They’re one of the local acts I cannot help but love and Shortstraw started 2015 off with a bang as they released their brand new album ‘Youthless’ which shot straight to number one on the local iTunes charts. The album sees the band venturing into a new direction. They didn’t want to replicate their last album, so they have branched out and explored different genres for this release – a logical progression. I spoke to the boys about the new record, sound and 2015 plans.
What inspired the new album?
As soon as Good Morning, Sunshine came out, we were already jamming new songs in the studio, so by the time we were ready to make the album, we had a healthy selection of songs and the theme of youth, and growing up become apparent when looking at the songs we had, so the album kind of just happened naturally.
You’ve got a different sound on the new record. What prompted you to explore this?
While we did explore some new territories (for us) with this album, we have kept a nice mix of old and new. We liked the sound we found for our previous albums, and didn’t want to alienate our audience, but our influences have also expanded, we all listen to different music and it shows.
You named the new album Youthless. What was the inspiration behind that?
The songs on the album cover a wide scope of adolescence. Some tracks might be a bit more obvious, like “High School” and “Campus Life” but we hope the album brings back all the good memories of growing up.
How long did it take you to record the album since starting pre-production after Oppikoppi?
We recorded quite quickly! The preproduction really helped us, cos we pretty much knew exactly what we wanted. Jakey klapped the drums in 3 days, and it took about 3 weeks for the rest of us to lay down our tracks, then a month to produce and mix, and another to master. It just flew by for us…
What is your goal before going into the creative process of an album?
There’s a few elements that are important. First off, we have to enjoy playing the song, if we aren’t, we just scrap that idea. Then we have to consider what anyone else would think. is it catchy or pompous? then there’s also the matter of showcasing our individual skills, there’s 5 of us playing instruments, so it’s important to find a balance between all of us, but we’ve figured that out over time, it just comes naturally to us now…
Which song on the new album means the most to you guys?
The last track on the album, Good Winter is very special to us. It’s quite a departure from anything we’ve done before, and we feel it’s the perfect culmination of all the tracks on Youthless
What can we expect from you in the next few months?
We’re going to be all over the country touring the album at various festivals around the country which we are very excited about!
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