Eddy Current Suppression Ring

Fri 16th Apr, 2010 in Features

Eddy Current Suppression Ring is about to play the biggest solo show of the band’s career. At around 10pm tonight Melbourne’s favoutite sons will grace the stage of The Palace in their hometown, providing an undoubtedly spectacular conclusion to their sold-out national tour.

I spoke to guitarist Mikey Young just over a month ago, one day after the band headlined the Perth leg of The Laneway Festival and only a week after they finally released their third album Rush To Relax.

Since speaking to Young, Rush To Relax has started to produce reviews most Aussie bands would dream of, its critical reception, debatably, better than that of their last AMP winning effort Primary Colours.

However, if Mikey is feeling any pressure about whether or not Rush To Relax will reach the same heights as its predecessor, he sure isn’t showing it. When I dial into Young I find him in a typically relaxed ( all be it marginally exhausted ) state of mind.

Hey Mikey – have you recovered from the Laneway Festival?

[Laughs ] Yesterday if you spoke to me I probably would have made a lot less sense. I got home pretty late Sunday night from Perth, I was pretty buggered. But it was a pretty low-stress festival to play actually, just smaller numbers and it worked well.

How did it feel to headline the Perth leg, it must have been crazy playing at the top of that line-up?

Yeah, I don’t really look at it as headlining, more just playing last!

You’re way too modest, Mikey.

It could have been more of a booby prize, couldn’t it [laughs]. Nah, I get the feeling that Danny and the organisers thought maybe we were a good sort of party band to finish off things rather than finish on a more sort of… downer band. Nah, I like heaps of downer bands.

No, I know what you mean.

I don’t want to be starting some band wars with, I dunno…

Florence and the Machine?

[Laughs] Yes, Florence and the Machine.

I’d love to see that!

By the size of their crowd, I don’t think we’d fucking win.

I think your crowd’s got the anger in them, though.

[Laughs] Yes, maybe.

From Laneway straight into publicity for the new album – how does it feel to finally have Rush To Relax out in the world?

I will feel good, yeah, by this stage you just want to put it to bed y’know, just let people hear it and have it over with I guess. I feel good talking about it, because I quite like the record… not that I sit around my house listening to it…

Suuure.

[Laughs] I feel good about the job that we did with it.

The last time we spoke, you mentioned that the difference between this album and the first two is that you actually want to listen back this one now it is finished?

Yeah, I think I just had no perspective any more on the other ones, and didn’t really think I did a good job, well not didn’t think I did, just didn’t know. Well, maybe I’m just a bit more confident with my abilities now. Even still a couple of months after it’s finished I can still hear this one and think it is okay. I’m pretty happy.

Is this boost in confidence because of how well received the last album was, or do you just feel like you are recording the band better now?

Yeah, I think it’s more of that. I don’t think the reception would have made me any more confident and trusting in my abilities, more just me being satisfied, like I know in my head what I’m trying to make things sound like, and I guess, especially with the first album, and partially the second one it was very trial and error. I knew how to record but I wouldn’t say I was great at it.

And between the second album and this one I’ve spent a lot of time recording other bands, and spent a bit sort of getting the sound in my head down in a mix, and by the time we did ours I was feeling pretty good, and I feel like I got the closest to making it sound like us.

That is quite interesting because the initial feedback about this album has been that it showcases a softer Eddy Current?

Yeah definitely.

Do you think your fans will be surprised by this shift?

I guess lyrically Brendan has always been pretty romantic, there’s been no hiding that, and I guess there was something that approached that on our first record, but there’s definitely one or two that probably take that a bit further.

I don’t know, I think it definitely stretches a bit, and I guess I expect people to, you know, just like when we put out the second album to still like the first one better, and it will go either way. I’m not too fussed about it, I’m happy it’s a bit more varied and a bit closer to how I think we sound when we just practice and that.

I really like this album. It sounds like you have really worked to ensure you are not constrained by your genre.

Yeah totally. We sort of set pretty limited boundaries on how we’re going to sound by the way we record, and the type of instrumentation we have, like there’s not really any overdubs, I don’t use any pedals, none of us use any pedals, so we haven’t really changed our sound as far as what’s coming out of the instrument. I think I always wanted to set those boundaries so you had to make the songs as interesting and different as you could just by playing and just by the actual songs.

In a time where people using pedals and loops more than ever to push their sound, it’s a really organic, interesting way to approach it I think.

Yeah, not that I have anything against that kind of thing. I’d be happy to be in a different band that was totally like that, y’know, there’s a place for everything. Just with this band I think it suits it to keep it as minimal as possible and try and make the song and the performance be all that counts.

Do you feel any added pressure as to how the album will be critically received this time around, given the reception of Primary Colours?

I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t. If I get a nice review I enjoy it y’know, but I also don’t really care about bad ones, I didn’t really care about bad ones that much anyway.

To be honest we’ve been pretty lucky in that we’ve been pretty well received by the media since the start y’know. But mainly any sort of messing around with my head is already over. I know I’m happy and I know the band’s happy with the record. I mean I might be slightly bummed if I put it out and everyone said it sucked, but most of the people I know and respect seem to agree with me that this is the best thing we’ve done, and I’m fine with that. I already feel good about it and I don’t think bad reviews are going to make me feel too bad.

And you guys are hitting the road pretty soon aren’t you, on another tour?

Yeah, as much as we ever hit the road [laughs].

I noticed you are playing The Palace in Melbourne – that is a bit of an upgrade!

Ahh, yeah, whether upgrade is the word or not I don’t know yet! I mean size-wise yes, but we talked about doing two nights at the Prince again which we just did the last time we played down here, and I think everyone agreed that we don’t want to do the same thing over and over again. It seems more special doing what you want, especially in our home town.

Last time we sold out at the Corner and stuff, like it sold out a month in advance and you’d have everyone that you know missing out on tickets that are trying to find some way to get it, and there’s nothing you can do.

So this is just so you can put more people on the list, really?

[Laughs] Yeah, it’s just so everyone can come, and it holds 1700 people or something, I’m pretty sure everyone can come and have a bit of room and not get too jostled about. There will be downsides to it, like it’s not really an intimate gig any more, but I think we’re a little bit past being out of control, y’know?

I saw you guys at Meredith and you actually made the Supernatural Amphitheatre feel very intimate.

Ahh cool. Well yeah, that’s good to know, because this will definitely be our biggest headline show of our own. And I guess you’re right, if we’ve spent a couple of years playing stages like Meredith and Big Day Out there’s not much different, we should be able to control the Palace.

You guys recently played the Tote closing show which was a pretty special thing. How are you feeling about that situation at the moment, do you feel much emotion about it?

I did on the day for sure, more than I thought it would.

I’m probably the bad person to ask, I seem to give the answers most people don’t want to hear [laughs]. I feel for the venue as far as the workers and the people who owned it, who were all lovely and have been lovely to us since we started being a band y’know, and tried to make something great out of something.

I do think things have got to change though. I’ve seen a lot of venues close down over the last couple of years but I’ve also seen a fair few open, young people trying to start something good and doing a pretty good job of it. I don’t think anything can really, as much as we want to hang on to history, I don’t think anything can remain stagnant. For music to be healthy in general I imagine things have got to die off, like big bands or venues or whatever, and people have got to reassess where they’re at and think of different ways of doing it.

And maybe, I don’t exactly know the different ways but I’m sure Melbourne and Australian music is strong enough to adapt to whatever happens.

I think that’s a really interesting way of looking at it actually, I don’t think many people have voiced a similar opinion.

No, well maybe you’ve got to look at live music – maybe it should revolve around pubs and booze less. That seems to be the problem down here, the liquor licensing. So if it’s just the music everyone’s worried about, then maybe we should look at different kinds of venues.

Have some gigs in your backyard…

Yeah yeah… not my backyard, but! [laughs].

Do you have a favourite track on the record so far, now you’ve started playing it live more often, is there one that is your favourite to play?

It’s weird, we’ve sort of gravitated to like five of them live, and the other five we haven’t really played live.

Why do you think that is?

I don’t know, probably nerves. Probably we don’t play the others so well in the rehearsal room and on stage we just think we’re better off going with the safe option!

Some songs sound like recorded songs and some songs sound like live songs in your head, but I really like doing Second Guessing when we nail it, that keyboard track. Probably the Tuning Out song is my favourite live song to play.

It’s certainly very epic.

Yeah, I guess it gives me time to, y’know, wank on a bit on my guitar…[laughs].

You don’t get to do that very often Mikey!

I get enough of it, don’t worry.

Rush To Relax is out now through Shock. Do yourselves a favour.