Three years in the making, Brisbane's dark cabaret septet Silver Sircus will unveil their new album in July.
The group's co-leader (with Lucinda Shaw) and drummer/ composer James Lees talks us through the new material.
The life of 'Incarnadine'; it's been three years in the making. Take us back to the start of its creation?
[James] After we released our first album, 'To The Place That Is Home' in 2012, we had completely cleared the shelf of old and new music. So we found ourselves in the exciting position of having a completely blank slate. Lucinda and I felt the first album was quite an ‘internal’ album, talking about our own experiences and feelings, with a running theme of questioning and questing for something called ‘home’.
With 'Incarandine', we made a definite decision to broaden our songwriting palette – especially looking at more external ideas: singing about other people, storytelling and also wanting to make more dramatic music too.
Favourite song off the album? We're going to make you choose one of your children James!
Acgh! Well it’s hard once you’ve finished the album, it’s like they’ve all now flown the coop to have their own lives. I think if I had to I would choose 'The Paper Trees'. I worked really hard on that song, and it comes from a short piece of music I wrote over 20 years ago (virtually as a child), so it’s very satisfying to have it out in the world now.
Lucinda and you have been making music together since 1995. Quite the partnership. What makes it work?
We are like siblings in music and in life. There is a great love between us. Musically and artistically, it has always felt like there is a wide, open magical path that is in front of us both, and in a funny way it always feels like we are just beginning something, with all the excitement of possibility that comes with that.
What does each bring to the other to forge the creative partnership?
In simple terms, Lucinda brings singing, lyrics and music, and I bring drums, music and arrangements. We base all this on a great, shared love of so much music, art, ideas… and coffee!
You worked with local legend and producer Magoo on this project. How did he integrate himself with the band and the record?
Our collaboration with Magoo also goes back 20 years when we worked on two albums with our former band ISIS. Since then, Magoo has helmed every Silver Sircus release, starting from our debut EP 'Sovereignty' in 2008 right up to our work this year. It’s a relationship based on friendship, long-shared history and great, mutual respect. I especially enjoy seeing the trust between Magoo and Lucinda when it comes to vocal tracking.
You'll be releasing the album as a double gatefold release on vinyl, which you're quite excited about being the first vinyl release for you guys. How did it come about?
For some reason, it always felt like this was how this album was going to look and feel. I wanted it to be very tangible, very real and all about interacting with it in this way. I felt like I wanted a certain element of prestige and value to it as well. We are not currently releasing it online or for streaming. It is only available as the full, double-vinyl album.
It must be nice to release music via an old-school format like vinyl? Something to keep and cherish as well?
It certainly is! I am from an era where everything was on vinyl when I was growing up, but then everything was on CD when I started releasing my own music in original bands, so having something on vinyl is extra special for us: especially now given the massive resurgence.
The album artwork is pretty speesh. Who did the design?
The artwork was done by the very wonderful and talented Brett Harris: my design/ artwork partner in many different projects that we share together. Lucinda, Brett and I came up with some basic ideas and thoughts on the colour palette. Brett and I then went into the forest at Mt Nebo and found this lovely, textured and curled piece of bark. We set up a mini photoshoot on the dining room table and took the image that ended up being the cover. We added the sneaky blood spots though.
Silver Sircus will launch the album at the Powerhouse (9 July). What do you have planned for the night?
We are hoping to perform the album in its entirety with our full octet line-up as well as featuring some of the guest collaborators from the album. We will also have a beautiful lighting design from Andrew Meadows to help make this a spectacular and immersive experience for the audience.
This is the group's second album; what's the next step after the launch show?
We have just returned from Melbourne where we did a sellout performance at The Butterfly Club for the Melbourne Cabaret Festival. After the launch, I am hoping we can play some more shows around Brisbane as well as get back to Melbourne soon where we have a lovely and growing audience.
The band describe themselves as cabaret. How do you define the genre?
I think that Silver Sircus often fits broadly into the cabaret genre, and indeed festivals, but I would not say we were a cabaret band at all. I often struggle to describe the band’s sound, but we got a nice review in Melbourne recently which I thought summed it up fairly well: ‘dark and haunting tunes with jazzy undertones that can be both unsettling and inspiring’. Someone else said ‘Ennio Morricone meets the Australian Outback’ and I liked the ring of that too.
Opening track 'Dust' is an epic; it would fit perfectly as the soundtrack for a show like 'Hell On Wheels' or 'Turn: Washington's Spies'… how do you capture that old-time sound yet encapsulate it within the structure of a contemporary song?
I think the answer lies in the fact that the looping guitar riff was played on a guitar that was over 90 years old… and sounded it. It was rich and ancient sounding, but also kept going out of key every couple of minutes, so we had to do a bit of cheeky editing. With that song we also tried to mash-up a Celtic melody with a very Western Americana-style-guitar sound and twang, with a spooky fairytale narrative over the top.
What else does James Lees have in the works? Your stovetop must be busy!
I am a very restless musician and artist and I have a huge appetite for new things, and for the NEXT thing. As a producer/ director, I have two, three projects on a slow-burn that will likely come to life towards the end of this year, and into 2017. Currently however, the focus is Silver Sircus… I really want as many people as possible to see and hear what we have spent the last three years making.
Silver Sircus launch 'Incarnadine' at the Brisbane Powerhouse 9 July.
