In terms of time of day, the Australians are far behind the Americans–a full seven hours, to be exact. In terms of forging new musical territory, however, the Aussies have us beat by a mile (or kilometer). The hottest music to emerge stateside? The Strokes, an admittedly good band, but more or less a throwback to late 70s guitar-based bar rock. The hottest music to emerge from Down Under? The Avalanches, a band that’s not so much a band but a diverse crew of individuals, cutting and pasting and making the most exciting music to land on these shores since something called punk rock.
Building off of over 900 different samples (everything from Madonna to spoken-word recordings), their debut album, Since I Left You, feels like a crazy, obsessed guide to the history of all that is good about music. It’s one full hour of continuous, intriguingly melodious music, all assembled from bits and pieces the casual listener may be hard-pressed to identify with. The Melbourne band toured with everyone from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion to Public Enemy, and endured a seemingly endless stream of adulation–especially from the notoriously picky UK press.
When it’s seven at night here in Madison, it’s noon at Darren Seltmann’s beach house in Australia. He began his interview while stepping outside with a midday cup of tea and phone in tote. The wind blows the door shut, and suddenly one-sixth of the Avalanches finds himself locked out of his house. And so I waited, as Darren gave the play-by-play of climbing through a window and “freaking out his cats.”
When asked to describe his own album, Darren replied, “Just a pop record, pop music. Maybe more of a vintage sense, like Phil Spector. Kind of a how extreme can you go and still make a record accessible to people sort of thing.” So how does one even begin such a mammoth project, like Since I Left You? “[It started] in extreme isolation, I guess. Robbie [Chater, fellow founding father of the Avalanches] and I just talked so much about the idea behind the record before we even started it. We had quite a clear picture of the atmosphere we wanted to find for the album. From there, we just collected sounds to use. We wanted to tell a little adventure–the consequences of sampling were really not in our minds at all.”
Constructing music out of scraps of other music is an undeniable feat, and to have it ebb and flow in such a winding, mesmerizing fashion is nothing short of remarkable. The album itself is a unique blend of dance, down-tempo, Motown, pop, hip-hop, and rock n’ roll. “You hear things, and you’re like, ‘Okay, I’m going to get that.’ And you’ll sample it, [but] it’s never a case of we have to use that sample, it’s more like ‘what do we need for this song to work?’ It’s a strange obsession to sit around and just cut records up.”
Strange obsession yes, but what comes across as even stranger is the fact that many of the Avalanches come from a rock n’ roll background. Darren, in particular, had his start in indie, punk and noise bands–and then made the unusual foray into dance-based music. “What sort of happened, I guess, is that I left the band Ripe [one of Darren’s initial musical endeavors], when we’d finished a big world tour. I really wanted to do something with Robbie, and we started writing songs. We were using guitars and organs, and we would write songs over loops. We already had a record player, and [Robbie] would just fix records so that they would play the same groove over and over. So we would get string records that were quite warped, and that’s how it sort of started.” Though the music has definitely shifted gears from rock to roll, aspects of the former are still persistent in the latter. “It was a natural progression, and it still feels like samples are a songwriting tool. Live, the energy, noise and chaos are a lot more like a rock show than a dance act. I guess we steal elements of both.”
Rewind several months earlier, before the release of Since I Left You, before UK music mag NME had labeled them, among other things, “the successors to sliced bread,” and the Avalanches were quite unassuming about their own abilities and the future of their record. “It seemed to us that the record might not even come out outside of Australia. It was unconventional, because it wasn’t backed by a major label, and we were left to our own devices. So the album took quite a long time to finish. “I think the next record’s the most important record for us. Since I Left You was a learning experience. It was not the defining moment for us. I don’t think we’ll ever quite make an album like that again. It’s incredibly frustrating work. I think we’ve moved on.”
While most groups would be content with one solid album and a slew of great press, the Avalanches are decidedly pressing on, pushing harder and raising the bar for themselves. “At the moment, I’m getting into classical stuff, and I’m really interested in trying to find a classical composer who could orchestrate the kind of stuff that we find. We would love to work with someone like Cyndi Lauper. We just love her voice, [but] I’m not sure what she’s doing at the moment.” Some advice for Ms. Lauper: give the Avalanches a call. Trust us, it’ll be the best career decision since … ever.