In Conversation With #219 - Press Club
Their self-produced and highly anticipated third album is out now - Press Club have just released ‘Endless Motion’ - their artistic statement for the past three years.
A collective and global struggle that has provided the material and circumstances for Press Club to emerge as one of the most exciting and relevant bands of 2022.
Accompanying the album release is a stunning live performance video of title track ‘Endless Motion’ shot by friend and video director Nick Manuell at Melbourne’s iconic Forum Theatre. Comprised of footage taken during the band’s live tracking in the vast, anthemic arena, when Press Club converted the monumental space into a temporary recording studio.
Enriching the performance with takes captured live on the floor of the venue as it sat vacant during the industry crippling pandemic. These takes were used alongside studio recordings and the reverberant tails of Natalie Foster’s vocals at the Forum add an inimitable sheen. The awe inspiring soundscape is equally matched by the sheer beauty of the iconic room. Sitting dormant in it’s blue-washed, chimerical splendour.
They took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hi there Press Club - how are you? So your album is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Pretty fucking excellent! We’ve been working on this album for an incredibly long time actually. We were originally supposed to record an album and have it out by the end of 2020. Obviously that didn’t happen, but we’ve been sitting on some of these songs for that long.
It is called ‘Endless Motion’ - what is the meaning behind that?
It doesn’t really have much of a literal meaning to be honest. It’s more a reference to a feeling we’ve been experiencing over the last few months. Seems to us that the only way to survive mentally at the moment is to keep working at something. We haven’t really had a chance to slow down since we came out of lockdown, and maybe we don’t want to. I suppose it’s also a literal reference to an album spinning around perpetually.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
Ok so we recorded it in our own studio in Melbourne. A lot of the writing was done in lockdown so we were forced to be pretty creative just to be finishing songs. We developed quite a rigid folder organisation system in order to keep track of everyone’s work on each track. Because of the rigidity of the writing system, we were able to step out a bit and get really creative when coming up with ideas. Less These Days was written in Nat’s sleep.
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
It’s not something we consciously think about when writing. We try to remain in as effortless a flow state as possible when creating music. In retrospect I suppose the overall theme of the album is the feeling that life is non-stop, and while there are major events that stop you in your tracks, the little things can also have a profound influence on your emotional state.
If the album could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
I don’t know if our music would work that well with any movie. It’s not really sentimental enough to be synced with a Hollywood film. I reckon you could get really experimental and try to play it behind something kind of trippy and glitched. 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album - if so, which one and why?
All the lyrics on this album are pretty fun actually. There was a lot of experimentation when it came to lyric writing, there’s some topics and moods we haven’t really covered before. Endless Motion has got some of the best lyrics I think we’ve ever produced, despite the fact that the chorus has none whatsoever. The second verse in particular walks a nice line between completely literal and absolutely esoteric. “It’s so relentless; retrospective. My days are set in stone and I can feel the sea. I try to change it; my perspective l. I know I’ve slipped away.”
Now the album is out there - what next?
Well the first thing on the agenda is to tour fairly relentlessly, we’re starting off with a few shows in Australia in October before heading off to the UK and Europe in November. I suppose we’ll just have to see what 2023 has in store for us after that. I’m sure there’s plenty of exciting things on the horizon.
