Children Collide: The importance of (not) being earnest (For The Music Network)

Two albums in, Children Collide have already broken the U.S market, played the South By South West Festival in 2007, and toured with some of Australia’s biggest names in rock like The Hoodoo Gurus,Grinspoon and The Living End. But for frontman and bassist, Johnny Mackay and Heath Crawley, that’s not the most entertaining part of their life so far.

Mackay met Crawley in 1999 while they were both at Lismore Uni. They’d known each other just one semester when they decided to hitchhike to Melbourne together. “It was pretty funny, we thought we were going to die a few times on that trip.” Mackay laughs as he recounts in detail the fuzz of a right-wing radio and the massive hands of a potential psychopath.

“He just gave off this vibe like he was going to kill us… Then there was this [other] guy on the way from Albury to Melbourne that just kept pulling into rest stops, for no reason. He wouldn’t stop, he’d pull in where you can drive off the road, that links back onto the highway. And there’d be someone there and he’d keep driving and get back onto the highway again…I dunno what was going on there,” laughs MacKay nonchalantly. “Little did he know that Heath and I are both extremely tough and we would have kicked his ass.”

As tough as they may be, they’re still relatively new to the industry. It’s easy to forget their debut album The Long Now was released just two years ago. And now the boys are on the brink of releasing their sophomore effort, Theory Of Everything, with producer Rob Schnapf (Elliot Smith, Beck, The Vines), so expectations must be high, right? Wrong.

“I don’t really have any expectations… some people will like it, some people will hate it and they’ll probably say things about it that I’ve never thought about.”

Despite the seemingly laid-back attitude, the band were decidedly hands on with the overall album concept and artwork. Interestingly, they’ve chosen tarot card artwork created by Sydney based artist Emily Hunt for Theory Of Everything, with each track featuring its own tarot card that correlates specifically to each song. This isn’t to say we can expect a track-list abounding with wind chimes and laborious Ohm harmonies - quite the opposite. However, Mackay has had his 'cards' read before.

“Years ago by a little hippie girl I used to hang out with [read my Tarot cards]…I don’t really want to answer either way whether I believe in [astrology] – I definitely don’t believe in the ones they put in newspapers.”

It’s obvious that Mackay doesn’t take himself too seriously - and he doesn’t expect us to either. Most of his lyrics are in-jokes that even the band aren't aware of, and Mackay revels in that fact. Children Collideare no self-referencing, uber-cool MGMT wannabes; but they aren't the false modesty type either. And that's what makes them such a promising young band.

“[The track My Eagle] is kind of a piss take. Then again a lot of our songs are… but you’ve got to entertain yourself. I think it’s boring being completely earnest all the time.”

Children Collide are on tour nationally, promoting the track Jellylegs from their album Theory Of Everything, out in August.