Brisbane’s Last Dinosaurs are excited about 2011, as Sean Caskey tells the AU review’s Larry Heath...

So how’s everything going? It’s setting up to be a pretty big year for you guys already...

Yeah man, it’s such a good kick off to the year with the Foals tour, it was just ridiculously good because Foals are like one of our favourite bands. To be able to meet them at Splendour in July was just insane, but to play with them was even better, so we’re very, very happy. So, we got a good start and we have a tour coming up, so we’re pretty excited to get this year going.

What a great way to start off the year, and now you’re teaming up with Sydney’s Papa Vs Pretty. How did that pairing come about?

That was our manager’s idea I’d say. He proposed it to us, and initially we really just wanted to be with a band like us, but upon second thought it made sense not to tour with a band again that sounds like us. It’s really good to have something different. Like, it will be interesting for people to watch us, and then watch Papa Vs Pretty. It will be different, but I’m sure they’re awesome at what they do, and it’s going to be good because that’s going to motivate us to be better at what we do. We’re going to try and win their crowd, and they’re going to try and win our crowd, and benefit each other.

Will it result in some sort of collaboration on the stage?

I don’t know, someone was saying that today and I didn’t even think of it, but that would be pretty cool idea. I don’t know what song we would do because I don’t know if we know the same bands or not.

I’m sure you guys have similar taste in music.

I don’t know, because apparently they sound like Muse, and Muse is awesome but we’re like... I don’t know. We’ll have to find out. We haven’t had the chance to get to know them yet.

You’ll have plenty of time as you travel around the country with them. How many dates is the tour?

It’s nine I think.

It’ll be a pretty fun couple of weeks I’m sure.

Yeah, should be, yeah.

And you’ll be releasing around the same time a seven inch...

I think it’s out, I’m pretty sure.

You’ve got it out digitally, but it will be released on vinyl during the tour I’m told.

Oh okay, yeah, well there you go. It’s cool that we have vinyl, it’s purely a novelty thing.

This is your first release since the EP?

Yeah.

Was it was recorded afterwards? Is this a taste of some new material?

Yeah, pretty much, because we were supposed to do the album towards the end of last year but didn’t have enough songs, so we’re just keeping people interested by releasing something to basically stall, so that we can do the album by mid this year, so hopefully after the tour, and release it by the end of this year.

Fantastic, it seems like you’ve got a good set up for the year going?

Yeah, our manager’s a genius and he just knows how to do things right.

Well, I'll definitely print that part, I’m sure he’ll appreciate that.

(laughs)

I understand you were involved in a recent single with Dune Rats?

Yeah, how did you know?

Oh, I have a press release about it, I actually just got the song “Rat Bags” yesterday. I know that Tim Morrisey worked on it. How did that come about?

I was in a band ages ago with BC, the drummer, in Cairos, I left that maybe about two years ago. I’ve been dying to play bass again, and BC and Danny are awesome guys, and we chill a fair bit anyway, and they said 'can you play bass for a song?', and I was like, 'yeah ok', and I came and learnt it and made the bassline. The day after, they had a show, and were like 'do you want to play?', and I said 'well if I’m going to play, I don’t want to bring an amp and all this shit just for one song', so I learnt the whole set. So I’ve played with them twice now, no three times. So I’ve played with them for like 50% of their shows, and all up including rehearsals I’ve only played with them about four times. It’s pretty rough, but it’s pretty cool.

Sounds like something a bit different to what you're doing with Last Dinosaurs?

Yeah, it is, very. I enjoy it because it is different. It’s drastically different in the way that it is so unprepared, it’s just winging it. Just going to play and get smashed. It’s just fun to be able to do that.

It’s interesting that you haven’t been speaking much about it.

Well, I’m not really in the band, that’s the thing, like I only did it as a favour because they are good friends of mine. I was supposed to play with them on the weekend, but they’re going to get someone else to play bass. And actually I think they’re getting our guitar player Lach, who is my brother, I think he’s going to play drums for them in a couple of weeks.

God, you guys just jump between all the instruments don’t you?

Yeah, pretty much.

Was bass where you started, was it the first instrument you played?

Probably in a band, yeah, but I’ve always been a guitarist at heart. I played bass because they needed a bass player for Cairos, which was fun, and I played it like it was a guitar sort of, because I used a pick and it was all melodic and shit, but I much prefer guitar over bass.

So your role in Last Dinosaurs is perfect for you?

Yeah, exactly.

So we’re talking about hopefully getting an album out by the end of the year, and you’ve got the co-headline tour in March and April. Is there anything else you can fit into this year?

Yeah, I guess it’s just the recording, and whenever the album comes out, just touring and whatever else comes with it. I hope that we do a lot of shows this year, because all I want to do is play. It just sucks when we don’t play and just rehearse - well, we don’t really rehearse much anyway, but it just sucks when we’re not doing anything, so I’d love to play as much as possible this year.

So do your songs evolve better in the live space as well, so that the songs that you’re working on, rather than sitting there rehearsing them, if you’re playing them in the live space do they evolve a bit more naturally?

It’s hard because we’ve got a fair few new songs that we’ve only played live a handful of times, and it’s hard to get an honest opinion from people sometimes. Like, I get off stage and ask how was it, and they say 'yeah, it was good', and look off to the top right or down to the ground or whatever, so it's hard to tell. But we’ve just got to keep working over these songs until we think they’re the best they can be, and then we're just going to hope that when we go to record the producers will put a good spin on it.

Well, it sounds like you’re going about it the right way, I wish you all the best for the next year and thanks for taking the time out of your day for talking to us.

Thanks man, thanks for the interview.