When a person hears electronic music in a club setting, it is almost always through the conduit of a DJ playing someone else’s records. There have been some notable exceptions to the rule over the years including Kraftwerk, The Chemical Brothers, Faithless, and Underworld but on the whole the number of DJs has greatly surpassed live performers.

However, three lads from Melbourne, Australia, have breathed new life into dance music with an energy to their music and performances matched by very few bands, electronic based or otherwise. Neither having a set list or roadmap to what the audience may hear on any given night, their mantra comes out each night via Manuel Sharrad, who announces "This is live." at the start of their sets. So comfortable with one another that the cues for the next tune could be a hand signal or a simple beat, their movements are in unison and the results are devastating.

Infusion have traveled a long way to give the world a much needed kick in the pants. Endlessly touring on the back of their second album, “Six Feet Above Yesterday,” which will shortly also get a well-deserved worldwide release, RA had the opportunity to speak with all three members; Frank Xavier, Jamie Stevens, and Manuel Sharrad before their recent gig in New York.

It would seem the electronic music community had better brace itself for a much-needed re-energizing jolt.

Since launching your album, “Six Feet Above Yesterday,” you have been on the road touring. Where are some of the places you have played and what were the audiences like?

Jamie: One of the highlights of the tours after the album came out was doing our own shows in Australia. We had always done it on the back of another festival or playing with another band.

Like Big Day Out?

J: Yeah, yeah. Even though that was amazing- we did a week of that as well. Having our own kind of East Coast tour was really good fun with two other guys playing guitar and bass guitar with us. And lighting and visuals and stuff like that. So that kind of fun for us. We have not really gone anywhere different since the album came out. We’ve been retreading to where we’ve been before. Just reinforcing the album really.

When the album came out in South America we played a South American gig in Chile - that was really good fun playing a place like that. They were a really, really enthusiastic crowd. That was really good fun. That part of the world is always nice - up there and Mexico.

How is the new material being received?

J: We don’t play every track on the album, because some stuff on the album is not really suitable [to be played live]. Some tracks that have been played went down really well. In Australia we played “Always There,” which is one of the last tracks on the album, and it went down really, really well. It is kind of slow and it just has this kind of energy to it. We have guitarists up there that are just enhancing it. We played it towards the end of the set and it just went down really well. That was really good fun to kind of branch out and be able to play tracks like that.

Which do you prefer, the more intimate club setting, or a festival-type atmosphere?

Manuel: It all depends on what the crowd is like and what the vibe is like. Whether it is in the day or night, you know. It depends on all kinds of things whether it is a good gig or not. It doesn’t really matter what size it is. Unless it is like 15,000 people, then you know you are going to have a good gig. But, there have been some festivals where it is really hard to judge what the people are going to be into.

We have played some really some places that have been just amazing because there have been two to three hundred people that were absolutely loving it. But, at the same time [we have seen it] the other way around as well. We have played some amazing festival gigs, and some really hard, some club gigs where people are just standing around drinking and trying to look cool - not really responding.

J: A lot of it depends on the programming of the day as well I think, sort of where we are placed. In a club people cannot really move around a lot. In a festival people move around because there are different bands they want to see. At times it can be a little bit more difficult, but at other times it has gone really well and been a really amazing experience.

The first time I saw you was at Chinese Laundry [in Sydney].

J: No kidding?!

And that place is about as big as this table, but the crowd was really into it.

J: That is what I was talking about. A place can be really, really small, but it can be really, really amazing.

How big an issue is it for you to transport all your gear? It got lost on the way to Serbia [for the Exit Festival].

M: Yeah, that is the main issue really.

J: What we use, which is essential really, the main part of our set up, is not a readily available piece of equipment. It is an Akai MPC4000 and with that missing we don’t have a show. The show is improvised and it has all the loops in it. We don’t have setlists. We don’t actually have a backup, because there is nothing really to backup. [laughs] We can’t switch over to a pre-recorded version because there is no prerecorded version. It is pretty essential traveling around with our own equipment. There are some things we could probably replace if something broke, like a mixing desk or something like that. We can get another key board, microphone, whatever, but the main heart of it, the Akai MPC4000 running all of the sounds...it is pretty essential that we have that for every gig.

Do you check in most of it or carry it on the plane?

J: We check everything in. Except for the Akai MPC4000, and our little voice unit. Everything else gets check in. In America it is two bags each [without having to spend extra].

And they lowered the weight limit.

J: Yeah, we usually just scrape by. It depends how good a day the person is having [to let it slide]. They have a right to charge us, but sometimes they don’t worry about it. But, by their rules they have to charge us. We are usually pretty lucky. For $25, or whatever it is [not that big a deal]. There is usually only one piece of equipment that goes over weight. And $25 isn’t really that bad.

Do you still think about the creative process in the same way; that is do you think of writing a 'track' that might form part of a bigger set, or do you think of 'songs' more now that can stand alone more and feature on radio or an album?

J: The last album was over a long period of time, so it was hard for a while to just sense our whole body of work because we were touring and doing remixes so it was hard to conceptualize how it was all going to sound. It was all very sporadic. A bit of time here, a bit of time there. So a lot of it was individual ideas. The majority of the way we work is one person comes up with an idea and then [we all work together] from that point on. That was pretty much how our last album was.
The creative process is pretty much a single idea that gets expanded on. I think once we start getting an idea of what tracks start to sound like that is when we start setting the idea of what will work, what is not going to work on the album as a whole.

Luke Chable has made the move to live permanently in Holland, and you are living in Brighton for the (Northern Hemisphere) summer. Any plans to make a permanent move from Oz?

M: It is hard to think about at the moment. There is too much else to think about. We definitely need to spend more time in the Northern Hemisphere. Next year especially with all the tours and stuff - thinking about it now. We need to tour and stuff. Whether or not it is a permanent move or not - I don’t know.

J: When we went to England it was never with the intent to do it permanently. We just knew that it would make sense. Coming from Australia, it would just make touring that much easier. It gives us more time to actually write, as opposed to sitting in a hotel room on laptops, which really isn’t a very collaborative kind of space. There is no real plan to [permanently move], but it depends on how the album does. It only just got released in the Northern Hemisphere - it just got released in the U.K. There hasn’t actually been a large release with all the promotion put into it yet, that is coming later. And it hasn’t been released in America yet. It depends on when all those things, sort of, happen. Once everything gets into place we’ll see where we are most needed, where it makes the most sense, but at this stage we are going to stay in Australia.

Do you find English beaches to be total crap?

[Laughs]

J: Yeah, I don’t even know why they call them beaches.

Frank: There is Brighton beach and there are some really good beaches around Cornwall and all the others. But we haven’t been!

M: Brighton beach is the only beach I’ve actually seen in the U.K.

J: We are pretty spoiled in Australia. Australia has some pretty beautiful places. All the major cities are on the coast so most places have access to some pretty nice beaches. So it takes a lot for us to be impressed by a beach.

Since you’ve been living in Brighton for the summer, do you have any stories about your infamous neighbors like Norman Cook or Adam Freeland?

F: [Jamie] has got more stories than we do. [laughs]

J: Adam is like a mate of ours. So we keep in contact. He is a friend and so are the Evil Nine guys and the Marine people are our friends. But as far as stories, I went to Norman Cook’s birthday party. [laughs] It was like a barbecue! It was during the day and they had their family friends over and kids running around the house. It was really nice actually. It was quite pleasant. There were some really nice people there. Like Norman and Zoe are really sweet, normal people. It was a fun, little barbecue.

Sounds like a relaxing day!

[Laughs]

J: Yeah!

You are signed to BMG, which means in addition to the usual vinyl releases you are doing video clips and being exposed to a wider audience. What's it been like being signed to a major label? Do you feel any extra pressure from the label heads than when you were on an indy?

M: Not so much pressure. I mean, when we signed with them we were still piecing together the album. There was actually very little pressure as to what they kind of wanted and liked. [They never said] we want more tracks like this, or whatever. There was none of that really. They just let us do what we wanted. Once we finished they were like, “Now hang on, lets think about this - you know,” which was a bit of short-sightedness on their part I guess. It has been an excuse for us to be seen more, really. We had only ever been on small labels or dance labels, and releasing twelve inches before that. We really wanted to try and branch it out.

J: Musically we knew we didn’t want to head down one route. So, we thought, “Why not give a major label a shot.” We knew that our sound was a bit broader than that, so we thought maybe a wider audience could get into it, but how do you let people know about that. So, at the time we thought the option was there to go to a major label. We find it more a case to keep on the backs of the people at the label that we have contacts with. To really keep at them.

M: To know what is going on.

J: Well, not that. To tell them that things need to be done. It is not like we give them our music and suddenly they do their thing. And suddenly the album comes out and they put promotion everywhere. It is a lot of work with a mojor to make sure that things get done. It takes longer than expected. It takes months to get a response to something. It is good though. We did our first album on a small label and you would be lucky to find it in a shop. This time it is really good that you can go into stores and people can go out and get it.

M: We had a tour off it and do our own thing.

J: And to get an American release is quite an amazing thing for an Australian artist to do that. It is one of the good things about being on the major. Not that Sony BMG is releasing it [in the U.S.], but to actually have it available locally in America is a great thing and it wouldn’t have happened if we were just on a small label.

You seem to have an entrepreneurial spiri t- to be in control. You also started your own label, Polaroid, which is now “Music for Vinyl.” Why have you decided not to put any of your own releases for digital download?

J: That is more a publishing situation. We only have the rights to the vinyl releases with Sony BMG. The actual digital medium is owned by Sony BMG. It is more to do with the publishers of that music. They advise against it [selling digitally]. It is still a grey area. Even the people that do have the stuff on-line, there are no rules in place as to what percentage [the artist gets], and how to pay people. It is not a black and white thing, so we are just avoiding it at the moment until something actually [is concrete]. At the moment, it is not really up to us to put it the catalog on-line. In Australia, iTunes is not even available in Australia yet. It is taking a long, long, long time. The downloading thing is really only an illegal thing in Australia. There are not any real places in Australia to download and pay for [tracks]. It is really a Northern Hemisphere thing. So, we’ll see what happens after this comes out. The album, in the Northern Hemisphere, you can get it on iTunes, but not the [individual] tracks. We’re still working that out with publishers and the label.

Jamie, you put out “The Night Before” a while back. Are you guys involved in any side projects at the moment that you can tell us about? Or are you concentrating on Infusion?

M: No, not really at the moment.

J: It was more before we signed with Sony BMG, and it was more casual back then. I don’t have so much time anymore. We now direct more of our creativity toward one project. The “Night Before” was something that I thought, “Why the hell not?” It was something I had lying there and I thought, “Eh, might as well.” But now, it is a bit more serious, and we direct our energy toward one thing. Am I right?

Someone’s not going to pull me aside at the end and go, “Yeah, I’ve got this project...”

[Laughs]

J: No, no, no. I think it is a constructive thing. Frank had a few tracks he did effects on for Adam [Freeland].

Jamie, you had an accident a few months back that forced you to cancel some gigs. What happened?

J: I feel great. I may still have some pain.

You fell?

J: Yeah. My back- I still have troubles, but it is not bad. My neck is still sore when I bend a bit. I’m not a 100%, but I’d say about 97%.

Wardrobe wise you seem to be wearing similar things at each gig (Jamie in a tie, Manuel in stripes, Frank just the hair). Is this a look you are going for, or just personal preference?

M: I don’t really wear stripes anymore.

Frank: I just have long hair. [Laughs]

M: Stripes are something that hung around for a little while, but not all the time.

J: Especially at photo shoots.

J: I just like wearing ties. I just buy them anywhere. I don’t know. I just like ‘em. It’s kind of fun just to wear a tie and a shirt. There is no big idea behind it [the wardrobe], or talking to. We just enjoy it.

A lot of your live sets are out there.

M: Yeah, somehow. We don’t know how. We don’t record them!

Any plans for doing a live album?

M: Not really, no.

J: The problem with that, the bands that do live recordings usually record it down. They record every instrument. They track it. Then they go to a studio and re-mix it so it sounds good on record. If you take the recording of how it was mixed in that environment [on the stage] it would sound like shit. Cause you mix it in that environment that’s why we play the way we play [like we do]. Another live band, because [their songs] are already pre-done, it is easy for them to go take a mix of tape from tonight and put it on a CD. But, we are doing it live and there are some thirty-odd channels to mix. We are mixing so it sounds good in that [live] environment. If you take that out of the context and all the levels, all the balances, are completely wrong and you cannot just go back and recreate all that because it is just how we played on that night.

The only differences, the two exceptions, to that is the Essential [Mix] because they said they wanted a studio quality recording. At the time we were a bit dubious about doing it because we play in front of an audience and react off that. To do that in a studio would be a bit forced. We actually have a separate set-up for live and studio. We have separate equipment. We don’t use live the stuff in the studio. It would require us to set up our live stuff in the studio and record it down. We actually did that [record in studio] so we could get the levels down and it would sound good on a stereo or radio. It turned out that it only took two takes to get that once and record it, just us in the studio. And that was just a jam as well, just two takes for those two hours. That was just a jam among the three of us. It was kind of fun, but yeah, otherwise a recording of all of us in an actual live [performance] sounds strange.

You don’t know where it is from in the crowd, how far out, and you hear “Oops, sorry.”

[Laughs]

J: “Oh, shit, I’ve forgot my words!” [Laughs] We try to stop people recording us live because it is for that night, for that moment.

You can’t recapture.

J: Yeah. It probably sounded fine at that moment and people listening to it later might think, “That sucked.” Well, if you were playing live you probably wouldn’t like it either. We don’t like listening back to things because it is in the past and we are going to try something different the next night. There is no point in listening back to it, for us anyway.

What is on the horizon for the year ahead?

M: Touring. More touring and hopefully finding some time to sit down and consolidate all the things we’ve been working on at the moment. Writing and start working [in the studio] again. Head back home or whatever. Try to record some new stuff basically.

J: Probably start working toward a new album. A new single, it has already come out in Australia, called “Natural.” It comes out in the U.K. soon. We will see how that goes and it will tell us how much time we will spend in the U.K. Then come back here and do a more thorough U.S. tour. That will be our album tour. This [tour] is not really for the album because it has not come out [in the States] yet. November will be a full U.S. tour. And South America. Then we get a bit of time off. We actually get a few weeks off, which is really nice.

Author: thomar.

Published: Friday, September 23, 2005.

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