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 On the eve of their debut LP launch, ROSS HOPE of local indie pedigree-bearers DISCO NAP reminds DENIS SEMCHENKO about the practicality of tacky op shop suits among other things.
Once upon a time in Bris Vegas … there was a band called Iron On. Much loved locally as well as admired by overseas indie fans (particularly the Canadian ones), that prominent collective was active for several glorious years before splitting up – but its members never stopped making music and playing shows. Bassist Ian Rogers went on to form fearsome drone-rockers No Anchor, the now Canada-based singer/guitarist Kate Cooper teamed up with drummer Damon Cox from fellow Brissy stalwarts Intercooler as indie-pop duo An Horse and frontman Ross Hope eventually founded Disco Nap with the same band’s guitarist Darek Mudge.
Having been Unearthed by Triple J last year, the outfit played a well-received debut gig at Brisbane’s Sounds Of Spring festival, following which Ross wrote a new batch of songs, tracked some demos and entered the studio mode. Forward to August 2010, and the release of Disco Nap’s crisp, lushly arranged debut album Running Red Lights and the East Coast launch tour are just around the corner.
“I suppose I wrote the songs over a six-month period and met up with [Intercooler’s] Darek Mudge, who produced the record,” Ross says. “We kind of did it in very a different style to what I was used to – getting it all smashed out in three weeks; basically, one or two days a week over a period of six to nine months of recording and mixing. It was a slow, gradual process which I actually enjoyed this time around.”
The LP’s guest musician credits read like Aussie indie-rock’s honours list: Screamfeeder’s Dean Schwereb on drums, The John Steel Singers’ Scott Bromiley on trumpet, Something For Kate’s Pip Branson on the violin, Sekiden/Regurgitator’s keyboardist and acclaimed solo artist Seja Vogel on backing vocals and The Gin Club/Ed Kuepper’s Jane Elliot on the cello to name just a few.
“I think sometimes when people do solo records, they can play more instruments than me but I invited some guests because I can’t play the drums or much else besides the guitar and singing,” Ross chuckles. “Dean from Screamfeeder came and played drums, which was awesome – a bit of a teenage fantasy of mine, really, Seja came and did some backing vocals, Pip, who plays guitar and violin in Something For Kate, did some violin on one track and Scott from JSS did some trumpet, which was great, and then Darek and I pieced the rest together and added some keyboards.”
The song that truly announced Disco Nap’s arrival on the scene was, of course, the Unearthed-winning single The Soft Sell. Accompanied by a narrative, Spartan video (shot by local filmmaker Matthias Cerwen), the slightly melancholic number has since become Ross’s calling card.
“It’s about growing up as someone who liked music rather that skateboarding, surfing or rugby league. ”
“It’s funny, because my friend and I went to school with a guy called Matt Cerwen – who made the film clip,” he says. “He’s made quite a few film clips for some electronic/dance stuff and we’ve kind of had this idea for a while – an image of men in … not those perfect business suits, but the op shop ones, in the ocean. When I came around to doing the video for The Soft Sell, we both just came up with basically the same idea of using the suits on the beach and we wanted to use the pine forest north of Brisbane for that creepy, eerie feeling. We shot it in a couple of days and he edited it really quickly – it turned out really well after using a couple of locations and a few very cheap suits.”
Upon virtually browsing through my wardrobe in search of a particularly daggy old blazer and daks, I wonder which songs from RRL Ross holds dearest.
“Oh, that’s a tough one, but I think The Soft Sell is probably my favourite,” he admits. “Going into recording, I never really imagined that it would come out as a single – it started as this slow, quiet acoustic song and through the process of recording we added some layers, electronic stuff, keyboards... suddenly, we were looking at each other going ‘this kinda sounds like the single!’ I knew I wanted it to be because that was the track that I was the most happy with, but I didn’t know whether it was the radio song. I thought Home Karaoke or False Teeth were the pop songs – and they are – but everyone agreed that should be the first single. I’m most happy with how that one turned out.”
Other RRL standouts – the aforementioned Home Karaoke and Song For Meg – draw from Ross’s own biography.
“I still write music from my life and experiences – I know some people can write fictional stories about pirates or … I dunno, fictional characters and things like that, but Home Karaoke was pretty much about me growing up on the Sunshine Coast and my friends introducing me to music like Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins when I was a teenager, sitting around and having a few drinks,” he shares. “It’s about growing up as someone who liked music rather that skateboarding, surfing or rugby league. Song For Meg was a song I wrote for my partner Meg for our first anniversary; I’ve never really written a song as a present for someone before as I thought that was a bit schmaltzy, but I’ve grown up enough now to pull this off. I don’t have to just write depressing songs about my life – I was wanting to write happy songs and love songs as well.”
The haunting US sitcom Six Feet Under was another important songwriting influence on Ross
“Basically, after Iron On stopped I realised I had a lot of spare time besides working, so I’d come home and watch the box set with my partner – five series of Six Feet Under in a row,” he recalls. “It’s my favourite TV show of all time, but I also think it’s a realistic insight into the human condition – the family that runs a funeral home. It’s quite a dark subject matter, death and the family – all of us had to deal with it. It helped say goodbye to that period of my life and it kind of affected a few songs that I wrote, like The Soft Sell – about things ending and you moving on to something new.”
Despite his current preoccupation with Disco Nap, does Ross still think there could be an Iron On reunion one of these days?
“I suppose we’d have to bring it back from the dead a little bit,” he laughs. “Look, I never say never in this life, because strange things just happen, but I don’t think so. Kate’s obviously busy with An Horse overseas, Ian’s got No Anchor... I think it’s probably a phase in our lives that is over for all of us. Maybe one day we’ll get together and go ‘Hey, let’s be crazy and play a show!’, but I don’t think it will be in the near future or anytime soon. I suppose we all had lots of musical ideas and Iron On was always very much compromising the way we made music together – very diplomatic in the process of arranging songs, even though Kate and I would write the most of them. Kate had her own vision and Ian as well... I guess my vision and the way I always wanted to do music was a solo project.”
RUNNING RED LIGHTS is out now. DISCO NAP play The Troubadour on Friday Aug 20, supported by Dan Parsons and Blame Ringo. www.myspace.com/disconapartist.
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