The Pinheads drop sophomore album tomorrow, announce national tour
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The Pinheads drop sophomore album tomorrow, announce national tour

The Pinheads have been one of my favourite up and coming Australian acts since I first came across them early 2016 at The Barwon Club. Performing the support slot for Skegss and Hockey Dad, the Wollongong rockers performed to roughly seven people; four of which were far too stoned and awkward to get around the punk antics of lead singer Jez Player who was making the most of the empty space jumping on tables and screaming in punters faces. For a punk enthusiast like myself, I was in awe.

Looking back now, it’s weird to think about how few people were in attendance. Hockey Dad and Skegss have since become Australian festival favourites and The Pinheads have been killing it over in Europe as well as scoring an appearance at this years revered SXSW festival.

Now gearing up for the release of their sophomore release, ‘Is This Real,’ it seems The Pinnies have taken a much more evolved and cultivated sound. “I think it’s just a natural progression,” reflects Jez. “The songwriting is a bit more matured and holds it’s own a little bit more than our previous songs. I feel we have hit more of the mark of what we would like to be doing creatively.”

Expanding on what led to the evolution of their sound, Jez stated, “We have played over in Europe and a lot of other places since releasing the first album and I feel that may have been a bit of an influence.

“When you play bigger places you realise how small home is. You kind of realise that you’re the little kids in the big pond and that you can make whatever music you want because someone out there will probably like it.”

With all of The Pinheads material being recorded by Jez himself, he spoke of how ‘Is This Real’ marks a few firsts for the band, the first being that Player also undertook all the post-recording mixing. “I’ve always recorded all of our own stuff but I didn’t feel as if I had the know-how to mix songs. I love Owen’s [Penglis from Straight Arrows who previously mixed The Pinheads] work but I figured it was time to give it a crack myself. I do really like the idea that we do it all ourselves.

“We also recorded it live which was cool. In the past, we had done a few instruments together before but we’d never recorded completely live,” he continues.

“It was done about two weeks after we toured Europe last year because we had done 26 shows over there so we were pretty oiled up and thought we would keep the momentum going. I think that helped to give it more energy and power. That wouldn’t have been the same if we had recorded it the more conservative kind of way.

“We did it all in a day and a half. We just set it up and did it as if we were playing a live show. We made a rule that we could only do three takes of each song before we’d have to move on to the next one. So a lot of the songs ended up being done in the first take.

“It helps that everyone has been getting better at playing their instruments as well,” he laughs, “When we started we couldn’t play at all so I think we feel like more of a band now, for better or for worse.”

Release: ‘Is This Real’ out May 24 via Farmer & The Owl / Inertia
When & Where: The Tote, Melbourne – Sat August 24

Written by Alex Callan