Track By Track: The Frowning Clouds

‘Whereabouts’, the second album from Geelong band The Frowning Clouds, spans nods to Thee Oh Sees and Gang of Four and songs about scary waterslides, losing your phone and stupid Christian phases, write singer-guitarists ZAK OLSEN and NICK VAN BAKEL.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

‘All Angles’

Zak: This song seemed like it would be at the start of the album. I think it’s the drumroll at the start. It follows a pretty tedious pattern of D and F and in hindsight I wish it didn’t go for so long, but them the breaks. It’s about making sure you know every side of the story before jumping to conclusions.

‘Shoe Suede Blues’

Zak: All music is recycled from the past, ourselves included. Every band steals everything from everyone but that’s okay cause that’s all anyone has ever done. It’s very simple and it’s specially about the first time we cheated our way overseas to play gigs.

‘Into the Ground’

Nick: Even though we fight with each other about stupid things, it’s all just insignificant in the bigger picture and at the end of the day it is all forgotten. In my head I thought this was gonna sound kinda British but we did it more folky.

‘Propellers’

When I heard Thee Oh Sees it was cool how they didn’t have any crazy arrangements or anything just simple like Buddy Holly doo-wah-doo bits. So it made me wanna do something like the chorus-y bit.

‘3 O’clock Habit’

A good friend went weird and had a stupid Christian phase. He dropped a parcel at my door at 3 in the morning and my dog started barking so I went out and there was a note that said “From the one you’ve been wanting to find?” so I opened up and got a poster of Jesus with a little Jesus charm Blu-Tack’ed onto the hand and it said in bold “THE 3 O’CLOCK HABBIT.” Something about praying at 3 o’clock each day. It bugged me that good people like my friend turn to religion for help and the gods make them feel guilty about having normal thoughts and feelings. So the song is about that stuff. It was a bummer because after I made a demo I heard a Jonestown song that sounded so the same.

‘Heaps Deep’

Easily my least favourite on here. I made it in the kitchen at my mum’s house and then recorded a demo of it out in the shed. I wasn’t expecting Frowning Clouds to ever play it so it’s cheesy and makes me cringe. The line “I’m so restless/I’m bored as a cat” is a DIRECT lift from an old song called ‘Glass’ by Gang of Four. I was going to change the words but the others thought it was funny.

‘Beetle Bird’

Zak: Made this song on holiday with my mum and dad about three years ago. Mum came in and told me that it was getting annoying ’cause I was playing the same thing over and over and over again. Not much about it has changed, except now it’s got [Jamie] Harmer’s excellent drumming and Jake [Robertson]’s excellent bass. Nick does some excellent harmonies and Daff [Gravolin, guitarist] is an all-round excellent guy. Harmer also made the unusual intro; he’s always putting in little details like that.

‘Mayan Calendar Girl’

Just an on-the-spot kinda thing then just Zen-y lyrics and some reverb and whistles and, hey, presto, you got yourself a song. All about the plate reverb.

‘Going Stepping’

Is about being frustrated at being hopeless at everyday tasks like ‘Where are my keys?’ and ‘Where is my phone now?’ Just having a small capacity to remember that kinda stuff. It has chorus on the 12-string, which I like, and a funny ending.

‘Submarine’

Zak: Meaningless lyrics that just sound good with a melody. A stock-standard kind of song that is easy to play live with uncontrollable solos by Daff then Nick. Well done, fellas.

‘Human Being, Human Doing, Human Going’

Zak: Jake and I wrote this one for our other band Hierophants. For one reason or another Clouds started playing it. I met a guy at The Tote on the weekend who was obsessed with Jake. He was telling me about how he sees him around Melbourne and think he’s the coolest guy ever. He said he couldn’t even get the courage to talk to him because “of all the great stuff he does.” I’ve known Jake since he lived in the Central Coast in NSW so it’s funny/cool to see him idolised like that. He does do great stuff though. Also, the song title is a Bart Simpson quote.

‘Dreamtiming’

Zak: Jake keeps the illusion alive by providing the album with an unsuspecting half-assed jazz instrumental, except I think the change was written by Nick. It’s got all sorts of chords in it and Jake even wrote sheet music for it, which we were going to stick in some of the LPs. We haven’t yet but I suppose we still could.

‘Much Too Much Too Soon’

Zak: It sounds kind of New Wave or something to me, which I don’t think everyone liked at first, but it’s easy to play live. I was greedy and used my 12-string on every song on the album, but I think this song wouldn’t be worse on a six. The lyrics are about the time some of us went to Wet ‘n’ Wild Water World and how I underestimated how scary a waterside can really be. Particularly the one that’s like a giant test tube.

‘Product of the Peanut Butter Company’

Zak: It’s about sneaking into my girlfriend’s family house at night. They have heaps of stuff all over the place so you have to be really careful; otherwise you’ll wake everyone up. I had just bought a new wah-wah pedal and new equipment is always sure-fire inspiration to make new songs. It’s one of those stick-two-unfinished-songs-together kinda things. It turned out pretty cool though. The title is a take off of silly old psychedelic songs like ‘The Great Banana Hoax’ and ‘Lollipop Minds’.

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‘Whereabouts’ is out now on vinyl and CD through Anti Fade in Australia and through Saturno in Spain. Read Christopher Lewis’ review. The Frowning Clouds also have recent or upcoming 7”s on English label Agitated (a split with The Living Eyes) and Italian label Goodbye Boozy. Upcoming gigs below.

Fri, Feb 28 – Barwon Club, Geelong, VIC [w/The Living Eyes + Sewerside]
Sun, Mar 23 – The Gov, Adelaide, SA [w/Sunnyboys]
Fri, March 28 – The Factory Floor, Sydney, NSW [w/Dandelion + Black Springs]
Sat, Mar 29 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW [w/Sunnyboys, The Stems + Dig It Up! DJs]