ALPINE
JOE MCKEE
Talk Rubbish, Drink Whiskey, Dance.
Steppin’ Out
Alpine
Joe McKee
For a man readying himself to step onto stages throughout Australia all on his own, without his once iconic band standing with him, Joe McKee sounds remarkably self-assured. He speaks with JOSHUA KLOKE ahead of his Burning Boy album launch on Friday, August 24, at the Rosemount Hotel. A humble determination and confidence can be heard in Joe McKee’s voice, both throughout our conversation and on his debut solo album, Burning Boy. It’s a bold reinvention of sonic character for McKee, whose time with Perth fourpiece Snowman ended after eight years together with the release of Absence in 2011. On Burning Boy, McKee trades the aggressive energy of past Snowman releases for a more tempered yet distinguished approach, in which his deeply resonating pipes are brought to the forefront. It wasn’t a calculated move, though not one he shied away from either. “Maybe there was something subliminally that was telling me to do that,” McKee considers. “There are some people that think it’s shrouded in some kind of oceanic reverb, but to me it feels a lot more ‘natured’. When it has my name out there, I didn’t want to hide too much. Perhaps it was a bit of a coming out and that’s what this record is burning off the past and moving forward. Stepping out. There was an intent to expose myself.”
The need for McKee to let the world in, per se, had been building for some time. For the last three years, McKee has been travelling as much as possible, and writing along the way. When asked to name some of the places he’s hit up over the past three years, McKee lists off a barrage of countries throughout Europe that would make any Lonely Planet fanatic salivate. But for McKee, his travels weren’t about bragging rights, but instead to create experiences and absorb sounds that would eventually influence Burning Boy. “The more you travel and the more people you meet, the more sounds you pick up. It’s more about throwing yourself into any situation instead of being in a country and trying to pick up on the local sound. I didn’t go to Spain and try to get into Flamenco music. Through the people I met I found myself experiencing records I hadn’t heard, books I hadn’t read and generally just having experiences that I wouldn’t have had normally.” After Snowman relocated to London in 2008, McKee experienced something of a disconnect with his Western Australian roots. Augmented by Snowman’s split, Burning Boy is the product of this disconnect. More contemplative than brooding, McKee’s approach exercises a manner of restraint not often heard in Snowman records. And it’s a level of restraint which he believes not only gives the record emotional weight, but will create a more meaningful resonance with those who hear it. “Restraint is something that comes with maturity. I wanted to seduce people with this record, rather than bludgeon them. It was a practice in restraint for me and it was about creating something delicate. It wasn’t an angry record for me; it was an escaping, cathartic record which I didn’t feel the need to exploit.”
Alpine is the name of the band on everyone’s lips at the moment, a Melbourne sextet whose first fulllength record, A Is For Alpine, has just been released to teach us all a lesson in diverse musicianship and stunning song writing. CHLOE PAPAS had a chat to vocalist and all-round lovely lady Phoebe Baker ahead of Alpine’s shows at the Newport on Thursday, August 23, The Prince of Wales on Friday, August 24, and The Bakery on Saturday, August 25. Alpine have climbed from strength to strength since their inception in 2009, getting signed almost immediately after putting a few demos online, wowing the nation with their first EP, and dominating nation-wide with sold out shows and tasty support slots. Just prior to the release of the group’s debut record, Baker stated to X-Press that the band was “nervous and excited.” At this point, however, there’s no doubt that they are happy with the results of the album’s release: a number one spot on the Australian iTunes charts, feature album on Triple J, and glowing reviews from critics and fans country-wide. Stylistically diverse, the record meanders through genres with ease, proving the band’s expertise. Baker says that Alpine does make an effort to mix it up a little, but the process is primarily natural. “Because there’s six of us and we all have
really eclectic tastes, there’s a whole lot of different influences going into the music,” she explains. “I think we’re all totally open to playing with different genres. I’d love to do a hip hop song. I’m open to where the music organically takes me, and I think that’s the same for all of us.” The album was recorded in a studio in Gisborne, owned by the three brothers from NZ altrock band Evermore. Evermore’s drummer, Dan Huume, produced A Is For Alpine, and has also previously worked with Lisa Mitchell. “He [Huume] is a creative genius, an amazing guy,” Baker enthuses.“We were so lucky that we got to record with him because he’s just incredible. Because it was our first album I think we were a bit nervous, and he was really patient and helpful. It was a great process.” The often glitter-adorned Baker goes on to discuss the positives of recording out in the country air, away from the restraints of the big smoke. “It was just perfect, because you’re out there and you couldn’t walk to a local shop or anything so you were quite isolated, which really makes you focus on the writing and the recording. It made the process a bit more fun and a bit more exciting because you know, it’s like you’re going on holiday. There was cabin fever, but it was mostly fun and we just talked rubbish and drank whiskey and danced.” Debut records often come with a self-titled or non-risky title, with bands often choosing to play it safe for their first effort. Alpine chose to go with something just that little bit cheeky. “I actually came up with the album name,” Baker laughs. “I just thought it was kind of fun and playful, a little bit arrogant, and not taking itself too seriously – a little bit self-titled but not too self-titled.”
LINKIN PARK It’s A Livin’ Thing
Linkin Park’s new album, Living Things, comes less than two years after their last album, A Thousand Suns.This is probably a good thing, as PETER HODGSON reports. Linkin Park play Soundwave 2013 on Monday, March 4. Linkin Park’s 2010 album, A Thousand Suns, divided fans. Some felt it was a step too far away from the rhythmic, anthemic, alternative-tinged hybrid of hard rock, nu metal and rap that helped them make their name. That didn’t stop it from debuting at #1 on various charts and ultimately selling almost a million copies, but it still meant the band had to step up to reclaim a few skeptical fans when it came time for the follow-up. And they did. Living Things debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts and sold almost 250, 000 copies in its first week. It seems the shorter-than-usual break between albums and the return to certain old-school Linkin Park elements paid off. “I think for us we have a habit of releasing albums every three or four years,” guitarist Brad Delson says.“In Linkin Park time, this is like lightspeed!” The band started writing and recording in between tour legs for A Thousand Suns. By the time they’d finished that album cycle, they already had a huge stash of ideas to work on, so for the last year up until just a couple of months ago they were nutting out Living Things. It’s an album which doesn’t really revisit the band’s past so much as take the occasional fond glance back at it in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, that’s fair,” Delson confirms. “It’s like putting to work the life lessons of where we’ve been, but through the present point of view. I think sonically, or maybe in terms of song approach, this album is very different from A Thousand Suns, and part of that was the inspiration of doing something in contrast to what we’d just done.That’s what makes the studio so fun.There are no rules.” Once again Delson’s guitar is up front on Living Things, including a few moments that border on thrash. There’s no real pattern to how Linkin Park songs get written or at which point the guitar role takes shape for any given track. It’s a very fluid process. “Sometimes songs will start with words, which is rare but possible. Sometimes it starts with a melody and piano, or a melody and guitar. Sometimes it starts with a beat and we’ll layer melody over it. One thing that Rick (Rubin, producer) would encourage us to do is 16
Linkin Park to put vocals on it right away. That helps us to know if the content is good. ‘Is this song, in its bare bones form, a good song?’. “Whereas our method of working on our first two albums was almost entirely music-focused first, and then the vocals would go last. People say, ‘is there a message in the album?’ and it’s like, ‘I don’t know! We don’t even know what we just said! We don’t even know what we just played!’. In fact, we make the songs in such a postmodern way that when it’s time to prepare for our tours we literally have to learn how to perform the songs for the first time. In every case, no one has a clue what we’re gonna play and how we’re gonna play it. “I literally have a CD right now of parts that I’m going to play.We have the song on the left and my part on the right and I’m literally trying to figure out how I played it or how Mike (Shinoda, guitar/vocals) played it, and how I’m going to play it live to make it sound like it does on the record.” One of Delson’s favourite guitar moments on the new album is Victimized. “I love it. It’s got like a thrash, punk, super-heavy edge. There’s enough of a distinction between that and something that’s more metal-influenced that makes that song so awesome for me. Ugh! I love that song! We’re going to play that song live too. That’s one of the ones I was just listening to try and figure out how to play it. “Sometimes we’ll try things that seem like it would be the worst idea, and that’s the thing that you hear and go, ‘What is that?’. There’s a lot of
experimentation, and that’s one of the reasons why we spend a year working on an album. If there’s a part we know we need for a song we’ll try for weeks until we find a part that works for the album.” Recently the band introduced a killer merchandise item that’s utterly unprecedented: a limited edition Transformers set made in collaboration with Hasbro, featuring Linkin Park branding. Based on the 1984 originals,there will be 2000 sets manufactured, featuring Soundwave, Lazerbeak, Buzzsaw and Ravage. “Joe Hahn (Linkin Park’s DJ) is our resident Transformers connoisseur,” Delson says. “I’ve definitely put in a request for at least one of them. I think I deserve to get at least one of those, don’t you think? I know they’re in very high demand. Those collectibles, especially for people who have a love for avant-garde toys and collectibles, it’s just such a creative world. Joe has such a huge collection of toys and art objects. He went to an exhibition in Berlin last month of someone’s private collection of street culture toys and artist collaboration collectibles. Joe was totally inspired and demoralised at the same time. Whatever Joe had amassed over the last decade, this guy had taken it to such an extreme degree that it was staggering.” So when can we hope to hear Linkin Park live in Australia again? Delson says the band hopes to be here, “Sooner rather than later - maybe even next year. So I hope for my sake that those rumours are true, because I would love to spend as much time as possible in your neck of the woods.” X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays