If one of my high school teachers had been in a folk band we would have reduced his self-esteem to nothing by the end of the first semester, but we were little bastards like that. However, it is likely that we would never have known what he was up to as they tended to keep their personal lives pretty personal – probably because we were all little bastards.
Fergus Brown’s folk stylings are nothing to throw Bunsen burners at. His debut album is called Burgers Frown, a spoonerism that amuses me muchly. We catch up with Fergus to ask him how he spends his days.
“I suppose balancing trying to get my record out with trying to work. I’ve got a couple of more weeks work before we go on tour. I’m a high school teacher so I manage kids till three o’ clock then frantically email. At the moment I’m frantically saving to try and get myself on tour.“
Fergus will be playing a benefit gig for FBI radio at the Hopetoun on the 16th so be sure to check it out.
“When we were organising the gig an email came around talking about their recent financial trouble. I just thought it was a good thing to do because they support me and about a billion other bands. It was a bit of a no brainer. At the end of the day, I think FBI is just so crucial, for Sydney music in particular.”
Teaching and touring must be difficult to reconcile but Fergus manages to do so.
“Teaching was a later thing. It probably came because of music. You work in all sorts of jobs and you think ‘well, I’m know I’m always gonna be doing music and I don’t always want to be doing this side job.’ I suppose teaching sort of works, and I teach at a school that’s pretty sympathetic to what I do so I’m pretty lucky. I’m not a full timer, so I just tell my scary deputy that I wanna go on tour and he says ‘no worries.’”
Burgers Frown is… hehe. Great name. Always gives me a chuckle. Tell us about it, Fergus!
“It’s probably been at least two and a half years in the making. It’s been a bit of a schizophrenic production in that I’ve recorded it with a bunch of different people in a bunch of different places. There was lots of chopping and changing and life just got in the way. I went on a few little tours and had to stop for a while and save more money. Before you know it my friends were asking where the record is. Now that it’s finished I’m really excited to write more songs again. I’ve been writing heaps of songs that I’m quite enamoured with. I became obsessed with recording rather than song writing for a while.”
Fergus Brown will be touring the east coast of Oz in May and June then will be heading to the US. Be sure to catch him at the Hopetoun on the 17th and 24th for his album launch residency and don’t forget the debut album Burgers Frown. Heh.
