All The Colours

We finished our 3rd record recently and we have been releasing singles from it all year. We will put the full record out 2020 but while we are waiting we have actually started writing album number 4 cos we can’t help ourselves, gotta have the nek one ready even before number 3 is even out! I’m kinda a bit of a psycho when it comes to momentum and songwriting, I never want to stop. We also just started a monthly club night in Melbourne to showcase our label Repent Repeat and our friends bands and DJ buds. I’ve also been working on my own 3rd solo record and was recently at Dhani Harrison’s (son of George) studio in England working on a record with a good friend of mine, lots of projects going on!

Josh Mann had written the song on acoustic guitar and it was a lot more ballady as is always the way with Josh Mann when he writes. We were on a writing trip away in country Victoria making demos for the new record sitting around one night and Josh started playing it on the acoustic and both Jono and I critiqued it and shaped it into a song in it’s basic form. From there I took the chords and melodies and made my own demo version of it in Ableton adding all the heavy guitars and drums etc, then after that we took my demo version into the rehearsal room and played it with that new steez and voila!

We recorded it in Hollywood at Vox Studios with Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear producing. He’s a total studio gun, he produced all those Grizzly Bear  records as well as records by the Dirty Projectors, Twin Shadow, Solange and a whole bunch of others. I’ve known Chris for years and he moved to LA around the same time I did so we were hanging out a bunch, shooting the shit talking music and I played him some of the demo’s and told him what we were wanting to do and he just said ‘that sounds great, I’d be keen to work on that with ya!’. I hadn’t really planned on asking him, I’d obviously always wanted to make a record with him but I didn’t know he had such a deep love of heavy records, it was rad finding out he’s a total noise head and was into all the same bands growing up as we were.

We used all the vintage gear at Vox studios, that place in incredible! Everyone is making records there now, it’s starting to get quite the reputation, Arctic Monkeys did their latest album there, The Black Keys, Mini Mansions, heaps of peeps. They have a huge guitar and amp collection spanning decades and everything is in pristine condition, we just messed around a bunch the first few days finding the combinations of guitars and amps and pedals etc that gave us what we needed, it was such a joy. The engineer who works there Michael Harris is an absolute machine, we had a total dream team!

I always like to make draft copies of everything because I never want to be caught off guard in the studio. It’s like having a script, you don’t always have to use it but without one you can be shooting in the dark which can be expensive and frustrating. We took the demo versions into the studio and then just started replacing everything with the real shit, remove all the rhythm guitars and replace them with the three dimensional versions, remove the shitty bass I made at home and replace it with something huge and gritty and menacing. It was such a joy hearing it all come to life, kinda like taking a black and white picture and then colouring it in.

The 8th November show is one of our Repent Repeat label club nights but we wont be playing, just hosting and DJ’ing for that event. We will be playing the next one in Dec. We always try have a jam before hand to freshen up, if we can’t get a full band one in then Josh and I just run things with an acoustic and I play along on my bass without it being plugged in, it’s good to get your fingers wiggling and your voice hot before you do the real thing. Same situation as the draft copy I guess, do a dress rehearsal beforehand so any little kinks are ironed out but don’t blow your load, just get yourself fluffed.

I enjoy the repetition, having somewhere to be and a task to achieve every night, knowing you gotta put on the show no matter what and everything else throughout the day is in service to that. That sense of purpose actually really invigorates me. The rest of the music biz is so nebulous, you have no idea what your music is doing and who’s hearing it where and when and what feelings it is creating in people but when you play a show it is all there in front of you, I love it.

Pardon me? I’m ALLOWED to do things away from music?? I had no idea, I haven’t tried anything else in about 20 years..

Been getting back into Scott Walker, the man is a genius. Also been DJ’ing a lot so trying to find my fave top 40 songs that don’t make me wanna vomit. Juice by Lizzo is a massive jam, Bruno Mars is brilliant. I’ve been listening to a lot of old composers from the 50’s and 60s, I love those romantic and tropical vibe, Henry Mancini, Les Baxter, Martin Denny, check them out if you haven’t, it’s nostalgic in such a soothing way. Chelsea Wolfe is sick, her last record Hiss Spun is goth and heavy and doomy, she’s the real deal.

2019 we are gonna be running these monthly Repent Repeat club nights, I think we will also put out another single off the All The Colours record too. I’m, heading back to LA during November to finish up a few records I’m working on over there and then 2020 we will putting out the new All The Colours record and going hard playing shows and proving to everyone they should be paying attention to us! Our live show is getting heavier and tighter and we are feeling great about all the new songs live and where things are headed. Come to a gig, remember what live music is supposed to feel like, we got you.

Globe Alley where we are throwing our club nights! Burgers are delicious and they have vege/vegan options with all that fake meat bizzo, music is great and vibe is good, love it.