“I’m not the only one in the band with anxiety issues,” Birch reveals. “Ahren (Stringer, bass/vocals) has been crippled by it once before. He actually fell over and was paralysed, could not move, and they called an ambulance thinking he was dying. It turns out he was actually having a panic attack. Ryan (Burt, drums) also suffers with it as well. It’s a central theme because I’ve dealt with it over the last year, or the year leading up to writing Let The Ocean Take Me, but I wasn’t planning on writing about it, it’s just how it worked out.” When undergoing a course of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to address anxiety issues, doctors often stress (there’s that word again) that a certain level of anxiety can be conducive to motivation: it’s only when things get too far that the ‘fight or flight’ reflex is tripped. Is this something Birch has been able to control and consciously harness? “Well, I’m on medication and according to the doctor I’m chronically depressed… I try, but…”
And for anyone who’s gone through the same thing, there’s a lot to relate to in Let The Ocean Take Me. You don’t need to be in a hugely popular band to feel an affinity with what Birch and his bandmates are going through. It’s the sound of someone who goes through good moments and bad moments. “Well that’s cool because I was actually worried that a lot of my lyrics were too dark and people would feel almost a disconnect from it. But from everything I’ve heard so far, everyone that experiences the same sort of emotions, have been responding in a better way to how they did with Chasing Ghosts. That album had a third-person narrative to some of the songs, and this time it’s like it’s more about what I feel and how I go through it. And I think a lot of people who have the same sort of issues as me are responding much more positively and in a much more emotionally cathartic way. Moreso than an in-your-face topic.”
The recording sessions for the album were much more relaxed than previous records: Joel was able to be at home and go surfing in between sessions. Producer Will Putney has worked on enough of the band’s projects to know how to help them to realise their musical vision. “He engineered Youngbloods, he mixed Chasing Ghosts, so he has a pretty good understanding of our personalities, having worked with the guitars a lot on Youngbloods and also having seen me have a meltdown on Youngbloods also, when I nearly quit the band. And he’s the same age as us so the music is relevant to him. We really couldn’t have picked a more appropriate producer. We’ve always had a very strong sense of ourselves and our music, and we’re never, ever going to buckle to any outside opinion. But Will approached it in such a different and positive manner that we took on board things that we may have never, ever taken on board before. That’s what made it such a great experience. Like, I don’t ever let anyone fuck with my lyrics, ever ever, but Will put some changes to me that I made on the record in such a way that it was far more acceptable for me. He would just point out things that could be stronger, almost like an essay where you’ve got to outline the meaning in the first paragraph, then get to it, and then wrap it up at the end. He would provide me with that kind of input and I would change my lyrics accordingly. It worked out really, really well.”
BY PETER HODGSON
