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Music

Amanda Palmer is a Fan of Yes Men, MONA FOMA, and Maps of Tasmania

The MOFO icon has coined her own genre - "NeoProblemCoreGaze"

Photo by Shervin Lainez

The cold, weird memories of Dark Mofo are still fresh in our minds, but Hobart's museum of museums is already back with more music and art.

Curated by Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes), and supported by VICE, MONA FOMA (MOFO) 2015 is the seventh iteration of their summer art jam. Running for four days it’ll feature New York post-punks Swans (also at Sugar Mountain), J-pop riot grrrls Shonen Knife, Australian-Icelandic post-classical composer Ben Frost, Swedish black metal-heads Marduk, The Clean and more.

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The crowd-funding, Brechtian cabaret punk Amanda Palmer (The Dresden Dolls) will also visit—supported by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. We spoke to the repeat MOFO offender about her Map of Tasmania and being “problematic”.

VICE: So you’re playing with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. How do you split the drink rider with an orchestra?
AMANDA PALMER: It's easy! You order one giant box of wine with a plastic spigot. Then you ask the orchestra members to lie down, backstage, on their backs, with their mouths open. Then you do a strange ballet-like dance over their heads as you pore the wine in. It's awesome. They love it. You know those crazy classical musicians in orchestras: they're always up for anything.

They’re anyone’s. Having performed at MOFO a number of times, and with a song entitled "Map of Tasmania", what is your perception of MONA FOMA, and of Tasmania in general?
It started out with a simple plea from a single fan in Tasmania, Dianna Graf. She offered to put me up in her spare room and give me a tour of Hobart if I booked a show in Tasmania. In fact, she offered to book the show. Which she did. And she delivered, by god. I slept in her spare room, did a photo shoot with her (she's a fantastic photographer) and played my little heart out in that dingy yet lovable bar. I also wrote "Map of Tasmania" that first night: Dianna had educated me about the euphemism earlier that day. The rest is history. Brian Ritchie invited me to Mona the following year, and after seeing his scene, and the museum, I never looked back and fell in love with the place. I think there's nothing quite like it happening in the world right now, and I've been to a lot of places.

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How so?
It's electric. It doesn't hurt that Mona has been single-handedly responsible for getting to eat dinner with Nick Cave, getting to meet PJ Harvey in the Mona lobby, getting to front a Violent Femmes tribute band with The Dresden Dolls, Brian Ritchie, Mick Harvey and John Parrish and getting to hang out with Merrill from tUnE-yArDs. When you get far enough way from what's usual, the unusual happens, because… What else are you going to do but hang out with the artists who are on the island? Brian Ritchie is also a Yes person. Mona is a Yes Festival. That's why I like it so much.

Your shows are known for their theatrics and drama but probably not as dramatic as Chinese performance artist Li Binyuan who will be smashing 250 hammers. Do you think 250 hammers is perhaps too many?
Yes. I think 250 hammers is way, way too many. I can't believe people think that's art. If it were like five hammers, I'd be impressed. I studied the Internationale Bewegung Hammer-Minimalismus in Berlin when I was at art school there in the early seventies and I know what I'm talking about.

On the program you are described as Brechitan cabaret punk but there is also an Australian-Icelandic post classical (Ben Frost) and Swedish black metal (Marduk). What is the best description you have been given in the past?
The best description I've heard lately: "problematic". But I've also seen it leveled at every artist I think is great lately. So I now think being problematic is best new compliment you can give an artist. Because, face it, name a great artist starting at the dawn of time who wasn't problematic. I've been having a hard time coming up with one. So maybe I'll change my general genre to…ProblemCore? ProblematiCore? ProblemRock? NeoProblemCoreGaze? DubStep? They're all delicious!

See Amanda and the rest play MOFO from January 15-18, 2015. Tickets on sale now: www.mofo.net.au