 |
|
On a chilly Thursday morning when the rest of the country was most
likely cursing at Moshtix and being pushed further back in line for Splendour
tickets. I had the pleasure of waking up a couple of hours after everyone with
no stress and had a chat with Brin Hinchcliffe & Leroy Bressington from Cabins. Touching upon topics
such as Jay-Z, a pilot for a future reality show, the Central Coast and more
important about their upcoming mini album ‘Bright Victory’.
Leroy: Helloooo!
Aaron: Hey! How you going man?
L: Aaron, nice to meet you mate
Brin: How you doing Aaron?
Ohh, am I speaking to
everyone?
B: Nah, Just Brin and Roy
Congratulations
on your signing to Ivy League
L: Thank you
B: Thank you very much
Did
this just happen the other day?
L: Yeah not long ago
B: A week or something
L: A week ago
B: Not to long ago
You
find yourself amongst some great Australian talent
B:Yeah very much so
L: We love coming into the office it makes us
feel… special
Are
you guys in the office at the moment?
L: We’re at…
B: We’re in Mushroom
L: Mushroom at moment
Doing
a bit of promo?
B: interviews
L: A lot of interview today
I have
had great difficulty in describing your sound to people when talking about
Cabins, how do you describe your sound to say relatives who have never heard
your music?
L: I’d say atmospheric folk, melodic I guess
theres not really a genre a genre that would really fit us I suppose. When we
write we don’t really look to be fitted into a genre at all.
L: Not being restrained by any genre
B: exactly
One of the sounds I’ve
used previously is that desert rock thing but it is sort of acoustic
B: Yeah, Desert rock?!
L: I like that
B: Yeah, that’s a good one. I haven’t heard that one before, that’s
a good one.
B: Dark desert rock
L: [Laughs]
What
can you tell us about the upcoming mini album or ep
L:mini album
B: You get two things with our album I
suppose, its kind of like an audiobook in a way. Our songs are more stories and
its accompanied by some quite nice music. But with our booklet we encourage
people to more read our lyrics and they would get more of an..
L: idea
B: yeah like an understanding of where our
music’s coming from aswell
Are
you guys incorporating some photography or artwork into the booklet aswell?
L: Yeah the album cover art work is done by
Sonny and Biddy from We Buy Your Kids
B: It’s quite nice I reckon, they’ve done a
good job on it actually
Have they done their usual
sort of screen-printing stuff or is it different?
B: it is kind of more photography, I don’t know how they did the
front cover
L: im not sure either
B: I think they do a lot of layering in their photography, like they
will take a picture of something then layer something over the top of that.
It’s abit quirky but its nice.
Will
it contain tracks like Catcher In The Rye and Oceanic Blues?
L: Yeah its got those two, its got Hounds
which is being played on FBI atm I think
B: Catcher in the rye is on triple j I think
L: We tried to get some acoustics songs and
try and make a variety of different songs on the album
How many tracks is it?
L: Eight!, the last track is short it’s called calling you home but its
got a secret horn section at the end
Secret horn section?
L: Yeah
Oh so like a hidden track?
B: Yep!
[Laughs] Nice!
How
long have you guys been together ?
B: Umm, as the current line up now, its been 3
years
And you guys were jamming well before that?
B: myself and Leroy were jamming since high school, senior high and that sort of thing and decided to form a crew
So is that when you guys met, during
school?
L: Yeah,we we’re all friends at school
B: Yeah and it all magically came together that we all liked the same thing and
it went from there and we kept plugging at it and kept going and here we are
now.
You guys grew
up somewhere up the coast right?
L: Yeah, Central Coast
B: The Central Coast, the lovely Central
Coast [Laughs]
L: The lovely Central Coast [Laughs]
There’s
not much of a music scene there right?
Together in chorus: Nooooooooooooo [Laughs]
B: Not at all, which is good in a way.
Because we didn’t have any influences form bands that were playing there and
stuff like that. So it was a good way to make our own niche.
L: They’ve got great bands up the coast.
Like The Screaming Jets?
B: [Laughs]
L: [Laughs]
L: Yeah that’s Newcastle isn’t it?
B: Yeah. It’s close, it’s close.
L: Dali’s Angels, The Lazys. They’re friends of ours, they’re nice
guys.
B: It’s a pity there’s not a lot going on there because there are a
lot of people that legitimately play good music. It’s between Newcastle and
Sydney so its, yeah.
Is this your sort of
Wyong/Gosford area?
B: Yeah yeah.
L: Limbo, I like to call it... Limbo.
B: [Laughs]
My grandma lives up there
so im fairly familiar with the area
L: They’ve got a good venue there called the Chili Lounge, im not
sure if it’s still going. It turns into a karaoke night then into a..
B: But it turns into a gay bar aswell, every Friday night or
something
Your multi faceted venue
of the coast?
B: That’s it, that’s it.
Who do
you personally see as influence in your writing?
L: Umm band wise? My self I like Leonard
Cohen all the usual, Bob Dylan and Nick Cave and all those that are sort of
more lyrically poetic. Brin?
B: I was brought up on a lot of older styles
of music like The Doors, The Beatles, Electric Light Orchestra and stuff like
that. I’m a massive at the moment of Tom Waits and I have been for a while and
I like it because it’s swampy, grungy, darker kind of stuff.
Is the same sort of stuff you listen to
in your day to day, when you say catching the train or do you listen to more
modern stuff aswell?
B: Not a lot of modern stuff is on my ipod and I don’t listen to a
lot of radio. Not a lot of modern stuff comes to me as such, but I do listen to
[music] on the train, buses, car rides and at work all that kind of thing.
So most of it’s your older
stuff that you see as influences?
B: Yeah, exactly. A lot of older influences but there are a few
newer ones, but that’s not to say they are..
L: Influences of ours.
B: But there wouldn’t be a pop band in there anywhere except for,
what is it? Jay-Z?
L: JAY-Z’S EMPIRE STATE OF MIND! Of my mind! Whoop! I love that
song. I actually destroyed my ipod headphones listening to it too much, too
loud.
Have you heard the Jay-Z song
with Eminem called ‘Renegade’?
L: No
You have to check it out
man, it’s a really good song
L: What’s it called im writing that down
‘Renegade’, It’s by Jay-Z
and Eminem does the phattest phattest rhymes.
L: Aww, man im excited.
B: I’m going to go home and look that up!
You're
debut single, Catcher in the Rye, made iTunes single of the week
L: I’ve never had anything like that so it
was exciting to hear how many downloads we got.
How
many was it out of interest?
L: was it 20,000?
B: 25,000 I think it was
The
song has a very recognisable title?
B: Yeah *sarcastically*
L: Yeah, its not actually about the book, I
mean I love the book. But the guy who killed John Lennon was reading Catcher In The Rye, and thought it was about him and part of him. I guess its about people
thinking something about them when its not. It’s kind of like 2010’s your so
vain.
They
should make a TV show about that.
L: [Laughs]
Yeah
[Laughs]
It would probably be better than something like
Dancing With The Stars
L: Yeah have it on Channel 7
B:
[Laughs]
And
you have to cross promote it and have people like Grant Denyer and all of those
guys on it.
L: [Laughs]
Oh God.
B: [Laughs]
There
is an air of maturity about your songs, what inspires you're song writing and I
assume you guys share the song writing roles?
L: Musically its shared amongst us all, but I
write the lyrics and I guess I don’t know if its mature. But I just try and
take the events that have occuredin my life and turn them into a metaphorical
folk tale, something like that I guess. If that answers your question…
Because its not like its
straight forward love or straight forward hate its quite masked and concealed
you know?
L: I like to tink, think. I like to tink [Laughs] I like to think people take their own version of it and
kind of figure out
B: Figure out what they will from it.
Like you said before you
encourage people to read the lyrics and listen to it at the same time, how does
it work?
L: Because the lyrics aren’t very straightforward and I’m sure alot
people will take their own version for it and it will remind them of a time or
event that occurred in their lives
B: But I think it helps reading the lyrics to understand the music
aswell. It’s a weird mix of a story but you can’t always, all the time kind of
understand or gather the lyrics and the music aswell. It’s easier if you were
to listen to it and listen at the same time
So is there definitely
more than two layers there, it’s not just the music and the lyrics?
L: Yeah like Shrek said.
B: Plenty of layers in an onion.
Having
gone around the country on regional tours with quite a few of the bigger bands
around Sydney 'what is your view on the current climate of Australia’s live
music scene?'
L: It could be stronger, different places and
different states have more music following than others.
B: I do really enjoy the Mess Hall and the
tour and they are really nice guys. Their music’s quite good aswell, but I
think they’re a bit how would you say? I think they’re a bit under appreciated.
L: I don’t know, I think they are quite
appreciated.
B: Really?
I
think they’ve crossed over into that sort of Channel V market
L: Yeah
B: Oh, punched over there. [Hits table] I’m
out.
L: [Laughs]
B: Yeah it could be a lot stronger, but
there’s a lot of people doing the same thing.
That’s
where you guys come in and do something different
B: That’s it
L: Hopefully
L: Do our thang!
Are you able to dish out some dirt on any of the bands you’ve toured
with?
L: Dirt!
B: Oooooooh!
This
is your chance to get one up on them as we haven’t interviewed any of the bands
you’ve toured with.
B: What dirt do we have?
L: I don’t know.
I
Remember seeing photos of Kirin’s (Kirin J. Callinan) vomit on that tour bus
L: [Laughs] That was great! [Laughs] That was
a highlight, I have no idea what he ate but it looked beautiful
What?!
Before or after?
L: [Laughs] Before.
B: [Laughs]
L: [Laughs] Yeah, Kirin gave us tattoos actually
B: Home job tattoos on that tour.
L: Very eventful tour
B: But yeah? Dirt? Just the usual stuff
really.
L: I’d like to thank Kiss for giving me
permanent scars on each of my wrists, on the back of my hands.
B: Ohh! Was that from when he was holding you
down?
L: In Canberra, he got down on me…
B: [Laughs]
L: On the concrete and had hes knees on both
of my wrists… And kind of had hes way with me I guess... Hes a character that Kiss [Laughs]
B: He is! But we don’t really have any dirt
do we?
L: Nothing really.
Just
keeping the peace?
B: We have to I suppose otherwise they will
be after us
They
can come after you guys via Aureview interviews, we can do that.
L: [Laughs]
B: I’m afraid we don’t have any dirt
L: I would like Bridezilla, if they have time between knitting to
come have a drink with us.
B: Yeah they were knitting and reading books at most of the shows
with The Mess Hall
L: They turned me from a ladette to a lady
Do they all knit?
B: Two of them were knitting and the rest read books.
L: They’re lovely. They’re lovely girls.
There was no party to
break up there
L: They partied when they needed to party
B: Yeah
L: They partied at the right time
B: They waited and builded up to it…By knitting…
L: [Laughs]
B: And going to the local libraries
L: [Laughs]
Lastly
that tour with Children Collide coming up?
L: It starts on the 3rd of June in
Coolangatta, Queensland. I’m very excited about that.
How do
you compare the regional shows compared to the major city shows?
B: The regional ones are enjoyable, I quite
like those shows. Like Eumundi? Queensland
L: Eumundi, That is great.
B: At Joe’s Watering Hole?
L: Yeah that’s it, Joe’s Watering Hole.
B: That was a really good place, we got a
really good reception. Sometimes you go to a capital city, we play and it’s a bit
weird.
L: you always have a surprising crowd at the
regional shows
Does
it depend what day it is of the week aswell?
B: Yeah a lot, I mean if you play too many
Sunday shows. Everyones getting ready to go to work and they don’t really want
to go out and party on. You can never tell what’s going to be good and whats
not because its always surprising every time you play a show no matter where it
is or what day it is. It’s always good to do a capital city sort of shows but
we can’t forget the regional ones either.
And
few of the venues are some of the bigger ones you will play?
B: We’ve played some of these before on The
Mess Hall tour, but there’s a couple we haven’t. The bigger venues they’re
good, it’s always good to play a bigger venue if they’ve got a lot of people in
there. But normally when we play there aren’t to many people there.
L: Unfortunately we’ve been asked to wrap it up.
No worries, hopefully
Bridezilla or Kiss can back to us with a reply
L: [Laughs] I’d like to hear what they’ve got to say
Thanks for your time guys!
B: Appreciate it!
