STACK #144 Oct 2016

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MUSIC REVIEWS

GABRIELLA COHEN INTERVIEW

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DAWES INTERVIEW

Taylor Goldsmith, frontman for Californian rock band Dawes, answers a few queries about the group's new album, We're All Gonna Die .

T here’s a line in I Don’t Feel So Alive where Gabriella Cohen sings “You know I can’t tell a lie,” and that’s exactly the impression you get when speaking to the woman. She’s totally guileless, in just the same way her unhurried, unaffected vocals

as its accoutrements – in Sever The Walls , there’s a weird organ sound which Cohen says is a Yamaha keyboard filtered through her guitar pedals. “I don’t understand them

all,” she says of those wee effects boxes. “They’re all like little animals. They’re little creatures and they all do different things, and they all respond at different levels.” The crazy droning animals at the end of This Could Be Love ? Those are creatures too. “Yeah, there was a farm,” Cohen says. “We ran into a field of cows with a little microphone.” Maybe she doesn’t lie, but it’s possible she doesn’t let the truth get in the way of a good Old MacDonald yarn either.

and blithe electric guitar suggest. Formerly of The Furrs, Cohen has burst out with debut solo album Full Closure And No Details ; she recorded the blues-infused rock offering at a friend’s house. “That’s her mother’s piano,” she says of the dark-stringed beast that leads Piano Song . “It’s definitely old and it’s out of tune.” It’s guitar that’s Cohen’s primary weapon, as well

Q1/ Tell us about the When The Tequila Runs Out video – does the blonde poodle-haired guy with the Potter glasses [Griffin Goldsmith, drums] own the blonde poodle-haired dog with the Potter glasses? Those were a lot of our best friends. The dog's name is Lambert and he belongs to my buddy Thom, who's the guy with the tennis-racket-as-guitar in the video. Q2/ You’ve said these songs were all written in the same small bracket of time – was it intentional, or did it just happened to be a period of prolificity? I just felt like I was in a good place after finishing the last record and didn't want to slow down. If it were up to me, we'd be releasing music every six months or so, but I just can't write that fast. Q3/ There are tiny clucking woodblock noises at the end of Roll With The Punches that somehow add volumes to the feel of those phrases. How do you make decisions on something like that? Moments like that are definitely intended to elevate the section without really making it clear to the listener as to how. Griffin is so good with finding those percussion instruments and parts that really help shape the dynamic of a section in new, unexpected and sometimes subliminal ways. Q4/ You guys recorded previous album All Your Favourite Bands in a live set-up, all together – did you do the same with We're All Gonna Die ? If the tracks of the last record were created on a stage, the tracks for this record were created in the studio. We wanted to find new ways of presenting our songs, try to get the impression back to that feeling you got when you didn't know what a bass or what a guitar or what a keyboard sounded like, and it all just hit you as music. We had a great time creating sounds that were really bizarre and fresh to our ears, but still appropriate to the song.

Full Closure And No Details by Gabriella Cohen is out now via Remote Control.

FACTOID: The clip for Flyying Colours' single It's Tomorrow Now was created by longtime artistic collaborator Thom Russell, who also creates real-time visuals for the band's live performances.

if you want a certain feeling… but I find the more simple tunes are always the ones I like the most: the ones that come out naturally, where you’re not searching.” In that vein, he likes the unpredictability of using tremolo with guitar. “That’s the cool thing, particularly about shoegaze guitar, in general. Every time you play it, it’s going to be different. That’s the nature of the instrument – that’s the difference between a guitar and a synthesizer, I think. It’s intriguing. You never know how to re-create that sound exactly.” Brümmer’s not afraid of using the word ‘shoegaze’, nor does he dislike the liberal use of it when applied to Flyying Colours, but there has been one instance in which a comparison rattled him. “Placebo. Someone said we sounded like Placebo,” he says. “That f-–ed with my head for days, trying to work out in what element of us this person found Placebo… I could not wrap my head around that one. But [‘shoegaze’] isn’t a dirty word. I like it.”

INTERVIEW

BRODIE BRÜMMER FLYYING COLOURS F lyying Colours fans have been waiting a few moons to hear the band’s debut album – the Melbourne four-piece have two acclaimed EPs under their belt, but Mindfullness elevates the group’s psych-rock even higher. Tidal waves of gorgeous guitars eddy around frontman Brodie Brümmer’s voice, with warped tremolo a constant fontice piece – particularly in the compelling title track. “It’s what it would feel like, I imagine, when you’re standing on that Eureka Sky Deck and someone hits the button and [the floor] goes clear,” Brümmer says. “You kind of know you’re not going to die, but you’re still standing there.” He’s attempting to explain the decision behind the track’s chords – there’s a really unexpected inversion in there which puts you off balance – but he says he doesn’t try to deliberately push himself theoretically when writing. “I try and turn all that [music theory] off, otherwise I probably wouldn’t write any songs at all,” he explains. “It starts to really bend my brain. [Theory] can be really helpful

TOURING 18/11 - 2/12

Mindfullness by Flyying

We're All Gonna Die

Colours is out now via Universal.

by Dawes is out now via ADA/Warner.

OCTOBER 2016

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