Dog Trumpet’s Pete O’Doherty ‘ouzing’ profound parables of suburbia

From petrol pump attendant to pumping music Peter O’Doherty is one half of Dog Trumpet. The other half being his brother Chris O’Doherty, otherwise known as Reg Mombassa.

On the subject of the pseudonyms employed by the guys back when they were part of band ‘Mental as Anything’, I ask Peter why he didn’t emulate Reg and retain the pseudonym of a ‘normal’ first name coupled with exotic surname. Peter says he is glad he was more forward thinking and dropped the pseudonym otherwise I’d be talking to Ouzo Pork!

Peter talked to me last week from the ABC studios as he and Reg were setting out on promoting their present album and tour which will see them in Tasmania, including an event at MONA on November 10. It’s a fitting venue for the two brothers who as well as sharing a talent for music also share an accomplished artistic ability. As Pete and I spoke Reg was atmospherically strumming away in the background.

Pete says the guys don’t get to Tasmania as often as they would like and their last visit was a few years ago. They say Tasmania is ‘beautiful’ and is to them a place ‘half way to home’, as the boys are originally from New Zealand.

Pete spends most days painting, and working on perfecting his music at night. He believes it’s persistence that creates great art.

Somehow the conversation turns to clowns, as we talk about Reg’s quote that he was inspired by ‘the wind, semi professional birthday clowns, heavy machinery and the behaviour of domestic animals’. Pete says Reg does tend to think a little scatologically! Pete however does share a fear of clowns, for a start the make up and crazy clothes, he believes, may cover a number of unknowns including possibly a bad temper!

For Pete the inspiration and theme crossover for his art and music is the everyday. He likes to depict the familiar, many of his paintings feature everyday objects like the chair which he calls a ‘silent sentinel’ with the ‘ghostly imprint of decades of life of family’ and although it may seem basically banal it achieves Shakespearean greatness owing to the heavy essence of history it holds.

The boys new music ranges from songs on the penal settlements of Sydney and Tasmania to the domesticity of a bored wife ‘distilling ideas from personal experience with a liberal measure of artistic licence’.

The new double album ‘Medicated Spirits’ is out now and you can see the boys perform in Tasmania on the following dates:

Launceston Fresh Cafe Fri November 8

North Hobart Republic Bar & Cafe Sat November 9

Hobart MONA Museum of old and new Art November 10
Paula Xiberras