Interview: The Cactus Channel describe their new direction & announce Australian tour

Melbourne group The Cactus Channel had their chance to showcase up at BIGSOUND this year, a great opportunity for the group to break in some new sounds and get a feel for the new direction they’ve embarked upon. Sitting down with Darvid, Lewis and Hudson, we get a little insight into how the group is approaching the release of their new album, Stay a While.

“Because you have this super quick set up and you’re not on stage until literally 20 minutes before you play, you have to make sure all your equipment is working otherwise you’re screwed.” the band says of performing at BIGSOUND. “In that sense, it’s not really a normal gig. Everything in the environment is completely different but the audience didn’t feel that different [compared] to a pub crowd, which was nice. That was a point of familiarity.”

Announcing their national tour today, the band describes the writing process behind their new album. With personnel changes affecting how the dynamic of the band fuses together, The Cactus Channel are enthusiastic about the next few months ahead, in the format they’re currently working in.

“We had our main writing session at the start of the year,” they explains. “We recorded what would be this new album about two or three months ago; we’re pretty excited to keep doing the same thing as it feels like we’re on this new path. We’ve only just started, but it already feels like the process is really strong and nice. It’s going to be fun to just keep doing it and work towards the next album or the thing thing, however we think it should be released.”

“This is our third album so in one sense, you expect it to be even more refined than the ones before, but because there’s a change up, there’s a development from the other two but it’s also quite separate. It feels like we’re starting again.”

“Everyone is contributing really strong ideas and is really committed as well.” they say of this new chapter of The Cactus Channel.

“It feels lighter having three less people arranging and three less sounds in the mix; it feels lighter and easier and like we can make it bigger or smaller in intention. For some reason, having those extra three players, it felt that it was inherently always going to be bigger in arrangement.”

With Stay a While due out in a matter of months now, focus turns to the tour that is due to follow weeks after the album’s release. The Cactus Channel will be performing through into December, charting dates up and down the east coast – a perfect opportunity for fans to catch them before the year is out.

“We’re going to start writing for the next release on that tour as well, a little bit. We’re going to take our time with it and just refine it a little bit more.”

Stay a While is released on November 3rd via HopeStreet Recordings.

THE CACTUS CHANNEL AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
Tickets are available via www.thecactuschannel.com 

Photo by Rhys Newling

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