Anyways, since I'm in love with the new tune, Art Zinoviev from the band agreed to have a few words about the song and the band's progress over the years:
The country twang of the new single seems a bit of a stylistic departure from a lot of your earlier stuff, what’s the story behind it?
I suppose it is a bit of a departure. We're constantly being influenced by bands and themes, both old and new, like for example when we wrote War Coward we were listening to a lot of Battles and thinking epic monolithic mountains were awesome, whereas in the week we wrote Animal Spirit Guide we may have been listening to equal parts Fleetwood Mac and the soundtracks to the Sonic games on Mega Drive. We never like to write the same song twice.
As to the story behind Animal Spirit Guide? It may or may not be based on a very old Russian folk tale my grandma used to tell me as a child, about a little girl who receives a magic whistle from Grandfather Wind, and when she blows upon it, it summons a little hare who proceeds to guide her through a dark and scary forest.
Was there much of a change to the songwriting/band dynamic with the addition of Caitlin in 2008? How do FSRF tunes come to be?
With the addition of any band member there is always undoubtedly a change in dynamic. In the case of Caitlin it was an incredibly positive one; the pop sensibility she brought to the band was fantastic in balancing the band's more experimental ambitions with a sense of purpose. That, and she can sing really, really well.
Fire! tunes are born on Saturday afternoons in the granny flat behind our drummer Sam's house. We eat takeaway noodles and our bass player Josho makes coffee for everyone. Then we would build a song -- usually Dave would come up with a simple guitar line, and everyone would proceed to build upon it, until it becomes a song. Then Dave and Caitlin would lock themselves in a room and write lyrics for it. At least thats what they tell us they do...
Playing to a couple thousand Adelaidians at the Fringe Street Party was a pretty big moment for the band, judging from the looks on your faces at the time. What have been the biggest and freakiest moments in your time playing?
Yeah, definitely the Fringe. That was a totally awesome experience. We've never really been a "rockstar" kind of band, but I think that was our biggest "rockstar" moment. Both Big Day Outs we played have been really fun and big as well. We generally like doing festivals a lot, although sometimes it proves to be too exciting for me in particular, which causes me to become "epileptic gypsy Art" on stage.
Presuming "Animal Spirit Guide" is the first taste of an album, how was/is recording, and what can we expect?
Yes, recording is progressing well. We're working once again with our producer, our "band dad", the fantastic Matt Hills. Matt has been instrumental and amazing for us over the years in many ways, from recording us, to mixing us live most of the time, to giving us advice, to sharing hilarious stories about other bands, totally awesome dude.
We have quite a few songs recorded now, probably more than an album's worth, but we are recording more so we can pick and choose; the best ones will go on the album, the others could be potential b-sides later on. You can expect themes such as quests, treasures, woodland animals, romance, monoliths, haunted houses, spooks, ghouls, forests, tribes, spirits, space journeys, emotions, friendship, loneliness, witches, blue skies, warriors, panthers, and much more.
Who are some of your favourite Adelaide bands around at the moment?
Adelaide totally rules at the moment. So many cool bands, so many rad dudes. I'm probably omitting quite a few, but the ones which spring to mind are: Steering by Stars, Aviator Lane, No Through Road, Bing Goes to Monaco, Hit the Jackpot, Leader Cheetah, The Weevils, Like Leaves. Good bands, good friends. Oh, and me personally, I'm a fan of that guy who goes by the name Belittle League, he's really cool.
Lastly, what records are on high rotation within the FSRF inner sanctum?
Hmm, lets see. Our manager Matt and I really like the new Dappled Cities stuff. I'm listening to a couple obscure post-funk-punk bands which I keep coming back to, one is called We Are Wolves, who are a dirty, dark synth-punk trio from Montreal, the other is called Professor Murder, who are a fun sort of percussive band from NYC. On our recent road trip tour to the East Coast we listened to a lot of sweet stuff. We revisited the Strokes' first album, maaan that was one genius album. Also Josho played me some A Tribe Called Quest and I really liked it, awesome vintage hip-hop. We generally like a lot of new music, like St. Vincent, Grizzly Bear, Blitzen Trapper, etc.
Animal Spirit Guide EP is available on iTunes now through Dot Dash/Remote Control, with the debut album to follow next year.
Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! - Animal Spirit Guide
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In the three weeks and two gigs (and one solo performance) since I first heard this Adelaide four-piece (featuring past and present members of Aviator Lane, Lumonics and Zeta) I've found myself transfixed by their hypnotic swirls of guitar, atmospheric drums and indecipherably reverby vocals, like Ed Droste awash in a layer of echo and fuzz.
