PETER HAREN discusses the birth, philosophies, and
evolution of TDM with DINAH ARNDT.

"Tedium / tee-dee-uhm/ n. state of being tedious; boredom. [Latin taedium from taedet it bores]".

If you've had an opportunity to check out Melbournites TDM, you'll be well aware they are anything but. Launching onto the local scene as an electronically inspired experimental performance art project, TDM's first album Elektronik Love Songs For The Mediocre At Heart (1994) was largely industrial based. They soon gained a reputation for being "confrontational" after performing
entirely improvised gigs; heady mixes of symbolism, nudity, blood and orgiastic contortions.

As TDM founder and frontman, Peter Haren sums up: "We'd just get up with a bunch of instruments and try to make sure we had a strong experience that people were interested in. We relied more on our intensity than our music."

Looking back, Haren acknowledges that such tactics all came back to the reason why the band started: Tedium. "[there was] a sense of boredom. A sense of frustration of what existed; of what bands were doing at the time. The habitual nature of things, in that rock and roll had already established its place and there is the tendency to follow the right order, almost like a caricature ... we wanted to break out of that."

Their audiences either loved them or hated them. Peter violently parodied the all-obliging-cock-god-rockstar. Wrapped up as a Christmas gift, Mellowni explored the evils of female conditioning and censorship. Audra Cornish, naked with barbed wire around her face, portrayed the masochistic idea of female beauty While a naked Greg played upon two 44-gallon drums. With such challenging performances, it isn't surprising TDM wasn't to everybody's palate.

Yet those who were quick to dismiss the band as nothing more than a bunch of shock tactics, were in for a surprise when in 1996 TDM left such visual domination behind. Mixing guitars and vocals with electronic sounds and rhythms, they returned to the idea of structured pop songs on their second album. "We wanted to explore structure, after having had no structure at all. It was a novelty."

Of course that didn't mean more accessibility, as Simple Life was clearly filled with a lot of anger and resentment. Peter is convinced that this music reflects his life at that time.

"In a way I was going through a phase of rejecting a lot of scenes I had been involved in. That I thought had idealism, but then realized it was just like being in high school; people still wanted the same things ... there was a sense of resentment that that ideal was a fraud."

Yet before you could say "pin em down", TDM changed tact again. Their latest record Nothing Final is a reasonable blend of electronic industrial elements with a grungier, more intense sound and lots of distortion-heavy guitar work. With emphasis placed on Peter's intense and emotional vocals, it's certainly a more accessible and human album.

"Each album is an idea of what I want to achieve. I wanted [Nothing Final] to be very emotional, in the sense of being very sincere. I think the last album was a bit cold. It was meant to be cold, because of the electronics and the anger. Whereas on this album I wanted the vocals to be much stronger, so it is like I'm in the room with you. So you sense me as a person, instead of an object surrounded by all these sounds."

The general, more uplifting emotional feel of the latest album isn't the only change TDM has recently undergone. The second is their decision to move into a new recording experience. As Peter puts it, "we're recording more as a live band ... we're more of a band now than ever before."

Formerly, with heavily reliance on production, the band found the recording process long winded and taxing. When they tried to produce their last album live, "it ended up feeling like karaoke. It was very unfulfilling."

The third change has occurred within the dynamics of the band itself. Maya Angel has departed, with Paul Collins and Marilyn Vacarro completing the line up. Further, Audra is now singing a lot more. In addition to singing on a Nothing Final track, she also significantly contributes vocally to live performances.

While Peter would change little about TDM's earlier albums if he had the chance, he is happy with the band's new direction. He has spent a lot of time, after they finished each track, trying to see if the songs would stand the test of time. To insure he wasn't creating something he'd feel a sense of regret about. "I like the band, the way the band is developing. I think something really good is happening. The new directions have re-inspired me."

There's just one little thing playing on my mind. Does the fact that Peter's telephone number contains 666 mean that he's an incarnation of the Lucifer himself?
"No, we were just lucky."