 |
| MUSIC : INTERVIEWS : REVIEWS : MYSPACE |
INTERVIEWS : |
INTERVIEWS : 2004 Rockus Magazine How does the term post-rock sit with Oneironaut? I think it’s a broad term that encompasses a lot of bands. I’m not sure that we classify ourselves as post-rock. I think post-rock is almost over and it’s time for something new. Over the past 8 years, you folks have released 2 full lengths and 2 EPs. This has obviously given you a lot of time to explore different aspects of the band's songwriting capabilities and come across new songwriting techniques and so forth. Looking back on Oneironaut's musical evolution, what are some of the things, do you think, that have had the most influence on shaping the Oneironaut sound that exists today? The largest influence on our sound is the constant changing of our lives and the relationship of the band. We feed off each other constantly and rely on this so much that it’s probably the main catalyst for the different directions we take. We are always looking for a new angle on something, or different instruments to add to the arsenal to expand on what we do. I think we would be disappointed if we felt like we had recorded the same album again. To expand on our sound is a large drive for us and I think the next recording will be a lot different than the last. What element of the music you create these days are you most attached to? I love making spacious soundscapes that are predominantly jammed out. I prefer a sort of cinematic approach that is mood based rather than a classic song structure. I find the title of your new record quite an interesting one. When relating it in terms of musical evolution, it seems to suggest the opposite of the major argument that all music these days is sourced from ideas from the past. What are your thoughts? Our album title is reflective of our musical progression over 8 years. We feel we have finally nailed it in a recording. So ‘pure through evolution’ seemed an apt title to sum up our experience. As for getting inspiration from the past, I think every musician needs to know where their roots lie. Its inevitable that you are influenced by something or someone. But I don’t like to think that everything has already been done and that we can add something new to the mix. Given the amount of extra instrumentation that you utilised on the recording, how do you go about recreating this in the live environment, or do you prefer your live shows to maintain a raw aspect? We are attempting more and more, to recreate a varied array of sounds live to approximate the album. We have a cello player now and also someone who plays clarinet, flute and sax. We still play from time to time just as a four piece which is a lot more straight forward and guitar based which is fun, but the variation is great and there is a lot more to play off with other musicians. You launched the new album earlier this month in Melbourne. How did it all go? The launch was a culmination of 3 years of hard work and it was great to see it come to fruition. We have had good support from radio and positive reviews, so we are very happy with it all. Will you be visiting other places around Oz to promote the record in the near future? I think Adelaide and Sydney are first in line for some shows. We are still keen to get to Perth and Brisbane and maybe some regional shows as well. What plans do you folks have in the new year? We are going to start on the next recording and hopefully have an ep out by mid year. We also have some album b-sides which will be released on a limited edition sampler disc. Plus I think we might be doing a film clip. [back] © 2004 Steph Edwardes : Rockus Magazine .......................................................................................... Beat Magazine Melbourne quartet, Oneironaut, has been performing its majestic brand of prog-rock since 1996. Having already released two independent EPs and 2001’s Antipodean Dream, the band’s sophomore album, Pure Through Evolution, is their most adventurous and accomplished offering to date. Blending a melting pot of noise and moods, the music is characterised by a dreamy aura, atmospheric progressions and expansive textures fusing songs with a feel that it is as colourful as it is cinematic. Somebody said that your music could make them drift off and think about things they hadn’t thought about for years; do you think a song is just a short term escapism, or do you think they resonate long after they are over? I guess that when people say things like that, we take it as a pretty good compliment, because for us that’s a big inspiration; the music we write is a form of escape for us, and we really enjoy playing long, trance like jams for that exact reason. I guess the things we do with our music are kind of an extension of our way of thinking and what we like to hear in music ourselves. Do you think your music demands more of an active role from the listener, and challenges them to find something new in it with each listen? Definitely. I guess because we spend so much time and place so much emphasis on texture and soundscape and depth of sound, we definitely hope it’s the kind of music where each time the listener hears it they can hear something new because there is so much depth to it. Some of my favourite music is the three dimensional stuff where I can put it on and hear something I haven’t heard before each time. I guess with us we do a lot of tracking and layer the songs, and really kind of focus on the wall of sound. Some songs on the album are instrumental and some have vocals; how do you decide which songs have vocals on and which to leave off? From one song to the next we kind of base it on its own merit, and the first thing we’ll consider is if it actually needs vocals. For us, the vocals have never been the focus of our music; we basically just treat them as another instrument. As far as a couple of songs that do have vocals are concerned, the original idea came about with a vocal melody and a vocal idea in mind. It wasn’t like we wrote the music and then decided to put vocals over the top. It kind of came with the process, as we were writing them, whereas the songs that were instrumental kind of started off as instrumental songs and through building them up we discovered that they didn’t need vocals. Given the expansive nature of your songs, and their duration, it is difficult to measure when a song is in its complete form, or are you usually pretty certain when youdecide a song is finished? For us, when we’re looking at structuring the song, and working out sections of the songs and duration and length, its mostly determined by feel. Whether it works out that a section of a song will go for four minutes or go for a minute and a half really comes down to, when we’ve got tit all happening with everybody in the band, how it feels, and whether it starting to get too boring, or too monotonous as such. [back] © 2004 Ringo Bon Ladine : Beat Magazine .......................................................................................... Rave Magazine Oneironaut might seem at first a somewhat perplexing choice of band name – it’s certainly hard to pronounce (it’s on-EYE-ro-nort, for the record). But the word is Greek for ‘explorer of the dream state’ and thus neatly describes the music of the four-piece Melbourne band that bears the name. On the broadest level the band plays what’s become known as post-rock – mostly instrumental, atmospheric guitar music of the kind patented by Mogwai on their Young Team opus way back in 1997. But on their just-released album Pure Through Evolution, Oneironaut have threaded strings and horns into their densely woven guitar fabric to create a genuine step forward for the genre. It might seem a bit of a no-brainer – adding extra instruments to a band’s core line-up is hardly earth-shattering stuff – but it’s the way Oneironaut utilise these new textures that sets them apart. On the opening track Alan Smithee for instance, the band create an enveloping, blurred soundscape where trombone, cello, vocals or guitars each rise to the surface briefly only to be lost to the murk again. Fans of bad films may be familiar with the name Alan Smithee – it’s an alias directors use when a film is so horrendousthey don’t want their name associated with it! Guitarist Nick Pledge says that choice of song title came about with his original concept for the song. “It started off I was gonna get samples of directors of failed projects and put them all through the song, but over time I didn’t think it was such a great idea so in the end we opted to stick a wacky vocal and some wacky effects in there and lashings of horns.” Another key track is Ex-Patriot, which features a recording of an old man recounting his frightening experiences during the Second World War. “That’s my grandpa,” Nick reveals. “He’s 95 now. I went and interviewed him last Christmas, because I had a terrible feeling that all his stories were going to get lost. He told me all this stuff that I didn’t know about my family and about his life. Like I had no idea that he and my mum were nearly killed in Liverpool (England) by the Germans – I just thought it was incredible and even more incredible that I didn’t know about it.” Nick also finds it incredible that, having been together since 1996, Oneironaut have stuck with it long enough to finally be getting some recognition. “I’m impressed that we’ve actually managed to hold it together,” he admits. “It’s like having multiple girlfriends! Sometimes it’s a nightmare, but mostly it’s a good laugh.” [back] © 2004 Brett Collingwood : Rave Magazine
.......................................................................................... INTERVIEWS : 2002 When listening to ‘Antipodean Dream’, it’s apparent that the recording process is taken seriously-concentrating on creating a mood for a each song. What can a punter expect from a live performance by Oneironaut? One of the best compliments we have got so far was from someone saying that they completely drifted off with the music while watching us live. They started remembering things they hadn’t thought of in years. This is kind of the whole point to it I think. I always think of different landscapes, images to match the moods and textures of our music. It depends. People enjoy music for a lot of different reasons and on different levels. At the very least they can expect a dynamic mix of soundscapes and pop songs. Do you have many memories of your last trip to the Northern Star? I have some great memories from our last trip. Getting on out on the road is always a great way to blow out the cobwebs. I don’t think any of us had been to Newcastle before. The highlight is usually playing to a new crowd and watching the other bands which in this case was Audiophile. Those guys were awesome, great sounds. There was also a bit of drinking. Your songs create aural themes through repetition, yet the pieces also contain many different parts. How do you know when a composition is finished? Some songs are straight forward. They come together relatively easily and it’s a finite thing. Other times it is an evolution that can take up to a year sometimes. Most of the songs change in some ways over time naturally and we tend to rearrange stuff for the the live shows to keep things interesting. I think the point where everything starts to flow and the dynamics are all in check is probably when the song is near completion. This a good time to road test a song. Gigging is a great way of solidifying songs because it forces you to make decisions or the weak points become obvious. If you can play a 8 minute song without looking at each other and hold it together then there’s a good chance you’re done. The profile of the band is growing in NSW-how familiar are the Melbourne crowds with you? I think we have a reasonably good profile in Melbourne. The home town advantage always helps and 3RRR and PBS radio have been really supportive. I get the feeling that things are starting to take off and more and more people are getting to hear us. The crowds at our gigs have been getting better and we have managed to sell a few albums. I think once the next album comes out, people will probably take a bit more notice. Who are some of the groups that you’ve enjoyed playing with? We have played with some great bands. Recently we played with a Melbourne band called Season who are really good. International Karate are always a winner. Further are an awesome band. Although they are quite different stylisticly, Peabody are an awesome band to play a bill with. Others off the top of my head; Solaris, Audiophile, Oliver Mann, Laura, People of Alaska, Adam Cole Band, the list goes on. Are you able to provide a description of the sounds of Oneironaut? Oh this is always a curly one.... I think the last description that I read was something like dynamic soundscapes and elaborate sonic frequencies. What are your thoughts on the word ‘genre’? Music is the extension of your personality. Genre is the box that surrounds it. Can we expect another release in 2003? We are working on another album as we speak. Its definitely going to be a step up from the last album. The planned release is mid next year so stay tuned. What are your plans for the next 12 months? We are still recording flat out and will be finishing the album in the next 6 months. I think we are squeezing in a bunch of gigs, at least one more to Sydney this year. We are thinking about Brisbane and Perth funds permitting. I think once the album is released then it will be all go on the gig front. Finally...Why did you choose to name the band thus? Were there any other candidates for the title? Oneironaut is Greek for ‘explorer of the dream world’ which seemed to fit the style and mindset of the music as a whole. I can’t remember what the other choices were now. We used to be called My Sci-Flyer a long time ago. [back] © 2002 Nick Senger : U-Turn Magazine
.......................................................................................... www.redbackrock.com If you’ve been paying attention lately to the mid-week gigs around Sydney, there’s been a few showcases organised by the smaller record labels, drumming up interest in the little guy. Them’s fightin’ words in the face of the internationals here for Livid and the onslaught that will happen over summer. Get Up & Die Properly, a Comrade Records night at the Vic on the Park in Marrickville on Friday September 27, has Further, Oneironaut, Magnus, Mr Miyagi and Ollo for your musical pleasure. For a measly eight bucks you can catch these guys and gloat that you were fans before they hit it big. “Further will pull a few people because they’re great and everyone loves them. They had a cracker of a gig here with Magic Dirt last weekend,” says Gavin Vance, bass player extraordinaire with Melbourne’s Oneironaut. They offer something a little different to your standard indie band. Their debut album, Antipodean Dream, took me by surprise. It’s kind of like what you’d get if Drop City did the soundtrack to a David Lynch film after lying in the sun all afternoon with their lips wrapped around a big fat spliff. Although they might not agree with me. “I know that Drop City were very influenced by bands like My Bloody Valentine and they are probably coming from the same set of influences that we have been,” he says. “Anything left of centre like Trans Am, with the obvious Swervedriver comparison. People often say that we sound like Sonic Youth, but I’m not too sure about that one. If it brings to mind a band then fair enough, but we’re not into wearing our influences on our sleeves.” In what seems to be part 2 in my series of Bands Who Have Changed Their Name, Oneironaut started out as My Sci-Flyer and released an EP, Parallel Ends, under this name. Due to some confusion with another outfit called Sci-Fi, the best solution was to adopt a different moniker. “We worked really hard to get those five tracks together and put the EP out. It’s funny we just got the whole thing pressed and the artwork done, and then we changed our name. That’s why there’s that crappy little sticker on the front ‘now known as Oneironaut’, which looks a bit cheap.” Oneironaut is the name that Nick Pledge (guitar and vocals) used for his solo work, and they decided they would go with it. ‘Oneiro’ is a Greek word and with ‘naut’ it means explorer of the dream state, and hence you have a pretty accurate description of their music. You may not have heard them on the radio because this music doesn’t follow the formula. The shortest track on Antipodean Dream comes close to four minutes, with two clocking over the seven-minute mark. Kind of a problem for radio and the Sesame Street generation. “It comes down to the small bedroom-based record label that we’re on. They aren’t able to throw money about, launching singles here and there. Any band that can afford to release and promote a single I envy greatly.” The guys are currently working on their next album, with an ETA of next March. “We’re very happy with how it’s going. We’re producing it ourselves so far anyway!” he chuckles. “We like a lot of control over our own sounds. I’m not sure how we’d go getting someone in to formally produce it, but you never know what’ll happen in the future.” Don’t be fooled by the sparse vocals and moody music these guys put on a hell of a live show. “Live we’re a lot louder and with fewer instruments, because we take it down to just two guitars, bass and drums. You miss out on the cellos and trombones on Antipodean Dream, but it’s more of a rock show. We’re big fans of the old wall of sound.” Going home with your ears ringing? “Yeah, but ringing in a good way! I really enjoy playing live and I think we’re getting better and better at it every time we do it.” What live music do you go and see? “I’m a big fan of supporting all our local independent bands that play the smaller venues. I love International Karate, The Anyones, The Nation Blue and Legends of Motorsport, who are an absolutely kick ass live rock band. You’d be pretty hard pressed to find a louder rock band in Melbourne I reckon!” Few bands have the luxury of not needing jobs (and those with time on their hands are using their creative writing skills to keep Centrelink off their backs). Nick is a mechanical effects producer for the animation industry. Shane Ferguson (guitar and vocals) and drummer Matt Cox are studying audio engineering, and Gavin has his head in the books as well, in the field of electronic engineering. “We all have day jobs. It’s not the glamorous rock lifestyle that we were promised when we were kids! It’s a big sacrifice to make. It gets to the point where you think god, I could sell all my musical instruments and be really comfortable for a while. Then you think, nah I’ve come this far, so you just keep going.” You know those drummer wanted ads that plaster the walls of good music shops? Well, they’re part of the Oneironaut story. Nick and Shane met in 1995 and advertised for a bass player. Gavin had just moved to Melbourne from Perth, and gave them a call. Several drummers later, Matt Cox made their musical lives complete in 1999. Are you getting recognised in the street? “No, god no!” Or in the pub, when someone says “hey that’s that guy”? “I did hear someone talking about us at the next table a few weeks ago. Our local pub is a classic because a lot of musicians hang out there and it’s almost at a situation where you have to be very careful about what you say because you don’t know who’s sitting at the table next to you and what band they’re in. “But we’re kind of removed from the whole scene anyway. We’ve been floating around the edge of it for years now. It’s only recently that anyone’s begun to take us seriously. I don’t know how it is for other bands, but we just do our thing and we organise shows and get bands that we like to play with us, which I think is the way to go” What does the future hold for Oneironaut? “I see us working extremely hard for the next six months and getting this record finished - it’ll be the difficult second album! We’ve had a couple of nibbles from Triple J on Antipodean Dream, so we’ll see what goes on from that. I’d like it to be possible to travel around Australia a bit more,to get to Perth and Adelaide more often, and Brisbane. It would be nice to think that we could go to Canada or the UK or Germany or even Japan, but we’ll see how the next few trips to Sydney go, eh? It’s sometimes hard enough to get up there!” “I think the whole indie guitar scene is so strong at the moment. There’s heaps of people going to see bands and there’s a lot of great bands out there who take a lot of care in how their guitars actually sound, which can make such a difference.” Do you think this increased interest is part of the cycle of favour between DJ and bands, or do you think it’s something else? “It could be part of the cycle. I went right into techno-land for a while and then came running screaming back, my head in my hands! I actually think techno music is becoming extremely passé. Too many Commodores with the windows wound down with extremely loud doof just make it really ugly.” “The indie guitar thing is a bit more organic, a bit more real. Maybe I’ve just reached a point where I’d rather go and have a beer at my local pub and watch a band than not know what the hell I’m doing.” Get yourselves along to Get Up & Die Properly on Friday night. You can also catch Oneironaut at the Railway Hotel in Brunswick, Victoria on October 19. Make sure Antipodean Dream is part of your summer soundtrack. [back] © 2002 Kim Powell : www.redbackrock.com.......................................................................................... Revolver The first time I saw the name Oneironaut I penned them for a tough rockin’ act who wore breastplates of steel on stage and screamed bloodcurdling battle cries through the mic. I couldn't have been more wrong if I suggested someone other than Pythagorus invented the modern music scale. What Oneironaut do play is sweeping instrumental music (well, mostly instrumental) that tug at the heartstrings and emit a dreamlike essence. At least, that's what Iv'e been told - the office copy disappeared by a ravenous writer before it so much as landed on my desk. “I guess it has an element of science fiction and dreamlike imagery to it” concurs guitarist Nick Pledge. “That's probably the best description I can come up with.” I have always wondered if a song is more difficult to finalise without the punctuation, as such, of a lyric. “Over 50 percent of our songs are completely jammed out. It's not like we sit down and write verse chorus verse chorus. I don’t think we’ve ever started or used lyrics as a starting point. The music has always come first. Probably less now, we're actually working a lot more on our vocal side now than we were ever before, so the next album will be a lot more vocally driven than the last. But I’ve always leaned towards instrumental stuff. I probably get into that stuff more than your structured pop song, but everyone in the band is different and wants to have different things come out of the music.” “I think we probably find it…it comes more naturally to us than writing pop songs.” Nick continues. “It’s just how we naturally play as a band I think. If we're just mucking around it will turn into this epic jam and we’ll pull something from that. Most of the jammed out songs actually just come together without too much sweat. Obviously we still work at them, the dynamics and all that sort of business. The structured songs are usually written by one member almost from start to finish, and that’s how it differs. When we write as a band we probably write longer, more insturmental stuff, and when we write singularly we write the more structured stuff. But the most difficult aspect of any dreamlike music is conveying that to a rowdy pub audience who want to be entertained. “I think we're playing better than we’ve ever played. Just the energy we produce on stage is getting a lot better. We just seem to perform a lot better for the crowd. Some insturmental music can be a bit self absorbed in some ways, but I think we’re turning it around and making it a better live performance.” [back] © 2002 Craig New : Revolver Interview Prelude to a New Day 177K Whales Secret Sounds Pontiac Travelling into Focus Unknown Phonetics in Construction © 2002 Oneironaut INTERVIEW 2001 Beat Magazine I enjoyed your albums seven odd minute opener (Prelude for Yeah we kind of like to squeeze it out. We like to work up slowly and build a mood. I guess we just prefer to jam out as well. We do have our pop songs as well but personally I probably prefer the long, jammed out songs. The band is big on creating dreamscape-type sounds? Well, Oneironaut is Greek for dream explorer so that's kind of where we’re coming from. Each of us probably have our own take on what we’re trying to do but from my point of view I’m into writing songs that let you drift off and take you somewhere. Travelling music rather than just a song to tap your foot to. But the band name came from a book on lucid dreaming I read years and years ago that talked about waking dreams and being in control of them. It just fascinated me, the imagery behind it especially. Was the shoe-gazing scene a big influence on the band? Again, each of us have a different take on what we’re into. They’re kind of the more obvious ones I guess but I love funk music and Shane the other guitarist likes to listen to a broad spectrum of music. But that album, Antipodean Dream is quite old for us. The stuff we've been writing is starting to change a reasonable amount. I can hear more influences like Tortoise and stuff like that coming out but I guess it’s still in the vein of shoe-gazing although I wouldn’t call it that now. We’ve moved on from the record but I wouldn’t say we've left it completely behind. Is there any significance behind the albums title? Well, I’d never actually heard the word Antipodes until I went to the UK. It's basically what they call Australians and New Zealanders and it means from the other side of the world, or something similar. The title doesn’t mean anything specific, maybe just more along the lines of fitting in with the dream imagery – time and travelling and space. I probably get into the album the most when I listen to it travelling. [back] © 2001 Beat Magazine |