As Flaming Wrekage’s brutal fourth album tickles your earholes, you know this is something special. …
In an age that lends itself to DIY LP releases more than ever before, you can bet the farm that the music scene will be flooded with new, unique acts that might not have made it onto disc in generations gone by.
Sydney act Dreamers Crime are one such band who, with their unique blend of anthemic stadium rock and alternative metal, have taken the initiative and cut their own full length No Compromises, which is out now.
MORE: Check out this weeks Hysteria Radio Top 20 tracks here.
We caught up with frontman Peter Repousis to talk about what it looks like for a local act to be writing a full-length whilst holding down day-jobs and creating a unique record on top of everyday life.
“We started writing the record two years ago, so we rented out a rehearsal space that we could access at any time, and we would write there every day” says Pete.
“It was awesome to have access at any time and go in there and write whatever you wanted to. We didn’t want to have to go to someone’s house in a tiny room to write the record….in a studio space we could always test the songs in a live setting as we wrote, which lent to the creativity of it all.”
Having already released an EP, 2014’s What Is Real, Peter reflected on how the band already had a significant amount of live experience that helped them to channel extra energy into the songs, as well as the importance of minimising distractions.
“When songs lack that live energy we would either bin it or re-work it. We kept the room really simple as well, so as to keep the focus purely on the music. Our mates Bad Moon Born have a room in the same studio area decked out like every band’s dream…we didn’t deck our room at all. We weren’t distracted by anything; it was all what we wanted to write.”
As with most bands that manage to get the foot in the door, it was this initiative and focus that caught the eye of local producers, with Stevie Knight, frontman of The Dead Love, reaching out to the band.
“We wanted to write as many songs as possible, so we took the attitude of ‘what if this is our last recording ever?’ When we were looking for which studios and producers to work with, Stevie left Electric Sun (Studios) to drive out to our rehearsal space to listen and have a chat with us before we hired him. He recommended that we do a full-length with him, and that we had what it took to do it. The only reason against doing an album was because we weren’t sure we had the funds to do it.”
Thankfully it wasn’t an issue of funds that threatened No Compromises being released, but rather the age-old problem of changing personnel in the middle of recording and keeping the vision of the LP on track.
“During the recording our two ex band members came to an agreement with us that they would leave after the record was out. You could hear what influenced certain songs more than another, and there would be over-compromising to cater to something in particular. However once we got in the studio, Stevie and Dave (Petrovic) were the best possible mediators for us. That’s where the title of No Compromises came from, because we had to compromise at the start and during the recording, but we ended up deciding to go for whatever it was we wanted to do.”
Was it a case of too many cooks in the kitchen?
“It was five way collaboratively, but we decided that if the melodies didn’t shine, the songs weren’t being done justice.”
You can hear those melodies in all their glory on the band’s powerful new single I Believe In You below.
