65daysofstatic: ‘The xx Can Get Us Down’

28 December 2012 | 12:25 pm | Scott Fitzsimons

Post-rock band admits fast-track success of indie bands can be hard to stomach

More 65daysofstatic More 65daysofstatic

Soon to make their first Australian appearances, UK post-rock outfit 65daysofstatic have admitted that it's no easy ride as a post-rock band – and that the fast-tracked success of bands like The xx can be hard to stomach.

In an interview with Sydney's own post-rock band sleepmakeswaves for theMusic.com.au, the UK act's guitarist Paul Wolinski went into the mindset of being a band in the relatively niche genre, including its habit of being sluggish to promote its own.

Lauded as an incredibly hard working band, Wolinski said, “Thing is, if you're a band who's made it to the next rung of the ladder; if you're The xx or something, then I imagine that you easily do more than 100 shows over the course of a year because there's this network in place – and your fanbase. It's this huge machine and someone needs to oil that machine so it becomes this huge, world-spanning endeavour. By that token, I don't think we work harder than bands like that, who really are doing it all the time.

“If you're a band like 65, none of that network is in place. So to achieve anything close to that, you've got to do so much more. Not just the four of us, but for a long time there's been a very small inner circle with a manager and Monotreme records, a couple of press people, our booking agent; about seven people. All of us together pushed it to be able to start touring like that in the back of transit vans around Europe. So it does feel like hard work. But then we get to be in a band and it's our jobs! So why wouldn't you work hard?”

Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter

Bands can rise to prominence much quicker in other genres, but Wolinski admitted, “We try not to get competitive about things. When we were younger, it did feel like that because you'd see so many bands breezing past you that you used to tour with or might have supported you. I think at one time The xx were supposed to have supported us. Six months later they'd won the Mercury Prize [laughs].

“It can get you down if you let it, but at the same time plenty of bands have taken that short-cut route and become the hyped buzz band of the moment – and then disappeared. You come to realise that it's impossible to generalise. Some bands will manage to build a fanbase very quickly but unless they are actually a good band, they're not going to maintain it.”