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Motor Ace.
Tokyo, October 2003: Motor Ace play one of the world's largest festivals, Fuji Rock Festival. Back in Melbourne, vocalist/songwriter Patrick Robertson calls a meeting for the rest of the band and hands each of them a letter. He is exhausted. Touring is beginning to frustrate him. Record label pressure had taken its toll. Fighting depression, Robertson needs a break.
"He didn't say it was over," drummer Damian Birchall Costin tells me on the eve of the release of Motor Ace's third album 'Animal'. "I came to the meeting hoping that we'd talk about what was gonna happen in the next six months. I couldn't tell at the time, but it turns out he was having a rough time. He was basically saying 'my head's fried at the moment, I can't handle this sort of stuff, I need to go off and do nothing for a bit. Just hang in there and we'll just see how it goes.' We were just about to crack overseas, and I'm thinking to myself, 'this is it, we're gonna get out of Australia, we're gonna tour the world and everything's gonna be alright.' But it didn't happen."
Back in his small home studio, over the course of the following months Robertson began piecing together new songs: songs that were taking on a form he described as more of a movie soundtrack than a new Motor Ace album. Costin, however, remained quietly confident. "I was always slightly optimistic because I think the door was always left open. I mean it was initially it was very tough: there was a certain stage where I thought, 'fuck, what am I gonna do? This is bullshit! I've put my whole life into this!' But sometimes you've just gotta roll with the punches, you know? But there was always a niggling thing in the back of my head that there was unfinished business."
That "unfinished business" has taken the form of 'Animal.' Robertson started writing lyrics to his songs, and after a while approached the rest of the band to come and jam with him. "We were all a tad anxious about getting involved again but I think we were really quite open in everything. We were openly communicating, which we hadn't done for a while," Costin reflects. "We got back together and we played the songs, and I really, really enjoyed them. We didn't know how it was all gonna happen, whether we were gonna just jump into a studio, but we chipped away at it. The plan was to have no plan at all; it was just sort of an accident."
The Motor Ace that emerged from that process are not the same Motor Ace that they were three years ago, and that is clearly evident on 'Animal' - its title reflecting a desire to get back to the primal basics of being in a band together. After their mega-successful debut 'Five Star Laundry,' Motor Ace released the relatively weak 'Shoot This,' an album that reflected priorities gone astray. "I think we lost our way a little bit with 'Shoot This,'" Costin admits. "I think if we'd had more time we could have sat down and thought about its direction. I think it lacks a couple of rock songs." Turning away from the commercial nature of that record, 'Animal' is full of subdued, atmospheric numbers, replete with drum loops, sequenced piano, horns, and a lot of acoustic guitar. The Motor Ace of today certainly wouldn't be found opening for Blink 182, as they did in 2001. "I think we've gone down the road of playing three or four minute pop songs with a big chorus and a big middle eight and stuff, and sometimes it just gets boring," Costin explains. "I think for this it was a case of stepping outside of that, and just playing what felt right. I think it's a totally different direction again. I think you could probably class 'Five Star' and 'Shoot This' in one bowl over there, and maybe 'Animal' as the start of something new. If you can kind of think about it with fresh ears and not think about any old records or anything like that, you might enjoy it."
Motor Ace are revitalised and re-energised - but aware that
coming back with a new sound after so long away could take its
toll. Costin admits he was amazed anyone even showed up for
their recent tour in support of the single Tommorow's Gone.
But, Csostin feels that this is also a better Motor Ace, and
that now they can concentrate on what really matters. "I'd love
to tell you right here and now that we'd be here forever but...
I think we'll keep making records, whether they're popular successes
and stuff. Whether you're number one on the Net 50 and all that
shit just doesn't worry me anymore."
Would he have said that three years ago? "No. Not at all. I just think we've experienced that, been down that road, and doing something else, doing something different, is a priority now."
Matt Vesely
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'Animal' is out now through FMR.
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