Premiere: Meet The Empty Threats and their new single, Sanity Russel

If you're yet to properly acquaint yourself with Adelaide outfit The Empty Threats, allow us to catch you up to speed. Over the last two years, the Adelaide ensemble have grown to become local favourites in their live music circuit, praised by South Australian icons West Thebarton as one of their favourite Adelaide-based acts, and sharing stages with everyone from The Babe Rainbow to The Vanns. Their music, meanwhile, is adjacent to the psych-laden indie of Tame Impala and King Gizz, packaged in a unique way that feels distinctly that of The Empty Threats - almost as if they've taken some of the genre's best bits, jammed it with their own sounds, and made this polished new direction.

It's something evident on their latest single Sanity Russel, which bursts right out the gates with a dizzying combination of guitar riffs and frenzied percussion that really sets it out strong. From here, the track combines this sound with moments - verses - more punchy and vocal-driven, channelling a few different flavours as they attempt new songwriting methods and welcome new sounds that come with it. It's a step in the right direction for the band who, coming off the release of a sound-expanding debut EP earlier this year, are now presenting something more heaving; guitar riffs beefed up, percussion made more frantic, vocals more catchy and instrumental-cutting.

It arrives with an official video directed by Oscar Westell - which you can watch below - and a single launch at Adelaide's Crown and Anchor Hotel on July 28th (more info HERE), but in the meantime, dive into video and introduce yourself to the band as they make themselves one to watch with Sanity Russel:

Tell us about yourself?

We’re a five-piece from all around Adelaide made up of Stuart Patterson on Vox/Clarinet, Matt Schultz on Guitar, Katie Pomery on Vox/Guitar, Michael Bond on Drums, and Lenny Regione on Bass.

What’s the vibe music-wise?

We’ve all got pretty different musical backgrounds and we all take inspiration from different artists. I think some pretty consistent themes might compare to Tame Impala, Joy Division, Pond and INXS.

We’re all big fans of long songs that evolve from something small and gentle and explode in the final moments, that makes it a little difficult when we record because a seven-minute epic isn’t always exactly radio-ready. We try and push a bit of that ecstatic psychedelic style similar to early Tame Impala, and of course, experiment where we can.

What are your production and writing processes like?

Writing is for us is very collaborative, we’ve tried writing our own songs and bringing them to the group but it’s never felt as cohesive as when we all just write together. It normally starts with a big long jam on one idea, which often evolves into something completely different to where we started, and then we structure it around Stuart’s lyrics.

A lot of our finalising of a song in terms of structure and sonics come in the recording and mixing of it. Since, we’ve started recording in-house we’ve taken more time to make sure the song is sitting right before we settle on the structure, just because we don’t have the pressure of a deadline or a budget.

Can you tell us about your new single, Sanity Russel?

Sanity Russel is somewhat new territory for us, we really tried to use some interesting and different production techniques. It’s also probably the most high-energy release we’ve put out, it’s a bit of a response to the frustrations of being an artist in the modern world. We filmed a music video that tries to capture that type of asylum experience.

Any tour dates coming up?

We’re playing our Adelaide launch show on the 28th of July at the Crown and Anchor as part of ‘Neon Dreams’. It’s a free show and it’ll be a great night with some of Adelaide’s best acts playing on 2 stages.

What does 2019 have in store for you?

We’ve just been back in the studio recording some new material, so some more music should not be far away. Hopefully we’ll tour the new ones later in the year!

Where can we find more of your music?

We’re on all major streaming platforms, you can download a copy of our music on Bandcamp, and you can view our music video on YouTube.

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