Band competition The Big Splash has narrowed its field from 40 to the final 4, and in the lead-up to Saturday’s grand final we’ll be offering a little primer on. First up is Pat Chow: a sleazy no frills garage […]
Archive for the ‘Interviews’ Category
The Big Splash Primer: Pat Chow
Wednesday, August 6th, 2014Interview: sleepmakeswaves
Tuesday, August 5th, 2014
There’s this long-running cliche that post-rock bands are all the same – that they’re little more than Explosions in the Sky ripoffs using delay pedals and tremolo picking and the loud/quiet dynamic as a crutch to disguise a lack of […]
Interview: Panic! At The Disco
Tuesday, February 25th, 2014
It’s hard to believe Panic! at the Disco released their first record almost a decade ago. Nine years and three records later, the theatrical pop outfit return to Australia for another stint at Soundwave. Frontman Brendon Urie speaks with Rich […]
Interview: Adam Carson of AFI
Sunday, February 16th, 2014
After nine studio albums, AFI are well versed in translating into emotion into their trademark blend of darkness and melody. Jess Tucker speaks with drummer Adam Carson about Soundwave, wikiHows and the new album Burials. Your latest album Burials has quite a dark title […]
Interview: Paper Mountain
Thursday, November 28th, 2013
Interview by Rich Moore. Back in October, Paper Mountain saw their new open workshop project the Common Room finally funded. With just a few days left before the Launch, we talked gigs, Perth artists and illegal casinos with Ashleigh Whyte […]
Interview: Cave
Friday, November 22nd, 2013Chicago band CAVE play a fantastic kraut-influenced rock. Their new record, Threace continues a fine tradition of expansive, riff-fueled jams where repetition gives way to hypnotism. Jack Midalia had a chat to Cooper Crain from the band ahead of their upcoming Australian tour.
Are you in Chicago at the moment?
I am. I’m in a studio in Chicago working on some sound design for a film at the moment.
How’s that going?
It’s a film that has a lot of underwater microphone sounds… so I’m having a great time.
I get that to some extent with your music. Not the underwater part, but the cinematic elements, which I guess is fairly common with a lot of instrumental music. Do you ever approach songwriting or recording with that cinematic mindset?
Personally I do with another group I’m in, but with Cave I think we have worked on a couple of projects before where we have been forced to think like that, but for the most part we don’t really think about a theme or a situation that much while we make songs.
How do you tend to approach the recording and writing process, and was it different for Threace than it was in the past?
Every record is kind of thought about the same way where we get to a point where we feel we can go in and do some songs and an album will come out, but with this one we went in and out a lot and experimented more with mic placement and with different rooms. There were some days where we didn’t have a song or a riff in mind and it was more a sound in the room from the amps and the mics and we wrote out of that. This one was very much different in that it was more experimental while we were recording. And it was recorded over a six month period of time. We definitely attempt to work out as much as we can before, but being in the studio always helps us hear back what’s being played. It helps us arrange the parts in a finalised way, and I think this was the first time we’ve really utilised a studio to its full potential.
Does that mean there was a lot of material that got cut down?
It’s not necessarily a part that we took out altogether, it’s more like “this should go longer” or “this should go not as long”. But there were definitely three or four jams that we didn’t do anything with that I haven’t heard since that day. There’s a lot of cutting the fat — everything that’s there is meant to be there. To the four guys in CAVE, it makes sense… hopefully everyone else also feels the same way.
Are you happy with how it has been received so far?
Oh yeah, I’m really happy. I got really involved and inside of it. At one point I was like “I don’t even think this is good” but I had a lot of time away. Right when I got the copy on vinyl when we were on tour… I put it on at home and I was very, very happy. I don’t know if it’s the best, but in my mind I’m very happy with the outcome and the sound and I think it’s one of the best things that we’ve done as a band.
What were you guys listening to when you wrote and recorded Threace. Are you the sort of band that consciously or unconsciously takes on a bit of what you’re listening to?
Yeah, I think most times it’s an unconscious thing where a song might sound a certain way and it might lead in a certain direction. Like, everyone always says we probably just want to sound like Neu! all the time, but honestly I don’t own a Neu! album… I think they’re good, but I think things just happen the same way — that song of theirs might have sounded that way because of their experiences many years before us. I think the most influence that I brought to the table in a conscious way on this record was how it was conceived and edited. I wanted to do a lot of loose structure stuff along with the songs that was in the same kind of sound and then I could edit it all up. That was kind of influenced by this man, Tao Macero, who was Miles Davis’ producer during his electric years. I think nobody was trying to rip off exactly what was going on, but just that idea was probably the most conscious inspiration of this album.
You mentioned before that the record is very concise. When you play it live, do you tend to expand things out again, or is a stick-to-the-script type thing?
It varies on the song. Some are very song-oriented and that’s how we attempt to do it live. Some are very loose and what you heard on the album might have been the first time we attempted it.
This is your first time in Australia, right?
Yes, this will be our very first time.
Do you have anything you’re looking forward to doing besides playing music?
I would love to just see a little bit of every town. I’m hoping we have the time, but I’m not sure we will because there’s a show every day. Hopefully I’ll have time every day in every town to walk around a little bit. I probably won’t get much sleep, because I always like to meet people and hang out. And if anyone is like “we’re going to go here, let’s hang out”, I’m just going to say “yes”, because we don’t have much time. I think I will come home very sick.
Interview: Fabulous Diamonds
Friday, October 4th, 2013Fabulous Diamonds last record, Commercial Music, is (to put it simply) brilliant. In the lead up to their journey to Perth to play Slanted and Enchanted, Jack Midalia caught up with Jarrod Zlatic for a chat…
Have your feelings for the record changed at all compared to when it came out?
No, I mean I was pretty happy with it when it came out. My main dissatisfaction was with some of the songs which I really don’t like. But I think the recording, the production by Mikey is really good, and I’m happy with my arrangements and everything. I haven’t actually really listened to it in a while. I might give it a listen in another five months time,… I’m happy with it, in short. Nothing’s really changed. I’m continuingly satisfied with the production.
I wanted to ask you about the production, because I was reading an interview where you were talking about the production and you were talking about how it was partly going along with what Mikey was doing, because it put you out of your comfort zone. That stood out to me because given how important I think the production is to your band, I’d assumed that it was the sort of thing that you went in with a big master plan of how things were going to sound.
For starters, I might have some ideas but it’s hard to explain what you want and then get someone to record it. I mean, that’s all dependent on what they’re able to do anyway, so when you record you always have to abandon some degree of control. And that’s fine. Initially, with some of the recording I was a bit “do I like this sound” and was then like “oh, it sounds good, I’ll go with it”.
There’s that, but it can go either way. Even though you give up some control, I might not be calling the shots but I made all the mixing decisions and the arrangements… I guess you kind of work collaboratively because they’re kind of like the technician.
Commercial Music is obviously a much more “polished” record compared to your previous records. How have you found adapting that to a live setting?
They’re two completely different things. They’re kind of unrelated to each other actually. Those songs, when we recorded them part of the thing about recording them was as much to do an album as it was to finally lay them down just because we don’t really play many songs off the album. So we didn’t really have to have any considerations about how we arranged it. It’s a chance to provide a definitive recording of them and then we move on. We don’t really have those concerns as such.
How often do you guys play live?
Oh, never. Apart from when we went to Europe this year, we did one show in Adelaide, we did one show for a friend’s album launch, we’re doing this show [Slanted and Enchanted] and we have one show booked, it’s our only headlining show, in December or late November in Melbourne. We don’t really do much too often.
I was reading something you said about the fact that you guys haven’t released many records considering you’ve been together for quite a while, and you were framing it as a craftsmanship thing in that a lot of bands just churn stuff out.
Yeah, it’s kinda like craftsmanship, but it’s also things like getting time together, we’re lazy, agreement. In some ways it would have been better to be more proactive. Especially given how fickle everything is and how everybody is, if you leave it that long between records you kind of get left by the wayside in a lot of respects.
How did your European tour go?
Yeah, really good. It’s really easy there. People look after you. We actually had some people come down to the shows, you get paid well, you get fed really well, people put you up half the time in really nice accommodation… it’s breezy.
I’m always interested in the role of ambition in bands. And by that, I don’t mean in a “we’re going to take over the world” sense, but more in terms of drive and…
Yeah, we’re a low-ambition band, unfortunately.
But in terms of having an overall plan it’s just kind of take things as they come?
Yeah, there’s definitely no Maoist Five Year Plan. We’ve been doing this for a long time, so the drive becomes different and changes over time. We were a lot more driven when we first started and now we’re involved with different things so there’s more of a backburner kinda thing going on… or like it’s a slow roast.
I think ambition is really important. I see other people’s bands going out and achieving things and it’s all down to your personal drive and ambition, which we’ve had in the past. But it’s a different type of drive and different type of ambition now.
What have your previous shows in Perth been like?
To be honest with you, Melbourne can be a struggle, Sydney is a wasteland for us, we don’t really bother going up there, nobody gives a shit there. We’ve always had promoters that have brought us out to Perth and looked after us, and we’ve always played with interesting bands and there have been people to come down to the show that care about us. I really like coming to Perth.
Interview: Statues
Monday, September 30th, 2013
In contrast to their name, local hardcore heavyweights STATUES have been anything but still over the last 18 months. Taking line-up changes and constant touring in their stride, they’re making themselves heard far beyond our modest skyline, so with their […]
Interview: Mantra
Monday, September 9th, 2013
Just before he drops his third album Telling Scenes, Melbourne rapper MANTRA talks to Nichola Gray about opening up his musical world, revolutionary songs and what’s to come for his headline tour. To help give the new record its own […]
Rebirth and The Catalyst Fire: An Interview with Dead Letter Circus
Thursday, August 29th, 2013
Interview by Chris Gardner. “You know when you first hear someone say something and you think ‘holy fuck, that’s what I believe in, and it goes against everything I’ve ever been told’? That’s The Catalyst Fire.” At least, that’s what […]
