Big Scary have just finished touring
nationally with Bernard Fanning and are soon to head to theCarlton Dry
Independent Music Awards, where they are up for three nominations, including
best independent artist and best independent album for their latest Not Art. Big Scary have released their
two albums through their own label Pieater. We spoke to one half of the
duo, Jo Syme, on working independently, orchestral visions and the hectic
new years ahead.
What are the pros and
cons of making an independent album apart from more control and unrestricted
studio time?
Those are some of the main things. I’ve guess
I’ve heard horror stories during the recording process where the label would
call up and say 'more drums' and 'you need to write a pop song' and all this
kind of stuff. I guess it’s good to be able to learn everything that you’re
doing. If you’re in an ignorant these days then you have no control for the
next 20 years – you know it’s not just about the album that you’re releasing. I
guess it’s an advantage if you’re only in music for the long term and being
able to decide how it gets used and how it’s portrayed and stuff.
How does touring change
your relationship with the music? I’ve spoken to musicians who say that months
of working on the album drive you crazy but touring can reinspire. How has it
been for you guys?
Yeah, that’s really funny. I think Tom [Iansek] probably got more
sick of the songs than I did because he was down at the nitty-gritty levels
doing every track and on the computer screen piecing it all together. I got to
do the drums and a bit of singing and come back to it when it was pretty much
done. But it’s true – we’ve hired some extra musicians to really do justice to
these songs live so it’s been really fun getting extra people on stage - and I
think we feel a lot more confident about the live show now. I think in the past
Tom felt like we were playing catch-up with the live show to the amount of
effort we put into the recorded stuff, so now that we’re thinking about that a
lot more and having new people to really play the part, it’s really fun, I’ve
really enjoyed playing the new songs.
Have there been any
tracks that have resonated particularly?
There’s always one song that goes down well live
called “Belgian Blues” and I think crowds just like a good rock song. I’m doing
a bunch of stuff on the drums and everyone has really busy parts, so it looks
like there’s a lot happening on stage, so I think that one goes down the best
live. And it’s not a single, which is cool.
Was "Luck Now"
always going to be a single? Is it hard to pick a single?
It’s always really hard to pick a single because
we’re usually wrong. Sometimes when we thought this would be a great single and
no one’s really taken onto it and other songs have surprised us. It was hard to
choose. During the recording process of the album, I didn’t think there were
really any singles on this album. I didn’t really get it at first, I thought,
'this feels weird', but it’s got to the point where I’m obsessed with it. I
have the demo on repeat in my car. I think to me that was why I really pushed
for that first single, because it had really struck me so strongly and I think
it was a really good statement piece for the album – quite different from our
previous stuff. It was a hard decision and we’re still choosing what’s going to
be the next one, but we don’t know when we’re recording songs.
Do you guys know we’re
you guys will be on NYE?
Yeah we’re playing Falls. We’ve just looked at
our flight schedule – it’s pretty hectic. We’re probably going to be having a
quiet night in Melbourne because in five days we’re in Tassie, Lorne, Byron Bay
and Busselton. Pretty sure we’ve got some sort of ridiculous flight on the
first in the morning so we’re just going to come back in from Lorne some time
that evening, getting ready to get up early again. We might have a little party
in our studio or something.
New Years Day – starting
work straightaway!
That's right.
Is there anything you
guys would like to add to your music in terms of instruments or sound?
There’s heaps of different synths used in the
recordings, a bunch of different ones. The main thing we’ve added is a Juno
synthesizer, which comes along live. And we’re slowly building up an arsenal of
sweet synths, which we don’t know how to use yet, it’s pretty funny. We’ve got
this analog synthesiser called MS-20 and I’m kind of like 'woah', turning knobs
for this pulsating sound, I have no idea what I’m doing. There’s nothing really
we feel the need to include. I guess the dream is when you have shitloads of
money you can bring the gospel singers on tour and bring a horn section and a
string section – stuff like that.
Big Scary + Orchestra.
I think every band secretly wishes they could do
that.
Very cool. I’m sure Tom
would love writing for that as well.
Yeah I can’t wait 'til he writes some scores,
because I think he’d be really good at it.
Yeah definitely that
'atmospheric', 'complex' sound that comes up in reviews.
Oh yeah – without the orchestra.
On the awards night you
guys will perform live along with Seth Sentry, Violent Soho and RUFUS- how’s
that going to sound? What do you think about the Australian music industry
since you started [around 2006]?
I think it’s really autonomous and really
creative and really supportive as well. It doesn’t matter what genre – because
it’s such a small world and everyone can write to each other on Twitter and
always playing at festivals – you kind of come to respect everyone’s different
angle, for the most part. And I read articles from old-school rock and rollers
complaining about downloads and I honestly don’t care because I guess I’ve
never had to make money off people buying music and I’m not used to it. Now
it’s so foreign to me - I’m used to people getting their music for free but
then kind of getting out to shows more. I think it’s great.
I just saw this morning
your collaboration with Jonti is out and that’s a free download.
Yeah, exactly. I guess it was sponsored by industry
- Adidas. It was great because it meant that we got to do something creative
with this guy whose music we love already. So we definitely took on that
opportunity. It was really good, because I’ve never really collaborated before,
so I was nervous and thought it would be super awkward or something, but it was
just so easy and fun and we made a track that I think is really interesting.
How did the
collaboration come about?
I don’t know how they chose the bands, but we
got an email from VICE saying,
'are you interested in this?' to pair with Jonti and that’s pretty much how it
happened - and we were up for it.
How’s the international
signup with Barsuk records [Seattle-based, Death Cab for Cutie] going? Do you
have much to do with them in Australia?
Not much yet. We’re kind of building the
campaign at the moment. The album’s going to be released in January and we have
chatted to them on Skype and they’re absolute legends so we’re really pleased,
they’re really similar to us in their ethos to music and belief in music. But I
guess at the moment it’s kind of emails and building content before we release
the album over there. Then it will all start next January.
Would you then have a US
tour to follow up?
We’ll definitely be going over there in the first
couple of months next year but nothing’s booked yet.
It would be great to get
to SXSW.
Yeah we went to SXSW last year and it was so
much fun so hopefully we’d love to get onto that as well. But we’d also love to
get on a cool support tour as well, that would be very handy.
You guys just toured
with Bernard Fanning – was that a different audience to your own?
Yeah, definitely. They were a bit older and they
hadn’t all heard of us. They were pretty cool. There were probably some people
who weren’t interested at all but they were a different crowd and in different
towns. We were in far North Queensland and places we’d never been but they were
awesome. It was an awesome tour to be on – all these sweet venues like really
old-school theatres and stuff like that. So it was good.
Are there any standout
releases of 2013 that you guys have been listening to?
I haven’t stopped listening to Cloud Control’s new album, it’s
pretty awesome - also Courtney
Barnett's two EPs. I’ve been listening to a lot music recently which
is good because in the first half of the year I was really, really bad and then
since I’ve been back from touring I’ve been trying to listen to as much as
possible. Those ones I reckon are so awesome, I’m really excited for everyone.
I just think it’s weird
to see you guys in categories with Flume but I guess that’s the music industry
these days.
Yeah I know, it’s really funny but I think it’s
cool. I’m glad someone made the effort to highlight independent labels and
bands.
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