City Calm Down
Image: Photo: Ian Laidlaw
Throughout the duration of a bands career the relationship between the band and their producer is key. For Melbourne four piece City Calm Down this person is Malcolm Besley, and according to Jack Bourke his influence has been crucial.
“We keep working with Malcom because he has such a great rapport with the band. He is able to cut through the mess to keep things rolling and bring out the best in what we’re doing.”
With City Calm Down’s latest record, Echoes In Blue, only being their second the group wanted to work with Besely again. This was done because they felt he had an understanding of the direction the band wanted to go but because he was also able to “keep his distance and remain objective.”
Although Echoes In Blue is only the groups second album they have been together for a decade.
Much of the groups formative years were spent familiarising themselves with the feel of being on stage and honing their craft.
“The first five years we were together we were all at university which made things quite difficult and we were also very green in terms of understanding the process of writing songs,” said Jack.
Moving forward though the band is now focussing on releasing music at more frequent intervals.
One other factor that delayed the groups second release was their desire to increase production standards.
“This record was a much more prolonged effort because we wanted to have time to review and make changes if needed, which was something we didn’t allow ourselves to do last time.”
This concept of increasing production values has also bled over into the band’s live performance. In their present incarnation the show features seven musicians on stage playing a variety of different instruments.
“With the seven live members now it allows us to perform the music as we had envisioned it without needing to take shortcuts,” said Jack.
For the upcoming Sydney performance the band will continue to employ this ‘no shortcuts’ ethos.
“We’ll be playing longer sets because we want to play our older material as well as the new material,” said Jack before also explaining how the group has made the show more dynamic visually. “We have a new lighting design that we’ve been putting together for the tour which is going to be really interesting.”
Jun 22. The Metro Theatre, 624 George St, Sydney. $43.15+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.metrotheatre.com.au
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