Former Brisbane hard-rock outfit Interim are on the cusp of releasing their six-track EP, 'Metanarratives'.
Guitarist Lachlan Becke took time out of his day to talk about the record and relocation to Sydney.
With your EP 'Metanarratives' a month from release, how have you been preparing?
Mostly we’ve been putting our energy into co-ordinating the move from Brisbane down to Sydney, a lot has been happening lately! Most of the music has been ready for a couple of months now, so it’s been more about finalising production for the songs, shooting film clips, and planning the tour. We’ve been in Sydney for about a week now, and we’re super stoked to be able to have a studio set-up in our living room, so we manage to fit some chilled-out jams into all of the bustle. It’s been a big couple of months for us all, so now that everything’s organised for the release, we’re making the time to chill out a bit before launching into tour mode.
A metanarrative is basically a story about a story: what was the appeal of this theme when you picked it?
This is true, but the concept of a metanarrative goes a lot deeper than this and is something that we all deal with on some level. Metanarratives are overarching stories that people use to try and explain their lives and the questions that come along with them, so this includes philosophy, science, spirituality, or any other concept that attempts to answer all questions at such a core and fundamental level.
Metanarratives are our grandest stories, the ideas that we hold onto so tightly that we forget that they are just that, our stories. The songs on our EP are about how we find ourselves in a world full of these stories and how we as individuals react to them. It was an idea that we’d been toying with for a while, and when the time came, the concept just seemed so appropriate.
Was it difficult to write songs around such an esoteric concept?
When it comes down to it, we don’t really limit ourselves to writing about, or for anything in particular. For us, the music and the end product is the most important part of our entire process, and we’re all on the same page with that. The name 'Metanarratives' came about more as an appropriate way of consolidating what the music and our expression means to us when six very different tracks come together and we then need to find a way of communicating to our audience what our sound means in one word. The concept of metanarratives also resonates quite personally for each of us, so we’re really happy with how it’s come together with the music.
In terms of arrangement, composition and instrumentation, what sets this record apart from others?
First and foremost, we’re five great mates who went to school together, so we have a really strong connection, which I think is a huge factor when expression is involved. When it comes time to play music, we each draw on really varied influences, and so elements of blues, pop, jazz and psychedelia make their way into our sound; we all listen to a wide and varying range of music, so it makes for some interesting sounds when we get into a room together.
Improvising is also a huge part of our sound; it’s something that often initiates the writing process, and I hope that’s something that comes across to our listeners; there are a lot of sounds on 'Metanarratives', maybe a little guitar lick here, or a bit of a vocal 'ooh' there, that came about either as a joke or a mistake. It’s these lovely little nuances that set our sound apart from our contemporaries, and it’s a huge part of the live Interim experience as well.
Instrumentally we’re just a five-piece rock band, but when you put aside your preconceptions of rock and what it may mean to you, or maybe meant to you in the past, hopefully you’re able to just listen to our music and hear it as something pleasant that makes you feel something. We know there are a lot of different sounds across the six tracks, but they’re all coming from the same place.
How does an Interim song come together? Who are the main songwriters?
It really depends on the song and the time. There have been songs that come together with a lot of input from us all, or other songs that are written entirely by one member and then arranged by the band. I think the important part is that we acknowledge each other when someone writes a song, and the steps that it takes to birth some notes and words into being something deeply personal... But then we all come together to add our own voice, be it a drum fill to accentuate a key vocal phrase, or a bassline that sustains tension building into a resolution section; we all know what we want it to sound like, and so we communicate that as a group to get the sound that we all want.
For this release every member has played a really key role in getting our songs to the final stage, as we all really enjoy writing songs. I expect on future releases we’ll begin to see specific members take on a more weighted role in regards to songwriting, but we all have our say with the music, so even if the ideas come entirely from one person to begin with, they’re always feeding through the rest of us. We really respect each other as musicians, so we’re always happy to draw on everyones musical voice.
Can you explain why the band has relocated to Sydney?
Our lead singer, Alec Snow, has been working on 'Home And Away' down in Sydney for almost two years now, so it only seemed natural after a time for the rest of us to follow. It’s been a huge draw on each of us to be not only communicating between Brisbane and Sydney, but to physically be writing, jamming, rehearsing our music, organising recording times, making shows or tours etc. You get the point, haha.
I think for a lot of people that hear our music or see our videos for the first time, they don’t realise that we do everything ourselves. Our bassist, Jock Houston, does a huge amount of work in driving the band with managing, booking, and organising everything, and all of our production and recording comes from within the band, with our guitarist and drummer, James Basnett and Matt Hollonds, having direct control over most of the recording and production. We all help out when and where we can, but the work is really starting to get beyond us, so we decided when us four Brissie boys all finished our degrees, we’d move down to Sydney. That, and we’re looking to expand our audience, we’re really excited to be able to play with some of the awesome bands getting around down here.
Do you think your current fan base will remain despite this relocation?
I think our fan base is only going to get bigger as 'Metanarratives' hits your ears. I don’t think it’ll really matter with us being in a different city, our fans are at our shows because they like our music and the way we put it across in a live setting. I think our enthusiastic energy is able to capture their attention, and so they want to come back for more; our fans are just as important as we are at a live show, we’re all drawing on each other’s energy, and I think our current fan base enjoys that connection, and wouldn’t want to see it fade away.
We’ve already got some shows booked in Brisbane and Toowoomba for our upcoming tour, and we want to still be playing up around Queensland as much as we can; it's still our home. We’re going to keep making music for ourselves and our fans, so hopefully they’ll keep up with us in enjoying it.
What do you have in-store for Takeover III at The New Globe Theatre?
Unlike other shows over the past couple of years, we’ll all be in the one place for rehearsals, which is so helpful. This will be an exciting show for us as it’s been a couple of months since we’ve last performed for Brisbane, so we’re itching to get in front of the scene and have a play. As our prep goes on, you might see elements of acting, improvisation, some humour.
We tread a fine line with live performance in that we want to make some plans, but not overstep the magic of the moment; we gain a lot of momentum from simply playing in front of people who like our music, and so we don’t want our plans to interrupt that process. That being said, we’re always looking to offer something a little quirky to our audience, the cherry on the pie so to speak.
Describe an Interim live show.
Lights. Hair. Movement. Haha. Maybe some music too... We generally try to plan our set so that it ebbs and woos to a climax. Our songs vary in their live energy, so we try to build to a point with our overall presentation. A big thing for us is capturing the attention of our listeners early in the set, be they long-time fans or blissfully ignorant bystanders, so that no matter what, we gain their curiosity to then take and do with it what we please.
Improvising is a huge part of our live show as well. Nothing ever goes completely to plan, and we relish in the energy that this creates. Often we’ll start the show depending on how we’re feeling that week; maybe we’ll create an atmosphere, or maybe we’ll punch you in the face with a tight groove. We really enjoy having freedom with our live shows, to see what happens, and grab the music in the moment; there’s something severely special about having an instrument, and being on stage with four of your best mates. I think the audience picks up on this spontaneity and it helps to create a buzz that cannot be captured at another point in time. Come along and find out.
Tell us about your custom Fender Stratocaster. What specific customisations did you have done to it and how are they related to Interim's sound?
This guitar has been a long-time coming. Basically, Lachy wanted a guitar to put an end to all guitars. He’s developed a keen appreciation for what he wants, and so upon meeting the luthier that built it (DRW Guitars), he let loose with a cacophony of specifications, which were not only met, but exceeded, much to his delight. It features a little switch to flick between tunings for live performance, a built in mid-range booster for solos and fuzz, far too many tonal capabilities with two coil-tapped humbuckers in a HSH configuration, a Hipshot tremsetter for tuning stability, and a set of custom-wound Blue Rock pickups that are able to deliver tones from warm and slappy, to bold and raunchy.
The luthier went through four necks and two bodies before he found the right combination, and to finish it off, the instrument literally glows gold; the neck wood is over a century old, and the body features small amounts of gold which were sanded into the wood grain between coats. Photos don’t even come close to doing it justice.
A big part of Interim’s sound is having a range of guitar options for recording, so that when it comes across, the guitars sound like they’re four guitars in one (because generally they are), and we feel like this adds a signature depth to the not only the guitars, but also the overall sound. They sound thick and intimate, all the while sitting nicely between Snow’s vocals and the bass.
If you could play onstage alongside any band, who would it be and why?
After a lengthy debate, we came to the conclusion that we would have to play with Karnivool more than any of our other favourite bands. Sure, it’s great that they’re Aussie, but it’s so much more about their sound and live performances. Karnivool are the only band that have singlehandedly influenced each of us so dramatically with their ground-breaking releases 'Themata' and 'Sound Awake'.
We really respect what they did for Australian rock, while putting a bit of a heavier, proggier, more atmospheric touch on things. Most notably, I feel like the production styles have really influenced our guitarist and in-house sound engineer, James Basnett, as well as for Matt Hollonds, our drummer, in presenting grooves and rhythmic diversity under what seems to be poppier, accessible melodies; without even trying to, we model a lot of our sound around them, and they’re so entertaining and great to see live. We definitely aspire to follow in their footsteps, and so playing alongside them is a big dream for all of us.
Interim Tour Dates
Fri 21 Aug - The Grid (Toowoomba)Sat 22 Aug - New Globe Theatre (Brisbane)
Fri 11 Sep - Cellar Bar (Melbourne)
Sat 12 Sep - Worldsend Hotel (Adelaide)
Sun 13 Sep - Bald Faced Stag (Sydney)
