Paul from Suburban Haze chats to Jen about the EP release.

  IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN
RELEASED ON FRIDAY 1 APRIL , 2016

Initially formed as a side-project to Newcastle punk band Tired Minds in 2012, Suburban Haze envisaged a softer more nuanced style that would draw heavily on post-punk sounds and be weighted by singer Paul Pickles’ uniquely arresting baritone vocals.
 
Quickly releasing an EP titled “The Lost”, the quartet backed up their commitment by setting to work on new songs and releasing their unadorned debut album, “New Coliseum” the following year. They gained airplay on triple j Unearthed, cracked the unearthed top ten charts, and in doing so, threw off any notions that the band was merely secondary.
 
Holding to a hard-working DIY punk ethos, Suburban Haze have clocked up several east coast tours in support of bands such as: Gatherer (NZ), Safe Hands, Oslow, and The Sinking Teeth. They have honed their on stage performance, gaining momentum as a brilliant live act and precocious young band that has found a way to invert the notion of how music can be impactful, not by being heavier, but more dynamic.
 
This maturity is evident in their forthcoming EP, It Will Never Happen, which ties in notable and diverse influences. On the distorted side there are elements of Nirvana, Fugazi and The Pixies, and in equal terms there is a sensitivity and melancholy reminiscent of Nick Cave and Jeff Buckley. Diverse as these influences are, everything is measured and balanced. Nothing is forced or contrived.

Tonight is your EP release, It has been a long hard road to this point! Are you super proud of what you have achieved?

Definitely! Feels like we’ve been sitting on this one for a while so we are really keen to get it out and start showing it around!

 What has the feedback been so far?

Mostly us forgetting to turn off our amps and leaving our guitars leaning up against them but so far very positive!

The writing process for the album was it a group effort or is there one main writer then some collaboration? 

It tends to mostly be Dyl or myself going in with a nearly complete song and then fleshing it out. There’s a group effort in stopping Joe getting all Sean Paul on every song though (the number of “dutty’s” we had to cut out of the finished product is staggering)

In regard to recording the album you have worked with Mat Taylor before, was it an easy process? How long did it take to record overall?

Very easy! Mat is so open to ideas and honest with his critiques so you can just kind of get on with it. The experimentation side with Mat is always fun, trying different mic placements and techniques is always super enjoyable! Overall I think we finished after 2-3 months or so? The recording times were always quite spread out though, so it wasn’t 2 months straight.

You had Pat Kindlon (vocalist for End of a Year Self Defense Family) perform with you, was that a surreal experience to work with him, are you fans? Also I read somewhere you recorded it in the back of a van?? How did that come about?

We love what SDF do, their music and ethos is just spot on. We were lucky enough to get their support slot when they played Newcastle. I’d brought up the idea to Pat earlier but they had to duck back to Sydney shortly after they played, so armed with a little zoom microphone we sat in our friend’s van and did the take. The feeling was VERY surreal haha and it’s been amazing to have one of our favourite musicians on one of our songs.

 The music video to Clip is amazing! “The song is “basically about fuckwits who somehow end up in positions of power”, singer Paul Pickles stated. So is it about the state of Australian Politics? That is how I see the meaning! 

Haha, well, I think politics definitely plays into it a great deal. I remember Joe Hockey being found out paying his accommodation allowance to his wife while carrying on about the ‘age of entitlement’ put me in a pissed off enough mood to write about ‘fuckwits’. 

 Watching the sun and moon fall in love is quite amusing. Watching something that just cannot ever happen is intriguing. Who comes up with all the concepts for the videos?

I tend to come up with the concepts and usually put them together myself. The video for Clip was done by the animator Paul Kartichov though and he worked from storyboards I did up. He was really excellent and apart from occasionally needing clarification about what my bad drawings were, was super easy-going and open.

 Your music video for ‘Bed Keep Me‘ is rather different than any other music I have ever seen. Can you take me through the significance of the burning doll? It is a very artistic video.

That’s awesome! I think it’s really important for artists to be unique so that’s good to hear. The burning doll to me symbolized the innocence of youth going up in flames, when you realize everything is not as peachy as you thought.

 Can you run through the meaning of Bed Keep Me? 

You know when you are lying in bed at night and suddenly question your entire existence? When all your nihilistic and depressing thoughts come flooding to you and all you want to do is stay in bed and never move again. That’s the bulk of it but then there’s the bridge. If you let yourself be weighed down by those thoughts (lead feet) you’ll only be worse off. Except, even knowing this, it can still be hard to put positive thoughts into practice.

 Yes I sure do! From your press release it seems that ‘Bed Keep Me’ is the song that at the moment really defines your band. Would you agree with me?

For the moment I feel it is definitely our defining song. It covers a large portion of what we are doing musically and has really defined our direction. 

 The album cover is colourful and very unique. I have looked at it many times and I think I see a shape of a face that could be…. This could be way off but I think that shape of a man’s face could possibly Tony Abbott? If am not is there an underlining meaning
to the cover?

No Tony Abbott! There may be a face in there somewhere though, as there was a bunch of images used to make up the final product. I think that face is more likely to be the handsome bearded face of our friend David James Young.

 Yes I can definitely can see a face, and thought you might of had a underlying sense of hatred for Tony Abbott!  Your cover of Wham! ‘Wake me up’ is so different! Are you planning on doing any more covers? I would love to see some more songs covered by you in your unique sound.

I love doing covers but only if we can change it and really make it our own. I hope to never do what Placebo did and do a cover that is almost indistinguishable from the original (Where Is My Mind was already sooooo good). We are going to be releasing our cover of “Somebody Kill Me Please” off the Wedding Singer movie soon and hopefully give a few other songs a crack!

 What is next for Suburban Haze? Have you got a tour planned? I bet your fans will be dying to see this EP played live.

Well every time we travel anywhere we seem to end up with the Marshall Mathers LP and Slim Shady LP CD’s in the car, so I guess the plan will be to listen to them as much as possible this year. We want to get out on the road soon and really get this album out there. We’ve been playing the songs for a while so it will be nice for the audience to have some idea of what we are doing on stage.

 Can you explain to us how your live shows are? Crazy? Insane?

Or insane, crazy? When I say Hussein, You say Shady. But honestly, I think our shows or more intimate affairs with focus more on the music over anything else. We aren’t choreographing dance moves at this stage.

 Great answer! Thanks for your time; I wish you success for the release of your EP.

Cheers!

Readers can listen to the full EP Here: