Prepare to enter a new dimension!
Ball Park Music's upcoming 'Trippin' The Light Fantastic' tour is going to inspire the way we watch gigs, or is it? Forming in 2008, frontman Sam Cromack explains that the group of five actually had no intention of becoming a band, they just happened to be in the same class. "We were all at uni and we got thrown together as a part of a class we were taking," he says.
"Our teacher was just like 'you're a band'. So we all had to play together as an ensemble as a part of a class we were taking."
The Brisbane indie-rock-pop group consists of Sam, Jennifer Boyce, Paul Furness and twins Dean and Daniel Hanson. All five are Queensland University of Technology music bachelor graduates, and have produced two EPs and released their third album 'Puddinghead' in April of this year.
The upcoming tour named after the second single off the album is set to be 'revolutionary' according to the band's press release. That same press release declares this tour to be the group's most innovative performance yet. Concert-goers will witness all five band members perform as moving, three-dimensional objects — holograms projected onto the stage in 3D without any need for visual aid. "It'll be so realistic you won't even believe that it's a hologram," declares Sam.
On top of a holographic projection that is more than realistic, audiences will also get to see an out-of-this-world light show, more mindblowing than their previous shows. Sam also spilled the beans on an idea he's been investigating for the end of the year tour. "It will incorporate glasses for all the of the audience to wear," he says.
The idea for the tour he says came about in a similar way to their last tour, taking an idea and altering it for their own amusement. "When Jay Z and U2 did the '360' tour, and the stage would spin around and people could see all 360 degrees, well we followed that up with the '180' tour, which was supposed to be a piss-take as well. 'Cause every fucking gig is a 180 degree experience. So for this tour, we thought 'what can we say again' 'cause we thought it was funny the first time," he laughs.
The recording process of their third album, 'Puddinghead' (which is essentially Shakespearean for 'fuckwit'), was an in-house job by the band. Renting out a dirt cheap house in the northern suburbs of Brisbane, the band worked four to five days a week for nine months to complete the record. "We wanted to do it all ourselves so we could have more time to work on the record," Sam says. "Because recording is expensive in a real studio, so by renting a house and getting our own gear it meant we could spend more time there and explore a few more options when making the record.
"It was really good, I liked recording that way, I think we'll definitely self-produce the next record whenever it appears. I think it was a good sort of bonding activity too, we all had to be responsible for the place, keep it clean and look after all the gear."
Though they will continue to self-record, Sam says that next time they won't rent a house. "I think we've reached a point where it just feels like to rent a house for that long is bit of an unnecessary expense. I think we can manage just going between our houses. Like we could do some drums over at Daniel's place and then we can take those files over to my place because I've got a bit of a home studio set up here. So just patch it together as we go — if we need we could book a room and do some live recordings there. Technology has really changed and a lot of those options are easy."
Writing most of the songs himself, Sam says their music is still a collaborative process. "I usually come to the others with the tune and the words and the structure and usually I have an idea of what kind of vibe it's going to have. [Sometimes] one of the band members will call me and say 'I reckon we should do a song kind of like this, I reckon that would be awesome'. I'll keep that in the back of my mind and if anything pops up sort of along those lines then we'll try that out."
Sam says the band hangout as friends, but after a tour they tend to retreat back into their own lives a little bit. He also admires Jen, the only girl in the group, for touring with a bunch of boys. "I think if I was the only male on a touring party of ten females that I would feel somewhat isolated sometimes. It's a really male-dominated culture, and Jen has hung in there. I always try to be sensitive to that.
"I think Jen feels like she's a secret spy on behalf of all women of the world. She knows so much about how males function, she could totally write a book because believe me, she knows. I think we forgot a long time ago that she wasn't one of us," he laughs.
Currently having a bit of an identity crisis, Sam wants to push the band to its limits in the future. "I think we're three albums in and we've essentially made a shit load of indie-pop songs and I think more than ever we're just busting to kind of fuck what everyone thinks and just indulge. I want to make something that's a bit scary and challenges what everyone thought about our band."
