Kim Salmon: Post Bourbon Surrealism

Rip It Up, Issue 216, 1 August 1995, Page 17

Kim Salmon: Post Bourbon Surrealism

“In the late 60s and early 70s I actually decided I could do this and I set about doing it. Even though I made appearances attempting to get the same grades in school, and have other ambitions, and function as a normal human being, I had this other unconscious agenda going since then. I couldn’t help myself.” Sounds familiar. His first band, the Scientists, left Melbourne in the early 80s for

the obligatory OE. They ended up impressing a confused English scene with a bit of pre-grunge guitar aggression. “It went well up to a point,” explains Salmon from a Melbourne connection. “A few good opportunities came our way, and things were great from about 1984 to 1986, but after that record company hassles and the like meant we lost impetus. So we decided to go back home.”

From there it was on to the Beasts of Bourbon (one of rock’s better puns), who did a one-off gig in Auckland in 1989. “I’ve got a vague idea as to what a particular Auckland street looks like, the inside of a post office and a motel,” joked Salmon of his then sole New Zealand experience. Early in June of this year, he returned, fronting the Surrealists and supporting the Cramps. They’ve also been

known to open for Nick Cave. Does Salmon feel an affinity for such underbelly bands? “Yeah, we feel an affinity with those people more than others we’ve played with. We tend to support whoever’s hot, and it’s fine playing to a different audience with You Am I or whoever. I respect most of the people I play with, but I do feel closer to Cave and the Cramps. Whether it’s to do with age, because I know where they’re coming from, I don’t know.” Musically, as his new album proves, Salmon inhabits the same varied but connected bluesy strain that runs though a lot of Australian rock ’n’ roll, like Cave, Porcelain Bus, the Cruel Sea, Louis Tillet, Dave Grainey, Chris Bailey and, of course, Ed Kuepper. “It’s probably something historical," Salmon explains. "There’s a bit of a pub rock tradition that’s been going since the late 60s. The bands that epitomise that are AC/DC and Rose Tattoo, and there were many bands before that, that seeped into the rock consciousness. “You would’ve absorbed these influences by osmosis, without

Quietly spoken Kim Salmon got bitten by rock 'n' roll at the tender age of 14.

even thinking about it, and that was a bluesy sort of thing. The Australian bands got their lead from British bands like the Stones and Yardbirds, and it changed a bit when it got to Australia. The blues in our music, I got from the Stones and from being around music a long time, and listening to a lot of blues. It’s just there.”

GEORGE KAY