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Irrelevant.
 Sydneysiders Irrelevant have been playing shows around Australia for about six years, and have just released a new album, 'Ascension'. Their press release talks them up a storm and promises a big step up for the group, not least since they enlisted the talents of Phil McKellar as producer. Being that this is their first real attempt to connect with new - perhaps even international - audiences, I challenge drummer Michael Anderson to tell me why 'Ascension' deserves such high praise.
"We put a lot more effort into it this time," Anderson begins. "It's been three years since the last recording so I guess we didn't really hold back. Because we had taken so long, there was really no point in doing a half-assed attempt at it."
Anderson explains that their guitarist married and went on his honeymoon in between the recording and the mixing of the album. This, I suggest, would have given the band some sweet respite from the studio. "The break between recording and mixing was really good actually because it allowed us to pinpoint things we wanted to change in the mixing," he agrees. "We all only listened to the recording minimally during the break, our guitarist didn't even take a copy with him on his honeymoon. So we all went in with fresh ears, which was very advantageous. If we went straight in from recording to mixing it might have been a bit much. The fact of the matter is that when you record an album you hear each song about a million times in the process anyway."
Phil McKellar is a big name producer, having helmed releases for the likes of Grinspoon and Silverchair. "He was great to work with," Anderson enthuses. "When we decided to bring him on board, we just really wanted an extra set of ears from someone we respected. Right from the beginning of the process he would come into rehearsals and bring his laptop and just record our songs straight onto that. Then he would go away and edit the songs if he thought something should be arranged differently. As a band we would then all have a bit of a listen to what he had to say.
"In the end it was definitely up to us whether we took on his ideas or not: some of them we did, some of them we didn't. It was just really good to have someone else there to offer up a different opinion. Being in the band with the same guys for so long, you sort of get locked into the same routine and have the same ideas all the time."
Interestingly, Irrelevant didn't really test songs from the new album on a live audience before they went into the studio to record them. "With the new stuff, we had only played two of the songs on the album live before. We'd thought about road testing a few of them, but then we thought 'no let's keep them really fresh.' At first we weren't really sure how they would go down live. We did a tour in December and sort of rotated four or five new songs every night in the set and we got a good response. It flowed really well."
Anderson and I start to discuss the sound of the album. I ask whether he would agree that it has a very newly evolved 'Australian' sound to it.
"I would, actually," he responds enthusiastically. "A few people have said it to me and it has been written in a few of the reviews that there's an Australian feel to the new album. I do agree with it, but it's something that I had never really thought of before..." he pauses. "We're definitely into it though."
Sam Vinall
 | 'Ascension' is out now through Resist, and Irrelevant play at the Enigma Bar on Fri 18 March with Later That Night and Cry Murder. |
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