The Curse Of Company
A few weeks ago I wrote about this new project featuring Dave from Dappled Cities, Sarah Kelly from redsunband, Jack Ladder and Danny Heifetz. The Polaroids of Androids guys have an approximate percentage breakdown of this band.
Last Thursday, their management sent me a preview copy of the entire album, high res mp3s in zip file. Let me repeat that, this is an authorised representative of the band sending a blogger a non-watermarked, non-drm copy of the album. They have made it very easy for me to share this with other, post the whole album on this blog, wrap it up in a torrent if I want, anything really. They even sent the covers of the album.
It’s always interesting to see how different sections of the music industry cope with digital file sharing. The majors, originally most resistant to sharing, are now slowly opening the door for blogs and websites and giving them the first album singles as a DRM free track, as recently done by Coldplay and Kings Of Leon. The indies and unsigneds of course have been doing that for longer. But this is the first time I’ve been given a digital copy of the album ahead of everyone else, including the media.
Is this because The Curse of Company is in need of a profile and therefore doesn’t have many options when it comes to online promotion? Maybe they don’t care about record sales anyway and just want to sell CDs as merch and rely on word of mouth, live performances and publishing, which always have been the reliable sources of income for bands anyway. Or maybe it’s somewhere in between where they are counting on the blogs will post about the band so they would have some sort of evidence of grassroots support to convince radio stations and retailers that they ought to pay attention to this band. Who knows.
As for the album itself, even knowing that it’s a concept album, I’d have to say it is not an easy listen. Dave and Sarah take turns singing but even then I have a hard time telling what the songs are about. One thing’s for sure is none of the Dappled Cities grand pop tones are presents. This is closer to the redsunband sound, a lot of slow burning shoe gazing moments.
I’ll stream the whole album here, you can have a listen and judge for yourself:
The Curse of Company - Leo Magnet Joins a Gang album
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I also sent a few interview questions for Dave aka Wiley Rennick:
Hey Dave, you know that we are all big fans of your work here. Dappled Cities is one of my favourite bands in the world. So why start this new band? How did it come about? Is this something you’ve been planning for a while?
The whole creation of the band was quite a natural process. First the songs seemed to appear out of nowhere, then the decision was made to record them, and then a plethora of great people wanted to get involved. I suppose The Curse of Company really got cracking after a drunken conversation with Burke Reid (who produced the record) – we were both tickled pink at the idea of creating a record with a style and method that neither of us had really been previously privy to.
How did the name come about?
The name is just the name. I came up with a name and then Jack Ladder edited it slightly, and then it was the name of the band we were playing in and languidly trying to name with a name.
How were the songs written? Was it a collaborative process or did you already have ideas for the album before recruiting the band members?
Prior to The Curse of Company I was used to a very democratic and “all-in” songwriting process (with Dappled). I suppose for this reason I opted for an approach of having the album prewritten and demoed up before the actual band was created. And furthermore I wanted to keep each song quite simple and as a creation of instinct. What I mean is that the songs weren’t really overly analysed or altered, there were no looming A&R attitudes or music-industry awareness. So when it came time to put the band together and record, we effectively built the songs blindfolded and simply let their pheromones lead the way.
I know that Dappled Cities is writing material for the next album. How are you going to split your time between Curse of Company and Dappled Cities? What about the rest of your band members?
The two bands operate very differently. The Curse of Company services an entirely new realm of my brain. So it’s surprising easy to clarify the work for each band. And splitting time between the two bands is not a hassle; it’s the other things, like rent, and chocolate, and computers, that make cause for the juggling act.
When can we expect to hear a full album and see you live? Got plans for a headline tour?
Yes we are playing all the songs live. And they’re each a pleasure to play. It’s like playing a show on a puffy cloud.
Your website is awesome, whose idea was it?
I’m also a web designer. Does anyone out there need a website that’s entirely counter-intuitive?
The promo photos are so atmospheric and to me hints at a characters of the songs of Curse of Company. Who took them?
All the supplement material for the record was conceptualised and created by myself and a close-knit bunch of friends and artists, all in response to the music. We’re in the process of creating this imperialistic, period-less and fantastical world. But there’s plenty more to come, so for the moment I’ll hold my tongue. To answer your question, the photos were taking by Sydney based photographer/genius who goes by the alias Wilk.
www.myspace.com/thecurseofcompany
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