'Cong' / Cong Josie [Interview]
Cong Josie is the nightclub cowboy alter-ego of Nic Oogjes, a mainstay and founder of legendary Naarm ‘Heat Beat’ collective NO ZU. On Cong, released through IT Records, Nic digs deep within himself to provide an equal parts personal and manically surreal record, filled with the effortlessly cool and blood pumping sounds of EBM, No Wave, Post-Punk and more.
Earning his stripes as a central figure in the international melting pot of dance driven punk No Zu, a decade into his career, Nic Oogjes has launched his solo journey as Cong Josie through IT Records. Stripping away the maximal sound of a ten piece collective into an intriguingly dark amalgamation of his personal favourite sounds. Dipping in and out of floor stomping EBM, surrealist dark wave and impulsive blasts of jazz and no wave, all under the guiding hand of his smokey country pub croon.
This journey through his musical loves is paired hand-in-sequin-gloved-hand with a journey of self discovery. Whilst the project carries a strong aesthetic direction and seems revolved around a carefully constructed character, he has utilised the project to dig deep within himself, reflected simply through the choice of name - with Cong Josie an anagram of Nic Oogjes.
Following the release of his fiery debut, we had the chance to discuss the solo journey (though he is quick to praise the plethora of help he’s received on the way), musical influences, live performances, David Lynch and more.
Congrats on the debut solo record! What caused you to go out on your own this time around?
It wasn’t really something I had control over.
After having some really heightened, enormous adventures with NO ZU, I had kind of turned into someone that I wasn’t always happy with.
I reached a point where there was a bit of chaos in my life and I actually started seeing a psychologist. And kinda just delved into things that I’d buried deeper and deeper.
Then as soon as I started to open that pandoras box, this whole other world came out. It had many positives, and one of them is definitely Cong Josie.
I was in a complete writers block when that came out of the box and all of a sudden I was inspired, and wanted to do this release valve of trawling through my inner self and just having an instant, make a song in a day process. And in comparison to always considering up to a 10 piece band and other people, it was an amazing feeling. Such a total adventure.
I still love NO ZU, and still love being involved with NO ZU and I’m sure in ways it will continue. But as such a band you can’t play tiny little venues. You can’t just do something at the drop of a hat, there’s a lot more logistics involved. And this, I think it probably comes across in the videos and stuff, it’s just like one guy going out and causing mischief. So I can setup and play a karaoke set at the drop of a hat. Or the drop of a cowboy hat. It’s super freeing.
Cong Josie feels almost like a conceptual character, whilst still being very personal lyrically. How did you find inspiration for the direction of the project?
It all came from within.
I’m super aware that it looks really aesthetically driven and a character and stuff. But it’s really just exploring my ego and different parts of myself. Even the name is an anagram of Nic Oogjes. It’s the first one that comes up in the anagram generator.
As I said, I think it just came from being a bit more reflective and thinking about all my deepest, darkest things. As well as my family relationships and relationships with friends. I’d just had a child at the birth of Cong Josie as well. So there were a lot of things I was facing for the first time.
But as for the actual character, I don’t have to act at all. That’s actually the freeing thing. I can have a thought in the morning and then make a video, or make a song and I just know it’s coming from the right place. I don’t have to think. It’s not intellectualised at all, so that’s why it’s so freeing. It’s such an outlet that I understand that a lot of people don’t have, where you can just express all that stuff that you don’t have out there on the face, or in public or whatever.
Whilst it’s billed as a solo record, you cover such a wide array of sounds. How’d it all come together on the production front?
There’s still a huge connection with the NO ZU collective, primarily Kane. Who we call Johnny Kane.
He was my saviour, the person who made it all happen. He’s an incredible multi instrumentalist: plays the sax and the guitar on most tracks, synths and all sorts of things.
He was instrumental (bit of a pun that I didn’t mean).
I remember ‘Persephone’, for example, the whole song came to me in the shower. And I’m no musician at all. I just kind of have ideas.
I was just singing it and then I ended up straight away making a voice memo - I guess I was probably still naked - and just going, “Persephone! DUM DUMMM!” And thinking about Roy Orbison’s ‘You Got It’, with the big timpani hits and feeding that into whatever sort of melody I’d come up with. And being inspired by those Doo Wop progressions, for that moment anyway.
And that’s probably a pretty good illustration of how all the songs came about.
With the limited instrumentation, and the fact that I cant sing, they were never gonna sound like my reference material, so I leaned into it.
As for the reference material, it seems to dip all over. But that alternative 80s sound definitely strikes me the clearest.
Do you have a favourite musical decade or one that influenced the project most?
80's without a doubt for my adult life. I feel bad that I’m not as up to date on new stuff. But I know that as soon as you release something, even if it’s really 80s inspired, all of a sudden it exists in a contemporary context, and it could only exist now, even if it might be inspired by a past decade. Because it’s also got some early 90s things filtered in, or maybe something more contemporary.
When I was older I got really into post punk stuff and EBM and some dance music: DFA, Suicide and stuff like that.
Then the other side is the naiveté of stuff I liked before I was 12 years old: Roy Orbison, Chris Isaac, Elvis, the Grease megamix from the Grease movie. Cause I was a kid in the 90s and there was a 50s/60s revival everywhere, which was the archetype of cool. Which feeds into the trawling through my own self and my childhood and things like that.
Well the 80’s revival is very much in full swing at the moment, but I feel like EBM and darkwave haven’t quite had the same resurgence. What draws you to those genres?
I’ve always been into sounds. Probably because I’m not a trained musician or know a lot about chord structures and whatever. But I love the sound of a gated snare or those really airy kick drums. There’s something that it evokes in me that I probably need to go to a few more therapy sessions to work out why they mean so much to me.
That kind of mechanical, Detroit techno/EBM sound has always been in my DNA for some reason.
The album has such an immersive feeling. The hazy atmosphere reminds me a lot of Twin Peaks by David Lynch. Are there any other films or pieces of art that you see as aligned with the project?
I know it’s such a popular thing to reference, but definitely Twin Peaks. Also Blue Velvet by David Lynch and Wild at Heart. Wild at Heart is probably really close in terms of stage wear. There’s a scene which some readers will know where Nicolas Cage is wearing his snakeskin jacket, which he says he wears because it represents individuality and freedom. Anyway, he’s Elvis obsessed in it and there’s this metal band playing at a club and he nods to the band and they throw him a mic and he goes, “Treat me like a foooool” and they start playing the Elvis song ‘Love Me’, and all the girls and the crowd start screaming. Anyway, that fantasy scenario, that kinda thing. As you said a haze of surreal dreamy mirage was, if not intentional, definitely where I was coming from.
The Roy Orbison croon, cowboy symbolism and pub bar sound rings through the record. We’re zooming each other now within Naarm, but do you have a history with the rural world, or more of a deep appreciation from afar?
This would be a perfect moment to just lie.
I’m wearing a singlet right now, which is from my auntie and uncle’s road house in the country town Elmore. Which they had in the 80s. I found that at my mums actually.
But no. I’m definitely a suburban kid. I grew up in the suburbs near Eltham and Greensborough.
I always had my eyes set on the city. I’ve peppered throughout a lot of lyrics about the eastern freeway and this fantasy thought of why this is a hub of where all the culture and creativity happens. And in my imagined world, Gong would be like a suburban hero playing out in Nunawading at a chicken parma kind of pub and that would be valid. And I’ve always questioned that we overlook suburbia, when there’s so much eccentricity and bizarre things that are happening behind all the doors in the street that you live on.
But as for the cowboy thing, it comes more from post punk imagery of Australiana. In the sense of Tracy Pew from The Birthday Party, who was big on cowboy hats, Spencer P. Jones from Beasts of Bourbon and a bunch from around that time.
Also, I’ve definitely got a big part of me that is very feminine - to put it that way. And I have always wanted to display that and to mix it up with archetypes of macho and all that kind of thing.
Before wrapping up, do you have any final thoughts on the release you’d like to share with our readers?
I’d like to mention that it’s called a solo album and I’ve been very self involved with so much fan art and all that stuff, but really its been this tight knit-super supportive crew. Whether they were involved in the actual recording or not. Its really made it like a little family and provided so much energy for the whole project. So that’s the band, Kate at IT records, and my family who I’ve name checked on the album like Margarita and Persephone. It means the world to me that I’ve had all these people around me, and it’s been an opening up process to not think that I can just steam ahead and do everything myself. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do it without some strong support around me.
Stay up to date with Cong Josie on Bandcamp, Instagram, Facebook
Words by Matt Thorley
Cover Art by - Nick Mahady and Luke Fraser
Polaroids - Margarita Strateas
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