“Our drummer (Mie Takamatsu) went overseas for a year and that wasn‘t really for a fixed amount of time,” Pell explains. “Our bass player (BT) fell through a window and badly damaged his arm so now he plays tambourine, he can’t play guitar anymore. We got another drummer (Tom Coleman) but then everything fell into place in a weird way. Everyone’s still in the band, they’ve just shuffled around instruments. We really wanted to do an album; EPs are a bit useless in a way, but saying that you’re launching it is a bit strange. As soon as you ‘launch’ something it legitimises it in a way. With the internet though, it’s all becoming a bit redundant.”
In any artistic project, with time comes changes in direction and Pell admits that the EP and the album are very different creatures. “We recorded this album only six months after releasing the EP so we had moved a long way from that and we kinda didn’t care about it I guess,” he admits. “All we were thinking about was doing this album. We’re playing one song off the EP at the launch and it’s been kinda fun to revisit that but we’ve turned into a different band.”
The vocals are now being shared with guitarist and vocalist number two, Ian Wallace. That in itself has brought a host of changes that will bring the group’s next album into new territory. “I wrote eight of the nine songs on the album – the lyrics and the chords – but I still like to think everyone is important so the songs change a lot when it gets to the other guys,” he says of the collaborative writing process. “It’s great when you’ve written a song to see it turn into something completely new. I take ages to write lyrics and vocal melody because I can’t stand getting bored by what I’m singing. I’ve learned to keep a lot of room so it can all develop and that helps a lot. The other guitar player and singer is starting to write more songs now. We’re starting to write the new album and he’s writing a lot more for that.”
Grouped as surf-tropical band, Pell seems confused about why but at the same time realises it’s blatantly obvious. Other musical comparisons tossed about have been the likes of Pavement and The Velvet Underground which Pell thinks is humorous. “There was one review that made a Silver Jews reference and I was like ‘Oh wow’,” he says, explaining that he feels that is the most accurate reference so far. “There’s always the Pavement reference and the whole band loves the band but, well, so does everyone really. The Velvet Underground’s kind of weird, I wouldn’t ever think about that comparison, but I guess any music with a kind of jangly guitar all ends up grouped in the same category. There are all of those surf and tropical references too. I was hoping this album would be a summer album and there’s all of the artwork and the melodies that lean towards that. I was saying to someone in the band that I was surprised by the constant tropical references and they laughed and said ‘C’mon, it’s in the lyrics, it’s in the artwork, it’s everywhere.’”
The Silver Jews comparison seems to be both accurate and a compliment to Pell. “My favourite lyricist is David Berman from Silver Jews,” he says. “At his best he can, in one line, say more than most people can in a song or even a whole album. It’s just so refined and has been so well crafted.”
With Pageants enjoying the most momentum they’ve ever had, and save for another massive hurdle, they’re going to take advantage of every bit of it, getting as much done in as short a time as possible. “We’re finishing up the launch in Sydney and Melbourne but we’re not going anywhere else; it’s starting to get into that crazy, hectic time of the year,” he says. “There’s a gig planned with Super Wild Horses and Teeth And Tongue shortly. We’re about to start recording probably three or four tracks that we’re gonna do a split 7” with a Sydney band; we haven’t chosen who yet. We’re gonna release another 7” on our own as well in a little bit. We just wanna have a shot at approaching the recording similar to our EP. We love the album too, but we really loved the old school, messy, analogue tape sound of our EP. Our bass player (Angus Bell) just bought a really old desk and we’re gonna have a go at that. We just want to have something as well as the album to sell at gigs. After that, we’ll get into the album. It’s taken so long for us to do everything else it would be so nice to just go crazy and punch out a whole lot of stuff really fast.”
BY KRISSI WEISS
