Perth Music

Small Mercies are a classic rock band for the modern era. Hailing from Brisbane, the four-piece have just released their debut album, Beautiful Hum on May 24th. Produced by Matt Wallace (Faith No More/Maroon 5), Beautiful Hum has “international smash” written all over it. Lead singer, Steve Blaik caught up with Justin Middleton for this exclusive interview.

Click here to download the podcast of the entire interview. (10:43 - 2.5Mb)

I asked Steve to give us a brief history of the band and describe what the band has gone through leading up to the release of their debut album. “Danny, the guitarist, and I knew each other back at school, we started jamming back then which was about 10 years ago. Between now and then we’ve had a couple different lineup changes with certain members. We released an EP back in 2004 and then started touring around, we’ve been touring our butts off for the last couple of years. Then we finally recorded the album about 12-18 months ago and it comes out 24th of May.”

Beautiful Hum was recorded in Los Angelas with Matt Wallace who found the band through their MySpace page. I asked Steve how it was for the band recording in a different country. “It’s an amazing experience man. We got to record it in a studio where they did Nirvana’s Nevermind and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, some really iconic records. It’s pretty awe inspiring when you look around and see these plaques on the walls from those iconic bands. Also we got to work with one of the best producers of our time, in my opinion, in Matt Wallace who did Maroon 5’s record (Songs About Jane) and Faith No More’s The Real Thing and Angel Dust. So it was an amazing experience for us both creativity and being really cool.”

“In a way it was challenging, as in we challenged ourselves to really perform at our optimum level. I think what was such really positive experience for us was that we got to dedicate 6 to 8 weeks purely on music. When you are in a different country doing that kind of stuff it just makes it such a productive environment especially with Matt there who really had a way about him. He was able to create and bring the best out of us and bring the best out of the songs. It was an exciting time and I think we are really happy and really proud with what we achieved over there.”

I asked Steve if the band treated the recording of the album differently then how they have recorded their previous two EP’s. “We were really concentrating on the songs, that was our focus. Making sure the songs that we had were being delivered the best way we possibly could. We were also conscious, as a listener, what we wanted to hear when we put on an album. Like the journey that an album puts you through. I listen to albums like August And Everything After by Counting Crows or Throwing Copper by Live or anything by U2 and they all put you through a kind of a journey of emotional ups and downs. That’s what we wanted to achieve from the record and hopefully we were able to capture that.”

You can catch Small Mercies on tour supporting Shannon Noll on the following dates:
Fri 6 June - Cronulla Leagues Club, Sydney
Sat 7 June - Reversby Workers Club, Sydney
Sun 8 June - the Evan Theatre, Sydney
Wed 11 June - Horsham Town Hall, Horsham VIC
Thur 12 June - Shoppington Hotel, Doncaster VIC
Fri 13 June - Ferntree Gully Hotel, Ferntree Gully VIC
Sun 15 June - Hallam Hotel, Hallam VIC
Thur 19 June - Deewhy RSL, Deewhy NSW
Fri 20 June - Campbelltown RSL, Campbelltown NSW
Sat 21 June - Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide SA
Wed 25 June - Mingarra Rec, Central Coast NSW
Thur 26 June - South Sydney Juniours, Sydney
Fri 27 June - Shellharbour Workers Club, Sydney
Sat 28 June - Blacktown RSL, Sydney
Fri 4 July - Southport RSL, Southport QLD
Sat 5 July - Norths League And Services Club, Brisbane QLD
Sun 6 July - Ipswich Civic Centre, Ipswich QLD

For more info on Small Mercies visit www.smallmercies.com.au

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Album Releases, Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.