Helping Hands

When Grands Rapid, Michigan, post-hardcore five-piece La Dispute released Wildlife – the follow up to their lauded debut Somewhere At The Bottom Of The River Between Vega And Altair – in late 2011, the response, both popular and critical, further cemented the band's position at the pioneering forefront of a genre that is too often quagmired. In response, fittingly, they did what they do best.

“We were pretty busy for a while, the record came out and we did a tour of the States and then we got home and then we went to Australia and then we were home and then we did Europe and then we did a full tour here for the record and then we did Europe again with Hot Water Music, and yeah, just got done with another tour with Hot Water Music and The Menzingers in the States,” says frontman Jordan Dreyer, his recounting of the tours giving some sense of the exhaustive list.  “But,” Dreyer is quick to add, “we've had nice pockets of breaks between to be able to be at home and be with loved ones and pursue other things and get some writing done. So it's been both busy and not, which is nice. It's pretty perfect.”

Before heading into the hibernation that precedes an album, the quintet are heading back to Australia for their fourth visit to the first country they toured outside of their own. “It's pretty unbelievable,” Dreyer recalls, “The first time we came over was a DIY tour with To The North, it was the first time we had been outside of our home country and we just kind of did it on a whim because we had the opportunity, they got a hold of us and asked us to come over and we were young and reckless and wanted to go to Australia so we said yes and ended up having such a crazy time. It was fantastic, you know, to be on the other side of the world and in another hemisphere and have kids come out to see and sing along was so crazy and a lot of that is credit to To The North for putting a lot of work into it but then every time since it's gotten exponentially better in attendance and we have a special place in our hearts for Australia and for everybody there.”

Their last Australian tour, in early 2012, saw them perform three shows at Sydney's Annandale Hotel, two at Melbourne's Corner Hotel, all a world away from their first Spectrum show back in 2009. This time around they'll be playing larger institutions; the Metro in Sydney, three shows at Melbourne's Corner Hotel, and for the first time will be bringing a fellow US band, Pianos Become The Teeth.

“We've been trying to get Pianos to come out with us on tour for a while now and our schedules always conflict and this is the first time we've ever been able to make it happen. This is the first time we've been able to do it in Australia and I can't think of a better band to do it with; they're phenomenal on record, they're phenomenal live and they're probably the best dudes that we know, so it's going to be a good time.

“It was wild to play to twenty kids in a rehearsal space and then absolutely crazy to play multiple sold out shows, and to see that some of the shows are already sold out for this tour is, I dunno,” Dreyer muses, pausing for a moment, “It's a credit to all the people who have put work in for us there, whether it's booking tours or putting on shows or playing us on the radio or whatever.”

The growth of the band has not only resulted in bigger venues, but an opportunity to use their ever-expanding sphere of influence to incite positive change. “Since day one that's always been it, the best part about being involved in whatever you want to call what this particular counterculture is, it fosters a really powerful community and creates conversation and dialogue and generally I think it effects things positively on that level. I think it's great when people choose to work with big international charities, but for us it's a little bit less effective I guess than just keeping it all with that sense of community,” says Dreyer.

The band's first foray into combining their musical and charitable pursuits came with the release of Here, Hear III, the third instalment of a series of poetic EPs that was released on Bandcamp for a negotiable pay-what-you-want price with all proceeds going to Well House, a Grand Rapids-based organisation dedicated to assisting homeless women and families. On the band's headlining tour of the US in support of Wildlife they teamed up with 826michigan, a branch of author/publisher Dave Egger's national charity literacy organisation 826 National. Conversations was a limited release of packets that contained audio interviews about and early demos of the album, photographic zines and publications by 826michigan, and were sold on the tour, with all proceeds going to the charity.

“I think we'll be doing a partnership with the same organisation that we did last trip,” says Dreyer, referencing their efforts through donation tins and portions of merchandise sales in 2012 to assist Headspace, Australia's national youth mental health foundation. “It's always been important for us to be able to partner in any way possible whether it be working on a split together or whether it be helping out an organisation that does something good for people and specifically we try to do it regionally.”

Since the release of Wildlife, the only new recordings to emerge were the demos that formed part of the Conversations packets, though the pockets of time off and periods of writing mentioned by Dreyer have led to the formative stages of the band's third album.

“Pretty recently we started working pretty hard on what will eventually be a new LP, but it's all very young, it's in its infancy, its gestation period, and it will be for a while, but we have finally started to work on new stuff which is incredibly exciting and very rewarding already,” Dreyer reveals.

“I think it's where we feel the most comfortable, when we're together and creating something. It's always been important to us to approach each record differently. For this I see a thematic and stylistic shift from Wildlife – to a degree, obviously it's still the five of us writing and we have our tendencies as artists and as musicians so it won't be so far off from what we've done in the past – but I think it will be a bit more understated, a bit more domestic, but we'll see what happens when we all sit down. 'Domestic' is maybe more applicable to what will happen lyrically, but I think it's a word that can be used for the songs as well.”