Many of us know and love him as the geeky guitar playing guy from Tripod, but it’s time we took him seriously, well as seriously as you can take songs about sofas.
Scott Edgar, or as he is better known to us, Scod, has teamed up with a bunch of talented musos from across the Melbourne music scene to form “The Universe”. They have taken to stages across Brunswick and Fitzroy showcasing their new repertoire.
Teaming up with Scod to bring us the original sounds of The Universe are Xani Kolac – the outstanding violin player from Martin Martini’s Bone Palace Orchestra, Mick Meagher- the bass player also seen in City City City and the multi skilled Simon Barfoot – guitarist, piano accordion and mandolin player also plays for the Blue Grassy Knoll.
Wanting a “bluegrassy” sounding name “Scott Edgar & the Filthy Sinners” rated quite highly on Scod’s list but then “at some point the Universe just occurred to me as a nice flavoursome word – new and old kind of thing.”
The question must be asked though, with all the success from Tripod why would Scod want to start a new band? “Bunch of reasons… mainly I like music. Writing and playing with Tripod is great fun and a great honour but quite simply, sometimes you write songs that don’t have jokes in them. Also I really felt like I wanted to try something like this to stretch myself in new ways as a guitar player and musician. Which is certainly happening – I’m really having to step up on the skills side. Also it’s a bit about trying something new and getting outside your comfort zone. Doing something that scares you is usually not a waste of time.”
Timing wise it has taken a while for Scod to build up a collection of songs he liked, ”...I’ve been doing a bunch of solo gigs around the place for the last couple of years, trying stuff out, trying to get through the inevitable honeymoon period with the tunes. You always think every new song is the best thing you’ve ever written till you play it a few times.” But now he is happy with a set of polished songs that are drawing audiences.
Scod seems to be able to separate work from pleasure. “With Tripod I write Tripod songs and on my own I write my own songs.” There is definitely a similarity in the styles of songs Scod creates for Tripod and The Universe “I’m not going to try and wear a different hat or try to be a different songwriter for the Universe songs – It’s all just me. It’s taken me this long to feel like I’ve got a voice as a songwriter, I’m not about to start trying to deny or mould it.”
The Universe is teaching Scod new ways to communicate with Tripod about music technically, while he is also gaining a new found respect for the scheduling abilities of musicians juggling several bands, “It’s like I need my diary in a holster.”
The conception of The Universe has helped Scod achieve more goals in life ”... it kind of takes the pressure off Tripod to satisfy every idea I have about what kind of act I want to be in. Tripod can be what it is and I can live out my Cole Porter-slash-Randy Newman dreams elsewhere.” But the dream Scod has is “to achieve being in a great band, playing good songs.”
People’s reaction to the new band has been great, with Scod receiving great feedback from his gigs via the website. “I’m kind of interested to see if the Tripod thing colours it; like if people see me in a particular mould and if so, how hard it will be to stretch that out… so far it’s been easy.”
But in the end ultimately it’s all jamming to Scod, “main difference is when we joke around in the Universe rehearsals we don’t all then reach for a pen and write it down… It’s all just a band hanging out. It’s pretty much the same… All that remains now is to play as much as we can and get to a point where we can really relax into the gigs and enjoy ourselves.”
You can catch Scod Edgar and The Universe on Wednesday the 22nd of March at the Wesley Anne in High St, Northcote, Thursday the 30th of March at Manchester Lane for Rezzalp’s EP launch and be sure to catch them every Sunday arvo during April at the Artery in Moor St Fitzroy, “It’s gonna be a great little haven from the rigours of the comedy festival”. For more details you can check out the website and to join his mailing list hit: