Oh Ye Denver Birds Q&A

‘Buffalo Grass’

Fans of Brisbane’s Oh Ye Denver Birds have been moping around for the last half a year. On the back of strong singles and a solid touring roster, everybody was left hanging for the glorious debut we’d been promised. The band completed Good Ivy in April, but the album was never given a proper release. They may have disappeared into for a little while, but we’ve always had faith! (thanks Matt). After recollecting some headspace and working on different solo projects, OYDB have returned and are throwing a party. The album (re)launch and ‘new’ single ‘Buffalo Grass’ on 7″ vinyl at Black Bear Lodge is happening on the 6th of September. Guarantees of special vinyls, old tracks + music from That Nice Place that all OYDB tunes seem to spring forth from. Thank you lord of layered percussion. Glad these guys are back.

Dom took some time out to give his spiel on things below.

WHERE DID YOU GUYS GO?

I think we all worked so hard trying to make this album the best it could be… by the time it was finished we all just wanted some time to ourselves.

How long did you spend working towards the album?

We were in the studio for a bit over two months. But including all the pre-production and demoing we did before hand, it probably would add up to 6-8 months or even longer. I’d like to try a slightly more spontaneous album next time I think.

Did the break have more to do with the recording process, or was it something that’d been on your minds for a while?

It was definitely due to the recording process. We were in a big studio, with time limits and we were pushing ourselves pretty hard to get the right tones and textures for the album. I think when it was finally complete, we all just wanted to do something different whether it be a separate project or just have some time to ourselves to work and be with loved ones etc.

In hindsight, would you have stretched out the recording process to try and get back momentum on the initial release?

No, I think it’s ok. The album was never actually released, apart from us it putting up on facebook etc. There has never been a push to release the album officially. This was partly due to not having the right people looking after the release which was unfortunate, it was also an interesting experiment for the band to see if what we had made would find it’s way into the right hands naturally by just releasing it onto the internet. Probably not the right thing to do haaa.

Were you still making music during the break?

Yeah, definitely. It was really good to have some time to go back on a lot of old ideas and recordings we had made as a band and revisit those songs to get some clarity on where to go next with the band. We did a lot of sharing ideas online and working collaboratively that way, and now know exactly where to go when we start to write music again, which is a really good, liberating feeling. Also, we have our own projects to work on too, Katherine has a project called Gemini 7, Arun has his band Norway, Josh and Zac have a band called Piglet and I’ve released a 7” as Outerwaves and an album under Nimble Animal. So there are heaps of creative outlets for us to spend the time on.

What would you have done differently?

I’m never happy with a mix… I could probably spend years and years mixing an album. But yeah, it would have been nice to get the album out a bit more officially, but I’m happy we’re doing it now before the year is out.

What’s next?

We’re going to do a nice intimate thank-you style album release show in Brisbane with our cd’s and 7”s available to buy for the first time. Then I’m off to the states for 2 months, and on my return we have a really exciting east coast tour in place followed by a new EP release.

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