Hit ‘play’ on The John Steel Singers’ latest release, their third albumMidnight At The Plutonium, and you quicklyget the sense it’s their most confident, fun and danceable work yet.
So when it comes to chatting with lead vocalist Tim Morrissey on a mid-June afternoon about the approaching release and (at the time) unannounced tour, there is barely an indication of the even bigger announcement to follow.
At the beginning of August, likely during rehearsal sessions between the album release and their national tour, The John Steel Singers surprised the music community by announcing their impending hiatus. They assured fans, “Don’t worry, we still love each other very much and will still make lots of music together.” But they’ve got a new business to focus on: Plutonium Records, a logical progression from The Plutonium recording studio in Brisbane, which has hosted Tame Impala, Cloud Control, Sahara Beck, Velociraptor, and of course The John Steel Singers themselves.
As Morrissey explains, the studio’s manifestation, presumably like that of the album and the record label, was a natural development. “It was all sort of just happenstance, because we were in another rehearsal space which was very small – we recorded a bit of our last album in there, and then it actually ended up getting shut down. So we were on the lookout for a new space and were fortunate we had a little bit of money that we were able to actually turn that space into a studio. The whole time we already knew the name was going to be The Plutonium, and that we were going to build it and record the album in there, which obviously seemed very fitting. In some ways, the album influenced how the studio looks and feels as well, ’cause it has a very ’70s sort of feel to it.”
The end of this chapter for The John Steel Singers came as the epic eight-minute single ‘Can You Feel The Future’ was belatedly completed for inclusion on Midnight At The Plutonium. The band first touched on the eclectic funky psych jam more than six years ago, around the time of debut album Tangalooma’s creation.
“Yeah, that song actually was originally from quite a long time ago and it didn’t work out at the time, but we always remembered it ’cause we knew it was good, we just couldn’t make it work,” Morrissey says. “I think Scott [Bromiley] just started playing that funky bassline around it and we were like, ‘Oh wow, this is back, this is right back now!’ So we then tinkered on it for ages and just made it a really long, free-form sort of jam thing. Originally we wanted it to try and at least go for 12 minutes, but we didn’t quite get there and obviously we wanted to make it at least interesting for the entire duration as well.”
Jamming has been the key to creation for the band over the past 18 months, with much of the record taking shape through such sessions here and abroad. “’Cause we’ve been playing together for so long, everyone’s playing together with each other and off each other, so that part’s really easy,” Morrissey says. “Because we have our own studio, you know, it unfortunately – as great as it is – also meant that we could just keep tinkering forever.
“We had Jonathan Boulet play a lot of the percussion on the album,” he continues. “He was living in the UK and we were touring over there but we had a few days off. We rented a Welsh barn house out in the country and he tagged along and was just jamming with us. We were just like, ‘This guy knows how to do percussion!’ So yeah, when we were all back in Australia, we flew him up to Brisbane and got him to do the percussion on the album.”
From the get-go, Midnight At The Plutonium was all about party vibes, tracing its way musically from midnight to dawn at a nightclub, so it seems fitting that The John Steel Singers’ upcoming shows will feature the record heavily alongside a few old favourites for good measure. Together with the non-stop boogies and general revelry, these last gigs are lining up to be extra special thanks to the appearance of guests from the record, including Boulet, the larger-than-life Donny Benet, guitarist Liam Campbell, and vocalist and saxophonist Kirsty Tickle.
“Liam Campbell, who’s known as the resident guitar shredder of the Brisbane scene, we get him to play because none of us in the band can recreate some of the solos that he did on the album,” says Morrissey. “Donny Benet did a really incredible solo on the outro of ‘Weekend Lover’ and so whenever we can, if he’s around, we get him to jump in.
“I think as far as live performance goes, we’ve hit the top of where we’ve been as a live band. ‘Can You Feel The Future’is just incredibly fun to play live – that’s probably one of the things we all look forward to doing, actually just playing that song live as well. “Hopefully some people come along and check it out.”
And as we know now, it might be the last chance to enjoy The John Steel Singers for some time to come.
The John Steel Singers’Midnight At The Plutonium is out now through Plutonium / Create Control; and they play Newtown Social Club, Friday August 26, with Alex Lahey.
