MINETTA // Persevering Prominence

For a band that have only published several songs within their fresh musical career, Minetta are proving that they’re worth our attention.

Again working alongside producer Sam Toebelman on their second release, the quintet have delivered the goods which showcases not only their instrumental talents, but also their tight friendship and strong determination to have what they’re saying heard.

MORE: TROPHY EYES: The Dreamers And The Doers // ALPHA WOLF: … And Out Come The Breakdowns // OUTRIGHT: Don’t Holler Atcha Girl
REVIEWS: TROPHY EYES: The American Dream // AS IT IS: The Great Depression // PLINI: Sunhead`// MINETTA: Separation & Growth

Having just released their EP titled Separation & Growth, the Victorian ‘Ninch boys have come out of the woodworks with an invigorating three-track combining power and perseverance with melodic rhythms, caterwaul vocals and time signatures that make you wish you’d paid more attention in your math classes.

Minetta has been a while coming; between band members travelling abroad and the general workings of day to day life, the boys finally decided last year that it was time to get serious. Once they’d chosen their name (Minetta) which was inspired by a travel memory of their drummer Danny’s trip to New York, they then began writing and recording their first EP in 2017.

Chatting with frontman Ricky McCandlish, he gave an insight into the band’s future plans;

“We released our first EP Backyards last year and then three months later I went overseas for the rest of the year and then so did our guitarist so we’ve always known that something’s coming up to stop us from doing these sort of y’know, round the country tours, interstate tours, and so, now we’ve just put out a three-track and we’re writing for an album, we’re not going anywhere so now we’re looking at booking these shows and hopping on these tours so I mean, a tour by the end of this year, I wouldn’t say no it wouldn’t happen.”

We’re writing flat out. We got the better part of a full-length down and we’re writing some stuff that’s not strictly y’know, pigeon-holed to one area …
[ Ricky McCandlish ]

Being the primary songwriter, McCandlish shared insight into where his heartfelt lyrics come from; “I write poetry, I write descriptive, self-reflection, a lot of different things, all of the time, and I mean, that’s the thing, that’s my style of writing. Y’know what I mean, y’know, it doesn’t always have to have a melancholy sort of vibe or an upset vibe like a lot of people in this genre will be doing and there’s nothing wrong with that at all, because I do do that at times but I think just for me that it felt like I wanted to write something a little bit more positive because I mean, in the first release if you sort of dissect the lyrics and the content of where my head space was at, at that time, that was in the wake of a really bad period of time in my life and I came out of that and this is like me two-three years later down the track in a sort of like y’know, a birds eye view of like how far I’ve come in my life and y’know all the experiences that I’ve had, you know what I mean like, I’ve just watched sort of myself grow up and just sort of grow in many more ways than one obviously but definitely matured into myself and become more confident in myself and who I am and I mean, it shows sort of everyday and I was sort of looking at things and doing this, this and this, oh it makes me feel so mediocre and before you know it you’re 23, you’re 24 years old, and all that stuff is behind you and you feel a lot better about yourself. It’s definitely a testament to how far you’ve come.”

And when it comes to bringing it all together, the boy’s are all about honesty being the best policy. “We’re best mates. I’ve been playing with our drummer Danny and our guitarist Levo, I’ve been jamming with them since I was in year 11 and I turn 26 this weekend so I mean, that’s like ten years! So we’ve got that friendship, y’know, shit happens sometimes, you can walk away from a jam being pissed off at each other thinking that guy’s a dickhead and I know they’ve walked away going Ricky’s a dickhead, it happens y’know but we’re at that point where that’s what friendship is; it’s not all good, it’s good and bad and we can be honest.”

“We’re writing flat out. We got the better part of a full-length down and we’re writing some stuff that’s not strictly y’know, pigeon-holed to one area which is like what we’ve been churning out so far, so I’m so excited that it’s full length as well y’know we’ve got heaps of room to play as well, it’s not just three songs, you’ve got a lot of room to make things stick together like a proper story so it’s really cool.”