Artist On Artist: G2G vs. Station Model Violence For Vivid 2025

Today is the official launch of Vivid for 2025, set to take over Sydney in the coming weeks with a series of international visitors and local legends. Two key bands in the latter category are G2g and Station Model Violence, who will both be making their Sydney Opera House debuts in the beloved Utzon Room on May 25th and May 30th, respectively. Before that, however, the two garage-rock supergroups spoke to one another about gherkin, salad, post-show meals and even a thing or two that doesn’t involve food…

NB: In a classic underground Australian music scene move, Dan “DX” Stewart is a member of both G2g and Station Model Violence. Like an absolute champ, however, he answered on behalf of each.

G2G – ‘Pop Song’

Station Model Violence: Tell us about your upcoming Sydney Opera House show…

Dan “DX” Stewart, G2g drummer: Our show will feature every song we know and have ever known, plus a selection of new additions especially for the night including a few guest appearances from close friends and collaborators. There will be a great deal of theatrics and pageantry. Think a variety show, a rock’n’roll circus and the up in smoke tour. Dancing, singing, mime and costumes. All will be 100% legal in the state of New South Wales.

G2g: Tell us about your upcoming Sydney Opera House show!

“Crazy” Mike Hassett, Station Model Violence drummer: Due to logistics around air travel, we are unable to perform our entrance into the venue via our hot air balloon gimmick that has electrified audiences across the Southern Hemisphere.

DX, Station Model Violence frontman: We have focused on playing our cool songs and writing and learning some cool new material to make the night special. What we lack in pyrotechnics and fake blood, capes and t-shirt cannons, we compensate with being a cool band that has cool songs and our own world that we would like to share. We know it will sound dope in the BIG HOUSE.

SMV: What has been your favourite on-stage memory with G2g?

Greta Balrog, G2g bassist/vocalist: Either when I got to play Toto‘s guitar, or when Georgia [Wilkinson-Derums, bandmate] licked my face, or when we did an a capella version of [The Pogues‘] ‘Dirty Old Town’ for one of Prop Records’ anniversary shows

Angelica ‘Gel’ Waite, G2g guitarist,vocalist: Greta dressed as a grandpa named A$AP Socky. Georgia kicking really high; no specific memory, there have been so many good kicks. Dan playing with lettuce on his face as a mask.

G2g: How would you describe the band dynamics? Who is the clown? Who is the timepiece?

Alan Gojak, SMV bassist: There’s something weird going on behind Hassett’s eyes. Like, really unsettling.

MH: A disciplined, dysfunctional and harmonious transcendental experience incorporating elements of black magic and chocolate sauce.

Buz Clatworthy, SMV guitarist: Michael is the clown. What is a timepiece in this context?

DX: We drink vodka and smoke cigs and have a laugh about John Pork, and then we spend two hours trying to nail a vocal harmony, finally record it, and then someone else from the band hears it and says “Nah, let’s try this instead.” Repeat.

SMV: How many gherkins is too many?

GB: I know you want us to say “there are never too many gherkins;” however, that is simply not the case. The mental image of too many gherkins is easy to conjure. You might have a half-eaten jar of gherkins in the fridge and a full, unopened one in the pantry, and this is completely acceptable. However, if I was to open your pantry and find no spices, no rice, no potatoes, only jars of gherkins, then I would most likely turn to you with a perplexed expression on my face and utter something sarcastic to the effect of, “Where do you guys keep your gherkins?”.

Alternatively, a gherkin salesperson lives a life devoted to the ugly (yet delicious) cousin of the cucumber. She spends her nights in briny sweats, dreaming of that pickle money she will be making in the morning. For this person: there are never too many gherkins because, without the gherkins, they will not have a stable source of income. Unless she is left with faulty stock that is impossible to sell to retailers, or directly to customers. In which case, she may complain of too many (bad) gherkins and not enough (good) gherkins.

To conclude, I think the question is quite broad and can be applied to different contexts, where you would get pretty different results. For us, about four is enough, to be honest.

DX: There are never too many gherkins.

Station Model Violence – First Show

G2g: What is SMV’s favourite post show meal?

AG: Biscoff McFlurry. Biscoff McPop.

MH: Pad Thai with cheese or Biscoff McFlurry.

BC: Malatang, comprised mostly of tripe and tentacles.

DX: We advocate the eating of offal.

SMV: If G2g had an unlimited budget, what would be the ultimate show? Setting, support bands and onstage effects?

GB: It would be to play in the bottom of a canyon at night in winter with snow falling, surrounded by campfires and lasers. The support bands would be Time Piece, Steve Coogan doing a stand-up set, Sam Harris leading a meditation, and then us.

AW: Somewhere up really high; maybe a mountain. Amphitheatres and big old wooden stages! No support bands, just random time slots all through the day and night. The bands would be: Blondie, Solo Career, The Fates, Rikk Agnew (when he was 17), a Gamelan orchestra, Primo, Lucinda Williams and Gram Parsons doing duets, The Roches, the Swell Maps, Rocky, Anna Domino, Gina Birch playing solo, UV Race, The Fates, Station Model Violence, The Rebel, Lana Del Rey and Greta Now.

G2g: If SMV could have a musician feature on a song, living or dead, who would it be and why?

AG: Kim Fowley. We would also like to be responsible for making Ariel Pink cool again.

MH: Scott Walker or Colin Newman.

BC: Douglas P. I think with the right PR and general image, he could really go far.

DX: On Sunday morning, I dreamt of watching Lemmy and David Bowie play chess in an enormous barn, and woke up to a text from Hasset asking me to play chess with him. So I feel we are destined to collaborate with these underrated musicians.

SMV: Why are you the way that you are?

DX: As newest member of this band and longtime fan, I think what makes this band so special is a shared taste for absurdity and cool guitars.

GB: G2g are the way that we are because of a few combining factors. Whilst we won’t give you the secret herbs and spices, I will give you a brief rundown of why we are the way that we are: 1. We are all the very best of friends. 2. We like to have fun when we are together, and the music is just a byproduct. 3. We have all lived very close and very far away from each other and our bond remains the same, so distance isn’t really a determining factor to the way that we are, but I guess where we grew up shaped our experiences

G2g: Can you think of a genre or artist you listen to rarely, but respect a lot?

AG: Let’s flip the question. I listen to heaps of Robbie Williams, but I have very little respect for that pathetic monkey man.

DX: I’ll stay with Alan. I love Wings’ album Band On The Run… but Paul McCartney sickens me.

MH: Lil Wayne.

BC: Crazy Mike [Hassett’s electronic solo project] or Azealia Banks.

SMV: You have a lot of songs about food. What is the G2g banquet, and who cooks what?

DX: All food at the G2g banquet is eaten with our fingers. We start with an entrée of blood meat sausages and gherkins while discussing the serious issues of our time, then we move on to an enormous cake in the centre of the banquet hall that we attack with our hands, pulling pieces. As the cake opens, birds pour out of it and flap around the room, adding songs and an element of mania. Revealed in the centre of the cake is another cake, which is then eaten blindfolded and with our hands tied behind our backs. Inside this cake are a pair of singing otters named Fernando and Jane who, when revealed, sing classic country duets like Glen Campbell and Bobby Gentry as we eat the cake around them. Upon freeing them from the cake, G2g perform with the otters to the audience of birds. We do this every night after band practice.

Greta: …I will be making the salad.

G2g: Which century would SMV live in if not this one?

MH: 8th century BC.

BC: The 20th, specifically the swinging 60s so I can hang out with hippie freaks and Daniel can beat them up. But I believe Hasset would fare better in medieval Europe, whatever century that was.

AG: Any time during the Byzantine Empire.

DX: In the year 2525.

G2g: One last question. Which intrigues you more: under the sea or in space?

MH: Both are equally as vast and seemingly endless, but I would say the ocean. Knowing what lives and lies beneath the Mariana Trench seems more tangible in this lifetime

BC: Space.

AG: I don’t see the fuss about either. Both are very big spaces but with very little to do.

DX: SPACE IS THE PLACE!

G2g play the Utzon Room of the Sydney Opera House on Sunday, May 25th at 7pm. The last remaining tickets can be purchased via the official Sydney Opera House website here.

Station Model Violence will also play the Utzon Room of the Sydney Opera House on Friday, May 30th at 7pm. Tickets for their performance, too, can be purchased via SydneyOperaHouse.com.

We Got Vivid Debutantes G2g And Station Model Violence To Interview Each Other

G2G – ‘Pop Song’

Station Model Violence – First Show

Further Reading