“It seemed pretty unrealistic,” Palmer says. “None of us have really big musical backgrounds or anything, so for the most part this is the first band we’ve been in. We never considered ourselves musicians who could be in a band that tours, or who gets to play with some of our favourite bands. It’s pretty crazy, and it’s totally unexpected. I really feel like our first release was so unthought about at all. It came across really natural, and we all feel that then with the EP we kind of overthought it. And now it feels like it’s come together, through the different releases, how to do our thing the way that feels more together for us. It feels like we’ve found our way.”
It’s been a winding road, but this has allowed the Perth psychedelic rockers to build an album from a wide and complex palette. The seeds for Cosmos Terros were sewn over a year and a half ago, back when the prospect of their debut album was still a distant dream.
“Part of the reason why it took so long is because we went in to record a 7-inch, and maybe a little bit of the album,” Palmer says. “We were kind of testing the waters with recording something new, and it all snowballed that first time we went in. We finished the 7-inch with maybe one or two songs left over that would end up on the album, and released [that] in December of 2014. Then we went away and wrote the rest of the album. So it wasn’t like we were sitting on all those songs that whole time. It was actually more [that] we were playing live a lot and not getting the time to write, so it took a little longer. It would have been much quicker if we could’ve directly focused on it. And not had jobs,” he laughs.
“It’s six songs, but it’s over 40 minutes,” Palmer continues. “We’re looking at pressing on vinyl now. We’d love to just keep writing, keep writing, but putting out a double LP is pretty hard. One: for the cost for us. Two: it’s so expensive for people to buy as well. We’d prefer to do that, but the whole system doesn’t really let us go beyond that too far.”
Mt. Mountain’s recent run of dates with Berlin heavyweight Kadavar marked the band’s first major foray into national touring, and to say the five-piece were excited is an obvious understatement. They’re continuing the fun over the next couple of weekends with album launches in Melbourne and Perth. For four years they have been crafting their sound and building a fanbase, and Cosmos Terros is certain to keep the snowball rolling.
“Probably the most we’ve ever played before on the road has been, like, three shows. There’s defnitely a lot of excitement about finally getting [Cosmos Terros] out. The whole process, all the backend stuff that’s taken so long, it does kind of put a bit of a dampener on it. But this whole thing of going on tour for the first time, we’re all super stoked to finally do that. We’re all pretty excited about everything right now. I think our brief history is summed up in this album, so if we did all cark it tomorrow then this might be enough. All our steps along the way add up to this.”
BY ADAM NORRIS
