It was an epic Melbourne house party that brought this six-member group together eight years ago. Since then they’ve toured the world, delivering stirring live performances at festivals and shows, and have built a cult following thanks to their energetic dance music with pop hooks and rock backbone.
The Melbourne band, still only two albums young, own an impressive repertoire of party tunes that are fitting for either a chill gathering on a Sunday afternoon or a full-on Saturday night rager. Their debut album Any Given Weekend (2014) saw opening track ‘The Haunted’ on high rotation on triple j, which was soon followed by their self-produced sophomore album Dare in 2016.
After a breakthrough start to 2017 that saw the guys perform at both Falls Festival and Groovin The Moo, a tour run across the country cemented their live chops and gave the group a newfound confidence in performing.
Now the high-energy party starters will be celebrating eight years of anthemic bangers and electrifying live shows, kicking it off with a massive hometown party at The Croxton Bandroom this June.
“We’re getting old! I feel like eight years in band years is like 50 in human years, we’re almost done,” guitarist Mitch Ansell jokes, before commenting on the natural progression of Northeast Party House over the past eight years.
“With each gig that we played since the beginning, it has been a very slow burn to get to where things are at now,” he says. “For me, even just playing at Northcote Social Club and selling that out for the first time was the biggest thrill, and then you move up to The Corner and so on, and all these little things are milestones for us.
“Eight years on and things are great, we’re getting along which is really nice,” he laughs, “I think it’s kind of rare now. Most bands start to hate each other and then have to go into solo projects, but for us, we’re all just really wanting to push things a lot further going into the next album; we want to release an album that kind of kicks things up a bit.”
After the overwhelming response to their Urban Spread DJ sets over summer, the boys propelled into 2018 with stomping remixes of The Jungle Giants lead single ‘Feel The Way I Do’ and retro kings Client Liaison’s ‘World Of Our Love’ and have since been tucked away in their studio in Preston, piecing together their third record.
“It’s probably been a year that we’ve been working on this third record, but it’s slowly coming along,” he says. “This time, we want to release an album that allows us to play bigger shows and reach a bigger audience.”
Making reference to ‘Calypso Beach’, the anthemic third single lifted from Northeast Party House’s critically acclaimed album ‘Dare’, Ansell hints towards upcoming tracks taking on a similar style and approach.
“There are two different sides to the band; there’s a soft side, and then there’s this harder edge. We’ll always be finding that balance where those two elements can be at the forefront of the music, and there’ll definitely be those more connective songs on the next album. It will have very similar styles, but the songs will be more progressed and a little more mature,” he says.
“Songs like ‘For You’ and ‘Calypso Beach’ live are pretty special moments so we definitely want to hold onto those kind of moments in future tracks. We are definitely aware of what translates well live; that’s something we think about a lot, how can we present this live and what kind of things can we create with an audience.
“Many times you can write a song and it can just be a struggle to adapt that to a live setting,” he continues, referring to the songwriting process, “we usually try and make sure we are able to play it live, that there aren’t these elements that we need more members, or have tracks without guitars where Jackson [Shoe] and I have nothing to do. We just try to find that balance.”
For Northeast Party House, Ansell reveals the goal now is to get the third album tied off, and the see where they can take it.
“We just want to get back into touring,” he says, “it’s different to what we’re doing now where we’re just playing these sporadic shows until we’re ready to release.
“We’re trying to get some traction overseas as well,” he further explains. “Australia’s been awesome, but we’re trying to spread things and have a few more territories to go on tour. We’ve done some shows in the States but they’ve mainly been showcase shows where you play for maybe 20 minutes… For us, to be able to go over to the States and do a tour, do an actual run, is what we are working towards.”
Staying true to their party antics, the boys have teamed up with Urban Spread for two special shows in Geelong this June, including an epic End of Exams Party in collaboration with Deakin University Student Association (DUSA).
“It will be a very similar performance to our last tour, which we didn’t actually get to go to Geelong so that will be kind of nice,” Ansell explains of their upcoming performances. “Playing live is a very big thing for us; we like to make it as enjoyable for ourselves and the crowd as possible. This one’s a bigger venue than previous ones we’ve played at in Geelong too so there’s more room for us to have a bigger lighting show and overall bigger production.
“I’m excited,” he beams, “Geelong is a fun place. We’ve played a few times; it’s so close for us and it will be cool to play to the loose crowd of uni students.”
When & Where: The Wool Exchange, Geelong – June 15 (End of Exams Party) & June 16. Tickets via Oztix.
Written by Talia Rinaldo
