Black Lakes are a close-knit band, all with a large amount of history with each other. We all grew up in Wagga and moved to Sydney at separate points throughout our youth only to come together in 2012 and form the band. Stephen and David Kelly, (Bass/Vocal and Drums respectively) are identical twins and have probably been playing with (and against) each other for eternity, or at least since the womb.
Brenton and Phil (Guitars) used to live a couple of blocks away growing up have been jamming for nearly as long. Joined by an appreciation of 70’s progressive and dirty country music we recorded and released two EPs (Only For The Woods and Trick Hotel) in 2012/2013 after building a makeshift studio above the former great Annandale Hotel in Sydney. After so many gigs in Sydney we are finally making our way to Melbourne for our first show at The Retreat in Brunswick to test the waters with our brand of Indie/psych western shenanigans before we recluse once again to work on new material.
Your two Trick Hotel EPs were released in 2012 and 2013 respectively. How would you sell Only For The Woods and Trick Hotel to the uninitiated?
It’s really our experiment into a collective songwriting consciousness within the band. A dark strand of country, psych and Indie sounds run over simple and sparse songs. The lyrics are often reflective and introverted, holding a sort of calm anger. It has an organic feel and often we have drawn on our favourite artists like The War On Drugs, Neil Young and My Morning Jacket for a bit of inspiration.
Both those EPs were recorded over five weeks. Do you consider yourself prolific musicians?
I would say we are very prolific up to a certain point, we must have about a hundred unfinished songs but a very small amount of finished ones. It’s easy to be prolifically creative but often difficult to turn that into anything productive or significant in its own right. The final finishing touches on anything you create require way more hard work than ninety per cent of the entire project. In regards to having recorded two EP’s over five weeks, we wrote and worked on the songs for such a long time (some ideas were over 2 years old) and having reached a point we couldn’t finish them so we went into the studio and hoped for the best. In effect making ourselves apply the final touches by force.
Would you consider releasing double EPs in the future or even double albums?
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Maybe if I had of been asked that question a year ago I would have said ‘Yeah sure, you know, we have so much material and it’s so hard to cull any of it’. But I think particularly in this rockish genre which is essentially pop based, the attention span is ever shortening. Also in releasing large amounts of material in one go, you are delaying that release and I would prefer to write record release all in a short time. This is definitely a lesson learnt from recording two EP’s at the same time and releasing them so far apart, when you release the second half, the songs are old to you, making it harder to be excited and relate to your audiences listening experience.
Speaking of new music. Have Black Lakes been working on any new material and if so what does it sound like?
Yeah, we have a massive amount of demo/jams we are trying to sort out into songs and also realising a new sound that we are trying to hone in on. We are really excited as this time we are concentrating on sounds rather than songs. It has become more psych based, lots of drones and more noise, we really just streamlined the songwriting and dropped a lot of that complicated movement baggage, but it still descends from our previous dark country sound. Also, I just bought an old synth, we don’t have a keyboard player live but hope to in the future as a lot of the new material enters the outer space realm.
You’re making the trek down to Melbourne for the first time to play with Flyying Colours. What can Melbournians expect from your show?
Well, I expect it to be pretty loose; we are kind of in and out really quickly so we will have to make it count. We will be playing some songs of both previous EP’s but we are also going to be experimenting with all these new songs as well, and beware they are not finished so they can actually end up anywhere, sometimes super heavy and at other times really soft but the unknown makes for an accelerated heartbeat and that’s the goal. Really keen to play with Flyying Colours too, loving their music and have known some of those guys since we were kids so it’s going to be great.
Obviously you’ve played many more shows in your home city of Sydney. What’s it like being an up and coming band in Sydney? Any other local bands that you think are worth uncovering?
It’s good and you can play heaps of shows at heaps of places, a lot of them new. There is definitely no shortage of bands to play with and 2SER and FBI radio do great work and are often super supportive, and this can go on for a long time… and then it becomes a little boring. So at this point it is important to step outside the gig circuit, put on your own gigs at your own venues with your own favourite bands and everything become so much more enjoyable. There are many awesome bands coming out of the woodwork in Sydney at the moment: Bad Jeep, Psychlops Eyepatch, Australia and High-Tails are some of them.
What records have you stolen from your parent’s record collection and why?
I’ve stolen all of them, along with the record player, (and managed not to hock them in). My Dad had Cream, Hendrix and Black Sabbath and my Mum had The Beatles and ABBA. I would say this formed an early musical influence along the best comedy from the 70s and 80s: George Carlin, Rodney Rude and Billy Cosby. Then there was that one record that stands above the rest, Peter and the Wolf. It’s a storybook with a musical sound track. Imagine Eno, Manfred Mann, Phil Collins, Gary Moore, Bill Bruford and more all making the most trippy, hectic, psychedelic funk ever, all with narration, amazing.
What Australian artist would you most like to collaborate with and why?
This is a really hard question for me. Sometimes I feel I could say: ‘anyone, who cares, here is a list of great Aussie artists take your pick’. Or I could say: ‘none of them, give me any of my friends in Sydney, come and have a jam we’ll make some music’. Everyone has his or her own talents or lack thereof and as far as I’m concerned, that’s the magic right there. It seems the more time goes on any sort of professionalism in regards to making music is wearing away, the most important thing for us now is having fun and in the end the music will benefit more from it. Often even cross genre musicians are the best as they will bring in new gear you might not have used and their own interpretation on how to use it, it makes for an enjoyable experience for all involved and that’s what it’s all about.
What’s on the cards for Black Lakes for the rest of the year and early 2014?
The Retreat in Melbourne will be the last chance to catch us for a while. After that we will be concentrating on putting our new material together and contemplating the logistics of recording an album for release next year.
Where we can see you play next, what releases do you have available and where can we get them?
Saturday 21st September
@ Retreat Hotel, Brunswick, Melbourne
w/ Flyying Colours. Doors 8:30 PM – Free Entry
Facebook: www.facebook.com/blacklakesband
Listen to and purchase Trick Hotel EP here:
