Worming Around

27 November 2012 | 6:00 am | Chris Hayden

"We’re just a little band basically. We’ve met some people though, that want to work with us so hopefully there’ll be a few opportunities to get back to the EU."

Jarrad Brown's a busy man. Just back from a European tour with his band and brainchild Eagle & The Worm, the prolific songwriter is literally in a taxi on his way to the airport as he fields our call. Headed to Adelaide for a show with fellow genre hoppers Gomez, the band are celebrating the release of their newly minted EP, Strangelove, another collection of mind-bending gems from a band that seem to thrive on their refusal to be pigeonholed.

“There was a loose idea of working towards a double album – going into the studio with 40 songs,” Brown explains. “[But] mostly, we wanted to do that because we didn't want to wrap it up yet, we just wanted to keep experimenting with those songs that we had. At the same time we didn't want to go into a cave writing thousands of songs for a few years. 40 songs doesn't really mean anything. They could be 40 bad songs.”

Unlikely as that sounds, Eagle & The Worm were actually in unchartered waters when recording Strangelove. Their debut album Good Times was tracked without any rehearsal – the band simply went straight into the studio and pieced together Brown's vibrant visions on the spot. With Strangelove, a much more studied approach was employed. “We wanted to use the EP as an opportunity to experiment in the studio together,” says Brown. “Eagle & The Worm has obviously spent heaps of time on the road but not much time in the studio. So this EP was a good way for the band to actually sit down and put five songs together in that atmosphere. The most exciting thing about Eagle & The Worm is it's not a three-piece rock band, which gives us the green light to be able to experiment a lot and make sure people are pumped about our ideas.”

The result is a more focused sounding band while losing none of their colourful charm. The best example of this newfound sharpness is lead single Give Me Time, a space odyssey of drum machines and synths led by Brown's manic vocals. It sounds a bit more like Ou Est Le Swimming Pool than the band responsible for carnival single All I Know. “I like the atmosphere and darkness of it, and the video game quality to it as well,” he details. “There were times recording it when I thought we should make it a bit more Eagle & The Worm – but you have to pull yourself back a bit and say, 'What are you talking about? This is your band and you can pretty much write whatever kind of song you want to write'.”

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The hard touring band have just returned from their second European adventure in the last year. This time around they not only graced the stages of prestigious festivals like End Of The Road (UK) and Electric Picnic (Ireland); the lads and lasses also packed in a few club shows which, according to Brown, were somewhat hit and miss. “We played these party venues, sometimes they were packed, sometimes there was no one there,” he says. “It's not like we're hugely popular over there – we're just a little band basically. We've met some people though, that want to work with us so hopefully there'll be a few opportunities to get back to the EU.”

Eagle & The Worm will be playing the following shows:

Saturday 10 November - The Tote, Melbourne VIC
Friday 23 November - Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine VIC
Sunday 25 November - Pure Pop (In-store), St Kilda VIC

Thursday 29 November - Brighton Up Bar, Sydney NSW
Friday 30 November - Old Manly Boatshed, Manly NSW
Saturday 1 December - The Junkyard, Newcastle NSW