Shot by Grace Carlon
JULIAN HOVENDEN / ARTIST
Somewhere along the way, we lost our imaginary friends, our soft toys stopped speaking to us, and the fairies never came back into our gardens. But we grew up, put on our big people boots and picked up a paintbrush, a guitar, a camera and wielded some pretty sophisticated technology. All to start worldmaking again. Julian Hovenden is one of the omniscient narrators of the Land of Rah; an open ended collective project that combines music with many other disciplines to create an oral landscape that is home to many quirky characters. Their ambient sets and live performances with insane visuals make stepping back into an imagined world easy once again.
Shot by Grace Carlon
Interview with Mary Argyropoulos
Tell me a little bit about what the Land of Rah means to you at this time.
The Land of Rah is sort of my ode to J.R.R. Tolkien, my favourite writer. I am a diehard Lord of the Rings fan. The series inspired me to create my own crazy world. My world is a little bit more slapstick ridiculous at times, but it’s a great outlet for me to condense the chaos of the modern world. But also, it’s something to have fun with, just a big open ended project where my friends and I can make music, tell stories and make it into an album.
Where did this all begin, what is your ‘once upon a time’?
It all started with music. I started recording some stuff with one of my best friends Hugh France back in 2019, and there was this particular riff that we created that kinda kickstarted it all. When listening to it, we felt like it was really transporting us elsewhere, like to a little Italian Village in the 1400’s. We then said, hold up, why does it have to be Italy, let’s take it somewhat further, and before we knew it, it just started snowballing. There was a pumpkin, there was a dragon!
Wow! So surrounding yourself with creative and imaginative people like yourself was super important in the genesis of The Land of Rah. How many people are involved at the moment?
There are around 4-5 core members right now: Hugh France, Hugo Ferrer, Nelson Morgan-August, Fergus Martin and I. But there are also a lot of frequent collaborators like, for example my friend Ingrid Gerhard. I showed her the music and before I knew it she designed and illustrated a bunch of the characters from the story, giving them funny faces and playful bodies. And as we brought on more people, the world kept expanding, which is why we love collaboration. You can create so much more when working together.
For sure. Collaboration seems to be something that’s been defining Sydney’s creative scene now. Do you face any challenges with collaboration?
Hmmm not yet! We are just having a lot of fun with it, getting to see how amazing other people are. In saying that, I think there can be issues with collaboration but they haven’t arisen, because we don’t go into it with tunnel vision or set boundaries. And I think that’s super important when collaborating. A lot of the time collaborators will come in with something totally different to what we originally had in mind but we just say screw it, [laughing] and we just roll with it. I think that’s the mindset you have to adopt when creating with a bunch of people.
It seems that there is so much creative energy needed to fuel this monster of a project, what energises and inspires you?
Yeah, all sorts of stuff. I’d say the media I’m consuming most is music, all kinds of music. From Japanese ambient music, to contemporary jazz rock from London. Anything really, music is just beautiful and I am very inspired by it. Namely (at least recently), Nala Sinephro, Khruangbin, Sessa, King Gizzard, Black Midi, Yussef Dayes, Kikagaku Moyo and King Krule. Also Bojack Horseman. I love that show. It is most definitely an influence, as there are a lot of animal-like people residing in The Land of Rah.
Land of Rah ambient electronic duo
What can we expect to see from you guys in the next couple of months?
There are heaps of exciting things coming up. Notably, my good friend/integral member of The Land of Rah, Nelson, and I, have been working on a new album/comic book. We actually started on it three years ago and have sort of been doing it in parallel to everything. We always seem to end up having multiple projects going at the same time, just because of how different they all are. This story is set in the Third Age of the land and ‘Silence Monsters’ have taken over and are hushing all the music of the land, and as the trees need music to live of course, these monsters are turning the land into one big Mad Max desert. We’re just finishing up the comic book, it took us a while because we are hand drawing it ourselves. The music is like a jazzy psychedelic western sort of mix. I’m excited to see where this album/comic will go. Alongside all of that we have also been working with Lovejoy, a local label/promoter, to get our electronic EP out in the new year. Also we are writing for some new live shows which we always have fun with, so that’s definitely something else to look out for.
Top 3 music venues in Sydney?
1. The Bridge Hotel
2. Oxford art factory
3. Any good St.Peter’s warehouse
Who do you think is the most exciting young & emerging creative in Sydney?
Ewan Wall
Musician
@efilemusic