Recent Ivy League signees Alpine have been making quite a few waves over the years in their hometown of Melbourne - and now they rest of Australia is getting to taste what they're all about. Their music video and recent single "Heartlove" has been a success on TV and radio waves alike - not to mention the internets. And now they've got another single on the way, alongside their debut EP Zurich. We chatted to the band to find out all about what was going down...
In many online reviews and articles, your band has been likened to Phoenix, Lykke Li and The XX - are these artists you identify with? Or do you think Alpine has an entirely different sound?
Phoebe / To be likened to all of the above is indeed flattering. I think we've never intentionally sought out to make music that identifies with theirs but in retrospect we probably follow the same thread of pop sensibility (or insensibility) that you hear in their songs. Each of us has something unique, so yes perhaps we a sailing in similar seas.
Christian / I think what you listen to comes out in your music no matter what. And it's idiotic to fight your influences. I love all those bands and any comparison is super flattering.
Ryan / I can definitely see what parts of those bands people see in us, but I don’t think any of us really listen to them too much, except maybe Phoenix. I think the thing that’s great about these kind of comparisons is that they’re quite different artists, so it’s really cool that people can’t seem to pin the sound down. I think that’s always a good thing.
Melbourne music lovers may be more familiar with your band under the name of Swiss - why did you choose to change your name?
Tim / I think we must have been Alpine now for as long as we were Swiss. I hadn't thought about the days of Swiss for a good while—til I made my friend swiss cheese on alpine toast the other day—my flatmate actually bought Alpine branded bread. True story! Oh yeah, and we changed name because of the Adelaide based The Swiss who popped up about the same time in 2009.
Phil / Its been quite some time since we went by the name Swiss. It all came about when Adelaide band The Swiss were contacted by a venue to confirm a show and they said “No we can’t play that night.” and the show was almost cancelled. There was just too much confusion basically, between Swiss and The Swiss, so Alpine was born.
Phoebe / There were two bands with no name, One was tall and one was short. One day there was a race to see which band could gain the prized name of Swiss. The tall one won the race because he had longer legs. The short one got lost in the crowd, took a wrong turn and ended up high in the fresh vistas of the alps. There he settled in a chalet and became a very contented prize winning snowboarder and swiss hot chocolate drinker.. this may be a bit of an exaggeration..:)
What have been the major influences (musical or otherwise) on the crafting of your sound? If we took a quick peek at your ipod/mp3 player - which artists would come up on the 'most played' list?
Tim / Recently LCD Soundsystem and Talking Heads, combined with a love for hip-hop (well 3 of us anyway) has the band heading in a slightly more groove-based direction. It is still pop music at heart though. My top 2 most played songs are apparently (glance at iTunes) Dreams/Fleetwood Mac, and Miss Fat Booty/Mos Def. That probably says it all. Times that by six and there are going to be some unusual influences happening.
Phoebe / Each of our influences is very different, which is lovely. Its like going to an eclectic part - lovely (Haha). Anyway on my most played list there would probably be Todd Rundgren, Led Zeppelin, Serge Gainsbourg, Prince, Devendra Banhart, Janet Jackson, Tribe Called Quest, Thee Oh Sees, Chaka Kahn, Ella Fitzgerald, Brian Eno, The audio book of Harry Potter... haha oh dear, these lists go on for ridiculous lengths of time and you'd get all snoozy!
Lou / I’m quite inspired by early Roxy Music - I love that it’s quirky, catchy, imaginative and theatrical. I especially love how each song draws you into the surreal. On my iPod this week, I’ve currently been listening to Wild Nothing, Beach House, New Order and Washed Out (Very obsessed!)
Ryan / There’s not really many bands that we all agree on, which is why we don’t play that many covers! There’s not a lot of crossover in our tastes, except for maybe mid-90’s hip hop, 60’s psych, Washed Out and Jorge Ben.
Phil / For me it would be Broken Social Scene, I think the whole “big band” thing those guys have going on is pretty unique. You would also find Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Another “big band”, they are insanely good!
Right from the very beginning your band has been garnering positive reviews and wracking up air time onTriple J and other alternative radio stations - do you think this support has driven you to keep pursuing your dreams? Do you think your band would still be performing even if you hadn't received this encouragement?
Phoebe / Their support is fabulous, its a huge surreal reward and tis definately inspiring! I can't speak for the others, but I'll be performing with our without the radio play til I'm 65-and-a-half and no one want to see me on stage. Plus hanging out and playing with the other bunch of larrikins is far too much fun :)
Christian / The encouragement from radio is great because it really legitimizes what you are doing. but we are really good friends and we have way too much fun playing together so I think we'd still be playing for sure.
Ryan / Triple J were pretty amazing to us from the start. We put our demos on the Unearthed site and they got played an hour later on the radio, which was unbelievable. They’ve been really nice to us ever since. I think if we’d never been played we’d still be working away, but it makes a huge difference when people have heard of you before a show. It’s a much nicer feeling.
You have also been signed to the illustrious Ivy League Records (joining the ranks of such luminaries as Cloud Control, Cabins, The Mess Hall, Josh Pyke and Sparkadia) - how did it feel to secure this record deal? Do feel more pressure to succeed now you're an 'Ivy League' band?
Phoebe / Signing with Ivy League = amazing. Pressure to succeed now that we are an "Ivy League" band = Yup, but I love it :) Its and awesome opportunity and an exiting challenge.
Christian / Yes! Ivy League has great bands and they've all done awesome things. Definitely pressure but a good kind of pressure.
Lou / To be part of the Ivy League family is pretty special. When they believe in you, they’ll do what ever they can to help you. It’s comforting knowing you have such a great support system behind you. It’s more so the pressure that we put on ourselves, we’re just highly motivated to grow and take every opportunity that has already come our way since signing to Ivy League.
Ryan / It all happened pretty quickly, and we haven’t really had any time to stop and feel any pressure! It’s cool to be on a label with all this history, but at the same time we wanted them to put out the record because they’re just incredibly nice people. That was the most important thing to us. They’ve been super enthusiastic and cared about us before anyone else did.
Phil / It’s something that all bands strive towards. We don’t feel any more pressure now that we’ve signed to Ivy League, just more excitement I guess.
You took up a residency at the Northcote Social Club in Melbourne during August - how was the experience?
Phoebe / So much fun and a great way to hone our live performance. We also had scrumptious pub meals and pear ciders which made it feel very homely! I think the bar staff are now thinking .. "ahh not again.. these alpine folk" whenever we play there.
Lou / The residency was a real turning point for us. It really helped us to improve on our live performance over the four weeks and as a band I felt something just clicked. Every performance since the residency is just getting better and better!
Ryan / It was great! It’s my favourite place to play in the city, so it was cool to really get to know it. We also put together a whole bunch of our friends to play, so we got to watch bands we like every week.
Phil / The Northcote Social Club has always been a venue that we’ve wanted to play. Having the opportunity to play with some great bands during our August residency was awesome. It’s definitely one our favourite venues in Melbourne.
You're about to release your debut EP Zurich - was there a particular vision you had for the record?
Phoebe / There was no particular vision, I think the songs seemed to fit together into this certain little package and the outcome was Zurich.. its like an introductory guide to what our sound is like. A mini puzzle that we have put together and are very proud of thankyou :)
Ryan / The main thing was that we didn’t want it to feel like a bunch of songs thrown together. We have songs that we really wanted to put out that didn’t fit with the feel of the record, so that it could be something you can listen to start to finish. We also wanted something that felt like it was all ours… We recorded most of it ourselves and produced it with a friend, Tim did the artwork and Phoebe took the photo inside the cover. It was a team effort.
Lastly, can you tell us a bit about the making of your amazing new music video "Heartlove" ... I hear there were some crazy camera moves going on to achieve the look?
Lou / It was a full on day! Heartlove was filmed in our first rehearsal space in a warehouse in Kensingston. The director Matthew was really great to work with. Matthew sat on a seat with a camera, which was attached to the track. The other camera-man Joe spent the entire day pushing and pulling Mathew up and down the track whilst the footage was being shot. I felt exhausted watching him!
Ryan / Matthew Chuang directed it, and we filmed it in our old rehearsal space in a warehouse in Melbourne. We had this idea halfway through of this kind of trick shot which involved a kind of frantic scramble and then trying to look really calm within about 2 seconds. It took ages and looked really awesome, but then never actually made it into the clip!
Phil / Shooting the clip for Heartlove was awesome. Our friend Matt who directed it, really knew what we wanted and how to do it. I don’t think there are any still shots in the whole clip, its all tracking and crazy movement. The clip’s on Rage at the moment also, so that’s a buzz for us.
