Ahead of a string of East Coast dates Warning Birds’ Sam Carmody took some time out from touring to have a chat about the band’s forthcoming EP The Wars, the story behind their new single “Horrors” and a few early tour highlights.
What was the inspiration behind your upcoming single “Horrors”?
In a way “Horrors” is a political song, and in some ways it’s just a love song. The last election campaign was a despairing thing, watching the increasing hardening of the political dialogue. There was nothing forward-looking or hopeful about it. And Australia felt like it hardened in the process.
“Horrors” is essentially a love song set against that darkening, conservative back drop. It’s anguished but funnily enough its probably the most uplifting, hopeful song we’ve written. It’s about looking for a sanctuary in the goodness of a relationship when the whole world has gone mad.
Is the single indicative of what to expect from the rest of EP (The Wars)?
I guess that ‘hope’ thing is a bit more of a theme. It’s definitely brighter and more rhythmic than we’ve been before. There’s a bit more melody and movement in all the melancholy, I think.
How do you feel the experience of making Battle Plans influenced your work on The Wars? Were there things you did differently/kept the same?
Battle Plans was a dark record. It seemed necessary to pull the nose of the aircraft up on The Wars, offer some kind of relief. Both records are very dense, almost orchestral things, but The Wars sounds freer to me, and more positive.
During the writing of Battle Plans we were listening to a lot of film scores, writers like Hans Zimmer; a lot of very weighty, melodic music. But with The Wars we immersed ourselves in groove-based stuff, like Talking Heads. We were a bit more interested in the beat of things, how the songs physically felt, and the result is much more lively, I guess.
How did you find the experience of working with engineer Trina Shoemaker? And what do you feel she brought to the table?
I’d always wanted to work with her, since I saw her name on Something For Kate records when I was in high school. I summoned the guts to send her an email earlier this year and couldn’t believe it when she replied.
Working with her was a very weird, modern kind of deal. She’s based in Nashville so we would be sending emails back and forth at weird hours. It was kind of like sending your song each night to a different planet, and when you woke in the morning it had returned, and always sounding a little more otherworldly. And you’d send it back with a couple of notes and the process would start again.
It was quite surreal, and not as easy as it is to finish a mix as it might be when you’re in the same room together. But she’s a master, and it was a privilege to see her at work on our songs.
How did you approach the songwriting on this new EP – was it a collaborative effort?
We’ve almost worked out our process now, which seems to be that someone will write a song completely and then bring it in to the group, where the work of finding sounds and beats and things begins. But we’re all singing on this record: three lead vocalists. All the personalities of the band are finally set loose on this one. I find that really exciting.
You opened a couple of shows for Patrick James earlier this month, how do you feel they went?
Patrick is a really good guy and his fan base is as loyal as they get. A lot of people came to the two Perth shows back to back, which is awkward because I wore the same outfit twice and then saw all the same faces in the crowd. They were great fun shows, and nice to see him sell out his first headline tour of WA.
How is the tour going so far? Any tour stories or highlights so far?
Touring is such a good way to see your own country. It’s a privilege, and you realise how much Australians genuinely love music; particularly in how they accommodate a new band like ours. People are so cool and enthusiastic about new music.
Playing shows outside of the cities is fun too, the way audiences actually dance, like proper, full-commitment dancing. It’s more of a physical response than you get from city crowds, who can have a style of watching music that’s more like the way people watch a film.
Having a room of full of people foot-stomping and guys spinning girls ballroom-style at The White Star tavern in Albany was pretty strange but a definite highlight.
For those who may not have seen you live yet, how would you describe a Warning Birds show?
I’d maybe describe it as busy and energetic. There’s six of us on stage a lot of the time and three lead singers. There’s a bit going on. And we always judge our performance on the effort we’ve put in to it, how exhausted we are once we’re done, so it can be quite the spectacle, I imagine.
Given we’re nearing the end of the year, as a band what have been your highlights of 2013?
Putting out our debut EP was the highlight for me. We poured so much into that record so to see someone walking away from a show with it tucked under their arm, is a very satisfying feeling.
What’s next for the band?
We’ll release The Wars early in the new year, then we have our eyes set on Europe so hopefully those plans work out. Having ‘Birds’ in the name, I think we feel its time we lived up to it and got in the air.
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Warning Birds are celebrating the release of their new single “Horrors” with a tour around WA and the rest of the country. Remaining dates and the single are below!
November 24 – Caves House, Yallingup
November 29 – Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle
November 30 – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
December 5 – Grace Darling Hotel, Melbourne
December 14 – Grace Emily, Adelaide
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