Rock Solid

Californian psychedelic darlings Earthless toured here in January 2011, then again in December 2012. Guitarist Isaiah Mitchell also came down in solo mode in May this year. Now the three-piece are gearing up to tour here again. “I don't know if a lot of bands tour down there as regularly as we do, but the opportunity keeps coming up and it's always a good time. So it's kinda hard to turn down. I think it's great. And I hope we don't wear everybody out down there, but I guess if there's people at the show then that will answer that question.”

The tour will serve as a formal introduction to the material from the band's third record, From The Ages. It's the band's spaciest and most engrossing record to date. The only blip, Mitchell feels – a view widely shared by the band's fans – is it took six years to follow up their second record, Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky. Mitchell is apologetic, but says the guys had to “pay the rent”.

“The good thing about Earthless, to our benefit or maybe it's been something against us, we've never really pushed that hard to make stuff happen. It's just kind of like things come and unfold when everyone's ready to make them happen… But I hope we don't take as much time to keep pumping stuff out. More productivity would be good.”

What can we expect this visit?

“I don't want to play the same set that I played at the beginning of the year. I mean, maybe some people wouldn't notice if we did… I think, fortunately, what we played last time wasn't recorded yet, so it's still a fresh listening experience.

“A lot of the jamming we do though, you could have two sets of identical material that sound completely different. We're sort of fortunate that we can play the same stuff because half of our material when we're up there playing is improv. So everything kind of feels spontaneous anyway.”

This visit sees them playing New Year's Eve. So it has to be asked; is it a bummer to play what is, historically, the sloppiest evening of the year?

“We're going over there knowing that we have work to do. So you've got to not get partied out. And I think having a great time and partying your ass off are two different things; I've always liked playing parties. I like the idea of being the entertainment at someone's party. I just like to play, and so it's just another gig. But people are probably going to be pretty sauced while we're playing.”