I See Red

En route to a video reshoot, three quarters of Redcoats wander through the pub's side bistro door, all long hair and the right amount dishevelled-looking. Just over a year after the band released their debut self-titled EP, comes their debut, self-titled full-length. The names of both releases are the same, but Mercuri observes, “A lot of things changed between the EP and the album”. Kelly concurs, “That's true. And how many shows came up in that year, in that 12 months?”

“We were putting out the EP on our own,” Braidner continues, “and then record labels sort of came and bought it and then, [for] the album, we were with the record label.” Mercuri reflects, “We were in different mindsets, obviously. We'd spent a lot of time compiling songs for the album and in hindsight it may have been a lot longer than what we'll do for other albums, but I think at the time it was really good to get quite a big mound of songs that even now we can go back into. We've kind of safeguarded ourselves with material for the time being, so if the well is running a little bit dry at some point – and, touch wood, it never does – we have the shelves moderately filled at the moment, which is great. But I think we were a lot younger as well with the EP.”

Redcoats have already garnered much respect and admiration via their live shows, but the band believes there are still many performance elements yet to be perfected, especially when it comes to slaying massive festival crowds from front row to nosebleed section.

“Well we haven't figured it out,” Braidner admits. “But we're having a lot of fun figuring it out.” If the magic ingredients for holding a festival crowd captive, night after night, had already been sourced and documented, Kelly suggests, “You'd be bored, man.”

“I guess initially, for me, we placed a big emphasis on forming a connection between each other onstage,” Mercuri ruminates, “and we were always under the impression – oh well, I was anyway – that if we managed to keep that quite strong throughout the whole set, then in turn the crowd would respond to that. I think, though, on stages that are a little bit bigger and perhaps festival stages and stuff like that, it is a little bit more difficult to have such a close encounter with a crowd, so you have to learn to develop that connection onstage.

“I dunno, it needs to have a different type of velocity. It definitely comes back to – well, I think anyhow – it just comes back to people being saturated with things that they know, and those more experienced bands have obviously had more time to allow a crowd their music through different forums. So once they're at that point and [the crowd] recognise something that they know and that they're used to, and it's not so much something that is different for them, they will respond more eagerly. And I think we're definitely building that relationship with people that are coming to these shows now. The small pocket in the right back corner is genuinely growing into something a bit bigger.” All three present Redcoats laugh.

“I think we're trying to consolidate things a bit at the moment rather than look too far forward,” Braidner summarises, “just keep writing for the next album and do a good tour for this album, and do it justice and keep building on what we've done so far with getting people interested.”

Redcoats will be playing the following shows:

Thursday 22 November - Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane QLD
Friday 23 November - Great Northern Hotel,Byron Bay NSW
Saturday 24 November - Spotted Cow, Toowoomba QLD
Thursday 29 November - Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle NSW
Friday 30 November - Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW
Saturday 1 December - Transit Bar, Canberra ACT