BSPH: Max Q - Max Q 1989 (Michael Hutchence / Ollie Olsen project)

Sometimes the best the artist has to offer is somewhat hidden under the surface and left mostly unnoticed in the light of the more celebrated works. That's the story of Max Q in a nutshell, a project of INXS' frontman Michael Hutchence and Whirlywind's Ollie Olsen.

But how do i got here? I have been watching recent Michael Hutchence documentary and it got me back at the time i did INXS discography guide (gotta find and post it - probably the single best piece of music writing i ever did). One of my big regrets with that piece was that i haven't mentioned about Hutchence's solo efforts like his posthumous solo album with Andy Gill and 1989' Max Q. The latter was killing me for years because i could've added a paragraph or two about it almost immediately - i've got the copy a couple of days after the piece of published and the editor already gave me a new assignment.

Now, watching Hutchence documentary, i thought it would be good to make it right ten years too late.

So. Let's start.

Max Q was a collaborative project of INXS' frontman Michael Hutchence and Whirlywind' Ollie Olson. The two met on the set of the movie Dogs in Space in 1986. Sidenote: the movie is a cultural landmark that captures the spirit of mid-80s Australian music scene in a manner of classic Wim Wenders flicks.

The story goes: Hutchence and Olsen worked on a couple of songs for the film's soundtrack (including the lead single of the soundtrack album Room for the Memory which was a big hit). The experience was good enough to decide that their artistic impulses can spark something special in a full-length album format titled after Olsen's dog because it was a cool name.

But before they could get it on, Hutchence needed to go back to INXS. He was gearing up towards his career peak with INXS' 1987 megasmash Kick, so further collaboration was put on the backburner for a couple of years. Then in 1988-89, during the band's sabbatical, Hutchence got back to the project ready to do something completely different.

In hindsight, prolonged gestation of the project was a blessing, as Hutchence and Olsen had time to solidify the vision and flesh out the songs. The resulting is something truly special. I would dare to say, that this album is actually the best thing he ever did - the artist at his most raw and daring.

The album combines then-trendy chicago house sound with pop rock songs and leftfield post-punk blue-eyed soul sensibility. In many ways, the album predates the aesthetics U2 had developed a couple of years later with Achtung Baby - similar combination of modern technology and raw emotion underpinning.

Later in the interviews, Hutchence went into detail about the creative process of the project. "It was really fast, you know, it was just enthusiasm – it was just, ‘Let’s do this, let’s do this’ – Olsen wanted to make the new Thriller and I wanted to make something a bit more left, you know? So these two strange ideas got together… With Max Q, we didn’t really know what monster we were making, you know what I mean? We were just gonna see what happened by the end. See, with INXS, it’s a little bit more worked out than that."

Aside from Olsen and Hutchence, the other important creative force on the album is Todd Terry. He added some unexpected textures to the mix and provided very creative approach to the song arrangements. The songs perfectly combine relentless grooves with steadily revolving melodies. It never get boring.

Unfortunately, the album went mostly unnoticed by the public, especially in comparison with INXS smashing success.

Nevertheless, Max Q was important project for Hutchence. It let him to explore his creative parts unknown and expand his writing skills into different styles. Among other things, the influence of Max Q is felt of latter day INXS albums, especially Full Moon Dirty Hearts, whose The Gift would not sound out of place on Max Q album.

What kind of difficulties you experience while writing poetry?

One month ago i was asked "what kind of difficulties you experience while writing poetry?". It was business-as-usual question for the festival or something. The one where one could showboat the hell out of it and rumble tumble the hobbyhorse in the bout of conspicuous perspicacity.

In all seriousness, this question makes little to no sense from a practical standpoint. In terms of gatheting bunch of stuff - yeah, but there is little to no value in this kind of information. And there is not much to write home about. It is not that interesting to explore.

In fact, it is so casual you can't even ponder - yeah, happens, so what? I don't know, maybe because stopped caring about the whole poetry thing five years ago - so i have no sentiment towards such things. Or is it because it is not really an essential knowledge. Anyway, i was asked that question and i didn't wanted to phone it in.

So i started think how to answer this question and make a point.

First, let's count down some of the difficulties that happen while writing poetry:

• No paper / pen / pencil / note-taking app / mic at hand to document something
• Rikki don't lose that number situation
• the continuous drafting eliminates what made the original nugget so special
• the piece goes nowhere with no end in sight - you kinda enjoy doing it but it is ain't gonna work out
• writing the thing down makes the whole thing seem like a waste of effort
• memory fails to capture a momentary glimpse of an astounding image
• memory distorts the expression into something ordinary
• you think too much and it stops being fun
• it worked while you were in the moment, but now when the dust is settled - it is not that good at all
• words can't express the feeling you want to verbalize
• the narrative doesn't hold after being written down
• start fright - you can't start / make the first step
• feedback fright 
• you can't find a fitting ending to the piece because you think that Accept's Princess of the Dawn's abrupt ending kinda didn't worked.
• The meter doesn't add up.
• the poetic form of choice doesn't click with the content
• Can't find the word that sounds right 
• unable to piece together series of images or narrative strands into something cohesive

The list goes on. Do we really need musings about something like this? Of course, two times. Any pretentious dude will dash out a dozen of sentences about it like it was sneezing in the cardboard box in the midst of Bela Bartok listening party for one.

So how to make it count? I don't care about this thing at all and i have nothing to say but i want to take part in it - so what do i do?

First, the reason i don't care - because it doesn't make any difference. I got into poetry because i was interested in exploring the aesthetic qualities of language and the possibilities of making it different. I wasn't really in "spilling my guts" or something. But my efforts were either with hostility or dismissal and every time i tried to fit myself into a spot - it was to zero consequence. Why would try to fit in if there is literally no use of it. You don't get opportunities, you don't make friends, you pass time. At least playing Starcraft makes you fast on your wits, passing time with poets is dancing about architecture.

I've tried to be the part of ukrainian poetic community for a decade or so and it didn't worked out over and over again. These people can't stand me and i'm fine with it, they live in their little world which is very limited and narrow-minded - good for them, i'm having my own lunar park with blackjack and hookers.

Detour is over. Back to main topic. 

I decided to take a couple of steps back and reflect on the nature of things just like any poseur would do. Except i was honest.

Here's what i came up with.

1

The Gospel of Pink Fairies says, "Do It." And that's what you have to do. Period. Oddly enough, sometimes, on the spur of the moment and in the rattle of bliss - you forget about it and start to overthink the thing. It gets overwrought. While in of itself, there is nothing bad about overwrought overthinking - when it is not by design - it is detrimental to the cause. When you need to shoot - shoot not talk or hesitate.

From my perspective, the process of writing poetry is perfectly described by one Mike Tyson - "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." Once you're in - you never know what's coming but you need to adapt and get through. You just do it, otherwise you crawl back into your warm bath of the comfort zone.

This makes writing poetry something Timothy Leary called "designing chaos." The challenge is to keep the composure to stay focused to delve into unknown unknown - and will the thing into existence. 

2

On the other hand, you have the baggage - skills, experience, opinions - this stuff often takes over and diminish your ability to stay open-minded and "make it new." 

It is like Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid 1. It can counter your every step and predict every move and neuter the effort. So you need to reroute the controller to get over it. 

This aspect makes being a poet a rather dubious experience. You need to overcome your personality traits and be a stuntman double of yourself, more or less go in spite of an instinct, be wrong and helpless, and inane, and hapless to move further and explore new states - literally, stumble and bumble into discoveries and roll in it as if was a barb wire.

3

The challenge or difficulty of any kind may be a starting point or a building block of the piece; either way, it is what makes the piece special. 

When it happens - you're on the right track. So in retrospect, the answer is, "bring it on." 

In that regard, in one way or another, the poet semi-unknowingly looks for the challenge or trouble or difficulty or complication by nature with no apparent intention to leverage it. As a fellah once sang, "misery's my middle name." It just happens.

It is natural to look for tomato can challenges to get through, because taking risks can get you beat and you don't want that fuzzy feeling. 

And the whole thing is encapsulated in one sharp "ok.", possibly followed by "whatever", that results in moving on towards the solution that realizes the piece. 

***
To summarize, the challenges are:

• needless overthinking
• purposeful overconfidence
• sheer lack of adaptability
• blatant lack of openmindedness
• abhorrent lack of focus
• eldritch fear of unknown
• mischievous comfort zone corruption
• calamitous fear of failure 
• nonplus lack failure positivity