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Bending Around Corners With BRETT ISLAUB From REGIONALS · HEAVY Music Interviews

0:24
Speaker 1: And so my name is Brett.
0:25
Speaker 2: I am the singer and guitarist for the band Regionals,
0:30
Speaker 2: and we've been around for about six or seven years now,
0:34
Speaker 2: operating mostly out Sydney, but touring around a bit. And
0:38
Speaker 2: this Friday we're releasing our debut LP, which is called
0:41
Speaker 2: Spoon Benders.
0:43
Speaker 1: So we've been working on that one for about four years.
0:45
Speaker 2: We recorded it last year with Lachland Mitchell at Parliament Studios,
0:50
Speaker 2: so we're very, very excited to finally see it out
0:53
Speaker 2: there after four years.
0:54
Speaker 1: Out for breath. Thanks for joining us, Breyan pleasure, absolute pleasure. Mate.
1:00
Speaker 3: So, as you mentioned, Regional was released a debut album,
1:03
Speaker 3: Spoon Bender, this Friday, August twenty third, Mate, Like how
1:07
Speaker 3: you feel about it? It's a pretty big deal, like
1:08
Speaker 3: getting that first one out there.
1:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Like I mean, I definitely think there's nerves
1:14
Speaker 2: around you know, it being a debut album and the
1:16
Speaker 2: fact that you know how much work we've put into it,
1:19
Speaker 2: you know, over the course of the last four years
1:21
Speaker 2: until now, you know, from a writing perspective, from a
1:24
Speaker 2: recording perspective, like you know, everything that's sort of gone
1:27
Speaker 2: on over the last four years has been anticipatory until
1:31
Speaker 2: we got to this point, so I think, you know,
1:33
Speaker 2: we're all very excited to have it out there, but
1:34
Speaker 2: also very very nervous at the same time, being that
1:38
Speaker 2: it is the first album.
1:40
Speaker 3: So dive into it a bit more from a musical
1:42
Speaker 3: point of view for us, thro and tell us what
1:44
Speaker 3: you're going for. Yeah.
1:45
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So this one was a different one for us
1:48
Speaker 2: because we wanted to We discussed at the beginning having
1:52
Speaker 2: a very specific.
1:52
Speaker 1: Shift in sound.
1:54
Speaker 2: We wanted to sort of lean into the things that
1:57
Speaker 2: we were being influenced more by, So we kind of
2:00
Speaker 2: wanted to go down and darker.
2:03
Speaker 1: Action, a more wall.
2:05
Speaker 2: Of sound, a more shoegaze style direction. In terms of
2:09
Speaker 2: the songs that we were writing. Previously, we'd sort of
2:12
Speaker 2: sat a little bit more on the poppier side. You know,
2:14
Speaker 2: we had very intricate song like process in terms of
2:19
Speaker 2: format and things like that, so it was about how
2:21
Speaker 2: do we simplify it.
2:21
Speaker 1: Make it a bit darker, make it a bit heavier.
2:24
Speaker 2: So that was why we leant into Lachlan to do
2:28
Speaker 2: the record with us, and we spent a ton of
2:30
Speaker 2: time just making sure that we had, you know, the sounds.
2:32
Speaker 1: That we were looking for and sort of understanding.
2:35
Speaker 2: Lyrically what we wanted to talk about on the record, Like,
2:37
Speaker 2: that's definitely in a much darker place that it's been
2:39
Speaker 2: on previous record.
2:40
Speaker 1: So I think for us in terms of the final product.
2:44
Speaker 2: Of the record, we feel like we really achieved that sonically,
2:47
Speaker 2: Like we kind of landed what we wanted to on
2:50
Speaker 2: the record, which I don't think you always you always
2:52
Speaker 2: do when you walk away from it from a record
2:54
Speaker 2: like that, I feel like sometimes you go, Okay, well,
2:57
Speaker 2: there were elements of this where we thought this landed
2:59
Speaker 2: really well, but there are elements over here that maybe
3:01
Speaker 2: didn't work and things like that. I felt like this
3:04
Speaker 2: really sort of hit the mark for us in terms
3:06
Speaker 2: of what we wanted out of that album.
3:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I imagine that new direction right, Like it is
3:10
Speaker 3: a bit of.
3:11
Speaker 1: A shift from what you usually do.
3:13
Speaker 3: So how does you go and find the balance between
3:15
Speaker 3: the direction he wanted to go in and what sort
3:17
Speaker 3: of comes more naturally for you guys?
3:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely.
3:21
Speaker 2: I mean I think a lot of that sits with Aaron,
3:23
Speaker 2: who plays guitar in our band and does majority of
3:25
Speaker 2: the music writing. So he will bring essentially a fully
3:28
Speaker 2: formed demo to the band and we will then and
3:31
Speaker 2: sort of add our own elements to it, and then
3:33
Speaker 2: I add lyrics, melody, et cetera, and we sort of
3:35
Speaker 2: go from there. But I think he and I have
3:37
Speaker 2: a lot of conversations about, you know, the way that
3:40
Speaker 2: we wanted to.
3:40
Speaker 1: Shift that around.
3:41
Speaker 2: And I think there's a song on the record, the
3:43
Speaker 2: second song on the record, which is the title track
3:45
Speaker 2: called spoon Bender, which I think is that one of
3:48
Speaker 2: the first songs that we did for the record, but
3:50
Speaker 2: is a really nice bridge between the band that we
3:52
Speaker 2: used to be and sort of what the sound sounds
3:54
Speaker 2: like now. And I feel like for Aaron specifically, and
3:58
Speaker 2: I know this discussions with him, that one he had
4:00
Speaker 2: that out of the way. It was kind of the
4:02
Speaker 2: bridge that he needed to step over into this side.
4:05
Speaker 2: So I think it was us also being quite critical
4:07
Speaker 2: on the songs as well and being like, you know,
4:09
Speaker 2: I think this could be heavier. I think this part
4:11
Speaker 2: needs to you know, breathe a little bit more, those
4:14
Speaker 2: kinds of things.
4:14
Speaker 1: But then in the studio we.
4:16
Speaker 2: Sort of also looked at vocally how we were delivering
4:19
Speaker 2: that and how that needed to be a bit darker.
4:20
Speaker 2: And that's where the kind of the harsher vocals and
4:23
Speaker 2: the screaming side of things came in, which is something
4:25
Speaker 2: that we haven't really done on records before.
4:28
Speaker 1: You to release the.
4:29
Speaker 3: Singles two nine one, Rotator and Happiness for Bustards. So
4:32
Speaker 3: are they a good sonic representation of what you expect
4:34
Speaker 3: you and they just scratch the surface.
4:37
Speaker 2: I think it's probably a little Columne, a little Columbaite
4:40
Speaker 2: like that's definitely the direction that the record goes in.
4:44
Speaker 2: But there are lighter elements on the record than those
4:47
Speaker 2: three songs. There are heavier elements on the record than
4:49
Speaker 2: those three songs. So what I would say is that,
4:52
Speaker 2: you know, overall that is like two nine one for
4:55
Speaker 2: Us is kind of like the mark, Like it's kind
4:57
Speaker 2: of like, this is how the band sounds, this is
4:59
Speaker 2: what we represent. But at the same time, with the
5:02
Speaker 2: in the album, there are elements of electronic music, there
5:05
Speaker 2: are elements of heavier music where things start to sort
5:08
Speaker 2: of ramp up a bit.
5:09
Speaker 1: So I think it's definitely the.
5:11
Speaker 2: Consistency of that sound, but I think there's sort of
5:13
Speaker 2: ebbs and flows throughout the record.
5:16
Speaker 3: You've been quite saying that this is a band's truest
5:19
Speaker 3: form when talking about the album, can you elaborate on.
5:22
Speaker 2: That, like how so, yeah, absolutely, I think that that
5:26
Speaker 2: sort of very much speaks to my point earlier around
5:28
Speaker 2: us sort of nailing that sound and being like, Okay,
5:31
Speaker 2: this is what we're aiming for, this is what like
5:33
Speaker 2: in discussion, this is what we want, and then in
5:36
Speaker 2: execution that was actually what we landed.
5:39
Speaker 1: But also at the same time.
5:40
Speaker 2: Lyrically, like I think you know, understanding that it is
5:43
Speaker 2: a much darker record, there were sort of things that
5:45
Speaker 2: I wanted to talk about in this record that I
5:47
Speaker 2: hadn't talked about on previous records that maybe you know,
5:51
Speaker 2: we've been self conscious around or you know, musically, there
5:56
Speaker 2: are things that we maybe didn't want to try because
5:58
Speaker 2: we weren't sure. We were a lot more and to
6:00
Speaker 2: experimentation in this record, and I think that.
6:02
Speaker 1: That has kind of landed us in a space where
6:05
Speaker 1: we're like, this is.
6:05
Speaker 2: The band that we want to be, and this is
6:07
Speaker 2: the band that we're going to evolve the sound on
6:09
Speaker 2: moving forward, because I think, you know, off the back
6:12
Speaker 2: of having Teenage Sales come out in twenty twenty, there's
6:15
Speaker 2: been so much that's going on, not only in our
6:18
Speaker 2: individual lives but in the world at the same time
6:20
Speaker 2: that it very much shifted that narrative for us. So
6:24
Speaker 2: I think moving forward it's going to be an evolution
6:26
Speaker 2: of the sound of spoon Bender and what that looks
6:28
Speaker 2: like moving forward for us.
6:30
Speaker 3: Now, I want to talk about the cover, bro, because
6:32
Speaker 3: I love it.
6:33
Speaker 1: It's fantastic.
6:34
Speaker 3: It's just got EAT's hands in a translucent egg, Like,
6:38
Speaker 3: what the fuck is going.
6:39
Speaker 1: On with that?
6:41
Speaker 2: So I think for us, we've used the same artists
6:45
Speaker 2: for all of our releases. An artist by the name
6:48
Speaker 2: of Dead Galaxy, and he is a friend of the
6:52
Speaker 2: band's but also someone that.
6:54
Speaker 1: We just really admire from an artistic standpoint.
6:56
Speaker 2: And you know, when we did our first record, we
6:59
Speaker 2: actually briefed him, gave him the record and said, you know,
7:02
Speaker 2: let's you put together something that you think when you
7:05
Speaker 2: hear this record with teenage sam Elson spoon Bender. We
7:08
Speaker 2: actually looked at artworks that he had done and chose
7:11
Speaker 2: what we thought.
7:13
Speaker 1: Suited the record best.
7:14
Speaker 2: So in terms of the artwork, the way that we
7:16
Speaker 2: sort of look at it is self reflection. It is
7:19
Speaker 2: someone self reflecting on themselves and seeing something that either
7:23
Speaker 2: might not be there or might be there, but it's
7:25
Speaker 2: kind of someone looking at their own hands in that sense,
7:28
Speaker 2: and sort of seeing you know, varying levels of dysphoria.
7:33
Speaker 1: You know, it's around.
7:34
Speaker 2: What you've see in yourself that might not be there,
7:36
Speaker 2: or what you see in yourself that others might not see,
7:39
Speaker 2: or things like that. It's kind of what's going on
7:41
Speaker 2: underneath and sort of represented as a metaphor within the artwork.
7:44
Speaker 2: But also the fact that we just really fucking love
7:46
Speaker 2: everything he does, and honestly, I think it's such a
7:50
Speaker 2: strong piece of art that we really desperately wanted it
7:52
Speaker 2: for the record.
7:53
Speaker 1: There was a few pieces.
7:54
Speaker 2: That we threw around, but I think when Aaron and
7:56
Speaker 2: I saw that particular one and we coupled it with
7:59
Speaker 2: the name of the record, it was kind of black, Yeah,
8:01
Speaker 2: we're done, Like that's that's exactly how we wanted to feel,
8:04
Speaker 2: and we want to filmed after and it does.
8:08
Speaker 4: Now.
8:08
Speaker 3: You know, least your first two EPs, Sentimental Health and Teenage,
8:12
Speaker 3: say in quick succession when you started. Then you took
8:15
Speaker 3: another four years to get Spoon Bendery out, mate, So
8:17
Speaker 3: what sorts of things did you learn about yourselves as
8:20
Speaker 3: a band and about your music in that period?
8:23
Speaker 2: Then if you don't give us a deadline, we will
8:25
Speaker 2: take forever to make the record. And I think there's
8:31
Speaker 2: there's a few elements to that, right, Like I think
8:34
Speaker 2: you know Aaron, like we all sort of move at
8:36
Speaker 2: different speeds when it comes to writing, and I think
8:38
Speaker 2: that they're the kinds of things that kind of ebb
8:40
Speaker 2: and flow a writing process for our band, Aaron is
8:43
Speaker 2: sort of very quick to start to compile demos, like
8:46
Speaker 2: once he's on a run in terms of the idea
8:49
Speaker 2: that he has. Once he has that vision, he's kind
8:51
Speaker 2: of off and racing, and he will fire demos at you,
8:54
Speaker 2: like multiple times a week.
8:55
Speaker 1: You'd be like, what do you to get this? What
8:56
Speaker 1: do you get this? What do you get this? Then,
8:58
Speaker 1: for me, when it comes over to the book, was.
9:00
Speaker 2: The lyrical side of things, like it really is a
9:04
Speaker 2: really broad range of timeframes. Like for example, there's a
9:07
Speaker 2: song on the record called Sour Ground, which opens the record,
9:10
Speaker 2: and for me, that had been sitting around quite a
9:12
Speaker 2: while as an instrumental, and we thought it was going
9:15
Speaker 2: to stay as an instrumental and potentially be on the
9:17
Speaker 2: record just in its own form, and then one day
9:20
Speaker 2: I had a melody idea for it, and then when
9:22
Speaker 2: I sat down to the lyrics. It was literally done
9:24
Speaker 2: in ten minutes and it just flew out. And then
9:27
Speaker 2: there are other songs where you know, like songs like
9:30
Speaker 2: Rotator for example, which was done like the vocals for
9:33
Speaker 2: that were written in the studio, Like I didn't have
9:36
Speaker 2: anything for that up until that point, and I was
9:38
Speaker 2: kind of really freaking out about it, like, you know,
9:41
Speaker 2: there's a gaping hole here in terms of the writing,
9:43
Speaker 2: in terms of there's a whole song, But as soon
9:45
Speaker 2: as I sat down to record it, it kind of
9:47
Speaker 2: flowed and we kind of recorded it line by line
9:50
Speaker 2: in real time. So you know, not only does the
9:54
Speaker 2: writing process kind of take us awhile, but also at
9:56
Speaker 2: the same time, you know, we all have full time job,
10:00
Speaker 2: Like everyone's got a life, like Aaron's got a little girl,
10:03
Speaker 2: Like everybody has stuff that's going on, and that can
10:05
Speaker 2: kind of impact the way that we're able to sort
10:07
Speaker 2: of connect. But what I would say on this record
10:10
Speaker 2: that we did that we haven't done on previous records
10:12
Speaker 2: is so much pre production, Like there were so many
10:15
Speaker 2: demos sent around for this record. We were passing stuff
10:18
Speaker 2: back and forward, and I think for our band that's
10:21
Speaker 2: a really efficient way for us to work, because you know,
10:26
Speaker 2: it can take us a while to sort of get
10:27
Speaker 2: everybody in the room and continuously work through songs and
10:30
Speaker 2: all of those kinds of things, shooting things back and
10:32
Speaker 2: forth and being like what do you give this demo?
10:34
Speaker 1: What do you to give this idea?
10:35
Speaker 2: And then having Tim and myself have our own studios
10:39
Speaker 2: as well, where if Aaron sends us something, we can
10:41
Speaker 2: add stuff to.
10:42
Speaker 1: It really quickly and send it back.
10:44
Speaker 2: So we kind of had spent nights where we were
10:46
Speaker 2: like firing songs back and forth to each other and
10:49
Speaker 2: adding parts in and all those kinds of things.
10:51
Speaker 1: So there was a really long process in that. But
10:53
Speaker 1: then the vocals probably took.
10:54
Speaker 2: Quite a while as well, just in terms of writing
10:57
Speaker 2: all of the parts, because I that, you know, Aaron
11:01
Speaker 2: will give me a bassline of demos like he is, like,
11:05
Speaker 2: you know, ten songs and then I'll gravitate to what
11:08
Speaker 2: works for me vocally first, and then I tend to sort.
11:11
Speaker 1: Of procrastinate on the songs.
11:12
Speaker 2: That I'm challenged by in the back end, which kind
11:15
Speaker 2: of ends up in songs like Rotator being done in
11:18
Speaker 2: the studio. It was very similar on the last ep
11:21
Speaker 2: where the last song Teenage Seance, I had nothing written.
11:25
Speaker 1: For that, and I went into the studio to write it.
11:28
Speaker 2: So sometimes I leave those things to chance, and sometimes
11:32
Speaker 2: I leave those things to chance and nothing still comes.
11:34
Speaker 1: And that song gets hooked because it just did. Yeah,
11:37
Speaker 1: it hasn't hanned out the way he wanted it to.
11:40
Speaker 3: Yeah cool, now we've spoken about Yeah, Yeah, it's slight
11:43
Speaker 3: changing directions sonically, I guess. So the big question I
11:46
Speaker 3: guess is, like Wolf, fans of the band from the
11:49
Speaker 3: Sentimental Health and Teenage Seance Day is still appreciate the
11:52
Speaker 3: new music.
11:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's the question that remains to be seen,
11:56
Speaker 2: I guess, And I mean I think for us, like
12:00
Speaker 2: it's pretty it's a pretty selfish endeavor in that, you know,
12:04
Speaker 2: we don't want to continuously do the same thing, and
12:08
Speaker 2: our music tastes change, and everybody has such broad taste
12:11
Speaker 2: in the band that we kind of want to bring
12:13
Speaker 2: in different elements. What I would say is there's still
12:16
Speaker 2: definitely elements of that band within Spoon Bender. It's just
12:19
Speaker 2: done in a more experimental and heavier way than we've
12:22
Speaker 2: done it before.
12:23
Speaker 1: So, like I said, you know.
12:24
Speaker 2: Songs like the title track like it will appeal to
12:28
Speaker 2: people who did like the band before, but there are
12:32
Speaker 2: things on the record that we've tried that they would never.
12:35
Speaker 1: Have heard us done before do before, and then probably
12:37
Speaker 1: be like holy shit, like yeah, okay, this is different.
12:40
Speaker 2: We would like to hope that everyone goes on that
12:42
Speaker 2: journey with us, But at the same time, you know,
12:45
Speaker 2: I feel like songwriting in general has to be a
12:48
Speaker 2: selfish endeavor in the sense that you know, you have
12:51
Speaker 2: to write music that you want to hear, You have
12:52
Speaker 2: to write music that works for you and that the
12:55
Speaker 2: band gets excited about. Otherwise there's not a huge point
12:59
Speaker 2: in doing it at all. So look, I'm of the
13:01
Speaker 2: hope that the people who have previously liked our band
13:04
Speaker 2: continue on this journey with us. But at the same time,
13:07
Speaker 2: you know, if they don't, we get that, maybe we'll
13:09
Speaker 2: catch them on the next record, Like you know what
13:11
Speaker 2: I mean. But for us, it's about how do we
13:13
Speaker 2: continuously drive our musical inspiration and our musical passion and
13:16
Speaker 2: what we want to do. And I think that so
13:19
Speaker 2: much of this, this this album cycle and this and
13:22
Speaker 2: the lead up to releasing this was us discovering what
13:25
Speaker 2: we wanted that to be. Like it was a big, big,
13:28
Speaker 2: lesson in discovery, whether that was you know, experimenting with sounds,
13:32
Speaker 2: experimenting with our influencers, experimenting with you know, mixing in
13:36
Speaker 2: the studio and all of those kinds of things. So
13:39
Speaker 2: I think, you know, at the end of the day,
13:41
Speaker 2: everybody in the band is really happy with the record,
13:44
Speaker 2: and I think before you release something that's probably as
13:46
Speaker 2: good as you get to get.
13:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, brother. Now you've got a launch party
13:50
Speaker 3: coming up with the Chipo in Sydney on September the sixth,
13:53
Speaker 3: so tell us people more about that.
13:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we're really looking forward to that. So we
13:58
Speaker 1: have sun.
13:59
Speaker 2: Run who are fair fantastic band from Sydney. We also
14:02
Speaker 2: have Future Heaven who are another fantastic hue Gayz band,
14:05
Speaker 2: young band from Sydney, and then we have a our
14:08
Speaker 2: friends Low from Melbourne coming as well and we've played
14:12
Speaker 2: plenty of shows with them and they're really good friends
14:14
Speaker 2: of ours and a phenomenal band. At the same time,
14:17
Speaker 2: they released an album earlier this year as well. That's
14:20
Speaker 2: just fantastic, incredible songwriters. So we're really looking forward to
14:24
Speaker 2: that and I think for us it's also you know,
14:26
Speaker 2: understanding how these songs translated into live setting because there
14:30
Speaker 2: is a lot more experimentation on the record. There's a
14:32
Speaker 2: lot more vocal harmony, there's a lot more keys and
14:37
Speaker 2: you know, drum machines and all of those kinds of things.
14:39
Speaker 2: So it's been a really fun sort of process to
14:42
Speaker 2: figure out how do we integrate those to the live set.
14:45
Speaker 2: But we're really looking forward to to giving it a run,
14:47
Speaker 2: and I think, you know, it's always exciting to be
14:50
Speaker 2: able to.
14:50
Speaker 1: Play new songs for people that you haven't played before.
14:52
Speaker 2: And we were sort of rehearsing and running through a
14:54
Speaker 2: few last night and it was kind of like, Okay,
14:56
Speaker 2: this makes sense, like we've got this down, Like we
14:59
Speaker 2: can do this, Like, especially with all of the additional
15:01
Speaker 2: instrumentation that we put on the record, you kind of
15:04
Speaker 2: do that in the studio, very excited about it, and
15:06
Speaker 2: then when it comes to the lives saying.
15:08
Speaker 1: Oh shit, how do we do this?
15:10
Speaker 2: Clear that Yeah, exactly so, I think, But at the
15:13
Speaker 2: same time, there's like excitement in that, like there's fun
15:17
Speaker 2: in figuring out how do you recreate those sound live setting.
15:21
Speaker 3: And where can people find out more info about that show?
15:23
Speaker 2: We'll get tickets, Yeah, so oz tics But Also, if
15:27
Speaker 2: you jump on our Instagram which is at Regional's band,
15:30
Speaker 2: and you jump into the to the link that we've
15:32
Speaker 2: got there, you can grab tickets for that which will
15:34
Speaker 2: be Yeah, we're really really lookod forward to that show.
15:38
Speaker 1: Beautiful. But all right, Bran, thanks for your time that
15:39
Speaker 1: I made.
15:40
Speaker 3: Your debut album, spoon Bender, is out this Friday, August
15:43
Speaker 3: twenty third. Sounds like there's a bit of territory to
15:46
Speaker 3: cover there, mate, so hopefully people appreciate it.
16:13
Speaker 4: Seek to so.
16:18
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16:30
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17:03
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