Command Q is an electronic duo from Perth: Shaun Pickett and Louis Frere-Harvey, two down-to-earth guys who love music and performing.
Their music and performance is genuinely intended to get you moving, a return to your more tribal and animalistic state with no care for vanity: 'throw yourself around until you release the real you' is their mantra.
With their 2015 hit track, 'D1LL1GAF' blowing up turntables across the globe (Diplo played the track throughout his Stereosonic tour, then released a remix of the song on his own label), Shaun and Louis have followed that success with new EP, 'We Are Animals'.
'We Are Animals' dropped earlier in July; what has the response been like?
[Shaun] The response has been pretty intense; our fan base are a really cool bunch of peeps. There is so much excitement and interaction around our social media and the vocabulary of our fans is hilarious. For example: 'OMG I'm so horny after hearing this :0'
In terms of sound and style, is the new record vastly different to previous releases?
Realistically Command Q is still quite young and most of what we've released is singles, so this EP has been both a challenge and a reward to put out. I feel all of the songs offer very different soundscapes and musical aspects. We record and sample so many of the sounds in each track and it has always been a challenge for us to keep consistency in our sound because we rarely re-use sounds. For example, I live in a renovated church; you may notice in some of the songs that the timbre of certain instruments are quite large and open, like the vocals in ‘Artillery’ or the pitched down snare drum in ‘Getting Lit’. To sum that one up, I reckon the explorations of sounds are vastly different, but as a whole the EP still stays true to the Command Q sound.
What was your initial reaction to hearing 'D1LL1GAF' being picked up by artists like Diplo, Dillstradamus and Jack U?
Totally awesome. It really was. For the first couple of months we were receiving messages and texts from people every day and everywhere saying 'this person just played this' and 'this person just dropped this'. Diplo and Flosstradamus really put us on the global map. We are so thankful to those guys. They built this little bandwagon for us and everyone jumped on board, which is a really nice feeling. It’s a little weird to know the song has smashed the electronic-music circuit all over the world, and we’ve barely had an opportunity to see it. That’s what it's sometimes like with underground music though. It can take off around the world being played to millions and the original artist might be back home only catching a glimpse of what is actually happening.
You're both school teachers, so what was the transition like going from the classroom to festival stages?
We still both teach haha! Lou teaches quite alot and I'm now down to one day a week. Can’t give it up; making music with high school kids is flipping awesome. Classroom to stage didn’t even feel like a transition either. People don’t realise but everything in the music industry moves so slowly. And anything that might seem like an explosion, most likely had been happening for a while. For us, we’ve been smashing shows out for a couple years and progressively moving to bigger and bigger shows, so it hasn’t felt like a massive transition just yet.
Do you get mad respect from your students now?
Have to admit - the kids do froth it. We instantly have mad respect from all the students. They blow it up too, like we are hugely famous and the coolest guys ever, which is overly humbling. It’s great too, we both teach music and we have a powerful position to show students what the industry is like, what music as an adult is like - the good and the challenging. It's incredibly insightful.
How does life on the road compare to your day jobs?
I feel like my day job is like a short holiday. It’s so much easier and structured than being on the road. Touring is great, but with the travelling you get super tired and mentally fatigued. Then we come home to our routines and it's really nice. Touring is hard work, it has huge highs and huge lows. You might feel like you’re on a huge buzz one night and then be completely run down and exhausted the next.
Do music festivals now count as school excursions?
Lol. We have done an underage show before and had students come to watch. It’s an odd feeling haha. The music festivals feel more like parties now so yeah I suppose high school excursions felt similar.
You'll be heading out on tour for 'We Are Animals' in August. How are you both feeling ahead of the tour?
Pretty excited especially hearing from the fans in each state expressing their excitement. We’ve been working hard on song edits too and making the songs more 'live'. I’ve had to practice my vocals more than I’ve ever done in my life. So to be honest we’re a little apprehensive, but will definitely turn-up hard with our fans at every single show.
What can crowds expect from your live sets, especially those who have never seen a Command Q show?
Expect a flipping high energy party! It's not just an hour of trap bangers, there's gonna be electronic and live percussion, singing and... we go hard! We are pretty hyperactive on stage. A COMMAND Q show brings all the energy of having a DJ as well as all the energy of live instruments. It’s the perfect late night bass combo.
In light of the EP title, what animal would each of you be?
Hahaha well Lou isn’t here to answer this so I'll answer for him, mwuahah. I’d say Lou is more like Jar Jar Binks than any animal haha. And I’d be I suppose... gosh this is hard. Pass.
Command-Q is also the 'quit' shortcut for Macs, which is ironic considering your success. Why choose this as a group name?
We wanted a name that was relevant to electronics because we are heavily reliant on electronics to make our music. Annnnnd, this is before we knew about artists like Alt-J. So we thought about keyboard shortcuts and we liked the word 'command' because it’s quite authoritative. Eventually we just gave up on finding a name and settled on Command Q. So don’t look too deeply into it, there are no idioms behind it. We definitely aren’t quitting anything!!
Have you ever lost a bunch of work on the computer because you accidentally hit command-Q?
Never! I’ve hit 'Command+W' a bunch of times but anytime I've ever hit 'Command+Q' I’ll be prompted to save before it quits… thankfully!!
Command Q Tour Dates
Fri 29 Jul - Chinese Laundry (Sydney)Sat 30 Jul - Proud Mary’s (Central Coast)
Sat 6 Aug - Fat Controller (Adelaide)
Fri 12 Aug - Jack Rabbit Slims (Perth)
Sat 13 Aug - Vibe Nightclub (Geraldton)
Fri 19 Aug - Oh Hello (Brisbane)
Sat 20 Aug - Carmen’s (Miranda)
Thur 25 Aug - The Helm (Sunshine Coast)
Fri 26 Aug - Impala (Auckland)
Sat 27 Aug - Flinders Social (Townsville)
