Scandal Tree: Brisbane hard rockers delivering theatrical garage energy…
What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
Our newest single ‘Twenty-O-Six’ is from our album Never Look a Gift Foot in the Mouth. It’s about a man living in Detroit in 1976 considering what the world will be like in 30 years – 2006. Detroit was once the biggest car maker in the US. Dodge, Ford, Chrysler all built cars there. The city got smashed by the 1973 oil crisis, and all of those big, beautiful, gas-guzzling sixes and V8s they made became too expensive to run. So the factories started making small cars but their small cars were poorly designed. Then foreign manufacturers moved into the market and jobs went offshore. It obliterated the city economically. I like to think we captured the sacrifice that generation made and the pride they had for their city. And through that you can feel the sense of betrayal they must have felt.
What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
The hardest part was probably the waiting. The recording went very smoothly, and the first mixes were usually good. The problem is that our engineer, Nic, had numerous bands to mix so we’d have to wait until he got to our stuff. This was usually done through emails and texts which takes so much more time than sitting down next to him. Nic was fabulous but we were so excited and enthusiastic it was hard to be patient.
Who produced the release – what did they bring to it? If you produced it yourselves what do enjoy most about producing your own material?
Our Producer and Engineer was Nik Carpenter at Core Studios. He’s fantastic. He was very patient with us. I think also he enjoyed that we were something different. When we recorded the track ‘It Was Wrong’ – which is almost a doo-wop song – I remember hearing him through the cans to himself “Oh yeah!” in a kinda delight. It was an unusual style for him to mix and he was enthusiastic about trying it out.
What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
Hopefully peeps enjoy it – simples. It is a fun album but with some depth and grit. There are few little tips for life, tugs on the heart-strings and tongue-in-cheek moments with a sprinkling of dark humour. So it has plenty to offer.
How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
‘Twenty-O-Six’ had been something the band had been jamming on before Huck arrived. There was no real arrangement at that time. Huck usually sings jibba-jabba over the music until he locks in a melody he is happy with. With ‘Twenty-O-Six’ he locked in pretty quick and found the call and response for the chorus. The lyrics took a while though. He had the verses but chipped away at the chorus. In fact, it was only the night before recording he came up with my favourite line “it don’t seem like I’ll have bionic arms when the aliens arrive.”
What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
I don’t think there was any one band or album that influenced making our album. Everyone in the group has their own story around the type of music they listened to growing up. Broadly speaking Dano loves his hair-metal and 90s alt rock, Grant and Pete dig on their classic rock, while Joe, who’s the youngest, loves the 60s and British invasion. [Huck] Personally I have my rebellious punk roots nowadays I’m always on the lookout for new bands and musical ideas. I think we get our stuff to work because we work on the songs. We aren’t trying to chase a ‘sound’, we just make our own using musical knowledge and background. I think we all get a surprise, usually a nice one, when a song gets finished.
What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
We’re Queensland boys so we’d probably prefer the warmer countries, I guess. We are getting a good bit of interest from the United States so it would be great to go and play for those peeps. As far as venues go we all love the older, late 19th century ones, where the acoustics are sweet and the floors are timber. You can feel the history of them come alive.
If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
It’d probably be ‘Twenty-O-Six’. The song is probably the most serious song we have but it also ticks so many boxes. Its bittersweet but upbeat. Kinda tragic but uplifting too. The hooks are there, the chorus gets longer and better. The instrumentation is great. It’s an amazing song. I’m biased but I think it is.
What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
We’re looking forward to making more albums and playing live. We want to grow our audience and share our music. If we can get it to the stage it pays our way and we get to see places we otherwise wouldn’t then that’d be amazing.
Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
As we leave the stage? It’s usually ad libs to ‘Ava Don’t Cry’, so the words are “keep-keep, keep-keep a lookin’”. So why not, keep-keep looking at us – Scandal Tree.
Find out more about Scandal Tree at facebook.com/scandaltreeband