“We’ve got some songs, so at the moment we’re just waiting for Richie, who’s been drumming with us, to get back from the UK so we can start working on songs again. We don’t have any solid studio time booked or anything, so we might just end up doing it at home. We have a nice little room under our house.”
The tentative plans to record at home break the tradition of the previous two Grates records, which were recorded while the band were bunkered down in the US. “The last one was in Brooklyn, the one before we did in Connecticut. I think the last album we recorded, we were happy with the final product, but we didn’t really enjoy the experience of recording in a studio,” says Patterson. “We’ve recorded every album in a nice studio, but we were just longing to jam out in a garage or somewhere like that. Somewhere where we can do whatever we want, where there are no egos apart from our own.”
John and Patience’s marriage simplified the dynamic of the band, ending their years-long cone of silence in regards to their romance. “I think if anything, it’s made it a little bit easier. We’re more comfortable being together, we never talked about it the whole time we were in the band. Now that we’re obviously married, it makes it feel a little realer. Now playing music is just a nice way to spend time together. We opened a café and bar in Brisbane a year ago, so when we make music together it feels a bit more special as it’s not the only focus in our lives. We’ve been through it and came through the other side. I can totally understand why bands don’t make it. If it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t have made it.”
The newfound hospitality pursuit has lifted some of the pressure from the toils of their music career, allowing a greater sense of freedom. “I don’t like putting all our eggs in one basket,” says Patterson. “It will sustain because we don’t need it to. We work on a lot of different things, most of them together, and that’s let us live a life outside the ordinary, to let us take chances we wouldn’t have been able to take otherwise.”
Of course, there was a period of time where music was a full-time occupation for the band, putting in the hard yards to establish themselves as the revered act they are today. “When we didn’t work [apart from music], we just would stay at home all day. We didn’t really have money to do anything apart from be in a band. We didn’t get to meet new people, it took a lot of life experiences away.”
It’s great to get it out of our systems. Things are much more comfortable, knowing that it’s still fun and that people still enjoy it. It’s kind of nostalgic, and it’s nice seeing people react to different parts of different songs. It takes you back to a different time and place when we play songs that are eight years old, these people that grew up with this music, as well as us growing up. I think we kind of documented us growing up with each record.”
With a disparate range of tracks now contained within The Grates’ canon, ranging from the feel good scrappy styling of their breakthrough tracks to the cinemascope offerings on 2011’s Secret Rituals, John takes pleasure in crafting the band’s current setlists. “I just pick the ones that I know are going to resonate the most. Some songs just aren’t fun to play anymore, even if they’re some people’s favourites. Over time we change little things about them to make them flow really well. But some of the songs that work really well are the ones that are the shittiest and scrappiest. It’s the energy, not so much how it sounds.”
As for new Grates tracks, we can expect a little sample when they take to the stage at Queenscliff. “I think we’ll just start recording and fleshing out these ideas for new songs. We’ll do a couple of new songs [at Queenscliff Music Festival], we’ve been practicing for sure,” he states.
BY LACHLAN KANONIUK
