STRUNG OUT // Strung Out Are Back IN

In the six-year gap between their 7th and 8th albums, Strung Out had to face off against their punk rock mid-life crisis and decide what the rest of their career was going to be like.

In the wake of their triumphant Transmission.Alpha.Delta and ahead of their umpteenth Australian tour, guitarist Jake Kiley explains what drove the band to soldier on.

“We were busy with all the other things,” Kiley says by way of explaining the radio silence that followed 2009’s Agents of the Underground. “We put out Agents of the Underground and then toured that for two years. Then we also have B-sides thing which we put out. We put out a box-set greatest hits thing and then we went out and did Suburban [Teenage Wasteland Blues] and Crossroads [and Illusions] back-to-back live for pretty much a whole year. Then we took a year to try and get us all in the same headspace, and you can’t rush that process. You can’t force the songs to come. When they’re there, they’re there. But now that we found the right headspace we’re writing a lot more material.”

When fans started to grow worried that Strung Out were looking like they might slip into legacy act mode, pedalling out the old hits with diminishing returns, Kiley says the Californian five-piece were biding their time because they knew how hard it would be capture the magic required to make Transmission.Alpha.Delta as good a record as it is. In his mind there was never any doubt (“I never really felt that we wouldn’t make another record. Even if we took another 10 years to make a record, I always knew there was a record coming. I never doubted it.”) but an understanding of how much patience a record like Transmission.Alpha.Delta would take to make.

“For any artist, it’s like you do that first record, and that’s like a monumental achievement. You find a band, make the songs work, get it together, find a label and put out the record, going through that process is so hard. And that with every album after the first you’re trying to better it. And that gets tougher when you’ve got a bigger body of work to live up to. For us though now, we don’t concern ourselves too much with that because in the past we kind of strayed from our roots a bit – not on purpose, it was just where we were at at the time. And by doing that for a while it made us appreciate the older stuff even more. Because doing the greatest hits stuff and the retrospective tours we had all the old stuff in our heads and that really impacted on the writing process. I think the new album has a lot of life and energy to it that was the result of being on the same page as the older stuff.

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You can’t force the songs to come. When they’re there, they’re there.

[JAKE]

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“Any time you’re working with four other people you’re subject to their opinions and schedules and mental states. All of that plays a part in the make-up of the band. So everybody needs to be committed so when all those things gel the band is able to create something.”

According to Kiley, finding that cohesion among the Strung Out dudes was incredibly rewarding. As soon as it happened, they knew Transmission.Alpha.Delta was going to be one of the strongest pillars in the band’s catalogue.

“We were really looking forward to creating something new when we were going in to record Transmission.Alpha.Delta. And everyone was all on the same page, which was pretty much the first time we’d felt like that in a long time. So it was a very cool writing process and a very good creative time. Altogether I think it’s one of the more productive records we’ve had as a group in a long time. Everyone was on the same page and wanted the same thing for it.”

Having realised their vision for a unified vision in the studio, which fans and critics alike have applauded, Kiley says it’s been a phenomenal experience being able to take new Strung Out material out on the road.

“It’s great to have something new to play on the road. We were playing the old stuff but when you’re playing songs for 10, 15 years – some of the old songs kind of lose some of their fun. So we needed to be able to switch things around to keep things fun. And that’s why we’re really stoked on this record because it’s a lot of fun for us to go out and play these songs that show where our hearts are at right now.”

Now that the band have found the vibe that made Transmission.Alpha.Delta such a powerful record, Kiley says Strung Out are already thinking about what’s going to come next.

“We’re looking forward to making another record… I don’t feel done in any sense. I’d imagine the next record will be out a year and a half from now.”

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STRUNG OUT AUSTRALIAN TRANSMISSION TOUR
With guests PEARS

MARCH
2nd – The Jack, Cairns [18+] 3rd – Dalrymple Hotel, Townsville [18+] 4th – Max Watts, Brisbane [18+] *
5th – Miami Tavern, Gold Coast [18+] 6th – Solbar, Maroochydore [18+] 9th – The Basement, Canberra [18+] 10th – Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor [18+] 11th – Metro, Sydney [18+] *
12th – Amplifier, Perth [18+] *
13th – Prince of Wales, Bunbury [18+] 16th – Unibar, Adelaide [18+] *
17th – Village Green, Mulgrave [18+] 18th – Pelly Bar, Frankston [18+] 19th – Corner Hotel, Richmond [18+] *
20th – Barwon Club, Geelong [18+] 23rd – The Loft, Warrnambool [18+] 24th – Brisbane Hotel, Hobart [18+] 25th – Club 54, Launceston [18+] 26th – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle [18+] 27th – Entrance Leagues, The Entrance [18+] 30th – Unibar, Wollongong [18+]

Tickets available via Blue Murder