In advance of the release of their second record O Exquisite Corpse, I caught up with John Meyer of the band to talk about it, touring and much more…
We’re here to talk about your upcoming album; obviously we’ve had it in our hands for a little while now… we loved the record, I guess where does it begin for you guys with the record, how far back does the music go?
Ages actually, the first album came out with 2010 and pretty much straight away we were writing for the next album, and starting playing some of those songs that ended up on the next album, so a few of them are that old and settled in with the band and everything, so its really cool to see those songs finally make it to a permanent form, then those other songs there’s one song that was written during the recording process and that was a late addition, and a couple of others we’ve only really played a couple of times or songs we really always wanted to record but didn’t make it to our live set. Recording is always an opportunity to do stuff different to what you do live
Is that then going to change what you’re doing live or is it going to stay consistent?
A little bit i guess, but we like to keep our live sets really up beat you know, there’s so many people on stage its really hard for us to hold back, but we’ve got those songs in us as well so that’s where the recording allows you to do that. I think our next record, jumping the gun a bit here, but our next project is a bit more acoustic and drawn back and quite a bit introspective in a way, but that’s for the future.
Well fair enough, and congratulations on the record, you’ve performed a little bit, you played about 5 days ago in Brisbane, how’d that show go?
Yeah because its our home town so as we expected its as pretty massive, was a massive party and we kicked on with the punters afterwards, and stayed there for a bit, it was like all our dreams come true i guess, was such a great night, makes you feel like its a worthwhile, its your home town and all your friends are there, we’ve done the Melbourne leg of the tour and that went off really well too, we’ve got Sydney left and Newcastle, and some regional stuff, yeah all those east coast places.
And the album, it hasn’t been released yet, when does it get officially released?
Technically its out on the 3rd of august, but it is available at our shows and on our online store, but it’ll hit iTunes and the shops on the 3rd.
You must be glad to finally get it out there.
Yeah its a long process, 2 years since the last record, we did want it out a bit earlier than that, but it takes that long, the actual recording process was 3 months of intense effort, we did it in 5 or so locations and mixed it together, that process was really kind of scattered, you know, so many different instruments to record, and there really as quite an intense 3 months of my life that i’ll never get back
Well you do in the sense that there’s something to show for it
Yeah, and we’ll all so proud of it, don’t want to blow your own trumpet but its a real step up for us from the last record, and generally what we wanted it to be, we love it and we hope every else does as well, getting a good response so far.
Yeah you certainly are, and i imagine there’ll be more of that to come. What else is the rest of the year holding for you, you’ve got a couple of shows as you mentioned in New South Wales next month what else will 2012 bring for you guys?
We’re just stoked to find out we got announced for the big sound, big music conference in Brisbane, its really hard spot to get and we’re doing our best to impress the industry, playing alongside some incredible bands, cream and stuff, the Australian kind of music, that’s September, we take a couple of months off while a couple of us go overseas, then back into releasing another single off the record, then doing another tour.
Do we get to know what the new single is? Or can’t you say?
Well, I want to keep it under wraps for now, still negotiating a bit on that one…
You look at the music guys that you guys have got out, how much say do you guys sort of have in the way that those things go?
Um, the bands really involved in that process, you know we were very lucky to work with the company Cartel in both of those videos, and they are the most amazing guys, but yeah we worked together with them we workshop ideas and everything about this band in terms of the visual element really reflects the personalities in the bands, you know our strengths and nothing out of sorts.
Well look forward to hearing and seeing what comes next for you guys, and congratulations again on the new record.
Cool man thanks for the chat!
No worries, and i hope you feel better soon!
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The Good Ship launch their second album O Exquisite Corpse on August 4 at GoodGod Small Club in Sydney. Tickets are on sale now.
Transcript by Ross Hetherton
