The Stab Interview: Creed McTaggart

From recent experiments with board design to playing “runs of little, shitty shows” with his band Wash, Creed McTaggart keeps himself plenty engaged. And with Globe’s “Cult of Freedom” edit by Joe G dropping this week, it’s quite easy to understand why Creed’s been hanging close to home in W.A. lately. Kegging slabs, frothed pits and the occasional chuck section provide the man with the simple pleasures of life. Plus, having his own music studio helps kill the down days. Stab caught up with Creed to talk film projects, surfboards and why making headache music is so damn fun.

Stab: So, let’s start with today. What have you been up to?

I’ve been in West Oz for the last couple of weeks and we’ve been filming for the “Rage 3” movie. Just been doing that and catching up with friends and family. It’s been pretty good. I’ve been surfing heaps. Tom Jennings and quite a few of the lads have been helping us out. And Toby Cregan, he’s going to put it together. It’s slowly getting there. It should hopefully be out at the end of the year, but maybe next year. 

And the Creed Part in “Cult of Freedom” just dropped? 

Yeah, it turned out pretty sick. It took a while to get that one together, but yeah, it’s got some moments from around here in W.A. It’s nice working on a project and being able to hang around home kinda and take your time on it. Better to make it good than come out with some shit. 

Will you be getting on the road later this year or what’s coming up next?

I don’t know. I’ve been going to Indo a bit, but really been hanging at home a lot. Me and Noa have been playing music and jamming out a lot. The waves have been kind of shitty, so it gives you a lot of time to make music and fuck around in the studio. 

Might just do a little trip for “Rage 3” and put my two cents into the edit. It’s been a pretty busy year. I’ll probably get ready for some gigs over summer. I’m just kind of cruising for the tail end the year…catch up with family and stuff. Nothing planned really.

Photography

Jamie Scott

What about Wash, if you could play or tour with anybody who would it be? 

We haven’t really thought about it or talked about it. We just try and string a couple tours together when the waves are shitty. We’re just dabbling into the live music scene a bit, but not too much. It’s pretty easy to get carried away with it. Just been trying to focus more on making music. Then maybe we’ll do minimal runs of little, shitty shows. I just like playing with bands that I’m friends with or into. 

How did you learn to play, did you teach yourself?

Yeah, but I’m real bad. Making headache music’s pretty fun though. Just go caveman on it. 

How does the songwriting process go for you?

I just kind of dribble some stuff in a notebook every now and then. Then when I’m at home I’ve got a little studio with Noa, and I sort of jam out. Beau and Ellis, when they’re around we’ll play as a band. Beau plays drums and Ellis plays guitar, but they’ve been pretty busy over the last year, so I’ve just been playing with drum machines, and synths, and guitar, and bass, and sort of doing my thing.

Are you guys doing any recording?

Yeah, we’ve just been recording our own stuff. We got a little space now, which is cool, so we can just fire it up and not have to worry about pissing anyone off, which is good. It’s a nice little spot. We don’t really know what we’re doing, so it’s pretty funny.

Photography

Beren Hall

But that’s how you figure it out, right?

Yeah, that’s it. It’s heaps of fun. You just have to throw yourself in the deep end and see what happens. 

And I’m gonna go see KISS at the end of November, so I’m pretty excited about that. Me and Shaun Manners are gonna go with a few of the lads.

You gotta take advantage of those kind of shows when you can. KISS isn’t going to be playing and touring forever.

That’s it. I haven’t seen them before, but I’m so excited. I watch them so much on YouTube. 

Is KISS one of your go-to bands?

Yeah, it’s kind of a happy-place band for me. It just gets you in a good mood, I reckon. 

And you played with Iggy Pop a few years ago in Hawaii, do you have a sweet spot in your heart for that ‘70s metal and proto-punk era?

It seemed like a cool time. We were too late. It must have been so crazy to be alive at that time and turning on the radio and being flooded by heaps of shit. It would have been like, ‘Woah.’ All those new sounds. Woah! 

You seem to have been riding a lot of different boards lately. Tell us about them. 

Yeah, I’ve been riding heaps of different boards. Longboards and shortboards, just mixing it up. Been getting some boards from Rod Dahlberg, they’ve been going pretty good. 

Also been getting some Big Sky Limited boards. 

And been riding Matt Manners boards, they’ve been going pretty good too. I used to ride them when I was younger, and now, over the last year, I’ve been riding them heaps. 

Photography

Beren Hall

What about your dimensions, it looks like they’re jumping around?

Yeah, they’ve been jumping around quite a bit, but I’ve been riding this 6’1” Dahlberg a lot. His shaping is amazing. It’s so cool working with him because he’s a lot older than me and he’s just full of wisdom, shaping and surfing knowledge. It’s really cool. He’s a legend.

To be able to tap into that kind, as you said, wisdom, is pretty cool.

It is. It is. You just shut up and listen. It’s pretty good. In and out, through different times of surfing and different times in board shaping, and everything, it’s pretty crazy. Dahlberg’s been doing it for, I don’t know, 40 years or something, and he’s just got so much knowledge. 

He shapes in Angourie next to LSD, Luke Short. It’s a cool little hub with those guys and a few other local shapers from around that area. 

We have a zone like that here in San Clemente, they call it the Surfboard Ghetto.

I think I’ve been there once. I went with Tyler Warren. There’s a big warehouse where you can get all your materials there.

Yeah, and down street Timmy Patterson and Matt Biolos shape. There’s a whole bunch of guys making boards in that zone. 

Surfboard factories are so classic. There’s like porno posters in the toilets and shit, it’s so fun. You can’t let that stuff die out. That’d be a lot of the soul and heart of surfing. 

If you haven’t watch Cult of Freedom: The Creed Part! yet, do yourself a favor and push play.