Custard

In time to come, Custard will represent the "Triple J Era" of Australian music of the 90s.

Custard was formed in Brisbane in 1989 as Custard Gun. David McCormack played guitar and sang, with Shane Brunn on drums, James Straker played the lead guitar for one or two gigs and Paul Medew played bass guitar. It was this line-up which recorded the group's first single, 'Rockfish Anna.'

When Straker left at the start of 1990, Custard came into being. After winning the 1991 Australian Academy of Music's Encouragement Award, Custard expanded its line-up to include bank teller Matthew Strong on lead guitar. Strong enabled the release of 'Rockfish Anna,' on vinyl. He was prepared to pay a third of the single's manufacturing costs.

Custard used the Encouragement Award's prize of $500 recording time to put down about 13 songs in eight hours, most of which comprise 'Buttercup/Bedford' , the band's first album. The dual title refers to the fact that some of the artwork calls the album "Buttercup" while the rest calls it "Bedford." The CD was held up eight months in manufacture, lost somewhere in Canada. In the meantime, after a handful of tours to Sydney and Melbourne, Custard secured a recording deal with new label RA, a subsidiary of RooArt, the ambitious label set up by INXS manager Chris Murphy to showcase Australian music internationally. On the way, drummer Shane Bruun was replaced by Gavin Herrenburg..

RA wanted to release an EP. Custard insisted on 'Bedford' being used from the 'Buttercup' sessions, and, therefore 'Gastanked', Custard 's debut RA EP, consists of one pre-record company track and five new tracks. Next, Custard recorded another EP and once again misplaced a drummer. Danny Plant replaced Herrenburg.

Custard's debut album for RA, 'Wahooti Fandango' was recorded in Brisbane's Sunshine Studios where the Go-Betweens had recorded. Custard's David McCormack had recently finished working with ex-Go-Between Robert Forster at Sunshine on Robert's second solo album 'Calling From A Country Phone'. When America's Frank Black toured Australia in 1994, Custard secured the support slot and made friends with Eric Drew Feldman who was playing bass and had produced the two Frank Black solo albums. Feldman liked the band and agreed to produce an album. 'Weisenheimer' was recorded in San Francisco and spawned the single 'Apartment,' a song which cemented Custard's growing favouritism with Australia's national youth radio network Triple J. 'Apartment' became one of Australia's top independent songs of 1995. From now on almost everything Custard released was a Triple J staple. Not so mainstream radio. Custard's search for a "hit song" became something of a joke between the band and its audience.

With yet another new drummer, Glenn Thompson, Custard toured America, finding time at the end of the tour to record a new album, 'We Have The Technology' in Memphis and San Francisco, once again produced by Feldman. This became a turning point for the band. A gruelling touring schedule and homesickness killed Custard's desire to be a "huge" band and destroyed almost all the personal and business relationships within and around the band.

In October of 1988,Custard regrouped from all the different corners of Australia they had retired to and recorded 'Lovearama' with Australian producer Magoo, best known for his work with Regurgitator. The album's 14 songs span just 42 minutes and added a tongue-in-cheek "disco" approach to the normal Custard hook-laden madness. Despite the band's refusal to tour for six months, the single from the album, 'Girls Like That (Don't Go for Guys Like Us),' almost became the hit Custard had always threatened to have.

In mid-2000, facing a record contract renewal, Custard decided to call it a day instead. The group put together a compilation of their career on record, 'Goodbye Cruel World'. Singer David McCormack, the man mainly responsible for Custard 's songs and style, formed a new group, the Titanics, an extension of Custard and all the solo performances and side projects he'd indulged in throughout the Custard years. Guitarist Mat Strong formed a new group of his own, Boatshow.