Liars are instinctual and immediate
Chloe Mayne interviews Liars vocalist and guitarist, Angus Andrew:
What’s the band been up to during the couple of months since the album release?
We’ve played a few festivals, shot some videos, just finished a run of East Coast US shows. Now we’re working on our Getty Museum takeover and starting the next project which is a daunting film score.
How have you found the album’s reception?
In terms of the feedback I’ve gotten from friends and people like yourself, whom I’ve been interviewing with, it’s been great.
How did this theme of “Mess” come about?
I’m attracted to the question of ‘what is a mess?’ It’s a very subjective point of view. One person can see something as a completely random and dislocated jumble of ideas where another person can view the same piece as a very calculated and particular conception. I like this disparity – this blurred line between what is and what isn’t depending on any one individual’s perspective. Its inspiring to me. It’s what makes good art, I think.
How would you describe the creative process during the creation of the record?
Instinctual, immediate and from the gut. Our last album was quite the opposite – very cerebral and tentative. That was fun at the time, but on this record I wanted the opposite – I wanted ‘fast’.
What did you release for Record Store Day?
We released the first single from Mess which is called ‘Mess On A Mission’. It was a clear 12” piece of vinyl embedded with coloured string. Very difficult to make and very hard to get your hands on.
Now, this is a bit of a selfish one, because I’ve just moved there and I’m curious. A few years ago you all relocated together to Berlin to record Drum’s Not Dead. Why Berlin? How was your time there? I read that you recorded in an East German broadcast centre?
I lived in Berlin for five years. I was attracted to it because I felt so repelled by America at that time. The G.W. Bush era. I wanted to move somewhere that I could feel isolated but also in the middle of things. It was some of the most creative time of my life. I didn’t have many friends and spoke very little German so I often felt like I was living in a bubble – just focused entirely on the work I was creating. We recorded two albums in the old East German Broadcast centre – it was an incredibly inspiring place both historically but most importantly acoustically.
How do you find that place affects your creative output?
Place and environment can be crucial to creative output if that’s where you want to draw inspiration from – sometimes though, it’s just as positive to block everything out and concentrate on what lies within you.
When were you last in Australia … you grew up there, right? How do you find it, going back?
I was born in the Philippines, but moved to Melbourne when I was three. I lived there till I was twelve then moved to Sydney, where I stayed until seventeen. I love going back to Australia – that’s where my family is and that’s where I call home.
What are you guys up to for the remainder of the year?
More touring – creating the movie soundtrack we signed on for – and then more touring.
You can catch Liars at the following dates:
Jun 05 – Corner Hotel Melbourne, Australia
Jun 06 – Modulations @ Carriageworks Sydney, Australia
Jul 11 – ATP Iceland Keflavik, Iceland
Aug 15 – La Route Du Rock Saint Malo, France
Aug 16 – Jabberwocky London, United Kingdom
Aug 24 – First City Festival, Monterey
Liars interview by Chloe Mayne. Read her review of Mess here.
