Apr 03 2008 4:25 pm,
Profile: Operator Please
Words: Stephen Brolan
“Just out of curiosity, can you tell me how old you think I should be?”
Having been ransacked by the triumphant exuberance of stupidly young Operator Please, The Fly, normally a fluttering chaffinch of youth, feels like a fucking pterodactyl. The
“I was walking to a show one day and this drunken dickhead yelled out ‘You guys fucking SUCK!’” she says. “And I turned around and said, ‘Man, you’re like 50 – your life’s over. Mine’s just starting’. And his face just dropped to the floor.”
Ostensibly the subject of the title track, with its lyric “Yes yes, Vindictive, the joke’s on you”, such dickheads get an even sterner ticking off in Amandah’s razor-sharp wordplay. Indeed, even ex-band members aren’t safe from the singer’s invective, as The Fly discovers when enquiring about ‘6/8’, the hands-down standout track on the album that is just jaw-droppingly brilliant.
“I started writing it around the time our old violin player [Stephanie Joske] fucked us over and left. It was just so unexpected and she totally back-stabbed us in the worst way possible,” Amandah says with still-present incredulity. “I couldn’t believe it because I’d never seen that side of her personality. The song is kind of about the human condition and how you can hide so many different personalities.” She pauses, reflecting. “Actually, it wasn’t out of anger or anything. If it was, it would’ve been louder and faster. But this was a song just to let go of it, and it definitely made me feel better after it was finished.”
At this point, The Fly must draw your attention to what marks this band out as truly special, before you all go forming the impression Operator Please are merely a bunch of spite-filled upstarts. While ‘Yes Yes Vindictive’ does contain the irrepressible energy you find with clutches of whippersnapper bands, what lies at the heart of Operator Please is their uncanny ability to elicit raw honest-to-god emotiveness, be it in the heart-on-sleeve glasnost of the aforementioned ‘6/8’ or the introspective fragility of album closer ‘Pantomime’. If you were expecting immature one-dimensionality, think again. Amandah herself comes across as wise beyond her years, eagerly delving into philosophical and artistic postulations with considered insight.
“People who are artists live their life through their art,” she reflects of the songwriting process. “I think writing is a love and hate affair with where you come from. The more interaction you have with people around you, the more you long for an escape.”
Having started the band to enter (and win) a
“Ultimately you create your own destiny,” Amandah ponders. “If you’re confident within yourself, you’ve got nothing to lose. There’s nothing worse than sitting around and hoping when you can just go out there and make something happen.”
Something’s happening right now. Operator Please are an explosion of youthful sagacity the like of which you have not heard since Arctic Monkeys. Yes yes – THAT addictive.
‘Yes Yes Vindictive’ is released on Brille Records later this year.
