Stealing O'neal: Collidescope

Fri 6th Jun, 2008 in Features

Melbourne boys Stealing O’Neal have a new record company, having signed to BNM Records, and a fresh EP, Collidescope, which has just hit stores. Prior to release band guitarist Jack Tosi shared his thoughts on the sophomore record.

“I think the EP as a whole is a really nice package. All the songs are quite different, there’s some really cool and interesting sounds going on. Plus it’s a big step up in terms of song writing compared to the last one. I hope it is received well by people. There are more hooks and catchy parts, plus better recording qualities. It’s a more mature sound than the first EP and we’re all really pleased with it.”

“The title was originally just an elaboration on one of the tracks’ titles when we were doing the demos. But I think now it can represent the varying styles of each song on this EP. It’s a bit of a kaleidoscope of different textures, tones and styles.”

“This EP was recorded in a much different environment than our first. First of all, we were recording in Sydney, where we could be away from the comforts and distractions of home, to focus on the recording. Recording took place at a few different studios, which kept it fresh and interesting. Plus we had a lot more time at hand to really make sure of the sounds and the playing.”

Collide
This song was the instant standout for a single when we were writing it. We’d never written a song that was so fast and straight to the point. It was half written in the front seats of our tour van. The recording of this was pretty straight forward; we just added heaps of guitar to make it sound really full. I love the way this one turned out.

The Sandlot
We wrote this one after watching a movie called The Sandlot Kids. Everything in the song relates to the story, we even chuck in a couple of character names in there. Recording this one was pretty fun. It involved ambient miking, where you put the microphones at the opposite end of a massive room and just crank the guitar amps up to full and go right for it! That was really fun to do, even though the actual sounds are low in the mix of the song, they really help add to the textures of the track.

Anywhere But Here
This one was actually written on the same day as The Sandlot. The finished track is my personal favourite on the CD. We were in the studio where we recorded drums, and there was a beautiful grand piano in there, so I thought we should make use of it, and I ended up writing the piano parts on the spot based on the guitar parts which we hadn’t even recorded yet. There’s a lot of different vocal parts in this song, that all layer until they peak with about 7 different melodies all singing the same words, which brings full focus on the vocals.

Chin Up Baby
This is a straight up pop song. Chris and I wrote it really quickly in my bedroom the day after I thought up the riff. After the words were written, we really analysed the vocal melodies in the verses to make the right parts really catchy at the right times. I think we did a great job of that. It was fun to record because the demo was much slower, so we had to play all our parts really fast, but I think the song is much better faster.

For Light, For Shade
This track was written a while before we went into recording, but we only jammed it as a band two weeks before heading into the studio. It felt a bit rushed and we didn’t even have a way for the song to end until the day before we left for Sydney. We brought our manager in and he brought up the hook of the song after hearing the guitar riff. So at the end of the song, we recorded us all singing – œNa Na’s’ and just kept adding to it, until it sounded like there was a whole room of people singing until it fades out, which was the perfect way to end both the song and the EP.

Stealing O’Neal’s EP, Collidescope, is out now through BNM Records.