Western Australian indie band Verge Collection have released a new single, ‘For The Story’, about the questionable things people do in pursuit of a good story to tell.
“It’s a bit of a celebration but also a bit of a critique at the same time,” frontman Ben Arnold says.
“Basically the idea came for it when my brother told me a story that I thought was absolutely fucking heinous. He was surprisingly proud of it and I was like, ‘I don’t know man, you don’t look that proud. You’re saying you did it for a story and that kind of sentiment but it seems like there might be a hint of regret.’”
‘For The Story’ is the first track taken from Verge Collection’s forthcoming debut album ‘Flaneur’, which is yet to have its release date confirmed. Ben says the single is a fairly good representation of what to expect from the record.
“We were joking when we were mixing it that every song is following the singer-songwriter format, like three verses, three chorus; there are songs that are outliers but it’s all indie pop, country-tinged music,” Ben says.
When writing and recording the album, Ben says the band approached the project as a snapshot of Verge Collection over the past year, rather than a definitive statement of their sound and style. “Someone recently said in an interview that bands shouldn’t stress about doing their first album really quickly and just do it, but I kind of feel the opposite way,” he explains.
“We’ve had these songs more or less for the past year and even our manager said to do something we like at the time, do it quickly then do another one. The fixation on making something completely perfect versus just making something that’s representative of the time, I’m in favour of the latter.”
Although we’ll have to wait for the album, Verge Collection will embark on their first national, headline tour in August. Ben has set some modest goals for its outcome. “I like to keep my expectations pretty low just so I’m pleasantly surprised all the time,” he says, “but it would be cool… just to have one sell-out show; that’s my only real ambition with the tour.”
Verge Collection are hitting the road with the support of Otherside Brewing Co. and a $5,000 grant the band secured through the Tapped By Otherside programme, which helps to promote tours by WA artists. Ben says that while they would have toured regardless of the grant, the funding means they won’t be stuck sleeping in their van on the opposite side of the country.
“We were always going to do this tour whether we had the money from someone else or if we did it ourselves. But this grant basically means we’ve got accommodation on the tour,” he says.
“Before that we were either going to just sleep on the streets or at friend's places, but we don’t have that many friends in the east so it was a pretty shitty idea.”
Verge Collection Tour Dates
Wed 2 Aug - Crown & Anchor (Adelaide)Thu 3 Aug - Workers Club (Melbourne)
Fri 4 Aug - Oxford Art Gallery Bar (Sydney)
Sat 5 Aug - Bloodhound (Brisbane)
Fri 11 Aug - Jack Rabbit Slims (Perth)
Fri 25 Aug - Prince Of Wales (Bunbury)
