Get It Out

The Good China's new EP We Knew We Had To Leave is all about literal and figurative changes; the changing and moving on of people, places and times. It's a brief musical summary of what the band have experienced – collectively and individually – in the last three years since they released their debut EP, Old Maps/New Roads. In support of their debut, the band crammed into two station wagons and drove around playing shows in towns as varied as Sydney, Canberra, Geelong and Numurkah.

“I think we were a little bit exhausted at the end of that and ended up taking a little bit of time out,” says guitarist Ryan Mason. Their break turned out to be longer than any of them had anticipated. During that time, Mason explored Europe for three months and a few of his bandmates visited Japan. “We all scattered in different directions for a bit and then recharged, refreshed and came back together. The new EP is the end result of heading overseas and broadening our perspective on life and everything a little bit more, and getting a little bit older and wiser.”

Considering the band are essentially the product of eight strangers from different backgrounds, music tastes and technical proficiencies answering an online ad, they've evolved into something much more meaningful. “I definitely think The Good China is a priority for all of us, “ Mason continues. “It's something that we all come back to. It's the thing that makes us all really close friends now. A lot of us have lived with each other; it's been a really awesome journey to be able to not just be bandmates but to be really good mates. All of us would love to be able to be musicians, and that's the goal for everyone in a way, to do something you love.”

A useful thing about having so many members in the band is that inevitably each person will have other skills that can benefit the band as a whole. The Good China's new EP was produced and mostly recorded and engineered by guitarist/vocalist Nick “Nicko” McMillan. He lugged his laptop, hard drive and other equipment around to lay tracks down in several band members' houses. “It's all got a very transient vibe to it that's almost picked up in the songs being all about change and moving around,” says Mason. “Being able to record everything at our own pace was really good as well. And it's really expensive to record an eight-piece band if you're in the studio all the time!”

The wonderfully crafty music video for the EP's title track – in which the song's lyrics are represented through objects and strategically-placed writing – was also shot in McMillan and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist James 'Jag' Grech's South Yarra abode. Grech, who works at Guerrilla Creative, filmed, produced and edited the video with help from drummer Adam Horne. In contrast to being set in familiar territory, the song itself is about the alienating feeling that you no longer belong in certain places that were once so familiar and comforting. “There's the bars and clubs, even the suburbs and streets, all the sort of culture you experience in your early 20s and late teens,” Mason says. “Things move on and things change and that song is largely looking at a time that we remember fondly but it's quite different to what it used to be.”

The Good China launch We Knew We Had To Leave at Ding Dong Lounge this Saturday, and while the venue has transformed in appearance since the last time they played there, Mason is hoping its propensity for good times has remained the same. “It will be the first opportunity for any of our fans to get a copy of the EP; we're not launching it officially until a few days afterwards, so we really wanna be able to let the people in Melbourne who have supported us for a really long time now get a first crack at it.”

The Good China will be playing the following shows:

Saturday 27 October - Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne VIC
Friday 23 November - Beach Hotel, Byron Bay NSW
Saturday 24 November - Tempo Bar, Brisbane QLD