Interview - Augie March

With their third LP, 2006's Moo, You Bloody Choir Melbourne band Augie March well and truly hit the mainstream. Or as 'mainstream' as marquee song 'One Crowded Hour' hitting number one on the JJJ Hottest 100 translates anyway.

That year they were a 'new' band to most people. But Augie March have been working on their private universe since the mid-90s, poking around the dark corners of the underground scene and slowly winning over punters with their ragged determination to experiement with song form. From these ashes came early EPs Thanks For The Memes and Waltz, which showed a band willing to shoot for their own corner of the pop idiom. This promise was realised with debut album Sunset Studies, a sprawling epic that went on to be a bona fide influence on a whole next generation of musicians. Follow up Strange Bird was wilder and pushed paramters further, before the aforementioned Moo crystallised the feeling of the time - that this was a band worth worrying about.

This year the band convened in New Zealand to record Watch Me Disappear, the highly-anticipated follow up to Moo. At the helm was big name producer Joe Chicarelli, producer to bands like The Shins, The White Stripes and U2. When we caught up with Augie March guitarist (and sometime producer - the band have their own studio in country Victoria) Adam Donovan, we discussed the approach to the new record, hiring a big name American guy and the effort to try something new.

Do you think when band's hire producers it's unfair at how much influence they have over the sound of a record?

You sort of know that going in. But you never know exactly the situation until you're in there and it reveals itself to you. So no, but you don't really know.

Do you listen to things that they've done before? And think 'that's something that would work for us'?

Even that had no relevance really. It doesn't inform you on what it's going to be like. You just listen to it and think 'Yeah, sounds alright'. But you don't know how it's made and all that. You'd have to call up Jack White or something.

And did you feel like Joe had much of an influence over the record?

Of course. He has a very particular way of working. And I guess that was the thing we learned as the days rolled by. We had a lot of good meetings with him and stuff but you still don't know until you get in there and we're ready to go. But it wasn't too different [from before] really. Just more methodical. And his method is how he does things. It was like bringing something foreign into it [for us]. But that's what we were after.

Is there anything on Watch Me Disappear that the band recorded themselves?

There's one song on there ('The Slant') that Glenn did on...I think Garageband or something. Just in a friend's flat in Tasmania. We sort've made the decision early on to use that. I mean we did have a go at recording that again but...it was always going to be a more hi-fi version of this dingey thing that sounds great.

Garageband?

I don't know actually. But you know, it was just on his laptop.

You said before recording that the album would probably be your most 'pop' record.

Yeah. That was mainly just because of the songs. Because they were more concise and less meandering than what we've done before.

It sounds a little more spritely maybe.

Sound wise probably but I think the lyrical content is still fairly morose at times. I think that's what we like doing is, dressing up a pretty dark lyric with some pretty music.

In the past you might've gotten to a section and headed into atmospherics for half a song, say. Those sort of things don't seem to happen as much.

Yeah I think that was just more of the structure of the songs. Rather than have those little bits it just went to the next part of the song instead.

There's a big part of your audience that likes that kind've stuff.

I guess so. But it's all in context. I'm sure people like that stuff but y'know I don't think it's going to sell or not sell any more or less records y'know. It just didn't really come up this time. There was just no room for it. And you don't want to just sort've jam something in if...it's a bit false.

It seems like that with the playing as well. Parts are a little more simplified or something than before.

We recorded everything and put it down and then the mixing was...mixing stuff out, if you know what I mean.

You stripped it back?

Yeah quite a few things fell by the wayside and it was just...I think Joe wanted to make it all about the vocal.

Glenn's vocals definitely sound a bit dryer and up front more. It's been hard to hear Glenn on some of the past albums so it's funny to hear him like this for the first time after so long. It's almost a new sound.

Yeah. It comes with the lyric booklet, the album.

Was that approach Glenn's intention this time around?

It was more a case of - before we started the whole thing - saying 'Alright this is how we're going to do it. We're going to have a producer come in', and you give up any idea of that sort've approach. I think that's something that falls into the hands of the producer. We did have a lot of talks with Joe beforehand but we still had no idea whether in the end we would take that distinct approach. I mean even if he tried to tell us that at the start, it would be hard to get that exactly in words rather than just listening to it. It's what he does and we let him do it.

Did you record anything that didn't go on the record?

Yeah a couple of songs but they ended up being available as little downloads.Some of them are B-Sides for the single and some are available exclusively through iTunes or something like that. The idea was to keep the record a bit shorter.

It'd be your shortest record wouldn't it?

Yeah by about 20 minutes. (Laughter).

Watch Me Disappear is out this Saturday 11th. Watch the band's new clip 'Pennywhistle' here.