Furcurve - Breaking Free Of The Box
» Furcurve - Colonial Hotel, VIC - June 28, 2007
"Basically, it's a party band with a social conscience and too many riffs." These are the first words Luke Monks tells me about the band he sings/screams for, Sydney four-piece Furcurve. Their original EP, "Red Telephone At The Thieves Guild", saw critics draw comparisons between Furcurve and such influential post-hardcore acts as Refused, The Blood Brothers, and Will Haven. These critical praises have continued on to their first album, "We Grew legs To Flee The Water".
Monks and the other members make no secret that they've been influenced by bands such as these, listing them on their MySpace page as key influences on the original Furcurve sound. But, "I'd like to think that we are more than the sum of our earlier musical influences," says Monks. "People are going to compare you to things that they've heard and are comfortable with - so to be thrown in with these bands is pretty cool, as long as that's not the only sound that everyone is going to accept from us."
And it's this reinvention of sound that seemed to preoccupy Furcurve throughout the writing and recording of "We Grew Legs To Flee The Water". Monks says of this motive, "I think that we were just tired of people trying to define a band by a certain sound instead of a group of people's creative potential." In trying to break free from the expectations of Furcurve created by their critically acclaimed EP, the band instead opted for a more free-for-all approach: everyone's ideas were considered on their merit, not because they did or did not fit a particular mould. "We decided that there is no such thing as an idea that wasn't 'Furcurve' - so long as the idea came from us, it would make the sound. We just let our ideas come this time. Some people will always want another 'Junk Moves' or 'Calligraphy', but chances are, that will never happen."
After all, "excitement is our foremost care when writing a song," and everything Furcurve does is exciting. From their recording process, to their touring schedule, to the general party atmosphere of their live show.
"We Grew legs To Flee The Water" was, according to Monks, an "intense" process. "It was all night-shift recording. 9-5 jobs bled into 6pm to 7am recording sessions with a very blurred timeline." Monks himself would be recording vocal takes at 2 or 3am in a "race against time" not without its dramas. "I'm not really used to doing anything but screaming and for this project, I've used a fairly diverse vocal range, for me. Hell - I even took singing lessons!" exclaims Monks.
As I talked about a minute ago, Luke Monks really knows how to utilise words to their maximum effect. And nowhere is this more evident than in his lyrics. "We Grew Legs..." tells the listener a set of stories and offers friendly advice "on how to make the world an easier place to party down in" (Luke's words, not mine). "This is a story album. But it's also a message album," explains Monks. "Call it a collection of fables, parables. There was a set cast of characters and barriers that I was working with conceptually. It's a snapshot of what I'm guessing is the potential of people, for good or ill."
Again, though, that concern with partying, having a good time and being entertaining that embodies everything Furcurve does, comes through. "It had to be entertaining, not heavy handed - people can read a sense of values into the story if they want or they can just accept the imagery at face value. If I had to be concise, I guess that what I was aiming to say was 'please don't just leave trouble behind! Fix the problem before you move on, lest it harm others'."
Perhaps one of the most interesting things about Furcurve is that they are always willing to take a chance on something that is new and interesting. They will always try something that is completely outside of that box they’re trying so hard to escape from. Most recently they toured South-East Asia as part of the Invasia tour. This tour brought together some of the premier talent of the South-East Asia region, including bands like Chicosi, Brand New Sunset and Love Me Butch. It seems like a fairly strange move for a largely underground Australian rock band to be touring places so remote, yet this is not strange at all for Furcurve.
“We ended up being luck enough to know someone who had the idea to get the whole South-East Asia music scene connected. What they really needed was a band willing to take a financial risk. We were ready for that as this whole thing is about experience, not the almighty dollar, whatever the Wu-Tang Clan might say to the contrary!” Monks does nothing but talk amicably of the whole experience. “It was an altogether alien experience and we played everything from club shows to a festival while on the Invasia tour. The only consistent thing was the hospitality of the people that we were involved with.”
If you read the blog of the tour on their MySpace, you really get the sense of how amazingly alien and slightly bizarre this tour was (just check out some of the photos!). “Well, highlights include an eight speaker PA system falling from the roof and nearly killing us in Singapore,” Monks remembers. “The food was amazing and the people were some of the greatest that I have ever met. The bands that we toured with had such high levels of musicianship and showmanship that it’s hard to believe that they have no real international profile.”
As if to reiterate the fact that Furcurve belong in no box, Monks makes the curious statement: “It was cool to be on such a diverse tour – none of these bands are stylistically similar and it was nice to travel in an environment with no ‘scene’ politics. Everyone seemed oblivious to the idea of what was acceptable and just got on with their own business. Bravo!”
The final question one asks, is what is next on the agenda for Furcurve? Having just finished up their album launch shows in their hometown of Sydney, they head to Brisbane to support Japanese experimental hardcore act, Envy. “After that,” explains Monks, “we are looking to join some national tours and keep writing for a new album. We started the first new song yesterday! In December, we hope to head back to South-East Asia, do more dates in each country this time and really get to grips with the sweltering climate!”
So for a band that has come together from across rural New South Wales, to touring South-East Asia, and releasing a remarkable album that cannot really be boxed into any category, we wait with our breaths held for what this unpredictable “party” band can do next.
