We chat to Glen Esmond, bass player from The Butterfly Effect, about the band's upcoming performance at the Come Together Festival (this weekend!), what they've been up to lately, and their pals Dead Letter Circus.

What have the band been up to since you released 'Conversation of Kings'?

We've been doing a few other things. Clint (Boge, vocals) has been doing a little side project thing and I've been doing a little side project.

I've heard Thousand needles in red (Clint's side project) can you tell us a bit about yours?

It's called Family of Strangers. It has a pop rock Foo Fighters kind of vibe.

Anyone else in Family of Strangers, or it more of a solo thing?

The live band has a couple of the guys that play with Kate Miller Heidke's band. Yeah, I've got a great little band together and we've done a couple of gigs.

Any plans to release anything?

I've got an EP recorded, just doing the artwork and stuff at the moment. We're gonna do a digital release in probably the next month or so.

And will there be a new album from TBE anytime soon?

Not anytime soon... But in about a year we're hoping.We're really gonna take the time to get this next album really really right you know. We wanna make sure we have 10 killer songs!

Is the plan for Forrester to produce the album again?

It's not my intention at this point. There's a bit of conjecture going around about how we're actually going to do it. The latest conversation has been that we're really liking the way Birds of Tokyo did their latest record. Actually doing the bass and drums over here and getting the basic tracks done. And then getting a producer/mixer to then go and do the extra guitars, and the vocals. You know where all sort of extra production gets done; the little sweeteners.

So essentially doing the basic tracking by yourselves this time..?

We'll probably still work with a producer in some regard, but we'll get someone involved from the get go. we still like the sound of Imago, our second record better than anything else we've done. So i think if you can find the right overseas producer, its definately worth having them on board. But I mean, its quite easy to get a good bass sound, its quite easy to get a good drum sound. All you need are some good mics and someone who can track the stuff well. There is that much stuff done in post production anyway that some of the basic tracking is kind of important but not as important as what you can do to it after.

You're in town for Come Together Festival, are there any bands on the bill you're looking forward to seeing or catching up with?

It's always fun catching up with the Frenzal guys and the Gyro boys are good mates. Kurt (Goedhart) our guitarist is gonna stick around for Dead Letter Circus cos I think its the last show of their tour, and its the first show of ours. Which is a bit of a shame cos I'd like to stick around and party with those boys.

Speaking of DLC, what do you think of their new album?

This is their first record so everything gets taken with a grain of salt. Like as a first record, its fucking mind blowing. It blows anything any of the rest of us have done out of the water. But... there is production value on it that i just kind of don't get into. It's their thing and I reckon they're doing it better than anyone else in the country. And whether its a critique of their aesthetic or Forrester's production I dunno...

But I'd like to hear Kim's voice almost not make it on some notes, you know. I'd like to hear the real raw sound of his voice braking into splinters on a big note, you know what i mean? I'd like to hear the drum fill thats not quite there but just sounds fucking cool. This is if i had to be overly critical though. I still think it's absolutely excellent!

At the Enmore Theatre last year you did a geat piano version of Beautiful mine.

Yeah it was cool wasn't it.

Any plans to release that version?

We recorded all the shows on that tour multi track and we got footage of the Enmore show on a whole bunch of cameras. We...may do a studio version But maybe we'll just end up doing a live version as a B side or something.

Will that gig be released as a DVD?

Yes is the short answer. The long answer is, we don't want to release anything that isn't fantastic. So we're doing up some mixes of the audio at the moment and we're gonna start looking at some vision of it soon. We just want to make sure we have enough good stuff.

Finally, do you have a favourite TBE album?

I like the sound of Imago, but I really think the song writing on Final Conversation of Kings is still our best. You probably won't hear that from the other guys in the band. But for me personally, I think its when we finally started to mature as song writers. You can hear on that album a lot more risk taking then what there ever was before. It was when we started to lose the idea of what we should be and just started to be what we are. I think its got colour and darkness and stuff in it. In a way that Begins Here was very overtly dark and angry, I think Final Conversation is still as dark, you just have to look at where the darkness comes from. It's a bit more subtle.

Don't miss The Butterfly Effect THIS WEEKEND at Come Together Festival in Sydney!