Splendour's The Acid Already Working On Second Album

When three sonic artists, each established with their own unique musical projects, met by chance one night, it was the musical equivalent of love at first sight. With a sound that skips across genres but always has an overarching electro framework housing raw vocals and samples, the praise and take-up has been swift and plentiful for The Acid. The trio comprises Californian producer Steve Nalepa, a stalwart of the West Coast scene, British electronic don Adam Freeland, and Australian LA/Berlin-based Ry X, who says the meeting of cultures, talents and interests was one that was as inspiring is now as it was then, despite each residing in different parts of the world.

“It's hard, you know, there is quite a lot of movement for me physically, and with the other boys being based between California and the UK it does create a need for some stuff that we don't love quite a lot, which is the transportation and logistics,” he explains. “But if you've got a sense of commitment to it all and a real focus on making sure that whatever needs to happen happens with a really great supportive team as well, then the focus can be back on making art. Sometimes we have to fly 15 hours or something to make sure that we're there with each other but we're all committed to that so that makes a big difference.

“There's a lot of big respect and admiration for each other which really helps. That allows you to give the work a certain creative explosion in a way. I think it's important to allow that bit of explosion and to make sure you're creating time in your life to pay homage to that connection that you have. Everything is a culmination of our roles and our abilities. There's a lot of bleeding of inspiration between the three of us and that takes a lot of inspiration. There's fluidity, there's constant movement and constant growing and hopefully we're slightly more conscious of how we make our records.”

"With the other boys being based between California and the UK it does create a need for some stuff that we don't love quite a lot."

The boys released their self-titled EP in April this year, with single, Animal penned within 24 hours of their first session together. The effortless quality of their sound is something Ry X says is inherent to their creative process, coupled with a strong will to not allow labels to shackle commercial tags to it, their “genreless” release an intangible thing he and the boys are grateful for.

“Yes, it's a dream. I think there's a lot of sub-genres and people try to put things in boxes. At the moment it's quite beautiful that the rest of the community are listening and turn around and go 'oh we don't know where to put this, we have to describe this band as genreless.' It does offer us freedom and it does reflect how we feel, we're pretty much bringing different elements; we're not trying to follow a genre or capture something so we can belong within a context.”

That effortless sound came together through a largely effortless process in the studio, in which Ry X says the band either focused minutely on the sound being created or “really leaned back and allowed the process to be.” Whether consciously or not, the result has clearly been a success, and one that they hope to replicate for album number two, which is already tentatively in the works.

“Yeah we're already in it, you know! We haven't even put out this first record. But part of this creative family is that we have this sense of inspiration all the time. When we get together there's always little things that we can put away now in the bank ready for the next record. We really want to keep making music; it's the foremost important thing and we're not waiting for the album cycle and responding to the industry according to a certain timeline, just creating an evolution has a much more honest, fluid relationship between us and the community we're sharing music with.”

Ry X and co are looking forward to sharing that ineffable sound with a no doubt attentive crowd. Aside from some home-turf performance nerves, the Australian native is looking forward to hanging with his northern NSW friends and family.

“I'm staring out my apartment right now in the middle of Berlin and it's a rainy beautiful city, so it's hard to imagine what's happening down there. Byron's really my second home. My dad's been living there for 15 years or more, so rather than staying in a hotel after the gig I get to go back to a beach shack and hang with my dad, you know; it makes it extra special. I feel that every time I'm there.”