Songwriting
Tilly: You’ve been putting the album together, cumulatively for quite a few years - what has your songwriting process been? Consistent or different for each type of song?
Alex: It was sort of split into 2 methods. So we’d write the songs ourselves (Alex and Jacob REed) and we’d bring them to the band room - we’d then develop them from there. Just like little eggs that we make at home and then bring them, and they don’t change a hell of a lot. Then there’s been a couple of songs on there, maybe 4 or 5, that we spent a week in the studio jamming and just trying to come up with stuff and then writing songs out of the jams we made.
Tilly: Can you say if there’s a song from the new album that’s particularly special for you?
Alex: I’m sure everyone’s will be different, but I’m pretty keen to put the song ‘Fever Dreams’ out there. I’m really proud of it and how it came out. I think that it’s got a nice sentiment.
Tilly: Also, I’d love to know how you guys came up with the name Shag Rock, I think it’s such a good name
Alex: It’s actually just a rock of North Straddie, which is an island off Queensland. We used to go there heaps and heaps when we were kids, and we still go there occasionally to go surfing.
Inspirations
Tilly: For you personally - who are your personal music inspirations?
Alex: I definitely listen to everything. Most people these days listen to just about everything from rap to Angus and Julia Stone. Some songs in this album you’d say are a bit ‘garage rock’, we tried to rip off ‘Block Party’ and that sort of thing
Tilly: Have you had any significant inspirations behind this album that has informed what you guys were putting out?
Alex: Yeah I think we just tried to… because on the last album it felt like it was mostly about girl problems and relationships problems and stuff, and I think maybe we felt that was a little shallow. Obviously it’s not at the time, it feels significant, but as time wears on you feel as though it wasn’t worth as much. We were a bit older and we sort of wanted to write about things that just felt more important and a bit more worldly.
We released this single called ‘Creaky Minds’ which is just about talking to your family and letting them know how you feel, and making sure that they’re ok because people don’t sometimes.
Tilly: I really loved your new single ‘Blur’ - the song itself is awesome but I also really liked the album cover. Do you guys have much input on that?
Alex: Yeah we flipped between two artists on this process - 3 done by one artists and the last 3 done by another artist called Megan. With that stuff you’ve got to get everyone’s opinion but you also can’t dictate it too much because you want the artist to do what feels natural to them. You don’t want to just be constantly on them and tell them what to do. You kinda want to let them run a bit.
Shag Rock and XXXX Gold?
Tilly: One last question - a bit of a random one. If you had to describe Shag Rock as a drink, what would you pick?
Alex: I know that some of our band members would choose XXXX Gold, and I know that some would choose VB, and I think that’s perhaps a little cliche at times. I’m gonna choose a flicker lager which was our specially designed beer that we had made the other week at Thirsty Chiefs, out at North Lakes. Home-grown, individually made, heavily infused. I think that’s the good stuff.
