Palladium: Fashion Sense.

Palladium play The Zoo on Friday.

After an extended break, Brisbane welcomes Palladium back to the live stage this Friday night. Other than an abridged set at M-One, the band have not played a hometown gig since mid year, and although this Friday’s show was originally being held to launch the band’s new EP Everybody Loves New Fashion, the disc will now be kept out of stores until early next year. But it does present a fine opportunity to catch our of Brisbane’s finest acts doing what they do best, and sample their new wares before they take off on the airwaves.

The band’s drummer Chris and bassist Justin muse on the differences in the band

Compared to their long-playing debut Sister Flute & The Sunday Best. While Sister Flute took in the band’s entire past, their new recordings seem more focuses an driving. Palladium are stretching out, and finding their real musical feet.

Chris: “We’re heading down a more rock path, but we’re still progressing as a band. All the writing has been done in stages over the last five months.”

Justin: “The idea of the EP, I suppose, is a stepping stone to where we are heading. A kind of stepping-stone to finding more of our own sound. We’ve been writing and demoing for about eight months. So it’s an indication of where we’re heading. It’s a step away from the classic pop or classic rock we had on Sister Flute, our debut.”

What have you guys been listening to at the moment? Do you think it’s influencing the directions you’re taking now?

Justin: “Definitely a lot of newer albums like Queens Of The Stone Age, things like that. But we’ve still got a lot of influences in our sound from a lot of stuff from the sixties and the seventies. But there’s a lot of newer rock albums that are really breaking ground. Queens, the Foo Fighters. It’s always good to get inspiration from things that are breaking new ground.”

Are you still happy with the directions you took on Sister Flute a bit over a year on?

Chris: “We’re still very proud of it, you know. It was where we were at the time. Some of the songs were written a couple of years beforehand.”

“It’s nice to be playing some new songs,” Justin chuckles. “That’s for sure. Lat year we toured for a year and we played those songs the whole time. It’s nice to get onto some fresh stuff.”

Anything you’d be happy not to play again.

“Good Girl,” they both laughs before Justin continues. “Not is a major way, but they’re all had their run, I reckon.”

Was their much on the last record that was still around from your earlier incarnation?

“Our previous name was Earthwood. That was our hippie kind of phase,” Chris explains. “Long hair, lots of pot. I think Good Girl was originally recorded back in 1999, and we re-recorded it for the album.”

What have been the highlights of the past year’s touring experiences?

Chris: “That first tour we did with the Superjesus and Eskimo Joe, that’s up there with the best tour. It’s right up there. Touring with two great bands that play great songs. It was six weeks long, really good people, and it makes things a whole lot easier. It was like a big party, shows up to 1000 people every night. Towards the end of the tour our show just improved immensely, just from playing sets every night.”

“I think the Midnight Oil shows we did we really good as well, because you expect to get the crowd chanting ‘Midnight Oil’ during the support band, but it didn’t happen. The first tour was really intimidating, but by the time the second tour came around we felt we’d won them over, so to speak. We felt really lucky not to get that.”

So how do you go about winning over someone else’s crowd like that?

“Justin: “You just have to get in and do what you do. Even when you’re not supporting, playing on your own with not many people in the room. Stuck at some rural town with like 20 punters in there. They’re really character building, those ones. It’s doesn’t matter how many people are in the room, if you win them over then it will double next time,” he pauses, laughing. “That’s what we’re hoping, anyway.”