guestbook

CAIN TURNLEY

On the road for a national tour with Perth music favourites Eskimo Joe, Cain Turnley from Cartman, and more recently The Avenues, talks about mateship, music and making things happen.

cartman parliament houseOn a cold Canberra morning on the steps of Parliament House, four mates sat in a Tarago stripping down to their underwear. Watching out for security guards, they jumped out of the van’s sliding door and posed for a photograph – almost naked in front of our country’s political headquarters. The band was Cartman and one of the dare-devils was local musician, Cain Turnley.

“I didn’t expect our manager to use it as part of a promotions package,” he recalls. “This sort of stuff just happens once the mania of being on the road for a couple of weeks sets in.”

Their manager certainly used the exposing photograph. Perth music fans saw the band in all their glory in several street music presses and the photo even ended up on the inside cover of Cartman’s first full length album.

With a music career spanning one album, three mini-albums, song writing awards and several tours with two bands (Cartman formed in 1998 and The Avenues coming together in 2002), Turnley is no stranger to working hard and playing harder.

“Yeah, it’s been hard work, but it’s really been a labour of love,” Turnley said. “There’s a lot of late nights, very little sleep, gigs most weekends and we have to travel around WA and the eastern states on tour.”

“The Avenues did nearly 100 shows last year, plus we recorded, did a lot of press interviews and of course rehearsed heaps.”

Talking about when his love for music began, Turnley said he turned to The Beatles and borrowed guitars to escape what he described as a rough and ready upbringing – family breakdown, scraping by on low incomes, moving house and changing schools several times. Turnley immersed himself in his bedroom and his music.

“Money was always tight when I was growing up so I borrowed guitars off anyone I knew and taught myself how to play. We couldn’t afford formal lessons so I just picked out songs I liked and replicated them,” he said.

“The first guitar I actually owned was a $50 electric guitar I bought from Cash Converters. It was a shocker and without the funds to by an amplifier, I used to play it through the home stereo.

“When I was about 15 I joined a local garage band, called Skindeep and we played covers of daggy, 80s hair bands – Motley Crue and Poison. It’s very embarrassing to admit nowadays.”

Fast forward several years and Turnley upgraded his $50 electric guitar and modernised his

CAIN PLAYING LIVE AT THE AVENUES ‘COMPANY’ EP LAUNCH AT THE AMPLIFIER BAR IN 2003 (TOM’S ON THE RIGHT HERE)

musical taste, forming pop/rock band Cartman with best mates Scot Nicholls and Joe Hawkins.

Hawkins got very excited about being given the opportunity to dig up ‘the dirt on Turnley’, as he refers to it. He said his first impressions of Turnley were pretty average.

“He lived in an unremarkable shared house in Kelmscott that looked like it was the local drop-in centre for dole-bludging potheads and their girlfriends. I’ve seen some of the places he’s inhabited, I think living’s too strong a word, and I wouldn’t put a stray dog in there,” he said.

“Years later, Cain and I started to hang out and play music together. I can’t remember how we got back into contact again, but playing music was a social thing. We used to hang out, smoke cigarettes and drink beer and play tunes. This went on for a good few years.”

The Next Big Thing band competition was the next catalyst for Turnley and Hawkins to get together. Hawkins had written and recorded a few songs and was accepted into the first round of heats. But to play the songs live he needed to find a bass player. Turnley eventually put his hand up for the job.

“He’d never played bass before, I was a bad guitarist, yet somehow we swapped our natural roles and pulled off our first live gig. We didn’t get through to the next round, but we did have our first sniff of what it was like to play together in front of a crowd,” Hawkins said.

THE AVENUES – TOM CRAIG, ANDY LAWSON, CAIN AND NICK JONSSON

“It inspired us to write a few more tunes and then we started to perform regularly under the name of Mr Pink. Our first paid gig was at the Indi Bar in Scarborough. We only got paid $50 but we thought it was the best thing. Here we were, two mates, playing our own tunes to other people, and getting paid for it.”

As the band developed into a three and then four piece, and with the change of name, Hawkins said Turnley’s role had always been the same – an essential element to the dynamic of the band.

“His personality, wit and sense of humour are pretty unique. And apart from being a great musician with a great ear for melody, he’s a very diplomatic and level-headed guy. A particularly handy guy to have in your corner, and a good diffuser of situations that would otherwise get out of hand,” Hawkins said.

Hearing some of these memories and respects from Hawkins, a slightly embarrassed Turnley and said he couldn’t really handle being criticised or complimented.

“I struggle a bit with compliments. I don’t quite know what to do with them. But I’m also not too good with criticisms. I tend to take it harshly and worry what people think too much,” he said.

“Not everyone is going to like what you do. You just have to stay focused and believe in your work. I can push myself pretty far, but I don’t respond to pressure too well so if someone tells me to do something I’m likely to tell them to stick it.”

You can see Cain Turnley with The Avenues at venues across Australia from May 24 to June 19. Check your local gig guide for details.

by Lisa Rowston

 

GET BACK FROM WHERE YOU CAME

 


[home] [about us] [zines] [comics] [art] [audio] [found] [fonts] [web-cam] [links] [guestbook] [contact]
issn 1329-0460 pigmeat since 1990 anti© - this page last updated:
pigmeat - po box 2064, fitzroy m.d.c. victoria 3065, australia.