He’s tired, but clearly elated. “It was great,” he enthuses, speaking of the tour. “We got back just last night. We’re in recovery mode. It was our first experience of touring and it’s a big learning curve, especially because we’re managing everything between the two of us. The shows went really well though – there was a good turn out, the feedback has been great and the bands we played with were amazing. It was really fun.”
The other half of Boyeur is Tim Ischia. Middleton and Ischia have been mates since primary school and bring quite different musical influences to the table. “I’m primarily a violinist,” Middleton confirms. “Classical music was a pretty big part of my upbringing and it’s where I got my training. It’s still there every now and then. Say with the string quartet – that’s a huge part of the recording and you’ll get to see it on stage at The Workers Club. I’m psyched about that full live thing. On the other hand, Tim grew up on blues and pop, while I just had a secret love of pop. His guitar heroes are Hendrix and Clapton – that definitely comes out in what he brings to the band.”
Musically, the process leading to the EP was disciplined and thorough. “We started a blog about a year beforehand,” Middleton discloses. “It was a very intensive process. We didn’t get much feedback, but that wasn’t really the point. We weren’t looking to grow an audience. It was more about forcing us to constantly create. We knew little at the start about what we wanted the band to look like. We scheduled posting every day. It was like a job that way. We started out broadly and the music we were making was very different. We were posting videos and photos and writing about conversations that we were having about music. It was an awesome melting pot and then we distilled. What we wanted was getting closer and closer and clearer and clearer.”
This process led to the sound that they have today. “Our sound is hip hop beats and strings,” Middleton says. “We’re built on foundations of hip hop and chamber music. That’s how we see the band. We see it resting on those foundations and its character and personality comes from there. It’s definitely not an unheard type of thing. Kanye used strings heavily and so do Hilltop Hoods. It works very well, that tonal pairing. We knew that we loved that sound whenever we heard it.”
According to Middleton, the pairing of strings and pop will reward the careful listener. “Gold Street is a very dense recording,” Middleton observes. “The challenge was making the ideas heard and I think most of the important ones are. There are still some gems that you can just hear … or may be you can’t, but that’s cool because it will stick out more live. You’ll get a different experience live.”
Finally, Middleton is happy to expand on the rationale behind the band’s name, which has been the subject of some discussion. “From the beginning, we wanted a word that was a blank slate,” Middleton reflects. “We wanted a word that didn’t mean anything. Subsequently, in conversation we came across the word ‘Boyars’. I’m no expert, but I believe it was used to describe a group of Russian aristocracy. Then, more recently, we find out it’s a derogative term. That’s kind of cool though, that it has those two meanings. It’s all about dualities. Our sound is hip hop and strings. Also, it looks nice on paper.”
BY MEG CRAWFORD
