Aug
18
8.28am

GET IN THE VAN: POLARIS // Gold Dripped White Towers (For Hire)


Ahh, the foul stench of youth, as Monty Burns would say. Polaris are just about drenched in it. It’s why punters are driving themselves mad trying to get front and centre to their insane live shows.

Polaris’ obscurity is fading fast just like you on your fifteenth bourbon and coke on a Friday. These plucky young lads scored an opening spot on June’s mini-festival (and it really was a mini-festival) with In Hearts Wake, While She Sleeps and Crossfaith, and they couldn’t be happier. It’s that mix of puppy dog elation and nerves before they hit their biggest room on the tour, the palatial Forum in Melbourne. Legs are restless, tummies are hungry, and jokes are flowing like beer which is flowing like wine. With the whole band on the (non suss) couch, it feels like a Presidential Press Conference …

Hysteria: Wow, I didn’t think there’d be so many of you. I feel like I’m at the White House.

Rick: I think the Presidency will be a sitcom in a couple of years.

Jake: Obama gets to be first lady. “I’m back!” Move into the Oval Office.

Daniel: The first thing they do is just disinfect the whole house.

Hysteria: Obama’s like, “I already know where the toilets are.” Trump’s like, “I want to put a gold plated toilet in the middle of the Oval Office.”

Daniel: “I feel like we could get a new golf course.”

Jake: He builds another Trump Tower.

All: The White Tower!

Jake: Saruman?

Rick: He just goes up the top and there’s this flaming eye at the top.

Jamie: I want to kill him, that guy. Froyo. This the best flaming eye. Everyone knows that we do the best flaming eyes. Nobody beats our flaming eyes. It’s huge, it’s huge.

Jake: I have a lot of friends … I have friends who also have a lot of them.

Rick: A lot of people, a LOT of people …

Hysteria: Ahem, so. How’s the response been to Consume so far?

Ryan: Incredible, absolutely incredible.

Jamie: You got it, Ryan.

Ryan: I’m surprised.

Rick: Couldn’t have said it better myself. Nah, it’s been-

Ryan: It has been!

Rick: But yeah, as far as it goes, just to put out a single, especially one which doesn’t have a repeating chorus? There’s a lot of things, that became synonymous with our band just through listening to the EP a lot. And for this song to not have many of those tropes and … Dare I say, like … What would you say? Like, those kind of tropes or those…

Daniel: I guess it’s just about broadening the horizon of how we can structure a song. Because I think, a big part of this album was trying to work out what a lot of habits are and kind of assess those and to choose when to break away from them, or to kind of embrace them. So some songs kind of embrace some of the structure and material of the old album. But that one we just wanted to be a little bit more of … Just travel through the song more progressively.

When you get the mutual respect back, it’s so valuable. On tour, it makes you feel so much more comfortable.
[RYAN]

Jamie: It was our last song, we picked it last minute.

Rick: It was kinda on the chopping block for a few days. When we first got into the studio, there was like a couple of us just sitting there. We were passing stuff back and forth. Passing the computer between us, trying out different arrangements before we got to the final version. When that one was picked as single, it was almost like a surprise. It’s like, “Hey, that’s cool.”

Ryan: Dan wrote the lyrics like on the day that they got tracked, I’m pretty sure.

Daniel: I was pretty much writing lyrics like the night before and that morning, just sitting there cranking stuff out.

Rick: So, it was a bit of a stress-head song. But then to get a response like we have … We couldn’t have expected it to go so well, because we were all like, umming and ahhng in our heads as to how it was going to go, and then it was a surprise release.

Daniel: It was a little bit of test for us, to see how it would go if we were to just drop a song, like a surprise like that.



You’re going on to open for In Hearts Wake, Crossfaith, While She Sleeps in a couple of hours. It’s like being on tour overseas a little bit, isn’t it?

Daniel: It’s the biggest tour we’ve been a part of by far. Like, walking into the venue tonight, you’re just going like, “Wow.” The scale and the production and everything is like out of this world. It’s just really fun.

Ryan: Cannot help feeling a bit dwarfed by some of the bands here…

Rick:  I was actually talking about this earlier today, but like, just the fact that like every band … We’ve been on tour with … Periphery, Circles … and when we see those dudes it does make you kind of reevaluate your musical career. But every band on this lineup so far, we’re two shows down. It’s one of the most impressive tours to be a part of. Just as far as like performance, energy, the venues themselves … It’s been crazy. All the bands are putting on their own show.

Jake: We’re learning a lot on this tour. Just when we’re starting to assess our place. Just as an example, how important lighting can be and stuff like that. And then watching bands like Crossfaith who play straight after us and going like, “Wow.” The level of thought and production that goes into having a great live show … A show that runs real smoothly, and revving the crowd and keeping the energy up. Those two bands are, like, masters at it. You can tell where they’re seasoned festival performers as well, which is really inspiring to watch, I think. Especially in big rooms.

Ryan: Regardless of the size of the room, they kinda just play that way. Like, you kinda get that big band vibe from them.

That’s another question: what does this teach a young band?

Rick: I think the first ever tour that we actually did was with Sienna Skies, and one of the dudes in that band was just like “You don’t do this, you don’t do this, and you don’t do that.” And we’re like, “That seems simple enough.” None of us were really like, “No, like, we just want to do it our own way.” We’re like, “Yeah, we’ll get there early, we’ll get loaded in.” And as far as that goes, its treated us well up to this point. We haven’t gotten in any strife with anyone.

Daniel: There’s a good crew on this tour though. They’re really organised. And … They run a pretty tight ship.

Yeah, Good ship metaphor there. I was waiting for it.

Jake: True. [Laughs]



Obviously you’re fans of all these bands. When does the breakdown between yourselves as performers and fans happen. When you’re like, “Okay. We’re not here to gush over how cool these bands are, but, god damn …”

Ryan: Yeah, it’s tours like Periphery and Sienna Skies and stuff like that. But the main thing is, if those bands are really friendly, that breaks that barrier down like crazy. When we were going on tour with Periphery, they were really great friends to us. In Heart’s Wake have been really chill to us since the start of this tour. They’re just really great dudes. Very full of, just encouragement and everyone wants to have a good show.

Daniel: They’ve kinda been supportive with our band in other ways as well, like when we’ve played shows together with Crossfaith, they’ve been really positive to us.

Jake: Crothface were … Crockface.

All: Crossfaith!

Jake: Yes, they’ve been so lovely to us.

Rick: As far as, like, separating yourself from being a fan, it’s impossible to do so. But at the same time, you’ve just got to rope it in, and kinda just be real with people and hope that they return the favour. Like I was saying before, it mostly comes down to the personalities and the people on the tour, rather than like, the bands themselves. Because, you can be in love with a band, but they don’t respond to you, or say anything back, then you can’t really be a fan in the first place.

Ryan: When you get the mutual respect back, it’s so valuable. On tour, it makes you feel so much more comfortable.

Consume is out now.



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