Take yourself back to 1986 and picture yourself walking down a games arcade. The soundtrack to your strut is the catchy and hypnotic sound of the driving game Outrun. Dan and Josh, from the electro-synth-rock party band Outrun, thought that a song they created in a jam session sounded so much like the arcade game they would use its name as their own.
“I was a video game nut when I was a kid,” Dan says. ” Wonder Boy, Black Dragon, Bobble Bobble, Hyper Olympics, Street Fighter, Outrun, Shinobi, Unreal Tournament, Doom ; sit down racing games as well. I actually had a Commodore 64 and later I had an Atari ST. I finally bought a Playstation but I never had any games. I bought it to use this music program that came out for it. That’s when I started making beats.”
Beginning their musical experimentation in 2001, Outrun found much of their musical inspiration from the sound tracks of – œ80s b-grade films. When referring to these soundtracks Dan states, “Much of it is made by unknown musicians, or as with John Carpenter, by the filmmaker him or herself. These days it seems most film scores or synced music is commercially tied-in and maybe has more to do with record company ties and placement.
“We love the earnestness of much of the – œ80s cheesy action music. You know those kinds of riffs and solos that conjure images of some dude on a cliff with long hair blowing in the wind and a flying V guitar soloing as if his particular solo right then and there is saving the world. “It’s not only B-grade – œ80s films that inspire us though. Any of Dario Argento’s films (I guess some might argue that they are b-grade, but the soundtracks certainly are not). Anything by Giorgio Moroder, John Carpenter, Vangelis.”
Outrun proclaim they are not good-looking enough to get anywhere writing cheesy commercial electro-pop. And they are not young enough to know what’s cool amongst the kids; they try and make tunes that stand up for themselves.
“We like our sounds to be interesting and atmospheric. Ideally we would like our tracks to be enjoyed by someone lying on their lounge room floor as well as on the dancefloor. I guess our sound originates from Art Rock, Techno, Disco, Electro House, Electro Rock, Minimal Electro. Dan and I had a band years ago called Nautilus that was very Trans Am, Kraftwerk, Goblin, Shellac inspired. It seems like Outrun is a natural progression from Nautilus.”
Outrun have been compared to other Australian musical acts such as to the Presets, Midnight Juggernauts and Cut Copy. But when asked who they would least like to be compared to, they commented that it would suck if they were compared to some dated band because good electro doesn’t date.
Electro rock is riding a wave of popularity right now, and this has greatly excited Outrun. At the very least, they no longer fear getting beaten up whilst playing in the regional areas. Why then are Australians embracing this electro culture more readily these days? “I think Australia has been awash with rock/pop bands for so long,” Dan says. “I think we are simply catching up with the rest of the world in terms of electronic music being a major player here.”
FutureNature is out now on Snowball through Inertia. Outrun are playing 21st March at Pony in Melbourne.
