STACK #149 Mar 2017

MUSIC NEWS

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of time. Once they are done, it can sometimes seem daunting when working on newer material. It keeps me from getting lazy, though. In the Ubu video, the effects start off really slight. It's like a trick out of the corner of your eye when the facial droops begin.What can you tell us about the concept behind the video, and where is that excellent outdoor structure that's featured? That was shot inside the Perth Concert Hall – a great building. PAXI wanted to take elements of a '60s production of Ubu Roi and weave them into the clip. The record is supposed to oscillate between states of pure pop and dark ambience, with moments where songs tear themselves apart. Taking something straightforward and tilting it an almost imperceptible amount is something I love to play with. PAXI does this with the melting faces to great effect. It has humour in it, which I want to keep in everything I do. There are as many practical jokes in the work as there are wanky art references! Act Of Contrition sounds like it was recorded outside of the usual studio set-up (the ambient hissing!). Is that a result of clever engineering? It was. I tracked it all at my folks' house in Injidup, a few hours south-west of Perth. Summer Moon contains effects that sound like magpies but could be just really well- controlled feedback. (But I think the kookaburras at the end are real?)Were they a happy accident or the result of trying to find a specific sound? Nice pickup. There aren’t magpies, that’s engineering. The evil kookaburras are real. At the same house as I mentioned before, I’d been down to the beach – which is close by – to record the waves there for Act Of Contrition . When I returned the birds were all going a little crazy. I was alone so it made things appear even more ominous. Needless to say, the microphone was switched on immediately.

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METHYL ETHEL Perth three-piece Methyl Ethel return with a heaping of enigmatic ideas in remarkable new album Everything Is Forgotten . Zoë Radas spoke to frontman JakeWebb.

ideas far bigger than what is apparent within them. With reference to the Bourgeois work, I hope for things to be abstracted and seen to be raw; as if the medium of song exists on a 2D plane with ambitions to be experienced in the third dimension. At the same time, it’s all an attempt for me to understand.

about pure experience, shared innocence, in a world of deafening multiplicity. It’s also visceral and should be open to reading from one and all.

You've said that in the beginning, you never intended Methyl Ethel to play live shows. Has the songwriting process changed in that it’s informed by the knowledge that you are actually going to be performing these songs live? In short, no. I’ll always serve the purpose of the song. Whether it’s impossible to play live or not is a mission for us as a band. It creates a good challenge too. Holly Fewson is responsible for the album's cover art. She seems to be fascinated by the corporeal experience of femininity, and maybe just the experience of having a body in general.What does her work mean to you? The corporeal and the idea of being laid bare are very intentional themes for me in relation to the artwork, and the record itself. For me, these themes should appear to transcend gender. It’s more

Everything Is Forgotten by Methyl Ethel is out March 3 via Dot Dash/ Remote Control.

Why did you choose this particular

painting of Holly’s for the cover – or, did she paint it especially for the album? Apart from what I said above, it has some visual elements that appear to carry over from the first record. In many ways, for me, she is the voice of the record. How did Louise Bourgeois’ Femme Maison paintings inspire the song of the series’ name, or was the cause/effect the other way around? The painting was the inspiration. I hope for my songs to speak in a conversational way about

L'Heure Des Sorcieres is a super evocative track, and very dynamic – how do you know what sort of balance to strike between the quieter bars, the builds, fuzz effects, and then that super heavy, almost church organ sound? Do those sorts of decisions come quickly, by feel? I guess by feel, yes. I often open up old sessions to rediscover how I did some things. Some old songs seem to have had hours poured into them over a long period

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MARCH 2017

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