While the weather may differ substantially between Melbourne and London, Standish isn’t so convinced that the different cultural conditions in the respective cities has necessarily had a significant impact on the music he’s made with long-time musical partner Tom Carlyon. “I think an environment can be too over-rated in relation to making music,” Standish says. “It’s nice to think that if we moved over to Cuba, that we’d make this really languid, humid album. But I don’t think it really works in that way – you are who you are, and that just filters through, wherever you are”.
In that context, Standish/Carlyon – that band that appeared from the ashes of the now-defunct The Devastations, after that band’s implosion a few years ago – reflects Standish’s observations. In early 2012 Standish and his wife, Jonnine Standish (HTRK) returned to Melbourne for family reasons. Safely back in Melbourne, Standish and Carlyon continued with the project the pair had conceived before Standish returned to Australia.
Standish/Carlyon’s debut album, Deleted Scenes, picks up where The Devastations left off, with a heavy emphasis on the electro-beats style that permeated The Devastations’ last album, Yes U. “I think it’s a linear thing, but I suppose because there was five, six years between releases, maybe someone else might see it as a quantum leap,” Standish says. “But I just see it as a continuation.” The project’s title was necessarily simple, when Standish and Carlyon failed to agree on a more ‘evocative’ name: “We couldn’t agree on anything! That’s 100% fact,” Standish laughs. Standish says the name of the album derived from a moment of inspiration in London a couple of years ago; the basis for the inspiration, however, seems to have disappeared over time. “There could have been some thinking behind it at the time, but now it’s so firmly ensconced in my mind as the name of the album, that I can’t even think of what the original concept was – that’s a shit answer, but it’s honest!” he laughs.
Standish describes the creative process with Carlyon as “genuinely collaborative”, with the pair working on the basis of a formula developed when Standish was still in London, and Carlyon in Melbourne. “Tom will send me a beat, and I’ll design a bass line around that,” he says, “then I’ll send it back, and he’ll put some synth over the top, and whatever kind of noise it needs, then I’ll think of whatever vocal phrasing and a melody, and that’s it – that’s how we work. It’s very much a 50/50 thing in what we do. And I think the best results we’ve had have been when we’ve worked independently like that, rather than jamming in the studio – though we have created some good stuff just playing in the studio as well.”
Deleted Scenes is also pervaded by a sense of space, which Standish says is a by-product of his song-writing formula with Carlyon. “I think that’s the way Tom and I write with each other,” Standish says. “We’ve had a creative relationship for about 15 years. That’s how we write with each other, and we don’t really want to fill songs up with things unnecessary. We both like room to manoeuvre within songs, or else we wouldn’t write them. So I think it’s a subconscious thing on both our parts,” he says.
In other media interviews, Standish has referred to the subtle humour contained in the songs – notably, his lyrics. “On the most obvious level, it’s the absurdist cut-up style lyrics – I find that stuff amusing,” Standish says, “and it is intended to come across that way.” While the titles, and subjects of the songs – Critics Multiply, Gucci Mountain, Industrial Resort – imply a level of social and political commentary, Standish says the reality isn’t quite as clear-cut. “With Critics Multiply, the reason why it’s called that originally was inspired by the Prince song All the Critics Love You in New York,” Standish explains. “When we were working on the template for that, I took that line from Some Like It Hot by the Power Station with Robert Palmer – ‘she wants to multiply’. So the title of the song became Critics Multiply. We totally changed the beat and the lyrics, but the title stuck. There’s a scoop for you,” Standish laughs.
BY PATRICK EMERY
