Miscellaneous - Interview

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 22 / 5 / 2006

intro

Australian group the Morning After Girls are about to release their debut album 'Shadows Evolve'.Anthony Strutt talks to them about their decision to relocate from Melbourne to Sydney, and why they think they are more likely to meet with success abroad

The Morning After Girls are Sasha Lucashenko (vocals, guitar and harmonica), Martin B. Sleeman (guitar, vocals), Aimee Nash (keyboards, percussion, guitar), Scott Von Ryper (bass , vocals) and Anton Jakovlevic (drums). They come from Australia. They have released two singles, 'HI Skies' and 'Run for Our Lives' in Britain, and have an album 'Shadows Evolve' due out in late June. Pennyblackmusic caught up with the band recently at a show at the Sonic Cathedral in London and spoke to Aimee and Scott. PB : I believe you are from Australia ? AN : Yes. PB : The band members come from Melbourne and Sydney, don't they ? AN : Sasha, Martin and Anton are from Melbourne, Scott and myself are from Sydney, but everyone moved to Sydney about a year and a half ago. PB : Where is Melbourne compared to Sydney then ? SVR : Melbourne is about a 10 to 12 hour drive south of Sydney. Melbourne is more arts based. It is more traditional, so bands flourish more in Melbourne than in Sydney. AN : Some of the best bands can come out of the best or worse places though. PB : What made you want to join up with the others ? Was it to escape Australia ? AN : (Laughs), No, we have both been playing music together for a long time. We were lucky to come across some unique individuals who liked the same music and sounds. I think we were lucky to find each other. PB : How did you all meet then? SVR : We were all in different bands. Aimee and I were playing a show in Sydney, and Sasha was walking past as we were loading up and we started up a conversation. We hung out that night and her and Martin ended up at our place and the next day we got our instruments out and we realised that we liked the same sounds. The Morning After Girls were playing at this point with a different line up in Melbourne. Sasha and Martin were playing with different members. After we met the band, we continued to see each other, and when they were in Sydney, rather than end up in hotels, they would come to ours. We have a home studio and we ended up recording some acoustic stuff together first of all. We thought it would be be a side project, but one day we were talking to Sasha and she was like "Would you like us to join the band, and move up to Sydney ?" PB : Are you called the Morning After Girls because of the late nights then ? SVR : We have had our fair share. PB : How long has the band been going then ? AN : About three and a bit years, but Scott, Anton and myself only joined about a year and a half ago. Martin and Sasha had the band before then. PB : Is Sydney the best place for a band then ? AN : Well, Melbourne has the arts. There are a lot more venues. It's more bohemian. SVR : When Sasha and Martin came to Sydney, it was just to get the sound together, and to make plans to go overseas. That was the plan. We always knew we would spend a lot of time overseas, because we thought Australia wasn't the place for us. PB : I don't know al ot of successful Australian bands. AN : Well, there's Jet,. They have done well internationally and back home. There's Wolfmother, and there's the Vines. PB : The Vines were a Nirvana tribute band to start off. Would you do that? AN : No, but I wouldn't mind being in a Stone Roses tribute band. PB : You've got an album 'Shadows Evolve' coming out ? AM : The album will be out in June time. There's a self-titled album out in the States already . That came out in September of last year. This is the first proper album. Some of it has been recorded at the Dandy Warhols studio in Porland in Oregon. We have toured with them. PB : If I had to describe your sound, I would say that it was a combination of Stones era Dandy Warhols and a trippy Black Rebel Motorcycle Club doing the whole Jesus and Mary Chain meets acid thing. SVR : We are really lucky because we have toured with both the Warhols and the BRMC. They are our favourite bands that we have played with and become friends, AN : And the Charlatans as well. PB : Would you say you have an Australian sound then ? AN : No, it's universal (Laughs). SVR : It's diffcult to define,. It's between American and English. We don't go out flying the Australian flag. PB : What were the things that influenced you all then ? AN :. The Jesus and Mary Chain was one of them. When I was really young, I got into all the Brit stuff like the Jeus and Mary Chain, Slowdive and My Bloody Velentine. SVR : We also like an Australian band called the Church. AN. :And Ride... We know Mark Gardener. We bump into him a lot but never in the UK. He is a total sweetie..... PB : You're playing a shoegazing club tonight. Do you think you fit in with that then ? AN : Some of the songs fit in with that. Every song is different. We have heard that there is a new nu-gaze scene going on. SVR : Someone called us that a month ago. PB : Any message for the world then ? AiN :. We hope you like our music and you buy the records and enjoy what we are doing. SVR : We hope just to carry on doing this and to just keep going... PB : Thank you.

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