About Skylab
Skylab was formed in 2002 by Norbert Greenspan and Sly (see profiles below). The Melbourne-based duo describe their sound as ‘ever evolving electro-avant-pop’. The first gig was at the launch of underground zine ‘Bayonet’ on board a ‘borrowed’ water-taxi. By all accounts it was totally mind-blowing, although that could have been the drugs.
Norbert describes his musical influences as Shakespeare and the ‘Beano Book of Boys’ stories, while Sly prefers to listen to talk back radio and the sound that shells makes when you hold them up to your ear. One thing they do agree on is that music is the universal language of love, especially when played backwards.
They also share a passion for outer space, possibly stemming from strangely parallel formative incidents in childhood. Norbert came up with the name Skylab in honour of his little sister who was hit on the head by a piece of re-entering sky-junk (their parents keep it on the mantelpiece to this day). Sly almost choked on the plastic spaceman in her breakfast cereal when she was seven.
Together, Norbert and Sly have put out three CDs and performed at festivals around the world. Their next ambition is to be the first electronic act to both perform in space and play golf on the moon. Check out their Facebook page which tracks their progress to lift-off!
Norbert Greenspan
Norbert Greenspan twiddles all the knobs for Skylab, producing that totally unique sound fans adore and critics can’t help but write lots about even if they only give it two-and-a-half stars at the bottom. Norbert loves dancing, the colour green and collecting old bass guitars. Skylab fans love his high-energy stage presence, and penchant for slogan t-shirts (his current fave – ‘Save the woolly mammoth’).
Norbert has been a massive music fan since he was nine, when an operation to treat his chronic hearing problems discovered a thriving pumpkin vine in his left ear. No sooner were the bandages off when Norbert dived into his grandparents’ collection of 78s, smashing several. But contemporary music soon paled before the thrills of experimenting with tape loops, home-made electronic circuits and hamsters.
Since then, it’s been a long but sure road to success. After meeting Skylab bandmate Sly when their golf carts became hopelessly entangled, Norbert knew he wanted to make music his life. He quit his correspondence hairdressing course and the rest is history.
Sly
Sly (just ‘Sly’) plays keyboards and creates the psychedelic visual landscapes that make a Skylab performance more like an art exhibition than a gig. Sly describes herself as a post-feminist tomboy, equally at home restoring her 1970s BMW motorbike as posing for that now-infamous photo-spread in ‘Spank U Very Much’ quarterly.
Singing in the church choir sparked Sly’s love of melody – until the incident with the stained glass window and the lawnmower. But while serving her 100 hours of community service, the formerly cosseted teenager met the future members of hardcore ‘grrl rappers’ VPL and discovered the thrill of rhyming ‘penis’ with ‘bread knife’.
Several years in the artistic wilderness followed as Sly sought her true musical direction. She won a scholarship to study piano at the conservatory, then threw it away to go on a busking tour of the West Bank. But after meeting Skylab bandmate Norbert when their golf carts became hopelessly entangled, Sly realised her future was behind the laptop keyboard as much as the musical one, and combined her love of hypnotic swirly patterns with hypnotic swirly sounds. Ooooh baby!