What’s My Scene: All of Kurralta Park’s friends are musicians too
In our regular Q&A column What’s My Scene, InReview speaks to emerging and established local artists to get their take on the South Australian creative scene and their place within it. This week, Kurralta Park’s Madelaine Zammit and Bindi McCallum talk about growing closer as a band, the Port Noarlunga Art Centre, and opening for Foo Fighters next week.
Where was your first Adelaide gig, and how did it go?
Bindi: Kurralta Park’s first show was in 2023 on a Sunday in mid-June for the Cranker’s 170th birthday. To me, playing the Cranker was like an initiation – if you were lucky enough to play there, you were finally a real muso. I was so nervous I couldn’t look up the entire set, because I didn’t want to see anyone in front of me… even though it was just our best friends. They spelt our name wrong on the flyer, which they did another five or six times after that. I remember working up the confidence to wear a stupid blue shirt that night, and one of Maddy’s friends told me it was “very loud”. I was so out of breath the whole show I couldn’t hold a note, which still happens. Spoz filmed a song from it which is pretty sick to look back on. Especially after a couple Sammy G’s with Zack on the couch in Seaford.
Maddy: I got a bit too litty and don’t remember much to be honest. Before our set, Bindi, Zack and I were sitting outside with my Tafe friend, and Bindi just got up out of nowhere and left because he was so nervous.
What is your artist origin story?
Bindi: I’d already released a couple singles as a solo artist. I was working away in Kangaroo Island and hating my job, feeling like I wasn’t giving music a real crack – just letting my passion and life slip away from me. At the same time, Dale (Ethanol Blend guitarist) told me that Zack wanted to see if I would turn Kurralta Park into a live band. Ethanol Blend were the biggest rockstars to me, and I couldn’t believe that he wanted to make music together. I didn’t know many people in the music world, and asked Zack if he had any friends that could play bass that I would get along with. He said his friend Maddy might be interested, and that we’d probably get along.
Maddy: Bindi messaged me asking if I wanted to play bass in his band, and I thought it sounded fun and I was having issues with my voice at the time so I wasn’t meant to be singing anyway. So I said yes. Straight after, I thought, “Oh shit, now I actually have to hang out with this guy.” Zack got to our first prac before Bindi, so I was glad I didn’t have to try to talk to him without Zack being there.
Bindi: I was deffo nervous but I was actually sick with a cold. I didn’t want to call off prac in case I couldn’t convince anyone to meet up again.
What was your impression of the Adelaide creative scene when you first started, and how has that changed?
Bindi: Because I grew up in the Flinders Ranges, I really had no concept of a music scene. Even once I’d begun making music I didn’t really understand how anything worked. I guess I knew that there was people like me and my friends making music, and there were the rockstars – bands like Ethanol Blend and Bad//Dreems. It took me a bit to realise that there was no two-tiered system and most bands were just normal people with jobs that could just play the guitar and sing way better than me.
Maddy: Honestly, I didn’t think too much about a scene. The only part of a scene I knew was my friends’ bands, like Ethanol Blend, and I’d go and see them with my other friends. I wasn’t really tapped in to what was going on, even when I was doing shows for my solo project.
You might like
Bindi: I guess everyone that I’m close with I’ve actually met through music. I guess that is what the music scene is, but I don’t really dissect it that much. Our friends have always come out to the KP shows from the beginning, and sung all the words with their chest as if we were the biggest band in the world, and we would do the same at their shows. I’m thinking of bands like Colourblind, Ethanol Blend, Bolt Cutter, The 745. I think it kind of tricked people early on into thinking that we were respected and therefore deserved respect, when in reality, we just had really supportive friends that would show up to every show and not be afraid to look like an idiot. I’ve never really thought about the people around us as being our scene though because it just seems like it’s just a coincidence that we all play music.
How has your own work evolved since you first started?
Bindi: I really had no idea what I was doing with songwriting and recording when KP was a solo project. Then when it became a band, I used to write a heap of stuff and bring an almost finished product to Mads and Zacky. My music knowledge and playing hasn’t ever been that good, so I’ve always been really limited in influence and complexity in writing. Now that Maddy and I live together, we’ve been workshopping songs from basically the beginning of an idea when I’m writing guitar or vocals in the living room. I’ve been loving having Mads tell me when to dig down when writing guitar parts or melodies. Plus all my friends are getting way better at recording and mixing which helps so much.
Maddy: KP started out as Bindi’s project. He’d come with a song and Zack and I would fill in the gaps around the songs. That was basically Powell Place too: I put bass to it, Zack put drums to it, and Bindi wrote most of the songs, apart from ‘Wall’ and ‘Virtue’. I was in uni then, too so my priorities were really with making sure I did well for that in my final year. Now I’m finished, me and Bindi are living together and both on the same page with what we want to explore. We’ve gotten so much closer, I’m writing stuff that fits alongside what he’s doing. All of the new Kurralta Park stuff has become so much more reflective of me.
What is it about your next body of work that you’re most excited or nervous to share with the world?
Maddy: I’m excited to play all of our new songs live. This is the first stuff I feel completely a part of writing. There’s so much more emotion behind it for me now. Playing songs I’m fully tied to, that feel like a representation of who I am, is way more exciting.
Bindi: I’m hell keen to play these songs live too. Writing these songs together makes me want to see how we react to each other while performing, knowing exactly what every song is about. I want to see how that side feels for us when the songs are this raw, emotional and personal to us.
Who are the artists around you that inspire or challenge you?
Maddy: Davey and Felynn (David Grey, Longevity, Lil Ket, Four O’Clocks, and more) inspire me heaps. Whenever I watch them play I get so inspired. They’ve got so many references, all stuff I love, but it becomes their own thing, individual yet nostalgic.
Bindi: Somewhere have so much swag.
Maddy: Yeah, Somewhere are so good too – everything about them is cohesive. It feels thoughtful, like a complete performance and a collection of a moment in time.
Bindi: Both Dave, Felynn and the Somewhere posse are the most lovely people too. Jack from Ethanol Blend has been a huge inspiration since I was a teenager, for how he packages up moments in time like a full time capsule. Working this closely with him now is a weird teenage dream come true. I also love Perfect 50, Bolt Cutter, Stressed. I saw With One Exception a couple weekends ago who really got me gee’d up too. Colourblind is one that always has us both so inspired after seeing them live as well.
Subscribe for updates
Favourite Adelaide venue to play?
Maddy: Ancient World, for the intimacy. It’s tiny, everyone’s crowded together, and it’s hectic. The Cranker too, when it was still going, because that’s where everyone ended up anyway, so you were bound to run into a heap of people.
Bindi: Ancient World for me too. I love working with the crew there, and the staff are always lovely. It’s such a good size and everyone’s sweaty from the beginning. Also Port Noarlunga Art Centre.
Maddy: Yeah I love the Porties gigs too. Mum and Dad and all their mates come.
Bindi: Fully, it’s the whole south in one room – toddler groms wearing earmuffs on their dad’s shoulders, teenagers, people our age, mum, grandmas and grandpas. I didn’t grow up down there, but I was fully taken in with open arms. I feel championed by the whole Southern Circus as if I was born and raised there, which makes those shows feel so special to me.
Dream artist to perform alongside?
Maddy: Bar Italia. Hell nostalgic but also new and interesting at the same time. Sam Fenton’s guitar and vocals feel very nostalgic and raw. Nina Cristante’s vocals are super interesting to me – just experimenting with what fits without knowing what’s supposed to fit.
Bindi: Yeah Bar Italia for me as well. I love how they really prioritise feeling over anything else. Fontaines D.C. are another band that we first bonded over. Even though they’re Irish, they’ve always affirmed my belief in Australiana, not caring about being easily consumable by the audience outside of our own country.
Favourite artist to collaborate with?
Bindi: Maddy.
Maddy: Bindi.
Bindi: And Jack as a producer, Eli as a producer in the early days, Jon-Luc and Mark Tipple behind a lens, Zacky boy, Chris on his 3D grind. Psychic Migration made a really sick banner for us. I honestly love working with anyone that thinks we’re worth working with.
Where is your next Adelaide performance, and how do you hope it will go?
Bindi: We’re somehow playing at Coopers Stadium in November, playing with Foo Fighters. For how crazy of a show it is, it’s weirdly not something that I’m thinking too hard about what the outcome will be. In reality, nobody’s there to see us, apart from a handful of friends who’ve spent an obnoxious amount on tickets or scored free ones, the cheapskates. If any of the other 25,000 punters there make some sort of connection with what we’re doing, I’m gonna be stoked.
Maddy: I just want to have fun, feel comfortable and try not to think about it too much.
Kurralta Park support Foo Fighters at Coopers Stadium on Tuesday November 17
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
Free to share
This article may be shared online or in print under a Creative Commons licence