El had a quick chat to Adam Spark of Birds Of Tokyo about their new album and why Perth is a musical treasure trove.

A lot has been said about the fact that in this album you guys have completely reinvented yourselves musically? Is this really the case?

Yes and no . . . I mean both to a degree. There are a lot more fingers in pies now, and we all have a lot more input. We spent nearly two years on some of the songs, I think it’s just more our approach to writing and playing that’s changed a bit. We wanted to stay away from the typical devices we had used; just to push ourselves in terms of dynamics and writing. There are also definitely still things that are similar but we did try a different approach, so hopefully it has worked! (laughs).

And you also spent time working together in France? C’est la vie.

Yeah we were down in the south of France all together. We’d never really treated ourselves to something like that but we thought why not get away in the middle of winter, and go somewhere for a few weeks, so we rented a big house and took a mobile recording rig with us. It was great.

That sounds amazing!

Yeah, we sat in the pool and drank a lot of cheap, cheap wine. (laughs)

Can you tell us a bit about the video clip for This Fire? (Directed by Kris Moyes)

Yeah well our director Kris is really amazing. The concept was his idea, and we fell in love with it straight away. We loved the idea of burning down this sense of negativity. In doing so you give way, hopefully, to new positive life. We just thought it was really beautiful, that you know you’re sort of destroying art to create art. Engaging with something new. We also liked the idea that we weren’t actually in it, We’re really turned on by making more of an artistic video as opposed to jumping along pretending to sing our songs.

Well I think it worked! He’s a really talented director.

Yeah he is, a really great artist.

Lastly, any words of current music in Perth? There’s something in the water on that side of the country.

Well I haven’t been there in a while actually! But we’re all from there originally and that’s where we met. We all go back for our families, but we’re all pretty much all over the place these days. They’re certainly loving all of the psych-ey sort of stuff over there, which is interesting. Like Tame Impala, San Cisco, Pond and all. But I don’t know what it is . . . must be something.

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Birds Of Tokyo are playing:

SUNDAY OCTOBER 28 – PERTH
Rockit Festival
Arena Joondalup, Kennedya Drive, Joondalup
Tickets from www.heatseeker.com.au

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 5 – MELBOURNE
Ormond Hall, 557 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Tickets from www.birdsoftokyo.com

FRIDAY DECEMBER 7 – SYDNEY
The Annandale Hotel, 17 Parramatta Road, Annandale
Tickets from www.birdsoftokyo.com

SATURDAY DECEMBER 8 – SYDNEY
Homebake Festival, The Domain, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney City
Tickets from www.HOMEBAKE.com

Watch the viedo clip for This Fire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSpwcAvoo2o