SOURCE – First of all, congratulations with the release of HYPERVIOLENCE. I recently heard the album and it was mind blowing! How is the reaction so far with the album?
Liam Guinane (Vocals) – Thank you very much. The reaction has been fantastic, at least from the singles standpoint. There’s been a variety of different styles being displayed and to see everything received so positively is incredible, not to mention as well the growth in listeners with every single since SIRENS. It makes it very exciting to finally have the album come out.
SOURCE – With this new album and a renewed interest in the band, do you feel like you now have a new lease on life or perhaps a second chance to reintroduce yourself to older fans as well as pick up newer/younger fans?
Liam Guinane (Vocals) – I mean the motivation has never changed. We never felt like calling it quits at any point, but at the same I think we feel more confident than ever in what we’re doing and we’re seeing it from the reactions at shows.
SOURCE – How will the band maintain momentum and engagement after their initial album release to sustain long-term interest and sales?
Liam Guinane (Vocals) – There’s plenty of music that’s still yet to be released and we’re always creating and writing together. We’re currently on tour in North America and the crowds have been wild so we’d definitely like to tour the record and come back to the states, visit some more places we haven’t seen yet. We’re always creating things so we’ll always engage with our audience in that way.
SOURCE – Is it an easy or difficult process to decide what songs to push as singles/videos album to album?
Connor Robins (Synths/Samples) – That will always be one of the hardest decisions we have to make as a band. We take a lot of pride in writing diverse and eclectic music, but when it comes to showcasing a whole album of that nature, it’s hard to pick singles that are familiar to old fans, engaging for new fans, and showcase 40 minutes of creativity in 3 minutes a song. We’re pretty stoked with the singles and their release order for HYPERVIOLENCE, but there’s still a lot more to be showcased on the full release.
SOURCE – How has the proliferation of music streaming platforms contributed to the saturation of the music market? What are the implications for emerging bands?
Liam Guinane (Vocals) – I’ll try my best to hit most points concisely around this but broadly speaking yes, streaming has contributed to a saturation of the market of music but I don’t think we’d say it’s the only factor that contributes to it. There’s a narrative being perpetuated forcing bands to focus attention on maintaining “engagement” and that has only accelerated with the development of the internet and social media. This has forced artists to respond in a way where deluxe versions, re-releases and remix releases are becoming more and more commonplace to keep feeds fresh and to stay relevant in this modern, fast moving world.
Supply and demand has always been at the core of the issue in my opinion but who are we to stop the supply either? An individual only has so much attention and investment they can give unless you can provide them something more than just music to listen to. It’s about creating worlds and experiences for people to live within and to create a personal relationship with. This poses a problem for new emerging bands to stand out for a multitude of reasons. On average 10’s of thousands of new songs are released weekly on DSP’s with more and more new music projects being started constantly, the globalization of the internet allows access to anyone to learn and make whatever style of music they want no matter how niche and regional based it is, trends on social media will dictate the direction of what’s popular which doesn’t allow a lot of room for originality and creative progression and feeds into an algorithm that is not in our control. This also means most bands will need an understanding of themselves and brand from the very beginning which once upon a time was unreasonable to expect.
And all of that is not even including all the legacy bands and songs that we’ve grown up attached to that audiences gravitate towards creating an even harder challenge for newer, emerging bands to “compete” with.
SOURCE – How does Spotify’s data-driven approach to music consumption impact artist decisions and creative freedom?
Connor Robins (Synths/Samples) – Personally, we will never write with the intention to please an algorithm. We’ve been fortunate to have Spotify and DSP’s support on this album cycle, but that happened because they liked songs that we wrote authentically for us and our fanbase. Regardless of this though, there’s a lot of pressure to write the next TikTok hit, and we’re excited for this era to pass so everyone can get back to prioritising art.
SOURCE – Have you experienced any differences in how the foreign press treats you and the band compared to how native press and media treats and writes about you?
Connor Robins (Synths/Samples) – Australia will always be our home and safe space, but there’s a lot more community, audience and love for alternative music overseas. As I’m writing this, we’re just about to play our 4th international show and the love we’ve felt out here is unparalleled. Everyone, but especially press outlets, has time and care to support up and coming alternative artists.
SOURCE – What’s planned following the release of HYPERVIOLENCE?
Connor Robins (Synths/Samples) – We’ll have more to say in time, but we wrote a lot more songs than are on the initial HYPERVIOLENCE release, and we’ve already begun the next stage of writing. Until we can say more on that though, we’re going to be taking HYPERVIOLENCE around the world.
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