Perpetual Orbit

Following a lengthy incubation period spent honing their danceable indie guitar-pop, Brisbane's Last Dinosaurs kicked into overdrive with the release of debut record In A Million Years this March, and they've been steadily consolidating their Australian fanbase whilst paving inroads to the European market since. 

“[We're] pretty happy,” says frontman Sean Caskey of the album's response. “The UK stuff's just about to happen now, like they're about to release our song [Zoom] and our album's gonna get released after we come back [from a European tour] so that's gonna be exciting to see how it goes. And obviously we're in a different phase in Australia – we're about to do an Australian tour and that tour's selling like crazy, so everything's really good and everyone's happy,” he states, clearly chuffed. At first Caskey interprets enquiries about the record's response in terms of sales, though it's not something he likes to focus on.

“I actually don't know how it's gone to be honest; I don't want to concern myself with those things 'cause it will make me either big-headed or depressed – I'd rather just keep doing what I'm doing. Generally we sort of stay out of that stuff; we probably should be more aware, but I dunno, we're just lazy. And we've got other things to think about anyway,” Caskey says, mentioning that reviews are something he generally steers clear of too, though every now and then one will get him thinking.

“… I ended up finding one that I already knew about, and I read it and I was like, 'Ohhhh',” he says with a drawn out groan. “It was like, not even that bad – it was not even harsh or anything, and everything he said was definitely correct and I agreed with everything he said. I just felt like an idiot though, like I should have – I wish they'd told me these things before I did it, not after!”

Some momentary misgivings about the odd review are merely trivial though for Caskey and the band when placed alongside the unexpected yet ongoing public encouragement from Bloc Party, particularly the Twitter props of guitarist Russell Lissack. “It's insane – I think about it and I'm like, 'People dream of this stuff and this just happened for us!',” he enthuses. “I'm very, very grateful though because the things that he's said have been so useful because it's sort of like leverage for us in the UK, it makes people give a shit slightly because Russell's playing [our album]. And I said that to him, I'm like, 'I really appreciate what you've been doing'.”

Visiting Australia this past winter for Splendour In The Grass, the British heavyweights backed their online ruminations by inviting Last Dinosaurs to support their intimate warm-up show at The Zoo in Brisbane and spending time with the up-and-coming youngsters.

“Oh, it was the best thing man – The Zoo show was sick,” Caskey says with sheer joy. “I saw all the Bloc Party guys were watching us and I was like, 'Fuck, that's awesome!'. And Russell was saying he insisted everybody came back early so that they could all watch us because he is so keen, and then afterwards he was talking to Lach [Caskey – guitar] and he was asking if he could teach him to play Zoom and stuff. After Splendour he got us and their band to take us to the after party and then I drunkenly gave him my email, and we've been keeping in contact and stuff which has been awesome.”

Having just returned from their second UK trip for 2012 which this time extended into France, Germany, Belgium and Holland, Caskey is aware of the difficulties of breaking foreign territories from Australia. 

“It's exciting; the only thing is that it's completely out of our hands 'cause we can't build it up ourselves – we can't go around to these cities time and time again and try and impress these people,” he tells. “But we do have an amazing label – Fiction are awesome, they're doing a very good job but it's completely up to them to get us played on the radio so that we can play to people. But we can do our side of the job; we know we can do that – like we can play a good show… We're just gonna try very hard to impress these people.”

And thus far, even prior to the release of In A Million Years in the UK, Last Dinosaurs have been doing just that.

“The Guardian – that was intense,” says Caskey seriously of the influential Band Of The Day accolade from the British press that used Last Dinosaurs to support the argument that indie guitar rock is still relevant. “When we first got there everyone was over the moon because the most critical guy there who apparently just tears people to pieces, he wrote something really, really good about us on like the second day that we arrived, so the whole label was so happy. So hopefully that continues.”

Back in Australia, audiences can expect a well-oiled Last Dinosaurs machine to roll through the nation on The Satellites Tour; due to high demand, they've had to add on an extra four dates.

“We always open the set in Australia with Satellites and it's just like a trip to walk onto so it made sense to call the tour Satellites,” Caskey says of the tour namesake – a mid-album, dreamy segue track. The run also marks the first real opportunity for Last Dinosaurs to give their underage crowd a turn.

“I can't wait because we've had a following for a while and we've never been able to cater to those audiences, because it's sort of a risk booking underage shows because a million kids will say they'll come and then two kids will show up, you know. Children these days are too unreliable! It's gonna be good though,” he says, looking at the run of dates scheduled before exclaiming: “The Metro [in Sydney] is sold out which is fucking crazy 'cause that one's huge… I can't believe it actually.”

Amongst all the international happenings for Last Dinosaurs that will keep the momentum of In A Million Years rolling on for some time yet, Caskey continues to work on new material.

“I'm actually really excited to do a second album, itching to do a second album,” he admits. “Not that I've got it up my sleeve or whatever – I've still got to write it – but I seriously think it will be, not way better, but I think we can definitely step up and do something a bit better than what we did before. 'Cause we're still really young… I feel like the next years we're just gonna keep going up, and I'm lookin' forward to that.”

Last Dinosaurs will be playing the following shows:

Saturday 13 October - Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane QLD
Friday 19 October - The Hi-Fi, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 20 October - Metro Theatre, Sydney NSW
Sunday 21 October - Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne VIC
Thursday 25 October - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Friday 26 October - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 27 October - The Gov, Adelaide SA
Sunday 28 October - Rock-It Festival, Perth WA
Saturday 3 November - Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane QLD
Friday 9 November - Metro Theatre, Sydney NSW
Saturday 10 November - Zierholz, Canberra ACT