It’s been a long time coming, but Usurper Of Modern Medicine are finally releasing their debut album, Omniliberation, at The Bakery this Saturday, July 5, with support from Gunns, Rabbit Island and Doctopus. We had a word with Steve Aaron Hughes.
Where did you spring from?
From the ashes of a jam project. Chance collaborations of musicians from different walks of life and styles with mutual respect for each other and an intention to experiment.
What’s your sound?
We sound like a condensed supernova blasted out of supercharged magnets. Key influences are higher states of consciousness, surrealist art and subversive humor.
Tell us of the album. Why such a long gestation period?
We all lead complex lives with multiple music projects and creative endeavors. We wanted to take our time to make as great sounding record as possible. Combine these two and in a flurry of activity and projects, two years pass. The wait was worth it for us.
Give us some insight into your writing process.
Me and Cameron George write our own solo tracks and electronic compositions. These are sometimes given the Usurper treatment where they are workshopped with the other members into completely different beasts. Most of the tracks for this album were processed by this particular filter. Other tracks come from jams, rare moments of groove that do not fade back into the subconscious and organically grow over time.
What’s up next for you guys?
We have another EP worth of material from these album sessions that we plan to release later in the year. One song possibly as a split single with another amazing kindred band from Perth. We gave all the songs from Omnliberation to different video directors and have a series of music videos coming out soon, each more wildly unique and exciting than then last. What we’ve seen so far has been awesome. These will be coming out of the coming weeks and months to explore the songs in more detail. Besides that we’re cracking to get working on some new material – we want to really upgrade and deform what we’ve been doing up to this point. Time for a new overhaul. We are brimming with ideas and look forward to developing to a new configuration.
