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Mere Theory
 With live performances including the 2005 and 2007 Big Days Out and the Clipsal 500 After Race Concert to over 10,000 people, playing on 'Rove Live' and supporting strong international artists like Millencolin, Anberlin and Alexisonfire, it is fair to say Mere Theory is a lot more than just a local Adelaide band. And after a long wait, the quartet is finally ready to unleash their debut album 'Catalan Atlas'.
"The album has been a long time coming, but there are reasons for it. I mean it has been remastered twice, so that takes a lot of time. Basically we just wanted certain parts of tracks louder, and certain arrangements changed," explains guitarist Nigel Black.
"Our producer, Richard Stolz reckons it was one of the quickest recordings he has ever done; that's not to say it came easy though. We worked extremely hard before entering the studio, because we had a very tight budget. And we had the motivation from The Pixies trying to compare to their eight-day album recording. We spent more like ten or twelve days, but it was an intensive period that's all I can say."
Intensive may be an understatement to describe the gruelling process of making the album. With shifts in the studio lasting 24 hours at times, it's hard to believe what the four-piece endured to complete their extremely impressive and captivating new record. However, all of this hard work looks like it's going to pay off. "We just did our single launch for Gracefully, and it went incredibly well. We had a sold out crowd for the event, and it actually wasn't going to be the single launch originally, but it ended up that way. We got lucky I guess."
Gracefully is the first single from the album and a track that can easily infect and remain charismatic to even the most ignorantly minded person. With a film clip in support of the single, I was interested to know how the whole filming process was for the band. "It was very different for us; we have never done a film clip before. I guess the strangest part was that it was in front of a green screen, like they do for Lord Of The Rings, where the background is installed afterwards. Anyways, it was cool. We learned not to mime the song during filming, because you don't feel it at the same level. So we just shouted it aloud instead, this was after the film makers started shitting themselves that we weren't giving it our all! I mean the end result it looked really different to what anyone could conceive, but it was a good time and we are happy with it. A great learning curve for sure. I wasn't a very big fan of the make-up we had to wear though, I felt like my mum," he laughs.
Shooting the film clip in just ten hours, it's this hard work ethic Mere Theory has in their repertoire that causes them to be so respected and adored. Recently being announced as the main support for The Hot Lies' upcoming album tour, perfectly timed for promoting 'Catalan Atlas', it seems this progressive rock act is almost starting all the hard work again, and they could not be more excited. "We are really happy to be on that tour. Those guys are great friends of ours and we have sent them text messages, and received them from those guys saying congratulations on our singles. As far as I know it's some of the best stuff they have ever written, so we are looking forward to playing shows promoting that and our album too.
"We have just signed with a new booking agent, and he's currently planning our next six months to a year which includes festivals, a trip to Japan and one to New Zealand as well. It's all in the works still but really exciting. We can't wait to see what happens."
Will Oakeshott
Mere Theory play The Gov on Fri 14 Sept with The Hot Lies and The Open Season. 'Catalan Atlas' out now through Boomtown.
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