Energy Circles

It's taken more than a decade, six EPs, plenty of address changes and an unrelenting quest for perfection for McSweeney and The Red Paintings to get to the precipice of their debut studio record.

“I had a vision and kept remixing the album around the world, and what should have cost $40,000 ended up costing $238,000 and put us in serious debt,” he reveals. “But I've also had an incredible fanbase that have stood by me and helped me survive – I've got a community of Red Painting people that are just phenomenal. I've never paid for rent in America [his current home], they've just protected my best interests and kept me going. It seems like people don't want me to stop, like, I get in situations where I think it's over, I've done everything I can do and financially I'm completely screwed and I've given my all, and then I'll get a call or an email and next thing you know we're going along again – we're still running. We've been really lucky.”

McSweeney formed The Red Paintings in 1999 after suffering an intense seizure and developing colour-sound synesthesia, a condition where senses bleed into and affect each other. Since then, the bombastic art rock group have developed somewhat of a cult following domestically and overseas, however, their grandiose vision has never been captured on a full-length album. McSweeney admits that it was trial and error up until this point, and that it needed to be, so he could master all the techniques, tricks and twists that have gone into The Revolution Is Never Coming.

“It's like you don't know how to fix a car until it breaks down and you've got no money to fix it, and then every time your car breaks down you know how to fix it, you save some money and you get on with the job quicker,” McSweeney relates. “I guess that's the same with all things in life, and that's what this album did for me – it was a learning experience.”

Based in Los Angeles for a number of years now, the quintet have avoided the brightly lit bullshit of the city to continue forwards on their unique musical journey. “As an artist, it's good to get out of the norm and get out of your comfort zone, because if you don't do that then you're stuck in this place where you're not really developing your art – you're not really mastering your craft. It's those huge risks, at the end of the day, which I think do that. I always take those huge risks, and I always survive and I'm always in a better place than I was before.”

And in keeping with tradition, a variety of inspired artists will help introduce Australian audiences to The Red Paintings' exciting new songs.

“I am always looking for people that show passion in their art and that are trying to come up with something new, and it's not just a line on a piece of paper,” McSweeney states. “But if it is a line on a piece of paper, then I'll usually ask why they drew that, and if that response connects with me then I'll be like, 'Hell yeah, get up on stage'. I want to have intensity on stage – that makes our shows so much more powerful. It's a fragment of time that fits the moment – this person's listening to us and we're playing our music as hard, fast and crazy as we can, and they've got fourty-five minutes to put it all out there. It really creates this intense circle of energy.”

The Red Paintings will be playing the following shows:

Friday 21 September - The Tempo Hotel, Brisbane QLD