Mere hours away from flying up to their hometown of Brisbane for a secret show at The Troubadour before a one-off performance at Rosie’s the following night, Flamingo Crash vocalist/guitarist Isaac Emmanuel takes some time off to discuss the band’s new album and subsequent tour, plus shed some light on why they relocated to Melbourne. “It’s really exciting!” Emmanuel exclaims regarding the release of the band’s debut album Triangle Island, released through Sidekick/Shock in Australia and VJR in Japan.

After releasing three successful EPs and years of slugging it out in the smaller, yet still talented Brisbane music scene, Flamingo Crash finally found an opportunity in Melbourne to gain a stronger foothold in the wider national scene and release their debut long-player. “It’s not because Brisbane is less responsive to our music than Melbourne is, but it just so happened that there was more of an opportunity here for us to establish ourselves. Actually, we could have moved anywhere in the world, but it just so happened that we ended up in Melbourne.”

Despite what Emmanuel or anyone else may say, it is apparent that Melbourne is less culturally inhibiting than the four-piece’s hometown. In true double-edged sword fashion, though, the Victorian capital can just as easily help you reach the heights of success as it can cause a band to fade into obscurity, given the highly competitive nature of the city’s music scene.

Going back to the statement that Brisbane is the band’s hometown; this fact is actually not 100% true. With the amicable departure of guitarist Marcel Dorney a year ago, followed by the ending of multi-instrumentalist Thomas Baxter’s tenure with the group, the remaining three members – Emmanuel, keyboardist Cate Porter and drummer Matthew Harrison – were left facing the prospect of finding another talented musician to replace the gap in the line-up. Auditioning for a new member, the act finally settled on Troy O’Shea, a Sydneysider who knew how to play some mean riffs, and so the Crash’s story continues. “There’s a great dynamic within the band at the moment,” Emmanuel remarks. “Most of the material for the album was written before Marcel left, so there was not as much pressure on everyone when we went into the studio.”

The album itself is 10 tracks of frenetic clashes of indie punk and minimalist dance, all set against a groove-ridden, almost Latin-style array of rhythm and beats. Produced by Magoo in his new Applewood Church studio and mastered by Steve Fallone (Sonic Youth, The Strokes, TV On The Radio, James Brown) over in New York City, the quartet seem poised to hit stardom soon enough. In fact, on their tour of Japan in October of last year, it was clear the Australians had a loyal following in the Asian nation. “The thing with Japanese kids is that they’re all so enthusiastic. After one show we were talking to a few of them and they just began singing different parts of songs back to us word for word, which is something that we’ve never really come across. It was a surreal experience.”

Let’s hope this type of fervour surrounds the band when they tour the east coast (plus Adelaide) this June/July in support of the new album. Make sure you get along to a show near you – you shan’t be disappointed.