Features
The Middle East: ‘We’re Not Trying To Conquer The Scene’
By Doug Wallen
The Middle East’s Rohin Jones opens up to DOUG WALLEN, confessing he's not a massive fan of the band’s second debut album ‘I Want That You Are Always Happy’ and doesn't think the festival circuit is the best environment for his band.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] With The Middle East’s I Want That You Are Always Happy, one of the year’s most anticipated albums became something to dissect, debate, and generally puzzle over. An hour-plus of couched rumination and sprawling digression, it was not the world-beating slab of heartfelt folk most of us were expecting. There is, however, a cryptic quality that invites repeated listens even as it defies immediate accessibility. Some of that might be due to the Townsville band ditching several versions of the album before settling on this one, the eventual follow-up to its career-making 2009 EP.
As co-songwriter Rohin Jones tells it, this one isn’t perfect either. And with it finally finished, the band isn’t out to conquer other continents so much as take a break and pursue other projects. So much for the standard narrative of music industry success.
Was there ever any notion that you were making a difficult album?
Maybe there was. I don’t know if it was intentional: we just wrote the songs and put it together. Not much intention went into making it the way it was.
Considering how long it is, are there any songs that were left off?
We definitely scrapped a couple of albums’ worth of material along the way. We finished the record probably two or three times and then scrapped most of it. Whether a song felt out of context or felt weak by that stage or we didn’t feel like we did it justice by recording it right, we scrapped a lot of songs all through the process.
Obviously something about this final sequence clicked with you and seemed to work.
Hmm, I wouldn’t say that very strongly. I wouldn’t say I’m a massive fan of the album, to be honest. But I think that if we were given an unlimited amount of time, we would probably never finish an album, if you catch my drift.
Was Spunk OK with the band taking so long and having all these different versions of the album?
Yeah. That was one of the cool things about the whole process. There was definitely no pressure coming from them whatsoever.
If you’re not a huge fan of the album, are you happy to have it out and behind you?
It’s a relief to be finished and past that project. It was long and pretty difficult at the same time. So yeah, it’s a relief to be able to move on.
People seem to be giving it the benefit of the doubt, despite it being a grower or just difficult to penetrate. A few reviews have sort of said, “There’s something here…”
And maybe there is, maybe there isn’t. I’m happy if anybody says there is, and I’m OK if there isn’t.
When I first saw The Middle East at Big Day Out a few years ago, it was fairly bombastic. I thought that was how the album would eventually be, but instead it’s quite low-key. Was that just a phase the band went through?
Well … it’s really hard to play live the kind of music we wanted to write, so festivals always felt like a pretty big compromise for us. They’re good for other reasons, but in terms of being able to represent yourself accurately, festivals are probably the worst environment for us.
So you felt like you had to play the songs that reached the back seats, so to speak?
Definitely. I mean, it’s hard playing at noon to a few people who are half-interested.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
What’s the plan after launching the album here? Touring more overseas?
We’re going to just take it easy. We’ve had a pretty full-on couple of years. We’re pretty young. We’re not trying to conquer the scene and become this really super successful band. So we’re just gonna do some other stuff for a while.
That’s funny, because most people would think you have the table all set for you to conquer the scene.
Maybe they’re right, but I guess that’s not what we wanted. We’ve already devoted a couple of years to it and definitely put some hard work into getting where we are, but I don’t know. I still want to do other things with my life, if you know what I mean.
Do you think living in Townsville has anything to do with not being as competitive as other bands?
I don’t know. It might have the tiniest bit to do with it, but I’d probably put it down to personality. I know people from here who are totally obsessed with making it in the music industry. And every little interview or bit of forward motion they get is super praised. Which is cool; I’m happy for them to be like that. That’s just not the sort of personality that I think makes up the majority of our band.
How is The Middle East regarded in Townsville?
It would depend on the person, I guess. I don’t know if even a large portion of Townsville knows we exist, to be honest. It’s that kind of place. Music and that whole scene is a minority.
Do you have other musical things you do on the side?
Yeah, definitely. I’m always working on other stuff. I’ve got a few things on the go now. They kind of all ground to a halt while we were trying to record the album.
Does everyone in the band have something like that, to some degree?
To some degree, yeah. There’s a fair few songwriters in the band that do other stuff.
Yeah, I was wondering how the songwriting works with so many people in the band.
It’s kind of just me and Jord [Ireland] writing the stuff. In a perfect environment, we’d probably collaborate more with the other people in the band. But the way this album rolled, it was hard to get seven people involved in the process and still get things done. It was too many cooks in the kitchen. We might write a spare sort of song and have some arranging or instrumentation ideas and bring it to each other and then work on it a bit. And then take it to the studio or work on it with the band after that.
There are several Aussie landmarks mentioned on the record. Is that a reflection of touring and everything else that’s happened since the EP?
Yeah, maybe even before that too. I think me and Jord just dig Australia. I love it. It’s a fantastic country, in terms of landscape. I dig that sort of stuff.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] The Middle East - Land of The Bloody Unknown by theinsound
Some people have compared this album to Augie March, who are also songwriters in this Australian tradition. How do you feel about that?
That comparison’s obvious when you have similar instrumentation and you talk about Australia. That’s the first thing I guess people would think. But I don’t really think we were going for that sound. I mean, I think Glenn Richards is amazing. I think really highly of his songwriting. But it’s not particularly in my frame of reference when I’m writing music.
There are references to Christianity in a few different songs. Are those personal or sort of observational?
I guess it varies. Most of us grew up in what you would call Christian homes. I don’t really dig organised religion, but I definitely can dig Christ and what he was on about. So I guess whenever we’re writing music, whatever’s going on kind of leaks in.
It seems to be older things leaking in more. ‘The Darkest Side’ had references to Panadol and Sim City, but the new album has references to things like the plague.
I haven’t even thought about that, to be honest. It’s an interesting observation.
Who came up with the album title?
It was a note written by this kid Jord was looking after in Germany, when he moved over there as an au pair. He wrote it to his mom on the fridge, but obviously English is his second language. Mike [Haydon] got a photo of it [for the album’s back sleeve].
What should people expect on this tour? Will songs sound like they do on the album?
I think because the recording experience was pretty weird – it was mainly three of us in the studio, and we just wrote the songs – translating that to a live setting has been really difficult to grapple with. Which is probably why we’ve been pretty shit live for the past couple of years. We’re gonna try and put a bit more effort into being more creative and detailed. I think we have a tendency that if we don’t have enough time, we play them just sloppy and loud. It’s kind of fun.
Is it because there are so many people in the band that things can go in so many different directions and take such a long time?
Definitely. Because we’re all living in different cities now as well, it’s been an interesting exercise trying to get together.
Who all lives where?
We’re in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Cairns, and Townsville. And one’s overseas at the moment. Pretty spread out.
“In terms of being able to represent yourself accurately, festivals are probably the worst environment for us.”
I know you did part of the record in Midlake’s studio. How was it working in another band’s studio?
Well, we spent a little bit of time in their studio, but we didn’t record the majority of [the Texas sessions] in their studio. It was their friends’ studio down the road. It was interesting. Most of the stuff that we recorded there did get scrapped, except for a couple of songs. But then I think we re-recorded most of the parts. We finished the album before we went to the States but then scrapped it and recorded there and then scrapped most of that. It was an interesting time for the record.
Will anyone ever get to hear these versions of the album that got scrapped?
No, I don’t think so. I was nervous and anxious enough about releasing what we ended doing that I think I’d die if anyone heard the other stuff.
Is ‘Mount Morgan End’ meant to be a hidden track?
It’s unlisted. It was originally obviously on the end of ‘Mount Morgan’, but it felt like it just got super old and was just lame. But I dug the sax solo. It was this guy [Colin Hauser] we met in Denton. There’s a sweet jazz school in Denton. He’s only 22 or something and he was just killing it. So good.
The one song that really jumps out is ‘Jesus Came to My Birthday Party’, partly because it’s more upbeat and Bree [Tranter] sings lead. How did that come about?
It was kind of just a silly song, to be honest. Jord just showed me a couple of verses. It took ages to record. We recorded it a fair few times, but it felt like a bit of a nothing number. But it was kind of fun in that same way. Or maybe it was just a relief that a song came easier than the other ones. It definitely had a few incarnations, for sure.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Jesus Came To My Birthday Party by tmemusic
It has a real fuzzy, noisy feel.
A lot of the stuff that me and Jord have been writing is more fuzzy and a lot more loose and messy. I probably would’ve liked the album to be a bit more like that, actually.
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