The Boat People: Curry Up.

The Boat People launch the Squeaky Clean EP at the Judith Wright Centre on Saturday.

In a van halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide, Brisbane The Boat People are examining the merits of Sydney cuisine. Good for what ails you.

“Touring is a great way to find out where the best kebabs are,” keyboardist and vocalist Robin muses. “There’s a concept we came across in Sydney that we’d never seen in Brisbane, which is the curry kebab. It’s basically Tandoori chicken wrapped in naan bread.”

The band’s fourth trip south since this time last year comes on the back of the recent release of their excellent Squeaky Clean EP, and the said disc gets an official home crowd send off this Saturday night.

“It’s tunes we’ve been developing live for the last year and a half,” he explains. “It’s more a mini album than an EP. We tried to put a lot of work into each song, rather than focus on one or two for radio.”

Squeaky Clean offers a polished performance seemingly beyond the band’s years, and obviously honed by extensive time on the road.

“I think recording’s about cataloguing where you are in your development, and I think our first EP did that, but I’m certainly more happy with the new one because we’ve learned so much, and the improvements are quite obvious.”

The recording process was somewhat unconventional for the six tracks that make up the new disc.

“We’re into a strong live relationship and a lot of interaction between the members which is reflected in the way we recorded the disc. It was quite different to the last one, and different to a lot in general. We all got into a room together at the same time, and we had a rule that if any member wasn’t happy with their take, everyone had to do it again rather than overdub parts. That was there was more spontaneity that way.”

“It’s just like playing live, but you can do the whole thing again, but you still maintain that interaction with everyone. It had it’s frustrations, like someone would play one note wrong and the rest of the take would be the golden child, but in the end we decided not to go back on that promise to ourselves, and I think it really paid off.”

As even a casual listen to Squeaky Clean will attest.