The Romantic Pop Band of Your Dreams: Get to know NOIRE
Theatrical, dramatic, and utterly intoxicating, NOIRE are the romantic, hazy pop band of your dreams. With a penchant for all things yesteryear, they swoon and sigh through a beautiful haze that rivals LANA DEL REY at times, while also possessing impeccable songwriting skills that have seen them rise as a truly promising act to keep an eye on.
After years of drip-feeding fans with nonchalant singles and stunning videos, their journey so far culminated in the release of their debut album last week, titled Some Kind of Blue. Every song is its own story, and feels like a tribute or homage to a slew of characters from by-gone eras. Featuring Jessica Mincher's beautiful, soft vocals echoing out over crisp, shoegaze-y guitars, mellow drums and smokey atmospherics, they have proven that slow and steady really does win the race, having opted to spend their time really honing their craft over the past few years before sharing their first big body of work.
The wait was more than worth it, as the nine tracks on Some Kind of Blue each transport you somewhere else, like an old movie or a Parisian café. NOIRE create considered, thoughtful dream-pop at its finest, and although this is a big moment for them, we can't help but feel it's really only the beginning. Check out our chat with the band below.
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Congratulations on the new album! It’s been a long time coming. How are you both feeling now that it’s out?
Oh thank you! It feels really great! We finished writing exactly a year ago so it's nice to have it out - it’s feels like we've accomplished something.
You’re heavily influenced by European music and cinema, and now you’re currently over there and absolutely killing it which is awesome. How does it feel to now be surrounded by your influences so much? Do you think it’s enabling a new kind of life into the songs you’ve made being inspired by this?
Yeah it’s been so cool to go to places I've read about in books. I read A Moveable Feast by Hemingway which is basically him just talking about sitting in Paris cafes and eating! So it was really great to go to places he would go. We also went to Shakespeare & Co where the beat poets and some of my favourite writers would hang out at. I don’t feel it’s given the songs a new kind of life because I always imagine our songs having more an American or Australian desert/country landscape to them!
Your songs evoke this imagery of isolation or disconnect, which is particularly interesting when I learned that you returned back to the Queensland country to record this album. Do you think the isolation of being back in the country where you spent your formative years influenced this? What about this drew you back to the country?
I was born in Alice Springs then spent the first 5 years growing up in Tennant Creek, which is a small town in the Northern Territory. After that my parents moved to Gympie, which was a lot bigger, but still a small town. So, I think growing up in these isolated places definitely has me naturally gravitating towards that imagery.
We decided to go and write in Amamoor because my parents own a farm up there and have a farmhouse sitting there empty. It’s the perfect place for writing – it’s so beautiful, there are mountains, a river, absolutely nothing to do and the house is big enough for setting up the studio. It was really nice to get away from Sydney as well and go to a different place with a clear purpose. Our reward for finishing the album was to come back to Sydney! (ha)
Further to this, the aesthetic of NOIRE further lends itself into your music, so its one seamless, beautifully looking and sounding project. It’s clearly very important to you that you’re conveying exactly what you’re about through all aspects of NOIRE, more than other bands that have a few press pics and that’s it. I love it! Why is this so important?
I don't know if it's important but a band is basically just one big art project! You can have songs, pictures, artwork, music videos, performance and so it's just really fun to create all these different elements! It’s not important to us to convey a specific message - I think our stuff always looks consistent because we just have a particular taste and we always work with people whose work we love and admire.
You choose to pay tribute to people you admire through your videos and your music - is there any pressure to make sure you do these tributes justice? Who is next to pay tribute to, or does it just happen unintentionally that a particular video or song has turned into that?
Yes! We're very open about our influences, and I’ve possibly been using the word tribute too freely (ha) it’s more that work we love inspires what we’re doing. With our ‘Real Cool’ video we wanted the lighting of Paris, Texas and the strange singing lounge room scene of Blue Velvet. I don’t feel any pressure because everyone is doing something that has already been done before.
I would really love to do a western soundtrack or video - our original idea for the ‘He’s My Baby’ video was to go out to Broken Hill and create something like that Australian film ‘Wake In Fright’ – such a terrifying movie!
Obviously playing over in European venues is a lot different to playing in Sydney bars, what can we expect for when you return to Australia and play shows? Have there been any key lessons for you from this time away?
Really excited to come back to Australia and play we the full band – we’ve been missing the guys and gals over here!
NOIRE's Some Kind Of Blue is out now via SPUNK RECORDS.
Image by Blair Gauld
Intro and questions by Emma Jones
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