TRACER
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 15th September 2011.
With their debut album “Spaces In Between” released by Cool Green Recordings on Monday October 3rd, Australian power rockers are a band with a big buzz around them right now. We need no more reason than that to organise a chat, so we did just that.
Questions are answered by the band’s lead singer and guitarist, Michael Brown.
Before you get started you can listen to a couple of tracks below. You can download 'Too Much'.
Tracer - Spaces in Between by coolgreen
Hi Michael, thanks for taking a moment to answer these questions. Hope you are well?
Michael: Yeah. Everything’s happening at the moment. It’s a very exciting time for the band.
Tracer started back in 2004. How did the three of you get together?
Michael: Leigh and I (Mike) have been playing together since we were about 6 and then in high school we started playing with Dre in the Jazz Big Band. Very rock n roll huh? Leigh and I had a band called the Brown Brothers and one day the opportunity came along for Dre to fill the drumming position and we started writing our own tunes and called the band Tracer. That was about 10 years ago now!
Did you know what sound the band should have straight away, or did you let nature take its course and the sound develop organically?
Michael: Leigh and I got started on blues music and then in high school started to get into the Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam and Dre was big on Metallica at the time so the songs started to take on a more heavy rock sound. So, I guess it was more organic. We never set out to write specific sounding songs, they just come out the way they come out and then we decide if they’re cool enough once they’re done. I think “Spaces In Between” is probably the best representation of Tracer’s sound we have ever had.
Who would you list as the bands early influences?
Michael: There are so many but I guess early on it would’ve been Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, QOTSA and probably Kyuss too. Once we started on that 70’s and 90’s rock path we found all this great music and we keep looking for new music to inspire us and also just for the love of good music. I think the main thing we in the band look for in music is an honesty or real emotion in the songs.
When did you start work on latest album “Spaces In Between”?
Michael: We got back into Australia at the start of November 2010 and went straight into pre-production and writing for the album and I think we did most of the tracking in the second half of November and early part of December. We mixed through January and February 2011. Some of the songs are brand new but some, like “Walk Alone” was written in 2006 and we felt that it was a strong enough song to re-record for Spaces.
How does it compare to your earlier material in terms of sound and quality?
Michael: It’s far beyond what we’ve put out previously! We’ve always been sticklers for sound and tones but I think Spaces has really captured that loud and exciting vibe that we get live. We also worked with a different engineer for this one and used quite a lot of different gear. We recorded drums, bass and guitars to tape then did vocals and overdubs in Protools all using a bunch of analogue gear in the signal path. The mix was a hybrid of outboard gear and in-the-box. We like the character that analogue stuff brings to the table. We aren’t a clean and clinical band, we like the sound to be like a dirty pub. You know with remnants of last nights smoke in the air, sticky floors from spilt beer and a lingering smell of spew.
Where do you look for your lyrical and musical inspirations?
Michael: Usually I’ll come up with a line during a jam and build a story around that line and the song will take on that meaning. I like to try to hide personal messages or theories or philosophies in the songs I write too. But a song like “Too Much” is so in your face and straight up that I felt the lyrics should reflect that. Of course some of the songs are about girls and broken hearts but even those songs usually have a deeper meaning in them. All that hippy stuff being said, when Leigh was writing the lyrics for the song he sings, “Louder Than This” he asked what his inspiration should be and I think Dre and I said, the dirtiest, filthiest sex you’ve ever had…which I think is apt for the dirty groove of the song haha!
How do you go about writing songs? Talk us through the construction of a typical track...
Michael: It changes song to song but usually we’ll have some epic jams until one of us hooks onto a cool riff. Then we jam the shit out of it and try to create some sort of structure to the song with a chorus, verse etc. Usually at that point Leigh or I will have some sort of melody that fits over the top and we’ll just mumble some words over the top. Then once of us will go away and write the lyrics. That will give us the basic shell of a song and then we do our own pre-production and cut bits and add bits as necessary to get the song to really pop. Sometimes I’ll write an entire song by myself and say “here it is” but it always goes through the three of us to ditch all the boring bits and make the cool bits really feature.
Do you do anything special or unusual during the recording process to get your sound?
Michael: I’m not sure what a “usual” recording is. We only have one rule “If it sounds great, use it”. We don’t have a hard on for using just analogue gear, especially if something digital suits a particular part better. We so however spend a lot of time getting the sounds right before we hit the record button. This isn’t just soloing one thing and getting it to sound cool, it’s usually trying to make the bass sit well with the kick and making sure the guitars don’t take up all the room for bass and snare to have their own places in the mix. For most of Spaces we tracked Drums, bass and first rhythm guitars live in one room (one of our studio videos on YouTube shows this). We find we get more vibe when we all play together like that. If we get the sounds right from the start, we concentrate on getting great performances. Once we have great sounds and great performance, mixing almost takes care of itself.
What are your favourite moments on the album?
Michael: We have a strange connection with every part of this album. I mean, we have nurtured all the songs from infancy. So when someone hears the snare on “Too Much”, they just hear the snare, whereas we hear the first jam we had in my parents house, the hours of rehearsal, the two or three different snares we tried before settling on that particular one, the hours of getting the compression right and the remix to add more snare in the mix. I really like some of the magical moments that were one-offs in the studio. The slide part in Voice In The Rain after the first chorus where it trails off into reverb and it sounds like an eagle in a canyon was one of those moments. Also the solo in All In My Head wasn’t intended to be a solo but as we were recording I just decided to keep going and that’s what came out. I really enjoy Leigh’s song on the album (Louder Than This) because we tried some weird stuff like tuning a guitar low E string all the way down to A. We also used a bag full of rocks and two bits of wood slapping together for the start and it ended up sounding like a chain gang!
You have a UK tour lined up. Any shows in particular you are looking forward to?
Michael: Leigh and I are actually dual citizens of Australia and Great Britain and most of our family comes from Manchester, so it’ll be good to play there. I’ve also heard Scotland is a beautiful place so I’m looking forward to that. The thing I’m looking forward to the most is getting to play every night of the week. Can you think of a better job?
What’s a Tracer show like?
Michael: By the end of it your ears will be ringing and you’ll be sweaty, drunk, and probably pregnant.
We like to have fun on stage and play at 100% all the time, plus we have some party tricks that no other bands do as well.
What have been the highlights of your musical life so far?
Michael: The two European Tours have been a blast. The first one was really fun. All three of us slept in our van next to each other and it got really stinky and horrible but the adventure of touring Europe overshadowed all the uncomfortable stuff. We played kick arse shows in Germany, Holland, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Denmark and the UK all in three and a half months. We met a tonne of cool people and drank about the same amount of beer! Then on the second tour we signed to Dutch label Cool Green Recordings (Mascot) and things have been picking up since.
Any question you love being asked that I’ve missed? If so, what’s the answer?
Michael: Cactus
What are you up to once you’ve finished answering these questions?
Michael: I’ve actually quit my brain-deadening job so I’ve finally got some time to write and fix up all my guitars! I think today I’ll try to put together my pedal board for the tour. Is it weird that that excites me? What can I say I love everything about being in this band!
Anything else you would like to mention?
Michael: Midgets scare the shit out of me. Honestly, I’ll cross the road to get away from them. Nothing against midgets they just give me the heebie jeebies.
Thanks again to Michael for his time. Tracer’s debut album “Spaces In Between” will be released by Cool Green Recordings on Monday October 3rd. Thanks to BJ Wok for the photos.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tracer/20750412831
