Royston Vasie

 

We were lucky to have a little chat with the Melbourne four piece Royston Vasie about their latest single That's My Girl and their forthcoming debut album due early next year. I wrote this to their manager Dave a few days ago, "think you have a pretty talented band on your hands. Can't wait to see where they go in the future." 

These days there are so many brands of rock out there whether it’s the vaguely named low fi, indie, and alternative. What attracts you guys to the good, old version? If we can call it that…The band has always been about writing songs that we love. One thing that plays into our favour when writing songs is the fact that all four band members have a different yet broad taste in music. This means that we never really know what ‘brand’ of rock our songs are going to turn out to be. Our new stuff has certainly taken on a garage rock sound which doesn’t come as much of a surprise given our love of music from that era.

That’s My Girl has to be one of our favourite songs at the moment and we can’t help but be a little curious for the rest of the record – do we find out if he ever gets her back? Unfortunately the girl turned out to be a grown man in disguise. His name is Jim and he’s become a close friend of the band. Jim, if you’re reading this, we hope you’re well.

Does the entire album share the same raw energy of That's My Girl or are there moments when things are toned down a notch? That’s My Girl is definitely all about the raw energy and it is unquestionably one of our favourite songs to play. The album will without doubt bring more of this intensity but be prepared for the wall of sound that has recently been added to the Royston Vasie repertoire.

It must have been pretty satisfying to finish recording your debut LP, what was the best part? It’s been a few years in the making so we’re hanging to release this bunch of tunes. There’s nothing more satisfying than coming up with new material that we all feel passionate about. Fortunately that’s been a common occurrence throughout the album’s writing process. Recording the album with ol’ pals Finn and Craig at Hothouse in Melbourne was awesome fun. They’re the kings of youtube! Their selection of guitars is alright too…

Are you guys excited for the upcoming tour with Papa vs. Pretty) and the Vasco Era? Anything in particular planned you might want to let us in on? We’re totally pumped! Our shows are pretty unpredictable so anything could happen in the next couple of weeks… We’re just looking forward to being involved with two great bands as they’re doing some amazing things for Aussie music.

Just for fun, if you could take to the stage with any artists (alive or dead) who would they be? To take the stage at Waynestock, Aurora! Not just a place, but a state of mind.

That's My Girl by Royston Vasie

We'll keep you up to date on when Royston Vasie's debut drops and if you feel like checking them out with the Vasco Era and Papa vs Pretty before then (yeah you do) the dates are here. 

Papa vs Pretty

Papa vs. Pretty is Tom Myers, Angus Gardiner, Thomas RawleWe talk to Papa vs Pretty about their debut album United in Isolation. For once I don’t have a great deal to say (as surprising as that may sound). Although rest assured it’s for good reason.

Over the past few years Papa vs. Pretty, consisting of Thomas Rawle (vocals, guitar) Angus Gardiner (bass) and Tom Myers (rhythm) have done well for themselves – needless to say it’s been well deserved.

 Rawle is talented. He strikes me as the kind of guy that has a million ideas floating through his head at any one time and all those pent up thoughts seem to flow through his sound. In the end the music speaks for itself. It’s frustrated, brooding and delightfully schizophrenic.

1. What has been the best thing about producing United in Isolation?

Doing EPs is fun and you get to make a statement I guess but when you do your first record, it’s a much larger statement. I've always been obsessed by musical atmospheres. You know when you listen to a record and when you put it on it installs its own geometry and space in your head, like another world you can go to. I guess that’s a bit of a tangent but I really want to be able to do that and this album for us has been our first step towards trying to get to that I guess.

It's also great to have something out there that you can stand by and say, ‘yep, I think I’m proud of that record’! I’m not totally satisfied but I never will be, I’m already thinking and writing for the next record….

2. Tied together by the album title, many of the songs seem to come from a dark place. Did you know this was the way the record would take shape when you first started writing?

Not totally, I mean I think I write mostly from a place of frustration, you know when you take a walk outside and you can be totally overwhelmed by everything? I guess half the time I have this frustration where I don't think everyone is as overwhelmed as I am about it, so I vent that frustration in writing. I also do a lot of people watching, spent most of my life doing that, I’m pretty paranoid most of the time too I think, so maybe that’s where it came from.

3. What I love most about your music is the juxtaposition between soft and heavy sounds, the element of the unexpected. Do you enjoy the experimental side of things?

Thank you! I love procedure, I like going through a whole lot of effort, to get one sound. It’s a bit like you can write a different song if you pick up a different guitar …it’s like the instrument wills you to certain chords just by the way it sits in your hands. It’s a very delicate thing, but I love making more atmospheric sounds by means of procedure.

For example at the start of Charity Case, the soundscape song at the start is made by me singing vocal lines put into a loop pedal, sped up, then reversed, then layered with a juno synth, then when that loop was created, I created another loop (similar in texture, differing in notes) and fed the loops into each loop pedal which carried the reverb of the first loop over - it made this really strange transitional glitch. I guess that’s an example of finding sounds via procedure.

4. Would you be able to tell us a little about the thinking behind the striking album art?

The painting, "Mona Bear" is by Dirk Larsen, he is a truly amazing artist I believe. I had been a fan of the painting and his work for a long time and just got the guts to ask him if he would like us to use the work for the album cover, we sent him some music and he agreed!

I’m still amazed by it, I reckon whilst it does look a bit strange compared to a lot of album covers about nowadays, I truly believe it has a very strange presence about it, a bit of a misfit, I thought it fitted the album title too. I just like it, which is the way it should be right? 

5. How has the tour been going, any stand out gigs so far?

The tour has been amazing, we haven't done a tour this large yet so it feels sort of surreal so far, especially that most of the shows have been sold out. As I answer this we've played Melbourne, Sydney (both which sold out) and Newcastle which was pretty close too. It was surreal, people were singing along and jumping about, really has felt great, I don't think it has truly hit me yet though that people care enough to come out. Brisbane is tomorrow and is looking as if it will sell out so exciting times I guess!

6. If Papa vs. Pretty could take to the stage with any artists, alive or dead, who would they be?

Elliott Smith
Jeff Buckley
Jimi Hendrix
Big Star
Dinosaur Jr
Radiohead
Johnny Cash
Bright Eyes
Aphex Twin

the list is probably too long !

You can buy United in Isolation from JB HI FI or any other reliable music store & on Itunes. Trust me, you won't regret it! x

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!)