"Whenever we write a new song it always feels like we’re getting better."
It’s not every day that the pathways leading to a major stage at the Splendour in the Grass festival are forcibly closed due to crowd congestion, least of all at three o’clock in the afternoon. But, lo and behold, that’s what took place earlier this year as frenzied festival-goers flocked to the GW McLennan tent, climbing over one another to get a glimpse of emerging young Sydney band THE JEZABELS.
“It was pretty fun. I couldn’t really tell how many people were there, but apparently it was really packed,” says a charmingly modest Heather Shannon, the quartet’s keyboardist and synth player. “I don’t know how many people the tent holds but apparently the crowd was kind of spilling out the back, so I guess if you include all those people it probably would have been one of the biggest [gigs we’ve ever played].”
A small taste of the packed out GW McLennan tent at Splendour in the Grass 2011. Photo care of Cassandra Hannagan / The AU Review.
Starting off her career as a classically trained pianist in Byron Bay, it was at university in Sydney where Shannon’s musical course changed slightly, teaming up with fellow Byron local Hayley Mary (vocals) and new friends Sam Lockwood (guitars) and Nik Kaloper (drums) to form a band. For someone more accustomed to Conservatoriums and Chopin, the indie rock scene Shannon now found herself a part of took some getting used to. “I found it a bit of a challenge at first to play and write pop music because it was something that I’d never really done before,” she says. “It was a pretty weird transition really, because I finished uni and I’d been playing in recitals and then straight away we were on tour around the world and playing in a band. That was very strange, actually.”
Another challenge presented itself in the band room; that of melding the eclectic influences of the collective and producing something resembling a cohesive sound. “Naturally I would, through my influences, play some particular harmonies or sounds that have got a classical sound. Hayley’s always liked pop music, Nik was in a metal band and Sam used to play a lot of country stuff, so we’ve all got our differences,” she explains. As for smoothing out any stylistic creases, compromise proved to be the key. “I think everyone ends up with a part they like. We just have to make sure that the parts work together.”
The band shot to fame after their music was featured on the triple j Unearthed website and were subsequently selected to play a spot at the Field Day festival in early 2010. But Shannon offers a possible alternative explanation for the group’s sudden far-reaching exposure. “There’s a video online that a guy called Danny MacAskill did on his BMX and he’s quite well known in that world of BMXing,” she explains. “He used one of our songs as the backing track and it’s had a million views worldwide, so wherever we go there’s always people at the gigs like ‘oh I heard that song in the Danny MacAskill video’. I think that’s been one of the biggest reasons why we’ve had a crowd overseas, just that video alone.”
BMX videos aside, the main drawcard for those clambering to get to a Jezabels show is the vibrancy, originality and sincerity of their music. The band has released three highly acclaimed EPs to date – The Man Is Dead, She’s So Hard and Dark Storm – and has enjoyed high rotation on radio with sprawling singles like Hurt Me, Easy To Love and Mace Spray. Now it’s finally come time for the release of the group’s debut album, Prisoner, and interestingly none of the previous hits make an appearance on the track listing.
“We just felt it was a bit pointless to re-release a song that’s already been released,” explains Shannon. “Mace Spray has already had lots of radio play and so have Hurt Me and Easy To Love, so we didn’t think there was any point because people had already heard it and it was kind of old news. We wanted to challenge ourselves to try and write new stuff and I think whenever we write a new song it always feels like we’re getting better, so I guess we felt we’d be able to write better stuff.”
Another talking point about the new album is that despite significant interest from a variety of major record labels, the band decided to stick to their DIY guns and release Prisoner independently. “We went through a period of a whole lot of meetings, meeting labels in Australia, but by the time that had happened we’d already established quite a big fan-base so the interest from those people came sort of late for us,” says Shannon. “We’d already toured a lot in the cities and rurally as well, so people already knew us and we felt like at the time we couldn’t get anything out of signing with anybody.”
As for what concert attendees can expect on the upcoming Prisoner tour around the country, Shannon plays her cards close to her chest. “It’s kind of a weird thing to think about because you spend all your time thinking about how you can make it sound good and then you’ve got to think about actually ‘oh my god, this stage is so big and there’s the four of us’ so you’ve got to make it look nice,” she says. “I think people can expect that there’ll be a really good show.”
Prisoner will be released in Australia tomorrow. For details about The Jezabels' upcoming national tour, head over to their website.
And while you're here, have a gander at the video for Prisoner's lead single Endless Summer below.
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