It’s not often a band can say they successfully regrouped, renamed, toured and dropped an EP within any one given year, but for Geelong-based rockers MDRN LOVE, it’s very much a reality. Oh – and add a collaboration with BMW Australia to that list.
Formerly known by the name of Revolution, MDRN LOVE lead-vocalist and guitarist, Jack Harman, explains how early changes have shaped the band and led it to where it is today. “We started working with some producers from Abandon Records up in Melbourne. We’d had our drummer – Dom Alvaro and bass player – Daniel Siketa come into the picture and we wanted to redirect our music.
“Revolution was really acoustic based,” he says, “It was just a different genre and I think, new members, new music, you know? It was just easier for us to start a clean slate and by doing that, renaming and all that sort of stuff, it gave everything a new feel.”
The five-piece outfit have shown their breadth and versatility in the recent release of their self-titled debut EP, which has followed their earlier released debut single, ‘Bring Me Down’.
“As far as EP’s go, they’re really just a product for the industry to see what you’re capable of, so we wanted to try and broaden what was on the EP to show the industry that we’re not just this, or that – there’s a whole heap of different things we can do,” says Harman.
Not only do the tracks on the EP boast punchy guitar driven rhythms, with hints of new-age synth, they’re also highly emotionally driven, with Harman admitting EP track, ‘Breathe’, was written for a family friend who sadly passed away.
“’Breathe’ was probably the song with the biggest story behind it on the EP,” begins Harman. “It was written for a family friend of ours – Jenny – who was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and was slowly passing away from it.
“There’s a fundraising music festival in Geelong called Rock Off MND and we played the first year of that. We got to perform the song at the event and the first Rock Off was the only one that Jenny got to attend, so we got to perform that for her. I think that was the biggest inspiration of mine personally – we just really wanted to do the song justice.”
Recorded at Furstock Studios in Melbourne by decorated producing duo Cross O’ Shea of Abandon Records and Adam Ayan, Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer, the tracks on the EP were recorded with some time apart, ultimately showing the bands’ growth.
“That song [Breathe] was recorded about 10 months after the first three, so it shows how much we’ve matured as a band in between and how much tighter we’ve gotten,” says Harman.
Off the back of a Victorian Headline Tour promoting their debut single ‘Bring Me Down’, Harman explains MDRN LOVE was simply “in the right place at the right time” when they were met with the opportunity to collaborate with BMW Australia.
“We ran into a local couple of boys that were doing some production work for them [BMW] and they wanted a sort of unique soundtrack and they came to us,” says Harman, “There’s three videos ranging from about 10 to 20 minutes where we produced some extended mixes of our songs off the EP.
“It’s great because they’ve got a massive following and it was just a really good opportunity for cross-promotion.”
With what is set to be a 10 to 12 show run from February through April of next year, Harman explains the band is more confident than ever thanks to their time spent touring in support of their debut single.
“It was important for us to be able to have that experience, playing to all different crowds, all different rooms, because you can’t expect that every time you rock up you’re going to play to a full room and the crowd’s going to eat out of your hand,” he says. “You’ve got to be able to learn and get confident playing regardless of what’s happening in the audience.
“I think at least knowing we got that tour out of the way, it was good to sort of experiment with what worked, what didn’t work and just get comfortable with each other on stage.”
MDRN LOVE has had a year filled with many impressive accomplishments and highlights, with Harman making note of one his personal favourites being The Barwon Club show during the Bring Me Down Tour.
“I think the most memorable thing was it was the first time that I had any of my lyrics ever sung back to me,” exclaims Harman.
A sign of bigger things on the horizon, the band currently have a follow-up EP in the works, with release said to be in late 2018.
Keep your eyes peeled on the bands’ socials for what’s to come in the new year.
The self-titled EP is now available on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon and Google Music.
Written by Helena Metzke
