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 TIM TAINSH, articulate frontman of local act PTY LTD, discusses the dynamics of live performance and explains to TIM RETROT how the group evolved from the intricacies of the Brisbane music scene.
Like most acts, PTY LTD started off as a side project, a hobby. Unlike most acts, the sound the trio produced in 2001 when they started jamming was entirely spontaneous – in fact, it was so spontaneous that none of them even realised what they produced was considered ‘house’ music. “We didn’t even know what house music was. We’d never heard it before.” But as the vogue of house wanes, and the electro plague reaches biblical proportions, their latest album Enticer Deluxe provides lovers of soulful funk with the kind of disco-fied sound that only a hybrid electronic act can produce. According to Tainsh, the colourful Enticer Deluxe is a more apt representation of PTY LTD’s sound than the smoother debut album You Should Be Like This More Often. “We’ve gone from a lighter sound to having a bit of a heavier, rocky edge, and I think that is reflective of us increasing our production skills over the years. We’ve definitely got better beats and we’re making our own drum feels – I mean, we’ve just come a long way as musicians I guess.” Although the live-dance-act trend is in full bloom, more than half a decade of growth entitles PTY LTD to be labeled genuine Australian pioneers. Tainsh reflects on the eclectic and demanding character of the Brisbane music scene and attributes the group’s unique sound to the scene’s variable nature. “A lot of different styles come out of Brisbane. You don’t – you can’t – stick to a mould. In Australia’s bigger cities, you get immensely hardened scenes that stick to their stuff – artists just become the best at their particular genre - whereas in Brisbane you have to cross-breed genres because we don’t have the population to fully embrace individual niches. I think that makes it a really cool breeding-ground. That’s why we have a lot of original sounds and a lot of successes coming out of this city: it’s really hard to get a gig and it’s imperative you play a multitude – a hybrid, if you like – of styles to get people’s attention.” Creating live sound on the live scene is a given, but translating that sound to CD provides a whole new challenge. For Tainsh, the trick is to write a song reasonably quickly and then immediately play it at a live gig. “We don’t sit around and rehearse for hours. Quite simply, if when we play new stuff we don’t get the reaction we want, we drop it. If we were to release songs before we play them out I doubt we’d have the same ability to produce that live, edgy sound.” Tainsh emphasises it’s all about live-sounding appeal. “The beauty of being a live dance act comes when you harness the ability to adapt. To me that is the essence of music: having the ability to improvise with your arrangement, to extend parts, to shorten parts, and to make certain parts more aggressive and others more feeling. That is music.” PTY LTD’s Enticer Deluxe tour takes in The J (Noosa) Thursday August 23, The Beach Hotel (Byron Bay) August 24, and The Zoo on August 25. Enticer Deluxe and the Q-Music Electronic/Dance Award-winning single Make Amends are out now through Resolution/MGM.
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