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Newtonheath.
Unlike your typical farewell show, Newtonheath are not breaking up or moving to the Eastern states. Instead, Matt Ho and Rachel Warburton, previously the core of Edison Music, are about to go traveling for a year. Bassist Warburton explains, "We are really looking forward to our farewell show; it'll probably be our last acoustic show, at least in Australia. Well, we might do the odd acoustic show when we get back here, but it definitely won't be our focus anymore: we'll be trying to focus on our rock sound again"
Edison ended in 2004, primarily due to guitarist Josh Arcus moving to Canada. Since then Warburton has spent many hours jamming with other friends, as well as helping out with bass duties in local post-punk band Sumi. "Playing in Sumi has been fun, it's rockier and simpler. I guess it's influenced me in how I approach things. The guys in Sumi are quite a bit younger and less experienced, and I guess I'm a bit more anal in how I go about things. So I hope that I've helped them be a bit more professional and I think they've helped me to just chill out a bit more. With Edison I had to worry about the business side of things, with Sumi I just turn up and enjoy playing and that's all I have to do which is really refreshing. I really like all those guys, so it's been great."
So what is the difference between Edison and Newtonheath? Well, for starters there is an electronic sound in Newtonheath that was never evident in Edison. "The electronic drum thing happened pretty much through necessity: we wanted to finish a demo before we went off travelling. If we could have had a drummer we would have, but just because of lack of time we decided to go with programmed drums. Our aim is for it to be a rock thing with electronic elements: we aren't becoming some kind of electronic band. It's also because we've bought a laptop so we now have the chance to be able to pursue electronic sounds, where in the past we didn't have the means to be able to do it."
However, fans of the old Edison emo rock sound need not fear. "We are aware that a lot of people are interested in us because of Edison and we don't want to alienate them. It's part of our writing history and our sound, but we also want to be different enough from our past gear that people aren't just wondering 'why didn't you just stay as Edison?' That's hard to do, but that's what we're trying to achieve."
Another major difference of Newtonheath is the fluid nature of the band. "The concept we had, especially once we knew we would be traveling, was to have a project that we knew we could add other people to and so it would evolve and change as we go. We have set ideas of what we want but amidst that we want to keep it fresh by adding new musos along the way, so we don't know necessarily how it's going to turn out. Especially before we record the album it's a bit less defined."
Presently, Newtonheath have two shows planned for the UK and one for New York. "We have my brother [Danny Warburton] drumming for us in the UK, but hopefully we'll also sort something out for the New York show too. We'll definitely be able to do an acoustic show, but that's not really who we are. We'd much prefer to do a rock show and so would the venue, but presently we're playing on the day we arrive and we'd really need to rehearse with our drumming contact in the US."
Another significant reason for the travels is to connect with Josh Arcus. "We hope to tour while we are there and connect with other bands, perhaps even record. But we are also going to help Josh out with his project The Basics Collective, and we'd love to do a bit of songwriting with him too."
Scott Berry
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Newtonheath bid adieu at the Enigma
Bar on Sat 17 Dec with Sumi, The Petersons (ex-Hummel)
and Harmony Boucher. |
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