Jack Bourke is sacrificing his lunch hour to take a few media interviews. He is also recovering from a persistent cold, which is perhaps the product of juggling his day job with a hectic tour schedule. In spite of this, he is upbeat, though modest, about the snowballing success of City Calm Down.
The Melbourne experimental rockers have been creeping up in the music scene for some time now. Their calendar ahead includes slots at hotly anticipated summer festivals like Sugar Mountain and Falls. Adding to the momentum, three tracks have already been released from their forthcoming debut album, In A Restless House – ‘Son’, ‘Rabbit Run’ and ‘Wandering’.
“The tour has been really good,” says Bourke, the group’s baritone frontman. He is particularly pleased about their recent sold-out show at Newtown Social Club, dubbing it “probably one of the best shows we’ve done”.
Indeed, the band’s first headline tour has been met with bundles of enthusiasm and legions of new fans. “We were kind of surprised people bought tickets,” Bourke says. “Playing to rooms full of people has been really exciting and rewarding. We’re really looking forward to getting the album out so we can keep doing it.”
The four-piece has been developing its debut album for nearly three years. “We finished recording in May,” Bourke explains. “It’s funny looking back, because while it took a long time from start to finish, a lot of songs on the record came together in the last three or four months of writing. We had this exceptionally unproductive period before going into an exceptionally productive period. It doesn’t mean we wrote the album in three months, though. We probably wouldn’t have got there if we didn’t have the time beforehand.”
City Calm Down’s debut EP Movements arrived back in 2012. This synth-heavy handful of tracks was full of ghostly echoes and punchy drum beats, like Cut Copy with softer edges. In A Restless House features the same shimmering sounds with an extra layer of instrumentation. There are a range of new textures seeping onto this record – for instance, ‘Son’ opens like a church hymn, weaving together organ elements and choral backing. That said, Bourke and co. have retained a degree of dancefloor friendliness – the thrumming ‘Border On Control’ culminates in a killer chorus, while ‘Your Fix’ bursts forth as an ’80s pop banger, held together by steady guitar riffs.
While City Calm Down are typically identified as an electronic quartet, this bold full-length debut brings with it some genre nuance. “We weren’t so much interested in making a dance record,” says Bourke. “We still wanted things to have groove and to make music that people can move to. We decided to focus less on 125 beats per minute and super bass, I guess. We also moved away from having synths fill every instrumental element outside of vocals. We introduced more guitar, horn sections and different sorts of keyboards. I think we’ve been trying to transform an electronically focused group into a band. We still like those electronic elements, but they play a more subtle role now.”
One of the more regular comparisons made about City Calm Down’s music is its similarity to New Order. From the ashes of Joy Division, the ’80s innovators became legendary for pushing post-punk into an emerging dance sensibility, making some groundbreaking pop music in the process. And the ‘new New Order’ tag isn’t necessarily a product of journalistic laziness.
“Look, I would be lying if I said they weren’t a major influence,” Bourke says. “We listened to heaps of their stuff as a group, particularly when we were starting out. However, I don’t know if we’re super conscious of New Order when writing music. Some songs pay tribute to them in a big way, while others definitely don’t.”
When it came to stitching songs together for the album, Bourke finished many of his lyrics in the one sitting. “I was still writing lyrics when were in the studio actually,” he says. “In terms of process, I tend to write very loose lyrics and then once we have a clear structure or arrangement I will tighten them up. So everything came together around the same time. I don’t necessarily think of music as applying a lyric to a melody or a melody to a lyric. At the end of the day, the struggle for any band is to make their music feel as if the words are one with the melody.”
In A Restless House certainly seems to have struck a balance between electronic and instrumental elements – there is a sense of sonic consistency underpinning the new suite of songs. However, Bourke maintains he wasn’t necessarily working within the framework of a single theme or mood.
“I was trying to tap into how the songs felt and how the words interacted with the sounds. I have certain phrases that I’ve pulled out of the early development phase and then I use those phrases to construct everything else. I guess the phrase is kind of like the plot and then I write the song about what it represents to me.”
As their schedule gets busier and busier, City Calm Down have been winning praise for their assured live performances, with some critics tipping them to be the next Australian band to attract international acclaim. This attention informed the album in its own way.
“One of the things floating in the back of our minds is how songs will translate live,” says Bourke. “It almost happens during the songwriting process, as opposed to after. We’re not trying to make an album full of live bangers, but it is important for there to be a transfer of energy when the audience sees us perform live. That said, there are a few songs on the album that probably aren’t suited to a live environment.”
As the summer festival season draws near, Bourke remains level-headed about the looming engagements. City Calm Down will be playing alongside Hot Chip at Sugar Mountain and mixing with the likes of Bloc Party, The Wombats and Disclosure at Falls Festival. They also have Lost Paradise on the agenda, where they will be performing in close company with Angus & Julia Stone, Four Tet and Jamie xx.
Will these be some of the biggest audiences the band has played to? “Yes, by a long shot,” says Bourke. “It’s sort of crept up on us, but hopefully people come and see us play. It’s really exciting to play alongside bands we have so much admiration and respect for.”
In A Restless Houseis out Friday November 6 through I Oh You.City Calm Down playFalls Festival 2015/16 taking place in Lorne, Marion Bay and Byron Bay, Monday December 28 – Sunday January 3, and Lost Paradise 2015, Glenworth Valley, Tuesday December 29 – Friday December 31.
