If awards were handed out in the Territory for the hardest working musicians, mentors, sound producers, support workers  and cultural facilitators, Jeff McLaughlin would surely be one of the first first on the list.

Based in Tennant Creek, Jeff is one of the true music mavericks of the Territory; wild, hardworking, woolly and willing to go anywhere at the drop of a hat, if it means furthering the cause of original music – moreover original Indigenous music – in the Territory.

Mobile studio in tow, he’s spent countless hours on the road in his hip-trippy van (aptly named the ‘Love Bus’), driving to destinations 99% the Australia music industry likely has never heard of, all in the name of making music happen. Specially in community.

He’s mentored many (and been mentored back); mixed produced and recorded more, (from Shellie Morris to Tjupi Band, Colourfide and Minister Gerry McCarthy), and played with some of the Territory’s best and most well-loved bands and artists.

Foremost are The Tableland Drifters, who with Jeff played for the first time at the 2011-12 Dreaming Festival, this year held as part of Queensland’s prestigious Woodford Folk Festival.

For the past 6 years Jeff’s great project was working with the team who set up and developed the Winanjjikari Music Centre in 2006 – hands down one of the ‘deadliest’ Indigenous music forces in the Northern Territory. (Or for that matter, Australia).

In the local Warumungu language, “Winanjjikari” means ‘Singing for Belonging’. Winanjjikari Music Centre “was established as a music training and recording centre..  It is Australia’s first and most successful Shared Responsibility Agreement (SRA) designed to teach and assist Barkly musicians in developing their skills in musicianship/music production” (Source:  Winanjjikari Music Centre). It is run in cooperation with Barkly Regional Arts Centre.” (Source: WMC website)

It’s been a massive job and commitment for him, helping to set up studios, train and run the Centre, and ensure adequate teams are in place to make things just so. But recently Jeff has succumbed to a longtime personal calling: to return to music as a solo endeavour.

Invoking his Zappa-esque music persona ‘Dr. Fluoride’, come the New Year he declared, “it is now time to show the cosmos my own breed of music.”

The good Doctor’s ambitions are high. “With a 17- year backlog of original music” in his arsenal, Dr. Flouride is in the midst “of recording a mammoth triple 32-trek greatest hits album”, to be unleashed on the world mid-2012..

He’s also about to unleash some of this material – 10 years in the making – on Darwin and Katherine, in a wee tour with fellow musician ‘DJ Henry Radish’, entitled ‘I Quit The Band And Now I Play With Myself’ Tour.

While the rest of the Oz music industry is very much focused on individuals (and the business) of music, much of the industry of the Territory is the opposite.

Making music in the Territory – specially in the remote NT -  is about the collective, and the culture of music.

And community.

The emphasis is on empowerment, less about competition.  It’s about affecting change from the ground up and making sure people are equipped to learn and shine, so their cultures may endure and strengthen.

Jeff’s is a story that – while highly indicative of the NT industry, especially the remote NT – it is also one not often broadly told.

As he readied for the music trek north to Darwin, Music NT spoke to Jeff McLaughlin/Dr. Fluoride about his new cosmic trip into the musical universe..

Music NT: Please tell us about this new CD of yours – when, how and why did it come about?!

Jeff McLaughlin: Well ‘Dr. Flouride’ has always been my creative outlet. The whole concept is to clean the world’s darkest cavities with a musical brush and artistic mouth wash. I have got to that point in my life where I feel like I need to express my own, so called ‘art’, and try to communicate it to the world.

MuNT: Has it been in the pipeline for a while?

JM: I have been working on this album on and off for over 10 years now. It’s always been hard to find the time right creative time, trying to fit in my other projects or jobs around this.

It has also been evolved around the investment I have put into my studio that I have built up over a very long time.

There were certain ideas I had 10 years ago that I couldn’t do without the gear.  Where many acts put much money into hiring studios and engineers and producers, over the years I have put a lot of money into my gear.

This also has made it possible for me to be able to work as a producer for a living.

MuNT: Why have you decided to release it now?

JM: I have just finished up with a very large part of my life, the Winanjjikari Music Centre.

It has taken me 6 years to get to the point where the Centre no longer needs me. I’m still involved in the but not on the pay roll.

I am very proud to have helped set up an Indigenous program that has not gone to shit after a whitefella leaves.

I am also very proud to leave it with 10 Indigenous people running the Centre and a manger in place, and in a great financial and practical situation. I could not really move on until this happened.

Now my slate is clean and it has always been my plan to pursue my own music once my goal was finished.

MuNT: How would you describe the sound of your music and new record?

JM: I consider my music to be like a ‘sponge’… I absorb everything I come into contact with. I make my music as diverse as I can, and I try not to put myself into any category.

I have songs on my album in Folk, Dub Step, Reggae, Rock, Drum N Bass, Instrumental, Metal, Jazz, World, Funk and Ambient.

Though my approach is to try and get songs ‘to write me’ and not the other way around, I believe the universe is always trying to give me things if I ask.

MuNT: Is it all you on this new CD? Musically/production-wise? Or who else have you worked with and in what capacity?

JM: Well At the moment I have enough material for a double CD, though this first album has the working title of, ‘I Quit The Band & Play With Myself’. It is coming out mid-2012.

I’m doing everything. Playing. Programming. Engineering. Mixing. Mastering. Artwork. Manufacture – the whole lot! I am 100% in control of this!

I plan to use this as a platform for Part Two, which is a huge collaboration album with the budget to match. I plan to call it ‘Studio Earth’ where I’m working with a huge list of musicians and engineers from Australia and the world, who I have worked with over the years.

I have been invited to work with Bernard Fowler from the Rolling Stones – Herbie Hancock in a big studio called The Steakhouse in North Hollywood. There I will mix and compile everything together on the world’s largest EMI/Neve Console. (Though working on the grants and financing is an 18-month process to reach my goal).

I also strongly believe in paying everybody.

MuNT: How did you go about recording it – was it done in between all your other gigs? On the road in mobile studios? In your studio? Maybe you can give us a bit of an idea as to how it was put together..

JM: I have done little bits on the road and bits in Winanjjikari Studios, though mostly everything has been done in my lounge room over the last 5 years in my down time from work.

I have been able to record multiple versions of every song until I’ve considered it to be perfect.

Some songs started as reggae and ended up as a heavy rock song. Some songs had up to 68 instruments and have been brought back to just acoustic guitar and vocals…

MuNT: You’ve worked with so many other bands, making them sound as good as they can be… Was it hard working just on your own solo project? Who does ‘Dr. Fluoride’ look to for musical guidance and inspiration?!

JM: The biggest thing and the hardest thing has been time, though this year with all my other projects finished I have been able to focus very heavily Dr. Flouride.

Much of my guidance and inspiration has been from the bands and artists I work with – The Tableland Drifters, Tjupi Band, The Sandridge Band, Band Nomadic, Sammy Butcher, Shellie Morris, Alan Murphy, The Bird, Greg Sheehan, Ben Walsh, Stevie Salas, Bernard Fowler, Affrodizziact, Matt James and Solr Carrol..

I also have been a big fan of music producers George Martin, Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and other artists such as, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Peter Gabriel, U2 etc etc..

MuNT: When did you first start to play music?

JM: I started when I was 10, with my father giving me a guitar. When I was 14,  me and my friends at school started a punk rock band. When I was in grade three I had a Radio Shack cassette recorder and microphone. I used to sit in front of the TV recording ‘Farnsy’ and ‘Barnsy’ and sell bootlegs to kids in the playground at school!

MuNT: Did you have any particular music teachers early on?

JM: My biggest thanks is to my school music teacher Mrs Robinson. I hated school and she let me wag it in her music room and hide me from the system. That’s where I would do recording of school bands with an old 4-track and an ATARI ST Computer with a Notator/ Cubase sequencer.

MuNT: What exactly do you play?

JM: My main instrument is guitar, but I consider myself a ‘multi-instrumentalist’, as I have collected lots of instruments over the years. Guitar, bass, keys, synth, spoons, trumpet, tabla, percussion, drums – virtually anything that makes noise!

I also consider a mixing desk an instrument, and I old analogue gear and FX units…

MuNT: Who are some of your musical heroes?

JM: Daniel Johnston, Herbie Hancock, Sammy Butcher, Bob Dylan, Lindsey Pollock,..

MuNT: What kind of an education – musical and otherwise – has working in communities, and with so many Indigenous musicians, for so long, had on you personally, and your own style of music?

JM: I think it’s all about being hands on and being practical. I believe that you can work out the connection we all have with the land and our surroundings. Music isn’t always about what you hear; it’s also about what you can see – and what you can’t see as well.

MuNT: What have you learned as a result of this totally amazing, unique life and musical experience?

JM: I believe that Indigenous music – particularly Indigenous music in the NT – shits all over the rest of the so-called industry on the East Coast. People need to look over the Great Dividing Range and to think outside lego land.

MuNT: Can you share with us about some of those ‘light bulb exploding’ music experiences or stories you’ve had along the way?

JM: 1) Watching Tjupi Band drop 16 songs in an afternoon infront of me in CAAMA studios in 2008.

2) Being apart of helping my brothers in Borroloola reconnect 3 generations.

3) Learning more than I put in.

MuNT: You played with the Tableland Drifters at Dreaming Festival in Queensland this year – what was that experience like, for you, and the Drifters?

JM: Taking the Drifters to Woodford/Dreaming was a huge thing for all of us.

I have been going to that festival on and off for over 12 years now and sharing that experience with the guys was awesome.

We also got to play with Frank Yamma – that was awesome as well.

I also got up and had a jam with the Indigenous All-star Band at the end of the festival.

MuNT: What’s so unique about the music scene in Tennant Creek and the Barkly?

JM: I think that Tennant is very different to anywhere else in Australia. I also think it has received a very bad stigma over the years, which it does not deserve. We all help each other out, make our own fun, nd as a community we look out for each other and help out anyone in need if they get stuck here or break down.

The music industry is very strong here; our venues are always pumping and support artists. We have two recording studios that are always working. And a great regional arts org, Barkly Regional Arts.

MuNT: Who are some of the other bands you’ve worked with in the region?

JM: Unbroken Expanse, The Storm Riders, Iwantja, Harold Daly Waters, Desert Eagle, The Waribri Country Bluegrass Band, Iris Street, Jalajirrpa, Koolamindindi Band,  Gerry Mac, The Long-tails, Cowboys and Indians, Dr. Strangeways, Sunshine Reggae, Colour-ide, Alvin Anderson, WMC All-stars, The Tin Band, Marshall Anderson. and many more…

MuNT: How important is mentoring in your line of work?

JM: For me mentoring is a huge thing…

For myself I have great support networks from people like Sammy Butcher, Neil Murray, Shellie Morris, Lindy Morrison, Buzz Bidstrup and Alan Murn at BRA.

I’ve also spent a large amount of time returning the favour mentoring acts like Unbroken Expanse and it does me so proud seeing those fellas kick arse.

MuNT: What are your plans for the first album?

JM: I just want it to be my next thing. I love entertaining people more than anything, and if I could make a living out of it, even better.

I would love to take it to the world and travel with it. And make people realise that I’m not just ‘a sound guy’…

MuNT: And can you give us more details about your current tour?

JM: Well I’m heading to Happy Yess for a Darwin show on Feb 18. I’ll be accompanied ‘DJ Henry Radish’ (aka Wheezy from Unbroken Expanse) who is currently on his world tour, called ‘I Have Legs’

‘Henry’ has a big influence on my career and I’m so stoked that he has taken the time to rock out…

I’m looking forward to performing to a new audience! I’m also going to be recording bits on my album during the show with audience participation.

I also have a gig at the Katherine Country Club on the way home.

MuNT: If you weren’t a musician – if you didn’t have ‘Dr. Fluoride’ – what would you be doing?

JM: An Olympic Kayak Paddler/ Iron Man…

MuNT: Please finish this sentence: “In 5 year’s time, Dr. Fluoride will be…”

JM: Still making music, touring around the world with his beautiful woman Bec and kid. And making sure that Tennant Creek has a wave machine…

Dr. Fluoride & DJ Henry Radish play Happy Yess in Darwin on February 16, 2012. Stay up to date with Dr. Fluoride’s news on Facebook and MySpace.

 Words: Megan Spencer. Many thanks to Jeff McLaughlin/Dr. Fluoride for the great interview!