“There was a definitive point where we decided to drop everything else and give this a serious go,” he says. “For a few years there we were doing plenty of shows around Sydney and it was lots of fun and all our friends would come to the shows and we were still at uni, we still had our jobs – we kind of had one foot in and one foot out. It was around that time we decided to drop everything and focus solely on Lepers & Crooks.”
Having quit their jobs, given uni the flick, and jumped in the van with an enormous itinerary of shows to see through, the possibilities for failure were numerous. This experience was a sure test of the quintet’s tenacity, and they made it out the other side with even more resolve than before.
“That set the precedent for everything else, because all of a sudden we had to play shows every night and we were getting tighter and tighter,” Reuter-Townsays. “Now it’s come to a point where we’ve got more of a business head about us as well. When we first went out there going from town to town, we were just like, ‘Oh whatever,’ spent our merch money on beers and next thing you know we can’t pay for petrol. Throwing ourselves in the deep end with the touring ethic has let the rest follow in a lot of ways.”
That tour came off the back of the Her Kiss EP, which was released in late 2014. This four-song debut revealed the band’s stylistic curiosity, ranging from riff-centric classic rock to spiritual, Jeff Buckley-inspired pop rock. Though, this fluidity also made it difficult to identify who Lepers & Crooks were and what exactly they were about. Last month they released the single Let You Go, the first taste of their forthcoming second EP, The Heathen Circus. By virtue of the enormous stint of touring, they’ve now gained a better understanding of their strengths.
“This next EP is much more of a collective piece of songs,” Reuter-Townsays. “In saying that, we’re still always rediscovering ourselves. I don’t think we’re a band who’s comfortable at any point with who we are as such. We’re always looking for new things and trying different avenues. It still has that variation – I think it comes from us all being writers; we all have our different influence – but there’s a sound on this EP that’s a bit more consistent.”
Let You Go is an animated rock song, and the recording doesn’t sound overworked or like the band were too concerned about perfection. The EP was recorded and produced by Jeff Martin of The Tea Party at his studio in Byron Bay, and the plan was to generate a close equivalent to the band’s live show.
“We took a completely different approach to how we recorded last time. It was very much in the old school sense – getting the five of us in the room together and playing live and taking 70 per cent of the EP from that. We’ve played all these shows as a five-piece, and then to go down to the studio and break it down is completely different. I don’t think we would’ve captured what the songs were all about. So it was really cool to actually get into a studio and focus not so much on the perfections, but almost the imperfections of everything that came out naturally while we were playing as a live band.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
