Getting Up To Speed

San Francisco has long been known for its thriving arts community, an inspired hub for musicians and artists alike. In recent years the city's music scene in particular has seen the international spotlight shine firmly on the Californian county's bubbling creative centre, the home to a number of bands gaining worldwide exposure. Leading the charge are indie rockers Thee Oh Sees, a four-piece outfit comprising guitarist and frontman John Dwyer, vocalist and keyboardist Brigid Dawson, bassist Petey Dammit and drummer Mike Shoun.

“There's always been a lot happening in San Francisco,” enthuses bassist Dammit. “It's just the vibe of the city. It's pretty easy to do what you wanna do, whether that be like a fine art or music or anything like that, there's just always been great things happening here in this city. Especially right now there's so many wonderful bands and stuff like that. It's really good that bands here are getting attention 'cause that opens up more opportunities for bands from here to travel, to play their songs outside of San Francisco. But yeah, it does have some lulls here and there and people start complaining that nothing's going on, but I'm like 'just shut up and wait another month, 'cause next month you'll have more stuff to do than you'll know what to do with!'”

Having released six albums and a stack of EPs in the last five years alone, Thee Oh Sees are one of the more prolific groups of recent years. After starting out as an outlet for Dwyer's lo-fi home recordings, the group gradually expanded to the current line-up. With a diverse back catalogue covering punk, folk and kosmische, the band are now closer to garage-rock psychedelica, as experimental as ever without losing their strong sense of melody. For much of their career the band have seemingly been devoid of self-editing – their run of multiple releases per year only ending in 2012 with last year's sole release, the ecstatically received latest album Putrifiers II.

“I think just recently we've kinda caught up to ourselves,” suggests Dammit. “Instead of just recording and releasing songs constantly we got to a point where we were touring so much we didn't have enough time to write new stuff, so I think that's maybe why it seems more selective. I think it's just we actually finally got to a point where instead of being ahead of ourselves we were new in there for a little bit. But I think we have around ten to 15 songs that we're gonna record here in a week or so, and then I think we'll be caught up with ourselves again.”

The band's live show is as celebrated as the music itself. From their solo project beginnings Thee Oh Sees have gone on to become a genuinely exciting live prospect, an energetic whirlwind led by Dwyer's frenetic presence out front. Leaning more towards the faster material in their repertoire, their sets are unashamedly fun and exciting for band and audience alike. Constant touring has helped sharpen them to what they are now, but having travelled through so many different genres over their time, it took longer than expected for each member to gel in the live setting.

“John had been doing that since 1999,” recalls Dammit. “And I think I started very late 2005 or something, and it was about that time that we decided that some of the slower songs we had been playing and the songs that I originally learned in the band, we decided that those are kind of fun to play, definitely, and great to listen to, but live they don't necessarily translate as much. Both John and I and everyone else in the band had come from a more punk-rock background, with louder, faster music, so it was pretty easy for us to just switch back to doing that. I think it did take a little while. The train started out chuggin' along pretty slowly, and then it got up to speed. That's kinda where we're at now.”

The band's schedule has always been busy, packed to the brim with constant touring and recording. A three week break before their current tour ended up being used to again record new material, which Aussie fans should get a taste of in the next few weeks. The group's unorthodox recording process means the members themselves are often still new to the material by the time the shows start. “Some of the records are like the last one, Putrifiers II,” explains Dammit. “That one was written all by John and recorded mainly by himself, so the rest of us didn't have much input on that or anything. But that makes those songs a little harder for us to play live 'cause we'll have to sit there and try to figure them out and things like that. But there's also a lot of songs that we record that aren't necessarily suited to our live setting. We try to keep all the faster, more heavier numbers and stuff from albums, save those for the shows, and then other ones are just kind of CD-only, record-only type thing.”

The promise of a new album should please diehard fans. With recording apparently already completed, the band are looking to get straight into finalising the release as soon as their Australian tour finishes. “I'm not sure exactly [when it'll be out],” ponders the jovial bassist. “I reckon it only takes about a month or two for it to go from the studio to the record press, so it should be out next year sometime, maybe March or April. I mean there are set times when record labels like to release stuff too, so that might push it back a little bit, but it should be out before too long.”

For now Thee Oh Sees are concentrating solely on their Australian tour. Having been through the country three times before, the San Franciscans are no strangers to Oz, and can't wait to come back. “I'm definitely looking forward to it,” admits Dammit. “I'm absolutely in love with your country, so I will always go on record as saying if I move from San Francisco I'm going straight to Melbourne!”

VIC

Monday 28 January – Schoolhouse Studios, Melbourne
Thursday 31 January – The Hi-Fi, Melbourne
Wednesday 6 February – The Barwon Club, Geelong
Saturday 16 February – All Tomorrows Parties, Melbourne

SA

Friday 1 February – Lost City Festival, Adelaide

WA

Saturday 2 February – The Bakery, Perth

ACT

Monday 11 February – Transit Bar, Canberra

NSW

Wednesday 13 February – The Great Northern, Byron Bay

QLD

Thursday 14 February – The Zoo, Brisbane
Friday 15 February – Elsewhere, Gold Coast