Interview with Plastic Palace Alice

Photo courtesy of Elisa Bryant

Plastic Palace Alice, for those who didn't read my gleaming post about them two weeks ago, are an Australian six-piece who make epic, lush and beautiful music with some fittingly grandiose lyrics. On the 29th March, they'll release their debut, The Great Depression, in their own homeland. I'll be making sure that I get myself a copy on import!

I was very lucky enough to get an interview with Gabriel Piras, the bassist of the band who is on the far left of the photo above. I spoke to him about how their debut record was made, their live sound, the Australian music scene and possible plans to come over to the UK.

So yeah, READ ON!

Max: How did Plastic Palace Alice form and what sort of music backgrounds did each of you have before you formed?

Gabriel: The band formed one member at a time, as each person heard Rob’s songs and recognised him as a bit of a twisted genius. Rob and I had both been trying to get a serious band going for years before we met, not everyone we played with shared our obsessive vision I suppose! We only play his songs in this band, but everyone in the band writes songs and music of some sort. Lisa studies classical composition and is responsible for all the beautiful string arrangements on the album. Emily is quite secretive about what she’s written but she assures us it’s there – she’s primarily an actress but has a great ear and an intuitive style. Jeremy was a choirboy for many years prior to becoming a drummer, he’s still just as adorable.

M: You're releasing your debut album, The Great Depression, very soon. Describe the recording process of that album. Was it a quick and easy job or a long, tiring slog?

G: It was recorded in two parts six months apart - we had very little time, twice. All up it worked out as about two weeks recording and two weeks mixing. We payed for the first half ourselves with the faint hope that we would get a grant to finish the album, and we were floored when that grant came through! It’s been the best possible outcome really, our government payed for this record, but we own it - how about that? The long hard slog part is everything that needs doing, including waiting for Christmas to be over, in order to put the damn thing out. It’s been over a year since we finished recording and almost two years since we started it, so we’ve pretty much written the second one now.

M: Are you fed up of the constant comparisons to Arcade Fire & David Bowie? In an ideal world, what artist would you want to be compared to?

G: Not fed up no, out of all the people to be compared to we’re glad it’s been two acts that we’re big fans of! That comparison is based on our first single, which sounds a certain way, but the album is wilfully eclectic, there are a dozen tracks, so twenty two more comparisons to be made – fire away! The ones that come to mind immediately are Neil Young, Talking Heads, Nick Cave, Augie March, Spoon… there’s a bunch but what it amounts to is just a list of our favourite artists; and it shows. We set out to make an elegant pop album which contrasts disparate styles, not to dodge flattering comparisons!

M: Are you surprised at the exposure you guys have in Australia, especially with pretty massive radio stations like Triple J giving you heaps of praise?

G: Australia is lucky to have heaps of grass roots local community radio stations, whose DJs are volunteers and aren’t governed by playlists. We’ve had support from all of those guys. Triple J is the biggest station that has played our single and the only national, we feel lucky because a lot of bands don’t get that far, but it’s still the bottom rung on the station! We have fantastic responses at our shows and it feels like that the reason more people are digging it has as much to do with playing heaps all over the country as with the radio play.

M:Is it difficult trying to recreate your sound onstage?

G: All our songs have evolved in smelly rehearsal rooms so as far as our jobs go, it’s very doable live. We’ve played with string sections on a few occasions and it’s a lovely luxury, but it does take a lot of doing and makes the whole thing a lot less rock! The person with the tough job is the mixer, we run around twenty lines and there’s a bunch of things that only get used once, so if the snooze, we lose! Luckily we work with a bunch of the most excellent exponents of their craft – well, they return our calls at the very least.

M: Sell to me why the Australian music scene has an edge over all other scenes.

G: Venues out the wahzoo, which is good, but not many punters, low population, low sales. This does however mean that if you’re mad enough to do it here, you probably really mean it. There’s such variety here, a lot of it is jockish and crap but the indie scene is chucking out heaps of gems. It’s easy to live here though, and rehearsal space is cheap, so I think it’s been a lot easier for this band to gestate, than it might have been in the UK for instance. None of us work full time for example, which has afforded us the time (to waste). Saying that it’s probably meant that I’ve watched more serialised television than I ever thought possible.

M: Any plans to tour outside of Australia, like in the UK and the rest of Europe? Or are you focusing on your homeland audience for the time being?

G: We would love to. We’re gonna apply for grants. Maybe you can too in your country, on our behalf? No, really, the government gives you free money to do art, try it! Or buy our album en masse, or something. Yes sadly it’s a money thing and we’d be there in a flash if we could afford it, but I think we’re going to have to eventually pick somewhere we like and relocate there for a year or so, cos getting back and forth is a killer! Please feel free to make suggestions. We played with Stars recently and they rate Montreal…

M: Anything else to add?

G: If you do happen to find yourself with a copy of our album, please listen to the whole thing a few times! It might be a bit dense at first but let it settle - we made a big old sprawling albums like they did in the young old days (if not the old old days), and they might be a dying breed. It could be the last time we release something meant to be listened to from go to woe, so come along.

Big thanks for Gabriel for taking the time out to do this and also to the band's media team at Shiny Entertainment who helped me in arranging the interview.

You can buy The Great Depression, out on Saturday through the independent record label Inertia from their own website, albeit on import if you don't live in Australia.

Plastic Palace Alice MySpace

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