A couple of weeks out from the launch of their debut album at The Curtin, the eight-piece are crammed into Studio 4 at Abbotsford’s Laneway Studios. As I enter the room, guitarist Lachlan McDougal is visibly ecstatic as he hands me The Eighty 88s freshly pressed LP. The self-titled album is the result of a Pozible crowd-funding campaign, which aimed to raise $5000 but instead brought in $6500. Whilst that’s a princely sum, there’s no ceiling on how much record production will cost. “We paid for the studio ourselves,” says keyboardist Alex Warner, “then the Pozible money went on mastering, pressing, mixing, the t-shirts, and the physical production of the albums.”
On the topic of the Pozible campaign, lead guitarist Teddy Mitchell and frontman Scott Connolly delve deeper into what the generosity of others meant for the band. “Basically we sold 100 records before we had to get them pressed,” says Mitchell. “If we were just gigging and hoping to raise the money that way,” adds Connelly, “it would have taken us at least a year.”
The eight-track album, featuring a shiny black cover encasing the band’s circular white logo, was written at different points over the last three years, with the oldest song being Who Do You Love and Long Way Down the newest. At this juncture of the interview, each member names their favourite song on the album and explains why.
“I like Lover’s Master,” says vocalist Zoe Rinkel,“because it is really fun to play and I really like the four part harmony in the song.” Drummer Ben Thompson, who hadn’t said a word until now, agrees. “It has a Theremin,” he notes. “That was how we chose the studio we went to, because they had a Theremin.”
Bass player Chris Yates explains that his favourite song is Old Folks, which will be the unofficial first single, with the band currently working on a film clip. “My fiancée was listening to it and asking what it was about,” he says, “and I explained that it is about how Alex’s grandparents met each other and my fiancée started welling up saying ‘That’s so beautiful’.”
The lead guitarist – who goes by either Tim, Timothy or Teddy – singles out Long Way Down as his favourite. It’s a slow and groovy, yet morosely-themed tune, written about the challenges of turning 30 and being nowhere near where you expected to be in your life.
Warner admits that his favourite song is the oldest one on the record. “I like Who Do You Love,” he says, “because it has a driving rock’n’roll vibe going through it.” The younger Rinkel sister, co-vocalist Miki, is a fan of Long Way Down, “Because Zoe sounds awesome,” she says.
The carefully spoken McDougal is somewhat circumspect with his decision: “I quite like Few Words, because it has a bridge,” he says, which leads the entire room to break into laughter. Three sections in a single song appears to be a luxury for the hard hitting garage soul band.
Finally, the band’s striking front-man, Connolly, explains that Long Way Down is also his favourite tune because, “it is so unlike anything else we play and Zoe sounds so sweet.”
BY DAN WATT
