STACK December 2016 Issue No. 146

84 / 121

visit
10 DECEMBER 2016
MUSIC NEWS
Vinyl, vinyl, glorious vinyl/
There's nothing quite like it for
tapping the spinal. This issue
Our Michael has written about the
brand new vinyl reissues from two
seminal local acts – Cold Chisel and
Crowded House – for your edification.
We also grabbed some time with
SIXX:AM's Nikki Sixx, the wondrous
Haley Bonar, and Briggs and Trials of
frankly outstanding rap group A.B.
Original (don't forget to head online
to see the full interview). Merry
Christmas dolls!
Zoë Radas (Music Editor)
A.B. ORIGINAL
YOU ME
AT SIX
Q1/ Black Bird Studios in Nashville has an
incredible pedigree around it – what did you think
of the space?
Blackbird Studios is up there as one of the best
studios in the world. I think it comes across in the
recordings; for the first time ever we recorded the album
pretty much live, playing all together, to really get that
real/natural groove. For us, that will be something we
will always remember and take away with us.
Q2/ Cavalier Youth did exceptionally well in
2014, hitting tons of Best Of lists. Have you made a
deliberate effort to try something different, or have
you built on its strongest parts?
I wouldn't say we deliberately tried to move away
from that sound, but we knew we wanted to push
our writing skills to a new place that kept it exciting.
You can hear it in songs like Night People; [there’s] an
undercurrent of electronic instruments that fill out the
sound and keep the pace going. Whenever you record
an album you take tricks with you that you have learnt
along the way, but you also learn new ways of playing/
performing/writing. Our mission statement when we first
started writing this record was that we wanted the music
to groove more, so we spent a lot of time on strumming
patterns and drum beats that would make your head tick
straight away when you're listening to the song.
Q3/ The footage from your European dates looks
absolutely mental, with quite an elaborate set-up.
Who gets to come up with these live show ideas?
It's been great getting back out here again playing
shows for the first time in over two years for some of
the places we have been. We try and build crazy ideas
between us all and our lighting designer; we throw
everything we are thinking of into a pile and start piecing
things out little by little. We are really going into the
production side for our live shows more than ever before,
because we want to create really special memories for
our fans on this album.
Haley Bonar
Chatting with A.B. Original's Briggs and Trials
is a hoot from soup to nuts. These two
musicians are very close buds and love to josh
(including at myself), and it’s as lively as their
passion for the messages their extraordinary
debut album Reclaim Australia is broadcasting.
In the G-funk jam The Feast (featuring
Compton rapper King T), little jokes and mouth-
made sound effects are littered around a la
classic Eminem, while during Firing Squad’s
verse about how you’ll end up eating with the
rats if you hit the pipe in Bali the background
interjections include “What’s up Luigi?” and a
smooth, sarcastic “YUM.”
“Really early on, we wanted to
capture what we were doing in the
studio,” Trials says. “A lot of people
can overcook a song or make it too
professional; we wanted to capture
the energy. Even though we’re
talking about some real dark sh-t at
times, we wanted to capture the…
jovial bullsh-t that is me and Briggs
just hanging out with each other. Some of
the themes are so difficult for people to
digest on first listen; it was important for us
to make them feel like they’re in the studio
with us and they’re sharing the joke, they’re
sharing the experience. So all those bits
weren’t planned. It was more of a, ‘That’s
f-cking hilarous’. Even the album title’s like –
‘That’s f-cking hilarious. Let’s do that.’”
The themes are difficult, but that’s
the point: A.B. Original’s music doesn’t
pussy-foot anywhere. It’s proud, unafraid,
combative, but also inclusive. Intro features
Archie Roach giving his thoughts on
the album, which Trials describes
as "a trip." "That’s the dude that
opened up a lot of these doors in
contemporary Australian music, to
be able to include black stories," he
says. "He was amongst it. To hear
him say it reminds him of the old
days? We wanted to capture the
passion we had for the music, and
that’s what we felt we were doing,
and that’s what we were aiming for.”
“I think as soon as Archie gave us
the nod, it was like okay, regardless
of the genre he could feel the
passion, the energy in what we were trying
to do – the same things that we felt from his
records,” says Briggs. “And also,” Trials adds,
”If we get a bad review, we can say ‘F-ck you
– Archie likes it.’”
English melodic rock five-piece You Me
At Six will soon release their fifth album
Night People. We shot some questions to
rhythm guitarist Max Helyer.
Night People by You Me
At Six is out January 13 via
Liberator.
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
Reclaim
Australia by
A.B. Original
is out now via
Golden Era/
Universal.
Read the whole interview online at