On Being On Spanish TV News, Psychic Links & Australian Arrogance

Sun God Replica's Link McClennan is hungover from a night of "recording a new EP and drinking a lot", but with good friend and producer Loki Lockwood at the helm, things couldn't be going smoother.

"He worked with us on the last two Sun God Replica albums - actually you mastered the first one too didn't you?" he calls out to a nearby Lockwood. "He's my man. I keep saying this but he's pretty much a member of the band."

Forging their relationship over years of working together, McClennan and Lockwood have kept with the trend on SGR's latest offering, Grandular Fever.

"We spent countless days going over it with a magnifying glass, just sonically filling all the gaps and making sure it was lush and warm, but not also dull."

"You get a kind of psychic link. You know how the other person works and thinks and stuff like that." McClennan adds, "With any recording there's always something you're not happy with. I can't think of anyone, bar maybe Metallica, who are 100% happy with what they've done. So it's been an evolution.

"We were adamant that we weren't going to leave any stone unturned with this record, and we didn't. We spent countless days going over it with a magnifying glass, just sonically filling all the gaps and making sure it was lush and warm, but not also dull. It's a lot of work. I find it a really draining process, but if I'm going to be doing it I wanna do it with Loki." "He's sitting right here and he's looking all embarrassed," McClennan throws in cheekily.

Along with Lockwood, the band have also reunited with photographer Emma-Jane Johnson to turn the band into hipster shaman kings for the cover of the new album.

"I gave Emma-Jane a rough idea of what I wanted - the feel and all that - but then she just took it to another level. It's so over the top, it's great. It's got a real kind of bombastic '70s funk kind of feel about it. It wasn't the type of thing I was going for initially, but again it just kind of evolved. Now we just wanna keep working with her. She's a real talent. So now we've got a team, you know?

Recently, SGR have also been fortunate with plenty of success at home and abroad. The trio have been receiving extended airtime overseas, especially in Europe, and McClennan attributes it to a very special source.

"My partner, she does all the publicity for that - she's amazing. She got us on the news in Spain, which is crazy. It's really weird to see your band on the news with a Spanish newsreader saying, 'Espanol blah blah blah Sun God Replica!' You'd never get that back here."

McClennan also admits that the band's welcome internationally comes as a long tradition for Aus rock acts, saying, "There's something about our attitude and demeanour that just translates overseas. Here you don't get to be - dare I say - arrogant. The audiences are a lot more scrupulous. You definitely get away with more overseas." McClennan continues, "There are guys [in Europe] that know more about the history of Aus rock than anyone else I've met. They're obsessed with it. You end up on the other side of the world talking about people most guys back home haven't even heard of. That's transcendentalism for you."