Acceptance of Brisbane band George's first album Polyserena was universal. Great songs, fabulous musicians and two incredible vocalists, a winning combination. Where to begin album two is the eternal conundrum that hounds many a band, particularly if they don't have their collective heads together. For George the approach was organic. Once the theme of 'Unity' was established, all else would follow under that banner. Australian Musician's Greg Phillips spoke to guitarist Nick Stewart prior to the new album's release about the process of creating 'Unity'.

GP: How much was the new album discussed prior to recording.

NS: We had chosen the theme and title 'Unity' early on and working with that as an umbrella, the body of work came together a lot quicker. We weren't looking at it from a song by song basis. We had 40 or 50 tunes to pick from and it wasn't necessarily about the best tunes. It was about what served the best purpose of this album which was unity, and that whole organic feel we were looking for. Polyserena was our first attempt at a record and we basically did everything we thought we should do not knowing the ins and outs. Ultimately the album did some great things but the main focus of this album is that less-is-more. It's weird because the sounds are deeper, it has a depth that the first record didn't have.

But there are a couple of tracks on this album that are very big productions?

That's the early young George coming through. Tracks like 'Captive' or 'Today', are very much in the style that Katie, Ty and I like to write. That's where musically we come from. That groove cruisy intro into a nice verse chorus that builds through the bridge into a very large ending. Married to that was this symphony, so yes a couple were big productions. But also there's the very simple quiet five piece moments like 'Fall' that have that organic feel, almost like an on-stage vibe.

With both George albums, the more you play them, the more you get out of them. Is that just George's natural sound or do you consciously try to add depth and layers to the music?

There are two parts to that. Firstly George as a bunch of musos likes to tickle other musos. Now that can be hiding things in there that usually only a very musical ear can pick up, like a counter rhythm to a normal 5/4. Or another one is children very quietly laughing in the back ground, or a hand clap in the last pre chorus to ‘Beauty of All Things’, track four. That is such a moment for me and Katie, Ty, Geoff and Paulie but not too many other people will know about this little double hand clap at the end of a track. Hand claps and whistles play a notorious parts in pop history and that can sometimes come off as a bit naff. So that's definitely a part musically of who we are and how we like to put things together. But also the layers with which our producer David Nicholas mixes things … we'll stop at certain moments in the mixing process and say to ourselves how do we want the balance of this to sit. What do we want to come through here, and what sits in the middle of the image or what sits in the stereo pair of the image. Once we get the bed of the image, the vocals in the middle, some guitars out wide and the drums and bass deep just under the vocal, we will then go and look at the other spaces in the image and see what we want to filter through. Some of Ty's electronic keyboard parts are some of the best sounds I've ever heard. That whole process is very much what we like to do and as you said you're getting more as you listen and that's the wish.

Speaking of Ty's keyboards on this album, they are very much up front. Your guitar work seems to be more subtle. Do you enjoy recording the more intricate guitar parts?

Absolutely. I have a side project with Katie called Elixir and that for me, that whole area of subtlety and delicate nature performing next to people with voices like Katie and Ty makes you focus every second on their singing. I try to marry my fingers to the intensity level they are putting out, unless we are going for a complete contradiction musically. That whole delicate nature I started exercising when we made the Elixir record. Going into the George record I knew I wanted to do a few things with that flavour in mind.

On your web site you say you are most comfortable with your Les Paul guitar, Marshall amp and Cry Baby pedal, particularly on the song 'Captive' and that comfort comes across in the vibe you've created. Is there a degree of trepidation if you're recording with gear you aren't too familiar with?

At the end of the day you just have to strap it on and go hard but there's notable difference. I bought a Telecaster before recording. Telecaster is on the 'Fortunate Smile' song and listening back I hear myself more in 'Captive' than 'Fortunate Smile'. The Les Paul has been my guitar for the last 9 years and everything from it's weight, to the way its shaped to the way the boards react to my left hand, it just feels right and makes me play to a different level than what I would with another guitar. I was a lot more precious with sitting down and concentrating on doing things right when I had the other guitars on. With the Les Paul it was like when I'm on stage, I stood up and got to really bash hard. Acoustically my Matons are my babies. Wherever I go I carry one of them, wherever I am. A Maton acoustic just feels and sounds right to me. I can't get them out of my hands. I also have a very old Maton. The first acoustic that I bought for myself for 1500 bucks which was my life savings, and that doesn't go out on the road, it sits next to my bed. I write all my songs on that because the age of the wood has made it sound like a character.

What about your amps?

Amps vary, like the seasons. I have 3 or 4 favourites. The Marshall obviously because of the Les Paul, a Vox AC30 and a Fender Twin. Those three amps and I'm sorted for the rest of my life. The Vox AC30 is just a punchy, clean, crunchy, crisp thing. We did a tour with Midnight Oil a few years ago and they had AC30s across the front and it was just amazing. Whereas a Marshall doesn't have that clean thing. My Marshall combo can do the live show because it has the versatility whereas the Vox doesn't, but in a recording situation I couldn't get away with just the Marshall. Then the Fender twin, I think it's a staple amp for all guitarists. The other two boys in George use Fender Hot Rods, these little 40 watt one cone Hot Rods that are so damn loud, they're really cool.

What about effects?

Paulie and I have started to build our pedal situation and there must be 30 odd from Boss distortions to Head Rushes. I use all the Line 6 pedals as well.. .a delay modeler, a modulation modeler and distortion modeler etc. Some of Ty's effects are incredible from Electric Factory to Micro Korg. Katie used a Theremin built by a good friend in Brisbane Joe Malone. Effects weren't a priority for this record although they did play a big part in the overdub period when we didn't have all the big amps and all of the guitars and drums, We just took up a few of everything and ran it through lines as effects.

The song 'Change' sounds like it uses a fair bit of effects?

With that track its funny, the four boys wrote that. It was written on acoustic. They said it has too much Nick 'Gold Coastness' about it, and they said if we're going to play it then we're going to rewrite it. I said whatever, use the chords. Paulie dropped in a fat deep bass line and we went from there. Then Geoff came up with the idea that the chorus could be the softer quieter part and the verse could be the thicker part. Then I had an idea for a bridge and Greenie wanted to do a jungley groove, so he could try a different kit. So he sat two kick drums and a snare with a ride. The producer said OK, we'd normally place 8 or 9 mikes on this. Let's try with just one. They placed one at the front and recorded, and then that loop played in the click map when we all went to track it. So there were a few production ideals where we would record a loop idea then track it with the loop idea running simultaneously. We had a bit more time on this record to do those sort of things. 'Jaded' was another track with a lot of ideas. We recorded it at 74.13 bpm in the key of c minor, then we'd slow down the tape to 75% so it dropped the tempo down to 70 bpm and the key dropped to b minor, which basically shifted all the harmonic differences and symbols, drum tones and snare tones. All the drums had to be tuned a bit tighter because once we dropped them they needed to fit in the right key and tone. These are the things we were learning on this record as we went along?

What happens after you’ve toured the album here? Any desire to tour overseas?

We might be going to Japan and Canada. We're keen to play to some fresh audiences. That's the driving force to getting overseas. It's not a huge thing for George and not what keeps us going everyday breaking new territories. Having said that though, presenting our little version of life on a stage to people who don't speak our language, is so inviting because music is the one things that breaks all barriers and religions.