| | | |  | Very rarely has any sort of emerging band received the acclaim and privilege awarded to Pnau over the past years. It’s like they passed straight through the pages of the book on how things were meant to be done, and their ascent has been astounding. ...
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| Interview | Access All Areas.net.au: This self-titled album has got quite a bit of hype surrounding it. You’ve been Triple J and Brag feature albums. How do you guys feel about all this attention?
Nick: It’s crazy. I think that we left it too long to release an album. We’ve worked too hard on this album, so we really couldn’t have hoped for a better reception for it.
Access All Areas.net.au: The album itself is quite interesting to listen to. How does the Songwriting process work in the band?
Nick: It’s different for every song. For example, the song ‘Baby’ was just done from an initial spark. I did the vocals and lyrics and just sang it. Peter and Sam then just went over it and edited it and added music to it. Sometimes it’s just like an epiphany. It’s never the same. It’s different for every song.
Access All Areas.net.au: Were there any influences on this album?
Nick: We had consumed a lot of music before we went into writing for this album. I would say that some of the things that influenced me for this album were people and things like Andy Warhol and the Colouring of Rocco. There were certain films as well. Musically, there was nothing specific. We try not to be influenced musically when we’re recording. We want to sound like ourselves.
Access All Areas.net.au: There are a few guests on the album including Luke Steele and Michael from Van She. How did all that come about?
Nick: They are all in our little family. We helped out with the Van She EP and we met Luke when he had first signed to EMI. We also co-wrote a song on his first album. For this album, we basically wrote a backing track and thought, “This would be great with Luke”. So we sent it to him by normal mail and about a week later, he rang back and sang it back to us down the phone line. It was one of those moments when it just makes you shiver.
Access All Areas.net.au: You guys are going to be hitting the Big Day Out around Australia. What can punters expect in a festival set from the band?
Nick: It’s going to be pretty crazy. With Homebake, we only had limited movement. With Big Day Out, it’s going to be a full visual, Zen type experience. We have the music bit down to a tee, so at the moment we’re focusing on the visual aspect of the show. Every song is going to be a different colour. That notation stuff is shit. There will be films playing in the background. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
Access All Areas.net.au: Is there anyone you’d love to see at Big Day Out?
Nick: Bjork. I’d love to duet with her. Apparently, there is going to be this tent show that fits about 300 people. You go into the cinema and they flood the room with industrial machine smoke. Then strobe lights just come from nowhere and are random and crazy. It’s said that people come out of it like a cathartic experience. Big Day Out has always been kind to us. I was on the phone to Ken, one of the guys who organises the Big Day Out, the other day and he’s just such a nice guy. We actually collaborated with the Black Eyed Peas when they did the BDO, but that was before the whole Fergie, pop thing. It’s funny, because people and bands come to the festival and they are all serious. They stay in their own areas and dress different. Yet by the end of the festival, everyone is in thongs and shorts. Like in 2001, Roni Size came and he was dressed in all his hip-hop gear. He was gangster. Within a week, he was wearing shorts and thongs and just taking it easy with everyone else. It’s a testament to the organisers for the show that they put on.
Access All Areas.net.au: Do you prefer Festivals or your own gigs?
Nick: Festivals can be great, when they are organised well. We’ve played some really great festivals and then we’ve played some really shit ones, but we won’t go there. To be often, it’s often dictated by the venue. I don’t think I can answer.
Access All Areas.net.au: What’s currently on your iPod?
Nick: I don’t have an iPod. I don’t even have a CD player. I have a broken vinyl player. I have favourite songs if that helps? I love the song by Nick Caves band, Grinderman. I thought it was good on record, but it was utterly amazing live. The song is called ‘Go Tell The Women’ and it’s breathtaking. I also love the Brian Eno song, called ‘By This River’. I was listening to Kate Bush yesterday as well.
Access All Areas.net.au: What do you think is one of the greatest songs written in the last decade?
Nick: When I heard ‘Seven Nation Army’ for the first time, I was really turned onto it. It just blew my mind. It’s a pretty tough song. I also loved Cat Power and her song called ‘I Don’t Blame You’. That’s a good song.
Interview by Simon Finck. |
| Biography | Very rarely has any sort of emerging band received the acclaim and privilege awarded to Pnau over the past years.
It’s like they passed straight through the pages of the book on how things were meant to be done, and their ascent
has been astounding.
Pnau’s success has been as deserved as it has been anomalous, and the band members themselves as curious as
they are talented. Pete Mayes and Nick Littlemore, the Enfants Terrible of the Australian Music industry, have won
the respect of their peers and the loyalty of their fans by consistently producing simple, intelligent hooks, fat sounds, and awesome imagery. Their long awaited third album ‘PNAU’ is an admission of sorts; Music is bigger than any one person and connected to absolutely everything.
‘PNAU’ is a sagacious offering; the act has mastered the art of reminiscence and innovation, abducting current trends to shear the way forward with this positive and futuristic, hybrid beast of a recording. There’s a clarity and awareness in the sounds and songwriting throughout. It’s bare and celebratory and in the buoyant key of Hell-Yeah – if it had hands it would slap you on the ass. The spontaneous moments are void of flippancy and the heavy moments are uplifting. There is real knowledge at work here, real skill, no bluff, no laconic bravado or dark humours. Maturity and sophistication are two words that will be bandied around for this work, but honesty and acknowledgement seem closer to the mark for an album that is poised to become a landmark recording.
Their innate understanding of the entire package of artistic expression is what earned them Australia’s top music gong in 1999, an Aria Award, in the dance category for their debut release ‘Sambanova’; an album that wasn’t even properly cleared but looked and sounded fantastic. It was a rebellious fluke from accidental shit-stirrers that was released in 4 different versions and confused the nuts off everyone. It suited the band to a T and kick starting their rock ’n’ droll lifestyle, touring with every major festival in Australia.
They backed-up ‘Sambanova’ with ‘Again’, a sophomore release that shoved a dirty big told-you-so sock down the
throats of the nay-sayers who adamantly believed both Pnau and electronic music were but a flash in the pan. Pnau
were off on US and European tours, performing peak sets between Darren Emerson and Fatboy Slim one night, and
playing to private audiences with Naomi Campbell and Ricky Bloody Martin the next. Not so much overwhelmed as
chronically amused and soaking it all in, filing everything away, Pnau came to the attention of infamous producers, songwriters and performers, all buying into the intrigue of two Aussie musos patently NOT vying to be famous. It wasn’t long till they gravitated toward their own kind and submerged themselves deeply in the next phase of their artistic evolution. From LA to Sweden to the UK to Redfern, Pnau the band became a somewhat amorphous entity, existing in spirit if not completely in body. The gruelling schedule of being in a band took a seat; not a back seat, just a seat in the middle of the room. Kind of near the front, but to the left a bit.
That was then. Quite obviously, this is now... (and please for the love of all that’s holy, no more rhyming puns).
With the release of the self-titled album 3, the very first local release from new label etcetc, you’d be forgiven for thinking Pnau are finally fulfilling the epic destiny that we’ve all been quietly waiting for them to realise. All the skilled bits and honed pieces seem to be coming together and we suspect they’re starting to take their talent seriously. Insane, we know! But it’s like they don’t consider ‘ambition’ to be a dirty word anymore.
If it takes a village to raise a child then it’s understandable that they’ve utilized their artistic community to raise this album in the Fing Fang Fong studios. On ‘PNAU’ not only will you hear Nick’s vocal talents, you’ll also hear their work with Luke Steele from The Sleepy Jackson – a match made in heaven, Pip Brown from Ladyhawke, Nik Yannikas from Lost Valentinos, and Michael DeFrancesco from Van She. Fabian ‘Mr Oizo’ Feadz of Ed Banger fame worked closely with Pnau on the first single release ‘Wild Strawberries’, and across it all Nick’s elder brothers Sam (Gwen Stefani, Black Eyed Peas, Tonite Only) has been in control of the mix, while James has exerted his seasoned creative direction over the entire project.
‘PNAU’ is a timeless and positive album. If ‘Sambanova’ was an ass-grab, and Again was a casual fling, then ‘PNAU’
is a love affair that will endure. This is dance floor Pnau as you’ve ever known them, only better. Much, much, better. |
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