Screamfeeder and Adalita: A match made in Australian rock heaven

Adalita (L) and Kellie Lloyd of Screamfeeder (R)

(Image credit: Ian Laidlaw)

31 years since they first broke out on a burgeoning Brisbane indie-rock scene, Screamfeeder are still one of the nation’s strongest, tightest and most venerable acts, and as they proved with last month’s Five Rooms album – their eighth in total, but first fully independent release – their ironclad songwriting prowess hasn’t flaked a bit. The band will be launching their new album live this Friday (June 10th), taking to the stage at Melbourne’s Northcote Social Club for their first headlining gig in the city since April 2018.

Joining them will be the one and only Adalita, performing with her mononymous solo project. She and Screamfeeder go way back – Adalita, of course, cut her teeth in another of Australia’s god-tier ‘90s indie-rock acts, Magic Dirt. The two bands have played countless shows and festivals together, and now, Adalita will switch it up by treating Screamfeeder fans to a set of her own sonic gold. Shortly after Friday’s show, Screamfeeder and Adalita will hit stages in Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane – scroll right to the butt of this story for all the dates and ticket info.

Kellie Lloyd: Well I don't know about you, Ad – I know you just had COVID and you had to cancel some shows. I also had COVID a few weeks ago, and I had to cancel a few of my own shows, so fingers crossed nothing happens in the lead-up to these ones! There’s only four shows on this national tour, because we've tried to do it a few times, but we’ve had to reschedule and cancel and do all of that. I'm honestly just champing at the bit to play live again. I can’t wait.

Lloyd: It's such an honor to have you play with us. And like, I love your solo stuff. As much as I love Magic Dirt, I think it's almost a little bit more special to have you on your own here, doing your really beautiful solo work. So I'm the happiest person ever right now. I had an interview not long ago, where someone was saying, “It must be very different these days, to go on tour.” And you know, we both do a lot of our own stuff, in terms of organising, and back in the old days, you got on the phone, booked a tour, jumped in the van, and just did it. And you did the press while you were traveling, you sent the posters out by hand – all that kind of stuff.

It’s still very similar these days, but Ad, do you ever remember having to cancel shows, or postpone a tour because a band member got sick? I cannot recall that ever happening in 30 years. But since 2020, we've had to establish like a whole new way of working – finding resilience and being flexible, and being able to move constantly, because the entire touring landscape has become so fluid. It’s unbelievable. I can't remember anything ever being like this.

Lloyd: I remember seeing you guys for the first time at that Pavement show at Max's Petersham. Before I even saw you play, Steve Pav[lovic] played you on the phone to me – I was helping FUR get released through Fellaheen, and I played him the song that we’d just recorded. And he said, "That's great, but listen to this," and he made me listen to 'Supertear'. He played me that over the phone, and even listening to it over a shitty landline in 1993, I was just blown away. And then seeing you play live, it was such a great show. But you were also in the middle of disintegrating at that point, right?

Lloyd: But I just remember, you know, you. You were amazing, and you've always been amazing. And Dean [Turner] – I had a really special friendship with Dean [who died in 2009], and his bass playing was incredible. The lucky thing about him being a left-handed bass player was that he always made the stage very symmetrical, which was really pleasing to the eye. I’ve always said that if you've got a left-handed guitarist in your band, you’re going to be famous.

Adalita: One of his favorite records of all time was Burn Out Your Name. We all loved you, but he was an uber fan, he love-loved for guys. But I have such fond memories of your sharehouse in Red Hill. It was just a classic ‘90s sharehouse where we’d all hang out, have a few drinks, whatever... And then I remember, you took us into Fortitude Valley, and that was really the epicentre of arts and culture in Brisbane – that underground scene was really strong in the Valley. And you took us to the practice room, which was ensconced in this really big, old Target building in the middle of the Valley – it had lots of floors, and the innards of it were all messed up. There was just shit everywhere, it was sort of abandoned and run-down, but you had rehearsal rooms in there. And I remember, we were like, "What is this place!?” You were taking us into these underground tunnels and rooms, and there was stuff everywhere – we thought it was just the coolest thing we'd ever seen.

Lloyd: It was the coolest thing anyone had ever seen. It was three stories, all different colors, and there were all these portals and round doorways, and you could slide down the escalator shaft... But it was in complete ruin – all these homeless people lived there, but people had music offices these, but there was like weird shit everywhere… And so many bands practiced there, like Midget and Hate Man, and so many of the bands in Brisbane at that time. But you would only come across people there after 11 o'clock at night, and everyone was kind of freaked out because it always felt a little haunted and a little scary – there were always blood stains on some floors… It was a weird place.

Adalita: My go-to is a Gibson SG – I think it's from 1969, 1970, something like that. It's got a whole bunch of stickers on it, from the Born To Skate shop where Dean used to work – that was like circa 1989 or 1990. It's been broken a few times, I just recently had the neck fixed, but it’s still my go-to. I've got two SGs – one's a new one that I bought this year – but nothing compares to my vintage one. I can't believe I bring it on the road, it's so fragile [laughs].

I bought it in 1996. Magic Dirt were on tour, supporting Archers Of Loaf in the US, and we started in San Francisco. We were at... God, I wish I could remember the name of the guitar shop! There were just rows and rows of guitars hanging from the roof. It was like wading through seaweed, there were guitars everywhere. And as soon as I found this one, I was like, “Yep.” You know, you pick them up, you touch them, you feel them, you strum them, and they speak to you. This guitar spoke to me – it wanted to come home with me.

Adalita: It doesn't weigh a tonne – it’s substantial, but not like a Les Paul or anything like that. It's good. My tunings go up and down, so it is a little hard to tune, but that’s been the case with every SG I've had, they're a little bit fickle. But once it's tuned and ready to go, it's really good. And the pickups are amazing. I've moved my pickups around so much in my guitars, because I love the certain sounds I can get with feedback or a certain type of pickup. It’s either a P-90 or a P-94 in the SG.

Lloyd: Maybe it’s just Browny! It’s funny how the colour always tells you the name of the thing. I call her Honey because she looks like honey – she has this golden-blonde body wood. I've had her since the late '90s. I bought her for like $900 because it had been modified so much. But the sound is my sound now, and she’s just gorgeous. It's got a Seymour Duncan pickup in the neck and a Jazz Bass pickup in the body, and if I ever got another Rickenbacker, I would put those those same pickups in there.

I love Rickenbackers so much, they’re just so beautiful and they're so nice to play. They're very feminine looking. Even though people like Lemmy played them, they've got this feminine quality to them, and I love that. I've also got an early ‘90s Squire Jazz Bass, which I take on tour because it's got a flight case that it fits in. I can't seem to get a case to fit the Rickenbacker because it's just so long – I got an oversized case for it, but I can't pick it up because I'm five-foot-two, so if I try to carry it anywhere, I end up dragging it along the ground.

Lloyd: Well, I started playing guitar when I was 11, but I noticed that when I was listening to records, I was really listening to the bass. And when I was 14, I got my first job working in a café and saved up $100, and I bought an Ibanez Jazz Bass copy. He was called Clyde, after the bass player in the Hoodoo Gurus. The first night I got him, I cuddled up to him in bed. I was really drawn to him. And I had a really hard time learning the guitar – I could do chords, but as soon as I got to barre chords, I was like, "What is this? What is this evil sorcery!?” But after a while playing bass, it really clicked – I remember just going, "Oh my god, I understand what that means now!" So yeah, the bass helped me play guitar.

Adalita: That's so cool. Because bass is such a specific instrument. I mean, I suppose the guitar is too, but... Personally, I love the bass. I'm not a bass player, but I also listen to basslines when I listen to records, and I love playing the basslines on my demos. And yeah, you kind of do write differently on it – it's a different thing. And when you said your first bass was an Ibanez Jazz copy, that's so funny because my very first guitar was an Ibanez copy too, like an Ibanez SG. It's still one of my most favorite guitars ever, but I can't play it because I smashed it. The pickups from that guitar are actually in another guitar somewhere. But that Ibanez – oh my God, it was the best guitar I've ever had.

Lloyd: I used to just whack it on the ground to make noise, but one night I got really drunk, and I just smashed it. I’d always watched Tim [Steward, frontman] smash up guitars – he would go to a an op shop and buy a $100 guitar, play it and smash it and set fire to it or whatever – and I was always like, "That's such a waste! You could have given that to a school or something!” you know. But then I smashed my favourite bass [laughs]. I smashed it out of stupidity, though, and I wish I hadn’t.

Lloyd: Yeah, and there is that thing, where you're kind of in the moment. I mean, I could never do it to my Rickenbacker, but I have smashed two basses. But that's just because it was part of this thing, you know, making tonnes of noise at the end of a set, putting a phaser on the bass and just going wild. I've blown up so many amps, and I've split so many speakers – sound people hated us in the ‘90s [laughs]. It's all part of being young and full of the devil.

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Ellie Robinson is an Australian writer, editor and dog enthusiast with a keen ear for pop-rock and a keen tongue for actual Pop Rocks. Her bylines include music rag staples like NME, BLUNT, Mixdown and, of course, Australian Guitar (where she also serves as Editor-at-Large), but also less expected fare like TV Soap and Snowboarding Australia. Her go-to guitar is a Fender Player Tele, which, controversially, she only picked up after she'd joined the team at Australian Guitar. Before then, Ellie was a keyboardist – thankfully, the AG crew helped her see the light…

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