STACK #146 Dec 2016

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MUSIC NEWS

INTERVIEW

YOU ME AT SIX

V inyl, vinyl, glorious vinyl/ Our Michael has written about the brand new vinyl reissues from two seminal local acts – Cold Chisel and Crowded House – for your edification. There's nothing quite like it for tapping the spinal. This issue

Q1/ Black Bird Studios in Nashville has an incredible pedigree around it – what did you think of the space? Blackbird Studios is up there as one of the best studios in the world. I think it comes across in the recordings; for the first time ever we recorded the album pretty much live, playing all together, to really get that real/natural groove. For us, that will be something we will always remember and take away with us. Q2/ Cavalier Youth did exceptionally well in 2014, hitting tons of Best Of lists. Have you made a deliberate effort to try something different, or have you built on its strongest parts? I wouldn't say we deliberately tried to move away from that sound, but we knew we wanted to push our writing skills to a new place that kept it exciting. You can hear it in songs like Night People ; [there’s] an undercurrent of electronic instruments that fill out the sound and keep the pace going. Whenever you record an album you take tricks with you that you have learnt along the way, but you also learn new ways of playing/ performing/writing. Our mission statement when we first started writing this record was that we wanted the music to groove more, so we spent a lot of time on strumming patterns and drum beats that would make your head tick straight away when you're listening to the song. Q3/ The footage from your European dates looks absolutely mental, with quite an elaborate set-up. Who gets to come up with these live show ideas? It's been great getting back out here again playing shows for the first time in over two years for some of the places we have been. We try and build crazy ideas between us all and our lighting designer; we throw everything we are thinking of into a pile and start piecing things out little by little. We are really going into the production side for our live shows more than ever before, because we want to create really special memories for our fans on this album. English melodic rock five-piece You Me At Six will soon release their fifth album Night People . We shot some questions to rhythm guitarist Max Helyer.

We also grabbed some time with SIXX:AM's Nikki Sixx, the wondrous Haley Bonar, and Briggs and Trials of frankly outstanding rap group A.B. Original (don't forget to head online to see the full interview). Merry Christmas dolls! Zo ë Radas (Music Editor) A.B. ORIGINAL INTERVIEW

Haley Bonar

C hatting with A.B. Original's Briggs and Trials is a hoot from soup to nuts. These two musicians are very close buds and love to josh (including at myself), and it’s as lively as their passion for the messages their extraordinary debut album Reclaim Australia is broadcasting. In the G-funk jam The Feast (featuring Compton rapper King T), little jokes and mouth- made sound effects are littered around a la classic Eminem, while during Firing Squad ’s verse about how you’ll end up eating with the rats if you hit the pipe in Bali the background interjections include “What’s up Luigi?” and a smooth, sarcastic “YUM.” “Really early on, we wanted to

just hanging out with each other. Some of the themes are so difficult for people to digest on first listen; it was important for us to make them feel like they’re in the studio with us and they’re sharing the joke, they’re sharing the experience. So all those bits weren’t planned. It was more of a, ‘That’s f-cking hilarous’. Even the album title’s like – ‘That’s f-cking hilarious. Let’s do that.’” The themes are difficult, but that’s the point: A.B. Original’s music doesn’t pussy-foot anywhere. It’s proud, unafraid, combative, but also inclusive. Intro features

Archie Roach giving his thoughts on the album, which Trials describes as "a trip." "That’s the dude that opened up a lot of these doors in contemporary Australian music, to be able to include black stories," he says. "He was amongst it. To hear him say it reminds him of the old days? We wanted to capture the passion we had for the music, and that’s what we felt we were doing, and that’s what we were aiming for.” “I think as soon as Archie gave us the nod, it was like okay, regardless of the genre he could feel the

capture what we were doing in the studio,” Trials says. “A lot of people can overcook a song or make it too professional; we wanted to capture the energy. Even though we’re talking about some real dark sh-t at times, we wanted to capture the… jovial bullsh-t that is me and Briggs

Reclaim Australia by A.B. Original is out now via Golden Era/ Universal.

passion, the energy in what we were trying to do – the same things that we felt from his records,” says Briggs. “And also,” Trials adds, ”If we get a bad review, we can say ‘F-ck you – Archie likes it.’”

Night People by You Me At Six is out January 13 via Liberator.

Read the whole interview online at stack.net.au

DECEMBER 2016

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