Larry recently caught up with local band The Owls to chat about life as a band, a possible upcoming album and the Newcastle music scene.
You’ve been together since 2008 – how have you developed as a band musically since then?
We started as an acoustic three-piece, so quite a bit. A lot of people would look at the evolution of something like that to the rock we do now as a chore – but it isn’t. In fact our style is where it’s at because of taking the long road around. These days there’s more electric guitars though. Bigger, creepier sounds too.
What have you learnt in that period?
Keep true to your live performances when recording, and keep it democratic when writing.
Do you all originally come from a rock background?
Yeah for the most part. Everyone had played in some form of rock band at one stage or another, but we’d all done a lot of different stuff musically too, and that helps with the creativity.
You have comparisons to Queens of the Stone Age and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Are these bands influences for you?
Great bands, and yeah we love ’em, but they’re a part of a fairly diverse list of music that we’re listening to at the moment.
Would one of these bands be a dream support slot for you or would you have someone else in mind?
Either or both at the same show would be just fine with us. It’s funny, this is actually a hot topic whenever the band is on the road. Bowie, Zeppelin, Radiohead, Louis XIV – anyone who we admire really who tried to change what was already there.
Any particular Australian band perhaps?
We’ve been lucky enough to support The Living End, Gyroscope and The Basics and they were all on the list. Nick Cave would be a bit of a treat, we don’t mind The Sugar Army either.
In the past a lot of Newcastle rock bands have had to deal with being compared to The Screaming Jets or Silverchair. These times seem to have now passed, do you feel the new era of Newcastle bands are now free to storm the stages for themselves now without these pressures?
There’s a scene here that was going before those bands and it will continue long after them too. The Jets and Silverchair will always be a goal to aspire to as far as commercial and creative success, but that’s not a Newcastle thing that’s the goal of any hopeful outfit. Ask most bands and they’ll tell you that if you aren’t singularly focused with what you as a group are doing then it’ll fall to bits – the Chair and the Jets knew it was all a one-horse race if you’re going to have a go at it and I reckon most Newcastle bands would know that too.
Do you think the Newcastle scene is strong at the moment?
There are a lot of bands doing a lot of different things, but it’s musical Darwinism these days. A lot of venues have closed down over the years so now there are places you can play music – and then there’s places you want to play music, and because of this the quality has gone up and up.
You are heading up the east coast in the coming month… Are you playing anywhere for the first time?
Yeah, it will be our first time in Brisbane. Stoked. Everywhere we’ve been has done things a little different musically, and so there is a bit of excitement rocking up to somewhere new and seeing how they do it. Canberra is on the list too and so are a few others up north. We are totally amped to show our wares somewhere new.
Your EP was quite raved about in most circles… how did you feel the reaction went?
It opened a lot of doors for us, and we’re now working pretty hard to keep ’em open. The EP was an interesting time for us as we were refining everything, and our drummer Wez had just come on board – so you can hear all of that in the recordings. We just hope our subsequent releases get the same kind of love, and that the people that dug the first release will be able to listen to us now and be happy with what they’re hearing. We’re stoked people responded the way they did.
Where do we sit in regards to getting a full length out of you? When are we going to hear some new tunes?
Well we’ve been writing a hell of a lot recently, for both ourselves and for other projects too. You’ll be hearing all of that over the next six months. As for the next songs, we’ll be releasing four new tracks over this year – and on each single we’ll be adding a mix of both classic Owls tunes and unreleased B-sides – more bang for your buck!
Is there anything you weren’t able to accomplish on the EP that you’re looking forward to making happen for the full length (or have done already, we just haven’t heard it yet!)?
We want a no bullshit release that presents what we do live. At present, we’ve been doing a bit of recording at BJB studios with Tony Buchen and we’re generally happy with how all of that has been going – but we like to keep moving forward. We record a lot ourselves now, and it’s this new DIY stuff that is showing some serious creative direction and reflecting where we as a band want to be. You’ll be getting a lot of this stuff soon!
What can expect from your material in the future?
Energy and grit.
What other plans does the band have for the near future?
Keep an eye out for a little project called TSS. We can’t go into too much detail but it’s a project that we’re all very excited about at Owls HQ. People can keep up with the goss at www.theowlsonline.com
