STACK #204 Oct 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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INTERVIEW

One minute creeping on elastic tip-toe, the next pounding like magma-slops on your head, there's a fullness of expression in MOD CON's new album that is just so satisfying.We spoke to vocalist Erica Dunn about Modern Condition . Words Zoë Radas ERICA DUNN MOD CON

MOD CON L-R: Sara Retallick, Erica Dunn, Raquel Solier

three-piece called the Steve Miller Band. It was a no-holds-barred, candle-in-the-wind cover band which played hundreds of shows in its short life. I think because that was such a chaotic live band, and I was singing other people's lyrics (which I often forgot), I started yelling out mid-song to signal a change or whatever. Haha, I definitely don’t practice it; it’s probably shortened the life span of my shredded vocal chords, but c’est la vie. There's often really purposeful alignment between the three bandmembers' parts across the album, especially Raquel's drum accents on your vocal accents. It's so satisfying.What appeals to you about it? Yeah, Raq and I have been playing together for a long time. She is an incredible beat-maker and producer in her own right, making music under the moniker Various Asses. Way back when, we lived together, and I had to beg her not to sell her drum kit for more electronic gear, and somehow instead convinced her to play drums with me! She often writes weird patterns around a lyric length or a particular melody, and

for filming, but the stop motion aspects in both clips allowed us to be more imaginative visually. In Ammo , Carolyn Hawkins nailed the concept we were trying to explore; that of objects gaining agency beyond their prescribed purpose, and I love how it comes across in the clip. There’s an insidious side to these banal utensils ‘coming to life’ but also they’re sort of comic and jilted, like an old Sesame Street rerun. In Learner In An Alpha the collage stop motion by Sophia

I heard the pancakes flying through the air in the Ammo clip are real. How did you all keep such calm, non-squinty faces? Yeah, it was quite a challenge! We envisioned the clip being a sort of analogy for keeping your cool under fire, but when it came to actually doing it, it was tough! We didn’t want to create a lot of waste, so we

had friends off-camera throwing the same couple of pancakes to each other with us getting caught in the crossfire in the middle. Pretty sure as the day went on they started aiming for our heads! Raquel trains in Wing Chun Kung Fu and did this incredible catch of a pancake headed straight for her face while she wasn’t even looking. Tbh we should probably make a blooper reel of that clip!

Raquel trains in Wing Chun Kung Fu and did this incredible catch of a pancake while she wasn't even looking

Mero picks up what we’re putting down about global near-sightedness and mass production. It makes a weird psychedelic road trip possible, pondering all sorts

of physical and existential landmarks. We’re not really

it’s probably this that makes the project: we get to stretch out in weird ways. In some ways our aesthetic is pretty minimal; we are efficient players in a sense that we each have our sonic area kind of staked out, and we don’t go much outside of that, but we dig into those zones in a big way and see what kind of combinations come up...

able to actually visit the dawn of civilisation, but this kind of collage approach makes it possible. This clip

was made in deep lockdown and that’s why only I’m in it singing, which is actually in front of a green screen in my bathroom and filmed on my phone. When did you learn you were capable of those squeals, and are they something you practise/protect with some sort of potion or vocal exercise? Um, it’s hard to say, but I possibly started doing that when I was playing in a raucous

Each of the album's videos (so far) has incorporated stop animation. Its style meshes with the MOD CON sound so perfectly; it's super imaginative (limitless possibilities really) but you can always see the jaggedy seams.What do you like about it? Both clips were planned to have an element of animation as a contingency plan if a lockdown stopped us from getting together

Modern Condition by MOD CON is out Oct 22 via Poison City Records.

Continue reading the full Q&A online at stack.com.au

70 OCTOBER 2021

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