In Bloom

'Taking a break' and 'changing direction' are two terms in the music industry that fill one with instant trepidation. Sydney-based rock outfit Regular John found themselves offering both as they lost a guitarist and contemplated their future. They return with Strange Flowers after three years in the veritable wilderness, and much has changed. Case in point is album opener Sky Burial – what with its heavy organ and squalling guitar outro, it is safe to say that the ball-tearing stoner rock that the quartet dipped their toes in back in the mid-2000s has been left behind in favour of a much more diverse sonic palette. Yet the '70s psychedelic flourishes weren't something that the band were actively changing when they sat down to write their new material.

“There was one song that Cal [Caleb Goman, bass] initiated and we worked on that extensively, and I consider that one to have a King Crimson influence coming through – I think we called it Green in tribute to their album Red – but nothing was particularly referenced for the rest of the songs,” guitarist and vocalist Ryan Adamson states. “Cal does love his '70s stuff, but we are all big, big music fans across the board. So there was nothing overtly conscious, we just wanted to use the best ideas that came to us and I guess that's what won out.”

The problem with such influences appearing in certain songs is that labels will be slapped on the entire album without giving each individual track its due. A good example is single Slume, an excellent slowburner of a track and stand-out song on the album that nevertheless has been stated to bear witness to the likes of Syd Barrett and Led Zeppelin.

“To me Slume is very close to my heart, and to me it's the closest I'll probably ever get to writing a country song, just muddied up and covered in feedback,” Adamson asserts. “It's certainly more in that realm. People will pick up what they assume from what they hear, and no one may pick this up other than me, but the bass line to me always makes me feel the same way that TV On The Radio does. Now I'm not saying they're country, but the emotion that they can create… We are all huge music fans, and I think it comes through a lot more on this record, I don't think there are easy labels [this time around]. We have made a big tangent from our last album, and we've had someone leave the band, so we don't have to simplify our ideas as much anymore.”

Strange Flowers as an album is a fully immersive affair, a cohesive whole that absorbs influences and styles rather than pinches from them; it's sponge-like rather than a collage of sounds. Such a result may surprise those that have been fans of the band when they burst out of Marrickville back in 2004. From their namesake (an early Queens Of The Stone Age song) to debut album The Peaceful Atom Is A Bomb in 2009, Regular John have been thrown into the stoner-rock arena, something that Adamson doesn't necessarily disagree with, but feels it is a very narrow-minded way of looking at any music, let alone his own.

“We have always had that label, and I still love belting out riffs like that, but I've never been interested in only making that kind of music,” Adamson admits. “Once upon a time that could have been it, my bread and butter, but if you love music, really love it, you can't restrict yourself to just one thing. Me and Caleb, well he is my best friend in the whole world, [he is] my main collaborator, and we've always dreaded the word 'maturity'. But to be honest I think it's more about knowing what you are doing, and this time around I think our writing is a bit more esoteric, a lot more personal both lyrically and dynamically. This stuff breathes; it's loud, it's quiet, it's a lot more human. For that reason it's a lot easier to relate to.”

The boys chose to work once more with Tim Powles (The Church) for the recording of the album, but the epiphany that they had reached in regards to their music extended into the studio to the point that even he was approaching things from a different direction. “The biggest difference, and there were a few, was that Caleb and I were really adamant that we use the studio as a tool as well. Ever since I was about 17 I have been into recording; I would find any spare time at home to fuck around with a four-track and pedals, and around the time we started writing this stuff I really got into analogue synths and I bought a lot of them. I have always kept these influences separate from the band, but after gaining more confidence in myself and what the band is capable of I thought that I should try and do what I have always done at home, but in the studio. I wanted to be involved in finding texture, of finding the right sounds, and Tim was really accommodating and helpful in allowing for that to happen.”

The extended period away from the harsh light of media and audience expectations and opinion has helped to fuel the reinvigoration that permeates Strange Flowers, and while it wasn't an overly planned move Adamson agrees that being left to their own devices has helped shape Regular John into something that they are collectively comfortable with. “We were at a stage where we weren't sure if we wanted to play music anymore, and that was a fucking scary notion for us all,” Adamson stresses. “For us music is the escape, it was the beautiful thing in our lives, and we were at the point where we wanted to escape from the escape. I would rather die than live like that, it was a really heavy thing. So when I came back to it and to feel the beauty of it all over again, it was a giant relief but also really reaffirming. I don't think that Strange Flowers is as dramatic a change as some might think, because I can hear where the first album landed in parts of these songs, so I think that having that time off to take stock and have a proper think about what it is that music does for me made it easier to see where to cut back and refine things. There was a new energy, and we were determined not to compromise but instead make decisions where we saw fit. Things were allowed to be different; that idea seemed totally valid.”

Regular John will be playing the following shows:

Friday 21 September - Enigma Bar, Adelaide SA
Saturday 22 September - Toff in Town, Melbourne VIC
Friday 28 September - Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 29 September - The Northern, Byron Bay NSW
Friday 5 October - The Patch, Wollongong NSW
Saturday 6 October - Transit Bar, Canberra ACT
Friday 12 October - Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle NSW
Saturday 13 October - Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW