Dark Positivity

Although they formed back in 2007, Melbourne psych rock band The Grand Rapids are only now launching their debut album Great Shakes. Whilst many extenuating circumstances have conspired to block off the four-piece's ascendency, guitarist/vocalist Sasha Smith is stoked that things are moving full steam ahead. “We've been at this for a long time; it's only really since our new bass player (Deon Slaviero) joined the band around twelve months ago that things have pushed forward,” Smith admits. “I formed the band with Daniel Hallpike (guitar) seven years ago, when he was playing bass, and Keith (Ratnan – drums) has been with us for five. We actually started tracking the album three years ago – mixing took forever, and then when things got mastered there was some time there where it was difficult to get things up off the ground. Nothing much changed from when we went into the studio to the end result, we were just ridiculously pedantic.”

Great Shakes is an almanac of classic psychedelic rock movement and rhythm, from the squalling cycle of Sailor In The Sky to the wickedness of Brian's Got A Rubber Soul. “As far as the songwriting process goes, it's a standard procedure. I play around until I find a sound or idea, layer a vocal melody over the top, and away we go from there. But the balance lies in the weird balance of the two. The music itself is always somewhat dark, and I've always found lightness to melody and harmony, and they work well together.”

The psych-rock tropes are heavily imprinted throughout Great Shakes, including the cover art, a photo of vintage supermodel Twiggy with a skull superimposed over her face amidst kaleidoscopic pinks and blues. “That was an image I had burned into my mind for some time,” Smith explains. “Again there's that balance, with the beauty of Twiggy and the darkness of the skull. It captures what we've crafted on the album. At the end of the day we're a psych band, so we may as well shout it from the rooftops.”

Great Shakes comes out on small Melbourne imprint Psyche Ward, just another indicator that psych-rock's becoming more prevalent in the modern Australian musical landscape. “It all makes some sort of sense to be honest,” Smith muses. “Five years ago the place was teeming with indie bands, yet a lot of them had these psych elements to them. It makes sense that that would lead to a prominent and healthy scene in Melbourne. It's always been a community there, and now it's moving wider and wider, you can see it in Brisbane and Sydney as well. It's really exciting.”