Track By Track: Roku Music

Brisbane shoegaze quartet Roku Music debuted last month with the dense yet fiercely melodic ‘Collider’. DONOVAN MILLER picks his way through some of the layers.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

‘Collider’

One of the first songs we wrote as a full band. It’s my favourite type of songwriting; it’s really just one part that Innez [Tulloch] is playing over and over and the other instruments trick you into thinking there’s more going on. It’s smart to be dumb.

‘Primitive’

This is about as close as we get to ripping off MBV in some sort of succinct sense. We often make it an easy bow to draw, I know. Seriously though, our record is a total fucking downer; MBV has always made me want to take MDMA and dance. At best you’d pop a Valium, stare at your ceiling and wonder ‘Where did I go wrong in life?’ while listening to us. The mood dethrones the textures, for me, always. Maybe next record I’ll lay off the vibrato arm. Not fucking likely.

‘Gold’

I used to sing this one, but it sucked. Jody [Gleeson] took it apart into something way more lazy-Massive-Attack-meets-that-first-Warpaint-EP. I even put tonnes of flanger on her vocals because it reminded me so much of them, and I doubt that was her intention. Fun fact: Stacey Coleman from Hits sings the bridge of this song. It’s as buried as it could be but adds a beautiful texture, a testament to her seemingly limitless talent.

‘Ended’

A sad song about sad things. Not to go into too much detail, but specifically about my father’s untimely death at a young age. Still makes me want to cry when I hear it and was a huge emotional burden to spend all that time working on the recording and mix. Playing it live is kind of the opposite – it’s liberating and soothing. I think it’s odd how music can do that.

‘Reflector’

A drivetime radio hit. I love Tom [Roche]’s disco beat in this song. He’s bloody amazing.

‘No One Else’

It’s long and slow, just the way I like. Innez’ amazing guitar melody ability becomes pretty apparent in the lead break towards the end. The demo version was recreated here – I think she kind of did it wrong in her mind – but really it’s just very good. I like these riffs the best out of any I wrote on the record, and the three-voices-at-once thing worked super well. But it’s not likely to be a song for everyone. People ain’t got the time or the patience.

‘Come Untrue’

A bit on the rock ‘n’ roll side by our standards. I’m not hugely fond of it anymore, but other people seem to insist it’s one of the standout tracks. Opinions are like arseholes, eh?!

‘You’

I think it’s very pretty. Innez is singing the same thing I was originally doing live and, as usual, the female voice has trumped the male. I don’t think I know the lyrics exactly anymore and Innez is singing some sort of bastardised version of what I came up with. That’s the fantastic thing about shoegazing music: the lyrics add very little weight to the performance and I’m much more interested in the story Innez is telling now than my own anyway. It’s exciting to write a song, then watch someone else strip your ego away from it. I wish I’d done that sooner.

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‘Collider’ is out now on CD, vinyl and name-your-price download through Sonic Masala. Read Tim Fitzpatrick’s review. Remaining launch tour dates below.

Thurs, April 17 – Todd Tavern, Alice Springs, NT
Fri, April 18 – Happy Yess, Darwin, NT [$10, w/Curcuma + Álfheimr]
Sat, April 19 – The Underdog, Brisbane, QLD [$10, w/Occults, Deadshred + Cobwebbs]