Though the Sydney duo have only just dropped their debut album Alright Already, they’re already long-accustomed to the struggles of life in the music industry – including the necessary evils of talking to the press – and know that the best way to get their music out there is to be as honest as you can; even if that means admitting that the road ahead is still a bit of a mystery.
“We’ve been pretty fucking busy. Who’d have thought releasing an album was so much work beyond actually recording it? John-Henry and I still have day jobs because we’re broke as shit and not making any money.
“The daily routine is much like anyone, except instead of going for lunch breaks, you do fun stuff like this. You go to the Polish club and record some stupid skits. It’s pretty funny and I can’t complain, but we’re pretty burnt out right now. I’m going to take a month off before the tour to recharge, and make sure I’m not going to have a cardiac arrest on stage. The audience might go for it, but that’s a one-time trick. I’m going to save that one.”
Given the pair are looking at a solid month of touring, some R&R isn’t a crazy idea. Anticipation for how this album will sound on the road is running high, and having whittled the original number of ideas they had in the studio from 60 to 14, what they’ve settled on is going to make for one energetic gig. It’s especially impressive knowing just how intuitive they found the process.
“Mate, I’ve got no fucking idea what we’re doing [in the studio],” he laughs. “We never will. It’s an intangible feeling of comfort when you know that the end game is in sight. We listened to everything we had, drew up a list, and in no time we knew which ones were ready, which felt good.
“Let’s play the songs we’re most excited about. There’s a shitload of stuff we didn’t touch, and a handful that we did. There’s a lot we haven’t pursued, so there’s no lacking in future songs.”
By happy circumstance, this isn’t the first time I’ve interviewed Polish Club. We spoke on the eve of their appearance at Cherry Rock Festival’s tenth anniversary about Novak’s writing routine. Years later, I’m curious if success has altered their approach to songwriting.
“John and I were never really ones to dwell on that side of things,” he says. “Fortunately, it’s always come easy to us – long may that be the case. We lock ourselves in a room, we play for three hours, come up with ideas that we record on our phones, and more often than not we won’t actually touch it after that.
“It’s either a song or it’s not, and we’ll just move on. By virtue of that, we’ve really spent most of our time doing other stuff. John’s really heavy into the visual side of things and does all the posters, I do all the socials and creative writing that the media might want us to do.”
And while it’s premature to start thinking of future releases, Novak has been casting one eye to how their sound might develop down the road. In part, this was born of their Like a Version cover of Flume’s Never Be Like You, and having a taste of the vast array of soundscapes out there waiting.
“People were saying, do you want backing vocals, a fucking horn section, and I was like, no. That’s not what we do. One day, maybe it will be. Look at The Black Keys, they have a much bigger set up these days. Let’s just do a song our way, because that’s the most genuine thing we can do. The least amount of moving parts that could fuck things up. I trust my voice, I trust John’s drumming. So in keeping it simple, we changed it as much as we could.
“But you know, it’s only a matter of time,” Novak says. “I think we’ll add horns, a string section. We’ll be ridiculous one day.”
By Adam Norris
