The 'Messy' Beginnings Of The Creases

25 July 2014 | 1:00 pm | Hannah Story

"I think doing support slots for so long with really big bands taught us heaps."

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“I’m kind of struggling to write at the moment because everything is too good; I’m too happy. The best songs are from when stuff’s gone bad.”

So says Joe Agius, the 22-year-old songwriter and creative tour de force for Brisbane’s The Creases, who certainly are doing very very good. The band of ‘good friends’, rounded out by guitarist Aimon Clark (23), co-frontman Jarrod Mahon (20), and drummer Gabe Webster (21), today release their debut EP, Gradient. The EP was written over four days in between tour dates, a collection of poppy shoegaze songs, and to Agius, “the worst songs that I’d written”.

"It was my dead-set number one goal for music."

“I wrote it so drunk, and I was like, ‘This song sucks…’ but it suited the band. The band was supposed to be really pop stuff but also post-punky like The Jesus & Mary Chain and shoegazy…”

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On Sunday, the four-piece step onto the Splendour stage. “I used to go to Splendour every year with my friends,” says Agius. “Before I could even play, I was like, ‘I’m going to start a band and win that triple j Unearthed spot, just watch,’ and it never happened. But now we’re on the actual line-up. It was my dead-set number one goal for music.”

“It’s like a dream,” Clark adds. “We’re from down near Byron Bay, it’s where we grew up, so I’ve always wanted to play there. It was a faraway dream and I never thought it’d happen.”

They also never thought they’d come by success so early, waking up one morning to an email from UK label Rough Trade, who were offering to release their debut single. Since that moment they’ve picked up label backing via Liberation at home in Australia, and headed on tour supporting local and international acts, from Drenge to Franz Ferdinand.

“Franz Ferdinand were the nicest band we’ve ever played with,” says Agius. “They watched our whole set and hung out with us afterwards. They were so nice and gave us heaps of their stuff and signed it all.”

But it wasn’t all hanging out after sets, Clark continues, “They were different to us too. We were having conversations and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve just finished uni and I’m living out of home,’ and he’s like, ‘I’m going home to my new baby, I’m moving to Germany with my two kids…’”

All in all it was a learning experience for the fledgling shoegaze act, according to Agius. “I think doing support slots for so long with really big bands taught us heaps. We were a bit messy at the start performing live and it’s made us take a step back and get more structured and tight, which is good. We learnt a lot from touring with other bands.”

But that doesn’t mean that The Creases have seen and heard it all. They, in fact, feel “late to the game”, comparing themselves to other Brisbane bands who started up at age 18 or 19. Together Agius and Clark describe the Brisbane scene as a place from which they can take inspiration.

“It’s a super motivating place,” says Agius. “If you even have a break for six months there’s a million other bands who will take over and write better songs.”

So they don’t take their position in the scene lightly. “I think because we’re a bit older we have to consider stuff a bit more. This band’s not some calculated band like everything’s planned, but we definitely put a lot of thought into everything because we want to actually do this for the rest of our lives.”