ROB SNARSKI

ROB SNARSKI

Family Tree

Returning to his hometown with his brother Mark, Rob Snarski chats to MATTHEW HOGAN about the Cat & Fiddle, throwing records out windows and The Beach Boys. See the Snarskis at the Velvet Lounge on Friday, April 20; and at the Norfolk Basement on Saturday, April 21.

A regular visitor to his  hometown of Perth, Rob Snarski this week returns with his brother Mark, with the Snarski Vs Snarski show, which has never before been seen in Perth.

“It started when the Black Eyed Susans and the Jackson Code used to play together,” Rob begins. “Since then, Jackson have called it a day and the Susans still exist. We get together as brothers and perform in solo and duo mode. We’re performing each others’ songs and interpreting each other’s material and having a bit of a battle on stage. I get lots of heckling from my brother while he wanders around the crowd which is most annoying but hey, he’s the older brother, what am I supposed to do?”

A regular stop when Snarski comes to town is the Velvet Lounge, which is a venue he recalls frequenting when he was first discovering Perth music. “It was the first place I ever saw The Triffids perform, members of The Scientists used to play there, members of the Beasts Of Bourbon used to play there and that was a bloody long time ago,” he says. “We’re talking early ‘80s when it was known as the Cat & Fiddle. There were only a few venues that really promoted original music back then.”

Perth got it’s fair share of touring bands during Snarski’s formative years, and recalls seeing The Beach Boys at the Perth Entertainment Centre in 1978. “Brian Wilson was part of that tour and they got absolutely panned from the critics because they were so addle-brained, they were drinking copious amounts and taking various drugs and so forth,” he says. “I remember Brian falling about on stage, but I was a kid and it was the first concert I ever saw and it was the best thing. I think Brian is a bit more with us these days, I think there has been a case of the lights are on but nobody’s home but I’m not sure what was going on back then. I was just a kid and I just thought they were fantastic!”

If you thumb through second hand record shop racks around town, you may find relics from a Snarski’s record collection, as this interviewer found a Pretenders record with ‘Snarski’ handwritten on the back of it recently. “That’s weird,” exclaims Rob. “I would be less surprised if it was my brother’s. There was a time when he was living in Perth and he had a sort of major meltdown and decided to throw all his vinyl out of a second-storey window. Throwing them out like frisbees. All that he had left was Marquee Moon by Television and the first Velvet Underground record.

“I’ve still got a red vinyl copy of Adventure, the second Television record,” Rob continues. “I think Marquee Moon is the pinnacle, for sure, and that’s something that really influenced our first band [Chad’s Tree]. We adored that and it changed the way we approached music and it was from another planet. The guitar arrangements, angular and obtuse, were something we really aimed for. I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking that’s that I want to do.”