- Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab
-
Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab Birth name Glenn Dormand Genres Pop
Alternative PopOccupations Musician
Songwriter
Television Presenter
Radio presenterInstruments Keyboard Years active 1990s - present Associated acts Machine Gun Fellatio
The WhitlamsChit Chat Von Loopin Stab (real name: Glenn Easton Dormand [1] better known by his stage name Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab) is an Australian songwriter, musician, record producer, remixer, TV presenter, radio announcer, and video director. He is best known as one of the founding members of the band Machine Gun Fellatio and his presenting work on pay TV music channel MAX. In 1998, he won an ARIA Music Award for Song of the Year for "No Aphrodisiac" (co-written with Tim Freedman and Matt Ford). Chit Chat has also won an Inside Film Award and has been nominated for an Australian Film Institute Award.
Contents
Beginnings
Chit Chat began his musical career with the band Vrag. He was the lead singer and lyricist during the group’s existence from 1988 until 1994. Vrag’s four full members and two part-time vocalists would later form Machine Gun Fellatio (MGF). The only non-Vrag band member to be in MGF was Pinky Beecroft. In 2006, Vrag reformed and performed a show at Sydney’s Annandale Hotel[2]
Adult Films
Prior to Machine Gun Fellatio achieving success, Chit Chat provided scores for local adult films. According to Chit Chat: “We initially self-financed the band by doing porn soundtracks, which is funny and I don’t mind mentioning. It’s really hard to do porn. You think it’s going to be easy – you’re just going to get the wah pedal and knock it out, but you’ve pretty much got to write wall-to-wall sound and add dynamics for a 20-minute scene. It’s a lot of music."[3]
He collaborated with Scottie Scott (Scott Chapman) and MGF bandmates 3k Short and Loveshark on the soundtracks to Raw Strip, AUS VR (also served as 2nd Camera) and Sasha And Amber’s Hardcore Holiday (also served as 2nd Camera and Producer).
Mention has been made in MGF press materials and interviews [4] about a film helmed by Chit Chat titled Fisting by the Pool but no physical evidence of the film exists. Not publicly, at least.
Machine Gun Fellatio
Chit Chat and 3k Short started the band in 1996 and undertook songwriting, producing and management duties until the group split in 2005.
Their first release, Unsound Sounds, was a collection of songs by themselves and two other bands, The Libertines and Limebunnies. All three bands were formed by Chit Chat.
MGF performed live at Big Day Out in 2002 and 2003. They have also played at Homebake on three separate occasions (2000, 2001, 2002, and 2004). In addition to these festivals, MGF have played at Livid (2001 and 2002), the Woodford Folk Festival, Rock-It, St Kilda Festival and Gone South.
The group made televised appearances on Rove, Late Night in Sibera, The Monday Dump, The Joint and What U Want.
The band played support for Primus, Robbie Williams, Duran Duran, Garbage and Kiss.
MGF was noted for their wild live shows, which often involved both male and female nudity, light bondage gear and implied sexual intercourse with their instruments. This led to RMIT University and Swinburne University of Technology cancelling scheduled performances. Chit Chat himself was known for performing with just a Winnie-the-Pooh plush toy strapped to his genitals. In 2003, this practice caused issues at LA’s Viper Room. Recounts Chit Chat: "The first problem was that it took a really long time to get my clothes off, because I had [a] broken collar bone. But we were still goin' nuts. I mean, I wanted to give the people the full show. Then these enormous black guys [working security] started walking towards me and it became obvious the venue was shutting me down. It was a bit scary. I guess it would have been scarier if there were two very large black men coming at me saying, 'Take your clothes off!'"[5]
Overall, MGF released three albums, all of which were co-produced by Chit Chat. Their debut, Bring It On!, was certified gold; the follow-up, Paging Mr. Strike, was certified platinum. Their final album, On Ice, was released in 2004.
Television
Chit Chat is the primary artist interviewer for pay TV music channel MAX. During his seven years with the channel, he has interviewed over 600 acts, including Oasis, The Who, Foo Fighters, Slash, Mumford and Sons, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Pink, Blondie and Stevie Nicks. He has been involved with the following programs: The Know, The MAX Sessions, MAX Masters (also wrote the theme), MAX Recommends (also wrote the theme), Take Five and various specials, including Sound Relief, the APRA Awards and twice hosting the St Kilda Festival and AMP Awards. Before the show ended in 2009, Chit Chat was, at five years, the longest serving presenter on The Know.
After the death of Crowded House drummer Paul Hester in 2005, Chit Chat took over hosting duties of The MAX Sessions. The show has twice been honoured with an ASTRA Award.
Chit Chat is the narrator and conducts all of the interviews for this MAX Masters, an ASTRA Award-winning monthly music documentary that focuses on an individual artist.
Chit Chat also served as host for the benefit shows WaveAid and Sound Relief, both of which won ASTRA Awards.
He is currently working on two documentaries: A five-part series about the Nineties and an eight-part series titled Great Music Cities of the World. They are due to air in late-2011.
Soundtracks
Film
In 2000 Chit Chat, 3k Short and Pinky Beecroft composed the score for Academy Award Academy Award winner Lizzy Gardiner’s documentary on director Stephan Elliott, Killing Priscilla. The documentary featured Ashley Judd, K.d. lang and Ewan McGregor.
In 2003, Chit Chat and 3k Short wrote the original score for the Jonathon Teplitzky film Gettin' Square. For this they won the IF Award for Best Music[6] and received an AFI Award nomination for Best Original Score [7]. The pair originally rejected this job but later agreed after seeing David Wenham’s courtroom scene.
Chit Chat scored the 2010 documentary You Only Live Twice: The Incredible True Story Of The Hughes Family, which won the AFI Award for Best Documentary Under One Hour.[8]
Advertisements
Chit Chat and 3k Short have scored many award-winning and controversial TVC’s:
- "Sperm Bank", "Bin Surfer" for Solo
- "Snakeskin Tampons" for Libra
- "Evoluion" for TDK
- "Skater" for Cottee’s
- "Pie Fight" for Davenport
- "Bucket Boy" for Hans
Radio
From 2008 until 2010, Chit Chat presented two weekly shows: Planet Rock, which was syndicated to 56 stations nationally, and Homebrew, which appeared on Triple M.
Other Work
Remixes
With 3k Short
- The Whitlams - "No Aphrodisiac"
- TISM - "Defecate on my face"
- Custard - "Apartment"
- Pre.Shrunk - "Hot Robots"
With Scottie Scott
- Bellydance - "Ain’t No Use"
Recorded co-writes
- The Whitlams - "No Aphrodisiac" (with Tim Freedman, Matt Ford) (Won the 1998 ARIA Award for Song of the Year)
- Tex, Don and Charlie - "Fake That Emotion" (with Tex Perkins)
- The Grandmasters - "Love Dies Slow" (with Jackie Orzarcsky)
- The Grandmasters - "Light Off" (with Jackie Orzarcsky)
- The Grandmasters - "Holiday From Myself" (with Jackie Orzarcsky)
- Waikiki - "Together We’re A Song" (with Juanita Stein)
- Pre.Shrunk - "Crash" (with Dave Morris)
- Pre.Shrunk - "All Day Sucker" (with Dave Morris)
- Pre.Shrunk - "Legend Of The Fall" (with Dave Morris)
Current
Chit Chat has teamed-up with long time writing partner Scottie Scott and formed The StickUp Kids. Their EP “Take On The World” was released in 2010. They won an ABC Broadcasters Choice Award for the track “Make Time For Love”[9] and were nominated for Best Rock Song at the 2010 Musicoz awards for “Blame It On The Rock n Roll”[10].
Personal
Chit Chat has been married since 2005 and has two daughters. He and his family live in Newcastle, New South Wales.
References
- ^ "Pooh fighters". The Sydney Morning Herald. 19 December 2003. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/18/1071337089476.html. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ "VRAG ((feat. members of MGF): FIRST SHOW IN 12 YEARS! Thurs. 16 Nov 2006". Annandalehotel.com. http://www.annandalehotel.com/ANH/eventdetails.asp?id=830. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ "MAX Tropscore: Tips on writing a good score" MaxTV.com.au.[dead link]
- ^ Lander, Dan. "Yeah, these guys are for real...". Esky Magazine (February 2001). http://www.oocities.org/gnwbec/articles/mgfesky.htm. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ Dwyer, Michael (28 November 2003). "Love guns". The Age (Fairfax Media). http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/27/1069825905372.html. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ "IF Awards 2003 - Winners". Urban Cinefile. 13 November 2003. http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=8162&s=Features. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ "AFI Awards 2003 - Nominations". urban cinefile. 31 October 2003. http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=8096&s=Features. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ "2010 AFI Awards Nominees & Winners". AFI. http://www.afi.org.au/AM/ContentManagerNet/HTMLDisplay.aspx?ContentID=11828&Section=AFI_Award_Winners_and_Nominees. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ "1233 ABC Newcastle 2009 Music Awards". NewcastleMusicAwards.com. http://www.newcastlemusicawards.com/. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ "2010 Musicoz Awards Finalists". Musicoz. Archived from the original on 7 March 2010. http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.musicoz.org/about/MUSICOZ_AWARDS/Winners/2010_Winners/2010_Musicoz_Finalists/. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
External links
Categories:- Living people
- Australian radio personalities
- Australian keyboardists
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.