Thelma Plum, Andrew Swayze & Meg Mac On Their Fave Fest Moments Ahead Of Splendour 2019

During set-up for The Music's Splendour In The Grass cover shoot at photographer supreme Kane Hibberd's Cremorne studio, Andrew Swayze wanders out and settles into a booth in the office next door for this interview. "I'm pretty hungover, to be honest," he confesses. He's scrubbed up alright, though. "Have I? Good," he chuckles. "Yeah, a bit of eye make-up and a shower can do wonders."

The band he fronts, A Swayze & The Ghosts, played their first-ever Corner Hotel show last night supporting West Thebarton ("Slayed it, it was a sick show") so obviously post-show celebrations were in order.

Speaking of firsts, this will be A Swayze & The Ghosts' debut Splendour In The Grass performance and Swayze enthuses, "It was definitely part of our goals that we sorta defined a few years ago... When we found out, we were pretty elated to be able to tick that off – I think it's a bit of a rite of passage for up-and-coming Australian bands."

"This'll be my third Splendour," another of our Splendour cover stars, Meg Mac, wearing her trademark wide-brimmed hat, reveals. "My first Splendour was just after my first EP [MegMac] had come out and I'd never seen that many people in my life! I didn't look out in the audience before I went on and I was like, 'Woah!'

Meg Mac. Photo by Kane Hibberd

She is all set to grace the GW McLennan stage in 2019 and Mac explains, "I've played the same stage each time, but the time slots have changed." Her increasing popularity sees Mac edging closer to headliner status with each passing Splendour appearance. "I remember last time, I played towards the end of the night so I was too nervous to watch anything before and then everything was kinda over by the time I ended up getting backstage, and I didn't get to watch anything." She usually likes to "hop around" the festival site wearing her artist lanyard, though: "It's fun, 'cause you can kind of see things from side of stage and you can get to see a lot more and get a different perspective." 

Mac has never attended Splendour In The Grass as punter, but Swayze certainly has. "It was wild," he recalls. "I've never been to a festival with that many people [in attendance] before and it took me, like, a day, I reckon, just to get my head in it, the seas of people moving between stages and things like that, but, yeah! It was great. I had a sick time. I loved it. I saw The Cure play and, like, I'd always wanted to see The Cure."

When Swayze graced Splendour with his presence in 2016, he "stayed at a friend's aunty's place and caught the shuttle in and out". 

Thelma Plum, who rounds out our Splendour cover shoot trio, recounts the "most epic" camping experience occurred after a "really last minute" decision to attend the festival. "The Skaters boys, from New York, were playing and I'd met them the night before in Melbourne, and they were like, 'We'll give you tickets to Splendour if you come.' And I was like, 'Great!' But we hadn't organised any accommodation so me and my friend – we had a friend there and the three of us stayed in the back of his ute, and it had no cover over it and I remember just being so cold [laughs]. Yep, we did get rained on and it was pretty wild, but, yeah! It was pretty fun – we had a really good time that year." 

Having grown up in nearby Brisbane, Plum is a bit of a Splendour regular and admits, "It's pretty exciting being on the bill, that's for sure. For years I've wanted to play at Splendour, but I guess now's just the right time. I'm gonna release my album [Better In Blak] only a couple of days before Splendour, which is really exciting and so I was like, 'Thank you very much!'"

Thelma Plum. Photo by Kane Hibberd.

The title track from Plum's forthcoming debut album was released in April and the Gamilaraay woman acknowledges she noticed this song in particular, and its accompanying music video, "resonated with people". "I had people messaging me and being like, 'We saw your film clip on Channel [V] and MTV and stuff,' which is awesome, 'cause that's something that I don't think has happened to me that often." 

Of the video, Plum tells, "I had a lot of my friends in it who are Aboriginal women, and my two sisters were in it, and I feel like that was quite special." 

Even though Mac's second album, Hope, only dropped last month, her post-Splendour plans include "recording and writing the next record": "I got back from LA yesterday, so I'm still a bit wired," she shares. "I had a break so I just went over and I was meeting producers, doing some sessions and working with people."

It was actually at Falls Festival 2015/2016 that Mac met Leon Bridges and his band, which inspired her to make her 2017 debut Low Blows in Fort Worth with the very same people with whom Bridges worked on 2015's Coming Home: "It only lined up in Marion Bay, in Tasmania, that he was on the same day as me and we were sort of, like, backstage in the same area. They watched my set and then, yeah! It just went from there."

When asked whether she's ever met an artist backstage at a festival that she's gone on to collaborate with, Plum shares, "One of my really beautiful friends, Emily Wurrumara – whenever we're in the same city she gets up and sings with me in my set – I met her at Woodford [Folk] Festival, backstage. We had our tents next to each other and that's kind of how we met and started singing together."

Splendour In The Grass tends to lure its fair share of surprise guests to the stage – hello, Client Liaison featuring Tina Arena (2017) and DZ Deathrays featuring Murray Cook aka the OG Red Wiggle (2018) – and Plum muses, "Maybe this year there'll be some good ones. Maybe I'll have a few people come up..." 

On whether she's ever done a guest spot during someone else's set, Plum enthuses, "Yep, I sure have; I love doing it... Mostly just with my friends and if we're on the same bill, or if we're in the same city at that time." When asked whether any particularly memorable performances spring to mind, she offers, "I guess Briggs is always a good one. I get up quite often with him and with AB Original 'cause we have a song together [I C U]."

After discovering she's never invited a guest artist to share the stage during one of her previous Splendour appearances, we suggest now is the time for Mac to start considering the possibilities. "Maybe," she hesitates, "maybe I should plan something special."

"I don't think we know enough big, famous people to be able to pull that kinda shit off, you know?" Swayze laments. "Maybe we'll bring out — who would I bring on? Ah, I dunno. A hologram of Tupac?" 

A Swayze & The Ghosts are no strangers to sharing a stage, though, and Swayze reckons his band has become a bit of a magnet for stage invaders. "I never really invite anyone, they just get up and do stuff – pick up the tambourine or whatever – which is ok," he says. "I mean, it's fun as long as they don't get in the way. Henny [Hendrick Wipprecht], our guitarist, he's averse to it – if you get in his space he'll just hit you with his guitar, like, me included! We've gotta tape up all our pedals; every lead that we have [has] gotta have tape around it, 'cause I just kick stuff out, you know? And Henny will just whack me with the guitar. So if it's some random person, like, they're putting their lives at risk by getting on stage with Henny on the stage, I think."

A Swayze. Photo by Kane Hibberd.

After playing a series of club shows all around the globe, Swayze says he's definitely looking forward to performing on a bigger stage at Splendour In The Grass. as well. "For someone like myself who's fairly uncoordinated but likes to move around a lot, it's good to have some space. I fully slid off stage the other night," he laughs. "It was the first song and seriously – these shoes, right? They've got no grip and I just slid off, fell off the end." 

Did he somehow manage to turn his stack into a crowdsurf? "No, there was nothing cool about it, it was just lame, hahaha. It just sucked." Sounds pretty punk-rock, though. "Yeah, that's the good thing about branding yourself as a punk band is you can just get away with anything. It's good. Handy."

This story was originally published in the July issue of The Music. Head here to read the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane editions.