastated, which seems to be a popular song with a lot of people. ⁓ That was come out pretty well. Second Floor know, I just actually the ⁓ podcast I released yesterday, I played Second Floor and ⁓ you know, all the all the power pop nerds in my Facebook group went nuts. They were like, that song. you know, for us, it is ⁓ just I mean, it's textbook perfect power pop song. I you released one version of it. It was mixed by Jeff Murphy. I was just talking to him about it. and he sends his regards by the way. Yeah, there was a great connection. I'm a fan of The Shoes, you know, and somehow we were connected and we thought, well, we knew that he had a studio or he did studio work, so we asked if he'd be interested in mixing a few tunes. One was that one. But yeah, was great to connect with him. Obviously, The Shoes are a legendary band and it's nice to be sort of connected with bands that you admire, people that you admire, yeah. DM3 has been wound down for quite a while now. Does that mean no more power pop is flowing out of you? ⁓ The new solo album, that's where it's going, you know Like DM3 came to an end I guess in that I thought we'd done as much as we could. I needed to cull a few of the bands I was involved in because I had quite a few bands going at the same time. Each project would come out and we'd get off at shows. So even the instrumental band, the Majestic Kelp, I felt like that band... These bands always start off with one album in mind for me. It's like, I've got this idea, I've got these songs... put them out, I'm going to record them all and put them all on an album. And then from there, it kind of starts to kind of snowball a bit. It's like, okay, I'll do another album and then another album. I guess the first one was almost like the instigator for the other records, the other songs that I'm going to be writing for the following album. So Majestic Kelp was the same. I was only planning to do one album of instrumental tunes that I'd sort of accumulated over a period of time, I'd sort of done a small project during The Stems called The Stonefish. And yeah, I just had these instrumental things and I thought I'm going to put them all on an album one day and I did. And that band, yeah, it did four albums in the end. And it got better and better. And that got to a point where I can't think of, you know. done what I set out to achieve there and I shelved that band and same thing with DM3 So Datura4 seems to be the band that I'm working on and that's coming onto like six or seven albums now. Again, ⁓ a band that I was only going to ever just do one album of this stuff and it's just kind of kept going. That's right Just quickly about Majestic Kelp, I love those albums. I think it's from the last one, ⁓ the song Angel Angeline, I think is just gorgeous. I really love that. Yeah, that's my favourite record that one, Hi Seas. It was a different line-up actually. The first three albums were the same line-up and the third album is also a really nice album too I think that really started to get where I was wanting to go with that band, Turn Up The Sun. You mentioned Datura4 let's talk about them. Straight up hard rock, some boogie rock, know, less jangle, more Zeppelin, even Sabbath kind of feel to it. How did the whole project start? Yeah, once again, it was a ⁓ kind of side project because I've always loved that music. ⁓ I grew up with a lot of it, ⁓ but I've always, you know, connected it with sort of riffs and catchy tunes. The stuff that I like is sort of late sixties, sort of maybe moving into the mid seventies a little bit. And so it for me, it's it's got to be something memorable. It's not just sort of thrashing. heavy duty guitar and heavy metal stuff. I'm not into heavy metal much, but it's very much of that kind of retro period. And I just had these tunes again that I wanted to put down on an album and another friend of mine was into it and we formed this group and started playing a few shows, just fun basically, just to do this stuff. Do covers of Yardbirds and things like that and yeah, we thought, well, we started writing a few tunes. I said, let's put these on an album and it took us about three years to finally finish it off. But then we were thinking of releasing it ourselves and then we sent it across to Alive and they heard it, they liked it and released it and it just went from there again. You know, we... Well, let's do another album that was fun and got a good reaction. yeah, we just, now the band is sort of fairly well established. We've done a bit of touring overseas and yeah, I just really enjoy it. Like as a guitarist and as a songwriter, it's just another side of what I do and what I like. I always believe the best rock and roll and the best music, you know, needs a lot of different influences to really. get that great tune. know, like the stuff that I grew up with, you know, the musicians that were in those bands were into blues, they were into, you know, rock and roll, fifties rock and roll or country music, whatever it was that sort of brings things to their songwriting that I think if you listen to a lot of bands like even the Beatles, you know, those guys were into a lot of great stuff and they wrote the songs that they did. Just by, by having those great influences from the fifties and, and Motown and, you know, the soul, soul music and blues music and all that. So as a guitar player, I really enjoy playing in a band like Datura4 Not that we're the kind of shredder guitar band, where it's more about songs and just really cool riffs and songs with a bit of a message to them, you know, because they the music is a little bit more angrier than say your pop that we do. You can put a few words together that might be a bit more political than, say a song like Apple of Life is. You're absolutely right though about the... I mean, when I brought up Zeppelin before, that's the thing about Zeppelin is their riffs are memorable and I feel the same way about Datura4 is like you very consciously have written a memorable melodic riff even as heavy and distorted as it may be. just, you know, is something that really sticks with you. Yeah. I think if you talk to most guys from, ⁓ you know, from like-minded bands, ⁓ like myself, you know, we're all into it. We're, you know, we all like a little bit of Black Sabbath. They all like a little bit of Led Zeppelin and bands like that, you know, Ten Years After or whatever, know, Johnny Winter. These are all things that I listened to and grew up with and, and I still like, you know, ⁓ and depending on the day, you know, might be listening to all sorts of things, you know. So the other day I was just listening to Dusty Springfield all day, you know. So I loved her singing and then, you know, Soft Machine another day, you know. So I just like to listen to a lot of different things and you get ideas, you know, and it's all linked in with melody. If there's a tune in there, you know. and it's done well. I like it. I heard that you might have a new Datura4 album in the can? Yeah, just working on it now. It's almost there. Just a couple of mixes away from, yeah, finally finishing that one off. So yeah, that's. Will that be out on Alive as well? You've been with them for a really long time. ⁓ I mean, besides Datura4 I know ⁓ Stoneage Hearts, DM3, your solo work have all had releases on Alive, you know, and they have a great roster too. mean, Gyasi Left Lane Cruiser, Bobby Lee's, Black Keys all have releases on Alive. What was it about the label? Yeah, at least I have a... ⁓ or the roster or maybe Patrick, the owner that made you feel like it was a good home for you. ⁓ they like my music, I guess. ⁓ just works well. ⁓ yeah, it's a sort of an uncomplicated kind of relationship. ⁓ I did the records and they promote them quite well. So it's just great to have someone release, ⁓ you know, your music. kind of see it a bit like a, any other artists, painter or something will do a bit of work and he's doing that at the time. gets it out there and for people to hear it, you know, and hopefully there's people that like it and accept it. You know, that's kind of the way I, you know, I approach it really. I'm not sort of looking to. it become a big star or anything anymore, that kind of thing. I just work at it and just release music and ⁓ do what I can to kind of promote it. It's just great to have an outlet and it's a very cool label and it's linked with Bomp! and all that. It has all those things about it, which is cool. Let's talk little bit about touring. You've mentioned a lot of the different tours that you've been on and everything. Do you still enjoy playing live? Very much so. Yeah, I do. Yeah. I think that is the thing that, um, I love the recording and the writing side of things, but if you can get out there and actually play it live and, you know, it's, it's a totally different thing as well. Cause the songs take on a different, uh, character, I suppose, you know, then have all the, the studio overdubs that you'd you've done and you're just presenting it pretty much as a raw band. I really like that. And songs reinterpret themselves in that. Sometimes you kind of go out there and you play live and you think, well, why didn't we record it like that? Is it sounding so much better now? But you know, that's how it goes. It's that some songs have a new life. And we like to in Datura4 for example, we'd like to stretch out a little bit and, and, make the songs you know, really kind of work into some kind of, ⁓ you know, frenzy, I guess for people that, you know, the few songs that we do that are always different. ⁓ that's what I really like about it. You sort of creating it on the spot. So it's all kind of improv, just jamming it. We leave things open to that. Yeah. Obviously there's some songs that are structured in that, you know, they start and they end. there's not a lot that you do in the middle. That's just now the way the song is written and the way the song should be presented. they're at with Datura4 there, there's always that jammy element in it. ⁓ yeah, we try and make it exciting. So it's not just sort of an ongoing lead guitar solo or anything like that. We have a keyboard player now who joined on the third album. He came in as a session player and then we asked him to join. He's really opened up the whole spectrum of the band and that what he brings to the band is such a great musician that even as a songwriter, he's really happened to be up to trying different things and new ideas that I can actually go, hey, Bob, you know, I'm thinking of this, can you play it for me? rather than have the conventional kind of four, four piece guitar band, know, having keyboard play that can play amazing sort of Hammond or even Moog or any things like that. It just opens up a new palette of ideas, musical ideas and layers and music here. I hope you guys go on tour. If you come anywhere near the west coast of the United States, I'll be there. Yeah. I would love to. I still hope to think that we can do that one day. It would be nice. You never know. Do you mind if I ask you a lightning round questions? Just a few quick questions. Some of them are kind of silly, but. Sure. First band t-shirt you ever owned. This band T-shirt. Ramones Yeah. Very cool. First concert you ever went to. First concert, is it like we're talking major band or it's local band or. Yeah, sure. Let's stay major band. Okay. there was a called Sherbet. That was an Australian Australian band called Sherbet. Yeah. They were very big here in the seventies. My girlfriend bought, of the time, bought me a ticket. That was the first big concert I went to. Prior to that, ⁓ there was a, there was a festival in my local town here, my hometown called the Fremantle Rocks Festival. it had Lobby Loyde and the Coloured Balls, I don't know if you've heard of those guys. They're of a cult band, heavy blues rock band. that's kind of, you know, that kind of music at the time was quite big here. And a lot of the bands at that festival were that style. They're talking, you know, really long hair and pretty heavy, heavy music. I mean, do you go out and watch live music in Perth now still? Yep. there, you know, Australian bands that you think that you hope that the world will find out about that haven't made it out of Australia yet? I do, yeah. Well, it's a local band called the Rinehearts You might've heard of those guys. I worked on their album and they're great. You produced? Yeah, the main guy, Benny Ward's just an inspired guy. He's a pop wizard. So he's, he's doing really well. He's got a solo album out now, which is really cool as well. It's just like pop, sort of garage pop. right? Very short sort of two, three minute songs that just, again, he's got the knack with melody and catchy hooks and he's great. He's, he's an all rounder. He's ⁓ yeah, he plays in some punk bands and, and the Rinehearts and there he's got his solo thing and he also does videos and he's just done a video for me, for Apple of Life. really he's, he's great. Okay. Who else on the East coast? there's a few things ⁓ that I like. Obviously, you know, You Am I and bands like that. I think they're quite well known over there. know, Rinehearts I've played them on the show before. I thought that album was great. Didn't realize that you were the producer, but as soon as I saw them, I'm like, okay, that makes sense now. I've known Benny for a while. He was in another band, uh, previously that, was more of a sort of, yeah, punk style rock band. And, uh, he moved back to Perth and they, they supported, uh, Datura4 And I sort of watched them and I thought, wow, that is some really good songs. This guy's got, you know, I really enjoyed them. They just, reminded me of so much of, know, that dB's kind of thing. And, uh, I thought, well, these guys, you know, if anyone releases their stuff, you know, they should get a good producer or something like that. ⁓ Not saying I'm a good producer, but I put myself forward. said, well, I'd really like to work with you guys and get something well recorded so that, you know, people can hear these songs that you've got. And that's how it came about basically. And they, they took me up on it and we worked on this album together and it was, was great experience. It was a really fun. And it was just great to work on these songs that Benny had written, just great songs. Back to my weird questions. Weirdest gig you ever played. Ooh, weird gig I ever played I've played quite a few weird gigs. in my time. ⁓ sort of try to pick the best one or the funniest one. Played a or The Majestic Kelp got asked to play this, ⁓ this art exhibition one time. was in a shopping center and yeah, we, did know what to expect. They didn't have anything, prepared for us, like a PA or anything like that. So we just walked in with our amps and started playing. there was lots of other people milling around and it was just really strange because a lot of people sort of, some people were sort of putting their hands over their ears and some people were really liking it. And yeah, it was really strange. was really strange. It was. We sort of got about halfway through the set and they told us to stop. And the people that would sort of running the art exhibition were very apologetic and everything like that. that's one strange one anyway. That's it. What is your go-to guilty pleasure track that you listen to? Donnie Iris, Leah, you know that song? The Donnie Iris song. Yeah. I love that. That's a great song. I suppose that's not a guilty pleasure. Not really. ⁓ I like Hall and Oates There you go. I've outed myself there. ⁓ Run To You by Bryan Adams. okay. Another great song, actually. Yeah. I think it's great. I, you know, when people say, what do you like that sometimes? It's just a great song. I just think it's got an anthemic vibe to it. You know, I don't know. That's your favorite Aussie record from the 80s that's not your own. Yeah, it's probably "Know Your Product" by The Saints Favorite character on the Munsters. I like Herman. Yeah. Herman was pretty funny. Yeah. I heard that was your favorite TV show, Yeah, ⁓ I sort of go from that to The Addams Family I like them both pretty much. You guys had some great sitcoms, know, in the sixties, the sitcoms that you guys produced in the sixties, they're fantastic. I didn't know they all played. You mentioned The Monkees' show playing in Australia. had no idea that they, you know, because these are silly shows, but they were awesome. Right through to the eighties, know, The Monkees, was still relevant here. You know, like I got to know them and I got to know them a little bit in the late sixties, but, that's kind of young then, but yeah, through the seventies, The Monkees show was played. Yeah. On, on our, on TV stations here. Great songs, right? Wow. Amazing songs. They are great songs. really are. just... And yeah, like through The Monkees, I got to know about Boyce and Hart and people like that. Yeah. Just fantastic songwriting. They're big influence on me and the style of song that I, you know, tried to write, I guess. Yeah. We got the whole lot. got Gilligan's Island and we got F Troop and all those. I Dream of Jeannie. That's awesome. I love them. They're great stuff. Yeah. It's not always easy to follow all that you have going on, but where is the best place for people to try to do that? Uh, well, I have a website and that's usually up to date. Uh, it just has all the things that I'm I'm doing and what I'm, um, at the present time, as well as, uh, you know, has links to all the previous things that I've done, like The Stems and DM3 and Someloves and that. So yeah, or social media, you know, I have a Facebook page and I'm on Instagram and have my own. ⁓ personal ones as well as some of the bands have their own pages which yeah. Well, I just, I want to just take a second and give a huge thanks to Suzy Shaw at Bomp!, Patrick Boissel at Alive for helping put this together. Everybody check out bompstore.com Suzy's bundles are basically a treasure hunt in a box. She always has cool stuff she's putting together. You mentioned your website. That's dommariani.com. I know you're on Bandcamp as well. ⁓ You can find all the good stuff out there. Everybody buy an album, tell your friends. show some love. If you dig what we're doing here, please like, subscribe and follow Pop Rocks Radio and all the usual suspects, TikTok, YouTube, wherever you waste your time online. Dom, this has been such a pleasure. Big thrill for me. I'm such a fan. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. ⁓ that, thanks. Yeah. Thanks for reaching out. It's nice to talk to you and, ⁓ yeah. I'm not sure if I remembered everything quite right, but, ⁓ it was not, it's good to sort of reflect on some of those things. Yeah. I was talking to Suzy Shaw right before this and she loves you. She always says that she wishes all musicians could be like you. So when your next album drops, would you come talk to me again? Thank you, Suzy I'd love to. Yeah, I'm really excited about the new album. I can't wait for it to come out. Yeah, I hope everyone likes it. It took a while to make it, but I'm glad it's done and I'm pretty happy with it, I think. It's so exciting. I wish you well with it and I can't wait to hear it. No worries. Thanks very much. Thanks, Dom. It was great to meet you and I'm looking forward to talking to you soon. Thank you.