Myth & Tropics – Finding Control

When The Scare broke up a month or so back, we all knew there’d be a few bands popping up out of the ruins. The first band to push aside the rubble it seems is Myth & Tropics, guitarist Liam O’Brien’s newest foray into good old rock and roll.

An extension of his work with The Scare, Myth & Tropics are a more stripped back beast. Already building up some steam in the short months since their inception, Myth & Tropics are gearing up to play World Bar on Friday 27th of Aug, so we thought we’d grab Liam for a bit of a chin wag before they took to the stage.

MF: Are you enjoying having more control over what happens in the band or is doing the ‘suit-work’ starting to get to you a bit?



L: “It’s definitely better to have more control over the destiny of your art and performance direction. There are so many possibilities and outcomes in the music industry and you appreciate every small goal achieved if you have had more than just the artistic input. The way the music industry is set up now, it’s more about strategy than anything else. There’s still the magic and impulsive side that always goes with art but generally you have to be thinking about it like a business and how you’re going to keep the business alive so that you can keep doing what you love. That doesn’t bother me at all.”

MF: You guys have had a bunch of gigs over the past few months; are you finding the songs changing from playing them so much live?



L: “We have made some changes to our more experimental tracks as we’ve gotten better responses for them live than we expected and been like ‘yeah this could be more of a catchy ‘hands in the air’ type of moment rather than a dark ‘time to go to the bar’ type moment. So yes some relevant changes have been made.”

MF: How much does audience reaction impact on the songs and how you play them?

L: “Its important to us to consider the crowd. We want everyone to enjoy our live performance. It’s about entertainment just as much as it is personal satisfaction and progression as performers.”

MF: Having played in The Scare for so long and having done as much as you did, is there anything you’re doing different this time round?

L: “Basically just having more control over the industry side of things and also avoiding the alienation that The Scare gave its first two years of audience (not that that is a regret; that’s what The Scare set itself up to do and I wouldn’t change it for the world). Myth & Tropics

doesn’t have time for that though. We’re more interested in writing colourful, progressive, and memorable songs and playing fun shows.”

MF: A lot of people I’ve spoken to have likened the band to The Scare; was that something you were hoping to avoid or do you not give a shit?

L: “Don’t really care. People need to be able to make comparisons; it’s a human instinct and that would be the easiest comparison to make as I wrote a lot in The Scare and it was all my natural ability. I haven’t really switched to decks or libraries of synths so naturally my writing style

is going to be comparable to my previous work as it’s all natural instruments and most of them are performed by myself, apart from vocals and percussion.”

MF: What do you have planned for the band in the next few months?

L: “We have set up a studio at Marc’s and my house and we are taking our time writing and demoing a lot of new material. There are a few shows on the horizon but our main goal is to accumulate a fuck load of really good songs that we can record later in the year.”

Myth & Tropics play Mum @ Worldbar Kingscross this Friday 27th August

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