It was a world-class performance, standing out as a weekend highlight even compared to international headliners. While it was one of the weekend’s finest moments, the set could well have been the makings of Australian festival legend with a planned special guest appearance.
A few months later, core Client Liaison members Monte Morgan and Harvey Miller are hanging out in their Melbourne CBD HQ – sitting in a corner of the expansive warehouse, surrounded by smatterings of paraphernalia complementary to the band’s aesthetic. Today’s agenda is fashion. Client Liaison are looking to expand the scope of their merchandise. “It’s called Client Liaison Designer Line,” says Miller, detailing an ambitious vision, paired with plans for their own onstage wear. Despite today’s sartorial pursuits, Morgan says Client Liaison are currently dedicated to focusing on the music.
Going from scene-chewing support slots around Melbourne’s more diminutive stages in 2012, the band have evolved into low-key festival drawcards with the pulling power to sell-out medium sized venues twice over on their own headline tours. It’s all off the back of a self-titled EP, with each track given the video treatment – including the snow-set spectacle of Feed The Rhythm. Client Liaison deal in a warped nostalgia: danceable compositions with tonal nods to late-‘80s, early-‘90s are compounded by a fascination with corporate Australiana in their breakthrough track End Of The Earth and recent live addition Canberra Won’t Be Calling Tonight.
Anticipation for Client Liaison’s debut album has been building over the past few years. Not exactly standing as a holy grail, but the timing now seems as logical as ever for a debut full-length. “We kind of kicked it up another notch maybe two months ago,” Morgan says. “Up till then, we finished off the EP cycle, did a lot of touring and festivals. We put a lot of work into our live show. Since then, we had to focus on finishing the songs – which is hard to do, because we do so many. Definitely an album, and I’d say we’re over halfway there, easily. It’s a matter of writing more songs, finishing more songs. The idea is to finish it this year and release it early next year.”
“The goalposts are always moving,” Miller says. “You never know when something’s finished – any artist in any medium will say that.”
“We’ve given ourselves a deadline,” continues Morgan. “We’ve put all our songs into Trello, an organisation app that’s like a whiteboard that everyone can see. That’s been good. We’re starting to book in friends to help tie up loose ends with writing and overdubs.
“Hotel Stay hasn’t found a place on the EP, but now it’s going to be on the album. That’s the kind of ballad we couldn’t write now.”
“There’s great variety. We’re working on a rock song with power chords,” Miller says.
“I always wanted a rock song,” adds Morgan. “Something like MJ would always have. Beat It, Dirty Diana, Give In To Me. It’s quite hard to do.”
While Client Liaison have exhibited strong pop acumen, they haven’t quite released a crossover hit. It’s a prospect they’re conscious of, but aren’t conceited in trying to achieve. Though, they do exhibit some lust for a hit – especially Miller – but maintain a sense of ‘careful what you wish for’ caution.
“I’ve been talking to friends about this,” Miller says. “Heading into writing, saying we’ll stop writing once we have that one hit. Then I realised I have no perspective. There are songs I really believe in, but then think, ‘What is a hit?’ It’s not as if I’m stumbling on our Somebody That I Used To Know one morning.”
“We’re happy to have an album without a song like that,” says Morgan. “We would also be happy to have one, but we believe in the songs enough anyway. We haven’t had massive radio play, or a YouTube million-plus video. In that sense, we don’t have much pressure. People come along to the show, buy a piece of merch, we’re happy.”
“All our achievements have been in manageable, digestible steps,” says Miller. “It might be a case of selling out a venue, then next tour selling it out twice. You put the work in and you take one step at a time. It would be nice to have that one hit that throws us a few steps forward, because we have been taking it that one step at a time.”
“In a way, we exist in that underground sort of world,” adds Morgan. “We say we’re too pop to be underground, too underground to be pop. We’re happy there.”
“We like the new Justin Bieber album,” says Miller. “The production is so impressive. Hearing the hooks, it’s a real masterpiece. What else is a relief is that it wasn’t that trappy production, which we have nothing against, but it has rhythm and melody. It’s great.”
“I’ve been reading a lot of songwriting books, all these textbooks,” says Morgan. “We’ve been talking to our friend Cleopold,” Miller says in reference to the rising producer, “who we’re doing a songwriting session with next week, and he’s saying ‘You guys just need a hit, you need a big one. Let’s do it’. He’s a great musician and songwriter, and it’s funny how casually he’s saying, ‘Let’s make a hit’.”
Back to Splendour. While word about Client Liaison’s phenomenal set made its way around the festival grounds, whispers began backstage about a special guest being chartered to Splendour for a cameo during the performance.
“It was a blessing in disguise,” says Miller, looking back. “It went so well. I think if we did have Darryl out – as amazing as he is and we do want to work with him in the future in that capacity – but we hadn’t had a rehearsal, we never met him before, we had to get a private jet because he couldn’t make his RSL gig in time. We chartered a private jet to get him there. And I’ll tell you now, a private jet does not get off the ground… I’m not going to name the figure, but you can Google it yourself.”
Darryl, of course, is Darryl Braithwaite, with the plan being for the Aussie icon to lead a rendition of his 1990 anthem Horses. “It all fell through, he couldn’t get back in time,” Morgan says. “In hindsight, it was too rushed and wasn’t ready. We just had to do our thing.
“There’s this hyper atmosphere around Splendour with all the bands trying to outdo each other. It’s a circus. It’s fun and it’s great, there are so many bands there putting everything into it. It’s ambitious.”
“It’s healthy to know we had a great show without a three thousand dollar confetti drop, or six hundred bucks for every time a CO2 cannon goes off,” says Miller. “We got there without that.”
As I make my way down to the corrugated iron portal, leaving Client Liaison HQ to return to the real world, I gesture to a pair of Fosters slabs on the shelf. “They’re hard to get a hold of,” Morgan says. “They’ve changed the can design,” a touch of nostalgic longing in his voice, as he hands me a warm tin for the road.
BY LACHLAN KANONIUK
