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 JAKEB SMITH talks to MATT O’NEILL from local post-punks CITIZEN LOUD.
With a name like Citizen Loud, you could be forgiven for thinking Matt O’Neill and Travis Taylor part of some brain-dead suburban rock band. Fortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The pair of DIY producers and music aficionados wrangle complex afro-influenced beats, funky, processed guitars and abstract noise into spur-of-the-moment bedroom compositions on record, and all-out improvisation at live shows – which they record and then distribute for free at subsequent shows. It’s electronic paganism and digital communism haphazardly applied to the creative process with results that (if EP opener, Kings Of Industry is anything to go by) harken back to the days when English artists were railing against Thatcherism.
JAKEB SMITH: How would you describe Citizen Loud’s sound?
MATT O’NEILL: Rhythmic, noisy and stimulating would be the vague descriptors.
JS: When can we expect your EP, Savage Freedom, and how is it being recorded?
MO: The EP, ideally, will be completed in the next couple of weeks. The eventual release will be dependent on a myriad of factors but largely on Lawrence English who has volunteered to master it for us if he can fit it into his schedule. The basic plan now is just to record one song per day wherever we are – either Trav’s house or mine.
JS: Kings Of Industry is a neat little post-punk song, replete with electronic afro-polyrhythms, pseudo-funk bass and angular, filtered guitar. How was the song created?
MO: Trav and I have a process where we send each other small, thirty-second ideas (bass lines, riffs, melodies, beats) and then bounce off them. I was gunning for the raw, funky production style of Killing Joke’s first two records.
JS: Aside from the titular moguls, what is the song about?
MO: The entire EP is a bit of a meditation on the nature of Generation Y, which I think is somewhat misunderstood at this point, and this particular track discusses the culpability of previous generations in regards to that misunderstanding; specifically in regard to the monopolisation of emotional engagement by the aforementioned generations.
CITIZEN LOUD play The Hangar this Saturday Jul 4. THE SAVAGE FREEDOM EP is coming soon.
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