It’s Day #2 of our trip down under—Brisbane, Australia to be exact—and our survey of 10 bands in 5 days. Think of it as a TVD Brisbane condensed into a week:
I Heart Hiroshima
“I’m in I Heart Hiroshima. We’re a [insert descriptive] band from Brisbane, which is situated right next door to the sun, in Queensland. Over the past 5-6 years we’ve played around 400 shows in 12 (technically) countries, and have had the spectacular fortune to play alongside some of our idols. We’ve released two albums; The Rip and Tuff Teef, and four “and a half” EPs with long titles.
I personally love Brisbane, though many people could be accused of looking down on it, evidenced by their removal to Melbourne. Many suburbs include the suffix “Hill,” “Valley,” or “Heights,” which contributes to the disdain from the average poor, walkin’ musician. Geography description: check.
I Heart Hiroshima | Washed Up
My favourite record store in Brisbane is Egg Records. They specialize in vinyl and are likely to have original issues of hard-to-find-in-Australia records, and a comprehensive suite of over-printed classics at “poor musician” prices. There’s also Rockinghorse Records just around the corner, there’s always something to wish you could afford if not for that damn electricity bill in there.
I am a massive Springsteen fan, so collecting those is not a difficult task.
Small to medium venues in Brisbane come and go pretty quickly (apart from The Zoo), but there’s always somewhere to play. That reminds me… Tym Guitars is just around the corner from The Zoo and is the best guitar shop I’ve been to in Australia. The best guitar I’ve ever owned came from there. It was a $200 “Frankenstein guitar” made from spare parts (including a classical acoustic neck, and possibly some voodoo magic). Tym also makes his own guitars, amps, and analogue guitar pedals with names like “Fuzzilla” and “The Return of the Human Fly.”
Makes me wish we used effects pedals in our band…”
—Matt
Mr. Maps
“Mr. Maps has been an evolving beast, but since the beginning the few things that haven’t changed are a lack of vocals, a sense of optimism, mathematical rhythms, meticulous composition. Stylistically it’s a mash of the heavy textures of post-rock and math-rock, the composition ideas of New York post-minimalism, and a dash of naive melodrama.
We have just released our first full-length, Wire Empire. For this album we tried to avoid the post-rock roots for a more frenetic and unusual sound. It’s made up of guitars, bass, keys, drums and cello, and a smattering of electronics, and a much bigger production effort than we’ve done before. It was tracked out in the woods with Stephen Bartlett, before producers Andrei Maberley and Joss Rigby transformed the album over an enormous mixing period, which has given it a pretty unique and refined sound.
Mr. Maps | Tennis Party
The sound of Wire Empire is in no small part owing to some of the vintage gear we were lucky enough to use on the album. From Stephen’s Class A Aurora Audio console to the original Roland Space Echo that got a thorough work out during the mix stage, there is sticky analogue residue all over these tracks. Our bass player Andrew has a stock of great vintage gear and classic synths, which also make appearances on the album.
We’re very excited about doing a vinyl re-release of Wire Empire in mid-2011, as hearing the tracks off turntable will undoubtedly give them new character and life.”
—Chris Perren
