Featured Act: The Irrationals

Featured Act: The Irrationals

         

Interview
How are we going guys? Congratulations on being our second Featured Act of 2013! How does it feel?

Swimmingly. It feels like fluffy icing on a cupcake. Thanks for having us :-)

Congratulations on the new ep. Tell us a bit about your self titled ep, where was it recorded? 

Why thank you, it's a pretty exciting time for us! The EP is a jumble of killer songs we've written over the last couple of years that we thought fit together well. It was recorded at our vocalist's house actually; drums in the back room, everything else in a cramped little study, packed and padded with mattresses and blankets etc. Recording at home is great because you can take as long as you like. One downside of taking as long as you like is that it takes a LOT longer to finish anything, we were working on the EP on and off for about a year, but we're pretty happy with the end result. It was a steep learning curve, but we enjoyed the process from start to finish.

What do you love most about music?

We like the fact that in many ways music is formulaic and mathematical but that some of the best music is that which breaks all the rules, has no patterns. That's not true really, purely random noise would be exactly that, white noise, so suppose the art is in finding a balance between the formulaic and the random. 

What inspires you as a band? 

Like... LIFE mannn. 

Seriously, most of our songs are about stuff that has happened to us, sometimes pretty loosely, other times not so much. There's a song on the EP about murdering your boss; not a recommendation, just a bizarre idea that crossed Ben's mind once... hmm, maybe we should be a little worried... 

Musically we are inspired by whatever makes us move, writhe, boogie and/or break dance. We're always trying to play and jam with new ideas. It's always a great outlet.

Who are your main influences?

All four of us listen to quite different music actually. Ben (vocals/rhythm guitar) listens to alternate rock, Drew (drums) listens to hardcore, Matt (lead guitar) listens to metal, Maddy (bass) listens to indie rock. Somehow from that mix we end up with a bluesy/jazzy alternate rock - go figure. We don't think we sound like any bands in particular. Because we're all into such different genres, we can all appreciate a wide variety of styles and sounds. 

How long have you guys been playing together?

Three of us; Ben, Maddy and Drew, met and used to jam in high school. Matt came along a few years later at university. So we've been playing together on and off, in one form or another for 8 years. Since the beginning we've had name changes and experimented with lots of different styles. We love the dynamic, fluid nature of it all!

What's your favorite thing about performing live?

It's really great when you play a gig and someone you've never met before comes up to you afterwards and tells you that they loved your music. It's also cool because you get to see other amazing local bands do their thing and meet some pretty awesome people. 

What is your favorite venue you have played at and why?

The Rosemount Hotel is definitely our favourite at the moment. It has a really good vibe and they hosted our EP launch late last year. We had a fab night with our friends One Tiger Down, Bears and Dolls and Shouting at Camels (all fantastic bands, check them out). 

What is your most memorable gig?

We played a gig in Bunbury a few years ago to a crowd of several hundred people, on a huge stage, with a giant video screen behind us. The atmosphere was full of energy and we all felt like we played a great show. It felt pretty rock'n'roll :-)

What is the funniest muck up thats happened on stage?

Ben had a massive lighting boom fall on top of him before we played a set at a really dingy pub once. Luckily it just smashed a few lights and he wasn't hurt. It's funny now but his eyes were pretty wide for about an hour after it happened haha.

What artists/bands would you like to play alongside in the future?

In the future we assume time travel will be possible so we're gonna roll with The Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin... but on the off chance the delorean was pure fiction, we saw the Chili Peppers and The Killers yesterday, they were pretty rad! Maybe Perth Sound & Found can tee it up for us? :-) We're loving gigging at the moment, and seeing and playing with lots of cool local artists.

What's your favourite song to play off the new album?

"She Smokes", the first song on the EP, seems to be the consensus in the band at the moment. We've played it live quite a few times now too, and always get a good response from the crowd - they always get into the groove of it. And for this week only  you can download it for FREEEE from Perth Sound & Found :-) 

If you could sum up your music in one sentence what would it be?

Hendrix and Jagger made sweet, sweet love whilst a yet-to-be-written Radiohead album played on the hifi and some arbitrary period of time later The Irrationals were born. 

What can we expect from you in the future?

For now we're focusing on gigging and writing new material. No doubt we'll be back in the studio before too long. Either way, expect to hear more from us :-)

EP Review:

Mixing up a pot of blues, funk and rock, the debut EP from Perth band The Irrationals introduces the 4 piece to the Perth scene with a decent slab of funky modern pop. Taking a no thrills approach, the boys and gal, sound like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers if they'd been forced into supporting hoary old white bluesmen, funk orientated riffs and soaring vocals highlighting distinctly stripped back style. Opener She Smokes announces the band with spacey leads and stadium rock guitar before slipping back a gear and breaking into blues rock. Detailing the nitty gritty of self-destructive relationships with up-beat rhythms and overdriven guitar, vocalist Ben Hesp laments the habits of a lost love that ultimately forced a relationship apart. Going into full funk-rock overdrive and busting out the wah pedal, The Irrationals get down and dirty with American Dream. Decrying the ideologies so often associated with financial aspiration in the USA (and probably the rest of the world as well), the funky bass-lines and dance-hall drums bring a groove laden twist to a rather heavy subject. Jamming on their roots the band are similar in style to alternative rock stalwarts Arctic Monkeys with reggae-rock verses, highlighted by jangly guitar licks. Anchoring the jams with smooth vocals keeps these guys grounded in a sort of seaside Sunday session kind of vibe as is probably best exemplified by Lazy, which details the everyday lethargy of your average musician. While not exactly jazzy, the group never lift their rock dial above “gently” leaving the face melting riffs to those less concerned with chilling out and why should they? The Irrationals are at their best when at their calmest ,pumping out breezy pop-funk.

Reviewer: Tristan Mamotte