These days, you have to plan ahead if you want to get anywhere - something Canberrans Fun Machine have been practsing for a while.
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The band is pragmatic about how they run their group, drummer Bec Taylor says.
''We have regular band meetings and we wrote down our goals at the beginning of the year. And one of them was 'Do a major support with a huge international or big Australian band.' ''
Ticking that off their list when they supported glam-rock stars the Darkness earlier this year, this left receiving national radio play as the next big thing to achieve.
Fun Machine hit that high note as well, with their latest single Ready for the Fight receiving a good deal of air time on Triple J.
''That was very exciting, watching and listening,'' Taylor says.
Ready for the Fight is a unique track, playful and sparse, with its drumbeat created by hitting and kicking a ute, sampling the sounds then putting that into a track. And it is getting picked up all around the country.
''It's exciting,'' Taylor says. ''The Canberra music scene is so supportive, so it's great to be sharing it with everyone else.''
Taylor puts playing on the main stage at Foreshore festival last year as one of the band's biggest career highlights. Their performance was made all the more sweet because they were warming up the crowd for that special producer, Calvin Harris.
''It was really really fun dancing on stage in our costumes, with Calvin Harris in the wings ready to set up after our set,'' she says.
Fun Machine seem to be a band that collects lots of interesting stories. Such as the time that they snuck into Australian National University's Llewellyn Hall to record a piano part. Producer Sam King had suggested getting a big piano because the bass on the song was heavy.
''We couldn't get one and we asked the School of Music a number of times. 'Can we book a piano?' And they were like, 'No chance in hell, this place is chaos,' you know, because of the recent cuts.''
In the end the band got what they were after. They managed to sneak in using iPhone torches to light their way in a pitch-black hallway, played the required piano part and got out of there as quickly as they could. Fun Machine are a quirky group and Taylor agrees that there is a fine balance to be had between going a bit crazy and making music to which other people will enjoy listening.
''We have a firm belief that we try not to do what a lot of other people are doing,'' Taylor says.
This means that the three-piece really free themselves up in the performance arena, not just the musical one.
''We are trying to break out of the mold of wearing skinny jeans and button-up shirts. We're trying to push boundaries in the performance aspect.
''During our shows, we like to make entertainment, not just music [for] looking at your shoes.
''We kind of have a policy, even if there is no audience; we still have to entertain the one person that is in the room.''
Fun Machine
WITH: Mustard Courage, Trendoid and Alphabet
WHEN: Friday, July 6
WHERE: The Polish White Eagle Club
TICKETS: $10 at the door
■ Arne Sjostedt is a music writer, former drummer and avid tunes fan