Straight Arrows Reflect On 'Juvenile' First Album

It's been four years now since Sydney garage aficionados Straight Arrows dropped their debut platter It's Happening, a prescient title indeed given how much has actually happened for the band since its release. The four-piece have carved a strong niche both at home and abroad with their charmingly ramshackle live show, and now they've returned to the studio – well, half to the studio and half to frontman Owen Penglis' house – to conjure up second effort Rising. A psych-tinged, fuzz-laden romp through the guitar sounds of yesteryear, Rising covers a lot of sonic territory while never steering too far from the core Straight Arrows sound.

“I always start out with ideas, but you set off to do one thing and it goes the other way,” Penglis chuckles. “I had this idea that it was going to be this punk album, and then I started writing these bubblegum songs, and then I started writing these dark, heavier songs – and then they all just ended up on there. I mainly like albums that have got a bit of weirdness to them and divert a bit from where you expect them to end up. I get bored trying to write the same kind of song more than once.”

Penglis believes that experience has bonded the tight-knit group since It's Happening, hence the album's slightly more mature essence.

“We can play our instruments now a bit better,” he laughs. “On our first record we didn't know what the fuck we were doing. We just booked three days in a friend's studio in his house, and pretty much just played the songs – we'd keep playing one until we got it right and then move onto the next one. So we took a little bit longer with this, not just trying to get a correct take but a good one or the best one.

More.