Interviews
Joel Birch
Acetate

Q. Acetate have been around since 1998. Can you
tell us a little bit about the band and its history?
Has the band changed since forming?

"Acetate" as an entity has really only been around
since late 2000, but the early incarnations of it date
back to '98.  Mike and I used to kill ridiculous amounts of time jamming and writing songs with our old bassist.  We pulled our first lineup together in time for our first ever gig at Campus Bands 2000 and came third in our heat to Voyager & the Fascist Fair Go Party, which we were really pleased with.  We started gigging pretty solidly after that, then had the clichéd lineup change - a couple of members left for various reasons, and we've taken our time finding new ones.  As a result I think we're stronger than ever, in terms of musical ability, direction, and personality.  So Dave and Damo have been with us on bass and drums since the end of last year, and Sarah joined us just in time for our first show at the Lookout in June - a bit of a baptism of fire!

Q.  What is the songwriting process for the band?  Do you write the lyrics and music together or one first and then the other?

I always write my lyrics last, and we always write the music together, but sometimes I'll have an idea for where I want the lyrics to head before we start jamming.  If we work that way I use my song idea as a bit of inspiration to put the right mood and vibe into the music.  If the music comes first, sometimes I'll let it guide how the lyrics come out, tapping into how it sounds and feels.  Then when it comes to structure and arrangement we try out a few different ways of playing it, adapt bits here and there, argue like children then eventually have a finished product to hit the stage with!

Q. I believe you guys are into the semi-finals of the Campus Bands Comp.  Are you excited about that and how do you think the other bands you have seen so far in the Campus Bands have performed?

We're all really excited about the semi-finals.  We put a lot of work into what we do, so we're really glad to have the opportunity to play in the finals series of something like Campus Bands that gets as much exposure as it does.  We watched the heats pretty closely, at UWA and Curtin, and we headed down to the Kitchen to see a couple of the TAFE heats, and we've had an awesome time at all of them - there's been some really good stuff coming through.

Q. Is there a story behind the name Acetate?

Yes.

Q.  When playing live shows, is it important to make every show a spectacle or does it just happen naturally.  Do you feed off the crowd's reaction or do you try to create a reaction?

I know personally it's a little of both.  I think it's really important to make live shows a performance, otherwise you might as well just be a studio band.  But at the same time I'm an incurable showoff so it's not too much of an effort!  I'm going to sit on the fence again in terms of crowd reaction - I never take an audience's attention for granted so when I'm on stage I work really hard to grab it and keep it.  So it's a give and take thing - we try to make the shows as interactive as possible.

Q.  There is a lot of interest in Perth bands and Perth music at the moment, do you think there is a particular Perth sound and is it very different from bands from the Eastern States?

I don't believe there's a distinctive "Perth sound" - the local live scene seems to be more diverse than ever at the moment, which is great - there's never a shortage of gigs to go to.  I'm really hesitant to try to categorise cities by sound, what you hear from the opposite side of the Nullarbor probably only reflects one facet of what makes up each city's scene.

Q. What bands have had the greatest influence on you and who are your favourite bands at the moment both from Perth and from elsewhere? 

We’ve all been influenced by a range of different stuff.  I think at heart we’re all rock pigs, but we’ve each got there from different sorts of angles, so we draw the lines around what “rock” is differently.

The local scene’s awesome at the moment.  We’re right into Headshot, Karnivool, Brainhorn, Floating Widget, and Tragic Delicate to name a few. 

Q. What is your favourite live music venue in Perth?  Do you prefer small pub shows with a small audience or bigger shows with lots of people cheering you on?

We've got so many cool new ones it's hard to pick one!  The Rosemount sounds awesome and it's a nice place.  We've played equally fun shows in front of lots of people and in front of 10 of our mates - it's a different vibe each time and you get different things out of them.  Our small shows tend to be a lot funnier, but we definitely make a bigger scene at the bigger shows.

Interview by Justin

For more information visit Acetate's official site.