Story Greg Phillips

Maybe it has something to do with Brisbane's water supply? The sunshine city just keeps offering up bands featuring amazingly talented musicians. One of them, Speedstar, has just released their new album "Forget the Sun, Just Hold On", a disc which saw band members eagerly volunteering to lay down tracks, no matter which specific instrumental skill the producer was looking for. Such enthusiasm resulted in an album chock full of thoughtful and intricate arrangements on some exquisitely mellow ballads, with the odd killer single thrown in for good measure. It's the type of album rhythm guitarist, Ben Smith is proud to discuss with Australian Musician's Greg Phillips.

Between the five of you, there are a lot of instrument choices. How much discussion was there about what instruments to include or leave out?

There's more discussion as to who gets to play which instrument. Everyone has their main instrument but when it comes to do extra bits, apart from Luke, who is a great piano player, everyone likes to have a go at the odd little instruments. Even with piano, there are quite a few different people playing on the album. There's always a bit of "I'll do it" sort of thing. But we were into using whatever instruments we could find. There are quite a few instruments used that we didn't even plan using on the album, just things that were in the studio. A Korg synth and stuff like that.

You used a borrowed Gibson Hummingbird on the album. Ideally what guitar do you see yourself with in the future?

I really liked the Gibson. We normally do borrow an acoustic if we are doing a recording like an old Martin or something. The Hummingbird was really nice.

What about amps and effects on this album?

Mainly a Fender Deville. That and a Fender Twin that they had in the studio, and Dave has a Gibson Goldtone amp which we used a little bit. But there's not a lot of guitar on the album. We left the Orange amp at home, didn't really need it.

You've got strings and brass on the album but won't be able to take them out live. How will you replace those sounds?

We don’t really like synth sounds to replicate real instruments aside from piano. You can get really good sounding stage pianos but in terms of trying to play a midi brass part on a midi keyboard … I don't think it matters how good the samples are, it just sounds awful and is not what we're about. So we just try to play it on a different instrument. A few of the brass parts we often do on harmonica. Not exactly the same parts but filling that same space. We use melodica and mandolin just to make it more live and honest.

There's a lot happening sound-wise in the background of these songs, what kind of weird and wonderful effects were used, and were they added later or always a part of the songs?

Pretty much part of the songs. Guitars with whatever effects and different mike techniques, depending on what sound you wanted from piano or Rhodes or whatever. If we wanted a particularly dirty Rhodes sound we would just put it through a space echo on a tremolo pedal into an amp, and mike that up … record that way. We did most of it live, we'd spend a few hours setting up, moving the instruments around and then do a take until we got what we wanted. There wasn't too much added in mixing.

You've got this new bunch of songs to play now. How difficult is it deciding the set list?

We don't do much from the first album live. Of all the new tracks, anything that is up-beat and lively we pretty much do all the time live, then we cycle between the quiet ones so we aren't doing 8 slow tunes in a set. We might do four and the next, do another four. It depends on the venue to and if you are headlining or support.

On stage as a rhythm guitarist do you find yourself honing in on any particular thing on stage?

In terms of what I like to hear on stage and what kind of mix I like to get through my foldback. I like to get as close as possible to what the front of house mix is going to be. With acoustic I don't get that through my foldback at all, and just get a spill from Al, our singer. I don't like hearing any thing too loud or particular. I hate hearing myself too loud on stage as it effects my playing. I find that if I hear my self too well I start playing quieter and they turn me up more and it’s a vicious cycle.

ESKIMO JOE’s KAV TEMPERLEY asks SPEEDSTAR A FEW QUESTIONS ...

What is the songwriting process like for Speedstar?

The three separate writers are myself, Dave and Luke. Anyone of us will bring the song into the practice room, fully formed in sense of words and melody. Someone will bring it in as a little guitar or piano number depending on what the song was written on. Basically, so you can play a verse and chorus in its entirety, and that's when everyone else gets their hands on it and gives their input. Everyone shapes the arrangement and structure. Then Al will put his vocal twist on it. But we don't bring them in and say this is the intro, verse, chorus, bridge etc. It's more like the basics of it, what does everyone think… so we talk about it first more than jam on it.

Does Speedstar intentionally sit down to write singles?

No I think it's a pretty dangerous thing to try and I don't know if people can really. It becomes clear early if a song is going to be a single. I know when Dave brought in 'Unbreakable' everyone said this will be the one they pick as a single. If it's an upbeat track, which is rare for us, you know its going to be a single as opposed to something like New Orleans Funeral, which I can’t imagine hearing all over triple M. With our songs we don't intentionally sit down to write singles but it does become clear whether it is single material. That doesn't effect how we will record or play those songs, but you can listen to our album and it wouldn't be too hard to guess what the next few singles would be.

How much emphasis do you place on your artwork?

Quite a lot. We did come up with a title very early in the writing process for the record. Over a year ago we come up with the title and said this is how we want the artwork to be, but that had to change slightly as the album progressed. But the title and artwork idea was pivotal in defining what theme and style we wanted with the album. It wasn't an after thought as to what might look good on the cover. It was after we had written a few songs we noticed a theme emerging and we solidified that with the title and artwork early on. That influenced the rest of the writing etc.