The song was penned by co-vocalist (with McGrath) and keyboardist Kane Mazlin, and showcases a slightly heavier and more sophisticated sound, whilst still retaining an upbeat heart, which we might expect to see laced through You’re A Shadow. “It was funny, for this record,” McGrath says. “For all his demos that went into the album, Kane was writing on guitar. He’s left handed, and he plays guitar upside down; he doesn’t re-string it or anything, he just flips it over. He’s a mad genius,” he laughs. “But I think it’s really interesting the way that it’s affected the songs that he wrote, and how they’re delivered, and how they ended up sounding on the record. It’s a fairly major difference in approach, [compared to] sitting down at a piano – your own instrument that you’re really used to – and writing. He had to challenge himself a little bit and I think it worked out with really good results.”
The Kids’ album is due to be released in March 2013, but McGrath explains that its deferment wasn’t a result of internal contentions. “The whole process of making the album was fairly effortless; it wasn’t delayed because we’ve been struggling with it or anything,” he says. “The album’s done, it’s mixed, it’s mastered. I think the reason for the later release date is it’s hard to begin an album cycle late in the year. It’s a challenge in terms of promoting it, touring it and that kind of thing. So we decided to hold off, to just release a couple of singles this year and have a nice sort of run up to the album coming out next year. Which will mean next year we can go really hard with touring and the whole album cycle circus.”
You’re A Shadow was produced by Wayne Connelly, an incredibly accomplished man whose CV includes partnerships with Custard, Neil Finn and The Grates. According to McGrath, his teratoid musical achievements match a wonderfully benevolent and fostering sort of personality. “He was an absolute gem to work with, I’m so pleased that we ended up doing the record with him; he’s become our personal guru,” McGrath grins. “He goes against a lot of the stereotypes of what a record producer is. It was an absolute pleasure to sit down in the studio with him every day. I miss it, I miss our studio time,” he adds, completely sincerely. “When you arrive [at a studio] and discover you are working with someone who you actually connect with on a social level and you can actually hang out with and talk crap with it’s really good. And Wayne was that for us.”
Not into shying away from a challenge, the band recently recorded a new, peppy version of the Hungarian national anthem for triple j. The words were written by the station’s Hungarian night security guard, and detail a romp through goulash, humble pastures and the joyous cessation of Mongols’ arrows. “We figured it was a long time coming, someone asking us to do something like this. Having picked such a stupid name, we were asking for it,” McGrath declares. “They sent us the original lyrics and it was really quite grisly. It was like, that’s fairly unpleasant! Perhaps our own anthem will get a working over before next year’s tour, but before then, get in fast or you won’t get to see them live at all.”
BY ZOË RADAS
