the suburbs hysteria
Apr
29
11.17am

THE SUBURBS // Tick, Tick BOOM!


The rona related lockdowns we were all subjected to sucked. And no one knows this more than our mates in Melbourne, who spent a massive 275 days stuck at home.

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This experience was exactly what inspired The Suburb‘s latest rap-rock offering, BOOM. The band’s rapper, Steven Cannatelli, ran us through this, their experience working with Sam Bassal and more.



Hysteria: Let’s get the band introduced.

Steven: We formed in 2019. We’re three best friends who decided to make music for some fun. We recorded our first two singles in 2019 and released them that same year. From there, we played a string of shows with Crazy Town, Paperweight and Beach Panic. Here we are now!

BOOM is an important one for you. Tell us about it.

BOOM was written about lockdown, during lockdown. It’s not so much an anti-lockdown song; it’s a song to highlight the poor mental health that some of us experienced. For me, the lyrics were inspired by being locked up for 275 days. I work in the music industry, so I felt like I had lost a sense of my purpose and identity. The lyrics came from feelings of frustration, anger, hopelessness and depression.

Going on from that point you made about feeling like you’d lost your sense of purpose and identity. How did you find the motivation to keep the band going and keep creating?

That came down to the three of us being best mates. We won’t walk away from each other, even in difficult times. We try to make things work in the best way we can because the band really is an outlet for us. Looking forward to our next practice or when we could get into the studio was our motivation. This is a lot of fun for us, and it isn’t work for us.

We try to make things work in the best way we can because the band really is an outlet for us. Looking forward to our next practice or when we could get into the studio was our motivation.
[ Steven, The Suburbs ]

So how do the three of you create together? What’s the vibe like?

The vibe is pretty old school. We actually played in a band called Summerset Avenue ten-twelve years ago. So we already had that chemistry between the three of us. We basically just get into a room together, and Carlos (Peregin, guitar) will come up with a riff, Ben (Pali, drums) will have an idea for the drums, or I’ll come up with a hook and we’ll just jam it out. Not too many bands nowadays will come together and just jam and see what comes of it. There’s a lot more writing on guitar pro, or someone will write a whole song and bring it in to the band. We wanted it to be all three of our flavours combined.

What was it like working with Sam Bassal?

It was fantastic. I’ve been working with Sam for years; he’s like a little brother to me. We’re like family. Going in to do this track with him was a no brainer. We’ve got that relationship where we can say whatever we want to each other and explore ideas. I was around for a lot of the recording of The Rhapsody Tapes, and we bounced a lot of ideas off each other during that time.

Sam really brought out the best in us because he could say what he needed to say and do what he needed to do without treading on anyone’s toes. He put forward some amazing ideas. BOOM would not be the track it is without him. When we first went in with Sam, the track was four and a half minutes long, but he reduced it to just under three. He worked with us on creating the hook and making it all it could be. He also worked with us on the arrangements. For the three of us, working with Sam was one of the best experiences we’ve had in the studio, period. We’ll be using him in the future for sure. I’m sure he’ll stay on as our producer forever now.

Is there a story behind the song title itself?

The whole song was built around the hook; I drop the bomb like a boom. It was a no-brainer to make it our song title. It presented itself to us.  When a song tells you what to do, you just have to listen to it.

What’s next?

We’ll have another single coming out mid-year. We also plan to play a bunch of shows, and that’s pretty much it. We’ll always do this for fun. We’ll play shows when we feel like it and the same with releasing music. There’s no pressure on us to do anything we don’t want to.

Purchase and stream here.


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