After settling in Los Angeles to record their second studio album, Melbourne’s Miami Horror will soon return to Australia.
Main man Benjamin Plant answered our searching Q&A.
You recently dropped the sunny-tastic ‘Wild Motion (Set It Free)’. Is the song a good indicator of what we can expect from MH’s second album later this year?
Yes and no. The album is very varied in its influences and sound. ‘Wild Motion’ is probably one of the more anthemic tracks on the album.
It’s been a little while between drinks since the group’s debut album; how much has the sound of Miami Horror evolved?
It has evolved in a lot of ways; we are a lot more focused on writing more from experience and understanding the way a ‘song’ works, rather than coming from such a dance angle. We also explored a few different genres which we hadn’t touched on last time, like Talking Heads era post disco, then some other more dreamy west coast ‘70s influences such as 10cc, America, Fleetwood Mac.
Is the album done with only the final touches to be added?
Yep, only final touches are left! More than half of it is mastered.
What sparked the decision to create a home base in Los Angeles to record the new album?
Back in 2010/ 11 we had been travelling Australia for a while and recently travelled through LA on tour — we found it to be a very, very interesting and strange place. It’s always sunny, it’s very colourful and it’s full of freaks. We figured it would be a good place to get inspired. It’s always good to be taken out of your comfort zone a little. We soon figured that it helped keep us in a place where we were able to try and find out our sound.
You’ve been based over there for two years; have you found any differences writing and producing music in LA as opposed to Melbourne?
It frees up your mind a little. I felt like I was open to exploring new ideas a lot more without constant critique from my friends and peers.
What’s your favourite thing about living in LA?
Probably the sun, it gets me ready to go every morning.
Is a return to living in Melbourne planned?
Melbourne will always be ‘our home’. I don’t think we ever planned on staying here forever, but I think we all have different feelings about it, so it’s hard to know where we’ll go next.
What have you missed most about Australia while you’ve been overseas?
Mostly friends and family. I do also miss being around stupidly critical people sometimes too.
You’re headed back to Australia for a national tour in September; will you feel like international tourists this time ‘round? Or is Australia still the place you call home?
It’s still the place we call home, we’ve just taken a while on this album so I think we’re ready to come home and bring back something new.
Wunder Wunder is a side project for Aaron and yourself. Is the music an extension of the Miami Horror sonic palette? Or a completely new direction?
It’s a pretty new direction, but some of it could have been on the MH album for sure. It was a way for us to explore styles and genres that we were really into at the time, but felt might not suit the MH album.
Have you found Americans have reacted differently to MiamI Horror ie. appreciated certain aspects more than us Aussies?
Yeah. I have found that when you’re not from a place people really look deeper into what you’ve done. I’ve always liked the idea of taking people on a journey with an album and there were some underlying themes and emotions on ‘Illumination’ that I found a lot of international fans picked up on. Maybe because they weren’t exposed to our music in the form of ‘singles’ it helped them to see the album as a whole, which felt really rewarding to know that listeners were able to tap into the same place that it came from.
If we were coming over to your place, what would you cook us?
Well two of the band are vegan, so it would probably have to be fair to cook a meal everyone can have — since I am not vegan I have no idea what that would be!
Fuck the expense, send me a case of…
When I first landed years ago I would have said ‘Little Creatures’, but I soon found out there’s actually 100s of other IPAs in the world.
The last time I saw the inside of a gym was...
Yesterday.
What’s the one chore you dislike the most?
Cleaning the toilet.
Miami Horror Tour Dates
Tue Sep 16 - Spiegeltent (Brisbane Festival)Thu Sep 18 - Zierholz (Canberra)
Fri Sep 19 - Oxford Art Factory (Sydney)
Sat Sep 20 - Plantation Hotel (Coffs Harbour)
Thu Sep 25 - Fowlers (Adelaide)
Fri Sep 26 - 170 Russell (Melbourne)
Sat Sep 27 - Red Earth Arts Festival (Karratha)
Sun Sep 28 - Newport Hotel (Fremantle)
