Change In The Air

When Sugar Army released their debut album The Parallels Amongst Ourselves back in 2009, no one really knew what to expect – let alone the band themselves. Following the release of their EP, Where Do You Hide Your Toys, the year before, there was a certain amount of pressure on the band to live up to the exacting standards that an eminent rock band typically faces. The Parallels... was a triumph for the band, but it's almost chaotic nature reflected the pressures and emotion revolving around them as it was being produced. Fats forward to now, though, and with the impending release of their sophomore album Summertime Heavy, Sugar Army are throwing any and all typical tropes on their head.

“Parallels... was definitely a reflection of where the band was at that time,” frontman Pat McLaughlin begins on the development of Sugar Army's debut. “There was a lot of argument between the four of us. We had all come together with so much pressure on ourselves and so many differing ideas, that the sessions were often a case of us shouting over the top of each other. We would all meet up, and one of us would go, 'Right, this is what I want on the album,' and then someone else would say, 'No, fuck that, that's shit,'” he laughs. “I think you can really hear that on Parallels.... It's a definite rock album, but there's so much going on. It really is a record of us butting our heads together.”

Despite that constant source of interior pressure, The Parallels Amongst Ourselves proved to be a success. It led to a heap of national airplay, a string of festival slots and supports for the likes of Karnivool and Interpol, two bands that arguably inhabit the same sphere of alternative rock that Sugar Army do. This led to the inevitable: a few years on constant tour, the band throwing themselves around the country like a plastic bag caught in an updraft. Time taken, then, to sit down and write a new album might seem like a reprieve, but it was actually the opposite for McLaughlin and co. This time, it wasn't necessarily unintentional pressure, despite the unexpected exit of bassist Ian Berney halfway through the development of Summertime Heavy.

“From the beginning, we already had wildly different plans for the new album,” McLaughlin explains. “We didn't want to take the same road as Parallels... because we would just end up with the same sound, and that's obviously not what you want to do. So the way we set about writing the album was completely different. And then Ian left, and we were in a situation, like, 'Well, what the hell do we do now?' And instead of simply finding another bassist and just doing the same thing again, we made the decision to explore this new… I guess, dynamic that we had between the three of us. We knew we wanted something different as a band, so we ended up taking advantage of the situation and building a completely different dynamic between us. It's still Sugar Army, it's still rock'n'roll, but I think that we have really found a fresh sound now. It's interesting – I think if we were to go into the studio and record the same way we did for Parallels..., it would've fallen apart, because we would've gotten fucking sick of each other,” he laughs. “So it was really great to come in with that experience, but at the same time with a fresh start. It made us feel like a new band again, which was really exciting.”

Adding to the transformation was the decision to decamp to Sydney to record Summertime Heavy, something that went against the grain to how they had always recorded in the past – with the great Dave Parkin at Blackbird studios. Parkin is a cornerstone of the local music scene, with credits as recording engineer for some of the most high-profile WA bands. But, as McLaughlin found himself in a new direction, a change in locale had to be on the cards. “We had worked with Dave for both the EP and Parallels... and he is one of the best out there; those records wouldn't be what they were if it weren't for him,” McLaughlin explains.

“But I needed to thrust myself into a different environment if I thought the songs were going to work. We chose not to record with Dave for no other reason than we needed to do something different. Especially as Ian left, the band was starting to take on a new dynamic anyway, so we just felt that we needed to put ourselves out of our comfort zone and go and do something different, just for the challenge of it really. It had its good points and bad, but it's definitely something we learnt from. It was completely different from going down to Osborne Park every night and driving home at four in the morning and going back to your bed and your normal life, you know? When you're in Sydney, we completely concentrated on the recording, and it totally consumed us for the whole time we were over there.”

“It was also so different to work in a studio that was so…professional,” McLaughlin chuckles. “They had a receptionist, interns would come in and bring us coffee, and it was in an office building, so there was all this hustle and bustle going on around us as we were trying to record. Coming from Dave's studio, where it's just him and his desk and the studio, it was really weird to be thrown in the deep end of this very commercial studio process. Having people coming in and out all the time… I mean, they both have their positives and negatives, but I think it was a positive experience, because we were forcing ourselves into a situation that we were completely not used to.”

As you've probably noticed by now, change has become something of a motif for Sugar Army in this stage of their career. And it's not just reflected through McLaughlin's words. The entire aesthetic of the album also carries a (ahem) heavy sense of alteration. “Even with the album title, Summertime Heavy, that was just a feeling that Todd (Honey, guitar) got when he was working out the song. It's just how it vibed, that it was this really heavy, daunting environment. And we felt like it worked as the album title, because the entire album, in essence, is us finding a new way to do things. It's us dealing with the changes that have happened to us as a band, and the changes that we deliberately put in place. We didn't really have that idea when we first started writing the album. Well actually, we really didn't have any idea,” McLaughlin laughs. “But yeah, with all those things happening, it just seemed really natural to have that as the main theme. And it's not something that's completely tangible – it's a bit of an abstract one. We don't want to force our ideas down everyone's throats. We want people to take the music and the artwork as it is, and make their own decision.”

McLaughlin mentions the artwork because of the role the band took in organising not just the aural, but the visual side of Summertime Heavy. Whilst the artwork for The Parallels Amongst Ourselves was vibrant and complex (some might say eerily as a reconstruction of how the band felt at the time), Summertime Heavy is all muted colours and lines. “Especially with just the three of us now, it felt like we needed to really portray that sense of space and minimalism,” McLaughlin explains. “It's really just the same thing. We didn't want to have to construct any solid ideas for anyone. We really want people to take both sides of the album in their own way.” On a side note, the band also too control of the just-released film clip for Hooks For Hands, the first single from the album. It was a process that McLaughlin, in all the daunting changes he's had to face over the last year, found just a bit nerve-racking. “Todd is really into animation, especially that kind of stop-motion stuff,” McLaughlin offers.

“We got the original version of the clip, and it just seemed sort of boring. It didn't really feel like it was going anywhere. So Todd was like, “Well, why don't we put some animation in it?” And we had this idea of creeping vines, of the natural slowly overtaking the artificial. It was really cool, but man...” McLaughlin sighs, before continuing. “There was the parts where the vines were climbing up me, and I'm not the most patient man ever. I was like, 'How long's is this gonna take?' And Todd and everyone were like, 'Uh, about four hours?' So I was sitting there for four hours every night for a week, and people had to feed me beer and cigarettes. It was pretty weird.”

NAIKED AMBITION

Sugar Army have had no problem getting gigs since '09. On top of the shows mentioned to the left, they also supported The Smashing Pumpkins in their most recent stopover, a show that was amazing not only for how tight the Sugars sounded, but also because of the mass appreciation of fans that were primarily there to see one of the world's greatest alternative rock bands.

But that's not all that's going on in Pat McLaughlin's world. He's also dabbling in something that will probably take those who have heard Sugar Army by surprise. Earlier this year, McLaughlin took to the stage at both Future Music Festival and a Community showcase show with one of this city's finest beatsmiths, Naik. That's right; the confidant frontman of a rock band and an urban beat producer teaming up. “The point of it was to put myself completely out of my comfort zone,” he offers. “What Naik does is he writes music that isn't made for a singer. In that, I find it intriguing that he keeps so much interest. Generally, in a band environment – at least in my experience – you kind of start off with a riff or a groove, and then the vocals are what determines what happens next. Whereas with Naik, he's not used to that.

“That's refreshing, but that's also the challenge in it. We have to find a medium ground where it's still interesting for him, but I still do what I need to do. We're both really respectful in that regard when we do work with each other. Like, there's no way I can walk in and say, 'Right, I'm here now, this is what it's gonna sound like.' I have to be careful with how I treat his work, because it has to be me finding room in it. He's just so prolific that forcing any idea on him would just not work. So the challenge for me has been meeting up with him, engaging with whatever his working on and trying to find a place within that. It's been very rewarding.” McLaughlin is set to sing guest vocals on a track from one of Naik's upcoming releases.

Sugar Army will be playing the following shows:

Friday 5 October - Rosemount Hotel, Perth WA
Thursday 18 October - GoodGod Small Club, Sydney NSW
Friday 19 October - Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 20 October - The Toff In Town, Melbourne VIC