IT SHOULDN’T come as too much of a surprise that musician Dave McCormack is having huge success connecting with a much younger demographic.
As the frontman of Custard, his playful sense of humour always comes through – this is the guy who drew attention to the band in its early days with songs like C Is For Cookie.
Three decades later with nine Custard albums, an ARIA Music Award and nominations for Best Alternative Release and Best Independent Release and fronting three other bands, the former Ipswich Grammar School student is one of the city’s most successful musicians.
But for McCormack, being a hit with a young audience is something that came out of the blue – or out of Bluey.
McCormack is the voice of Bandit from global hit Australian animated series Bluey. The show has brought with it an unexpected undercurrent of recognition for his music.
“People buy records all over the place because it’s the guy from the Bluey show,” McCormack said.
“I didn’t even know that doing a character for a cartoon was a thing, a job.
“You get these Spotify and Apple Music results, Custard gets played 10 times more in America now than it does in Australia. It’s amazing.
“People just come to it through the Bluey show. They go, he’s some sort of muso dude, and then they can have a look and there’s like, 30 years of music to catch up on, or trudge through as the case may be.”
While Custard was in hiatus during the 2000s, McCormack formed The Titanics, releasing two albums, and then he released a series of EPs with The Polaroids, featuring Cameron Bruce who tours in Paul Kelly’s band on keyboards, his brother Dylan from Gentle Ben and his Sensitive Side on bass and Shane Melder on drums.
The band put out the EP Get Old last year after a long break while Custard reformed, adding Patrick Matthews from The Vines and Youth Group on bass.
David McCormack and The Polaroids return with their first full-length album to be released on October 17 titled A Complete History of Popular Music.
“It’s a title I thought was bold enough to make some people laugh and some people get very annoyed, but that’s alright, whatever, right?” McCormack said.
The album features catchy, edgy guitar and keyboards with a nod to some of McCormack’s musical influences.
“I’ll do something vaguely in the style of Television, and something vaguely in the style of Devo or Pere Ubu, and something vaguely in the style of something else.
“The Polaroids are all just people who live around me here in Sydney, really.
“It’s good. I love playing with the Custard people, and that’s great, but it’s also good when you’re jamming it out with other people that you haven’t played with before, or you haven’t played with for a while.
“It’s just a different slant on it and brings different songs out.
“Of these 13 songs, I reckon two of them I’ve had on the back burner for a while, but the other 11 I just pumped out day after day after day before the studio.
“People inspire people in different ways. So having a couple of rehearsals with this Sydney crew, The Polaroids, it was all full steam ahead.
“I’m enjoying it, especially with this Polaroid stuff. We’ll do a couple of little Sydney shows, and that’s about it.
“Someone will say, ‘Hey, do you want to play at some pub in six weeks’ time’. And then we just get together the week before and run through the songs. It’s all pretty low key.
“Compared to Custard where if you want to do a gig, everyone’s got to fly in from a different part of the country, and you’ve got to hire a van.
“This is all like, cool, I’ll just meet you at the pub at 6pm, we’ll set up and play from eight and then go home and sleep in your own bed at night.
“It’s all about enjoying the music and there’s no expectation.”
Dave McCormack has a Christmas show at the Cave Inn in Brisbane on December 6 featuring Adele Pickvance and Norto, Ian and Pascalle from Stress of Leisure and Greg Brady.
