From: andrewj@tplrd.tpl.oz.au (Andrew Joyner)
Date: Wed, 01 Sep 93 16:40:18 +1000

SEVERED HEADS

Severed Heads is based in Sydney, Australia and for the most of their
career has consisted of Tom Ellard, the musician, and Stephen Jones, the
video manipulator. Currently on Volition Records they are little known in
Australia and are often mistaken for a metal band. Through distribution on
the Nettwerk and Factory labels they have achieved some impact into North
America and the UK.

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Date: Sat, 28 May 94 14:14:40 EST
From: scot@sysx.apana.org.au

severed heads are reasonably well known among electronic music listeners
in australia. its not true to say they are unknown - sure in the mainstream,
but that's true in america as anywhere else. its just that  the american
"underground" is larger than it is in australia.

also, stephen jones isn't in the band anymore.

recently tom has had Paul Mac from Itchee&Scratchee and The Lab playing
keyboards for him on stage. this provides some vidual relief from the 
video (which tom now does along with some help from others e.g. Jason
Gee, Fincher Trist, et al), as paul is pretty physically dynamic.

Tom is avialable via email on tome@sysx.apana.org.au ... 
Tom is just now finishing off a CD-ROM ...

of course availability in the US is always a problem. Best to email Tom
direct and ask him what's happening with distribution in your local area;
Volition have a distribution deal locally with Sony records but I don't
know if that extends to overseas or not (I think not).

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Rough discography (albums only):
(corrected 4 Jan 1994.. a full discography should be available the same 
place where you got this profile.)

     Clifford Darling, Please Don't Live in the Past (1985 - though it
                     brings together material from as far back as 1980)
     Since the Accident (1983)
     City Slab Horror (1985)
     Stretcher (1985)
     The Big Bigot (1986)
     Bad Mood Guy (1987)
     Bulkhead (compilation) (1988)
     Rotund for Success (1989)
     Retread (remixes from Rotund for Success) (1991)
     Cuisine (incl. Piscatorial) (1991)

Early albums were very analogue based, using a lot of cheap synthesisers,
effects, tape loops and experimentation. A lot of the music was done for
headphone listening and involved hypnotic slabs of noise and mutant samples
in a cacophony of sound. Later albums became more "musical", even verging
onto dance for a while but still retaining Tom Ellard's unusual sense of
humour, his questionable vocal expertise and trademark non-conformity.
Dance remixes have usually been done by Robert Racic, local remix artist
and DJ.

Live shows have usually involved pre-recorded videos and backing music with
Stephen playing a video synthesiser over the images and Tom and guests
playing synths and samplers over the top of the music. Tom is a hardened
un-professional and refuses to exhibit any signs of showmanship.
Fortunately they do not play live often.

Best albums (IMHO) are Stretcher and The Big Bigot. Since the Accident is
worth a listen for those seriously into tape loops. It actually contains a
couple of musical pieces. Their best known pieces are dance songs: Dead
Eyes Opened (from Since the Accident), Hot with Fleas (Bad Mood Guy) and
Greater Reward (Rotund for Success). Booklets have been available in
conjunction with several of the albums, available by writing to the band.
These have detailed how the songs were written, what equipment was used,
handy hints on song-writing and how to sound like Severed Heads. An
interesting read.