STACK 132 October Issue

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year. “Yes, Poison City put out all
the re-issues of our albums and
stuff,” Link says, tracing back over
the timeline. “It’s really nice to
be noticed again.” Amongst that
chaotic guitar and drums there are
a few cool little percussive breaks
and odd sounds, the origins of
which Link can’t quite pin. “It was
a whole bunch of things, as far as
I remember,” he says. “We were
pretty sort of lubricated there,
so. There’s a few things we were
excited about and a few things
that have been canned. Some
vocal parts were just completely,
horribly cheesy. I think I threw
up in my mouth a bit when I
heard them later.” The ones
that made it are straight
heaven – particularly
on closer Punchin’ Air,
the title of which (just
to be clear) refers to a
moment of triumph, not
an aggressive swing that
failed to connect. “Yeah.
‘Don’t you forget about
me,’” Link confirms.
“Classic moment.”
Announced in the first round of artists for
December’s hallowed Meredith Music
Festival (Victoria), reserved singer-songwriter-
producer-pianist Julia Holter is finding her
filofax a little more crammed. Having said that,
Holter has lived and worked in LA for years,
making music with some of the best orchestral
and rock musicians the city offers. She opens
up when we begin talking about the various
keyboards which she used in the arrangements
and collaborations which went into the making
of this month’s release, Have You In My
Wilderness.
“I have two digital pianos, but on stage I just
use a Nord,” she explains. “On the Nord there’s
digital piano, and a synth, and there’s also an
organ. It’s all in one keyboard, which is good,
because I need to have them all – I’m covering
all the bases, I don’t have multiple keyboards
going on.” The instrument she’s playing in the
video for astonishing single Feel You is a virginal,
belonging to her boyfriend. “It sounds like a
harpsichord,” she says.
While Wilderness is a drifting skip through
literary allusions, Joanna Newsom-esque
punctuations of tone and the spectre of Allison
Goldfrapp, Holter carves out a little spot for
herself which seems to be about her solitude
and repose within a quickly flowing world. Simon
Winkler reviews the album on page 92.
visit NEWS MUSIC
Link Meanie is pretty sure
about where the decision
to release It’s Not Me, It’s
You came from. “Well, from
my end there was no effort,”
he says jovially. “I just think
Wally’s always been pushing
me to record all these old
demos that he’s had since
the early ‘90s, and I think I
just capitulated, finally.” If
that’s the way it went, he
certainly didn’t truckle easily
– it took a good couple of
decades to wear him down.
It’s not all old demos, though:
“There’s some recent songs
on there as well,” Link says.
“I’m really happy with it. I
didn’t go in there thinking it
was going to be that great;
I just thought it would be
a bit of fun to do, but it
turned out to be a pretty
cool record.” He’s being
humble; It’s Not Me, It’s
You is bloody stupendous,
full of the slap and biff of
smart chord changes and the
punky vocal delivery of Link
himself, and never forgoing
melody to sound meaner.
They don’t need to, because
this has been in their blood
since they got together in
the late ‘80s, all the way
through into the re-release
of their seminal albums last
julia holter HOLDS HER OWN
SILVERSUN
PICKUPS:
BRIAN aubert
Q1/ Why did you decide to premiere new
single Nightlight on Nic Harcourt's Guitar
Centre Sessions?
It was a happy accident, which pretty much
sums up a lot of our career. We have known Nic
for a long time and he's always been supportive
of us, so it was lovely that it came about that
way. However, it was the very first time we've
ever played that song publicly, so if you look
closely, you can see us holding on for dear life...
Q2/ You recorded the album at a studio
in the Santa Monica Mountains – did the
landscape influence the music?
This is the second time we've recorded
in that garage in Topanga; I think it played
a bigger role on our last record Neck Of The
Woods, but it will always be an aspect of our
music since I'm from those mountains.
Q3/ In which areas of the band's sound
were you keen to push the boat out and
find new ground?
We always seem to jump away from
whatever our previous record's vocabulary
contained, not on purpose. You pour yourself
completely into an album so by the time that's
done, eventually your interests wander. It's the
wanderlust that leads you to the next thing.
[Better Nature is] a bit explosive, somewhat
simpler, and layered in lushness. What's fun for
us is hearing that last bit of residue from the
previous record in the new one. There's the last
little bit of Woods in Nature.
Q4/ You've described the album as 'its
own quantum universe.' Do you think of
each of your albums as a little universe
unto itself?
I really do. We sometimes joke to ourselves
that we're making soundtracks to films that
don't exist. The more of them we make, the
more of these things we have to play with.
when we play live, it's fun to dip into all these
separate areas of our lives and relive them.
Have You In My Wilderness
by Julia Holter is out now through
Domino.
Better Nature by
Silversun Pickups is out now,
via Warner.
086 OCTOBER 2015
the meanies: LINK Meanie
continued
It's Not Me, It's You
by The Meanies is out now
via Poison City Records.