Single Focus: The Royal Parks

Answered by: Dan Arnott - Songwriter & Manager

Single Title: Suburb Home

Label: Independent

In ten words or less, describe your sound: Indie-folk with three-part harmonies - dreamy and driving.

Give us a brief history of the band (or you if a solo artist) to this point: We have been playing under Dan & Amy as a folk duo for a couple of years, and decided to change the name of the band when we added the band. We've had a year of not playing many shows during recording, so we are excited for the year ahead.

Where did you record the single and why? Who did you work with recording it? We were lucky enough to have an incredible recording experience - legendary producer Noah Georgeson (Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold) offered to fly to Melbourne to produce our album after hearing demos. We recorded it in our home studio in Bayswater North, which Noah was totally in to.

Did you manage to roadtest the song live before recording? Did that have an effect on it at all? In what way? When you've been playing the same songs for a while it's hard to be objective - it was wonderful to have Noah come in and offer his thoughts.

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? In what way? Noah was incredible to work with. It was such a massive risk putting our faith (and lots of money) to fly him over but he couldn't have been more generous, open, friendly and supportive. He had a huge impact on the sound of the album.

Do you aim for perfection in the studio, or more feeling or vibe when deciding to use a take? It didn't take much time recording the band - but we did take time with vocals. Three-part harmonies can sound very bad when they aren't in tune, so we spent time getting good takes. There are tunes without harmonies where we did uninterrupted takes, so there is a balance.

When things aren't working what do you do to avoid recording? Noah thought Melbourne's coffee culture was pretty amusing - so we got pretty into extravagant coffee making when we needed a break. The height of this extravagance was a macadamia milk (homemade) latte. 

Is this going to be a standalone track, or is their an EP or album in the works? This is the first single off the album, which will be out early next year.

Are you launching it with a gig? If so, what are the details? 20 Nov, The Curtin. 

Website link for more info? facebook.com/events/1789115771375915