Are Outrun the rogues of the Australian indie/electro scene? With a love of retro 80s soundtracks that carries through to the uniqueness of their music, they’ve already played alongside acts like Muscles, Infusion, The Dardenelles, Cassete Kids and more. Their approach however, is considerably more left of centre. Outrun represents the hopes and dreams of old friends Dan Preston and Josh Armistead, who’d musically seen eye to eye for years before coming together to make beautifully quirky tunes. With their debut album Futurenature in the stores, ITM talks to Outrun about making an impact through taking a rather different approach.
What is it about the 1980s video music scene that you find so inspirational?
What immediately comes to mind would be the incidental nature of the music in certain films. The B-grade stuff that we allude to are usually only worth watching because of the soundtracks. Often made on the cheap (incidental music, theme music, effects etc), As opposed to today when most movies contain already well known pop songs or composers, we have found that these 80s films often have very basic sound production using a lot of analog synths and drum machines. Also the cheesy hero riffs that accompany these beats just melt our minds and make us move.
The Future Nature album was your debut release, at the time what do you think your audiences were expecting?
I’m not sure we even had an audience. We’ve had songs up on MySpace for over a year now so I think they knew what to expect. Anyone who has been listening for the last year or so would have noticed the improvement in our song writing and production. I think people have been pleasantly surprised actually. We do get people asking us to redo some of our old very-low-fi-computer game electro stuff because that is what they are into but we also get mail every day from people telling us they love the new stuff so if we tried to please everyone we would be drawn and quartered.
We were not actually expecting to go in the direction we have so just keep listening.
Since ‘reuniting’ in 2006, what were your intentions?
To play stadiums, festivals, clubs, Ibiza, Playboy Mansions, on TV, buy houses, cars, islands etc.
For a while now you’ve been part of the Sydney/Melbourne dance scene. What has it been like for both you guys playing alongside acts like Muscles, Infusion, The Dardenelles, The Cassete Kids and The Phillip Sisters for example?
Often frustrating, seeing as we write mainly for sweaty, packed, inebriated circumstances, and circumstances where we support bands who are on labels – or are much more well known than us. This means we often play to only a few people, many of whom aren’t even there to see us anyway. Often we just have people staring at us the whole gig.
Your music is very abstract and features many different electronic devices that make the music interesting to listen to. What do you guys like so much about adding the element of different bass with fast drums and power synth riffs?
There is a certain magic that happens when you add those three simple elements that is hard to explain. We do it because it makes us feel good. It makes us dance, and it sometimes makes others dance. Personally I simply cannot stop making music (producing beats, sounds, singing etc) I mostly sit down and do it but simply love it. It’s like asking a painter what she likes so much about adding the elements of paint, canvas and imagination. Hopefully it’s because she is an artist and she cannot stop being an artist, so she does what she’s so driven to do through circumstance.
We have to listen to our music over and over so we have to make it interesting for ourselves otherwise we would go crazy. We all like partying and dancing so I guess that’s where the fast drums and bass comes from. None of us can rap so we need to keep the pace up with drums, hats, sequencers etc. Without bass our songs would suck. Dan is some type of conduit to some power synth riff god out there and has an inexhaustible riff resource. I guess some bands use guitars but we prefer analog synths and distortion pedals. It hit you in the guts and moves you more than the twanging of electric guitars.
What was it like travelling through Nevada for you guys before returning to Australia?
Beautiful. We decided we would go back and make a movie. And we assumed we would make the music to the movie. We never made the movie but we did make the music. The best part was travelling in Dan’s Cherokee. Also stopping in at second hand stores and perusing guns, knives, ninja stars, and fishing equipment, eating Oreo Shakes, wheelie bin size coffee cups and Lake Tahoe Casino
Do you think there will be a time where you will travel back overseas for a tour?
Yes. April 2009 Europe is being booked at the moment. It’s all we want to do. Play festivals through Europe, America and Asia. We all love to travel and I would not have stayed for so long in one spot (Melbourne) if it were not for Outrun.
What has been the greatest experience for the three of you so far?
Realising that we actually work. That lots of people seem to really like what we’re doing and consistently validate our sound and reaffirm that what we’re doing is actually very much enjoyed by some people. It’s nice to know you are doing something right. And sometimes you need to hear people other than your band mates say it to sink in.
What are your plans for the future?
Record another album in December this year. Touring Australia throughout January and February and touring Europe during April and May. And get a real job.
Can we look forward to any more records to hit the shelves in the near future?
Yes! But probably singles next. We will promote this one for a while. Our live show has actually consisted of newer tracks (not on this album) for a while now. Although we recently put a couple of older ones back in the set due to demand. Songs that we we’re not our best but were favoured by radio and fans.
Do you think in any way that you might change your music at all?
I hope so. Playing one style of music always would bore the shit out of us. We are experimenting with different rhythems, tempos, styles, harmonies. You name it, we are utilising it. What is most important is that we are still coming from the same experimental place. The electro house scene is becoming quite saturated right now and unless you evolve you are lost.
Where is your favourite venue to perform at?
Pony. Especially with Morgan from The Emergency mixing. It’s a dirty small sweaty place that fills up around 2am regardless of who is playing. Most people are so drunk and/or high that they will dance to anything. We prefer small cramped out places with good subs.
Outrun’s FutureNature is out now on Snowball through Inertia. Outrun will be playing at the following gigs…
8th November – Toff of the Town, Melbourne
12th November – Revolver, Melbourne
21st November – Candy’s Apartment, Sydney
sorzy says...
Absolutely brillant. Cannot wait till they come to my town!