END OF FASHION [01.10.08]
THE DARKER SIDE
End of Fashion are a pop band, so the follow up to their widely successful debut album couldn't feature tracks about serial killers talking to their victims, or have critics describing it as brutal and angular... could it?
“I'm not sure about brutal, maybe more angular and definitely darker. The first album got to a certain level of success, I mean it's nothing to be knocked, we made a gold record, got to tour the country a few times, got overseas, and we're happy we made it and to have had that experience but we didn't feel a lot of ownership over it, especially in terms of the decision making process to get over to the States and make the record. I think the album showcased a lot of good songs, good material, and it was a good starting point, but I don't think Dennis Herring (who produced the first album) got us as a band completely, and we feel this album is more true to ourselves,” lead singer and songwriter Justin Burford says.
Ownership is certainly something that the band had over this second album, insisting it be made in their hometown of Perth in a friend's studio.
“This was us putting our foot down, we don't want to be puppets in someone else's control, we wanted to do it like we used to. Deciding to make it in Perth took literally a few days and it felt very owned, something we could sink our teeth into. We had a sense of freedom that came from being able to play around in the studio all day then go home and see your girlfriend, pat your dog and chuck on the TV, it kept everybody fresh.”
Known as a poppy band that do Beatle-esque ballads, follow up album 'Book of Lies' may shock people with how dark it can be.
“The darkness on the new album came from things in my personal life. I thought it could be a direction that would be interesting to go down so I kind of started driving down it directing my own headspace towards it, watching lots of scary movies over and over again, and putting myself in this place where I knew it wasn't going to be pleasant and seeing what would come of it. What revealed itself to me was where the first album celebrated naivete and was very childlike, where all the lyrics were all very optimistic, this album, although still a celebration, it's a celebration of cynicism and that life can't always be seen through rose tinted glasses.”
Darker it certainly is, with 'Fussy', from the double A-Side first release from the album, depicting a serial killer talking to his victims.
“The power of pop music is that you get to say anything you want and to discuss themes that are normally taboo and that people try to avoid, and you have people singing along to it, there's a sense of fun in that. I was very mindful of that, I had an image of a group of girls driving to the beach in their convertible with the top down singing along to a poppy song not realising really that it's about a serial killer talking to his victim, trying to find some sense of redemption.
“What I kept thinking about was 'I Hope You Choke' by Radiohead. I read that Thom Yorke wrote that very purposefully about the very people, the MTV crowd, that will be singing along to it, and Elvis Costello, he wrote an album of songs for Wendy James all about this pretentious, precocious little shit and she's there singing them not getting that it's about her. It's like a back door into people's psyche, the power of a pop song, if you've got a catchy song you can sing about anything.”
So, after a two year absence End of Fashion are back with a fantastically dark follow up album.
“We spent two years on this album as we didn't want to compromise the quality, or what we think is the quality, of the record, and now we're trying to re-establish, basically we're just a bunch of good Aussie blokes playing rock music the way we want to and working really fucking hard to get our music heard.”
Mike Moginie
End Of Fashion’s new album ‘Book Of Lies’ is out now on EMI. Catch the band at Bond Uni on October 7, and at the Gold Coast Indy celebrations on October 25.
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