FEATURE:
Revisiting...
Confidence Man - Confident Music for Confident People
__________
I am a big fan of…
Janet Planet (Grace Stephenson) and Sugar Bones (Aidan Moore). They are the lead duo of the Brisbane band, Confidence Man. I want to come back too their excellent debut Confident Music for Confident People, as their second studio album, TILT, is one of the best of this year. I may well do a feature for this year where I list some of the very best albums. TILT is definitely among them! Confidence Man are touring the U.K. at the moment, and I hope they manage to get home before Christmas! Even if TILT is better-received and a fuller exploration and expansive of Confidence Man’s songwriting – and particularly Janet Planet’s incredible vocals and talents -, Confident Music for Confident People is a terrific work. It did get a lot of positive reviews, but I think that it is still underrated. I feel a lot of critics might upgrade their assessments given the success of the group. There are great interviews from this year, but I am going to come to one from 2018. NME spoke with Janet Planet about the band’s rise and start, in addition to what Confidence Man had planned for 2018:
“You say dorkiness – it seems like your main aim is being really fun. Is that why you’ve had such a fast rise?
Definitely, I think you can just kind of be free. That’s what I’m doing on stage as well, I’m not a professional dancer, I’m not a particularly good dancer, but when I get up on stage I just kind of do my own thing and lay down really hard so the audience feels like they can do the same, and that in itself is the best part about the band for me, just getting up there and everyone thinking that what I’m doing is intentional but actually, like, I’m not very good. People just love that and they find it really freeing. There’s not enough dork in dance music these days, and I think that’s what we bring a bit of.
You were all in different projects and living together when you formed, right?
Reggie, Sugar and I were in another psych-rock band and Clarence was doing his own thing, and the three boys were also in another band together. It was always a bit mishmash of bands, but this one’s the main one now. It’s the funnest one to write with, because we’re all best friends, so the writing process is just us getting drunk and doing stupid shit, and then the live aspect of it is so much fun, just touring with four of your best friends and cutting out all the mediocre people – it’s like the best thing ever.
What was your Glastonbury like?
It was a pretty deep time. I’ve never fallen asleep on the wall before but that happened to me at the airport afterwards. We had our first show at the Crow’s Nest, then William’s Green, then our last was the Rabbit Hole. We played there at like 3am and then straight from there we had to go to Bristol Airport and fly to Amsterdam and drive out to Down The Rabbit Hole Festival and play there at 11pm, so it was awesome – but I was an absolute mess.
The Glastonbury shows were sick. The Crow’s Nest was so hilarious. It’s on a slant and there’s like two of us dancing, I kept falling down, and then our drummer literally fell off the stage, he couldn’t fit, and his entire drumset fell off, people were trying to hold him on, like everyone’s putting hands out to get him back on the stage. I have no idea how King Gizzard would fit on there, but they did it somehow.
Who would you say are your biggest inspirations?
I like a lot of ’90s dance, like Fatboy Slim, Groove Armada, that kind of era. And then obviously the more recent obvious ones like LCD Soundsystem, a lot of Talking Heads, particularly with lyrics – I love David Byrne’s lyrics, he’s fucking awesome. I think what people say when they talk about us is that it’s all a big mush of all these influences, that it’s clear where our references come from. I’m happy with that anyway because creating art and using references is just a really good way of creating something that you like.
Do you think anything on the album is going to surprise people?
Definitely, one song on there is the most different. It was the last one we finished, ‘Out The Window’. With the first record we wanted to create a vision and portray ourselves in a certain way and have all the music going for the same purpose, which was creating what we were. And ‘Out The Window’ was where we’d go with the next record, it has probably a little bit more musical variation. It’s a bit more of a Primal Scream-y kind of vibe, which we love.
You mentioned lyrics there – do you think your personas change the way you write lyrics?
Yeah, in certain songs we actually started writing I wouldn’t know if my character would say that, so we have to keep it within a certain box we’ve created for ourselves, but I think that’s only temporary. Second album, we’re going to have to extend that because there is only so much you can do with that small-minded character. I can’t be ‘Janet’ forever. It’s expanding those characters, changing it up a bit, that’s the plan for the next record”.
Undoubtedly one of 2018’s best debuts and most exhilarating and fresh albums, I feel that people should revisit the brilliant and hugely enjoyable Confidence Man. Confident Music for Confident People is a stormer that everybody needs in their life! In their review, this is what NME had to say:
“Now then: Confidence Man. It’s a sound somewhere between the synth- and cowbell-driven electro-punk abandon of early LCD Soundsystem and Le Tigre, elevated by a sense of Beck’s genre-remixing spirit and Hot Chip’s knack for a hook, drenched in the sweet psych glaze of Jagwar Ma. Let’s not fuck about, there’s no time for that now. This four-piece from down under didn’t come here to be analysed, they didn’t come here to get heavy – they came here to get down.
If you’ve been blessed enough to see the summer’s greatest festival band live, then you’ll be chuffed to hear that their debut ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ is every bit as hedonistic and balls-out daft as the choreographed Eurovison nightmare you’ve witnessed. From opening house banger ‘Try Your Luck’ and the tongue-in-cheek, Right Said Fred brilliance of ‘Don’t You Know I’m In A Band’, Confidence Man set out their manifesto: leave your inhibitions at the door and raise the fucking roof.
“He tries to make me breakfast but I hate bacon and eggs,” mourns singer Janet Planet on the irresistible earworm of ‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’. It would sound dumb if it wasn’t carried off so shamelessly. ‘Catch My Breath’ is the best ‘90s banger that Ibiza hasn’t heard yet, and ‘Bubblegum’ does exactly what it says on the tin. Further surprises come in the form of the Madchester baggy bounce of ‘Out The Window’ and ‘Fascination’, and the devious constant crescendo of devious fucker ‘Better Sit Down Boy’.
It won’t change the world, but it will cheer you up: the comedown never comes. With a Balearic pulse and horizontal attitude throughout, this record is ready-made sunshine – MDMAzing pretension-free fun for the masses. This is the album we need in these hard times, even if we don’t deserve it. Put this record on, dance until sunrise, gurn through Brexit and rave until war is over. Now stop reading. Get the fuck down”.
This feature is dedicated to great albums from the past five years that need fresh examination now or are worth picking up again. This year’s TILT is a magnificent album from a group that are growing in statute and confidence. Their incredible 2018 debut is intoxicating and full of life and colour! I think that Australian artists and groups have an ingredient or extra component that artists from other nations do not. It is hard to explain, but the music of Australia definitely stands out from the pack. Drowned in Sound awarded Confident Music for Confident People 9/10 when they reviewed it:
“Sometimes it only takes one listen to a particular song for it to make an immediate impact. 'Anarchy In The UK', 'I Feel Love', 'Dog Eat Dog', 'You Trip Me Up', 'Pearly Dewdrops Drop', 'You Made Me Realise', 'Motorcycle Emptiness' all fall into that category, and so did 'Boyfriend (Repeat)' the first time I heard it nearly 18 months ago. A booking agent friend played it prior to a Christmas night out insisting both song and band would dominate the following summer's music festivals. With a handful of highly entertaining and totally unforgettable shows at The Great Escape and Glastonbury in the bag, he wasn't far wrong either, and by the close of 2017 Confidence Man had become many people's favourite new band.
Having signed to Heavenly Recordings at the tail end of 2016 only the most obtusely negative soul would bet against them delivering an album that will be held as a standard bearer for the year. It's probably no coincidence that many of the greatest pop records were made in the most adverse of times and Confident Music For Confident People is no different. As a means of escape it's second to none. But as with the best of its kind, it also leaves an impression that's built to last, and more importantly outlast the competition.
They say genius steals whereas talent borrows and while such a lofty appraisal might be slightly premature for a band still in their embryonic phase, Confidence Man take the best bits from some of your favourites and at times, manage to construct something even better. The four-piece - better known by their respective pseudonyms Janet Planet, Sugar Bones, Clarence McGuffie and Reggie Goodchild - have channeled those aforementioned influences and ideas into an album that aims to be this generation's Sound Of Silver or Screamadelica. No, really.
Sure enough, there are reference points galore from the moment 'Try Your Luck' kickstarts the record into a dizzying mix of Peaches style sleaze ("I must confess, I was sleeping with your ex cos I heard he was the best") topped off with beats straight out the DFA stable. Indeed, go through every one of Confident Music For Confident People's eleven tracks and something will appear instantly recognisable. But then that's the whole point. Confidence Man don't aim to reinvent the wheel. Instead they've replaced the spokes and inflated the tyre on the existing one and it works an absolute treat.
The aforementioned 'Boyfriend (Repeat)' bears all the hallmarks of The B-52s, LCD Soundsystem and Deee Lite thrown into a blender and mixed for one of the 21st century's most insatiable musical moments. Imploring all and sundry to "GET DOWN!" to the point where it's now become a catchphrase synonymous with all things Confidence Man. While 'Don't You Know I'm In A Band' is Right Said Fred's 'I'm Too Sexy' for the iPad generation. Sugar Bones taking the lead vocal with a song mocking every self-important "Do you know who I am?" wannabe you've ever met.
'C.O.O.L. Party' celebrates hedonism like The Waitresses celebrate Christmas while 'All The Way' and 'Catch My Breath' take us back to a time when rave culture made it okay to wear oversized hoodies and 40 inch flared jeans with acieeed patches sewed on the pockets. The album's coup de grace belongs to 'Out The Window', a song that encapsulates the highs and lows of an early morning comedown from the night before. Starting off like The Breeders' 'Cannonball', it eventually mellows out into something Andrew Weatherall would undoubtedly be proud to call his own before the enormous "I only want a good time, time to free my mind!" refrain takes it into Screamadelica territory. It's certainly an eye opener for those still unconvinced whether Confidence Man are little more than a novelty act that if anything, elevates the band into learned waters.
'Bubblegum' and 'Better Sit Down Boy' up the pop ante once more, while album closer and live favourite 'Fascination' once more delves into a time when the Hacienda was the central hub for music. Confident Music For Confident People is exactly what it says on the tin. It's also the most unashamedly addictive record you'll hear all year. Get Down!”.
A sensational debut album from a remarkable group led by Janet Planet and Sugar Bones, they are currently wooing the U.K. They have a huge and loving fanbase here, so let’s hope they play again here in 2023. I am not sure when more music is due, but I know Confidence Man are enjoying touring and delivering their music to the fans. If you are a new follower of the mighty Brisbane group then I can thoroughly recommend…
THEIR dazzling delirious and delightful debut.