Glass AnimalsAll four members of Glass Animals wander out through the doors of an inner city hotel pushing a bellboy trolley loaded with equipment. They look dishevelled, but still offer up smiles and wear sweaters on this sunny, 30-degree day. All of them are noticeably pale, but cute. Drummer Joe Seaward, sporting a Misfits t-shirt, quickly lights a cigarette on the pavement.
Once all their gear has been packed into the maxi-cab, it's all aboard and we're off to ABC Southbank Centre. En route, Glass Animals excitedly ask what Victoria's state animal is (this scribe shoulda known it is Leadbeater's possum) then make general enquiries about our flora and fauna. As the maxi-cab passes Melbourne Recital Centre, guitarist/keyboardist Drew MacFarlane and bassist/keyboardist Edmund Irwin-Singer recall having performed there as part of a choir a couple of years back. (They later tell me they were billeted in the affluent suburb of Canterbury with a lovely family who gave them a lot of freedom.)
After all the gear has been lugged into ABC's foyer, we're all lanyarded up and a friendly triple j cameraman ushers us through to the studio where Glass Animals will record their own single Gooey plus their choice of cover for Like A Version. Once inside the studio, we are greeted by an excited Alex Dyson from Breakfast With Matt & Alex, who informs us that, as of half an hour ago, Kanye West postponed his Australian tour. Glass Animals are set to perform a cover of West's Love Lockdown so their choice is accidentally serendipitous. Caroline's International Label Manager, who is visiting from the UK, does a happy dance.
It turns out the band's love of Yeezy goes way back. “Kanye's a pretty fricken cool guy,” frontman Dave Bayley gushes. “I got into him when he was doing production stuff, because he used to do a lot of production on Jay-Z records and I was like, 'Oh, who's making these beats?' And it was Kanye. And then he started rapping and he's just got this really amazing freedom of rhythm that a lot of producers and other rappers don't have… He's not afraid to push boundaries.
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“It's weird, I mean you sit down and you think about what he's doing, then you try to do it yourself and it just doesn't work, but somehow he pulls it off.” Seaward is equally enthusiastic about Kanye's production discography, singling out “a Pusha T track called Numbers On The Boards, which is just so cool – it's amazing.” So how do the pair feel about Kimye? They both laugh and Bayley enquires, “Do you feel like it's faked?” Um, a little bit. “'Cause I – am I allowed to say this?” Seaward steps in, “You're not allowed to say that.” His bandmate suddenly turns diplomatic: “I dunno anything about it. I don't sorta read tabloid stuff like that. I kinda just listen to the music.”
Seaward offers, “His kid's got a cool name, North West.”
