The minute you mention playing in a band, it’ll either prompt the question, “Do you have anything online?” or the simple statement, “I’ll look it up.” These days, some form of basic recording technology lives in the majority of homes, and uploading tunes to the internet couldn’t be easier.
Strange to think, at the turn of the 21st century home recording was still an elite luxury. Back then, musicians would work their guts out playing live, hoping to scramble together enough cash to record a demo tape. While the online reality hasn’t stopped bands gigging consistently, today’s norm is to record before playing live, which gives rise to stacks of under-nourished releases.
Still, there are those who choose to buck the trend, such as Leeds five-piece Eagulls. Forming in 2010, the bunch of scraggly punk dudes set out on a mission to occupy every stage they could find, as vocalist George Mitchell explains. “We came from a hardcore background where people just go, ‘Oh, we’ve got a show. Do you want to play it?’ and you just say, ‘Yeah.’ When we first started, if there was a show and someone asked us to play it, we’d just go ahead and do it, and made the best effort to get there so we could play in front of people that had not seen us before and show our music to new people. And people that didn’t want to hear it had to hear it.”
It didn’t take long for Eagulls to attract interest from London indie imprint Not Even Records, which helped release the band’s debut seven-inch Council Flat Blues in 2011. From here, buzz attached itself to the five-piece, leading to 2012’s self-titled EP (this time through Sexbeat Records) and an ever-expanding gig itinerary. “We used to play festivals and there’d be old people there and people that didn’t want to hear us,” Mitchell says. “They’d end up having to hear it and we always thought that was pretty funny.”
Nearly five years into their history, Eagulls’ commitment to incessant gigging remains. As a result, the band’s debut LP (released early 2014 via Partisan Records) is a sharply drawn showcase of the group’s various strengths. Rooted in snarly punk energy and backed up by loads of effortless melody and shoegazey guitar sounds, Eagulls secured global praise, intensifying the band’s touring schedule.
“It’s definitely been the busiest year,” Mitchell says. “One of us added up how many shows we’ve played this [past] year and it was something stupid, like over 200. Then again, that was Tom [Kelly, bass] who added it up and he can’t count.”
Either way, it’s a heck of a lot of gigs, and things are only getting bigger. “Before the album came out we’d never really played our own headline shows,” Mitchell says. “Usually we’d be supporting a band on tour or something like that, but now we try to make it our own show. We’ll usually have some visuals onstage and make sure that the lighting is the way that we want it to be and things like that. Obviously we’ve focused a lot on playing live and we’ve progressed.”
Indeed, the do-or-die nature of performance makes it an excellent opportunity for bands to identify what is and isn’t working. Like the existential project of individuals, a musician’s resolve is never absolute. Mitchell explains that the last 12 months of gigging have left them with plenty of ideas to move forward with.
“If you’re playing the same songs from an album every night for over a year you do think of things like, ‘Oh, I wish I’d done this’ and ‘I wish I’d done that’. But then you start to think, ‘What can I do on the next record?’ I’m always thinking of things to do. We’ve just started writing for the new album, so we are starting to now do those things that have been festering in the backs of our minds.”
While new material is already brewing, Eagulls haven’t taken a break from the stage. Later this month they’ll head our way for the Laneway Festival and sideshows. As always, the Laneway lineup spotlights stacks of fantastic contemporary acts. Eagulls’ life on the road means they’re constantly seeing other bands, and there’s one in particular that has inspired Mitchell’s admiration.
“There’s a band called Protomartyr, I really enjoyed seeing them,” he says. “It was just really good seeing a band like them, because in this day and age that sort of music doesn’t usually come across as being very honest. I think they was probably the most honest band I’ve seen for a long time.”
With a sound that falls somewhere in between The Feelies, The Walkmen and Fugazi, Detroit foursome Protomartyr invite the tag ‘post-punk’. As Mitchell acknowledges, those who delve into this stylistic territory often go awry. Indeed, Eagulls themselves tread through similar terrain, but like Protomartyr, the band’s authenticity is undeniable.
“[The album’s] been taken very well and I feel people have understood it and they realise what was going on when we was writing the album,” Mitchell says. “It’s nice when people come up to you and say that they understand what the music is about and it does make you realise that you’ve achieved something. It’s like, I’m going to Australia – I must have done something to please someone to let me go to Australia, right?”
Eagulls out now through Partisan/Popfrenzy. Catch them atOxford Art Factory onFriday January 30, tickets online.Also appearing alongside Jungle, Flying Lotus, Little Dragon, Courtney Barnett and more atLaneway 2015, Sydney College of the Arts, Sunday February 1.
