Band Of The Week #0044 West Thebarton

This week's Band of the Week is Australian band West Thebarton, who released their album 'Different Beings Being Different' via Domestic La La this week.

We have a chat with them about the video - 

What are the ideas and themes behind the album?

Different Beings Being Different is not only the name of the record, but it lends itself as a sort of mantra to the record aswell. I kind of stole/adapted it from something one of my good friends always says, ‘People like different things’. Essentially, he’s taking the piss out of people who get all worked up about how he lives his life, but that sort of resonated with me, and I think it’s a good way to describe how different everyone can be.

It wasn’t until after the songs were written and recorded that I think any of us took a breath, looked back at it and really understood what the album is about as a whole. Individually, each song is a separate story. Most of them are my stories, but a lot of them are based on other people’s stories, which’ve kinda stuck with me the whole time. I guess when you put all of them together, the album is really about how different we are as a band, but also how different everyone becomes over their life. I changed heaps within myself over the whole period of writing and recording these songs and I think that capturing moments in time was really what the album became.

How would you describe it to someone who has never listened to you before?

“Fuckin-Aussie-Rock-Mate”. You can quote me on that…..

But in all seriousness it’s pretty bloody hard to describe something you’ve bled into and actually means something.

I’d probably describe it as seven friends who’ve mastered the art of making pub-rock so noisey, it doesn’t sound like pub-rock anymore.

Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories?

Different Beings Being Different was recorded at Twin Earth Studios, in Sommerton Park, right next to the beach in Adelaide with Dylan Adams.

Bloody hell….. too many stories, but a lot of them are ‘had to be there’ stories, which I don’t think would read very well in print, but they did involve lots of late nights, takeaway coffees and a thick chain necklace that heavily featured in most of the photos that were taken along the way.

There was this part of the recording though that has stuck with me to this point. It was for the song ‘Reasons’, one of my favourite songs and a song that means a lot to the band. The outro for the song (when we play it live), was always hectic. A frantic wall of sound that crescendo’s into the lyric, “I’m spent, yeah im spent, yeah im better off dead”. When we were recording it, I just kept on getting frustrated with myself, because I didn’t like the way it was sounding. It wasn’t raw enough or something like that, but it got to the point I couldn’t even stand hearing it back anymore. Anyways…… so I had this plan of having a shot of whiskey before each vocal session…. With Reasons, that turned into a shot before each take. It felt like 50 fucking times I tried to nail it and Dylan was outside, each time telling me they were sounding great, but I just had to repeat them. I can’t really remember the end of that night, but when I got back into the studio in the morning (with a really sore head), Dyl was there, coffee in hand saying “check this one out”. And there it was, probably my favourite vocal take of my life….. He said it was one of the first ones I recorded, but since I was too frustrated to listen to them back, I missed it. Ah well, you live and you learn.

What are the plans for the rest of the year?

Well after releasing the album, we’re doing our biggest Tour of Australia yet. I know we're from there, but it’s bloody big to get around you know. Then we’ll be heading to Europe, which is a first for us. Really can’t wait to play shows in fresh cities and introduce ourselves to all of you lot. From there…. Well the world is our oyster really isn’t it? Probably play a few summer festivals in Australia, play some more shows around the block and wait for the Coachella headline to roll in.

That, and watch the Port Adelaide Football Club win the AFL premiership!

Their album 'Different Beings Being Different' is out now via Domestic La La