Interview - Gangsterland Working beautifully The Sydney-based four-piece (who used to be a three-piece), bluebottle kiss, have a new EP out in the form of the wonderful gangsterland. With a tour starting up with new labelmates Pollyanna in the very near future, frontman Jamie Hutchings recently talked the talk, before he begins to walk the walk.

With a new label on board for the bluebottle kiss boys, Jamie is obviously excited by the prospect of the way things are going to go from here on in. It's very hard to get a label these days, but we're in a really good position now because the label's independent and new, and everyone's very excited about it. Everyone has been aware of our stuff for years and years, and they're all very encouraging, and Shock's distributing it and they're a pretty big distributor, and everything's the best it's ever been for quite a while. Will the new album come out this year? I don't know, I'd hope so, but I just don't know. It may be another single, and then the album comes out early next year. I'd like it to come out this year, but it really depends on a lot of factors. Being a songwriter I just want to keep being productive, but everyone wants it to reach it's full potential and to be a bit more strategic about the way things come out, and everyone's a bit worried about putting albums out at the end of the year because it gets lost in Christmas presents and compilation albums. I think it's difficult to get it in your more commercial stores as well, because a lot of the commercial stuff gets priority.  With Ben Grounds new to the band on bass (Ben Fletcher moving to guitar), do you feel almost like a different band? It's sort of given, from my perspective, it's given me an opportunity to utilise an extra instrument with the knowledge that you can also use it live. With patient, we were playing really well as a three-piece at the time, and I thought we'd reached a peak as to how we were playing live, and it was that energy that we wanted to get on tape ­ plus there were huge budget and time constraints at the time. We went out and thought that with these limitations we'd make a really raw, but well recorded, live sounding record, and compared to earlier releases where I'd experimented a lot with other instruments and guitars and so forth, I thought it was better to represent what the band was doing at that point, whereas now, because we've had more time and we've got an extra member, it opens your musical palette up a bit more to embellish things and make things a bit moreŠput a bit more ear candy in there. That's the advantage of having Ben Grounds on bass and Ben Fletcher moving to guitar. Has any of Ben Fletcher's songs made it onto this record, or are they all being held off for his own band? Well, he's got his own band now, so I don't think he'd be really too interested in putting his songs on bluebottle kiss [records]. It's strange I guess ­ there was probably no reason why Ben couldn't start to introduce his songs into the rehearsal room with us, but I think he wasn't really comfortable doing it. I think he felt his style was a little bit different to what he was doing with us, because with a lot of Ben's songs I wouldn't be able to help but putting a bluebottle kiss slant on it which would probably change things a bit, and I think he naturally goes for a sweeter sound when he does his own stuff, so it's probably more appropriate for him to do his own stuff, and have control over his own material. It gives him power to do it and do exactly what he wants, and I think he wouldn't be as comfortable doing it within bluebottle kiss. That's just the way it goes. What about your solo material? Oh no, I've put that in the too hard basket! I wanted to put it out this year, but kind of now that the bluebottle kiss stuff has happened. My record hasn't got a label and I'm not totally finished with it. It's been a pretty hard record to make, because it's a pretty subjective experience just making [a solo album].  Do you feel like a perfectionist? I don't really like perfect music, but I think in terms of what I'm trying to achieve, yeah. I'm not a perfectionist in terms of making a record that sounds like Travis or Coldplay or anything. For me, I understand how people like it, and for me, I think some people who like it might like bluebottle kiss music too, but I understand why bands like Augie March and art of fighting are doing well, because there's a crossover section of people that like that thing. Tom Waits is probably a perfectionist, but his stuff sounds totally chaotic and he obviously works very hard to get it to sound like that. The biggest problem I have with making records is making stuff cohesive, I just dip my brush in too many inkpots when I write. In many ways, bluebottle kiss have almost become a deliberately difficult band on their albums. With their EP's, it's a bit easier to listen to because they're shorter, sweeter, and generally more cohesive. With gangsterland's guitar pattern reappearing on almost every song, does it feel as if it's somehow easier to focus more on an EP, when you know there's only going to be five or so songs? I really think it's really just harder for a listener to absorb us over a long period than it is over a shorter period, and I think we can make five songs work together easier than we can make twelve songs work together. But patient, I agree, is our most cohesive record to date. We worked really hard post-recording to make that happen ­ when we were recording we were really aware of editing ourselves, and it was easy to do because we had not as much time, but in the interim between finding a label ­ which was a really long time, over six months ­ and I just mucked around continually, mucking around with track sequences and also doing a lot of field recordings. There's a lot of, you know, noise segues on that record, trains and things, that I put there to make things kind of have some cohesion, which is why that record probably works the best in terms of listening experience. We'll have the same problems again with this record ­ there's fourteen songs, and I think it's probably a good idea [to edit it down], but it is very difficult to take it down because there isn't really any weak parts. Any time I suggest it, someone in the band's like Œ oh no, you can't take that one off!', so it is pretty difficult. It's good to have an abundance of good material, but it does pose a problem in that regard. How was it recording with Jack Endino again? That was fantastic. It was better than doing fear of girls actually. It's really weird ­ unlike what you'd expect, he's really stayed loyal to the band, he's always stayed in contact with us, which is strange for a guy who doesn't have to, and when we told him we were going over there [to America], he was like Œ come up here, and we'll record again', and he seems to be really proud of the work he's done on fear of girls. It is too long, and it's not like there's any real weak moment on it, but it goes for too long and it is a bit draining, and a quarter of it should be taken out and done as an EP, but we just didn't have time to work that out [when they made the record]. It was just really nice to go up there, and he was just really accommodating, and really keen to see us again, and talking about the stuff he'd done on that record and that he was really proud of it and that he really liked the band, and I think he'd sort of listened to the record after he'd done it and just really got to like the band. We're kind of become really good friends, but when we were there again it was just really good. He recorded us for free, which was really good and he just never does, and he was just really enjoying it. He recorded all night with us, and he just got all his gear out of this semi-trailer ­ all his drums, his amplifiers, everything ­ and let us use his shower and whatever we had to do and he was just really enthusiastic about it, and he's just a great engineer. He really captures the sound, and he gets some of the best guitar sounds I've heard. gangsterland's the last recording as a three-piece, and he just got a really great guitar sound on 'lover's tiff'. All that late '80's, early '90's stuff he did, the real grunge stuff, he did it all on eight-track, and the stuff he did with us was on a sixteen-track, and the way he made it sound was just fantastic. The band are due to hit the road with Pollyanna on a tour very, very soon, with gangsterland out now. Check out their website for further details. www.bluebottlekiss.com Bluebottle Kiss - Gangsterland (EP) nonzero/Longshot Records Rating: 87% There's little doubt that Sydney group bluebottle kiss ­ who have become a four-piece since the recording of this EP, with Ben Grounds joining on bass and Ben Fletcher moving to guitar ­ are one of the more esoteric acts to come out of Australia in the last ten years. Nominally difficult, their new EP gangsterland has a decidedly Œ spaghetti western' feel to it, with Jamie Hutchings' guitar work bringing to mind the soundtrack material of Ennio Morricone. The title track here is a powerful, immediate number, with Richard Coneliano laying down some drumwork while Hutchings' guitar creates spindling effects, bringing to mind tumbleweeds and desert landscapes in America. Is it any surprise, then, that the majority of gangsterland was recorded in America, with the title track at Royaltone and Indigo Ranch in California by Zak and Krevis with James Hale. It's the other two new tracks here that are really worth mentioning ­ 'lover's tiff' and 'everything is wearing me out' were both recorded by Jack Endino (most famous for recording early Sup-Pop acts), who worked on the band's awesome and diverse fear of girls release. Of the five tracks on gangsterland, there's only one which sticks out like a sore thumb and doesn't really fit, and that's the live version of 'give up the ghost', taken from a show at the Newton RSL in Sydney. It sticks simply because it's not nearly as crisply recorded as the three tracks that precede it, or the masterful live on Triple J version of 'ice on the road', which goes for a massive ten minutes. This is the track that will have bbk-ophiles wetting themselves with anticipation and eagerness, a masterful version of a magnificent song. It also fits nicely again with the overall theme of the recordings, with Jamie's guitar resonating throughout.

There's little doubt that gangsterland raises the anticipation for bluebottle kiss's fourth record ­ due out either later in 2001, or more likely early in 2002 ­ once again. They're a band who seem to go away for some time ­ in this case, overseas, to record and tour ­ and then reappear with another excellent release in their mitts.

Gangsterland follows on from fellow excellent EPs Double Yellow Tarred (still possibly the best release the boys have ever managed, and up there with the great Australian releases of the 1990's), somnambulist homesick blues and tap dancing on the titanic as being an excellent addition to their fine catalogue.