Saloons – Polished

For a band who have only been playing together for a short time, Saloons display a surprising level of polish in their work. Their first two home recorded demos could easily sit beside the work of more experienced bands, sounding much more like they’re from a sophomore album than from early recordings. Currently halfway through their residency at Mum at World Bar, we caught up with Kent Williams of the band for a quick chat.

Music Feeds: Your music has a very precise feel to it, would I be right in assuming that the songs are written rather than being taken from jams etc?

Kent Williams: Not exactly, the songs are created from a jam on someone’s idea, then pieces of the jam that work from the initial concept are placed into a structure. This is what happens in most cases but not all the time. Every one in the band is very much involved in the writing process.

MF: Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I know you’ve only been playing together as Saloons for less than a year, which is impressive considering how professional the songs on the MySpace sound.



KW: Saloons has really only been together as a gigging band for the last 3 months. But we have all been writing, jamming and partying together as friends for a year or so. We also have been going in and out of each others musical lives for the last 5 years.

MF: You’ve only got the two songs up on the MySpace are you guys working on an EP or anything?

KW: We are constantly writing new material, and have only really just hit the live scene. All the recordings so far are just home demos, so we looking to hit the studio in Melbs and Taz in early May for an EP.

MF: The songs sounding as considered as they do, how do you approach playing live? Is it a case of trying to recreate the recordings or are you going for a different, wilder feel?

KW: We try to keep the vibe of the songs the same as the recordings, but we also love to get experimental and free with the songs always pushing each other a little further each gig. It keeps it fresh for us and for the listener.

MF: Listening to the tracks there seems to be a lot of exotic instrumentation, harps etc, what is the set-up like when you’re playing live?

KW: Live we play concert harp, guitar, bass, drums, various percussion, synth. These combined with multiple effects and samples allow us to replicate most of the sounds on the recordings.

MF: With the music industry being as competitive an industry as it is, do you guys have a game plan so to say in how you intend to approach working as a band or do you take a more relaxed, go with the flow position?

KW: There is definitely a bit of both worlds, we are all very relaxed about it, But there is a real major plan, to play a gig on the moon in the year 2012… But after that show we will just keep writing records.

MF: What do you have coming up in the next few months that we should be looking out for?

KW: We have the last 2 shows of our World Bar residency 21st, 28th Jan, we’re playing the Mona Vale Hotel Flood Relief Fundraiser on the 5th Feb, the St Kilda Festival in Melbourne on the 11th Feb, and we’re hoping to have an EP ou by the end of the year!

Must Read