Follow No Leader

When Time Off checks in with Charles Zammit, we interrupt the quietly-spoken gent in front of his computer, trawling the infinite depths of cyberspace looking at reviews and interviews regarding Faspeedelay, the post-rock three-piece he mans guitar for. Affable and immediately forthcoming, he explains that it's good to take on constructive criticism, especially from fellow musicians and industry peers. However, Zammit need not worry about the pitchfork-carrying web warriors; his instrumental trio has hit all the right notes with their debut long-player, Ghost On The Waterfront;

seven tracks of sprawling experimentalism that ebbs and flows with unique consistency; you'll find no lead instruments or bullshit within. This is straight basics – guitar, bass, drums – and three men letting the musical tide take them where it pleases.

“Obviously what happened in the '90s and 2000s with the post-rock thing was a huge influence in the general shape of the [album],” Zammit explains. “But the original ideas, deep in the background there's that Aussie rock, Lobby Loyde and stuff like that from way back, or the surf stuff even; I love The Atlantics,” he laughs. “And a lot of the more modern surf bands as well – it's all in there.

“But the whole instrumental concept – [people] really don't know what to expect. To some it's still a little bit strange but generally listeners are fairly well educated. They're often taken aback, and usually, well hopefully for us, pleasantly surprised.”

After playing together at the beginning of the millennium, the threesome went their separate ways, taking on a variety of projects before being corralled together once more at the request of Dreamland Records' Zac Keiller, the label owner eager to put something out on his digital imprint. The resulting creative experience was one where ideas were jammed out; sometimes quickly, sometimes slow, but always with passion.

“Occasionally songs tend to [form] pretty well fleshed out, but some take their time to develop,” he reflects. “But even the material that we've played the longest is changing as we keep performing it, so [nothing is] fossilised to a point where we're just going through the motions – it's a great thing. It gives you that extra enthusiasm towards performing it.”

As you'd imagine from listening to Ghosts On The Waterfront, Zammit confirms that these songs are indeed a legitimate joy to perform live. Coming off a successful three-date lap around New South Wales, the response to which the guitarist called “fantastic”, Faspeedelay are now looking forward to a trip north to Queensland so they can take us on a journey of our own.

“We stick fairly close to [what you hear on the record], but there is, obviously, an element of improvisation; I think when we're going through the whole gamut of the record [on stage] the three of us all do improvise at times. I probably [get creative] more than the other guys being the guitarist; Don and Rob tend to work keeping the song going, but I'll try and improvise in every piece and there's at least something – there's usually a little section that we can do something. [We] like to add some colour – sound effects or other improvised passages – in certain sections as well. We do that fairly constantly but we tend to keep the structures pretty much as they are. There are some main ideas and main riffs that we can always come back on when we float off in the middle section.”

And although visuals and a light show have been discussed as potential additions in the future, for now, as Zammit confidently puts it: “The music speaks for the whole [performance].”