My Disco
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My Disco

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In the middle of October My Disco will join Shellac for the latter’s appearance at this year’s Melbourne International Arts Festival. “I’ve only seen them once when we were in Chicago, which was pretty cool to see them in their hometown, and now we get to play with them in our hometown,” Andrews says.

Having travelled to Chicago to record the band’s 2008 album, Paradise, with Albini, as well as recording a few tracks from last year’s Little Joy, Andrews agrees it’s interesting to compare Albini the producer, sorry engineer, with Albini that stage performer. “Producer is a bit of no-no term with him – he sees himself as an engineer,” Andrews says. “On stage, he’s got a bit of an angst thing about him. But essentially he’s just a relaxed dude who’s pretty approachable, and that comes across when he’s playing live, because Shellac these days is pretty much like a comedy routine as much as it is a rock band. So he’s pretty transparent for the most part.”

The show with Shellac, and a string of east coast headline shows immediately prior, will see My Disco launch the band’s new 12”. Featuring two new tracks and a couple of remixes courtesy of Justin Broderick (Godflesh) and Factory Floor, the 12” offers a brief entree for My Disco’s next record, notionally slated for the middle of 2014. “The 12” just came about coincidentally,” Andrews says. “Liam (Andrews, Ben’s brother and My Disco bass player) is living in London at the moment, and he came back in March and April for a tour we did of Australia and south-east Asia, and we just so happened to write these songs at that time. We just tracked it and recorded it, and the label was really into the new jam, so we thought lets put out a 12”.” 

The decision to ask Factory Floor and Justin Broderick to remix a couple of My Disco tracks came about through a combination of the existing friendships, and the band’s US label’s influence. “We’d been friends with Factory Floor for a few years, and we’d played with them a couple of times in London,” Andrews says. “They’re really good people, and we’d stayed in touch. They’re really busy at the moment, but we just wrote them and they were still happy to help out. With the Justin Broderick remix, that came about through the label. Jeremy is good friends with him, and Godflesh. Both remixes sound completely different, which I think is really good.”

While My Disco has kept up a very rigorous touring schedule over the past few years, last year matters came to a head when Andrews’ brother Liam was involved in a traffic accident on the eve of My Disco’s Australian tour. For a band that had already endured life-threatening illness, and having bags stolen while on tour in Canada in 2009, Liam’s accident continued a string of bad luck. It also provided a brief moment of respite while Liam recovered. “We haven’t had the best luck as a band,” Andrews says. “We had to cancel a whole Australian tour after that happened. And we’d been working towards the American tour for about a year or so, and we just managed to do it – Liam had just got out of hospital, and had just recovered. So there was a period of time when we could have done nothing, but we went ahead with it as usual.”

While Andrews says My Disco has managed to develop a loyal following in Malaysia and, to a lesser extent, Singapore and Indonesia, at this stage there aren’t any definite plans to head into China to take advantage of the increasingly lucrative Chinese rock market. “We’ve been offered full tours of China, including Hong Kong,” Andrews says. “It feels like it could be good, but after all the touring we’ve done, maybe it could be the bad parts of China. I’m not sure I really want to fly domestically in China and long train journeys,” he laughs. 

My Disco plans to reconvene in Melbourne in early 2013 to begin work on its fourth album. “[The new album] seems to be along the loose structure ideas of what’s on the 12”,” Andrews says. “It’s a bit slower, with a bit more ambient sound to it, not quite as fierce as we’ve had it in the past. The songs aren’t really written as much, just jammed out, especially guitar wise.” 

Andrews doesn’t think the label of ‘math rock’ has much resonance for My Disco; he prefers the descriptions offered by the band’s overseas fans.  “I really like the way we get described in countries where English isn’t the first language, like ‘hypnotic post-punk trance’. Most of it is pretty funny, and they often capture the sound better than English speakers,” Andrews says.

BY PATRICK EMERY