Brian Aubert - Silversun Pickups (29/10/2012)
When Silversun Pickup’s vocalist Brian Aubert calls me on his day off in Los Angeles, I’m his fourth interview for the day, but his first in Melbourne.
“Ah Melbourne, my first Melbourne!” he exclaims with excitement, “I’ve had two Adelaide's and a Perth. Now it’s Melbourne, here we are!”
Silversun Pickups have visited Australia many times over the years, with their first Melbourne performance being held at the Ding Dong Lounge.
“The Ding Dong was one of the wildest shows we’ve ever played,” says Brian. “I love the Ding Dong, and I love the Annandale Hotel. I hear people are buying the bricks”, he says, making reference to the current funding initiative being held to save the much-loved venue in Sydney.
Silversun Pickups' upcoming trip to Australia will be as a part of the sophomore year of Harvest Festival. With a third album of material now available in the form of Neck of the Woods, Brian assures us that their Harvest performances will be full of surprises. “The setlist is pretty new album heavy really,” explains Brian, “The biggest thing that our fans can expect is for Nikki (Silversun Pickups' bassist) to be absent. She’s just stopped playing with us because she’s having twins".
While Nikki won’t be performing over the next few months, the band has recruited a worthy addition to take up bass duties. “We’ve got Sarah from The Happy Hollows helping out, and she is amazing. She’s going to be a fireball, and you’re going to see this girl on stage go crazy because she can’t believe she’s in Australia!”
When asked whether Nikki’s pregnancy will mean a change in the band’s future dynamic of the band, Brian doesn’t believe that Nikki will be taking a long term hiatus. “Nikki’s not going anywhere,” he says, “She’s been playing very pregnant for a while”.
In addition to their appearances with the Harvest festival, Silversun Pickups will also be visiting Adelaide and Perth for some co-headline shows with The Dandy Warhols. “I’m so glad we’re doing that,” Brian says, “I knew that we had time off and every time we come to Australia, obviously we’re attached to something large. If we can figure it out, we always try to do our sideshows”.
After chatting about their Harvest plans, it's not long before Brian delves into the process behind their third album, Neck of the Woods. It’s an album that is somewhat darker than their previous records. But was this intentional?
“I don’t think we try to get doomy or gloomy, or we try to get bright or sunny. I think sonically, on Neck of the Woods, we could always tell more than thematically that the angular nature and the space where we were writing it had this really intense feeling,” Brian explains. “It kind of started the ball rolling on keeping that almost underlining grumble. We wanted to be surprising, so you feel like something is a bit off, and about to go crazy”.
The album’s opening track, Skin Graph, is a particularly menacing song with an intense build-up. “Skin Graph was the sixth or seventh song we were writing and I knew things were coming together in a certain way," Brian says. "We knew how it was feeling and we started writing this song that had this energy to it. It was meant to be the opening song and we did that with Swoon too; we wrote it all in a way with there’s a beginning and an end, but the middle is where you’ve got to figure it out. Skin Graph was going to be a good representation of how things were going to turn out. If you can make it through that one, then you’ll be ok”.
With such an in-depth scope and sound, the exact inspiration behind Neck of the Woods is difficult to pin-point. And that’s partially what makes it so unique, especially the bands process of creating and molding their sound. “We listen to a lot of weird soundtracks,” says Brian. “We always describe music to each other while we are writing in a visual way, we always make this little fake plots, fake films. Music for a movie that doesn’t exist.” But there was more than meets the eye to the subtle inspirational undertones that line the sound scape of the record. “At the end of the day, I think I was most inspired by the fact we were inadvertently recording about two minutes from where I was born, and I haven’t been to that town in a very long time”.
As Brian explains. “I think that Neck of the Woods shows the fringe, it feels like you’re close, but you’re not quite there. You can either be looking at the inside with desire, or you can look at it with complete disgust and be happy to be out on the fringe”.
And it was here on the fringe that Neck of the Woods saw Silversun Pickups work with a new producer, Jack-Knife Lee.
Lee’s credits boasts names such as U2, Weezer and R.E.M., bands renowned for their epic scope and stadium appeal “When we met him, I didn’t really know anything he did, but we just knew he was the guy. His references, the way he thinks about things, and the way he wanted to actually approach making this album were exactly in line with what we wanted to do,” explains Brian with much enthusiasm. “He knew right away that we were just a band who wasn’t interested in chasing any kind of dragon, that we were not into this for any other reason. He knew that there was no label coming in, management wasn’t coming in. There was no talk about those things. He was just really excited to work on a record like that”.
With three records to their name, there’s still life in Silversun Pickups’ blood. The band have a full schedule until October 2013, so when asked about the possibility of a fourth record any time soon, Brian can’t help but laugh. “Whenever we make a record, we’re like ‘That’s it guys, we’re done’ . We’ll do this thing to oblivion. Our next record will be called ‘Greatest Hits’ and it will be terrible!”
Luke Sutton
Follow me on Twitter! - @lukesutton
Click here for all Harvest Presents dates and sideshows.
“Ah Melbourne, my first Melbourne!” he exclaims with excitement, “I’ve had two Adelaide's and a Perth. Now it’s Melbourne, here we are!”
Silversun Pickups have visited Australia many times over the years, with their first Melbourne performance being held at the Ding Dong Lounge.
“The Ding Dong was one of the wildest shows we’ve ever played,” says Brian. “I love the Ding Dong, and I love the Annandale Hotel. I hear people are buying the bricks”, he says, making reference to the current funding initiative being held to save the much-loved venue in Sydney.
Silversun Pickups' upcoming trip to Australia will be as a part of the sophomore year of Harvest Festival. With a third album of material now available in the form of Neck of the Woods, Brian assures us that their Harvest performances will be full of surprises. “The setlist is pretty new album heavy really,” explains Brian, “The biggest thing that our fans can expect is for Nikki (Silversun Pickups' bassist) to be absent. She’s just stopped playing with us because she’s having twins".
While Nikki won’t be performing over the next few months, the band has recruited a worthy addition to take up bass duties. “We’ve got Sarah from The Happy Hollows helping out, and she is amazing. She’s going to be a fireball, and you’re going to see this girl on stage go crazy because she can’t believe she’s in Australia!”
When asked whether Nikki’s pregnancy will mean a change in the band’s future dynamic of the band, Brian doesn’t believe that Nikki will be taking a long term hiatus. “Nikki’s not going anywhere,” he says, “She’s been playing very pregnant for a while”.
In addition to their appearances with the Harvest festival, Silversun Pickups will also be visiting Adelaide and Perth for some co-headline shows with The Dandy Warhols. “I’m so glad we’re doing that,” Brian says, “I knew that we had time off and every time we come to Australia, obviously we’re attached to something large. If we can figure it out, we always try to do our sideshows”.
After chatting about their Harvest plans, it's not long before Brian delves into the process behind their third album, Neck of the Woods. It’s an album that is somewhat darker than their previous records. But was this intentional?
“I don’t think we try to get doomy or gloomy, or we try to get bright or sunny. I think sonically, on Neck of the Woods, we could always tell more than thematically that the angular nature and the space where we were writing it had this really intense feeling,” Brian explains. “It kind of started the ball rolling on keeping that almost underlining grumble. We wanted to be surprising, so you feel like something is a bit off, and about to go crazy”.
The album’s opening track, Skin Graph, is a particularly menacing song with an intense build-up. “Skin Graph was the sixth or seventh song we were writing and I knew things were coming together in a certain way," Brian says. "We knew how it was feeling and we started writing this song that had this energy to it. It was meant to be the opening song and we did that with Swoon too; we wrote it all in a way with there’s a beginning and an end, but the middle is where you’ve got to figure it out. Skin Graph was going to be a good representation of how things were going to turn out. If you can make it through that one, then you’ll be ok”.
With such an in-depth scope and sound, the exact inspiration behind Neck of the Woods is difficult to pin-point. And that’s partially what makes it so unique, especially the bands process of creating and molding their sound. “We listen to a lot of weird soundtracks,” says Brian. “We always describe music to each other while we are writing in a visual way, we always make this little fake plots, fake films. Music for a movie that doesn’t exist.” But there was more than meets the eye to the subtle inspirational undertones that line the sound scape of the record. “At the end of the day, I think I was most inspired by the fact we were inadvertently recording about two minutes from where I was born, and I haven’t been to that town in a very long time”.
As Brian explains. “I think that Neck of the Woods shows the fringe, it feels like you’re close, but you’re not quite there. You can either be looking at the inside with desire, or you can look at it with complete disgust and be happy to be out on the fringe”.
And it was here on the fringe that Neck of the Woods saw Silversun Pickups work with a new producer, Jack-Knife Lee.
Lee’s credits boasts names such as U2, Weezer and R.E.M., bands renowned for their epic scope and stadium appeal “When we met him, I didn’t really know anything he did, but we just knew he was the guy. His references, the way he thinks about things, and the way he wanted to actually approach making this album were exactly in line with what we wanted to do,” explains Brian with much enthusiasm. “He knew right away that we were just a band who wasn’t interested in chasing any kind of dragon, that we were not into this for any other reason. He knew that there was no label coming in, management wasn’t coming in. There was no talk about those things. He was just really excited to work on a record like that”.
With three records to their name, there’s still life in Silversun Pickups’ blood. The band have a full schedule until October 2013, so when asked about the possibility of a fourth record any time soon, Brian can’t help but laugh. “Whenever we make a record, we’re like ‘That’s it guys, we’re done’ . We’ll do this thing to oblivion. Our next record will be called ‘Greatest Hits’ and it will be terrible!”
Luke Sutton
Follow me on Twitter! - @lukesutton
Click here for all Harvest Presents dates and sideshows.