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Australian Musician Issue 15 Spring 98

Cactus Child by christie eliezer

The normally laid back Ian Housten-Shadwell had a busy week. This interview was squeezed in between promotions for the new 'Earth Girl' album,recording a b-side for the next Cactus Child single, rehearsing for the CD launch in Sydney, and finishing off a paper as part of his PhD in Fine Arts. Cactus Child include Gemma Deacon (vocals), Angus Diggs (drums) who toured recently with Don Walker, Christopher Paul Miller (bass) and Carolyn Shine (keys). Fervent supporters of Greenpeace, their music and attitudes are not dissimilar to their friends Leonardo's Bride. 'Earth Girl' has some interesting guitar work, not just in its use of open tunings but the acoustic sounds in general. For example Ian spent hours on layering "Juliette" which uses multi- tracks for an exciting effect.

Q: Was the guitar your first instrument.
A: "Yes it was. I must have been about 14. I am a really big Stones fan, to this day I still play Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed and Exile On Main Street. Keith Richards is a magnificent player. I use a lot of his open drop-E tunings. I used to be a twiddly-twiddly player, trying to be as fast as I could. Then I went hitch-hiking through Europe and England, and did a lot of busking. So on acoustic, I learned to play without a pick and experimented with open tunings. "On the acoustic side, a big influence was a Windham Hill (new age) player called Michael Hedges, who unfortunately died in a car accident earlier this year. But he is worth checking out for his finger picking. "Obviously you're confined by a group format What I do at home, playing solo to create my own style, won't always fit Cactus Child. And many times the way I put a song together is not the way it'll sound with the ensemble, because maybe Christopher's bass might take over a role the guitar originally had."

Q: The track "Rise" has a Nile Rodgers feel. Are you a big R&B fan?
A: "The whole band is. When we started out, we worked on a groove context. I listen to a lot of key funk at home, like Parliament. The track was a tribute to that period in our lives and to the music we listened to."

Q: You and Gemma Deacon play Matons?
A: "From day one. Apart from the fact they're more reasonably priced than anything from overseas, they sound so much better."

Q: Have you got an endorsement deal with them? A: "No, but I'd like to! I've been to their factory, that was an experience."

Q: What guitars do you have?
A: "The acoustic, and a '73 Fender Strat which I got because I'm quite poor and it was reasonably priced and played okay. It has a 'dead funky' sound. I'd like a Parker Fly, they have pickups on the bridge so they can be acoustic/electric. I use Mesaboogie Mk. 1 amps and Dean Markley strings, .11 to .52."

Q: Do you see a relationship between your guitar and Gemma's singing?
A: "I try to put a harmonic framework which makes her melody more effective. I like to get the mid-range and bottom end ringing, and nice and warm, and put at intervals above that which harmonise with the melody. We always try to find chords that are lifting rather than are straight harmonies."

Q: Does it help that the two of you are best of friends?
A: "Absolutely. We met after she put an ad in a magazine looking for a collaborator. The friendship is foremost, everything we do expresses that."

Q: Did you have much scope on the album to experiment?
A: "Yes, a lot of different tunings, tremolos, amps; some slide here and there. The E-Bow acoustic, a magnetic devise that makes a string resonate on its own without picking it, provides the long sustained sound you hear on a couple of tracks which sound like organ or keyboards. Craig Porteils, our producer, has a lot of old effects like Neutron pedals, old MXR compressors and old MXR phases."

Q: On the track "On The Money" you sing about all that talent out there which hasn't been recognised. What's the difference between those people and Cactus Child? Ambition? Luck? Vision?
A: "Good question, probably all three. But there's irony in the song because the business and marketing side of things we're involved in can also affect your soul. That's very much a 'left side of the brain' situation whereas creativity is intuitive. It can be confusing at times, and some interviews can be uncomfortable."

Q: Do you believe artists are special people who bring magic to the world?
A: "Everyone has the capacity, they've not been taught to believe in themselves as being creative types."

Q: As Donovan said, "Songs all around you, just reach out and pick one"?
A: "Absolutely, absolutely! That's exactly how I see the process when Gemma and I sit down and write songs."

Q: If you lived in another era, would you play in a Harlem soul revue, a Big Band from the '30s, a hippie jamming band from Woodstock or a heavy metal riffer?
A: "I'm right into big bands at the moment, Dizzy Gillespie and Afro-Cuba stuff. People like Wes Montgomery and Django Reinhardt are my heroes."

* "Earth Girl" is released through Universal Music.

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