Tell us about your music. You’ve described it as ‘dark pop ballads’ - how did you develop that sound?

I think that was written with tongue firmly in cheek but yeah I guess any song that is sad/poppy/long can fit that description. As far as developing our music I think it’s great to have an idea of how a song will sound, and then have everyone else in the band completely change that and make it better. I really enjoy writing thoughtful songs and dark/spacious sounds accompany that well.

What can a punter expect from coming to see the six of you guys live?

You can expect a good bunch of songs with minimal stage banter or fuss. If Malcolm Blight had a de-facto relationship with Robert Walls we’d probably be nothing like their child. I think it’s good to let songs speak for themselves. There’s probably not enough djembes or jungle toms in our set to be cool. We used to have a glockenspiel but that turned out to be an error.

Tell us about the bands, producers and people in the Melbourne music community that inspire you.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are like our extremely annoying and retarded younger siblings. We really like Great Earthquake, Kieran Ryan, Sleep Decade, Seagull and a few others. They all have great integrity in what they create and they do it in a very honest manner. Melbourne has an amazing music history and culture behind it that produces great bands that demand respect from the quality of their songs not their haircuts. The Panics and The Drones are two prime examples of that (despite them originally being from Perth). Gotye and Graveyard train are pretty special too (despite how different they are). I think it’s the shear number of venues in Melbourne that inspires creativity. It’s amazing that you can see quality live music seven days a week in this city.

What’s coming up in 2011?

We’re doing a residency on Monday’s in September at the Evelyn. We’re also heading up to Sydney at the very end of September before some more recording and a headline at the Toff on October 27th. I’m sure a few more things will come up later in the year. For now we’re excited about playing together and improving on our song writing.

Australian music is?

...very diverse. When it’s good, it’s good.

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