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INTERVIEW: Muscles @ Valley Fiesta

7 November 2012 | 9:02 pm | Cheryl Billman

I meet with Muscles early on a Saturday in late Octoberl; the busiest day of the Valley Fiesta (Brisbane’s biggest street party and all-ages, free festival)

Early on a Saturday in late October - on the busiest day of the Valley Fiesta, Brisbane’s biggest street party and best all-ages, free festival - I meet with Chris. Chris, better known by his many fans as MUSCLES, is one of the first “big”, genuinely and unquestionably famous musicians I have ever met in real life.

Chris and I meet at Cloudland, in Valley Fiesta’s Artists Green Room. We were meant to meet later in the afternoon, but a hotel mix-up saw Chris emailing me early in the day to ask if I was around. The first words we exchange in person put me at ease:

“I love Purple Sneakers nights,” he tells me, and though his words are quiet, I can tell they’re genuine.

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Those who have seen Muscles live on stage or who’ve watched his meteoric and confident rise to fame might be surprised to discover that the words “quiet” and “genuine” describe Chris perfectly. He is softly spoken - a man who admits to being an introvert and joined Holly Throsby only days earlier on Triple J’s Hack program to talk openly about it - but the conversation never runs dry.

When I ask him how things have been for him, he starts out slowly. “The second album’s winding down,” he tells me, cautious at first, before adding: “I’m thinking that I might not release another album. I might just work on EPs and singles from now on, and focus on making them really great. Why put in the time if people just aren’t going to listen?”

From another artist, those words in that order might sound vain or petulant. From Chris, they are neither. Besides, I tend to agree with him. In the few years that I have been old enough to go to gigs without having my big brother sneak me in amongst a crush of his mates, I have noticed the steady decline in people who actually know the lyrics to songs that weren’t singles.

Chris and I begin to chat about the possible death of the album and he mentions Art Vs Science. “I like their method,” he says. “I like that they do a single and then tour it and then write the next one and tour it... It’s effective. It’s so difficult to write an album when you’re trying to think about what’s going to be relevant by the time it’s written and released.”

The truth is that Chris is at a crossroads. Should he keep making music? He wants to, certainly. But he also mentions a desire to be out of the spotlight, making music behind the scenes. “I’ve been tossing around the idea of starting a girl group,” he jokes. “They can be really indie and feminist, I don’t care; they can wear what they want and say what they want. They just have to let me write the music.”

“Are you scouting around for your girl group?” I ask, and Chris nods, suddenly serious.

“Sure,” he says. “It could be kind of like Goldfrapp where she - or, you know - they are out at the front and I could be at the back, just doing my thing.”

I crack a joke about Chris pursuing world domination, and he visibly winces. “I don’t want it,” he says gravely. “Maybe I’ll just go into the wilderness for a while or something, and then when I come out I’ll release the new album.”

Later, he tells me that the next album is pretty much written at this point. “I just want to wait and see how I feel about them. Right now I’ve been focussing on a few other things. I’ve been working with a few rising stars,” he hints. “I’ve been working on the performance factor...”

We get talking about Splendour in the Grass, the only festival Chris has played two years in a row. “I made a rule for myself that I never would,” he explains, “because I hate bands that do that. I broke it for this years Splendour. I thought, fuck it: I probably won’t play it again for another few years. Why not? I had so much fun the first time that I had to go back.”

As the interview wraps up, I ask him if there’s anything he knows for certain about his career as Muscles at this point. “New album in 2014,” he tells me, as we take a photo - “just in case you’re a famous writer one day” being his reasoning for requesting the happy snap. Before we part, he concludes. “New album in 2014...maybe.”

Words by Cheryl Billman, check out her street on POSSE.COM