You might not recognise the name Andrew Kornweibel but throw around the tag ‘Friendly’ and fans will immediately recall one of the country’s most respected breaks’ producers and DJs. Andrew first landed on the local scene as Friendly via his debut album, Hello Bellybutton, which landed him a ARIA nomination as well as a contract with the newly established Australian arm of Zomba Records. As Zomba’s first signing, Friendly hit the airwaves via a string of successful singles, with album number two, Akimbo, released in June 2000. Who doesn’t remember the Triple J hit “I Love You But…” or “Some Kind Of Love Song”? (Which featured Sia Furler of Zero 7 fame, if you recall.)

With Triple J all over his music, Friendly found himself in the station’s Hottest 100 list for two years running, Akimbo having debuted at #22 on the ARIA Album Chart – making it the highest charting local electronic act up to then. In between all that radio and chart success the Friendly machine spent months criss-crossing the nation, headlining his own shows as well as playing with the likes of Stereolab, The Avalanches, Infusion, 1200 Techniques and Regurgitator, not to mention slots at dance parties and major festivals such as the Falls Festival, Livid, Homebake and the Big Day Out (where new fan/Prodigy drummer Keiron Pepper also took to their stage). Beefing up the Friendly live experience were various vocalists, a turntablist, a bass player plus Andrew on vocals, keyboard, effects – basically, general mayhem.

Heading to London in late 2001 for a few months, Andrew set up a studio and divided headfirst into the UK breakbeat scene. Returning home he ditched his live line-up, broke with Zomba and relocated permanently to London. Since then, in between DJ’ing at various nights and residencies at clubs (such as Chew The Fat! in Brixton, Bar Vinyl, the Bug Bar, and the Retreat, where he has his own night titled The Caper), Andrew’s released several 12” singles on highly regarded labels such as TCR, Boombox Records and Fat Records, as well as having also remixed a swag of artists. His bootleg of “LFO” has been praised by everyone from Plump DJs and Soul Of Man to Rennie Pilgrem, UNKLE and Adam Freeland.

Mid-September in 2003 will see the release of 10 Things You Need To Know About Friendly in the UK, a collection of recent 12”s, remixes and bootlegs. Determined not to miss the Aussie summer however, he’ll be back down under to tour – so keep an ear out.

Tourdates