by Beth Keating.Drone talks to Mike, from Melbourne-based psychedelic outfit, Dreaming of Ghosts. If you haven't heard these guys, and dig the primitive psychedelia of acts such as the Black Angels, be sure to take a listen - as soon as possible, preferably. PS. They'll be playing at the Tote this Thursday, supporting the Black Ryder, as part of the Drone Magazine launch.
Give us a brief history of Dreaming of Ghosts. How did you guys come together?
Dreaming of Ghosts came into being in 2005. We had a different line-up back then, and we used to jam at Nick and Emma's house in Eltham. We thought it was kind of cool that we were a 'family band' so to speak, because both Nick (guitar) and Emma (drums) were brother and sister, and Mike (vox) and Kyle (bass) were also brothers. Josh (lead guitar) joined the band not long after, and we began playing small gigs at places like the Empress, and the Great Britain. The formative years were interesting, Nick left the band to hone in on his architecture studies, and Emma stayed with the band until 2008.
How would you describe your music? What kinds of things have influenced your sound?
Our music is psychedelic, but not as much as say Jefferson Airplane, 13th Floor Elevators, the Monks, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Our conception of this category of music is new. We want to create a world with sounds, that might seem unfamiliar or foreign to listeners of commercial music.
We have been developing our sound since we came into being in 2005. Our first few weeks as a band consisted of many attempts to play at least one song well, and we struggled with having 3 guitars in the line-up. Our current line-up consists of Eryn (percussion), Mike (vocals/keys/guitar), Kyle (bass), Josh (lead guitar), Addy (keys), and Zoe (tambourine/vocals). Carl Tomich filled in as drummer for us when Emma left which we are very grateful for. In the beginning we sounded very loud, very grungy, with a bit of Radiohead influence, a bit of Nirvana, Pink Floyd, and some people said it sounded a bit like Marilyn Manson or like Nick Cave. What I'm liking more and more these days is the use of floor toms in percussion and filling in the beat with tambourine, big bass - maybe fuzzed, with reverbed guitar. To me the most important thing is the beat, and the tambourine helps to keep the song moving and adds tension. This is something I like about the Dandy Warhols, and The Black Angels. The tambourine in the Brian Jonestown Massacre is particularly good. I love songs that make you want to clap and stamp your feet. "Around and Around", by the Rolling Stones, for example. Up until now our music has been kind of drawly, droney and cruisy, but we love belting out fast grunge with evil basslines.
As far as band members go, we are always looking for more to add to the sound, but the more people you have in a band, the less you actually get turning up to rehearsal. They usually just turn up to the gigs and try to wing it.
How would you describe your live show?
Our live show is interesting. Sometimes we'll jam for at least 90% of it, depending on how we feel. Sometimes a three minute song will turn into a seven minute song. We love getting lost in the music and it feels more electric when you're playing it by ear and making things up as you go. Even though we jam out most of the songs, we usually bring them back in, but what i really want to do is go off on a tangent and get lost for about two or three minutes. The coolest thing about Led Zeppelin was when Jimmy Page went off on a tangent. It's almost as if he'd forgotten how to play the song, but then remarkably brings it back in. I think that's exciting.
You've got a bunch of demos up on your website/myspace page. Any plans to release a record in the near future?
Yeah, we will begin recording an album in January 2010. Up until now we have been experimenting with a wide range of different sounds, effects, and instruments. We have a lot of material to work on, about 250 demo tracks, some of them are complete, others are half songs. What I find most intriguing about music is the arrangement of a wide range of different sounds and effecting them (usually with reverb small and large) until they become barely recognisable. I love when you feel like you're in the same room as the artists [on the record], and this kind of thing might even come through in a rough demo where you're able to hear things like cars passing in the street outside, birds chirping, or the tv in the background, or even something really subtle like fingers striking the keys. Alternatively with the use of reverb, the music might sound like it's in a huge hall. These are things that a lot of bands or producers try to eliminate in the recording process, but I really like it, and the rest of the band agrees. It adds texture and ambience. My favourite thing is flicking through the channels of an AM alarm clock radio, and I have one of these sitting on my organ at home for this purpose, and you get a really cool oscillating frequency sound between stations. We use this on stage for samples sometimes.
As far as a release goes, we're liking the idea of releasing on vinyl. There's more room for artwork, and it feels like you're getting something special instead and it suits our D.I.Y, lo-fi kind of attitude. As far as the content goes, it wont be just a series of unrelated tracks. It will be like a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, where the tracks relate thematically to one another, and some tracks might even blend into each other in some way. It will be a dark haunting album, because we like evil music, and we will work to keep our music evil. But having said that there are still avenues for goofy, funny songs that don't take themselves to seriously.
What plans are in the future for Dreaming of Ghosts?
We've nearly finalised our line-up. We are still waiting to do some work with our fiddle player and see what happens when we put that into the mix. We also added another member Zoe, and we'll be working with her on vocals and harmonies, soundscapes etc. But as for the immediate future, we're concentrating on writing new material for our summer gigs.
0 comments:
Post a Comment