ANSWERING YOUR CALL: LOOSE CONTENT
Hailing originally from Byron Bay and now based in Naarm/Melbourne, Loose Content have been the ones to watch. With their new EP Forth and Back they are answering the call we’ve been waiting for. With 5 new songs from the trio, an overseas tour and a big year ahead of them there’s a lot to dive into. We spoke with Loose Content about Advocacy, touring overseas, coming into adulthood and whats next for the band.
Photo credit: Jack Moran
You’ve been busy with the release of “Big Bright Burning Sun” and “Forth & Back”. How are you feeling having these tracks out in the world?
It feels really exciting having these tracks out! With a lot of our previous work, we spent years rehearsing and playing the songs live on the road before they were released so it always felt like we were never accurately representing our songwriting style and sonic personality in real-time. Coming into adulthood, our influences and inspiration are constantly shifting. In a sense this brings a special aspect to live shows that you can’t get from our recorded music but as we move onto releasing these new singles and our new record, we feel the gap slowly closing, and our discography growing closer and closer to feeling like an authentic representation of our current sound, which is really important to us.
“Big Bright Burning Sun” seems to go hand in hand with your advocacy as a band - how do you navigate this as you present it in your music?
We believe the best way to change someone’s mindset or make them rethink their view on something isn’t necessarily by being completely explicit and obvious in one’s advocacy but instead to subtly use metaphorical, figurative and emotive language which people are more likely to connect to on a personal level and therefore subsequently tweak their thoughts and opinions subconsciously.
Of the tracks released in the last few months - do you each have a favourite? Is there a particular reason behind this?
“I think for me (Aquila), my favourite track from the new record is ‘Forth & Back’ in terms of its sonic direction and the way in which the writing process felt very seamless for us all.”
“‘No One Left To Call’ is definitely the song from the project I feel best represents our songwriting capabilities as a group and is the most special and euphoric when we play it live.” - MiLLa
Jumping into the visual world of Loose Content - you’ve worked with Anais Stewart-Long and Miro Salom recently, how have they helped shape the visual storytelling?
Miro and Anais are long-time collaborators of ours and are both incredibly talented and inspired young creatives in their own right. Their additions to the visual aspects of the project have been invaluable, especially given our longstanding relationships, hence their ability to perfectly echo the themes and sentiments we aim to capture within our storytelling. Miro’s immense technical understanding of equipment and cinematography, complemented by Anais’ eye for detail and unique artistic perspective, has allowed us to access a very professional scale visual component which we feel perfectly complements each track’s essence and the record’s overarching artistic world.
Are there any outside influences (books, films, tv shows etc) that you lean on when you’re writing?
It’s really important to us that we never try to replicate or intentionally reference anyone’s work when we write together in order for us to try to create our own authentically unique sound. In saying this, all art references art, and we believe this is the case with music in particular. Subconsciously perhaps, the Scandinavian psychological thrillers I (MiLLa) like to watch, the verse of the poets I like to read, and the slightly oddball indie films I indulge in, have some unintentional marking on our sound and our songsmithing. Actually yes, they most definitely do. Mary Oliver’s will change your life. Lisel Mueller's work is completely brilliant. And if you haven’t seen The Bridge (DK version) of The Valhalla Murders you’re truly missing out.
How do you hope people feel listening to your music and diving into the Loose Content world?
We hope people feel connected to us on a personal level. A lot of the time it’s easy to feel alone in your individual experiences and outlook on the world. We want to really see eye to eye with our audience and feel we can build and share a mutual understanding of how we want to move forward as a species and alter our relationship with the earth. Music has always been about connecting - whether it’s an idea, a movement or a feeling. We’re all searching for that connection and I think as a band we seek that out in the songs we listen to and try to emulate the same experience of feeling “seen” and “understood” within our own music.
What can you tell us about what’s to come for Loose Content?
It’s one of the biggest cliches for bands to say “watch this space” but we’re pleased to say we genuinely have a lot of exciting things coming this year! In celebration of the release of our new EP ‘Forth & Back’ we’re taking it LIVE on the road around the country this April (Brisbane, Byron, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney) and then we’re heading off on tour overseas for THE FIRST TIME EVER…we can’t say too much on this just yet but you can stay up to date with everything as it happens over on our socials or mailing list. We’re also heading back into the studio and will have more music to come later in the year too. July will see a very special collaboration we’re extremely honoured to be a part of - so stay tuned for that.