Welcome back! How does it feel to be rehearsing and performing together again? Is the chemistry still the same?
Nfa: Well for me, while both familiar and foreign, it feels good, like visiting a house you once lived in.
Peril: We just needed to get familiar again with the material and the good old chemistry came straight back, but there’s always a lot of trial and error to make things stick in the pocket.
1200 Techniques were always renowned for your live shows, performing with live instruments and analogue gear. Is your modus operandi still the same?
N: Pretty much. We’re back in Perils studio with the same analogue equipment we made the first two albums with; only this EP has no samples. It’s all original. The live show is also the original set up with as much blood sweat and tears as ever.
Your new EP Time Has Come is out Friday January 23. How was the recording and mixing process this time around? Is it nice to share the creative process having focused on your solo projects in the interim?
N: I’ve never done a solo project, only ever collaborative ones. The recording and mixing process with 1200s has been cool. I took a step back from mixing for fear of too many cooks. But we would all give each other feedback and direction and inspiration. Kem used to bring Peril food during mixing, cos Peril can easily go in so deep that he forgets to eat for 12 hours.
P: The recording was done entirely at my home studio as I had plenty of tracks already to go and pretty much finished as we’d dabbled with tracks in the past six years leading up to this EP. The main difference with this album is it’s our most musical one to date, with more live instrumentation and playing on it than the previous two albums before.
What can fans and newcomers expect from the 1200 Techniques in the near future?
N: The new EP is sounding good to us. The songs work really well with our previous material. We’ll look to tour it in the coming months.
P: You can always bet your bottom dollar on a manic, intense, sweaty live 1200’s performance as we’ve been rehearsing and that’s a given. We’ve upped our live game since back in the day, between our drummer Richie C, Kem, Nfa and myself and couple of new toys here and there, you can expect a soulful yet raw EP of warm funked out rhythms.
You can catch 1200 TECHNIQUES this Australia Day at The Vineyard St Kilda. It’s a FREE event and Live to Air on KISS FM. Their new EP Time Has Come is out this Friday January 23 available on Rubber Music Pty Ltd.
