Hi there! We’re Melbourne band Buchanan and we’re just about to release our debut album ‘Human Spring’. It was recorded all over the world with producer Catherine Marks (Foals, Interpol, The Killers) and mixed back home with Andy Baldwin (Bjorn, Midnight Juggernauts). We spent a very long time recording this album – even having the chance to take it on the road late last year to fine tune It and see how people received the songs – and we’re rather proud of the finished product. We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it!
Your debut album ‘Human Spring’ is due for release on May 10th, it seems like Buchanan have been bubbling away under the radar for the last couple of years making this album, is that a correct assumption?
Absolutely! After a very busy 2011 of nearly non-stop touring we basically disappeared off the map in an effort to get stuck into this record. I kind of like to either be touring or recording – it’ a headspace thing, and I think it’s part of gearing yourself up for yearly routines and cycles. My team reckon I need to get over that and learn to do both at once which was part of our decision midway through finishing up the album to hit the road and test drive the songs – and I am extremely happy that we did that because I learned a lot from that experience.
You have a pretty all-star cast of producers and mixers involved in the record, are they friends of the band or did you contact them and whoo them with you fine tunes?
The production team on this album all came from suggestions by my label. Catherine’s manager contacted my manager and asked if there was any new music she could work on from the roster and it was suggested that she spend a day with yours truly in the studio to see if we gelled – which of course we did and that led to several months of long hours together. Andy was our first choice to mix the thing, as was Geoff to master it. Both were kind enough to oblige!
Is there a particular meaning behind the album title ‘Human Spring’?
I think it can mean whatever you want it to mean. It certainly has its own meaning to me, and I think is quite obviously inspired by certain events around the world, but the point of the title is kind of to let it mean to you whatever you think it means. If you have any image in your head whatsoever when you read the name of our album, then my job is done… do you see what I mean?!
What do you prefer, playing live or recording in the studio?
Both are very different experiences and put me in very different headspaces. I absolutely love it in the studio, but usually by the end of a recording cycle I’m ready to bust out the old guitar and amp and play loudly again!
What’s on heavy rotation on your iPod right now?
Bruce Springsteen
If you weren’t playing in a band what you would you most like to be doing as a creative outlet?
I’d probably be an accountant. How would I get my creative fix? Probably with some ‘creative accounting’ – laundering client’s money or something like that!
If you could curate your own festival, where would it be, who would be on the bill, how many people would you let in and what features would it have?
I’ve always thought a massive music festival set against the backdrop of Egyptian pyramids would be pretty fucking incredible. I’m sure somebody’s already done it though… As for the lineup, let’s think. I’d let in maybe 200,000 people who could all enjoy a show from Radiohead, Jay-Z, Led Zep reunited, Bruce, maybe Kanye and Hendrix reincarnated of course. Food would be free and lines to the bar would NOT exist!
Because it’s more fun to do things together, which living artist from anywhere in the world would you most like to collaborate with? Tell us why?
I think if we could ever somehow convince Mos Def to spit a few lines on a Buchanan track, I could probably die a very satisfied and happy man.
What is your band’s music the best soundtrack for?
My friend told me the other day that he heard one of our new tracks, The Few, as like something you’d hear at the start of a ‘Sex and the City’ movie! So hopefully not that! I think our music, particularly this new album, is the soundtrack to helping make a shitty day less shitty. I hope people can put it on to help make them smile.
What’s in store for the second half of 2013?
We will be touring a lot. And I will be doing a fair bit of writing for other people overseas as well, which is something new for me and another exciting challenge. Should be a fun year indeed!
Finally, tell us why we should not miss your album launch at The John Curtain on the 6th June.
Aside from the fact that it will be our first proper show promoting this album, and the first show for 2013, I can reveal that there will actually be some pretty cool surprises and perhaps a special guest that will make us look like the smallest band on the lineup! So it’s going to be a very fun night and I hope that as many people as possible will make it down to see us play!
Listen to ‘Human Spring’ here:
