Cameras

Cameras is Fraser Harvey, Eleanor Dunlop, Ben Mason.

There’s no doubt that Cameras are one of the most talented bands to emerge from Sydney, let alone Australia, in the past few years. Their highly anticipated debut album In Your Room was released last week and lived up to its promises, take a listen to Defeatist or Polarize and you’ll see what I mean. Cameras have arrived back in Australia after a successful string of American shows for their In Your Room tour and were happy to answer some questions that were on our mind.  



It’s a simple question but one that’s worth asking – what is it about making music that gets you every time? Making music is an escape, and everybody like a good escape in some form or another. The process of creating can be very rewarding.

Defeatist is one of the most moving displays of climax and sits alongside others on the record of the same nature, how do you go about creating tension within a song? Is it ever difficult? Creating tension in a song is not something we find difficult to do. We naturally head that way because that is what is attractive to our ears, and it just makes sense to us. For me it’s probably the most necessary thing I want from music, both creatively and as a listener. Anything else tends to just be twee crap that meanders too much.

We loved the film clip for Defeatist, what was the thinking behind the concept? This was all Jens Hertzum, and his ideas. The storyline was devised in his mind while he listened to our songs Defeatist and Polarise, as they were the double A sides being released in the US. There is a different version of this video cut to Polarise floating about somewhere…

What’s it like being a ‘manimal’?  At first we thought this had something to do with the tendency of indie film clips to feature men with animal masks until we realized it was an American record label… Manimal are an amazing label. They’ve done some amazing bands and artists who we love like Warpaint and Bat For Lashes, and is run by one of the best people I’ve met, Paul Beahan. He really is a dude. It’s a nice feeling to have that level of belief by someone in what you are doing.

What was the best thing about your recent tour in America? Which city do you guys think has the better scene, NYC or LA? The best thing? This is tough. America is an amazing country. There is an enthusiasm and positive outlook from people over there that exceeds anywhere else I’ve been. That and a little place called The Apple Pan. In terms of scene, I guess we spent more time in NYC so we were able to grasp that a bit better, and as a city I think it was a place we all loved right from the first minute. LA was not without it’s charms though, we met a lot of great people there, and that is where Manimal is based.

Just for fun, if you could take to the stage with any artists (alive or dead) who would they happen to be? James Brown and Tom Waits. At the same time.

Snap In Your Room from any reliable music store/ Itunes.

Enola Fall

Amongst other things we were lucky enough to have a chat with Enola Fall frontman Joe Nuttall about their recent release, I am an Aerial.

Perhaps it takes a dark night, a shot of something strong and certain stillness to contemplate the overwhelming entirety of our universe. Otherwise, you could listen to Enola Fall’s I am an Aerial.

Listening to Joe describe what became the catalyst for the record, the Hubble Deep Field, it is immediately apparent that this was an image he found immensely inspiring.

The telescope, directed into what was assumed a vacant patch of sky revealed hundreds and hundreds of unknown galaxies. Joe goes further, “there’s a radio telescope down the road in Hobart and we tied the two things together and it worked pretty well.”

This can be said of the entire record, as the aerial is pervasive in Enola Fall’s album art, lyrics and sound.

“There seems something slightly arrogant about using the depth and breadth of the universe as a metaphor for your own relationship problems seems a bit strange… It's not so much a metaphor as it is comparing and contrasting the two things.”

In terms of sound the band was inspired by the almost static, white noise of the telescope’s control center. As Joe relates, "we decided to tie the record together with loops of guitar noise that sounds like static… It’s just an echo and you make a load of feedback and guitar stuff with it.”

Like their hometown of Hobart, Tasmania, it’s evident that there’s something decidedly unique about Enola Fall’s sound. A certain edge possessed by bands like Battles. As frontman Joe Nuttall relates, “it’s to completely confounds expectation but in a way that is still accessible.”

This then is something only achieved after what I would imagine, felt like a period of hibernation, “when you write you go very much on gut instinct it’s not a conscious thing, you’ll be playing and improving and it goes on for hours…you go for this chord but your gut says no.”

“You have to try quite hard to get out of these traps that the music sets for you.”

 
It goes without saying that Enola Fall has been successful at evasion. The EP marks the first of three releases the band will have with Creative Vibes, each having a decidedly unique concept and sound. I had always been intrigued as to why the band chose this approach over a full-length album. As Joe explains,

“Partly pragmatic – it’s a lot cheaper to make an EP so you don’t blow all your money on one release but also artistic because we wanted to make three slightly distinct things.”

Whilst pragmatics always prove tough for independent bands like Enola Fall they managed to see their way through an extensive tour earlier this year. As Joe confesses, “It nearly killed us, we ran out of money about half way along and so we all lost masses of weight and kind of just ate toast for a week. Kind of doing a tour beyond our means, fuck it that’s part of being in a band.”

On the other hand there’s something rewarding about playing a gig to six hundred people, half of whom are shouting along the chorus to your songs. “Some of the gigs we’re amazing, we played a gig at the Roundhouse and that was just incredible.”

Amidst efforts to establish a strong grassroots following at home in Australia Nuttal admits that branching into an International market would be something to set their sights on,

“It’s always a good idea, especially the states – there’s such a huge market over there, getting over there is hard but you know if you can get over there and play and support and do festivals. But we’re already being spun on a lot of radio in the US, so it’s only a matter of time.”

Grab I am an Aerial from any reliable music store/ on Itunes (previews too!)