Get out your formal wear because The Mad Shapes are hosting their own White Wedding Party with plenty of special guests invited to celebrate the occassion. This promises to be one shin dig worth gate crashing according to the bands bass player and vocalist Ben Green.
How did the idea of a themed party come up? “We wanted to mix up the format of how bands can be a part of a fun night out,” Ben introduced. “The traditional model of the ‘rock show/gig’ seems to be getting a bit tired to the point where people seem to be skipping it all together and coming out later to dance. We wanted to host a series of parties basically, where we got to choose bands and DJs who we think are entertaining and who get the party crankin to bring the fun back to seeing live bands. Adelaide’s live music scene has gone through a period of being dominated with bands and genres that are quite serious, intellectual or emotional and I think a lot of people want to go out on a Saturday night to enjoy themselves for a change! That’s what parties are made for.”
Are all the bands getting in to the spirit of the event by getting dressed up for the occasion? ‘We’ve got Flamingo Crash and who are very creative and I’m sure they’ll have a unique take on the dress-code, and I imagine PhDJ coming down from Sydney will have something special to pull out and hopefully DJ Craig too! We hope to see a range of interpretations of the theme from everyone involved. I am envisaging boys suiting up, boozy bridesmaids, flower girls, a lot of white, men in wedding dresses, who knows…”
The colour white suggests ‘purity’, do you think that all concerned live up to that? “Yes, the colour is often associated with purity, however Billy Idol completely soiled the term with his hit song from 1983,” Ben answered back. “Therefore I think this opens up the possibilities of how people will behave on the night from dirty 80s leather-clad cock-rock behaviour to holier-than-thou royal innocence. In other words, who knows what will happen, it’s an experiment! Haha!”
Are you able to give punters an insight as to what they might be in for on the night? “We’re going for that wedding reception-type feel where everyone loosens up after all the ceremonial formalities are over and you see people on the dance floor who usually wouldn’t go near it with a ten-foot pole (and perhaps shouldn’t!) Low inhibitions, high energy and unusual attire- to be brief!”
Flamingo Crash are a great inclusion on the bill don’t you think? “Yes yes,” Ben agreed. “I’ve very excited about that, that band seems to be making waves wherever they land, and I can’t wait for Adelaide to get to know their stuff better. They’re good friends of ours and we jumped at the opportunity to play host to them for this party!”
What are the themes for the next two parties? “Wouldn’t you like to know,” Ben replied. “Actually the next one’s on our keyboardist Jenie’s birthday, and the one after is on my birthday purely by coincidence, but the themes are still under wraps I’m afraid. But needless to say we’ll have some celebrating to do.”
How would you describe Confetti Machete? “Its like playing lazerhunt while rollerblading through a fiesta in a small town in Mexico 50 years ago.”
Was it a challenging process to make? “The Mexicans were the hardest part to pull together,” Ben laughs. “No seriously there are some samples on the EP from some old Mexican movies; I had to trawl through hours of VHS tape to find the right sounds. Besides that, recording with Matt Hills was fantastic and over the course of a year, the recording continued to evolve. After the initial recording and mixing sessions, nearly six months ago, we decided to re-mix the EP in order to strip the songs right back. We believe by removing the extra keyboard and guitar sounds, this gave each element within the songs more room to breathe.”
How does the creative process work for The Mad Shapes? “Shane (guitars/vocals) is the visionary for the band,” Ben explains. “He comes up with a lot of ideas, which he loves to bounce them off Jen and I. We then continue to create draft after draft of each song until we get it right. The process doesn’t really ever end with Shane, because even with the songs we’ve recorded for this EP, we have made slight changes to make things work better on stage. And so we can have fun with the songs, draw out sections that are fun to dance to. I’m a writer too, and now that we’ve established the general sense of what Mad Shapes sounds like, I’ve started writing basic song ideas that we jam out in the rehearsal room and we Mad Shapeficate them. So the process is pretty flexible and is definitely still evolving.”
Do you think the band’s sound has changed much since you started out? “As I just said, the process of how we write and work together is constantly evolving because we all like a lot of different types of music,” Ben reiterated. “I’ve been getting into a bit of Gangster rap recently, so who knows how my brain will chew that up and spit it out the other end as musical influence. More to the point though, Shane is about to return from a couple of months traveling around Europe and he will no doubt have some new European influences to throw in. Shane and I have been playing together for years now. We originally played some very mellow acoustic folk pop stuff. This band, however, started from our drive to take that collaboration to a louder, more rock setting. We went through a phase of writing quirky songs that told stories, and more recently we’ve moved more into the territory of danceable and percussive, simpler beats and less overdriven guitar riffs haha. So yeah, the sound couldn’t have changed much more.”
Are there any plans for an album? “We’re constantly trying to finish the big list of songs we start writing,” Ben said. “We have a pretty good idea of what the future sounds like for Mad Shapes, so I’d say an album couldn’t be too far off.”
What’s next for the Mad Shapes? “We’re looking forward to playing more shows in our home town and hopefully gaining a reputation for putting on a fun show that will take us around the nation and world! We’re really excited about these parties and releasing Confetti Machete on July 1.”
White Wedding Party with Mad Shapes, Flamingo Crash, PhDJ and Craig Gosh takes place at the Edinburgh Castle on Saturday June 21. Tickets are $10 from the door from 10pm. Free stuff for punters in wedding attire.
