1.Growing Up
Growing up, my older sister had piano lessons and got mildly into it, whereas it took me years to formalise my love of music via theory lessons. Instead, I would sit for hours and hours improvising on the piano. I also learned how to play guitar by copying metal riffs. My parents were into ’50s rock’n’roll, ’60s folk and classical music.
2.Inspirations
So many musical inspirations – in the context of Grün, my favourite bands would be Alcest, Pink Floyd, My Bloody Valentine, Altar Of Plagues and Nils Frahm. More broadly for the whole band I’d add Battles, Sonic Youth, Massive Attack, Portishead, Explosions In The Sky, Oranssi Pazuzu, Max Richter and Mono.
3.Your Band
Grün is made of Leon Kelly (guitars), Andre Matkovic (bass), Ben Matson (drums) and myself, Piers Twomey (keys, guitars). Leon, Andre and I have played in bands since the ’90s, and Grün have had multiple drummers since forming about ten years ago. We share a lot of similar music interests with enough differences to keep things interesting too!
Before now, we released an album (Greenland) and an EP (Prisons Of Language) – and after a couple of years, we’re now back with our second album called Manyana. We’re stoked to finally have it released! And we’re doing that through the excellent and like-minded Bird’s Robe Records label.
4.The Music You Make
Manyana was written and mostly recorded in a quiet spot on the New South Wales South Coast – funnily enough called Manyana! We rented a beachside home and recorded the album there during two ten-day visits with all members contributing to the songwriting. Drums were tracked back in Sydney, but many keys, bass and guitar parts were kept, which is great as we feel we captured the spirit of those sessions successfully.
We’re an instrumental band so our live show is now expanded with brilliant visuals, created by another good friend of the band Jasper Russell (from Sonori), who also directed our video for ‘The Vicious’ from the new album. Without a singer as a focal point onstage, the visuals really help convey the mood and emotion of the songs.
5.Music, Right Here, Right Now
There’s always the issue of venues opening and closing, but there’s plenty of great places to see original music in Sydney, from small bars like Gasoline Pony and Django Bar to Golden Age, Manning Bar and Factory Floor. It was very sad to see Black Wire Records and Newtown Social Club shutting their doors.
Manyanais out now through Bird’s Robe; and Grünplay theThe Factory FlooronSaturday April 8, with Hashshashin and Adrift For Days.
