Hoofing It

You know the old saying – any publicity is good publicity. This is a phrase which still rings true today, just ask Melbourne synth-popsters Clubfeet. “Yeah, I guess so,” laughs keysman Monty Cooper, before adding, “[although] I don't really see the logic in it,” referring to the fact Facebook banned the cover art for the band's new record, Heirs & Graces. It's a tasteful shot of a topless girl, she's bent forward, hair flying as if headbanging, and yes, there's a little showing. The fact it's been banned has had people talking. “Yeah, well, there's a lot of nudity on Facebook, you know, like cool aesthetic stuff, but someone obviously reported us, because it got pulled down,” he laughs again. “So we had to blur out nipples and put black bands over things.” Certainly one way to get people talking about your new record.

People talking is something Clubfeet have been used to from the word go. Formed almost by accident back in 2010, the band took off at a rate of knots – not so much here in Australia, but particularly in the US and Europe. “Oh man, that was a total surprise,” Cooper says on the reception their debut, Gold On Gold, received in the States in 2010, picked up as it was, from their MySpace page. “I remember our label [over there] told us we'd been reviewed on Pitchfork, and Sebastian (Cohen, vocals and guitar), who's the biggest Pitchfork devotee of all time, or he was, said, 'Oh my god, if it's a good review this'll be the highpoint of my entire life'. And it was a good review, he was like, 'I can't believe I'm in a band that got a really good Pitchfork review'. Pretty surprising.”

From there came a ton of buzz out of the US and Europe, but it wasn't until the following year that Australia really caught up. It'll be Oz though, that'll be front and centre for this new release, Heirs & Graces, a record which came together in three different countries – South Africa, Australia and the US. (Not too surprising when you discover half the band are from Cape Town.)

“When we got back from the States after the tour [in late 2011], we all looked at each other and went, 'Now it's time we made a new record',” Cooper explains. “We had a lot of ideas and bits and pieces floating around… So we pooled our limited recourses and got ourselves to Cape Town, where Yves (Roberts, bass) and Sebastian are from, rented an apartment there and holed up, and over about four weeks we started writing a bunch of the album.

“Then after that we headed back to Melbourne and Sydney and spent a bunch of time writing more songs and fleshing out the ideas,” he continues. “And then for the mixing we got Victor Van Vugt [Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, etc.]… Who was someone who we knew and he wanted to be involved, so that's the New York component. We spent the last bit of last year bouncing mixes back and forth, and that fleshed out the finale of the record.

“I don't think we really had an idea, we just did what we did first time around,” laughs Cooper on what they wanted from Heirs & Graces. “So we weren't really sure, but inevitably you're shaped by what's happened and what you've done – I think more touring and playing a lot more changed the record a bit… I think this record is a bit more stripped back. There are less things happening, but the things that are happening are better. I think it's also a more confident record, playing all those shows, [it made us] more confident in what we could do.” It's time for Australia to get on board here, and even though Facebook threw a spanner n the works, Clubfeet are going from strength to strength.

Heirs & Graces is out now.