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| The Drones
 The Drones are one hard-working band. This year alone, they've visited the US and Europe twice and are about to embark on their third trip around Australia. But even when they're not touring, they're hardly a band to rest on their laurels.
While 'Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By' was tied up with label disputes in early 2005, the band decided to record a follow-up.
"We were just waiting for it to come out and we were sitting around when we realised that we had a bit of time to spare and we were all a bit bored of studios and bored in general. So we thought, 'fuck it, let's just go and record'," laughs singer and guitarist Gareth Liddiard. "Mike [Noga], our drummer, suggested Tassie and five days later we were in a van packed with studio gear and heading down on the ferry."
The band headed to a location suggested by one of Noga's friends: Gala Farm, in Cranbrook, as Liddiard explains, "We went down there thinking it would be okay, but when we got there, it was unbelievable. It was so beautiful. They set us up in this mill and the farmer and his wife went off on a holiday for a week and left us with this whole 10,000 acre farm. It was a happy accident, really. The songs were half-finished; still waiting to be put together and given a definite flavour and the whole environment seeped in to the crafting of the songs."
The result is 'Gala Mill', the band's third album, which has finally been released - 19 months after being recorded.
"We've heard it so many times!" Liddiard says. "I mean, I liked it more the first time I heard it, but it's a blessing in the sense that you can keep listening to it and get a sense of hindsight and get a feeling whether it's good or bad. I felt that it was still good and I wanted to put it out."
It's a uniquely Australian album, in this era of local bands heading overseas in search of a particular sound, "Why pretend to be something you're not? If you're trying to be American, there are fucking 200 million of them. They know you're a fake," spits Liddiard, "I'm not going to put a fucking Australian flag on my front lawn, but I do feel a real connection with Australia. I always thought it was a bit lame when people said 'Australian-based music is not cool'. That was basically like a red rag for a bull - we thought, 'oh well, we're going to go and make some Australian records'. You don't have to embrace it. You just have to accept it."
In between tracks, the sound of dogs and studio chatter remain stubbornly inserted into the recording and Liddiard's passion for Australian history shines through in the lyrics of songs like Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce.
"I got a book about Alexander Pearce called 'Hell's Gate'," he says of his decision to write a song about the famed convict who escaped from the Macquarie Harbour Penal Settlement twice - cannibalising his fellow escapees both times.
"I'm fascinated by that type of shit - the whole penal settlement thing. And I guess the juvenile boy in me is fascinated by people eating people."
The album finishes with Sixteen Straws, a 30-verse extension of the traditional song Moreton Bay, "I was reading it in a book, but it only had the first verse. I thought, 'I wish I had the rest'. But then I thought, 'fuck it, I'll just sit down and write the rest'," Liddiard laughs. "I've read stuff which has blown my mind about the past, especially what's in that song, so I just threw all of that into one thing and made a fictional song out of a bunch of facts."
'Wait Long...''s eventual release in mid-2005 saw the band receive the inaugural Australian Music Prize, which Liddiard says has increased awareness of the group exponentially for the upcoming tour.
"It's totally different to what it was two or three years ago. This will be our biggest audience, by far, but I feel the need to always keep improving - it's the only way to keep it interesting for ourselves and for everyone else. I don't take it for granted at all. It could all go to shit in the next year."
Alistair Wallis
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The Drones play at Jive on Fri 22 September.
'Gala Mill' is out now through Shock. |
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