Last month was HUGE for Perth’s Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, with the release of their new album – And Now For The Whatchamacallit – as well as kicking off their global tour which is seeing the band head through Europe, the UK, Australia, and North America.
The album, a culmination of experiences lived on the road and influences stemming from the last few years of chaos for the band, is finally unveiled in all its glory – a testament to the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets’ never relenting vivacious attitude and hungry approach to powerful music. We chat to lead singer Jack McEwan.
Recent years have seen an explosion in the Australian Psych-rock scene: Who were some of your inspirations when you started with PPC?
Coming from Perth we had a solid couple of years listening to Tame Impala and Pond back in the days of MySpace. Those tracks got shared ‘round school and we’d be learning ‘Half Full Glass of Wine’ that night. Then when we got a bit older we’d go out and see The Floors, Red Engine Caves, Love Junkies, house parties would always have bands such as Hideous Sun Demon, Mt Mountain, even King Gizzard played in our Southport house once. It was a fun time to grow up, we were getting inspired every weekend by something new.
Who are some up and coming Aussie acts you think everyone should check out at the moment?
Haircare, Grievous Bodily Calm, Airline Food, Butter, Raave Tapes, Great Gable.
You’re based in Perth, which is both a hub for heaps of mad music, but also quite isolated… how has your location affected what you do, and as you gain notoriety is there temptation to make the move to the East Coast?
When we were starting out we always talked about it but Perth was buzzing, the psych scene was pumping, we were getting gigs most weekends. I think if you move yourself to places such as Melbourne, Los Angeles, London, you’re effectively competing with the best acts in the world, the Radiohead’s or any other class act doing multiple shows selling millions of tickets, whose gunna go watch the local gigs when they’re playing? Perth has a really solid live scene that supports each other and goes watch someone’s new band. Everyone usually starts playing in multiple projects because you’re surrounded by interesting like-minded creatives as there are only ten or so decent music venues, so you’re always bumping into people. I get the reason people do move, but Perth will always be our home.
It’s been two years since High Visceral pt. 2, and a lot has happened since then…. You’ve sold out tours in Aus, the UK, you had SXSW then sold out shows in LA and NYC, how are you feeling about it all, and what have some highlights been?
Our first international tour was pretty insane, we had a great group of people travelling with us on that one and it always ended up with a sunrise night out. From there, the benchmark was set and it’s been wild since. USA travelling with Frankie & The Witch Fingers was one of the highlights of my life, such lovely blokes, great company witnessing America for the first time. SXSW is something out of Mad Max, I can’t remember much from those 5 days but my cheeks hurt from laughing so much after. It’s got it hard times when you’re hungover in a van for long periods, or if one person gets sick then you’re effectively travelling in a hot box if influenza, nasty. But mostly it’s meeting great people, talking till your jaw hurts and trying to stay sober enough to play a show.
The new album is out. How do you feel like you’ve built on your sound since your earlier stuff, what was the recording process like, and was it different from the recording process on your earlier works?
There was more of a plan from the start of this record, I wanted to write the most enjoyable album I could think of, scrap the sad bits and keep it moving along with a grin and a head nodding. The original concept was a 1940’s village fete that’s been re imagined by a futuristic travelling circus, then I wanted an album for all the cookers left at the festival once the last music stops at 4am after 3 days of camping, then I just wanted to write and I’m really proud of this one. Feels a lot more of a step away from 8-minute psych rock jams and head first into the flamboyant world of The Kinks, ELO, Queen. I experimented a lot more with recording techniques and developed some really strange sounds that keep everything interesting and fresh, I wanted the listener to remain consistently intrigued and when the last song comes on feel like they’ve spent the day at an amusement park.
The batch of singles out so far has seen a collection of rad cover art along with it, who is behind those works?
Ben Giles! He’s a genius. I’d never seen his style of collage artwork before. It gels perfectly with the old school themes and playful sounds the album was chasing. I had the album cover artwork on my phone as a screensaver for months so maybe it’s a subconscious representation of his work, they definitely fit together.
You’re currently on a pretty mammoth tour that’ll see you go to the UK, Europe, Japan, with some Australian dates weaved through it as well, tell us all about that… what’re you most keen for?
I’ve never been to Japan before so that’s gunna be incredible to play Summersonic, I’ve heard great things. Supporting Interpol in Germany is going to be pretty mega.. Played a festival with The Strokes, Raconteurs and Connan Mockasin the other day, got a festival in Netherlands coming up which Bon Iver is headlining so that’ll be unreal to see him live. It’s all stupidly exciting, I’m constantly questioning if I’m dead or if it’s some brilliantly orchestrated elaborate plan some reality TV enterprise has constructed and we’re the naively unaware participants. But it’s amazing nonetheless.
Are you keen to play Splendour?
Yeah Splendour is the big one! Australia has produced some amazing festivals over the decades but Splendour has got to be in the top 3. Can’t wait to see Tame again, their live show is ridiculous now, they’re in their own league. Foals, James Blake, Tropical Fuck Storm, great line up this year too.
You can check the album below.
Catch the PPC on Friday June 14 at The Croxton Bandroom in Melbourne (tickets here), and at Splendour in the Grass on Sunday July 21.
Written by Liam McNally
