We started out a couple of years ago as a proper band, but before that Phoebe, Lou and Christian had been writing songs together for a couple of years off and on. They got offered a show, and decided to put a band together. Phil grew up with Christian, Tim was friends with Phoebe and Lou already, and I met the girls while I was backpacking in Australia. We learned how to play the 4 songs that they had originally written, then started writing new ones together. It just kind of grew from there.
The big 2012 tour is not very far away! What can you tell us about your upcoming shows?
We’re excited! It seems like years since we last did headline shows. It’s really awesome to be able to plan how you want the shows to look and sound and feel. We want it to feel like a real show. We’ve been working hard on the live thing for a while now, and it feels like it’s coming together.
Are there any special venues you’ll be playing at for the tour?
A couple of places we haven’t been before, which is always exciting. We’ve never done a headline show in Perth before, so it’ll be interesting to see who comes out for it. Brisbane Zoo is a place we’ve never been to, that everyone tells us is great. We’re playing the Corner Hotel in Melbourne, which is where we played for our EP launch. That was one of our favourite shows of all time, so we’re naturally pretty keen to go back there.
w/ Voltaire Twins + Runner
www.oztix.com.au / www.moshtix.com.au
Tix $15 + bf
THUR, 12 JAN – BRISBANE – THE ZOO
w/Geoffrey O’Connor + Woe & Flutter
www.oztix.com.au
Tix $15 + bf
FRI, 13 JAN – ADELAIDE – ED’S CASTLE
w/ Gold Bloom
www.moshtix.com.au
THUR, 19 JAN – MELBOURNE – THE CORNER HOTEL
w/ Geoffrey O’Connor + TBC
www.cornerhotel.com
Tix $15 + bf
FRI, 20 JAN – SYDNEY – OXFORD ART FACTORY
w/ Geoffrey O’Connor + March Of The Real Fly
www.moshtix.com.au / www.venuetix.com.au
Tix $15 + bf
The new single ‘Hands’ is an amazing track…the video remarkable, take us through the stages of putting the video together.
We were actually only there for half of the shoot. Luci Schroder sent us the idea, and it sounded really cool. We filmed our part, then went off on tour, and when we got back we got to see it. It’s pretty amazing. Luci is kind of a perfectionist. We shot for something like 12 hours for the band scenes, and it’s not even a huge part of it. The girls in it must have been shooting for days.
We’re recording our first album right now, which is awesome and really satisfying. A couple of the songs have been around in one form or another for a while, so it’s interesting taking them in to the studio and looking at them from a different perspective. There’s some things we’re writing for the album that are so far away from what we thought we’d be doing, but it all seems to fit together.
Where does Alpine see itself in a few years from now?
Honestly, things have been moving so fast in the last couple of years that we haven’t really had time to stop and think about the long term. It’d be nice to get out and play to more people, maybe go see what people think of us overseas. That’s our next step.
Tell us about your career highlights.
Actually, the last tour that we just did with The Jezabels and Hey Rosetta has been my highlight. Jumping on to those multi-band tours is sometimes daunting, and you’re just hoping that everyone is cool and nice. It’s like going to summer camp or something. But every single person on that tour was lovely and welcoming, and we just had an amazing time. It was really hard to come home after that.
‘Villages’ and ‘Hands’ are such great cool tracks. Does the band have a favourite?
Both those songs go down well when we play live, so they’re both really fun to play. I like some of the newer songs that we play live but haven’t put on a record yet. There’s a song we’ve just started playing live called Soft Sides, which I absolutely love. I can’t wait to put it on the album.
The Aussie music market is huge right now, do you guys have any favourite groups?
Personally, I really like Last Dinosaurs, Leader Cheetah, Geoffrey O’Connor, Bleeding Knees Club, Oscar + Martin, Lanie Lane… We all really like this band from Melbourne called Dirt Farmer. We’ve played with them a couple of times, and they just write really great pop songs.
Who inspires you to make great music?
If we’re together we usually end up listening to soul and hip-hop, because it’s pretty much the only music that everyone likes. So definitely people like Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas… We also listen to a lot of Roxy Music, New Order, Teenage Fanclub, Faces, Steve Miller, Donald Byrd, Bruce Springsteen… It’s hard to find something that 6 people like, but there’s certain songs that we all love.
The shape of the music industry has changed significantly over the years including the use of social media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, how do you feel about the industry as a whole today and what does it mean to you in getting your records out into the public eye?
It’s definitely easier to get yourself heard now than it was a few years ago. You don’t have to go around pushing your CD into people’s hands or stand around handing out flyers anymore. I don’t know if you could make a lot of money playing music now, but that’s never really been our intention. It’s mind blowing that our music gets played in Chile or Poland or South Africa. Getting an email from the other side of the world from someone who really liked what you did is unbelievable.
Thanks for the interview Ryan! Aussie’s get behind them! Melbournites – see you at The Corner Hotel!