#themadscene

The Mad Scene demo tape, circa 1991.

I think I got connected to Hamish Kilgour of The Mad Scene (and, before that, of legendary NZ garage pop band The Clean) through Dean Wareham, who I interviewed for my zine. Or maybe it was the other way around? Hard to remember, almost 30 years on...

At any rate, this beautifully hand-drawn-and-colored by Hamish demo tape was placed in my hands by him when we talked for an interview in that same issue. Note the Maxell XLII tape, choice of champions. (Though the XLII-S was the ne plus ultra of consumer-grade cassettes, one I splashed out for on occasion as the medium for recording live gigs.)

Press release and press clippings promoting the 1995 album Sealight by The Mad Scene (with Hamish Kilgour of The Clean), released by U.S. record label Merge Records.

How I met Hamish Kilgour, exactly, is lost to the sands of time that have flowed out of my head and into the ether. And yet I did meet him sometime in the fall of 1991, shortly after moving to New York City for college. And then I wanted to interview him for my fanzine, so I asked, and he accepted. Which is how I ended up publishing perhaps the first interview with The Mad Scene: core members Hamish and partner Lisa Siegel.