“I was actually thinking about that today, and that was all a total accident,” says Thomas when I question the coincidence of the Polo/Melbourne Cup/Break In Horses thing: a triple equine theme. He explains that the single isn’t exactly about breaking in horses, although they are present in the tale. “The track is sort of a metaphor, but it’s sort of not too, it’s sort of literal. [It’s] set in the 1800s… about this guy who leaves his family to clear some land in Australia. Clear some land and break in his horses.”
The way the lyrics are put together in both this and earlier single She Will Never Know show an artfulness in balancing the metaphoric/literal duality. The lyrics of the latter are reminiscent of some of Thom Yorke’s, where he sings things like ‘Where’d you park the car?’ that seem literal, but are also imbued with a secret communication that sticks straight in your heart. “We all sat down and all put our minds together with the lyrics on that one,” says Thomas. “We wanted to keep it straight and poppy so people knew what we were talking about, but still keep it dark. That was sort of the idea behind that whole EP actually; to be poppy… but every song sort of has a dark undertone to it. And I think that comes through, especially in [She Will Never Know] as well.”
But let’s not forget the beats and the melodies. The View is a killer example of Polo Club’s ability to glide from chord-based tunes to minimalist, tripped-up rhythms. The little plucked synth sounds in The View reminded me a lot of South African genre-benders Die Antwoord, and a quick look at Polo Club’s blog page shows a share of the former’s new clip Fatty Boom Boom. “I find it funny when people say they aren’t into ‘em,” laughs Thomas, “because they’re so crazy, how could you not love ‘em? I love what they do, there’s nothing out there that sounds like them. I wouldn’t say that our music’s influenced by them, but I would definitely say that me personally, I like them. I mean I can’t go for a run and listen to them, or chill out at night and have a wine and listen to them, but in the club, it’s crazy shit that you’ve just never heard. If there was no Die Antwoord, it would all be the same.”
Polo Club’s live setup sees Chapman on bass, Thomas and McLaren on vocals and percussion, and Fitzgerald on drums. “We call it the Purple Beater Eater, it’s the fattest kit,” Thomas says with glee, on Fitzgerald’s instrument. “It’s got such a nice sound. It’s like, purpley-sparkly. He plays pretty straight [without triggers] but he has in-ear monitors, so he gets a feed from Cam’s beats.” Cam clearly has more duties than just bass, then. “He has his computer running his beats, that little Korg R3, he plays bass and he also does back-up vocals.” As for Thomas and McLaren, they like to use all kinds of auxiliary percussion during sets. “Cabasa, woodblocks, guiro, tambourine… we’ve also got rototoms – they’re like those South American toms, you can pitch them right down and make ‘em sound like 808s, and you can pitch them manually as you play them – and floor toms.”
Sometimes auxiliary percussion gets crap press, mostly because I think those things like woodblocks and tambourines are what we’re first handed in music class at school so they’re perceived as being simple instruments, and Thomas agrees they can be underappreciated. “It takes a skilled percussionist to play them right. Anyone thinks they can pick up a tambourine and play it; I’m not saying I’m a skilled percussionist or anything, I just bash ‘em,” he belly laughs. “We just bash ‘em, but it sort of seems to work.” It certainly does, and seeing Thomas bash ‘em should go up to the top of your live list for this week.
BY ZOË RADAS
