With their band over having undergone a long gestation period over the past four-odd years, the band’s frontman Joshua De Laurentiis and guitarists Tim Ware and Tom Voller are clearly eager for others to finally experience their debut offering. As Ware explains, the band went through “a lot of different sounds and ideas,” he says with a shake of the head.
“We wanted to make sure we had some kind of cohesive sound that worked and that we were happy with before we started playing live,” he continues. “Rather than be playing shows in front of people with no real direction or idea as to what we were trying to make.
De Laurentiis nods, adding, “We wanted to make sure we had a set full of songs that we were really proud of, that all had their own sort of interesting sensibility, I guess.
“You’re always gonna have grand dreams,” he continues, “of what your first show is going to be like or what your first year is going to be like, we just tried to make sure that the shows were in place so if somebody came along they could definitely say they heard some cool songs.” Voller grins, quietly adding “Without songs you don’t really have a good band, do you?”
It’s an obvious, but salient point. While Boy & Bear have been busying playing Crowded House songs, Fever Artiste have spent their past couple of years honing their sound into the razor-sharp detonation that’s on offer on Miami Girls, sporadically road-testing songs with the odd show, but spending most of their time furiously writing and rehearsing.
“We’ve never really been ones to jam things out,” admits Ware. “It’s more about coming up with the guts of the idea first, expanding on it and trying to not have all these things in the pie that take away from the focus of the songs.” De Laurentiis agrees, adding “It was about keeping the idea of ‘the band’ sort of cohesive.”
Which is one of the most immediate aspects of Miami Girls – Fever Artiste have seemingly arrived almost fully formed as a band, even though it’s their debut. From the opening drums of the title-track and through its stabbing guitars layered over the lounge-lizard vocals, onto It’s A Living’s propulsive drive and Getting Out’s scything melody lines, the EP sounds more indicative of a far more established band, rather than the opening salvo from an act kicking off.
The selection of these three songs in particular, had a lot to do with “feedback,” explains Ware, and focusing their time and money on getting their best three songs recorded as best they could. “As we wouldn’t be able to afford too much time – in terms of recording – we figured it’d be better to focus on just three songs, rather than doing four or five, and spreading ourselves and time too thin.”
The man at the production helm of bringing Fever Artiste to the ears of the wider populace was no less than Scott Horscroft, who’s been behind the desk with some of the biggest names in Australian music including Silverchair, The Presets, and has produced albums by Birds Of Tokyo, The Panics, Little Red and The Sleepy Jackson, among others. Going into Horscroft’s famed Big Jesus Burger studio in Sydney to record Miami Girls gave the band a unique experience to continue to build their identity on. “It was good,” grins Tom. “It was fun; the week was really cool.”
“His (Horscroft’s) name kept popping up,” explains De Laurentiis of the decision to record with Horscroft, “and he’d recently done the Little Red album (Midnight Remember), which was quite a departure from their previous stuff – because I always thought they were kind of twee, but then that record came out and it had a big step up in production. It was a much bigger sound and we thought that he could help us find something similar.
“We,” adds a nodding Ware, “learnt a hell of a lot about the recording process, and what to do and what not to do in the future.”
De Laurentiis agrees, explaining that “it came at a good time for us as a band, because of the way that the band’s formed… Tim and I have known each other since high school, we’ve got a history where we’re used to jamming and we know how to work together, whereas when you get people you may have only known for a few years in, it can take a little while to get that rapport going. That happens through shared experiences as well.”
Not, though, shared experiences like banging babes who hail from Miami. Miami Girls isn’t about nailing half-Cuban hookers while doing loads of blow and making it rain, then? “In short, no,” laughs Ware.
“It’s about lusting after the unattainable,” supplies De Laurentiis. “I think most of us find ourselves at a point in life when you aren’t happy and think there’s something better out there, but you completely idealise it. Then, if you finally get it, it isn’t quite what you were expecting. I just liked the way the words Miami Girls sounded while also representing that kind of ideal.”
As for the band trying to harness the pinpoint melodic accuracy of The Strokes with the vibrancy of The Hives, the mainidea for Fever Artiste is get across their idea of musical passion. “We like to think people would appreciate the songs because we have so much passion for songwriting ourselves, so I hope that people like it, because they’re decent songs,” Ware explains with shrug. “We want to write to exciting songs, and have people excited to hear them.”
With a “sweaty and dirty” launch for Miami Girls at The Grace Darling this Friday, the band’s plans revolve around simply focusing more on writing and putting out quality music. Or, the ‘opposite of what 30 Seconds To Mars would do’ plan.
“It took a long time to get it together and get it finished,” Ware considers, “so more recording, hopefully. We have a vision and a passion for our music, we just need to make sure we release it.”
“The most important thing,” reflects De Laurentiis, “is that the music is good. End of story.”
