Australia’s Loose Fit have released their debut album Social Graces. The four-piece take inspiration from the worlds of funk, dub and the artier side of post-punk to create a rhythm heavy sound. Having had a listen to the album, I was delighted to find out more……
Welcome Loose Fit and congratulations on your debut album Social Graces which is set for release on 29 April via FatCat Records. Can you describe how you came together as a band?
Thanks! Kaylene and Anna were friends from studying fashion together and had dabbled in making electronic music. Then Kaylene decided to learn drums, and form a band so she could practice! She brought in Max and Richard and it just felt fun and creatively worked really well from the very beginning.
You were almost finished recording the album in December 2019 and then Covid shut down the world. How did this impact the production of the album?
We really struggled to maintain momentum during Covid (like everyone else!) Stopping mid-recording was definitely frustrating. But having that time away from the album gave us an opportunity to write some new material – Social Graces, Stupid Drama and Exhale are all tunes we wrote post-Covid and we all love those songs and can’t imagine the album without them. So cheers to the novel coronavirus for that I guess.
The wonderfully diverse sounds on Social Graces show a real melting pot of funk, art-house and post punk. The saxophone is a much under-used instrument in the current music scene. Tracks such as ‘Stupid Drama‘, ‘Mosquito‘ and perhaps most prominently ‘Enemies‘ have it as a starring role. Genres are of course only a guide for our readers. Could you tell us a little about the bands that influence you?We definitely love and are influenced by those classic post-punk and art funk bands – PIL, ACR, ESG (all the three-letter bands!) – for our first rehearsal our starting point was learning ‘Can’t Be Funky’ by Bush Tetras. But we all listen to a wide range of stuff old and new, and are always sharing tracks we’re excited about. There are also so many good bands playing around Australia at the moment – it’s really inspiring and keeps us on our toes.Anna has a lot of light hearted fun with the sax, twisting the sounds and experimenting during our jam sessions to get interesting layers, maximum variety and creating different moods from the instrument. The great thing about the post-punk era was people taking that standard rock band format and finding new things to say with it – emphasising different instruments or exploring less familiar rhythms. Our sound came together pretty instinctively when we got together, now that we’ve been around for a couple of years and finished the LP, we’re all really keen to explore some new territory and excited about where we can go from here.Speaking of saxophone, Jonathan Boulet who recorded our album plays drums in Party Dozen which features amazing sax playing from Kirsty Tickle. Check them out!
What is the main inspiration for your lyrics?
I think the main inspiration for Anna’s lyrics is actually the music – Anna hones in on a particular feeling for each track as we’re working on new material, and then matches it with some words that she might have in her notebook, or might come up with something on the spot that matches what atmosphere is in the room at the time. Pretty regularly the lyrics reflect a certain frustration and bewilderment with the absurdity of contemporary life , but the new album also delves into the classics like love, hope, fear, loss, pain and parties.Do you have any gigs scheduled in Australia? And any plans to travel overseas?
We’ve been playing a bit this year and are doing some album launch shows in Australia in May and June. It’s been fantastic to play live again this year, everyone’s really up for it, the audiences have been so fun and supportive. We’d love to get overseas soon but no firm plans at the moment.
If I looked in your fridge right now what would I find?
What’s in our fridge? How do you think we get all our songs to be so coooooooooooool?
Loose Fit’s debut album Social Graces is out now on FatCat Records and can be ordered here.
