Off The Planet

We've been talking about [a new album] recently,” Mitchell confirms. “I think we're going to try to do something in the early part of next year. We have enough material for it, it's just finding the time and booking the studio. There are already some commitments for the new year for some of us, but yeah, it's definitely happening. We're looking forward to doing it. We're excited.”

Mitchell's a busy man. He's just put out releases with his projects Golden Void and Dusty Skull and is now back focusing on Earthless for this tour. With the other band members also juggling projects it can be hard to get everyone together, but they're certain that it's worth the effort. “We all want to play, we miss it,” Mitchell admits. “Taking a year off was very nice, but we miss it and we want to pick it up again. We definitely wanted to come to Australia together. We had a great time last time. So when there's an opportunity to do something like this, we tell everything else, the other bands and stuff like that, 'You have to take a break for a second, 'cause we want to go do this.' I guess when opportunities come it's just a matter of communicating.

“Travelling can be pretty brutal, but for a band like us – we're a band where the experience is best live. You can listen to the CDs, you can clean your house to us, drive long distances and listen to the music and it'll be helpful. It'll be helpful for whatever you're doing, but I think we are a lot better as a live experience. We've never been a really heavy touring band, but we've done our fair share of it, and it's fun. Some people just, I don't know, they really, literally freak out from watching us play. I guess the music does something to some folks. I've seen people get really crazy before and it's pretty awesome.”

Earthless will be playing the following dates:

Tuesday 11 December - ANU Bar, Canberra ACT
Thursday 13 December - The Zoo, Brisbane QLD
Friday 14 December - The Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW
Saturday 15 December - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne VIC
Sunday 16 December - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne VIC

Earthless have released a few live albums over the years, taking advantage of the band's unique live performances, a result of their heavy improvisation. “It captures us in the element,” Mitchell explains. “It's a live show, so it can take you there. I mean you're not there feeling all the subs and smelling all the smells and getting the lights, but it wouldn't sound the same if we did that in a recording studio. The vibe, the sounds, it would just be totally different. And we do feel that we are best experienced as a live band so putting out, firstly the Sonic Prayer Jam 10”, and then [Live At] Roadburn and now we've got some other live ones. Part of it is because we got some good recordings and we haven't been able to go into the studio, so it's nice to keep putting stuff out and let people know that we're still around. And also when we're on and the communication is good between the three guys in the band, it's a good performance so it'd be a waste not to put that out so that people could hear it.

“You can't always be extremely inspired, especially if you're an improv band. That's what makes magic, inspiration, and if you're not inspired it's kind of hard, in my mind, to have a really good show. But if we're rocking and we sound good and we have some good moments, feeding off each other well, that's a good show. And when we're jamming, when the three of us are really communicating well with each other, playing off of each other really well, it's magical. When you're improvising magical stuff can happen.”