So who am I speaking with and what is your role in Lower Plenty?
This is Al. I play guitar and sing some of the songs on our latest LP Life/Thrills.
Your upcoming gig at the John Curtin is to launch Life / Thrills. What’s the greatest thrill Lower Plenty has seen in their career so far?
Lower Plenty need a career advisor.
Can’t pick a greatest thrill, every time we get a chance to play together it’s a thrill. Every time we put a new song together it’s a thrill. Every time I hear Sarah’s singing it’s a thrill. Every time I listen to Jensen cut a solo it’s a thrill. Every time I turn around and fall in line with Daniel Twomey it’s a thrill. Every time we get paid it’s a thrill. Every time we can borrow gear it’s a thrill. Every time there’s a rider it’s a thrill. Every time I make a flyer it’s a thrill. Friends/thrills. Music/thrills. Humanity/thrills. Ablett/thrills. Bowie/thrills. Briggs/thrills. Sandy Denny/thrills. Wirrpanda/thrills. Malcolm X/thrills. Goodes/thrills. Freeman/thrills. Link Wray/Thrills. Cale’s violin/thrills. Patsy Cline/thrills. Alice Coltrane/thrills. Life/thrills.
Most of the content on Life/Thrills was written when sitting around the kitchen table. How does this laid-back approach to songwriting translate in the sound of the latest album?
We definitely put together the songs around a kitchen table but don’t underestimate our individual private whippings in writing songs. Sarah definitely doesn’t have time to hang around with us three tools writing the heavy lyrics that she does. Jensen needs some alone time and a deadline for his best work. And I need constant interaction with people making music around me to do tunes.
But yes, songs come together very, very easily for us. We all do a lot of stuff musically and non-musically, so we are very lucky that we have that dynamic chemistry, so that songs come easy.
It’s often around a kitchen table as well. I am proud to say that Lower Plenty has never hired a rehearsal room.
Lower Plenty’s band members all hail from a range of other great Melbourne bands. How is Lower Plenty’s sound different from these other bands? What does this assortment of experience in other bands bring to Lower Plenty?
I once read an interview with Gillian Welch where she suggested that her music was a celebration of rock, country and noisy types of music, however her music just honed in on one specific aspect of the traditionally noisy genre. Sounds good to me.
I don’t see major differences between the song writing of Deafwish and Lower Plenty, but the presentation is massively different. Sometimes, when writing songs, I’ll have trouble thinking of what band it would suit best.
It’s really hard to say what our experience’s in other bands brings to Lower Plenty. You can probably hear it in the music. We are quiet. That’s pretty different to anything else we’ve done.
What can audiences expect from your album launch?
The sleepless nights write sad country songs from the land of the long white cloud. Expect laughter and tears. Crude is a kiwi second class citizen battling it out against the leviathan Australian systematic death machine. Expect Matt Middleton to teach us some industrial pop gems for those without any patience. Hit the Jackpot were an Adelaide music institution. They return to performing live after a child-raising hiatus. Expect brilliant songs played with absolute feel. Expect Moe Tucker, John Cale, David Kilgour and Modra in a collab.
Lower plenty. Expect the worse.
Catch Lower Plenty’s Life/Thrills album launch on Friday July 11 at The John Curtin, with support from Hit The Jackpot (Adelaide) + Crude (New Zealand) + Leighton Craig (Brisbane).
