Aleks And The Ramps: ‘Ridiculously DIY’

Alex Bryant from Aleks and The Ramps tells DOUG WALLEN why the band’s new album ‘FACTS’ took “forever and ever” to make.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

Ghosts, unicorns, face-plants in spinach dip? Aleks and the Ramps haven’t gotten any more normal with age, as their third album FACTS (out today – Valentine’s Day) proves beyond a doubt. Over twisted guitar-pop contours that pick up exactly where 2009’s Midnight Believer left off, Alex Bryant spins absurd tales of ruined birthdays and other nagging disappointments. Just as deadpan when it comes to interviews, below Bryant talks about the new record’s somewhat accidental DIY pedigree and ruling over his Melbourne band with an iron fist.

You guys had some line-up changes between albums? What brought that on?
Well, Jon [Tjhia] left the band because … he’s really fucking busy. That and he hates me. Because I’m just a jerk to him. But yeah, mainly he just says yes to too many fucking things. That guy doesn’t know how to say no. So he gets involved in shit all the time. So he had to trim the fat, and the band that he was in fell under the category of fat. And Janita [Foley] left … what was the question again? What brought it about?

Yeah. Did Janita leave to focus on Denim Owl?
I guess so. I don’t know if I can really … she left. Let’s just leave it at that. I probably shouldn’t go into it, really, in a public way.

And who came on?
Well, we got Sez Wilks, who has a solo thing called Kikuyu, and Pascal Babare, who has a solo thing called Pascal Babare. I hadn’t actually met Pas until fairly recently. We have a ridiculous amount of mutual friends that I’ve known for a really long time. I remember them always talking about this Pas guy and him being semi-mythical in my mind. Then I met him and he joined. He’s good. He’s got a really filthy sense of humour.

Did these line-up changes happen before, after or during making the album?
During, pretty much.

So we hear lots of different people on the record?
Yeah, I mean, Janita’s on it and Sez is on it as well. Pas joined pretty much right after it was finished. There was a few guest bits as well. We got a dude named Oscar playing trumpet, and some friends doing backing vocals.

How did you record the album?
We did it ourselves. We’ve got this studio space in a warehouse in Fairfield. It was basically like I was making demos on my computer. And instead of doing what a normal band would do, which is write songs and rehearse them as a band and go into a studio, we were just writing and recording them as I went along. [With] just these open invitations to anyone in the band: anyone who feels like being involved should come and be involved. Which pretty much ended up being me and Simon [Connolly] doing most of it. It’s one of the many reasons why Jon left as well. Because we got to the end of this record and it was like, “I’m not even really on this thing.” He’s supposed to be the drummer, and I played all the drums. He plays drums on one song, I think.

That’s one of the reasons it took so long as well, because it’s not like we had any concrete “This is the recording session times.” It was just like, “Hey, what are you doing tomorrow? Do you wanna go make some of this album?” So it just dragged on forever and ever. I thought it was gonna be quicker for some reason. If we’re doing it this way, it’s less having to get five people in the room at the same time, which is always a pain in the arse. And I guess there’s lots of other reasons it took ages.

It’s pretty ridiculously DIY, this whole thing. We recorded it and [Simon] mixed it, and I did the artwork and the music video. And I’m doing another one. And we’re self-releasing it. [Laughs] Because we burnt all our bridges, no one wants to work with us anymore. No, I’m kidding. Casey [Rice] did help out for one day: he helped us do some drum tracking. I don’t know if we necessarily meant to do absolutely everything ourselves, but that’s what happened. It’s awesome, but it doesn’t leave much time for actually writing songs as well.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

The album title came quite late in the process, though.
Oh yeah. That’s definitely not my forte, titles.

Is it because it’s a shorter thing? You seem quite good at writing lyrics.
Well, I don’t know…

Or you seem quite comfortable writing lyrics.
Yeah. Well, no, I don’t feel comfortable writing lyrics. I don’t feel comfortable doing anything. I’m just an uncomfortable guy. [Laughs] But I don’t know, titles, they’re a motherfucker. I hate them. Because it’s like, “What’s this song about? Well, it’s kind of about this and sort of about some other fucking thing.” And then you’re like, “Well, is it meant to actually correspond with what it’s about?” And then you just end up talking in circles and overthinking things and you’re just like, “FACTS Good title. Capital letters. That looks good. I’m down with that. High five. Let’s get a beer.” That’s generally how that works.

But yeah, I hate making up titles. And you can never please everyone. I think everyone was on board with FACTS, but [not] some of the other song titles. So you’ve just go to be like, “Fuck it, your opinion doesn’t count.” [Laughs]

Was ‘Middle Aged Unicorn [On Beach With Sunset]’ a point of contention?
Yeah. That was even contentious with me. I kind of said it as a joke. Then I was like, “Ah, it’s as good as anything else.” I can be really fucking blase about some things and really completely anal about other things. I can be kept awake at night because I’m stressed out that the drums don’t sound right, but then I’ll just send a song into the world called ‘Middle Aged Unicorn on Beach With Sunset’.

Is it right that the lead single was the final song on both of the last two albums?
I guess so. Although this album’s got ‘Bummer’ on it, and that came out a while ago. I don’t know – how relevant is track listing these days? I didn’t notice that until afterwards.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Aleks and the Ramps: Bummer by -gaga

I thought ‘Antique Limb’ was a real breakout song for the last record. Did you find any weird signs that it was boosting the band’s profile?
It was a “woo” song when we would play it live. People would “woo” for it. Which was weird. It’s not like we wrote this pop song to be really cynical, like “This will get us on the radio.” But it did surprisingly well. It was good that people liked that. I can’t really complain. It was weird. It was a weird time. [Laughs]

Is FACTS the first album you’ve put out on vinyl?
Yeah. It’s not coming out on CD either.

So it’s a vinyl self-release and digital through Gaga?
Yeah. Gaga’s not really a label. We’re essentially self-releasing it digitally as well, but they’re doing the distribution. I’m not really sure. They’ve got something to do with something. But when you buy the vinyl, you get a download code. I just listen to mp3s and occasionally vinyl, and I just assume the rest of the world is like me. We’ll see how it goes. I don’t know if as many as people will buy the vinyl. Who knows? It’s all one big experiment. The whole fucking however-many-years-we’ve-been-together has just been doing shit that we didn’t really know if it was going to work or not.

After all these years, are you still operating without a strict set of expectations?
It’s complicated. [Laughs] I don’t know. I go in and out of phases of really being psyched and really hating it. I mean, it’s a pretty fun band to be in, out of all the bands that I could think of.

Are you still playing in Denim Owl as well?
Yeah, we just finished a Denim Owl EP, which is pretty awesome.

Do you have to relinquish control and not be as much of a decision-maker?
Well, it’s definitely Janita’s band. She writes the songs. I’m her lackey that helps bring them to life. My role is probably just tweaking her ideas really. I don’t do anything major in terms of songwriting. I just help her out with arrangements.

Sort of the sideman?
Yeah, sideman. Wingman, maybe. [Laughs] Yeah. It’s good. Although Denim Owl is a tough band to be in, because it’s really hard to play live. We dug ourselves a hole where it’s way too tech-y. We might have to bring one or two people into the band when we start playing live again. I always find it really stressful. I don’t have fun at all. Because I’m always doing loops and hitting samples – I get really stressed out and it sucks. But I really love the music. We haven’t played live in forever, and we have to go back to the drawing board a bit on that.

I really like the lyrics on FACTS. One that really jumped out was the rhyming of Serengeti and “cigarette-y.” Are there rhymes you come up with that go too far?
There are, actually. [Laughs] There was one that was just way too dirty. Fuck, I can’t remember what it was. It was like, “I’m not writing dirty limericks. I’m not putting that one in.”

“I can be really fucking blase about some things and really completely anal about other things.”

But you didn’t think “Serengeti/cigarette-y” was too goofy?
No. It’s good. It’s a pretty good rhyme. Yeah, I can stand by that one with pride, I reckon. There’s other ones … I actually wrote out all the lyrics for the vinyl. I hadn’t listened to the record in ages, so I was writing it out partly from memory and partly from having to listen to the record. And there’s a couple in there where I’m like, “Ugh, I don’t know about that.” But also there’s a few where I’m like, “That’s pretty good. Forgot about that one.” But that song [‘Friends with the Night’] was a weird fucking song. Or ‘Facts on Ice’, as it’s known to us.

Not to be confused with ‘Icy Facts’?
No, that’s completely different. Then there was another song called ‘Facts on Speed’. But anyway, that song particularly is … if you wanted to ask me what the songs were about on the album, that would definitely be number one in the songs where I can’t tell you what they’re about because I don’t have any idea. It’s just wordplay and having fun with language but not actually having much intent behind it. Other than a mood or whatever. In other words, it’s just a bunch of fucking meaningless bullshit.

‘FACTS’ is out today (February 14). Order it here.

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‘FACTS’ TOUR:

Thurs, Mar 1 – The ANU Bar, Canberra, ACT
Fri, Mar 2 – The Patch, Wollongong, NSW (free)
Sat, Mar 3 – GoodGod Small Club, Syndey, NSW
Sun, Mar 4 – Chinos, Newcastle, NSW
Thurs, Mar 8 – The Rails, Byron Bay, NSW (free)
Fri, Mar 9 – The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba, QLD (free)
Sat, Mar 10 – Tym Guitars in-store, Brisbane, QLD (free)
Sat, Mar 10 – The Waiting Room, Brisbane, QLD
Thurs, Mar 22 – The National Hotel, Geelong, VIC
Fri, Mar 23 – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, VIC
Sat, Mar 24 – The Hotel Metro, Adelaide, SA
Sat, Mar 31 – The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart, TAS