[tomhoward]

For those not aware…

The voice actor for Bandit, Dave McCormack, was not previously known as an actor or voice artist, but he has been known in Australia since the early 90s as an indie rock band frontman.

The band he fronted, Custard, started getting airplay on Australia’s national youth radio station, Triple J, in about 1993, and they became a staple of the live music scene - especially uni student bars, live rock pubs and summer festivals - for all the 90s. They quit in 2000 but reformed in 2009 and are still recording albums and playing gigs.

They’re worth checking out [1] if you were into quirky 90s bands like Ween, Dino Jr, Flaming Lips, Ben Folds Five, etc. Full of grungy chords and riffs but mostly major key, happy/fun/funny compositions and lyrics. Very high energy and entertaining. Some nice slower jangly country ballads thrown in there too.

I think they’re the only band I ever stage-dived to, so I guess technically I’ve been “on stage with Bluey’s dad”.

Most music lovers in Australia now in their 40s knew of them, and I’m sure it was a factor in the casting to tap into the nostalgia of the people who are now parents of the kids Bluey is aimed at.

[1] It’s all on Spotify/Apple Music etc. Wisenheimer and Wahooti Fandango are their peak albums and Apartment, Lucky Star, Pack Yr Suitcase and Singlette are the songs that best convey their vibe.

[drekipus]

I told my father-in-law about this, he didn't know anything about custard, but he pulled out a CD that he had of "Dave McCormack and the Polaroids"

Sure enough same guy, played at a pub down the road from us last year or so.

Very musically talented guy. It's so strange being a younger Australian and realising that we don't have to import fame/stardom from America. We got talent right here.

[naikrovek]

I’m American and I lived in Sydney for two years from 2001-2003.

> we got talent right here

You have no idea how right you are. Or maybe you do… There are writers and musicians and … every kind of talent on par with anything anyone else in any country has ever done.

It was extremely eye opening for me to listen to TripleJ or whatever station I would tune to after hearing some American pop junk, and hear music I’ve never heard, before or since, by bands I never heard before or since, play some of the best music I have ever heard, every single day I was there. And, that music was unlike a lot of other stuff on the radio, which was so refreshing. So new! So good! And so much!

My girlfriend (who was Australian and is why I moved there) pulled out her CDs and I was lost in them for weeks.

I was roommates with a guy, and worked with him, for six months before he texted me and told me to turn on the radio. Three minutes later I heard his voice followed by 45 minutes of the best DJ mixing set I have ever heard. He composed the best music I have ever heard, live, by ear, and it was something he did every damn week.

Australia is fucking amazing.

[lmpdev]

NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts gets all these rave reviews for its production quality

But tbh Triple J’s Like a Version blows it out of the water

Especially giving artists the leeway to try genre switching

Like Denzel Curry covering Rage Against the Machine for instance

[owenversteeg]

Oh yeah, Triple J's Like A Version is incredible. I don't know what they've got in the water there but so many artists put out their best ever work with those covers. Here are some I like:

- Someday (Julia Jacklin cover of The Strokes)

- Love (CHVRCHES cover of Kendrick Lamar)

- Feels Like We Only Go Backwards (Arctic Monkeys cover of Tame Impala)

- Do I Wanna Know (CHVRCHES cover of Arctic Monkeys)

- Believe (DMA's cover of Cher)

And speaking of Australian childrens TV and Like A Version covers, the Wiggles covered Tame Impala's Elephant (bet you didn't expect that one!)

[defrost]

- 'Feel Good Inc (Little Simz covers Gorillaz)

Australian covers go back further in time, of course ...

The Wiggles famously covered AC/DC's It's a Long Way to the Shop (If You Wanna Sausage Roll)

and Rolf Harris infamously covered I Touch Myself originally by the Divinyls

These, and more, prompted by guest appearence's on Andrew Denton's Musical Challenge and collected on a couple of records (today on youtube etc.).

[defrost]

Or the King Stingray cover of Coldplay's 'Yellow'

[werrett]

Here ya go:

King Stingray does Coldplays's 'Yellow' https://youtu.be/sr3iI8gg2fo

Denzel Curry does Rage against the Machine's 'Bulls on Parade' https://youtu.be/ZY4ywyFXdik

[Tade0]

> We got talent right here.

Indeed you do. A random stab at TripleJ Unearthed is enough to find an artist/band that's well above the world average.

I don't know if it's the remoteness or dangerous animals that is the reason for this, but Australians sure know how to make music.

[goatforce5]

I came here to say this. Dave McCormack and Custard were in a popular indie band in Oz in the 90s. A couple of years ago he performed a couple of songs with The Wiggles, and came out on stage saying "Hello everyone, it's me! I'm from the 90s!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEeEjEdTqqk

He uses his normal speaking voice for Bandit, and you can very clearly hear the same voice when he's signing most of the Custard stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP_LSm7FjRI

Wisenheimer and Wahooti Fandango are still both great albums (...and then I moved overseas and drifted out of the Custard orbit). For anyone with kids firmly in the Bluey demographic, I bet you could really confuse them by playing Custard at them.

I'm surprised they (i.e. record companies) haven't been trying to push Custard more, given there's a large fan based just waiting to be tapped. It would be fun to see Bandit do karaoke of a Custard song, or sing a few lines when he was in the shower, or just doing chores, etc.

[autoexec]

I don't know how many Bandits they went through to find him, but they got lucky. Voice acting isn't easy and he does such a great job!

[tomhoward]

I suspect they had him in mind right from the start and even developed the character for him.

Custard/McCormack are Brisbane-based and Bluey has been produced from a Brisbane studio since the very beginning. The writers/producers would have known and liked his music and voice, and probably someone there already knew him personally. Bluey is shown on ABC in Australia and Custard has always had lots of airplay on ABC TV and radio stations.

[LeonB]

Lots of airplay, apart from that time they went into the 4ZZZ studios and found a bunch of custard cds and tapes were all smashed up… leading to the song “fantastic plastic” off Wahooto, “I wish that triple zed would play us…”

Love Custard with my heart and soul. Thanks for bringing them up Tom Howard!

[tomhoward]

Well, Triple Z is an independent/community station, not ABC!

I know that song/line well and remember mentions of Custard being “banned” by Triple Z in the band’s early days, but I can’t find any details. Do you know why they banned/smashed their music?

[LeonB]

No one knows why it happened! It was possibly one rogue triple Z volunteer on a bender, not some organised putsch.

We’ve known Paul and David from custard for a long time now. Only time we ever talked about that was waaaaay back, around 1996 when we interviewed David for Semper, the UQ newspaper.

(“We” is my wife and I… girlfriend back then)

[tomhoward]

I love to think that it’s your shared love of Custard that’s kept you and your wife together all this time!

I too wrote for my campus newspaper - Monash Caulfield. I didn’t interview Custard (I did interview Snout, Earthmen and Atticus). But in some shoebox in storage are some Kodak instant camera prints of me and my uni mates with Dave and Matt when they played at our campus in 98. Such a wonderful time to be young.