After an almost decade-long absence from releasing new music, Brisbane art-rock, chamber-folk group Silver Sircus are close to sharing a new studio album.
Inspired by the early work of Gary Numan (1978-1981), the band led by mainstays vocalist-lyricist Lucinda Shaw and drummer-composer James Lees have reinterpreted the UK synth, new wave pioneer's best known songs from this time as well as several deep cut album tracks and even a rare B-side as chamber-music-inspired art songs. Titled 'METAL', it's set for release next week (24 April).Originally featured on Numan's 1979 album 'The Pleasure Principle', Silver Sircus' rendition of 'METAL' opens with a starkly haunting piano line, the evocative feeling of anguish and hurt bleeding from the emotive tones of the cellos.
It's dark, brooding, slightly menacing, as the layers of drums and guitar offer a bleakness that is raw and penetrates the soul with a gloominess, the sparsity of lightness offering no respite for the melancholic depression that hangs over the entire song.
The lyrics, penned almost 50 years ago, not so strangely resonate with today's global political and cultural landscape, (a sign that humans continually repeat the same issues?) with themes of social alienation alongside science fiction references.
It's bleak but there's a sonic comfort to the harshness that envelopes the senses, rallies the emotions, to stand against the tirade of negativity so commonplace in today's world (as it was in Gary Numan's 1979 – at the height of Margaret Thatcher's UK and the constant threat posed by the Cold War).
"Silver Sircus has breathed piano, cellos and the sound of metal into the title song of our new album 'Metal'," shares Lucinda. "This song speaks to the throbbing heart of facing our humanity in these strange times."
Released last month as a single, and ahead of the album's release next week, today scenestr is delighted to premiere the 'METAL' music video. A striking black & white clip, it features Lucinda performing with internationally acclaimed dancer-physical theatre performer Lisa O'Neill. Enjoy.
"I listen into the meaning of Gary Numan's lyrics and am at once shocked and softened by the vulnerability," adds Shaw. "I imagine I am a robot awaking to life, curiously facing my own artificial intelligence, yearning for connection, existing in dark wonderment. What is it to learn to be a man?"
The video clip is Silver Sircus' second collaboration with filmmaker Rhys Tyack, who has also made excellent videos for Sarah Stockholm and Daylight Ghosts.
"Approaching dancer/ performer Lisa O'Neill to collaborate in creating our film clip with videographer Rhys Tyack was a dark, hazy dream come true," Lucinda says. "We loved creating the clip for our previous single 'Cut Off My', with Rhys and wanted to continue exploring imagery with him.
"James and I have always been entranced by Lisa as an artist who embodies incredible presence, through minimalism, to create deeply evocative physical performance through her work with The Brides Of Frank and as a soloist. In the clip, Lisa and I step into the eerie oneness of 'I' – I robot, I performer, I human."
Silver Sircus will launch 'METAL' with two shows (6.30pm and 8.30pm) at Alchemix Studios (Brisbane) on 3 May. "Our Numan journey started in 2018 when we performed as a duo as part of the Closed Mic Sessions series at Padre Bar," Lucinda explains.
"We did a piano/ vocal version of 'Are Friends Electric' and I felt thrilled to deliver a raw version of this iconic song with lyrics that had been both enticing and chilling to me since it was a hit when I was a kid.
"Those two notes at the end of the riff. . . I've never been able to not move my head and body to that in the same way. It's like it got hardwired in; and that certain cut to his voice, it spoke to my own latent non-binary nature as well.
"His delivery and his gorgeous, hot, intelligent, spooky presentation captivated me, in the same way Bowie's 'Heroes' did.
"In 2023, we were invited to perform as part of the Blacklight series for Anywhere Theatre Festival with the brief of 'uncovering' and stripping back the songs of a favourite artist.
"We delved further into his work with this show to find the songs that could layer voice, piano and cello together as core elements. It was so warmly received that audiences "said please record it!" and so the beginning of the new Silver Sircus album was born."
Recording of the album began in July 2023 in collaboration with one of Brisbane's most loved creative producer/ engineers Jamie Trevaskis, best known for his work with Robert Forster, Mexico City, Karl S Williams, It's Magnetic and James' other musical project Ghostwoods.
"Taking the songs to Jamie to co-produce and record with felt very natural for me," Lees explains. "I've built up a very close relationship with him over the last several years with my Ghostwoods project and I've really enjoyed Jamie's ability to mix minimalism and space with such warm and human sounds.
"I felt this mixture would be a great approach for the Numan reworks which were taking his original sharp synth lines and spiky rhythms and translating them into a new sound world of piano and cello. At this point, we also added in a second cello and also some very light touches of drums/ percussion (played by me), electric guitar (from Mark Angel) and bass guitar (from Karl O'Shea)."
