Let’s talk about the history of the band. I’d never encountered the Maladies until the album, With You By My Side Baby, The Deal Just Can’t Go Down, came out. To be honest, I stumbled across it because of the connection with [producer and Bluebottle Kiss frontman] Jamie Hutchings. So what’s the brief history of the band?

It’s not overly exciting but we’ve been together and playing around Sydney for almost four years now. Our drummer [Joshua Harvey] and I went to high school together and always played in bands. We met the other guys from country Australia when they moved down (to Sydney) when they were 19. Dan [Babekhul], the guitarist, was a friend of one of our old members and Michael [Sullings] is his flatmate.

Four years is a long time before releasing a record. Was there ever any impetus just to get something done and do it quickly or was it just that you wanted to have something out that was right in representing you as a band?

We were definitely waiting until we had something which we just felt was right. I never really wanted to just release an EP, I really wanted to release an album. I prefer the album as an opportunity to make a complete statement. I guess we were just waiting for all things to fit together. We’ve actually been together for four years with the current line-up which is a long time and the album is really our first recording. We’re not home studio guys, or anything like that. We changed a lot in that small period. The first two years of the band were a lot different [in terms of style and sound].

Do you feel that the record captures that transition from a different style and sound, or is it a document of where you’re at now, at the end of that four-year cycle? What were the major differences between that sound and now?

Yeah, I think it’s definitely more focused on the now. We were more of a rootsy, Cruel Sea-style, blues-rock band and the sounds certainly weren’t as abrasive as they are on the record. We weren’t as loud and we definitely weren’t doing the discordant style we’ve got on the record.

That’s really hard to imagine. It sounds like you emerged fully-formed into the world with this vision. What motivated that shift into more discordant elements?

Our guitarist started taking more of an interest in that discordant guitar playing and got a new amp and found the joys of turning it up really loud. It probably also has something to do with The Drones. I first heard them a while back but it took a while for their influence to come through. On the record, it was also a little bit of Jamie Hutchings. He really thought that if we were trying to do something, we should just go the whole way. So we just didn’t hold back on the noise and the ugliness of the sounds.

That’s something I mentioned in the review regarding your similarities with Bluebottle Kiss. The reference wasn’t to the influences, or even the style of music, but more so that the intent and the intensity level is comparable. Did Jamie really bring that out of you as a band or was an element he helped to insert into the sound?

That intensity was definitely already there but one of the angles that he wanted to go on was to really focus on the ugliness. But we all wanted to do that. We wanted to make a harsh sounding record for some reason! We weren’t sure how it was going to come out as a result of not having recorded much. We had to put a lot of faith in Jamie. We would explain what we wanted and without him we just wouldn’t have achieved that sound. We’re just very unfamiliar with the recording world, I guess.

So how did you meet Jamie? Did you approach him on the basis of his work with Bluebottle Kiss, or did he approach you?

When the idea first came up, I never really knew Bluebottle Kiss. I knew of them but I wasn’t that familiar with their work. I’ve since delved back and they’re really an excellent, excellent band. Jamie actually just saw us at a show. I think we were supporting The Red Sun Band and he sent us an email saying that he was looking to do some work in production and that it could be a really good marriage of ideas.

That’s such a chance meeting, but it seems to work so perfectly. You seem to have such a symbiotic relationship on the record. You have this sound and he exploits it so clearly.

I’m really thrilled to hear that. We thought we could do the record in five days but it ended up being five full days of recording and then we had to come in a few more times over the next few months. It was probably seven full days of recording, with a few other little pieces. It was really, really fast, particularly considering it was to tape as well. We didn’t use any digital technology at all. It was a very, very stressful time. I only have fond memories of it looking back. At the time I was just freaking out that we wouldn’t get it all done.

Did that stress come from the pressure of time and budgets for the recording, or was it the unfamiliarity with recording and translating your sound from live (and in your heads) to hearing it through the speakers in the studio?

It was the pressure of time, really. We’d done a lot of pre-production and put thought into it. I guess we had to embrace, or I guess just live with, the imperfections of the record. We learnt stuff too. We’d do takes that we thought were absolute disasters, full of mistakes and out of time and Jamie, who is used to making records fast and on a budget, was saying, “No, that’s fine! In the end it won’t matter and you won’t notice it.” At the time, I just thought we’d have to chuck the whole thing in the bin. But in the end, he was right. When you hear everything together, the little mistakes we were worried about aren’t that noticeable. Not that I’m telling you where any of the mistakes are.

Do you still notice them? Can you sit back and listen to the record?

Nah, I don’t sit back and hear the mistakes. I hear some things that I wanted to be different but we ran of out time, or we just couldn’t do and I think, “What if ?” I don’t listen to it often but, if I do, I just listen to hear if the vocals are good, or the mix is right. I’m probably still interested in broader points but I don’t notice anything that I thought would be our downfall.

People have picked up on similar influences (Tom Waits, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds) through a lot of the reviews. Has that surprised you? Are you a fan of those bands?

Yeah, I’m definitely a fan of Tom Waits and the Bad Seeds too. It’s interesting, it’s really only one aspect of the band. People have often said the same thing but it’s only one aspect of what we are. Influence is a tricky thing – you can’t always choose what you’re band sounds like. I expected that most people would mention the bands they did, I guess. The big point with us as a point of difference is the vocals. The singers I’m aping are very different to the music we’re trying to do. Nobody’s picked them up yet.

The band seems to have such a broad variety of influences from Johnny Cash through to no-wave guitar material. Have you been writing much since you finished the record?

I’ve been trying. We’ve got a few new songs. We’re definitely working on a new direction in a way. It’s hard to explain. We’re hoping to do something still discordant but I guess it’s more major key, rather than minor chords. But we’re still going to keep the erratic noise component. It’s definitely only early ideas at this stage though.

You’re releasing the first single off the album, ‘This Wood and This Wire’, this week. Do you feel like there is momentum with the record now?
It definitely feels like we’re moving, particularly having come from being a band who hadn’t released anything to being a band that may have been brought to the attention of a few people over the past few months. Things are definitely looking up, I guess.

Last time you were down in Melbourne you played the Tote. Any fond memories of it?

That was the one, and only, time we played the Tote. I’m very glad I got to play there before it closed. It’s pretty devastating. It was great. I can only echo what other people have said. It was a very artist-friendly venue and we had a great time there. It was a good night. I’m sad to see it go and I hope it comes back in some capacity. It’s been hard for us as well. We were very much a “Hopetoun band” in Sydney and we would play probably 80 percent of our gigs there. We haven’t felt much of the sting of the Hopetoun closing but, before the record came out and in our formative years, it would have been disastrous if we didn’t have the Hopetoun.

 
In that sense, how do you find the live scene in Sydney at the moment?

I hold out some hope that things are improving. There are signs things are improving; gigs just generally seem to have more numbers of people. But Sydney has a long, long way to go to even get close to a diminishing Melbourne level of a music scene. I have an easier time booking gigs in Melbourne than I do in Sydney and we’re not even from there and no one knows us there.

Would you consider relocating?

We thought very seriously about moving to Melbourne and were going to do it after we recorded the album. We went down to Melbourne for the first time and we had this great run of shows and had the best time. We thought we’d definitely have to move there. But we went back a few times and it hasn’t been as good. But we did think pretty seriously about it. It’s hard with families and girlfriends and stuff, I guess.

What are the plans for the rest of the year?

We’ll be recording again, at some stage. Maybe a new record in two years? What are people doing these days? That’d be nice. That sounds right. I’m a pretty slow songwriter. Not for lack of trying, it just takes me a long time. There’s certainly no big record execs hounding for the next record. But I do feel the pressure and obligation to people and my bandmates to come out with new songs. And also just for our own sanity too. I do feel pressure to write songs. I’m always wondering if I’ll ever do it again.

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The Maladies launch their new single ‘This Wood and This Wire’ at the Oxford Art Factory tonight (March 12) with The Holy Soul and The Shakin Howls, and on March 20 at the John Curtin Bandroom in Melbourne with Penny Ikinger.