Monday, September 17, 2007
You may have seen the posters, confused the band with a handbag brand or sign in Richmond. It's been a pretty steep ascent into the gig-goers eye for Skipping Girl Vinegar and judging by the quality of their songs, and the profile of their new film clip, expect this confusion to be short-lived.
From bedroom ballads to supporting The Lemonheads, Something For Kate and The Shout Out Louds within 12 months has been a journey that was, in part, orchestrated by singer and co-songwriter, Mark Lang, though not without luck and tenacity. "About three years ago I decided I wanted to write a really strong record, I wanted to make as significant a piece of work as I could. I spent a lot of time thinking about writing, researching other writers and then went through a very intensive writing period. On a whim we applied for a grant from the Australia Council just to write - which I didn't even know they did - and we got it. What it did was force me to write an incredible amount of material in a short space of time, and it got me out of my rut of just writing when you're flat. Out of that came these songs, I demoed them all up, put the band together, we started writing and that's how the band began."
With the animated film clip for their first single, the imaginatively packaged One Chance, taking out the first ever Rage 'Indie Clip of the Week' Lang is on a high from the snowballing success of his band. "It has been a bit crazy, and most people have only seen the last 12 months. When I first starting writing I was living on a farm and I learned about doing things in seasons and decided we should operate this way. We went through the writing season, the pre-production season then the recording season - which was kind of frustrating seeing our friends in their bands gigging - but we stuck to our guns. Once we did everything else we launched the band, people started jumping on board, and it all came together very quickly. The first big gig we got was from the girls (bassist Sare Lang and keyboardist Amanthi Lynch) handing Bob Evans a CD and his management calling us to say he wanted us as a support - we were falling over ourselves - it's been like that for everything since then."
'Everything since then' includes award-winning songwriter and producer Greg Arnold flying down from Sydney to work with the band, sending a copy to their dream mixer Adrian Bushby (Ben Kweller, Gomez, Feeder, U2) whose management company This Much Talent signed the band for the UK and who brought in Greg Calibi (Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Lenny Kravitz) to master it. "We're trying to live in the seasons thing again, take one thing at a time. Now we've mixed the single and that's out, we can put our energies into mixing the record at the end of the year, I'll probably go over to London for some solo shows then look at taking the band over there once the album is done."
Though all these things may happen, what it all comes back to, and why all these things might be happening, is the songs. "Generally I sketch them out, write the core melody and bring it to the band. Everyone is really creatively involved in every step, and they flesh it out, and the more you do something the better you get. It seems things are progressing in a really good way. It's exciting that so many people are wanting to listen to the record; it does really feel like being at the beginning of something."
What they've done so far could be said to have a charm and character with an old-world feel to it, and have the accessible familiarity of a local icon. A bit like an old sign in Richmond you might know.
From bedroom ballads to supporting The Lemonheads, Something For Kate and The Shout Out Louds within 12 months has been a journey that was, in part, orchestrated by singer and co-songwriter, Mark Lang, though not without luck and tenacity. "About three years ago I decided I wanted to write a really strong record, I wanted to make as significant a piece of work as I could. I spent a lot of time thinking about writing, researching other writers and then went through a very intensive writing period. On a whim we applied for a grant from the Australia Council just to write - which I didn't even know they did - and we got it. What it did was force me to write an incredible amount of material in a short space of time, and it got me out of my rut of just writing when you're flat. Out of that came these songs, I demoed them all up, put the band together, we started writing and that's how the band began."
With the animated film clip for their first single, the imaginatively packaged One Chance, taking out the first ever Rage 'Indie Clip of the Week' Lang is on a high from the snowballing success of his band. "It has been a bit crazy, and most people have only seen the last 12 months. When I first starting writing I was living on a farm and I learned about doing things in seasons and decided we should operate this way. We went through the writing season, the pre-production season then the recording season - which was kind of frustrating seeing our friends in their bands gigging - but we stuck to our guns. Once we did everything else we launched the band, people started jumping on board, and it all came together very quickly. The first big gig we got was from the girls (bassist Sare Lang and keyboardist Amanthi Lynch) handing Bob Evans a CD and his management calling us to say he wanted us as a support - we were falling over ourselves - it's been like that for everything since then."
'Everything since then' includes award-winning songwriter and producer Greg Arnold flying down from Sydney to work with the band, sending a copy to their dream mixer Adrian Bushby (Ben Kweller, Gomez, Feeder, U2) whose management company This Much Talent signed the band for the UK and who brought in Greg Calibi (Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Lenny Kravitz) to master it. "We're trying to live in the seasons thing again, take one thing at a time. Now we've mixed the single and that's out, we can put our energies into mixing the record at the end of the year, I'll probably go over to London for some solo shows then look at taking the band over there once the album is done."
Though all these things may happen, what it all comes back to, and why all these things might be happening, is the songs. "Generally I sketch them out, write the core melody and bring it to the band. Everyone is really creatively involved in every step, and they flesh it out, and the more you do something the better you get. It seems things are progressing in a really good way. It's exciting that so many people are wanting to listen to the record; it does really feel like being at the beginning of something."
What they've done so far could be said to have a charm and character with an old-world feel to it, and have the accessible familiarity of a local icon. A bit like an old sign in Richmond you might know.
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