The Moving Targets

The 'supergroup' is a strange concept at the best of times, but perhaps the oddest incarnation of late is 'Tinted Windows': Taylor Hanson, formerly of blonde-haired kid-band 'Hanson'; James Iha, Smashing Pumpkins; Adam Schlesinger, Fountains of Wayne and - the piece de resistance!! - Bun E. Carlos, Cheap Trick.

The Moving Targets may not qualify as strange, but they're the closest the Territory has to a supergroup. With members as far flung as 'ringleader' Dave Garnham (Happy Yess' new manager), Leah Flanagan (Leah Flanagan Band, Big Red Little Brown), Jimi Bonne (Greedy Stout, The Lavender Girls, Hood Terrace Social Club), Alex Brindell (The Morning After, Matt Ryder Band, Sideshow Aly), and
G. Boenkendorf (Hood Terrace Social Club), between them these fab five share a formidable
NT music pedigree.



Early in 2009 the Targets spirited themselves away to do some recording in Melbourne. The result is their first EP 'A Sitting Duck', launching Friday June 26 at the ‘commons’ end of Mindil Beach.

Originally from South Gippsland, Dave Garnham is a quintessential indie muso, equally at home with his arm around a bar at St. Kilda’s ‘Espy’ as he is with his arm around a plastic chair at the Ski Club. A card-carrying devotee of indie muso Charles Jenkins, Dave is also a die-hard romantic, loves a pot, waxes lyrical at the drop of a hat and also loves his footy – just as likely to make him misty-eyed as any tale about unrequited love. Dave also has the voice of an angel – a perfect complement to Ms Flanagan’s equally heavenly vocals…

Music NT spoke to the Targets’ frontman and founder, Dave Garnham.

Music NT: How and why did the Moving Targets come together?
Dave Garnham: ?Well not long after moving to Darwin I became mates with ‘Flano’ (Leah Flanagan) and not long after that, she asked me to play at her birthday party at the Cav [Cavanagh Hotel], and not long after that she suggested we start a band… She knew a drummer (Alex Brindell), then I met a guitarist (G. Boenkendorf) and not long after that we started a band! And not long after that... The Moving Targets were born. Through a process of osmosis (ie. a few drunken nights together) then Jimi Bonne also joined.

MuNT: Where did you get your name from and what does it mean??
DG: Well actually for the past few (many) years, as a fledgling solo artist with a couple of pseudo bands I made a decision that when I had a proper band I would call it ‘The Moving Targets’. It comes from a lyric in one of my earliest songs that went: “sometimes it feels like I’m a moving target, so I buy second hand trophies from the Camberwell market”. It was kind of a retrospective/Introspective thing after I found out Powderfinger were named after a Neil Young record. It’s rather embarrassing now but I like the fact that we are taking the piss out of the “who is me” aspect of the music industry.

MuNT: How would you describe The Moving Targets’ music??
DG: Guitar pop – and I unashamedly use the word ‘pop’. Unfortunately most folk in the street interpret ‘pop’ as mainstream radio schtick whereas to me pop refers to a conscious effort to make a piece of music consumable, without the words necessarily being meaningless. The other seems to be a modern phenomena.

MuNT: When did you first start playing music - and who has inspired you over?the years, especially to keep going??
DG: I came to music quite late. I played in a cover band when I was sixteen – we thought we were the biggest thing to ever hit Phillip Island! (Potentially still true). Luckily not too long after I ‘found’ music. I listened to a You Am I record, then an Ice Cream Hands record, decided to grow my hair long and to forget the middle-class future I had forged ahead of me. Then I moved to Brunswick. The thing that drives me is the fact that it would be an easy way out to get a conventional job. I’d rather be living a tragic ambition than a failed mediocrity.

MuNT: How did you make your way to the NT??
DG: The age-old story of following a girl. The only reason a man does anything. (There’s a song in that - maybe five). What kept me though were the people, the openness of it all – something I can’t stand is people not being themselves, instead reverting to haircuts and styles. If you’re a Darwin band,you do it because you love it as opposed to because other people do it/

MuNT: What's the best thing about playing music here in the NT - and the most 'challenging'??
DG: The same answer for both – the audience. It’s such a tight-knit crew that will sit around and truly listen to and respect your band, and then you can bump along Mitchell Street to where unfortunately most people don’t even realize there is an original music scene in Darwin.

MuNT: What's your favorite gig playing as The Moving Targets??
DG: Playing the Yess [Happy Yess]. We have done BASSINTHEGRASS supporting The Living End, played Sydney Road Festival in Melbourne, but honestly there is no love like a Yess crowd. We had a couple of Bogart’s gigs that were uber-fun too, but the Yess is the shiznit. We’ve played to 4 people and to 200, and no matter what it is in between if it is a Yess crowd it’s awesome.

MuNT: What's it like on stage together - does a certain 'alchemy’ take place??
DG: Well alchemy is a rather deep parallel (!) but yes, there’s something to it. But no more or less than the beast within you that gets tickled when your footy team just kicked a goal! We’re in a band because we believe in it and love what we’re doing, and much like footy sometimes some players feel like passengers in games whereas the rest might feel like brownlow medal winners. Sometimes you’re ‘Best On Ground’, sometimes you’re up for the reserves. Sorry, I guess I just really must be really missing footy…

MuNT; You're releasing a CD this weekend - where did you record it? And what was?that recording experience like? And if you could describe your song-writing?and recording process - a snapshot of that??
DG: We went down South – and not because of any ‘we can’t do it up here’ sentiment. I promised a good mate of mine when I got a band together I’d record with him. His name is Mitch Kenny and he is an awesome, magical man. Honestly I would bear his children, and that has nothing to do with his producer-awesomeness. We tracked it in an old rundown milk-bar opposite the Commission flats in Collingwood, and the rest at his studio in Footscray. The songwriting I do and then take the shell of the song to the band. We break it down and then re-make it. Every band member contributes and there are no heroes ‘round ‘ere…

MuNT: What do you hope happens next for The Moving Targets? Will you tour??Are you all in it for 'the long haul'?
DG: As every band we want to take over the world. No, not really. To be honest with the music we are making. We do want to find a national following. To think international we would have to shape our sound to someone else’s wants. We are planning a tour down the coast in December but with rather humble expectations: to make money and not be boo-ed off-stage would be a bonus. We also have to take into account what the Flano-band does [Leah Flanagn Band], seeing as though – obviously – LFB band-members Flano and Jimi are in the The Moving Targets We hope to bounce off each other and other bands from the NT to get them to realize that the NT is making some great music!

MuNT: Where are you playing next? And after your CD launch?
DG: The album launch is Friday 26 June, Mindil Beach, 5pm – 10pm, with an awesome [support] line up: Aaron Isaak, Cooperblack Mark Hilton, Ame Lokz. Apart from that we still semi-regularly play at Nirvana, the Mindil Markets (Thursdays) and solo at the Cavenagh on Fridays.
- Music NT