Blue Turtle Shell are a 2-piece band based in Melbourne, I had a chat to band members Homan and Pip recently about the perils of being Nerdy Musicians in a town where being a musician alone is becoming increasingly difficult.

So how would you guys describe what Blue Turtle Shell is?

Homan: Well I suppose I’d describe us as a kind of “somewhat whitty-pop-culture-acoustic-comedyish-geek/nerd rock band” meaning that basically we write quirky songs about pop culture, particularly videogames, TV shows and movies. There’s a fair bit of incorporation of the music from our beloved geekdoms too, so when you put it together its kind of music written by geeks, for geeks.

Particularly the two geeks up on stage with the instruments

Pip: I agree. Although a lot of inspiration comes from frustrating moments that can only be found in true geekdom, such as impossible Mario Kart tracks.

So what kind songs do you guys play? What makes a song a “Nerd Rock” song?

Homan: Essentially “Nerd rock” is just that, songs revolve around nerdy things as opposed to the traditional way rock/pop songs are written. Instead of writing about fast cars and women we’ll write about Mario kart and David Tennant. We do it in a kind of tongue-in-cheek way, with a little tweak we could turn it into more of a straight up comedy act, I wouldn’t take it too seriously or anything. We can have a lot of fun with it, parodying pop and conventional songs with a healthy dose of geekery.

But that’s not to say that it doesn’t come from a bigger place, the thing I love most about writing geeky songs is that geeks are probably the most awesome type of people (in this geeks totally unbiased opinion …totally ). They’re people who aren’t afraid to immerse themselves in what they are passionate about without being turned off by some oddly placed predetermined value of “cool”. Being “uncool” and not caring about what anyone else may think about it is probably one of the healthiest messages anyone could take to life. So if I can promote all that while writing as many love songs about David Tennant and Mario as I want, well… I couldn’t see myself doing anything else!

Do you guys find it difficult to find your audience? Or do you think your songs are accessible enough for anybody to get into?

 Homan: Immensely. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we try to make our shows fun and enjoyable for everyone and we are well received, even to a not so nerdy crowd, but at the end of the day our stuff is more tailored to a certain type of person and not in the way traditional bands might be tailored. Like if you’re a punk band you’d play punk bars, blues bands play blues festivals ect. But there are not a lot of geeky hangouts where geeky music would be appropriate, if you exclude the likes of conventions, which we are going to look in to, but it’s kind of a big jump for an unfamous band, so its unlikely that a con would invest in us without much of a following, so we’re just going to have to try harder where we are for the moment!

Well the live music scene in general is in really bad shape at the moment with live venues getting closed down left and right it’s getting harder and harder to even find live music these days so the internet seems like the a logical platform for you.

 Homan: Some people have said that our kind of stuff is a lot more suited to YouTube and the like. I can definitely see their point; you would find a lot more of the pop culture audience online than in random pubs around Melbourne, but then comes the problem of getting noticed. Although there are some who have, you have to be really lucky to “make it big” on the internet since there is just so much content out there and a lot of it goes unseen. Along with that, being an ‘Internet Band’ also drops the live aspect, which as a musician would be terrible for me. I love performing far too much!

So what’s the answer?

Homan: Ideally we should spread out stuff throughout the Internet while still playing shows to cover all bases, which is where we’re sort of at now. We’ll find our audience; it might just take a while! If we can’t, well, I certainly don’t mind wasting my time on something I find so amazingly fun!

Pip: I’m sure there are people out there who would make the effort to come and see bands like “Blue Turtle Shell” live, but it is hard to find the resources and advertising space for such an awesome group of people as nerd rock is still in its early days. Before now, being a nerd or geek was uncool. However, society is slowly growing to accept Nerd Rock and nerds can come out of hiding as pop culture and geek culture is finally being seen as a market that businesses can target. This may be the breakthrough needed for nerd rock. 

Homan: Blue Turtle Shell: Spearheading the nerd rock revolution!

At the very least, being something different to the countless other “normal” bands out there does sets us apart I spose, which is hard enough for bands. But that’s a bit of a double-edged sword. We just need people to give us a chance to geek-rock their worlds!

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