MELBOURNE
FESTIVAL WEBSITE
ASSORTED PUBLICITY
Sunday Age, Melbourne
222999 SSSeeeppp 222000111333,,, bbbyyy JJJooohhhnnn BBBaaaiiillleeeyyy
FILM
Ron Howard’s
F1 flick
FASHION
Princess Mary
gets it right again
melbourne inside out
out
MMMeeelllbbbooouuurrrnnneee MMMaaagggaaazzziiinnneee,,, pppaaagggeee 111 --- 222,,,666333333...111444 cccmmm²²
!aaapppiiitttaaalll !iiitttyyy DDDaaaiiilllyyy --- ccciiirrrcccuuulllaaatttiiiooonnn 111777888,,,111444111 (((------------------SSS)))
Wild things
!ooopppyyyrrriiiggghhhttt AAAgggeeennncccyyy llliiiccceeennnssseeeddd cccooopppyyy
(((wwwwwwwww...cccooopppyyyrrriiiggghhhttt...cccooommm...aaauuu)))
Local indie theatre explores
new frontiers in this year’s
Melbourne Festival
NATAGE G001
ID 222111555666333333222333444
BRIEF MMMEEELLLFFFEEESSSTTT
INDEX 111
PAGE 111 ooofff 555
FILM
Ron Howard’s
F1 flick
FASHION
Princess Mary
gets it right again
FUCK BUTTONS
By Lachlan Kanoniuk
Garnering a swell of critical adoration in the space of two full-length albums, UK electronica duo Fuck Buttons have followed up the acerbic debut Street Horrrsing and the
grandiosity of Tarot Sport with third LP Slow Focus – an album that finds a stylistic middle ground between the two that came before, yet also takes things to a whole other level.
Speaking in the week following the album’s release, Andrew Hung tells us about the
long gestation method that defines Fuck Buttons’ workflow.
“It feels really good actually,” Hung says, nerve-free,
on the album’s eventual release. “We’ve been working
on it for a while now, so it’s nice to have something to
focus on because in the writing process you have all
these things surrounding it, but now it’s all systems go.
It’s really good.”
Despite the first and second albums receiving tremendous critical acclaim, Andrew, and his bandmate Benjamin Power, weren’t feeling any pressure in regards to
maintaining a winning streak with Slow Focus. “I think
it’s really hard to anticipate what the reaction will be.
It’s been very positive, so it’s pleasing to see. The feedback’s been fantastic, actually.”
On its debut week, Slow Focus managed to make a
showing on the UK charts, especially in terms of
physical (as opposed to digital) stock. “It’s the first
time we’ve ever charted, so that was really exciting. We
got into the official album charts last week. It doesn’t
really signify anything. It signifies our work is paying
off, I guess that’s it,” he reasons. “It’s good to see that
fruition.”
Slow Focus arrived around four years after the release
of Tarot Sport, with the writing process for Slow Focus
spread across the majority of that timeframe. “It was
2011 when we started. When you start writing, that’s
when it starts happening. With the last two albums, we
didn’t really anticipate releasing anything on a larger
scale. So they were written as we went. There were
tracks that were written before Street Horrrsing came
out that got onto Tarot Sport. But this time around, we
started completely afresh. We started writing as soon
as we came off tour and carried on writing.”
As the writing process went on, the frequency of Fuck
Buttons’ live shows became increasingly rare, with a
select few dates being performed in 2011 and 2012.
The restorative balance between onstage and in-studio
work is more an organic one, rather than meticulously
planned out. “I think it naturally occurs. We’ve got into
a stride now where we have a cycle of activity in Fuck
Buttons. We write the album, then record it, then go
on tour supporting it. The touring lasts for about two
years or so. After that period, because we haven’t been
writing on the road or anything, the music will change.
Or I think that’s what happens, anyway. We do take
the stance that we don’t want to repeat anything we’ve
done in the pa st. Generally, we don’t need to enforce
Wild things
Local indie theatre explores
new frontiers in this year’s
Melbourne Festival
NATAGE G001
BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 22
that because it happens anyway,” Hung states.
Brainfreeze, the opening track on Slow Focus, starts
with a salvo of fairly menacing live drums, whereas
previous Fuck Buttons material has utilised predominantly electronic percussion. If it is a bold opening
statement, it’s not an intentional one. “We feel our way
through these songs. For that particular track, it felt
like there was room for a live drum sound on it,” Hung
recalls. “There was no particular design to start the record off like that, it just felt right at the time.”
Approaching the tenth anniversary of their musical
partnership, Hung and Power have retained a conducive songwriting partnership. “It hasn’t changed that
much, actually. Usually what happens is that we get in
the same room and surround ourselves with everything
we’ve accumulated instrument-wise and play around
“WE DO TAKE THE STANCE
THAT WE DON’T WANT
TO REPEAT ANYTHING
WE’VE DONE IN THE PAST.
GENERALLY, WE DON’T
NEED TO ENFORCE THAT
BECAUSE IT HAPPENS
ANYWAY,”
with them until anything interesting happens. That’s
always been the same for the past ten years or so.”
The process of feeling out musical sounds with an
often unfamiliar arsenal of soundmaking gear seems
like an overly challenging way to create new music, but
Hung and Power have harnessed the process in a way
that manages to produce the goods. “If you’re playing around with something new, there’s automatically
an excitement attached to that. But it’s not going to
necessarily be something that works. There could be
frustration. I can imagine there would be if you felt
like you were good at using a certain instrument, but
we don’t really get that feeling because we’re using new
things all the time. It’s not really about a skillset, it’s
DISCUSS WHAT? BEAT.COM.AU/DISCUSSION
about an exploratory sensibility. That anticipatory factor makes it exciting,” Hung assesses. “Once we find
something a bit dull, we just move on. We don’t really
jam for hours on end, it’s usually around three hours
or so. That’s really the limit of our writing for any set
period.”
Power started the solo project Blanck Mass a few
years ago, while Hung started releasing solo material
under the anagrammed moniker Dawn Hunger last
year. These outlets, however, don’t have a necessarily
direct impact on Fuck Buttons’ material. “I don’t think
it effects or influences the aesthetics of Fuck Buttons.
I don’t think Fuck Buttons can exist without the relationship that Ben and I have developed musically,”
Hung says. “Speaking for myself, I think Dawn Hunger has given me confidence in my technical abilities.
So that has an indirect influence, like anything that you
do will influence what you do. Directly, it doesn’t really
have any effect.”
Even though Fuck Buttons primarily create electronic
music, the band isn’t really aligned with any electronic
trends. Though the folly of trend-alignment can be a
temptation for some, Fuck Buttons manage to process
what is happening in the current climate and generate
something completely different. “We listen to music a
lot. What I realised personally is that when you start
making music afresh is that there are all sorts of connotations that come with anything you make because
there is a lot of music out there. With Dawn Hunger,
I consciously wanted to make something that didn’t
sound like anything I knew. That’s difficult, because the
more music you consume, the more you know. With
Fuck Buttons, maybe it’s just because Ben listens to a
lot of different music than I do, it doesn’t seem to make
music that you can attach anything to, and that’s been
the case for ten years. I think at the beginning, it did
sound slightly derivative. But very soon after, when it
started developing its own character, it built its own
momentum. It’s like a screenwriter for a sitcom talking
about their characters finding themselves. We really
don’t need to put much effort into developing it. It sort
of writes itself these days.”
Last year, Fuck Buttons returned to Australia to perform a run of Harvest Festival dates. During which,
the band previewed a small selection of Slow Focus material. With the album now out there in the world, and
the Fuck Buttons touring cycle now returned to full
effect, we can expect a greater selection of new album
cuts in the live setting. “We like playing music live as
soon as we’ve written it. Because the music comes out
from a jamming process, we’re able to play the music
instantly after we’ve written it. This time around there
will be a lot of Slow Focus music.”
FUCK BUTTONS perform as part of Melbourne
Festival at the Foxtel Festival Hub on Friday October 25. They also perform at ATP’s Release The Bats,
now taking place at The Palais and Prince Bandroom
on Saturday October 26. Slow Focus is out now via
ATP Recordings.
Foxtel Festival Hub | Photo: Jim Lee
melbourne inside out
out
25