With a recent change to their line-up – their singer no less – we chat to drummer Nathan Bobik about what this means for Nacional, what’s next, and being an up and coming band in Melbourne!
Hey Nathan, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today! First up, can you tell us a bit about Nacional?
Nacional is a new project that myself and Matt started a little under a year ago. We were in another band that had run its course and we were itching to start something new. It pretty much started on my balcony after a few too many vodkas an we just said fuck it, lets get into the studio and see what we come up with.
We had no specific genre in mind, we just thought we’d play around with some ideas and make sure that it was the kind of music that we really wanted to play. We worked for about a month straight getting together about 50 rough ideas and just took it from there. We got Dave on board pretty early in the mix as his influences were slightly different from ours and we thought that that could be a great mix.
We had pretty much only played a handful of shows and then we decided to part ways with our singer at the time. She had solo aspirations and we wanted something a little different aswell. So we decided to start fresh, scrap the current songs that we were playing and write again. Our new singer HJ really pushed us from the start and we’ve got a whole new bunch of songs that we’re really pumped to start getting out there.
It’s a pretty big change bringing on board a new singer – does it almost feel like a new band?
Yeah it feels like a completely new band, especially because we
decided as soon as we got HJ, we knew that the songs that we had didn’t
really fit anymore. We took everything of the myspace, got rid of the
old logos and what not, just started everything from scratch. She was
really a blessing in disguise as she’s had much more input into these
new tracks which is what we wanted and we now feel they’re all a true
representation of the four of us.
Where did the name come from? I understand there’s a UK band of the same name – does that cause any worries?
The name just came from us throwing a couple of ideas around and I remembered a place I went to a couple of times overseas and just remember it having this dark and dirty atmosphere. It seemed to be a perfect fit for the sound we were going for, so we stuck with it. We didn’t even know another band had that name, so I guess that if a problem arises, we’ll deal with it then…haha
You’ve got a show coming up on the 13th at Shake Some Action – what can we expect from the show?
Well for anyone that saw any of our old shows, they can expect something new and completely different. The sound is much darker and dirtier than it was before. It’ll be energetic and intense and probably not what most people will expect from us, which is a good thing.
Hopefully they don’t cut you off early! Last time I was at 161 they were cutting the bands sets short! I’ll allow this to be a segue way for – what are some of your favourite places to play in Melbourne?
There’s so many awesome venues out there at the moment. We love to play Revolver, The Evelyn, The Curtin, Espy, but Cherry Bar is probably our favourite venue to play, you just get such an awesome vibe as soon as you walk through the door.
Some say Melbourne is a hard place to get started for an up and coming band such as yourselves … what have your experiences been like?
I think that Melbourne is the best place to get started for an up and coming band. There’s so many venues out there and all you have to do is organise a line-up, show that you’re wanting to put on a great night and most places will welcome you with open arms. Of course you may not get a Friday or a Saturday to start with but you’ve always gotta be prepared to start at the bottom and work your way up. Every experience we’ve had in the past with venues has been a good one.
Who have been some of your favourite bands to play alongside?
These Patterns, Back Back Forward Punch & The JSB’s are awesome bands with very different styles but they are a lot of fun to take the stage with. The guys from Red Ink are awesome and we love We Are Fans who we’ve played with a couple of times before and are playing with them again at 161.
Looking wider into the world of music, who are the artists who inspire you – both personally as as a band?
Nine Inch Nails has personally been my biggest influence, just as far as how much Trent experiments with different sounds and new technology. Gary Numan, Siouxsie and the Banshees & Soulwax have also had a big influence on the way that we write. I know that Matt is a big Dead Weather fan but also comes from a DJ background so has a lot of dance influences. We try to take a mix of it all which can cause big arguments when we’re making new tracks but so far all those different influences have mixed well into creating our own sound, dirty pop on crack.
What shall the rest of 2010 bring for Nacional? An EP I hope?
We’ve just gotten together about 6 songs that we’re happy with and have just started recording our EP “Polyandry” at The Base Studios. It’ll probably take about another month to record everything and then we’ll get it mixed and hopefully have it out over the next 2 months.
Find out more about the band at their Official Website:
http://www.nacionalmusic.com/
