The Kings Fool

The Kings Fool speaks with The Evening Son and Light Noise

Newcastle is made up of all of these scenes within the scene. Small communities of musicians who literally band together and make music…sweet music. Newcastle has a sound.. A sound that is not all that easy to describe per say. It is easier to give reference points to highlight this description. Two of these reference points Light Noise and The Evening Son are at the forefront of a musical explosion that reflects the sound of the city both in mood and history. I asked Cain Horton (guitar) and Jared Melrose (vox) of The Evening Son about how local culture affected them and their songwriting?

“Definitely, and I think that it is very subliminal with us,” starts Cain. “The sound of the city tends to come out within the music of The Evening Son to a degree, more so for myself I feel, being born and bred here. Everyone wants to bust out of Newcastle, there are so many bands, so many good ones and a lot of shit ones as well, and I think that The Evening Son kind of oozes that tension of, i don’t know, i am looking for a better word than an “explosion” in music, but it really feels like a lot of it is about to start ripping at the seems” he shares enthusiastically.

“I hear some industrial sounds in our music, some mechanical sounds but that also has a lot to do with the evolution of who we are I guess”, shares Jared. “For me it does and the story telling aspect of our music and but when it comes to what the harbor does for it – I don’t fucking know!” he laughs.

“It’s funny I know what he is talking about because the music is very mechanical and very regimented, but at the same time given the environment of Newcastle, if we are going to relate it to that, it is still very organic, it’s real basic, it’s real minimalistic to a degree but at the same time it is still very mechanical,” elaborates Cain.

For centuries music has been identified through genre, but many have forgotten that once upon a time that these genres were defined by nothing more than geographical divide. Music, more often than not, reveals to the observer more about the artists cultural surroundings than other art form. And in an age where our culture is ever-increasingly bastardised by foreign pop-culture it is refreshing to know that some musical artists genuinely choose to reflect the primary culture they absorb, the musicians directly around them.

You will find that nine times out of ten the bands that succeed in the world are the bands that best reflect their local region in the art that they create, you know “don’t forget where you come from”.

That is why the best music is something that comes from within, the result of what is happening around you.

“I wouldn’t doubt that our musical peers from the local community definitely have something to do with it (influencing our sound). I think that you can apply that to any music scene in any city,” offers Cain. “The people you tend to hang out with tend to shape and mold what the sound is going to be like, the kind of platform your ideologies are going to be on. Not that we try to push anything hard. I think that a lot of it has to do with the relationship we have with one another. We are just mates. It’s the relationship more than anything else. More than just writing music whilst we are very serious about making music, its a really small place Newcastle.”

“I think being aware of the relationships that we have and being able to be so honest with each other. Not to feed of each others emotions but really shine lights on each other and each others weaknesses as well,” shares Jared.

Their debut single Lemming will be released sometime in October as part of Triple J’s Oz Music month with the album Blah, Blah, Blah to be released some time in Autumn. The lead single is the perfect analogy of the frustration that many local musicians feel at the world. “Its exactly that game”, affirms Jared as i make mention of the 90’s computer game where little creatures would blindly follow the one in front of them under your direction. “I used to love watching those things splat on the ground or go through the big cogs and get churned up. I see it everywhere, I see it in my workplace, I see it everywhere. That song is about pointing a big finger at the man and saying “I see you”.

As we brainstorm ideas for the film clip Jarred suggests throwing a television off a cliff to which Cain responds, “smashing any kind of technology is cool. I used to watch people smash guitars on stage and i would think “why the fuck would you do that? You could have given me that guitar”. But the more and more i get into it, I kind of wish i could just smash a guitar. Luke Price smashed a guitar last year, and I think that that is was quite possibly the coolest thing that i have heard of, that he was prepared to waste a guitar just for the hell of it. That was at The Chair gig. I didn’t get to see it but i heard he fucked that guitar up good,” laughs Cain.

The Evening Son spawned from Paperhalo, a band who garnered Triple J airplay with their three successive wins at the ABC music awards from 2002, dominating the Heavy Rock category. Vocalist Jared Melrose, guitarist Cain Horton and bassist Cameron Groth recruited drummer Sam Peterson from south coast trio “Quirk” and formed The Evening Son in 2005. Groth left the band late last year and Luke Price filled his shoes for a while before commitments with his project Light Noise took priority. Heather Barnes of The Good is playing bass live with The Evening Son till the end of the year, before she takes up a position with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. An interesting point to make and one that highlights the “incestuous” nature of our musical community.

Around the early 00’s Luke and Paperhalo were two bands that heavily influenced the progressive rock genre in Newcastle, both directly and indirectly. For instance, The Evening Son are similar in sound to Luke and Paperhalo, which is only natural seeing as The Evening Son feature former members of Paperhalo who were also heavily influenced by Luke. Light Noise are another band that were heavily influenced by Luke and it is easy to see the correlation when you know that lead singer guitarist of Luke, Corey Sleap, produced Cotton Sidewalk’s debut album Mass Transit Radio. Cotton Sidewalk feature Adam and Renee Price, Luke Price of Light Noise’s siblings.

Luke Price struck up a conversation with drummer Jae Nelson of The Good whilst the pair were air drumming along to Shihad one night at the Cambridge and from there they started jamming with bassist Joel Henderson soon after. Nelson was replaced by Damo Davey early this year.

Which leads us to the famed instrument destruction at last years new years eve gig with Silverchair at The Brewery, and Price’s relished reputation as a bit of a bad boy on stage, playfully abusing friendly and not so friendly members of the audience and even fellow band members, you know a typical Aussie bloke.

As Adam Sandler says in the wedding singer “Well i have the microphone and you don’t so you have to listen to every damn word I have to say” I’ve said that a few times,” he laughs. Well, I was told that it’s got to be one or the other, they have got to love you or love to hate you. The Silverchair gig i destroyed a guitar i bought on ebay for like $500. It was a Gibson. I had dropped it at another gig, and it was damaged from that so i had been waiting for an opportunity to destroy it, and the Chair gig presented itself. I was having issues with Jae at the time and was going to smash his kick drum with it, but it was covered in mics that weren’t his so i just smashed it on the ground and jarred my wrist a bit, but smashed it again before i threw it. The delay pedal was going mad and i just walked off stage”.

“Lately our growth has come about in a business mindset,” shares Davey. “We have started to get a lot more organised. We recorded with Velvet sound and Mastered with Don Bartley at Benchmark, his own studio, Reign Records are releasing us through MGM in Australia and New Zealand”.

“They usually got to the bands that have a strong local following, but for some reason this time they they have come to us, and we know that we don’t have a huge following so i am assuming its on the back of saying that we have supported Silverchair, we can say we have won the Brewery comp and the music itself,” says Price humbly.

I ask Price how it feels when those outside the circle start showing their appreciation through professional interest?

“You appreciate that there are people in the industry that think like you do, that encourage you to follow your heart with your music because it is just as hard a journey regardless of whether you take the strictly commercial angle. It refreshing to know that the industry isn’t as fucked as you think it is. You can go down that road and its just as hard”

http://www.myspace.com/theeveningson

lightnoise.com.au