theredsunband talk freedom, PJ Harvey

It’s been nearly four years since Sydney based trio theredsunband released their debut album Peapod, and a long four years at that. The band has since parted ways with drummer John Matthews, released the Like an Arrow EP and most recently recorded and released their second album The Shiralee on their label, Enchanted Recordings. The Dwarf's Louise Taylor checked in with guitarist and vocalist Sarah Kelly to see how things were going.

Theredsunband's second album is independent of a record label due to two main factors. The first being the bands tireless promotion of their debut album, and the second was that Sarah was the recipient of the Jessica Michalik songwriters grant. Tragically 16 year old Jessica died at the 2001 Sydney Big Day Out and the grant is given to songwriters in her memory. I started off by asking Sarah how it felt recording a second time around without a label and a bit more creative “freedom”?

“With the first album we didn’t know what to expect. We were pretty naive. The label had ideas about what songs to work on more than others but we kind of thought “well, OK, but you can’t make a whole album like that”. Just they way they presented themselves was weird.”

“Recording the second album was great! It was such a good experience. I felt a lot of responsibility with this album.”

Her answer leads directly to my next question. How did you feel when accepting the grant and being given the opportunity to make something as beautiful as this album out of such a tragic event?

“It gave me a real sense of responsibility. When someone gives you a big amount of money you think “Oh, I could go off on a holiday or I dunno… I could get an ice addiction or something. But knowing that Jessica really had a passion for music is important because there aren’t many chicks out there, it’s mostly blokes. I knew I had to just get it done.”

Get it done they did. Their album was once again produced by Dean Turner (of Magic Dirt) and I asked Sarah what their thoughts were producer wise before recording the new album.

“We thought about it for a little while whether or not to use Dean again. But that’s because we were still signed (to Slanted Recordings). They threw some really awesome names at us like Wayne Connelly (has worked most recently with Youth Group and Josh Pyke) and Jay Walker from Machine Translations. But once we were independent we decided we wanted to go with Dean again. Just keep it simple. I have no regrets at all.”

A new addition to theredsunband camp is Jasper Fenton who replaced their previous drummer of five years and from the sound of things, it’s all working out very nicely.

“It’s kind of strange. I had a person in mind for the drums but I didn’t know who. I’d seen Jasper play around and I actually have a friend who was backpacking through Europe with him at the time I decided to give him a call. I think they were in Slovenia! Anyway we met up out the front of the Hopetown and I gave him some CDs, I think he had the first album already. He learnt the songs up in three weeks. It’s incredible, he fits in really well.”

The band has also been really lucky to share the stage with a lot of different bands, both overseas and Australian acts. A couple of these bands are also named as direct influences. So is there anyone you haven’t played with but would like to?

“P.J Harvey! But at the same time I wouldn’t want to ruin the image of the woman that I have in my head. I wouldn’t want to undo the myth. The Pixies! That’d be rad.”

The band also spent some time in December last year with Aussie filmmaker Adam Harding who made two film clips for the band. One clip is for Ghosts (from the Like an Arrow EP) and the other for Wont You See from the new album.

“Our plan with those is to release them all at once on the next tour. Maybe instead of having a support band we could project the film clips up. The clip for Ghosts is just beautiful. We met Adam and just clicked right away.”

I wind down the interview by asking if there are any plans to take theredsunband overseas?

“You know what? I get asked that all the time and I think we just don’t have the same obsession that most bands have to go overseas. Bands that are like “We’re going to go to LA and record and album”, I don’t wanna go to LA! There are so many studios and bands and great producers here. I suppose for the longevity of the band overseas would be good, but I want to stay here.”

And that is just fine with us! Theredsunband's new album The Shiralee is in stores now.

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