Newtonheath - Newton's Law
Newtonheath are kicking off 2008 by playing songs from their brand new album Come Together & Unite, in shows along the East Coast of Australia. Singer and guitarist Dan Gaskin chats about 2008 for Newtonheath “I'm most looking forward to Newtonheath gaining more national recognition in 2008; playing shows with some great national and international bands and making some new friends along the way. Also the chance to demo some new material for our sophomore album.” In the immediate future the above-mentioned great bands include the Whisky Go Gos, To The Throne and Cut Sic.
Their first single ‘Between Windows’ has a promised release date in March and will be armed with a film clip that they very excitedly filmed in February with Ryan Chamley from Room 3 at the helm. Gaskin adds, “'Between Windows' was written before Newtonheath became a full band, and is our most well-known song to date.”
With this and their album, Gaskin comments on Newtonheath’s hopes of releasing overseas “Firstly we're going to try and push our profile nationally and see how that goes, but we hope to go overseas sooner rather than later promoting our sound to a larger market.” They will certainly gain a foothold overseas, thanks to Matthew Ho (guitarist and vocals) and Rachael Warburton (bass and programming) who spent 13 months travelling and playing music after the break up of their first well known band Edison Music. It was also during this time they began to dream and develop plans for Newtonheath. Upon returning to Australia they put in the necessary calls to recruit Dan Gaskin on guitar and vocal and Shaun Reily on drums.
Any new band aims to create a unique yet tantalising sound, Newtonheath have solid foundations and are well on their way. By melding a variety of distinct influences from different music genres and time periods into their own music; Gaskin states, “As a band our major influences are Bjork because she’s always been diverse and progressive, Bloc Party because they are the best UK Indie band going around making us want to dance; Further Seems Forever for old-school real emo quality; The Cure for 80’s influential dark and brooding style”
Creating this music as a four piece band often has its barriers, and for a band where some members earn a crust as an office pleb, you would think it rarely possible to all have time off together. You would be correct! It was difficult for Newtonheath to lay down their debut album, though I’m sure you’ll agree it was worth every blood sweat and tear. The song ideas actually began in 2006 when Matt and Rach were in Canada. When Newtonheath was established Shaun and Dan added more guitar parts and Gaskin includes, “real drums to bring the songs to life”. Gaskin continues “In mid-2007 we took some time off work to hit Darren Thompson's home studio in suburban Adelaide to lay down the tracks over the space of a month with each of us having different times off work and at no time having all members of the band in the studio at one time. By November we had the finished product in our hands ready to show the world!”
When asked about their ultimate high for 2007, with no second thought Gaskin says “It would be forming the band and releasing our debut album. There's not much more satisfying than that.”
I think it’s probably a dream of most musicians to be able to kidnap (of course with the freedom from law and consequences of this action) their favourite music icon and just exist with them for a week or more gleaning knowledge and skill. Dan Gaskin was given the opportunity to escape into his imagination and create this dream, he eventually concluded“…I would spend a week alone with Billy Corgan – I admire his dark angsty lyrics, his guitar work and he has pretty much been one of my musical hero’s since I was a teen. If I could write something anywhere near the quality of some of his hits I would die happy.” Thanks for sharing Dan…
Newtonheath are Matt, Rach, Dan and Shaun together they make music that Gaskin describes as like “Dark chocolate truffle ice cream with strawberry topping”. Hungry? Craving? Make sure give them a taste test.
Come Together and Unite is out now through Green Media / MGM
