Gersey - An album of no satellites

Its been a long time between drinks for Melbourne’s Gersey. After forming in 1997 the band went on to release two acclaimed albums 2000’s ‘Hope Springs’ and 2002’s ‘Storms Dressed As Stars’. The advent of 2006 sees Gersey return with the release of their third long player ‘No Satellites’. Produced by Magic Dirt’s Dean Turner, ‘No Satellites’ sees Gersey moving towards a distinctly more atmospheric realm than their previous releases. The Dwarf managed to steal away some time from co-founder Matt Davis for a quick chat about the making of ‘No Satellites’ and some insight into Gersey’s future.

In the fickle music industry, you are only as big as the buzz around you.. As a consequence, bands often feel compelled to continue pumping out product to maintain market presence. Couple this with the grueling touring schedules required to pay back recoupable record company advances and the result is often sub-par second and third albums by bands simply too exhausted by the mechanics of the music industry to fulfill their full potential. With ‘No Satellites’ Gersey chose to take the road less traveled, relying not on hype, but the quality of their own songwriting, no matter how long that took. According to Matt the writing process for ‘No Satellites’ began over two years ago and continued until ‘we had a full record of 12 songs that we really liked’.

The album was originally to be recorded a year ago, however, when the band were due to record with producer Wayne Connolly (You Am I, Underground Lovers) Matt expounds that ‘we didn’t think we were ready. We weren’t totally proud of every moment and so we told him that we couldn’t do it’. Due to scheduling clashes, by the time Gersey felt ready to record Connolly was unavailable, so Gersey turned to Magic Dirt’s Dean Turner (RedSunBand, Bit by Bats) to handle production duties. As Matt explains ‘We did the EP (2005’s Eyes Are Wide Tonight’ with Dean. He came in and it gave us an outside impression and helped with arranging… it worked out well and we decided to keep pushing on. We did more recording in December and then went back in early this year to finish the rest of the record, it was a nice accident’. As for the end product, The Dwarf asked Matt what were some of his favourite moments. ‘There’s always special private moments that you are glad to have on tape. … the drumming on ‘Sinners In White’ is outstanding , that rolling beat of Danny’s is a moment of genius. The guitar sound on ‘Fire’ is the best we have produced and intensity translates to tape really well.. the strings that Drew (Pearse, keyboards) did on ‘Searchlights’ are outstanding… there are a lot of special moments. The record as a whole is the most complete and satisfying thing we have done’. Moreover, Matt further reveals, that the wait for the fourth Gersey album may not be quite so long ‘We have already started writing the next record, we’re about half a song in, we decided to make hay while the sun shines’.
Haymaking aside, The Dwarf asks Matt, what he personally feels is the best part about being in the band, ‘The best thing about being a member of Gersey is being able write music, put out records and play shows… it’s a privilege as not everyone gets to do that… the rest is bullshit and of no consequence’. Asked what ‘the rest’ entails, Matt is forthcoming ‘The championing of celebrity. Particularly in shows like Australian Idol, its not real, but people don’t know that’. Despite the abundance of Australian Idol winners and rejects in our charts at the present time, Matt is positive about the Australian music industry as a whole. ‘It seems to be a most fortuitous time, there are so many bands and so many people going to shows, there are larger audiences (for Australian music), however it also makes it harder (for bands) because it is hard to stand out’. Moreover, ‘Australia is slowly coming to terms with the fact that we are ok, we don’t need the Americans or English telling us that we are good or not. Triple J has contributed a lot to that, playing much more variety (of Australian music), and lots of different styles like hip – hop’

On the heels of ‘No Satellites’ release, Gersey are jetting around the country for a national tour to showcase the album in major cities as well as regional centers. Although as Matt explains ‘Its, hard to nail down regional areas, venues get nervous that people wont turn up, however we are playing in Belgrave as well as heading to Tassie for the first time’. The tour will also take them to Perth for the second time where they will play the fledgling ‘Waverock’ festival, as well as playing at new venues in Melbourne and Sydney. The result, Matt explains is that ‘it all feels new again, like being a kid’. On completion of the national tour, The Dwarf asks Matt what’s next for Gersey. In reply, Matt is refreshingly philosophical. ‘Everything in life is uncertain, you don’t know what’s around the corner, with Gersey there is no ‘five year plan’, you can only write the best record you can, tour your ass off and start again’.

Catch Gersey as they head around the country in support of ‘No Satellites’.

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