With the recent release of their latest album 'Sex & Food', Unknown Mortal Orchestra will be on a national tour this September to play the new songs live in Australia for the first time.
'Sex & Food' was released in April and is the fourth studio album from the New Zealand-bred band, now based in Portland, Oregon.
Bassist Jake Portrait explains how they approached the album by wanting to remind people of some past sounds from previous records. “We wanted to make some rock music that we experimented with in the past and that almost led to this being a record that touched on all of the different things that had been tried on the first three records,” Jake says.
"I'm trying to help us keep the train on the tracks and keep growing the band."
“That being said, I do think there wasn't a specific plan; the main idea was getting out of Ruban’s [Nielson, frontman] basement, experiment, explore, go to some other places and start working on some stuff and see how it came together.”
In composing the songs on 'Sex & Food', Jake says the main idea was for he and drummer Kody Nielson (Ruban's brother) to provide a musical structure for Ruban to base his lyrics around. “We were heading into the studio to try and piece some different ideas together,” he says.
“So in that process we would work through a melodic idea, Kody and I would try and find a basis to play the idea over the top of and marry a couple of different ideas together to give Ruban something to take home and write some lyrics to.
"Lyrics is definitely a thing that’s particular to Ruban, so we were trying to help him create a vibe and have something to write a cool song over the top of.
“Every recording, the process was unrelated to the one before it. My contribution is that I talk a lot, I listen a lot, I play the bass and have ideas in production, but I'm really just trying to help us keep the train on the tracks and keep growing the band, doing whatever I need to do.”
When Unknown Mortal Orchestra get here for the 'Sex & Food' tour in September, it will be the first Australian live shows for the band since 2015. “We have a lot of friends there in Australia,” he says.
“I have some favourite bands from there and I'm looking forward to getting to catch up with those people. Oz is always so cool and everyone knows what to do at a concert. I know we’re all really looking forward to it. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve been down there so I'm pretty psyched to get down there.
“I'm a pretty huge King Gizzard fan, big fan of the Lizard Wizards, and I've been following POND for quite a bit... I'm going to try and hunt them down and grab a cold one.”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra Tour Dates
Wed 12 Sep - Forum MelbourneFri 14 Sep - Fat Controller (Adelaide)
Sat 15 Sep - Brisbane Festival @ The Tivoli Theatre
Sun 16 Sep - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Tue 18 Sep - Badlands Bar (Perth)
