Comprised of Perth music veterans Liam Young, Jay Marriott and Steve Turnock, Skullcave launch their debut EP at The Bird this Saturday, January 24, with support from Pat Chow, Aborted Tortoise and Sprawl. We catch up with drummer/vocalist Young.
What’s the Skullcave story? Give us a quick history lesson.
We wanted to start a new band (again). Jay (Marriott) had written some different sounding riffs, we jammed on them, then demoed them at home. If I was bored, I’d just sit there for a few hours trying to put vocals over the top. We needed a bass player, so Steve (Turnock) was the obvious choice. We showed him the songs and wrote a few more together until we had an EP’s worth of material to record.
What’s your sound? How is it different from previous groups your members have been in?
It’s kinda post-metal meets grungy shoegaze. I think. It’s similar in the sense that it’s still us three writing songs together, but very different also. Much slower and heavier than any Novocaines songs we wrote and more melodic than what Puck is about.
Tell us about the EP.
Five tracks. Musically, it changes quite a bit throughout but doesn’t lose it’s theme. My lyrics are pretty simple. I’m really just singing about how bored I was or how much people annoyed me. Real poetic shit, y’know?
Where did you record and who with?
Our good mate Jim Power, who runs Fat Shan’s now, has been recording our various projects for years. He’s super supportive of our bands and was only natural that we went to him with our new songs. The EP will be coming out through Fat Shan’s and MGM Distribution.
Starting a new band, do you find that fans carry over from previous projects, or do you start from scratch?
People who have come to our shows for years are still really supportive of what we do, but there a small number who don’t quite like it as much as your old ragin’ blues riff. There’s a lot of starting again to be done, but that’s half the fun.
What’s the songwriting process like for you guys?
Jay will spend a while on the riff, I’ll hassle him with structure ideas, Steve joins in and puts a sweet bassline under whatever I’m playing and we’ll record it on my iPhone. Then, I’ll sit at home in my room on GarageBand and record vocal ideas until we come back to it and generally it’s pretty done. Sometimes a song isn’t finished until you play it live a few times and find out what doesn’t work.
What’s the game plan for 2015?
Put out this EP, finish writing our next one which is nearing completion. Maybe go on a weekend tour of the east coast to celebrate and play heaps of Perth gigs!
Anything else to add?
I accidentally just elbowed Jay’s dog in the face. She’s fine.
