PLASTIC PALACE ALICE
Melbourne sextet Plastic Palace Alice is currently strapped in on the emotional rollercoaster that comes with releasing your debut album. And for bassist, banjoist, and vocalist Gabriel Piras, it still hasn't sunk in.
By Nate Shea
"It kind of hasn't really struck me that other people, besides the six of us, have actually heard it yet," he states in amazement. "Every now and then someone will say, 'Oh, I like that bit', and I'm like, 'How did you find out?'," he says with a laugh. The band admits it has been a long build up to the release of 'The Great Depression', and now the CD has finally hit the market, they are finding it all a little surreal. "I think that when you're doing it you know that it's everything you ever wanted to do," explains Gabe, "and then when it's done you realise you hadn't really thought through what you were going to do next."
The album was recorded entirely independently after the band secured an arts grant. The grant allowed them to create the debut CD they wanted by enlisting the talent of producer Jonathon Burnside (The Sleepy Jackson, The Melvins). "I think it worked out the best way it could have," Gabe says. "We were able to do it completely independently with grants and with a producer that we really loved - and with all the extra instruments and all those extra things...artistically speaking, it's everything I hoped for and more."
Gabe reveals their choice to acquire an arts grant came more as a reaction to pure necessity, rather than a conscious effort to boycott label support. "It wasn't a premeditated decision to go for an arts grant," says Gabe. "We were trying every avenue. Ultimately we were flinging mud and that's what stuck. We had no idea how to find a label...and even if we found a label, that didn't necessarily mean they could give us the kind of money we needed to do this ridiculously grandiose thing we had in mind."
Indeed, 'The Great Depression' is a grandiose effort. It's an album ordained by each member's differing tastes and influences colliding to form a record that cannot be easily pigeonholed. "Everyone's got their peculiarities," explains Gabe. "Lisa [McDowell], the pianist, is very into classical music and she's a composer...our drummer, Jeremy [Furze], is a very big country music fan as well. I like punk rock and Rob [McDowell - vocals, guitar] likes the '70s - Bowie and Roxie Music and all of those crazy cats...I think one of the reasons we've become this collage of different styles is because we've made room for everyone to do what makes them happy."
'The Great Depression's first single, 'Empire Falls', featured heavily on Triple J in 2007 and, while the support was greatly appreciated, the band declare they aren't chasing radio success. "We don't necessarily expect them to play any other songs of ours, because with the album itself we were trying to make each song a few different styles of music within itself. I think it's a really diverse album, and not everyone is going to like it."
'The Great Depression' is out independently through Inertia.
Saturday May 10 at The Zoo, Brisbane (with Malcolm Middleton from Arab Strap). |
