Australian indie-rockers Animal House create a raucous, energy-fueled sound on their upcoming EP Sorry, out on 18th November 2016.
Having already received critical acclaim for their last single English Girls, Animal House’s new EP is filled with witty lyrical storytelling, racing riffs and infectious choruses. With its undeniably catchy, high-energy garage-infused sound, reminiscent of the likes of The Strokes and The Raconteurs, Sorry oozes a welcome tongue-in-cheek attitude.
Animal House explains that Sorry is an “apology to our parents, friends, past employers who put their faith in us to lead a sweet and comfortable life in Aus and instead we’ve blown all that on a shot at making music”. Remembering the hedonistic adventures they’ve had whilst making music, the band admit they’re actually ‘not sorry’, and revel in the fun they’ve been having in the UK on each vibrant and uptempo track.
Finally settled in the UK, Animal House have already supported the likes of Courtney Barnett, Surfer Blood and Drenge to name a few. They have also received praise from the likes of BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac, BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq and Sean Keaveny, NME, DIY and Clash. They now hope to continue charming listeners with their “stupid garage pop songs” on Sorry.
Catch Animal House live at the following dates:
- 28th October – Bleach – Brighton
- 2nd November – Rubi – Barcelona
- 3rd November – Paberse Matao – Valencia
- 4th November – Sala Rockstar – Benidorm
- 5th November – TNT Blues Bar – Cox
- 6th November – Fun House – Madrid
- 12th November – Bukowski – San Sebastian
- 14th November – Pop In – Paris
- 29th November – Birthdays – London
In this interview feature, we have a virtual pow wow with Animal House to discuss the newest release, influences and more.
Q&A, links and streams can be found below.
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
We all bonded a bit over your classic 00’s revival bads; early Kings of Leon, Strokes, Arctic Monkeys. There was a bit of an indie scene emerging in Brisbane, Australia, where we started out, and that seemed to inject our garage rock with some tight pop and we seem to fluctuate between the two regularly. Seems to be a nice balance. These days we try and just play everything we enjoy so a bit of psych influence from Aus inevitably comes out too.
What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?
Just like millions, we started off as a sh**y cover band – playing at 21st and 50th parties for free booze. “Brown Eyed Girl” was requested one too many times and we decided to strike out on a little adventure of our own. It’s lead us down a pretty mental path – all of us giving up various things to jump ship and come to Brighton and get neck deep into the thick of it.
Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?
Our tastes change almost daily and we have a fairly varied repertoire that we play live. “SORRY” is our first EP of many more songs we have in the works and it highlights the more upbeat, energetic songs that tend to get people up on their feet at our live shows. We all bring different influences to the table, which is why bands can still compete with producers I think. There’s different personalities clashing together to give birth to some mutated song that not one of us could have dreamed up individually.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
There was no theme, nothing to accomplish. This EP was thrown together from responses to live shows and we wanted something purely energetic. We just dove into it and you get what you get sometimes!
What was the last song you listened to?
Dalai Lama, by the Dune Rats. The lyrics are “Dalai Lama, Big Banana, Marijuana” on repeat.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Vinyl is definitely the coolest and often sounds just brilliant when it comes through nice speakers. Everyone is hungry for consumption though, and only MP3’s can sate that hunger. CD’s are just sh*t, they don’t last. That being said, we have some cd’s coming out… they come with a cool booklet though!
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
The streaming services cop a lot of flack, especially from huge pop artists. I think, possibly, they’re used to receiving much larger sums of money from album sales and so aren’t happy with Spotify. For startup artists such as ourselves though, it’s an amazing way to get heard and get paid, unlike soundlcoud. The amount is small but we’ve earned more on spotify than on any other medium. It’s all about playlists!
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?
The digital era levels the playing field a bit for everyone, but also gives birth to thousands and thousands more artists, making it difficult to compete. Amateur dj’s earn more than relatively respected bands so touring has become the most financially difficult thing. We’ll get there, it’s too much fun.
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?
Spotify is probably our go to. We’ve got a little playlist going too, which you can follow. Will chucks up some good tunes on there.
Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?
G’day and good day mean the same thing but one is less formal xxx
https://soundcloud.com/animal-housing/heavy
