Set to make their inaugural journey to Australia this week to play Mum at World Bar this Friday Dec 10th, New Zealand’s Popstrangers are pretty excited. Having just released Happy Accidents, their second EP, the band have come along way since forming in 2009, with a new drummer on board and a more mature sound. A band that embrace a grunge influenced and effect littered sound, these guys are sure to get any fans of the fuzz drooling.
We caught up with bassist Adam ahead of the show to touch base with how they’re feeling about hopping over the Tasman.
Music Feeds: So you guys have a few EPs under your belts, and you’ve just released Happy Accidents, how would say it compares to the previous releases in terms of sound?
Adam: We had a change in drummers between the first and second EPs so the band dynamics had changed a bit.. But I think the new Ep the songs are more developed and probably heavier. The first EP was the first five songs we had ever written so it was just documenting us at that point in time where as the new one we had quite a few songs to choose from and develop
MF: Do you think it’s important to make sure you keep up a steady stream of material as a band these days to avoid dropping out of people minds?
A: Yeah definitely. People seem to move on without you if you aren’t releasing stuff regularly.
MF: Coming from New Zealand how would say the scene over there compares to here in Australia?
A: We haven’t played in Australia before, but the bands we know and hear from Australia are great. I think Australia is a huge place so bands from NZ can gain a lot from going to Australia where as it may not work so much the other way. Also there seems to be a lot more venues and bands over there
MF: It seems to me like you tend to see a lot more hip hop, dub and reggae stuff coming out of NZ compared to rock or what have you, which is strange considering that NZ is the birthplace of what you might call alternative or indie music in lack of better terms with bands like The Clean and The Dead C etc. Would you agree? Why do you think that is? Is there a lot of more your style of music happening that we just don’t hear about over here?
A: Yeah there some really great music happening here if you scratch the surface. Because we have a government funding scheme for music here its mainly the more commercial stuff which gets showcased.. Which is a bit of a shame since most people abroad identify NZ with the bands you mentioned
MF: The music seems to employ a fairly harsh sound, what draws you to that aesthetic?
A: I’m not sure really.. It’s just what happened when we started playing together. I think we liked experimenting with the loud quiet dynamic to start off with.
MF: What are you working on now? Just playing shows or are you writing with a view to releasing something in the near future?
A: We have been playing shows around the north Island the last month to promote the Ep, but were still working on new stuff for an album which we are looking to record January or Feb. We recorded this Ep about six months ago so are definitely keen to start working on something new!
MF: Anything else we should be looking out for?
A: Our Australian shows?!
Friday 10 – World Bar- Sydney
Saturday 11th – Pony(2am) -Melbourne
Sunday 12th – Old Bar (8pm) – Melbourne
