‘New EP’ is where a band or artist answers some questions about their latest release. Up next is Anxiety Club, who released E.P ‘Black Heart’ late last year, and are now following it up with a 2019 tour.
When/where was the new EP recorded?
In the winter of 2018 at Blue Barn Recording Studios in Newtown.
Who produced/engineered the EP? How did the tracks come together in the studio, or at home?
James Goldsmith engineered. A collaborative approach was taken with the production, with James and Kev at the helm with the rest of the band all making contributions. Most of the songs had been in our set for awhile so we pretty much stuck with the arrangements that had developed from our regular rehearsals at Toi Poneke, and from playing them live. The one exception was the title track, “Black Heart” which only came into existance a month or so before the sessions. Some of that song’s arrangement was shaped in the studio.
Did the shorter format of an EP give you the option to experiment in any way with your sound or with different forms of song-writing?
In a lot of ways the EP is very “live” sounding and fairly representative of what you get at our shows. Even though the EP is a short format, budget constraints did dictate a fairly workman-like approach to the recording. I guess we had a choice – we could record this the old fashioned way (quickly), or chip away over months/years to make something more complex. Our overwhelming desire was to get something out there sooner than later – and it’s arguable which route would have produced the better record anyway.
Having said that, we didn’t play it completely straight and we made the most of the studio to take a couple of the songs to places we couldn’t take them live – notably the instrumental passage of “I give in” and a lot of “Love rescue me”. We also had Chris Winter (Eb & Sparrow) add a really nice horn line to the coda of “Black Heart”.
Was there any specific gear you used to capture that?
Don’t ask me what specific gear James was using. He has a nice collection of microphones and he has lots of impressive looking electronic boxes in racks with dials and lights – but the really key thing is that James knows what he’s doing with it all. Everyone bought their usual collection of road-trusted instruments and guitar amplifiers – with a banjo thrown in for good measure. In some ways the room itself was a contributing piece of “gear” – the high-vaulted ceilings and large floor area made it a very natural space to make music. So many studios can be claustrophobic and sterile.
Is there a particular track or theme that the EP was formed around?
A lot of the songs in this collection explore themes that unite us as humans – relationships, love, doubt. But then you have songs like “I give in” which is about the toll the music industry machine takes, and “Holes in my Skin” which was conceptually inspired by James K Baxter’s poem, “The Maori Jesus”. So yeah, in conclusion, there actually is no common theme – except that they’re all bangin’ tunes!
Where do you see the EPs place in growing an audience online? Do you see it as a progression towards an album or a separate entity?
Every piece of music you release is hopefully a step towards more people hearing your stuff, and then hopefully forming some sort of relationship with it and ultimately extracting some joy or comfort from it. Audience size and numbers is quite nice to know – but it’s not a goal. If you’re driven by that alone it’s hard to imagine that you’ll make anything good. We make music because we HAVE to make music. Creating something new – that didn’t exist yesterday – is the real thrill. But we do want to reach as many people as possible, because that just might – in a tiny way – enrich both the lives of our listeners, and our own. And it really doesn’t get any better than hearing other people sing your songs back to you at a gig! So yes, here’s hoping this EP gets our music in more ears and brains!
We’re not entirely sure that there ever will be an album (but never say never!). The way people listen to music these days is almost like the 1950’s when the 45rpm record was king and it was all about singles. I think we’d be capable of making a great album (if all the right ingredients and astronomical alignments were in place), but is it worth it if no one is going to listen to all the songs? You just have to look at our Spotify stats for the EP (and I imagine this is quite common) – the first 2 or 3 songs in the track-listing get the bulk of the streams, with listens trailing-off noticably by track 5! I shudder to think what would happen with a 10 or 12 track album!
During the “Black Heart” sessions we also tracked Ginger in the Summer which we released last month as a charity fund-raising single. It’s been great for people to just focus on one song and really connect with it. Just look at what Lawrence Arabia did with his “Singles Club” last year – releasing one song every month or so. We are living in a world of playlists where it’s all about the song. I think we will see more and more singles, B sides and EPs released by everyone (including us) in the future.
Which digital platforms is it available on?
Pretty much everywhere – Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon, etc. [Also via their Website].
Are you doing any gigs or promotion for its release?
In March we will embark on a 3-date nationwide tour:
Saturday 16th March – Galatos, Auckland
Saturday 23rd March – Meow, Wellington
Friday 29th March – Blue Smoke, Christchurch