by Clara Iaccarino.
From its humble, muddy beginnings, Homebake has become a national institution for 20,000 music fans each year. As a celebration of Australiana in music, Homebake is a huge highlight on the summer festival calendar.
Set in the lush surrounds of The Domain, it's a day when rock'n'roll takes over the city as punters mosh and jive beneath the skyscrapers. Proving that the Aussie music scene is rocking and rolling, tickets for this year's "Honours Year" on December 3 are already sold out as 20,000 fans show their respect for local musos. The illustrious Finn brothers are headlining, and the high calibre of acts is testament to the health of the Australian music industry.
When the carnival rides roll in, and the blue-hairsprayed kids in their ripped jeans and band T-shirts line up past the Art Gallery of NSW at Homebake, it signals Sydney summer is here.
Standing on their tiptoes to peer over the fence into the VIP tent, the punters scramble to catch a glimpse of Australia's hottest acts, the next big things and the well-established bastions of the local scene. But what they don't always see is the Homebaked musos toasting another year of live music.
"It's like the Christmas party for all bands," Decoder Ring's Matt Fitzgerald says. "Everybody gets together and has a party. It's a good time of year and everybody is in good spirits."
This year is the third time the moody electronic rockers have played Homebake, and Fitzgerald is excited to step up from the Hopetoun stage to the Big Top. Testament to the local resurgence of live music in the past five years, Decoder Ring bridge the gap between dance culture and rock'n'roll and Fitzgerald is enthusiastic about the burgeoning scene. "It's really affirming to see so much support for Australian music when radio is so often fixated on overseas music," he says, referring to the festival's sold-out success. "It's great to see Australians want to hear their own stories and own songs. Homebake is a celebration of that."
While his memories of each separate Homebake have blurred into one festival haze, Homebake promoter Tom Lang believes the festival has established itself in the international arena since it launched in 1996. A Japanese television crew flew into Sydney to film Jet when they headlined the festival last year and many of the featured acts have international careers. "People forget it's all-Australian because it's such a staple of summer and the acts are of a world-class standard," Lang says. "Support for the local industry has developed to a point where the Australian music scene can be part of the international scene."
Lang scrambles through the IMC booking agency files, jogging his memory of Homebake highlights. He remembers the year The Domain was struck by thunderstorms and there was a repeat of Byron Bay's inaugural Mudbake shenanigans, the year politicised rascal Pauline Pantsdown launched her Backdoor Man ditty and when Screamfeeder's Tim Steward set his guitar alight, thrashing about on stage.
Last year Homebake celebrated its 10th festival and this year, headlining in conjunction with as-yet-unnamed "special guests", the Finn brothers promise to make the Honours Year just as momentous. Industry speculation about the featured guests is rife, with a number of big-name internationals touring in early December, including the Foo Fighters, Motley Crue and Oasis, but the Finns are revealing nothing. "They're playing it close to their chest," Lang says. "It's really exciting. It's going to be such a great part of the show. I wish they'd tell us."
In programming Homebake each year, Lang aims to feature artists who have achieved great things in the past 18 months as well as a number of acts tipped to cause a stir in the year ahead. The Play Your Way to Homebake competition, initiated in 2002, offers unsigned acts an opportunity to woo the promoters with their tunes and promotional skills as the band who draw the biggest crowd (as well as impressing the judges) find themselves playing to the pre-noon punters on the Hopetoun stage. While headline duties often fall in the laps of all-time greats - from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to the Hoodoo Gurus and now the Finns - a number of artists owe their blossoming profile to Homebake exposure, including Sarah Blasko, Sneaky Sound System and the Living End.
Living End lead singer Chris Cheney believes headlining in 2000 was a pivotal moment in the band's career. The band had been touring extensively overseas and to come home to a roaring Australian audience, singing along to their songs, was confirmation they had reached a new level. "In the early years it was enough just to get on bills like that, to be opening the main stage," Cheney says. "It was really special to be headlining. One of those gigs, it's like an achievement: good gig and a great show.
"We're bigger here than anywhere else," he adds. "We've built up a good following and I'm proud to have that and not gone straight overseas."
Cheney believes there is a certain pride in Australian music at the moment and the quality of emerging bands means the festival line-up is supreme. "Everyone seems to be aware of Australian music," he says. "There are so many bands that are world class coming to the forefront."
Playing Homebake for the third time in her career this year, Amiel first played the festival as Josh Abrahams's "ah-wah-ooh-wah-oh" girl on Addicted To Bass in 1999. She returned in 2003 to play songs from her debut album Audio Out, crossing over from the dance genre to emerge as an indie pop singer-songwriter. She has been enjoying success in Japan, but Amiel is particularly excited about playing songs from her sophomore album, These Ties (an album that's been ready for release since March but won't hit the shelves until February), for her Australian fans. She's so excited that she wishes she could play her gig from among the audience.
"There's so much energy in the crowd," she says. "I would prefer to do my shows down in the audience. I want to get to know them, I always want to stop my songs and talk to them because I just love watching people's faces when I'm performing, watching their experience."
Although conscious of the way her image and musical diversity has made it difficult for her to find a neat place in the music industry, Amiel enjoys her genre-bending status. And festivals such as Homebake are the ultimate forum for such an artist. "I'm such a mix of genres, I can be in the eclectic tent," she jokes. "The Australian music scene is in a great place at the moment. I think we really value songs [over genre]."
With its origins in the rock'n'roll camp, Homebake aspires to reflect the sounds of the moment and this year's line-up includes a number of hip-hop and electronic artists. Pop-infused electronic guru Paul Mac has gathered as many of the featured vocalists from his new album Panic Room as possible for his Homebake appearance and he's primed for the challenge of re-creating the studio sound in the live arena. "Going live is always a freaky experiment," he laughs. "I'm more like an air traffic controller."
In the sublime surrounds of The Domain, Homebake is the summer festival that parties with a conscience. Lang says the goal was "to promote Australian music to Australian people", creating a festival that celebrates "homebaked" talent. Not only have the promoters achieved this goal, they now have a festival that kicks off a music lover's summer with smiles, mosh pits and musical mayhem. "The sun goes down, the bats come out and rock'n'roll plays," Lang says. "To know that many people [20,000] are keen to take part in an all-Australian event is a great feeling."
Source: The Sydney Sun-Herald
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