"You have to be able to tie your own turban, read dreams, swim naked and fly a magic carpet"

The School of Radiant Living are Georgia, Harriet, Marian and Amy. Four babes in a band based in Melbourne (via New Zealand).

Their blog pretty much sums up their style, but we like to describe it as  the sound of dancing to Fleetwood Mac in the dessert.

We handed them a disposable camera before they headed out on a rather dramatic visit to the creek ...

What induction pranks do you have to pass to enter the School of Radiant Living?

You have to be able to tie your own turban, read dreams, swim naked and fly a magic carpet.

Dream band line up for a beach party?

The Bats, The Clean, The Verlaines, Look Blue Go Purple and The Chills held on Bells Beach

Best mixtape story?

When Amy was a 11 she made a mix tape for Anthony Keidis and sent it to him in the post. The cover of it was a photo copy picture of his native american eagel tattoo. She can't remember all the tracks she put on but Killing in The Name Of' by Rage Against The Machine was definitely on there.

If you could crank up one song out into the Australian bush what would it be and why?

The Water Song by The Incredible String Band. It's a song celebrating the amazement and beauty of water (it even has the sounds of water as a solo). We think there are a few dear old gum trees in the bush who could really relate to the sentiment of that song.

Picnic at Hanging Rock VS  The Year My Voice Broke?

The Year My Voice Broke because it's about love and The School of Radiant Living is all about that. Having said that we are also all about life's mystery so maybe Picnic at Hanging Rock. In evey yin there is a yang.

Marian checks that all is well with her plants before heading of with the rest of the band for an adventure to the creek

With an adrenaline rush similar to a mother with a wounded child, Georgia rushes Banjo up the hill after he slices open his paw in the river!

Amy checks out the condition of banjo's makeshift bandage after the gang make it to the vets

Penny the cat peers over the fence to check if banjo has left her territory and if it's safe to get back into the house

Banjo gets home safe to his and georgia's room after his stressful day

 

"I was the charasmatic dweeb who talked myself and my chums out of trouble."

Dick Diver are a kick ass pop rebel band spawned from an F. Scott Fitzgerald book.

We love thier cheeky sass. And you will too!

To prove it we handed them a disposable camera to take on tour to Sydney ...

If Dick Diver were a rebel teen gang in the 50's what mascot/logo would you emblazon on your leather jackets?

Probably a massive erect penis holding a dagger in its eye with a love heart tattoo at the top of the shaft.

Were any of you nasty bullies at school? Or were you the dweebs that the ruffians picked on?

Al :: I was the charasmatic dweeb who talked myself and my chums out of trouble.

Steph:: I was a dweeb that relentlessly punished peers with surnames that rhymed with rude words. Then copped it back when i was dubbed Stiffy NoCock and it caught on...

Guitarist Al Montfort is a secret PhD brainiac. What geeky super powers do the other band members have?

Al :: They have nothing on me .... except the other Al in the band - he is great at negotiating with drug dealers.

Steph:: Rupert has a sweet, intellectual rack. I'm practically a MENSA scholar if singing dirty limericks is the membership criteria.

You've just been signed to Chapter Music. Out of your new label mates who would you recommend as your top listens?

Al :: The Twerps! they are a real gang with real motocycle jackets with emblems painted on the back. Marty is the wise cracking smarty pants. Pat is the (real) leader with the charisma. Jules is the muscle who has to be cooled down when schmucks tick her off. Rick is the brains who knows where they are going. They also make the best music around. They channel the greatest aspects of energetic pop and the intelligence of punk.

Steph :: Kath Bloom 'Loving Takes This Course' is my period anthem. And The Twerps for sure .

Knuckle Dusters Vs Nun chucks

Al :: Nun chucks. They are cool and more showy.

Steph :: Nuns chucking up.

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The Goose and The Rooster. I think that's a Charcoal Chicken shop in Marrickville, after our instore at Repressed Records. Al looks dubious (Rooster fucker) Sorry, that's a huge call... We were on our way to our friend Tristan's, who put a few of us up in his lounge room. My phone blew up around this point. Al and i watched a bit of a Dudley Moore midday movie in the morning.

Tiki monster havin' a magic durry. That's right. We found our little stoned buddy up on the Hoey's basement wall and topped up the ganj'. He just wanted to munch on sweet treats and watch Family Guy. Who could blame him.

I wish i could tell you more about this photo. But sometimes when we're together we just get taken somewhere by the electrifying soul-energy and make jazz with photos. It looks like a pillow. Maybe Rupert trying to asphixiate Al Mac? Visual jazz.

This is us reclining, post-burrito, upstairs at the Hopetoun (first night of our recent Sydney shows). I reckon i'm sniffing the residual burrito on my fingers. Rupert is just ultra-positive, tackling the digestion, stoked on life.

Longies on the hill. There was a dog in front of us that looked like a human and a bit of graffiti that said 'HERION' spelt wrongly. 'Round sunset, just before we played Repressed Records and ate our trail mix dinner. Pretty near perfect arvo.

That's our other Al in the band - our coastal babe. Gazing with pride at our V8 illegal-street-race-ready hire car. Bronte or Bondi. Rupert and Al's mate Gus was staying round those parts. He was going for a job interview at Aldi supermarkets. Good luck Gus!

"The best looking woman in the world worked there, so we spent three hours drinking two coffees."

Alex Gow is one half of songwriting duo Oh Mercy. Disposable camera in hand we asked him to take some snaps on his most recent band jaunt ...

Who are your favourite Pop Divas of all time?

Dusty Springfield, Diana Ross, Nancy Sinatra and Chrissy Amphlett. Some of them smooth and sultry. Some proud and overtly sexual. All unique and passionate and own the songs they sing, whether they wrote them or not.

If you were to serenade to one of them a song from your EP In the Nude for Love what one would you choose and why?

I would sing Dusty Springfield a song called Needs a Woman because it was her song Some Of Your Lovin that influenced the simple, honest and direct lyrical style of the song.

Apart from bassist Eliza are there any other women who are an honourary member of Oh Mercy?

The band's tour van Pauline. She sees all we have, shared our trials and tribulations, gets us safely and comfortably from A-B (Adelaide to Brisbane in an epic 25 hour journey). She is an inspiring woman and we love her and have loved in her.

What gets you in the mood for love?

The Go-Betweens Tallulah, turtles and straight whisky.

Heartbreaker Vs Tease?

Heartbreaker. At least I can assume I witnessed the given woman in the nude before she broke my heart. Well worth it.

A view from Luna Park in Sydney.

Cups to put water inside of at the JB Hi Fi staff room.

Sound checking at our EP launch at The Toff. I am doing up the buttons on my shirt. Thomas is playing the guitar. Eliza is playing the bass guitar. Rohan is looking at the camera behind the drums. Rohan looks a little creepy.

A beautiful tropical cemetery in Newtown. We ate our $6 Thai cuisine there most days.

Baby dogs, commonly known as ‘puppies’ having a rest. I watch them resting during my lunch breaks at JB Hi Fi in the Southland Shopping Centre.

Sophie from Myspace holding her camera. We did an interview with her at Luna Park in Sydney during the Come Together Festival. She is a very lovely woman.

Pauline the tour van having a rest.

Thomas and I sitting outside a café off King Street in Newtown. The best looking woman in the world worked there, so we spent three hours drinking two coffees. A bird also did a poo on one of the stools. It jumped up on the stool to do its poo. Very impressive.

"I did run away once when I was about twelve,
but it was from School, and I think I ran to home. Home was awesome. School was shit. I don't trust anybody who enjoyed school".

Croony, swoony Meg Washington is wowing the country with her soulful, jazz tinged ditties.

She took our disposable camera challenge and shot some scenes whilst on tour ...

First Car

I was really lazy and didn't get my licence when I first could have, so my parents still had to drive me everywhere. So as an incentive they bought me this amazing 60's VW convertible with a soft top ... but it sat in the driveway for 6 months because I am incredibly stupid and so they sold it. A year later I finally got my license and got a Toyota Echo. Tragic.

If I could Escape for a day

I would go to the practice rooms at my old music uni. I could lock myself in those rooms for twelve hours at a time and play and play and play the pianos. I haven't found a room I can do that in since I left uni.

Roadtrip Music

Graceland - Paul Simon; Woodface - Crowded House; Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco; Blood on the Tracks - Bob Dylan

Repeat. Repeat.

Tour Bus Essentials

Ipod/Iphone, Sweetmint gum, Paul Simon's Graceland, Water and a gigantic jumper you can sleep in, on, use as pillow, use as a blanket and fashion into a tourniqet in the unlikely event of an emergency.

On the Road vs Studio

The studio is like this:

Fuck you man, the chorus shoud NOT go for that long, it sounds boring.

Megan, you talentless hack, what do you know about this shit, I was doing this before you were even born, shut up and trust me.

NO way! I'm telling you, half chorus and then into the bridge.

Seriously, if you don't shut up about this I am leaving.

FINE LEAVE I CAN DO IT MYSELF ANYWAY I KNOW HOW TO USE PROTOOLS.

Slam

Sound of producers' retreating footsteps...Sound of Megan sobbing

Hitting the road on tour in the Tarago somewhere, sometime, to some place. Nobody else will drive because they are lazy and fat.

The is me in Sydney with Alexander Burnett from Sparkadia. My band Washington played a competition in Sydney (and lost) and afterwards we went out to find ourselves at the bottom of a bottle of gin. I found Alex, but thats about it.

Also in Sydney. This is Katherine Brickman (left) who is one half of Greedy Hen - they make beautiful art for me and other people. On the right is Alicia from Ivy League.

James O'Brian from the Boat People (and sometimes Washington band member). On the right is John Castle, my drummer, producer, and non-sexual life partner.

Back in Melbourne. On George Street, Collingwood.

Tap dancer, singer songwriter, beard grower and weirdo extraordinaire, Martin Martini. This was taken in the Garden of Unearthly Delights in Adelaide.

"The bulk of these photos were taken at the Melbourne Big Day Out 2009, the first one I’ve been to in a few years. I’d forgotten how many punters the festival attracts".

Drew Wootton is lead guitarist in The Panics - a bunch of boys hailing from WA and now travelling the globe playing shows to loyal fans. Not a bad life eh?

We chucked a disposable camera at Drew (we didn't hurt him) and asked him to document his most recent Big Day Out experience...

Favourite Festival moment ... ever

15 years old. Summersault at Fremantle Oval, WA. Sonic Youth and witnessing the guitar assault that is Lee Ronaldo and Thurston Moore makin’ sounds I’d never heard out of a guitar.

Then there’s Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Flaming Lips bubbles of love. Recently Neil Young @ BDO and Dirty Three @ All Tomorrows Parties in Mt Buller which was fantastically run and organized ... who will curate the next? Paul Kelly? Robert Forster? AC/DC?

First rock concert

One of my dad’s. He’s a drummer. Probably at Bridgetown Blues Festival. Otherwise, You Am I @ Planet nightclub, North Perth. It was a day time show very hot and sweaty. Pure R’n’R , Pete Townsend windmills and all. Still don’t know how I took photos. Good photos actually.

What are you listening to at the moment

A whole mess o’ stuff: Leader Cheetah, Tame Impala, The Triffids, Blackeyed Susans, Catharsis (70’s French prog), Neil (always), Wildbirds and Peacedrums (husband and wife from Sweden), The Drones, TV on the Radio, My Morning Jacket.

Favourite Summer reads

Who Killed Martin Hannett? The story of Factory Records Musical Magician by Colin Sharp. Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake

Favourite moment on The Panics most recent album Cruel Guards

Still the opening drum roll because it all happens after that.

Touring Vs Recording

The trick is not to pit them against one another. Going straight from one to the other and learning how to channel both into each other.

Next step for The Panics

Touring and recording in England and the States. Hopefully more of Europe aswell.

Enlightnement

Eddy Current Suppression Ring

Jim Dracula - My Morning Jacket

Much Appreciated

Carnival

Feed

Wish You Where

A Mouthful of Monkeys

TV on the Radio

Circus

Neil on Screen

N.E.I.L.