Rocket Science - Psychic Men
» Rocket Science announce new album and national tour - June 19, 2008
» Rocket Science - Hopetoun Hotel, NSW - September 4, 2008
» Rocket Science - East Brunswick Club Hotel, Vic - May 10, 2008
They’ve toured throughout the UK, America and Europe with the likes of Supergrass, You Am I, Kings of Leon, the Darkness and the Dirtbombs. With the new album released 21st July, their first after a four-year absence from Australia’s rock scene, Rocket Science are chuffed as punch. Having just finished a massively successful single tour, looking into the future, towards an album tour that looks to, in all reality, rock your box off, the story of the recording of the latest disc is makes for a promising release...
“We are really proud of it ‘cos we recorded it ourselves, Paul (guitarist) took over a studio about 2 years ago and we made a decision that we wanted to record it there, and so he engineered and produced the whole thing. It was a great experience, at times long and tiresome and completely nerve-wracking on occasion; we expected it to take a couple of weeks and it ended taking about 12 months. It was good having a studio space that was our own, cos there was no clock ticking; we could spend a lot of time there (laughs)”
“We had some great fun there as well, as in, we’d finish for the night and we’d put on songs we’d been recording, listening to all these rough mixes, get some drinks and kick back, quite social, that certainly made it fun. It’s a really live sounding record, it’s really on edge, Paul likes to record it so it’s right on the edge of what people would perceive to be a ‘nasty’ sound, and because we were making it ourselves, no one was telling us what do and how, so it sounds pretty ragged and raw in a lot of spots, but that’s the shit we love”
So, what are you doing at the moment, crazy kids? And what can we expect in the near future? “We just finished a single tour around the country which was a wonderful time; a lot of people came out, which we were really happy with, ‘cause it made for really charged gigs. I think a lot of people thought that they wouldn’t hear from us anymore, because it has been such a long time, My god, it was such a release by the time we hit the stage, after being holed up in the studio for so long, it was great to get out there and play again, so a great single tour means were gonna have a fantastic album tour, which should be in late August, early September”
Alright, so Rocket Science are probably one of Australia’s leading rock acts, and you love the music you’re making, but what’s your take on the music industry at large? The whole shebang? “I think there’s a lot of pessimism about it at the moment, in terms of the “art” of music and the importance of music, and how we should be listening to it. I think always, people are gonna love their music no matter what, that’s not gonna go away, the way they consume it is always gonna change. If people are still enjoying themselves listening to music on an mp3, well, that’s ok, at least it’s still getting to them somehow. There’s always gonna be people out there that wanna listen to good music and good new music, I think for smaller bands there’s always gonna be people who wanna put your music out, like people who start these record labels that continue on in the tradition of what a record label does, i.e.; find great people, find great music and put great music out. That’s it. And whether that’s on vinyl, or a shared....space, or whatever, it’s still gonna exist, and it’s still gonna go forward...I feel good about the future of music. We know there are people that like the music Rocket Science make, and like coming out to see us play, so as long as all those factors still exist, we’ll keep doing it”
“Smaller bands have a hard enough time getting themselves into a van and heading to the next state to make ends meet, sometimes for a smaller band, the difference between having enough money to buy something to party with that night or get themselves some food the next day is seeling those five records at the show, those things are still important to small bands....get your hands off them, record companies! (Laughs)”
After some kerfuffle over The Dwarf's recorder going arse-up, and a rather explosive spiel, from the both of us, on this damn thing we call technology, supposedly making our lives simpler, I ask Kit who he fancies in music these days. “I’ve been adoring The Gin Club double length album, I was lucky enough to see them play an acoustic show at the Gem (in Melbourne) last week...it’s great, it’s wonderful”
