Melbourne's prog/rock lords and lady, FIGURES, Have just released the first track of their forthcoming EP, CHRONOS - which will see it's international release on Friday June 16th. Tomatrax caught up with Paul Callow from the band to ask a few questions.
How did the band form?Myself and Josh found each other on a music classifieds web site initially, then we found Mark and it was pretty clear that we all hit it off musically pretty quickly. After a while we found Simo and Jen and we haven't looked back.
Where did the name Figures come from?It actually came from the band sitting around the dinner table with a bunch of terrible names we had all come up with and our original second guitarist at the time (since left) saw the word 'figures' in a book or a newspaper. It was the one name that we all didn't hate and had multiple meanings so we ran with it.
You have your second EP coming out next month, how will it compare with your previous work?More refined I'd say and more equal input from all members this time round. It's really nicely balanced according to each other's tastes and styles. At times, the last EP we did felt a bit rushed as we had to get to the US for a showcase & it was all a bit chaotic. We still love the tracks & it's been really popular, but if we had the time over we know we could have done it better like this one.
Where did the title Chronos come from?We were all trying to work out what this EP meant to all of us, and we all agreed that time / timing was a distinct thematic element to this record. Chronos itself was the name of the god of time, so it played nicely into what we were talking about.
The critical acclaim from your debut has led to a lot of anticipation for this record, has that made you feel any pressure when putting it together?Not really, as we knew we could do better than the last recording. I guess there's always a certain feeling of pressure when you're writing music, but we are also feeling really happy with what we've achieved as a band in a pretty short amount of time. We were kind of surprised to get such good feedback from the first EP. I think the next EP or album will really be the "pressure" recording.
What was it like to work with producer Luke Cincotta?Luke was a joy to work with! He was willing to try every idea and tone etc but also tell you if what you did wasn't up to scratch. He's a really committed, thorough & talented producer and very intuitive. His approach really helped me as I was completely sleep deprived as my daughter was only 3 months old at the time. So really just a true professional and great guy.
You have a tour of Australia planned in the second half of 2017, what can fans expect from your show?We are really just going to give it our all at every show like always. We really respect anyone who comes to a show of ours and we all leave the stage knowing that we have giving it everything. As we mature as a band so does our energy, vision & commitment to a blistering live set. We all genuinely love being onstage.
Do you ever listen to your own music?Not really. Every now and then when the iPhone is on shuffle mode a song comes on and I think "damn that's actually isn't a bad song" hahaha
What music do you listen to?We listen to a lot of stuff and it's very different for each member in the band. We range from the Cure, Jazz, Bjork, Deftones, Helmet and Meshuggah. Currently I'm listening to nursery rhymes at the moment with my daughter. We always laugh about our musical tastes being a bit like a fruit salad.
What do you have planned once the EP is out?Lots of gigs and heading out into the road and start writing again for either the next Ep or full length album.
Check out Figures' website to find out more!
