Brisbane electronic / trip-hop band Arundel are about to embark on their Spring 2014 East Coast Tour and Larry caught up with Lucas Arundell to talk about their music, what can be expected from their live set and their favourite music right now.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming tour?
We’ve had Simon (vocals) living in Europe for the last quarter of the year – and in that time the rest of us have been spending lots of time in the studio working on new songs. Now that Simon’s back, it’s really exciting to play again as a full band and also to perform some new songs on stage!
Any particular cities you’re looking forward to playing?
We’ve had some great experiences in Sydney and Melbourne, but I think Armidale is going to be exciting. The last time we played there we made friends with the guys in No Body Died (who we’re touring with) and felt a warm welcome from the people of Armidale. The town has a really genuine sense of support and respect for the fact that we were up there playing live music for them – something that’s not always felt as strongly in the cities.
For those who haven’t seen you before, what can we expect from a Arundel live show?
Over the past 18 months I’ve been really excited to transition Arundel from being essentially a solo show to a full 5-piece band. We’ve now got lots of fun electronic controllers plus live drum kit, bass, guitars, vocal effects and electronic drums. The Arundel band has evolved into a much more ‘human’ experience now as we’re all switching up instruments from song to song, and I’m loving not playing to backing tracks any more- it mean’s we’re allowed to use the computer, instead of the computer using us.
Mary, Simon and I all do vocals on different tracks, so it’s quite an eclectic set now. We’ve also got our visual show set up as well; which (to me) is an integral part to the ‘full shebang’ of the Arundel live show.
The tour is in support of your latest single “The Red Cape” – what can you tell us about the writing of the track? What’s the thematic inspiration behind it?
I’d always envisioned The Red Cape being about a super hero that wants to call it quits – the line “I don’t want to see you hanging up your cape yet” came to me quite early on and as I worked more on the track, I realised that the darker edges of the sound meant we needed to hear from the villain as well. Simon (vocals) and I used to live together when we played in a former band – and we’d often spend a lot of time watching and talking about films. I guess this influenced our writing together; we kept finding ourselves talking about lyrics as though they were a movie script and referring to ourselves as ‘characters’. I guess we’re not handsome enough to be on film, so instead we chose The Red Cape as an outlet to explore this idea of “What would the villain do if the hero called it quits?” It was quite a fun process; sitting on the back deck at my studio and brainstorming why a hero would even want to give up – and what effect would that have on the villain?
Like any good comic story; there’s always parallels between Good and Evil in every day life… and I found it particularly interesting looking at the relationship between the two; and how the villain and the hero kind of both need each other in order to keep going. Beyond ‘taking over’ and ‘saving’ the world, the conflict between Hero and Villain essentially gives them a sense of purpose… and that reflects my own aspirations in life too – that sense of purpose. Not so much ‘why am I here’, but more so ‘what am I going to make of the life I have?’.
There you go; I always find a way to make some kind of deep statement about something even as light-hearted as comics!
Talk us through the making of your latest EP Channels – did you record it all at once?
Like the previous two EPs (Naturestrip and Olive Caves), Channels represents a snapshot of the songs I’d been working on in the few years’ prior. I generally record ‘as I go’ with writing – so it was a gradual process. I managed to lease a house in Brisbane that used to be a Mastering studio – which worked out so well for me as it meant I could do most of the recording (and pre-mixing) at the home studio ‘Regent Station’.
I ended up using lots of different spaces around the place at Regent Station – recording the Violin and Cello parts for “Morning Sex & Headache” in the small lounge room outside the studio. There were definitely some odd moments thinking ‘why am I in the studio and the players are in the lounge room – with all it’s poor acoustic qualities?! ‘ – but in the end – you go with what gives you the sound you want, right? Right. Some of the vocals for Boat Song were recorded at Hunting Ground studios – engineered by Tang Oudomvilay. With that track particularly – I wanted a space for Simon to sing in an isolated room (compared to the control room at Regent). Boat Song has some personal significance to Sime – so I wanted to ensure he could have some space to himself to sing.
The overall idea with Channels was to put together music with a more ‘accessible’ sound and simpler structure. While the last two records were more experimental, genre-hopping and left some room for ambience… Channels was more about embracing the live-ness of the band and presenting a more cohesive sound.
From production / engineering – who did you work with on the record and what was the experience like?
Yanto Browning did the final mixing of Channels and Wiliam Bowden mastered it. The mixing process was quite quick; as I’d done a lot of the mixing and production already at Regent Station, I sent the stems to Yanto and pretty much said ‘here’s what I’m getting at, now I need your aural wizardry to make it sound better!’. I then came in for a session or two on each track and then we sent it to William for Mastering. It was really a pleasure to work with Yanto and Willy!
What happens to material that ends up on the “cutting room floor” so to speak?
Ohhhhhh there’s heaps of it! I’ve still got the hard drive I started making songs on from about 1999 – plus the little themes and motifs floating around my head – they all get kept in the library. It’s quite weird actually; I feel more like it’s the songs that get finished that end up on the ‘cutting room floor’ as my over-active mind tends to move on quickly from things that are ‘finished’.
The unfinished are still up on the shelf… Just sitting there waiting for me to look up from the comfy couch and think ‘ohh yeah! i’m going to work on that old idea today!’… That’s what I love about creativity (in any field) – your idea is always yours to play with; even if it’s forgotten for decades… it’s your own little creation.. like a half-finished bunk bed you decided to build 5 years ago – pick it up now, maybe it’ll become a small boat, or a desk? Or just use it for firewood… ahaha, yes.. some songs end up getting burned…
Who works on the visualizations we see during your sets?
We use a mixture of visuals; all produced by myself, Simon and the directors of the music videos we’ve done. In the early days I’d used a lot of my own footage; often shot on old crappy cameras… but it’s been great to get to include edits of the stunning videos we’ve done with Directors Jeff Andersen Jnr (“Chimpanzee”) and Jaymis Loveday (“Boat Song”).
Can you talk a little bit about how that collaboration works – how do you decide on the visual interaction between the track and the on stage video?
Many of the songs come together like little mini-films, so it feels only natural to have a visual idea in mind for them. As a performance tool – i’ve always involved the visuals as an accompaniment to the stage show. Back when I was solo, and at times even now, we’re not the kind of band to be posturing and jumping around so much – so the visuals kind of assist in helping the audience to lose themselves in the whole world of each song. We sometimes have a little jump though 😉
What’s coming up for you after this tour? More making of the music?
Definitely! Since Channels was released (and the band fully formed), we’ve been experimenting with writing together – which is a great new challenge for me. The Control Freak. ahah. There will definitely be some new music coming out in the new couple of months.
I’m also starting to compose some Orchestral works – which will involve writing some arrangements of current and new pieces and performing with the band and a small ensemble of string, woodwind and brass players.
Who’s your favourite bands in Australia right now?
Motion Picture Actress – “NaturalGhost” – always with killer beats, samples and the right mix of badass-ery and texture.
https://soundcloud.com/tbit/naturalghost
Rolls Bayce – “Don’t Get Me Wrong” is on loop at home – the guitar and drum work reminds me of Led Zeppelin’s “Physical Graffiti”. Dean’s guitar stuff in both Hungry Kids and RB is always really cool.
Nonsemble – “Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi Live” My love for ‘contemporary bands that aren’t rock bands’ always directs me to these guys. This arrangement of Radiohead’s piece is beautiful!
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Don’t miss Arundel on tour – kicking off today! Dates are here:
10 October – Currumbin Creek Tavern, Gold Coast
11 October – The Bearded Lady, Brisbane
16 October – The Armidale Club, Armidale
17 October – Rad, Wollongong
18 October – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
9 November – Boney, Melbourne
