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“We were just making music for the sake of music again”: Rolling Blackouts CF on their new album Endless Rooms

Singer-guitarist Tom Russo on recording in lockdown, self-producing, and his go-to Gretsch Black Falcon.

The Russos call it the Basin or the Basin House. It’s out in the bush, about two-and-a-half hours north of Melbourne. Before, it was the family sheep farm. Tom’s folks helped build the structure in the late 1970s. His aunt and uncle live there now. It’s pretty rustic, he says, and it’s a good place to make a fire, to cook for your friends, to hang by the lake. It’s also a good place to make a record.

It’s only been a few years since we last heard fromRolling Blackouts Coastal Fever但是在那段时间发生了很多变化。乐队充满活力的第二唱片侧身to New Italywas released in the summer of 2020, into the not-so-vibrant world of the covid-19 pandemic at a time when Melbourne was in and out of long, sapping lockdowns.

Confined to their homes, Russo and his bandmates – his bassist brother, Joe, fellow guitarist-vocalists Joe White and Fran Keaney, and Perth-based drummer Marcel Tussie – started toying with new ideas right as their previous batch of new ideas made their way into the world, blinking in the light on empty streets. “We just put the songs out there,” Tom says. “Music wasn’t the top thing on everyone’s minds.”

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那年晚些时候,限制的差距张开了,足够长的时间使乐队将这些新想法带到了盆地之家。汤姆说:“过去几年似乎有点扭曲。”“这首歌第一次将生命作为乐队的事物。我们真的不知道我们拥有什么。进行演示是很好的,但是与我们一起,这是我们五个人的化学反应。

“我们聚在一起玩了他们,就像‘这将奏效'。然后我们回到了锁定。从字面上看,我们就做到了 - 这些日期将要工作,并且在我们准备好上升并做到这一点的同时,限制也很大。那是我们的镜头。如果我们不这样做,那将是艰难的。但是我们到那里。那是一种祝福。大家很久以来第一次在一起是很好的。我们有这种共同的经验。”

他们在那个差距中发出的歌曲已成为他们出色的第三张专辑Endless Rooms。The chemistry that Russo points to is still evident at each turn. But here Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are looser, less propulsive than they have been in the past. The rhythm section is more playful and demanding, weaving wandering basslines and snare rolls together, while the guitarists play scratchy, insistent melodies off washes of colour from vintage synths. There are moments that recall the oscillating post-punk of Wire, others that zone out into sun-dappled psych-pop, and plenty that hit the band’s dynamic indie-rock sweet spot.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Endless Rooms

汤姆说:“我想最大的事情是,[锁定]迫使我们失去了几乎全职乐队的常规或周期。”“我们突然独自一人,我们没有任何演出要播放。我们只是为了音乐而创作音乐,没有任何真正的意义。它具有真正的厨房融合品质。我买了一个罗兰TR-8 drum machine, which had all the classic 808/909 sounds on it, and was experimenting with that in a big way. Some of the other guys had gotten a few little雅马哈synths and were playing around with them.

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“关于这种和新的写作方式,有很多新的乐器,我们从不同的角度进行了处理。这不是全乐队的体验。我在听很多环境音乐 - 在很激烈的时刻舒缓灵魂的好处。我没有听很多吉他音乐。我们允许自己扔掉我们想要的一切,而没有想出滚动停电记录的先入为主。但是当我们聚在一起时,我们听起来像是自己。我们喜欢流行钩,我想我们无能为力。我们走进杂草,然后把它带回来。我们本可以用一些被排除在外的古怪的东西使它变得更加肿和奇怪。”

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
图片:按

侧身to New Italycame together with producer Burke Reid at Head Gap in Melbourne. It was the band’s first time working with a producer and their first time recording at a true bells-and-whistles studio. WithEndless Rooms,风格转移和巧妙的编辑决策可能更令人印象深刻,因为它们仅属于乐队:通过自我制作,他们赋予自己自由地消失在自己的动机和氛围中,有趣的是,他们以一种歌曲的感觉和改用纪律。

汤姆说:“我们已经有一段时间了一段时间,我们有更多的信心来支持自己,以了解我们想追求的声音。”“我们从伯克那里学到了一些很棒的东西,他们努力地推动了我们,并确保我们不是懒惰的。我们都在家录制时,尤其是乔。他可能是最先进的。他的设置不错,并且进行了一些自我制作的演示,我们在歌曲的那些早期版本上弄乱了作品。

“We had Matt Duffy, who engineered the thing and kind of helped us shepherd it, he’s still got all the nice gear and the know-how. He did our first two EPs, which was a pretty rudimentary process recorded over a weekend. We’d all learnt a lot since then. We did the mixing remotely with Matt as well after the fact. We were all sitting there listening to it, essentially live mixing it all together. All of us had an idea of what we wanted. It really was quite an easy, natural process.”

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
Image: Nick Mckk

Russo’s own sound is also all about doing things in a way that is simple and unfussy. Where White might get permanently lost in a room of guitars and amps, he is happier with the格雷施他在路上扮演的黑猎鹰和一小圈踏板,包括EarthQuaker DevicesSea Machine that he is quite taken with. “I have a few modes: reverby clean, a little bit more overdriven or boosted, and chorusy. I play it with a pretty straight bat,” he says.

他补充说:“格雷茨真是太漂亮了。”“它的通用性非常清晰,非常清晰。这适合我的演奏风格。我不像乔那样冒险。在Endless Roomsand a couple of the other songs I played my partner Thalia’s beautiful NashStratocaster。它具有这种经典的Strat声音,很明显。除此之外,我对Gretsch保持了相当忠实的态度。这是如此多功能。它只是做我需要的。”

怀特(White)的演奏 - 通常在野马或美洲虎(Jaguar)上 - 是两者中更具装饰性的,鲁索(Russo)的线索和独奏者坚持着真正的毅力和压载。其中一些与他与家庭吉他的关系息息相关,家庭吉他的59格雷茨(Gretsch)本身具有粗糙的语气。即使它脱颖而出,汤姆也无法完全摆脱。

“这仍然是一种精神上的,你知道吗?”他说。“它的声音非常特别。我父亲在70年代从他的理发师那里买了一百美元,显然是在床下坐了大约20年,直到我找到它。它有一些非常有趣的自制接线,所以它确实像m子一样踢。它非常嗡嗡作响,我什至不想修复它 - 听起来像是听起来。我目前的一个人可以做您想做的事情,所以我觉得不需要回到那个Gretsch。我仍然喜欢那种Skronky的声音 - 这在我的演奏中。我大部分时间都保持它很干净,无论我是领导还是节奏,您都可以听到它,这只是我的声音。”

滚动停电沿海热最近包裹了一场澳大利亚巡回演出,该巡回演出已经进行了两年。过去和现在在路上相撞,歌曲来自侧身to New Italyfinding renewed purpose just when it seemed like time had left them behind. With selections fromEndless Rooms焦急地节奏,等待他们的机会,累积效果是使乐队看起来像是一次又一次地组装了一个深深的,细微的,令人兴奋的目录。

汤姆谈到较旧的音乐时说:“我们不得不从头开始重新学习,其中一些是从头开始的。”“这是一次奇怪的经历。我觉得Endless Rooms那是最近的,侧身…Kinda被跳过了。他们第一次玩他们真是太好了,他们有点新生活。他们只是迟来的。”

滚动停电沿海热的发烧Endless Rooms现在出去了子流行音乐

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