It’s always a good time when Melbourne’s very own Clowns take to the stage – and that’s exactly what they are preparing to do in celebration of their raucous single, ‘Freezing In The Sun’.
Bright guitars and piercing vocals, a celebration with Clowns isn’t a treat to be missed.
Since they posted it on their social media, the video for latest single – and the last taste of new music before the band head into the studio to record album number four – ‘I Shaved My Legs For You’ exemplifies everything that Clowns have become known for, especially their fun side.
That song in particular, along with the first single ‘Freezing In The Sun’ will likely appear on that upcoming album – at least according to vocalist Stevie Williams. “We haven’t’ done a definitive track listing or anything, but we are going into the studio next month to record a whole bunch of tracks which will eventually become our fourth record – chances are high but who knows.”
With their back catalogue boasting an ever-changing variation in sound, Williams says it’s likely that Clowns will try and keep raising that bar higher with a few new tricks. “When we started we were teenagers just throwing together punk songs so we could go on tour and pretend like we meant something.
“During the course of that process we kept playing gigs, people kept coming back, so we started expanding the sound and also minimising the sound – we started to write shorter and faster songs on the second album [Bad Blood, 2015] – we definitely try to evolve the sound. This next album I think we’ll just really try to get all three of the albums we’ve previously released, which have been different in their own way, and jam them into one,” he says.
It’s a pretty bog standard process for Clowns when it comes to the songwriting for the upcoming album, with the only obvious intricacy as reflection on previous works and potential revamps.
“In this band, we’re very conscious to not cover creative ideas we’ve already covered. We’ve definitely wanted to leave the sound unprecedented in that sense, because we want people in the future to have all our albums in their collection and like every single one of them for different reasons.
“The most challenging bit has been writing music which is reminiscent of older songs or older styles, but creating it in a way that’s new and fresh and exciting for the listener. And for us as well, we’ve got to play those fucking songs, too.”
Half the reason Clowns have managed to maintain their success, relevance, and creative flair is because they’ve not been afraid to tap into so many different areas of style – not to mention their reputation for a really fun live show. These are the keys to longevity. “A huge key to it is that we’ve really tried to stay current,” Williams says. “For the entire existence of the band, we’ve tried to at least release something every single year, do a tour once or twice, and push the boundaries on the tours, too.
“In playing around with sound and not letting ourselves get pigeonholed into ska-punk, or skate punk, or hardcore punk or whatever, we’ve really got the umbrella turned on punk, and done all of them which is a huge spectrum. That certainly helps, as well, for people that have maybe seen us in a shitty dive bar, or some town in who-knows-where. If they’ve seen us five years ago and stayed on track with us, they probably haven’t had much of a reason to stop listening unless we’ve really diversified our sound.
“It’s that classic line [we get], ‘I really like your band but your last album really sucks’, or, ‘I really like your new album but your last one really sucked’ – I think that’s the key to this band, that some people like all of it, some people like bits of it, but we’re constantly pushing boundaries with what we’re doing and where we’re going.”
