Aussie foursome Press Club offer up some behind-the-scenes titbits from the making of their new album.
Produced In-house
We wrote and recorded ‘Endless Motion’ in our studio in Melbourne, Australia. We were planning to record an album in Berlin in 2020, but those plans were heavily disrupted. In response, we were able to set up our own studio within a warehouse in Port Melbourne. This had a huge effect on the album’s trajectory; once we heard the songs back, we realised that they needed a LOT more work.
The System
To try and keep our emotions out of the songwriting process, we analysed and codified a system that replicated our natural instincts. When we became unsure or despairing over a song, we just ran it through the system to bring it to completion. This got us dozens of songs that we whittled down to the 10 that appear on the record.
Sleep-Writing
To combat the rigidity of ‘The System’, we started pulling in ideas from incredibly existential sources. A few songs were written either just after, or even during particularly provocative dreams. We filled up notable notebooks full of mostly garbage, but there were a few gems in there that turned into great tracks.
Samples
In pre-production, we tried to pull in some new sounds to give each song a signature feel. These ranged from instruments we’d never used before to obscure samples of police chases and church bells. The album even features a field recording of the war-band of seagulls that infests the warehouse we recorded in.
Recorded VERY quick
Towards the end of 2021, we were told the warehouse was closing down, so we had to move out. This put a bit of time pressure on the end of the album. So while we had over three years to write the record, we only had a couple weeks to record it. All of the hard work we’d put into the writing and pre-production really came off, and the process was incredibly streamlined. After 10 days of dedicated thrashing, we got to work tearing down the studio that had been the birthplace of ‘Endless Motion’.
Taken from the November issue of Upset. Press Club’s album ‘Endless Motion’ is out now.
