Critical Times

Critical Times has come across some excellent local musicians & people in the entertainment industry – here we profile azur : the crooked none. We asked Evan and Pei a few questions. The four members of the band are Evan, 29, Bass/vocals, Rob, 24, Guitar/vocals, Pei, 25, Violin, and Peter, 32, Drums.

How did the band get together? E: Several band members had played together in previous bands, and got together as friends who appreciated each others variety of tastes in music. P: We got together because the others poisoned me and would only give me the antidote in instalments ie at each practice session.

Where did the name ‘azur: the crooked none’ come from? E: AZURE means sky blue in Italian and we thought that’s a nice association. The crooked none come from the lyrics from one of our songs (Tricks for the Abbey) where it is actually referred to as “the crooked nun “. We liked the sound of the crooked none (zero) and tacked it on to the end of AZUR because somebody had copyrighted the name AZURE for another Adelaide band.

How would you describe your music? E: Groove, folk, blues rock, Harmony Our influences come from a variety of sources we like old school but also modern music has great elements. P: I would describe our music as a fusion of many styles, or perhaps a fission of many styles.

Who were &/or still are your musical heroes? E: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, The doors, Hendrix, Otis Redding, RADIOHEAD, Miles Davis. For me personally it’s Paul Mcartney. P: My main influences are : Ella Fitz, Clapton, Hendrix, Maxim Vengerov, John Williams, Yehudi Menuhin, Itzak Perlman, saint Saens, Belle and Sebastian, Velvet Underground, John Maclaughlin, Santana, and many many more…

When are you releasing a CD? E: Soon as we get more money togethor and decide how we are going to go about promoting it.

Where do you want to go with the band – are you going to be famous? E: My mum thinks I’m famous, and that’s all that matters to me.

Where did the idea for the Red Peacock come from? P: The idea for Red Peacock came from one afternoon of pure laziness. Evan and I pulled up a sofa from the basement and sat at the site for the whole day, recovering from a big weekend, and we were struck by the idea of watching a movie there. E: Three months later and after a lot of time and cost cutting we got it going. We were tired of being disappointed because there was nothing to do in the city so we decided to give it a go ourselves.

So far, it has been very successful – have you got any plans for an undercover winter venue? E: With some luck if we can get some sponsorship we want to run a winter session (location undecided yet). Basically we want to have three10 week blocks a year with 11 week breaks in between.

Do you see this as the springboard for other community-initiated events / activities? E: We are community minded , There should be a greater sense of social responsibility and a type of citizenship where people actually look out for each other, so we have some other projects in the pipe line which involves murals and poster boards for local bands since you can’t put posters up in the street anymore..

azur: the crooked none play regular gigs around Adelaide, contact them on thecrookednone@hotmail.com They are talented musicians and songwriters, and their music is funky! Go see them!

Songs include: Dri, tricks for the Abbey, Diceman, City Lights, the Jam, Amber, Sonic Screwdriver, A book of flower pressings.