Last DinosaursThere's something equally terrifying and exhilarating about the rate technology and globalisation are changing the workings of the music industry. For lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Sean Caskey, this is the Matrix. His mind seems to be constantly in action, turning over ideas about the band, the wider music scene and their place in it, trying to find a way forward in terms balancing artistic expression and financial gain. Bigger labels, bigger budgets, bigger fan bases, but ultimately less micro-management. This fear of direction is epitomised in the lyrics of Apollo from their much anticipated second album Wellness.
"It's something I haven't actually talked about yet because it's sorta too soon, but the truth is it's totally what I felt at the time. It's hard to explain. I can't talk about it yet. It's kinda obvious if you sorta read into what I'm saying [in Apollo] and take it literally — then it sorta makes sense. [It's the Matrix] professionally. It's hard.
"One of the biggest things that's absolutely ruining [the music industry] is Spotify. Like, I love it, I use it all the time, but it's one of the main killers of the music industry in general."
"We're just a band, and our actions, not our actions, but our ability to sort of progress is restrained by people around us who... have the hand on the tap, you know what I mean?" he explains.
The industry cog has thrown Last Dinosaurs into the spotlight, rising from being another band with another demo on triple j's Unearthed to one with six Asian tours under their belt. "We've just got such a dedicated fan base [in South-East Asia]. And it's interesting because all of our fans probably know about 50 Australian bands. They're really onto it," he laughs.
However, their success has lead them to realise that the band's ability to 100% control their music is diminishing. "Instead of pushing us along, you just get held back. For us, it's just getting held back by people who didn't understand what we were trying to do, and at the same time we didn't understand what they wanted. It was just freakin' confusing trying to jump through an invisible hoop."
They found that while their debut album had a producer that "really took control and reshaped the structure of the songs a lot", Scott Horscroft [Silverchair, The Presets, Empire Of The Sun] allowed them a lot more freedom. "You go to his studio and he has all those golden records everywhere, and you just look at these other bands and go, 'fuck'. It just gives you hope because this guy has touched these things and turned them into this."
Despite the backing of Horscroft's midas touch, Caskey is still facing uncertainties over the changing industry environment.
"One of the biggest things that's absolutely ruining [the music industry] is Spotify. Like, I love it, I use it all the time, but it's one of the main killers of the music industry in general. These things give no financial return because people aren't actually buying physical copies of music.
"I've thought about it so much because most things in the world you feel like it's a cycle; there's an end to it — the bottom or the top — but when I look at this, it's just, there's no end to it," he sighs. "It's just going to get easier and easier to access music, and more music, and people will always go for the cheapest, easiest, free thing."
