Eddy Current Suppression Ring have emerged, once again, with new music and little fuss.
With their first three albums, released from 2006 to 2010, Eddy Current Suppression Ring helped define the sound of independent music in Australia. Though their brand of bare-bones garage punk is uniquely Australian, it cut through overseas too. The band may have been on multiple extended breaks, but their influence has remained steadfast.
This is despite their DIY ethos of recording and releasing albums extending to promotion too, which has remained minimal. Guitarist Mikey Young records and mixes the band himself, as well as greatly contributing to songwriting. He also acts as band manager, booker and promoter. He doesn’t have a mobile phone, let alone a band social media account.
Eddy Current Suppression Ring in Melbourne
- When: Friday 26 September public holiday
- Where: Fed Square, Melbourne
- Cost: Free, all ages
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Young’s job is now mixing and mastering music, with his name credited on countless independent releases. After work one day, he joins a video call from his North Melbourne studio. “We actually lived in this building for three and a half years, covertly, until we saved up enough cash to get an apartment,” he says while panning his camera across the room.
“Now I work basically from nine to six or so and end up jamming here two or three nights a week, so I’m here a lot,” he says. Living in a studio with his partner, American-born Raven Mahon, was undoubtedly beneficial when making music for their band The Green Child. Young’s presence in the music scene runs even deeper, being a member of Total Control, Ooga Boogas, Kissland and more.
It was at Corduroy Records, a vinyl pressing plant and label in Melbourne, where Young worked with Brendan Huntley. At the 2003 Christmas party, while jamming with his older brother Danny on drums, they persuaded Huntley to ad-lib vocals. The connection was immediate, and soon after Brad Barry joined on bass.
Having early access to recording equipment thanks to being surrounded by creative people was pivotal in Young’s life. “Everyone was just doing something,” he says. “Without scoring that job, I don’t think Eddy Current would have existed. I think it was the start of a lot of things for me.”
Until recently, Eddy Current Suppression Ring hadn’t played since Golden Plains and Dark Mofo in 2016. The tour for their 2019 album, All In Good Time, was cancelled days before it was to begin due to COVID lockdowns. “I was weirdly breathing a sigh of relief at the time. Maybe, in retrospect, I didn’t feel ready to do it,” recalls Young. “That put a spanner in the works as far as momentum.”
This time around, Young says the band was eager to get back on stage, practising together for 18 months and warming up with secret shows. “Because we’ve been jamming more than we ever did, like every week, we actually felt ready,” says Young. “For all those secret shows, three or four of them, we only played new songs, so we treated it and it felt like being a new band.”
The band’s first official show was a sold-out Night Cat in Fitzroy. “It was the first one where we mixed it up and played half and half. I was worried that people weren’t going to gel with the new songs or just want the hits, but everyone was really receptive to everything,” says Young.
“It seemed really cathartic for a lot of people. Like, I was hugging a lot of emotional men until the early hours.”
The band recorded their first three records astonishingly fast. “The first one was really quick – four hours, and the second one was two days, and the third one was six hours,” recalls Young. “Back in those days, we were playing live a lot, so you’d write a song, test it out live, realise what was or wasn’t working [and] shape it that way over time.”
The band’s new seven-inch, Shapes and Forms, has three new tracks. “We just record our practices, and if we get a good take, that’s the song,” he says. “There’s not really many, if any, overdubs, and there’s no way to pretty up that stuff.”
The band is on course to release a full-length album, teases Young, having already mixed 10 tracks. “I’ll probably mix 15 tracks, and if we listen back to them and there’s 10 good ones, we’ll make an album,” he says. “Maybe we’ll just do a couple more seven-inches, but I think it’s looking like there might be 10 good ones.”
“Not that we were ever in a rush back then, but we’re probably even in less of a rush now,” he says. “There’s no rush to put out an album. There’s no rush to play more shows. It’s really low maintenance, and there’s no careerist motives behind it at all.”
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Young says not to expect anything revolutionary from the band. “The All In Good Time stuff was a bit more mellow, because a lot of it was written at a time when Danny was really busy,” explains Young. “So, us three were kicking around with the drum machine making really quiet house jams.”
“These [new songs] developed more by playing loud to ourselves every week, so it’s probably closer to the old stuff,” continues Young. “I’m sure we’ve got better and have different influences over the last 15 years. I think Brendan’s become quite a better singer.”
Next year will mark 20 years since the release of the band’s debut record. “I’m sure it would have surprised me 20 years ago, but it doesn’t really surprise me now,” says Young on the longevity of the band. “I’m surprised it still feels this good. It’s not always easy to find four people to play with that are inspiring, and it just works. It’s nice to have this band, for sure.
“Even when I pulled it aside 15 years ago, I was wary of saying we’re finished. All my bands have come and gone when it feels like the best time to put effort into them,” continues Young. “It’s the nice thing about music not feeling like a career for me – I can drop things and do something else and feel inspired by that. The other band members can go do other things for a while, and we can come back, and it doesn’t really matter. We’re only really playing for ourselves anyway.”
Along with some intimate shows, Eddy Current Suppression Ring will play one of the biggest shows of their career at Fed Square on Grand Final Eve. “The idea of playing Frankston and Anglesea to keep it small felt really good,” says Young. “Then the Fed Square one came up, and it just felt right straight away. I love small shows, but then the unique shows that are somewhere you’ve never played before.
“The main thing for us is that we keep doing these shows that people can’t get tickets to because they’re sold out. People are sending us emails, almost angry as us,” continues Young. “We thought if we do this – it’s free and you can bring your kids – that should shut up everyone we know for a while. Then we can go back to doing whatever we want.”
Eddy Current Suppression Ring are playing Fed Square on 26 September. Find out more here.
