Brisbane indie rock band The Scrapes are in the final stages of recording their upcoming album, ‘The Songs Of Baron Samedi’.
This third full-length studio record was inspired partly by the band’s travels in West Africa and Europe. “I was in Turkey for six months and Adam [Cadell] was in West Africa for a year,” guitar player Ryan Potter says.
“[The album] wasn't primarily inspired by our travels but you can hear some of the different musical influences from other cultures ... Adam is playing a gonjey, which is an African one-string fiddle. That's probably the biggest thing that you'd notice. It sounds nothing like the violin, so you get some pretty strange sounds out of that... it sounds pretty interesting.”
When the duo returned to Brisbane after their time aboard, they began turning the ideas from their travels into new songs and recordings. While they continue to work on the ‘... Baron Samedi’ album, the boys have no immediate plans to travel again, but are hoping to tour overseas in the future. “We'd love to play overseas at some stage but we haven't had that opportunity yet.”
The Scrapes are mainly an improvisational band, focusing on performing with no preconceived structures. This makes the recording process and collaborative work a difficult task for the duo. However, they’ve found a way to combine the two. “We're actually thinking of recording our sets at The Bearded Lady and putting that towards the album as well... recording it properly and seeing how it turns out.”
Ryan and Adam have a Sunday residency at The Bearded Lady in West End throughout July. “It seems like a relaxed environment where people are happy to sit and listen to some of the music, and we get to play two sets each day so there's no pressure to fit it into a small timeframe or anything.”
Each set the boys play will be completely different from the last to keep things fresh and interesting, although the boys say they’ll throw a ‘classic’ in every now and then for good measure.
The Scrapes play The Bearded Lady Sunday July 13, 20 and 27.
