Although ultimately it’s a very slick recording of an especially catchy song, bassist/vocalist Tyron Shaw expresses anguish at letting drums appear on the record. He says the trio – consisting of double bass, acoustic and electric guitar – have decided to go back to their roots, and are set to release a drummer-less, 20 track live album.
Why a live recording?
The guys and I have done a fair bit of recording since we started the band. We’ve done the studio stuff, from digital right through to traditional analogue recordings, and they’ve all been good. But like a lot of bands, we are trying to capture that essence, that live sound – that’s always been a really tough thing to get in a studio. It’s the live side of things that is the biggest factor for The Rechords and when we did a few shows early last year at The Yarra Hotel, we discovered what a little gem the venue was. The sound there was just really nice and warm and it suited the band to a tee, so we thought it was a great place to get the ball rolling on a live recording.
Who did you bring in to record it?
We used a guy who has a mobile recording setup, goes by the name of Rob Dillon. He is hooked up with the MBAS; the Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society. He has mixed us quite a few times for live shows and he had a really good ear for the band. We really liked his sound, the way that he had mixed us at the live shows, and he really dug our music and what we were trying to do with the band. So it was one of those really mutual things and we thought it was a perfect pairing. When we mentioned to him that we wanted to do a live record he jumped at the chance.
What can people expect at a show?
Basically we’ll promote and perform a lot of tracks that are on the new album, which covers a mix of crowd and personal favourites that we have developed over the years. The crowd is really important to us, if there is an uproar when we play a tune or they start yelling out requests, we take note, that’s what we like to see, and that’s what we’ve tried to capture on this record.
How will you be releasing the record?
Completely independently. We’ve been quite slack actually when thinking through how we’re going distribute it. We had the idea to put out a live recording, and the means to do it, but we just got caught up in that. We probably should have put a little more thought into distribution. Nowadays I think it is kind of getting harder and harder to work out how independent bands should go about distribution. For all our past recordings we use cdbaby.com, for both digital and physical. But at this stage they’ll just be available in physical copies at the shows.
Where are you playing next?
At The LuWOW. It’s a great venue and I reckon it is definitely going to become one of the iconic venues around Melbourne. It’s such a unique place to go hangout. It has the band room, a second bar and DJs playing some really groovy tunes throughout the week and in-between live sets.
BY BILLY KILLING
THE RECHORDS play Thursday August 6 at The LuWOW. The new album Live Rechording will be available for purchase on the night.
