Following their much-awaited release of Start Again, I had a chat to Aidan from Brisbane’s ‘sad dance’ band, Landings to talk about producing, touring and plastic infused pizza.
Start Again has been out in the world for a couple of weeks now, how has the response been?
It’s been really good, we’re so happy to have it out because it took a ridiculously long time to finish. We started it at the beginning of the year, so it’s taken almost ten months to finish the track, but the response has been awesome. We’re really happy to get back into it. Hopefully, we’ll follow it up quicker with the next song. It looks like it will be out at the start of next year, rather than another year wait.
Why did it take ten months to lay down the track?
It was a bit of a tough one to finish off because we worked with a producer called Jean-Paul Fung from Sydney who is ridiculously talented and awesome to work with. Although things were slowed as he lives so far away. We ended up doing a lot through email and Skype. It’s a pretty weird way of doing things but we’re getting more involved in the production ourselves for the next track. Things are already moving a bit quicker of the bat.
Do you feel you have more control now?
We’ve always recorded ourselves so we’re pretty happy with the amount of control we have, but this time we thought it would be great to have a go at producing.
What was it like working with Jean-Paul Fung?
He’s amazing to work with, he’s an incredibly talented guy. We started working with him on our first song. We were getting towards the end of it and needed an extra opinion to push it over the line. It was right before BIGSOUND so I sent him an email telling him that I loved his work and asked if he was interested in working with us. He flew out the next day to work with us, he was really into it. It’s been great to work with him.
What was it like supporting Gypsy and the Cat for their last show?
It was a bit sad because they’re such a great band, it was so sad to see them go. The show was really special, they’re bunch of talented songwriters. We were stoked to be a part of that night. It’s pretty tough in the music industry to keep moving and putting out work. They put out three records which is great, I understand how hard it is to keep up the momentum.
Your music has been described as ‘sad dance music,’ did you all have that vision when you started making music?
Yeah definitely, we all like energetic music you can dance to like The Maccabees and Bombay Bicycle Club, but there’s a lot of bands that do that sort of stuff and it’s too upbeat and a bit cheesy. We want to make music like those bands; music that you can dance to but music that isn’t like ‘I love everything.’ We love sad songs so that has to be a part of our sound.
I know you guys are playing a Wildlife show at the end of the year, what other plans do you have in the works?
We’re just focusing on recording at the moment. We’ve got the Wildlife show on the 1st but other than that we’re spending all of our free time working on making new music. We’ve all just finished uni so we’re excited to completely focusing on the new releases for next year.
Who is the worst cook in the band and why?
I’m going to go with Liam on that one. When we traveled through Europe at the start of the year, there was this beautiful moment where he cooked a frozen pizza on a plastic tray and he opened the oven up 15 minutes later and everything had melted and there was pizza everywhere.
Were you over in Europe for a writing tour?
It was originally booked as a holiday but while we were over there, a guy who had recorded Liam and Mike’s last bands EP was working in a studio just outside of London. We spent four days in there recording material that hasn’t yet been finished but it was awesome to work in such an incredible famous English studio.
What are some of your favourite Brisbane bands?
Definitely MTNS, their new single is amazing, we’ve been waiting too long for that one. We’re really looking forward to supporting Jouk Mistrow at the Wildlife show, we’re excited to hear their new EP because all the work they’ve put out in the past has been amazing, they’re good friends of ours. Also, a big favourite of ours are Last Dinosaurs, it’s been great to play some gigs with them throughout the year. We’ve always been huge fans of theirs, I’m fairly sure they were the first band Liam and Mike ever saw, so it was pretty special to play alongside them.
Landings play Wildlife at the Zoo on the 1st of December, tickets are $5 on the door.
