Snap That
Interview with O from Colour Parade
Nic: So Anto and O... Not the names on your birth certificates I'm guessing?
O: Well that is half true, one is and the other isn't. I'll let you guess which is which.
Nic: What the hell is this Colour Parade thing?
O: Well the Colour Parade is an artistic statement on the streets and footpaths of Sydney, and just recently Melbourne, that we've held once a year for the past 5 years. It is basically a gathering of all different types of people and sub-cultures that have come together to express themselves through their fashion and personalities. Its is about colourful people and colourful minds being themselves and having fun in the otherwise bland city surroundings.
Nic: I've known you guys for a while but I never really heard the story about how you came up with the idea for it. Was it just a thought that came out of the blue? (eh? Get it? Blue.. Colour. Yeah good pun! I'll stick to my day job..)
O: The Colour Parade idea was birthed at a house we used to live in called "the Aviary". The Aviary was a share house occupied by 10 young artists, musicians and students in Newtown. We used to throw monthly parties and gigs with all different types of people and different genres of music being showcased within the house. From the positive experiences and all the amazing people we were meeting there we decided that it would be fun to take these ideas and attitudes we had gathered within the house into the outside world.
Nic: I've seen posters all around Newtown and the city many times for the parade. Seems like you've had a pretty good response from people, right?
O: We have been really lucky with all the parades we have thrown so far as they have all had good turn outs, good weather and fun people. We usually get around 150 to 200 people at each Colour Parade we throw. Every year there is always new people joining in and also familiar faces that have been to every one. The publics response is usually mixed though, some positive and some negative, although generally they just don't know what has hit them.
Nic: One of the first things people might notice about you (from a mile away) is your fashion sense. What's with that? Looks like quite an effort to get dressed in the morning.
O: I guess to some people it does look like a lot of effort but in reality it takes no longer to do than the so called "normal" clothes that people wear on a daily basis. We just have taste. Haha.
Nic: Did people ever give you shit about the way you dressed or acted in when you were school? How did you manage to keep doing what you do and not cave in to the pressure to conform?
O: We have both had our fair share of verbal and sometimes physical abuse thrown at us over the years. There was a time in high school where we both did tone it down but that would never last to long. We always stood out even when we thought we were being like everyone else. We knew that we weren't like the people around us and they knew it too.
Nic: In my experience, things don't always turn out how you think they will. What do you think about that?
It's true they definitely DON'T. But sometimes I feel if you mentally play out all the possibilities of all the things that could go wrong, and try to deal with these things in your mind, the reality doesn't usually seem as bad and you feel like they usually work out ok in the end, even if it doesn't exactly work out the way we planned it. Thats the magic of life though, rolling with the punches....
Nic: And finally, what's next in the lives of Anto and O?
In the next few months we will be heading off to Berln for an unknown period of time - while we're there we will be continuing on all our different creative projects but hopefully in bigger and better ways. (maybe a Colour Parade in europe?) Also we have a group exhibition in the works which will be taking place in the next 2 to 3 months.
