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Epicure.
 Try and imagine the sound of heavy freight trains barrelling down a remote highway coming through your phone receiver. Then realise you have to conduct a phone interview to this beautiful symphony of trucks. This is exactly what happened when Heath McCurdy of Epicure called me this week to discuss their eminent arrival in Adelaide in support of their smashing second LP, 'Main Street'.
McCurdy is a genteel chap, noticeably subdued but amazingly, chosen by their publicist as the most talkative out of all the quiet mice in the band to have a yarn about their new record and subsequent tour. We kicked off proceedings with the normal pleasantries of, 'So, how's the weather?' 'Things goin' alright?' and 'Where are you at the moment?'
"My girlfriend and I are driving around Western Australia, we're trying to find mobile coverage and we pulled up at a roadhouse and I'm on a pay phone so I might find it hard to hear you at times because of all the trucks. We're in between Perth and Albany at the moment, to be precise. The other guys in the band are back in Victoria right now but I came over here a few days early to have a look around and we all meet up at Margaret River on Thursday," McCurdy explains, speaking as loud as he can over the audio racket in the background. It's quite an amusing situation to hear cars, trucks and loud blokes bellowing in the background such gems as, 'Hey Barry, do we rilly need more petrol, mate?' and a persistent, 'Sharon, hurry up you silly bugger!' At least it was turning out to be more than your average interview, both of us having to pause in between conversation to let those petrol guzzling behemoths coast by noisily.
McCurdy may not be familiar to most punters, as he is the newest member of the band, playing piano, Rhodes keyboard and organ. "Yeah, I didn't actually play on [debut LP] 'The Goodbye Girl', I've only been with them for the last eighteen months or so. I'm from their hometown, Ballarat and I've seen them play since day one. Epicure played their first show years ago with a band I was playing in, which was pure coincidence," he muses.
Sometimes bands struggle translating their initial concept of an album into the final result. Grand plans and sweeping audio soundscapes sometimes come across as a failed experiment in pomposity. Was there ever trouble for Epicure when it came to putting sound to tape this time around? "I think the initial idea was to create something that was a natural progression from 'The Goodbye Girl'. We wanted to go out and keep the band moving and do something that piqued people's interest. I think it hit the mark we were all looking for. It's hard in hindsight to look over things and think, 'Did we achieve everything we needed to achieve?' and there's always things that looking back now you could've done better or see other ways of going about things. In the end you have to let go of those worries and fears and just move on."
The band also assembled a veritable smorgasbord of musical talent onto the record, with several guests adding special touches in the studio. "Sianna [Lee] came about from touring with Love Outside Andromeda a couple of times last year and it was just a matter of giving her a call and finding her the right little part to fit into. My housemate has worked with Chris Brodie before as a pedal steel guitarist and we've seen him play around and loved what he does - none of us can play pedal steel but Brodie can, so that worked out really well. I think that you get guests in because of their own qualities and you have an idea of where you want them to fit into the sound and then say 'Just do your thing,' and let it all happen."
Adelaide loves a good tune so we'll be in for a treat when Epicure graces the Governor Hindmarsh this month. "Adelaide's great and the Gov in particular is fantastic. The first time I played the Gov was not long after I joined Epicure and there were tonnes of people there. Everyone's smiling and happy in Adelaide, it's really good. It's funny the way different cities contrast to each other. When we played in Melbourne on Friday night, everyone was talking while we were playing; in between songs, there was a lot of buzz going on. Sydney on Saturday night was deadly silent between songs and it's quite uneasy, but I think they were really taking it in as well. Adelaide's a great place, it's a cool scene."
Once a band achieves notable success on their own patch, it seems a normal progression to pull up the tent pegs and pitch their metaphorical camp overseas. Is this the plan for Epicure? "I would die for it to happen there, it's been something everyone's got in their minds. The UK would be a nice place to have a crack at, but I reckon the 'States would be great fun: they'd come around and Europe should as well."
McCurdy suddenly pauses, saying, "I've only had a handful of change, so I hope I don't run out of money on... beep, beep, beep, beep..." And the phone cuts out on what was a most illuminating and enjoyable chat with an interesting Epicurean.
Lauren Boxhall
 | Epicure play at the Governor Hindmarsh on Sat 19 Nov with Sophie Koh. |
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