In a relatively short four-year period, Brisbane based
rock act The Butterfly Effect has emerged as one of Australia's biggest
underground success stories. With their 2001 independently released
self-titled EP taking over the number one spot in the independent charts
(and remaining in the Top 20 for almost a year), and both Triple M and
Triple J picking up on the singles 'Take It Away' and 'Crave', it wasn't
long before The Butterfly Effect were selling out venues across the
country and were coined one of the hottest unsigned acts on the scene.
Throughout the better part of two years, The Butterfly
Effect hit the road with a relentless tour schedule in front of an ever-growing
audience before joining up with the rising independent label Roadshow
Music In August 2003 The Butterfly Effect released their debut album
'Begins Here', which again saw the band garnish critical acclaim from
both national and international press. Endless touring combined with
increasing audience numbers saw their album once again top the independent
chart as well as reach as high as #24 on the ARIA chart (where it remained
for a further 56 weeks) - all of which culminated with their first international
tour (that took in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Holland
and the UK) in late 2004.
After taking a well-earned break, The Butterfly Effect
returned with a taste of their new album in the download only single
'Phoenix', followed closely by another gruelling trek around the country
during October and November 2005 (where the band road tested new material),
before hibernating to the US to start work on their new album.
After laying low for the better half of 2006, The Butterfly
Effect finally make a triumphant return with their second full-length
release 'Imago'. Upon the album's release, I caught up with drummer
Ben Hall to find what it was like working with producer Joe Barresi,
their relegated single, alternate meanings behind the album's title
and the band's current nervous state.
"There's people all around us at the moment who are
busy trying to get things organised for the tour. So we're sort of watching
everyone go mad and saying, 'Oh shit! Can I do anything?' (Laughs) It's
great. We're just at that point where we have a little bit of downtime
after finishing off the album, and waiting to start the tour. I think
it's also a period where we're thinking about things a little too much
- like wondering if people are going to like the new album or not. I
guess it's just a little insecurity from not knowing what to expect.
We just can't wait to get out on the road and see what happens."
The band needn't worry as 'Imago' exceeds all the expectations
expected from the young band. And although the making of 'Imago' was
a relatively stress free process, Hall admits it did take a while for
the band to really get into the swing of things.
"The only real sort of issue that occurred throughout
the making of the album was that because we hadn't written for a long
time prior to starting the writing sessions for the album, it took a
while to get there. I think that's something that's become more apparent
now after finishing the album than when we were actually writing the
album. It actually took us a long time to get the writing process into
a pattern that was productive. A lot of that had to do with touring
for close to two years non-stop. Although we did have a break prior
to going overseas, it wasn't long enough for us to get settled in and
get comfortable. Once we got back from Europe, it was a lot easier.
We knew we basically had a year off before we had to go in and record
the next album so that made the process a lot easier for us. 2004 kind
of dragged a little in the writing aspect of things and it was slow
for us to get back into the pattern of sitting down, rehearsing with
each other, and getting back to writing. But when we finally did get
back into that mode, I believe it yielded some good results."
Although having achieved success with producer/engineer
Dave Leonard (who is also the band's manager) behind the console for
their first two releases, The Butterfly Effect decided to try their
hand at something new and duly selected renowned producer/mixer Joe
Barresi (Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age, Weezer, Tomahawk, Kyuss) for
the task. However, it wasn't his name or credits that won them over
but more his enthusiasm.
"When we recorded the demo, we sent it out to a lot
of different producers that we thought were alright, and then our management
company sent some out to some others that we'd never heard. We always
like to work to the philosophy of using someone that really loves our
songs, rather than someone who has worked on an album that has sold
a million copies because you have to work with them towards a common
goal, not to mention put in that time and effort. Barresi's vibe right
from the start was that he was really into the songs and right from
our very first conversation, he was quite positive and we instantly
had a good feeling about working with him. We perhaps fell into the
trap of having the demo too well polished when we presented them to
Barresi. We were sort of taking from anywhere to a week to two weeks
to demo songs at certain point every couple of months. We had kind of
taken the songs a long way, or very close to being finished. Barresi
did manage to add a few little things here and there and he definitely
helped make our songs sound good."
But as proud as Hall is of the band's second album, he
has little in the way of expectations for the album sales wise. Instead,
his interests lie strictly on the road that lies beyond the album's
release.
"Don't get me wrong, we're definitely excited about
the album. But at this point, what we want to focus on is the promotion
side of things which is playing live. Obviously we know the songs very
well because they were written over a year long period, or at least
most of them anyway, so we don't want to think about that side of things
too much. We just want to hit the road like we always have and take
the show to the next level. That's our biggest thing at the moment.
We just want to feel a little more comfortable playing every night of
the week and taking our show to the next professional level."
The most interesting aspect about the album, strangely
enough, is the absence of the lead off first single 'Phoenix'.
"I guess we dropped 'Phoenix' sometime late last
year. That song very quickly became a song that we didn't appreciate
within the band! (Laughs) Sometimes you'll tend to write songs and know
that you'll love them forever. And then there are those other songs,
the ones that you write and fall in love with for the first six weeks.
They're the ones where you think to yourself, 'This song is really cool!'
But then it soon turns to, 'F**k! Do I really like this song?' 'Phoenix'
was slated to go on the album but then once we played it a few times
and really listened to it, it was dropped. I think collectively, we
agreed that it didn't fit the context of the album. And if you listen
to that song and compare it to the album, it's quite a different song.
So we definitely had that in mind when we put the final track listing
together for the album. We ended up leaving it as a b-side to the new
single 'A Slow Descent'".
Speaking of the new single, Triple J is once again helping
out The Butterfly Effect cause by picking up 'A Slow Descent' and placing
it on high rotation.
"That's a great start to the campaign. When we released
'Begins Here', we were out on the road well before the songs started
to get played on the radio. This time around, we really wanted to space
it out and have 'Imago' out a month before the tour starts. That way
the fans get a chance to get to know the songs. As you can tell, it
requires a few listens to get your head around the album, find out what
the songs are about and where they're going. So we really wanted to
make sure that the whole process is spaced out fairly evenly. Hopefully
it will all build up quite nicely after the release of the album for
the start of the tour in July which is without a doubt going to be the
hardest touring schedule we've attempted ever. I think we're doing five
days on, and then four days off, and repeating that from July right
through to October. We want to get ourselves to a point where we can
tour quite hard, so if we get the chance to get back to Europe, we can
spend a little time and tour quite consistently when we're there. We
want to get our game up and running. We still have the old infrastructure
set up overseas that we had when we toured off the back off 'Begins
Here', so we're aiming to get overseas again. Last time we toured overseas,
we paid for it all ourselves. This time around, we're definitely going
to try and get a record label involved - that way we don't have to spend
all our own money to do it! (Laughs) If that happens, it'll be great.
But even if it doesn't, we'll end up touring over there again anyway."
Every bit as interesting as the sound within The Butterfly
Effect's 'Imago' is the title that accompanies it. Defined as the final
and perfect stage of an insect's development, I couldn't help but think
that The Butterfly Effect were trying to emphasise their belief that
this album was most their mature release to date. But as Hall points
out, it was a completely different angle they were aiming for.
"There are two different meanings actually. There's
the meaning you pointed out but then there's another which is an often-idealised
image of an adult that you form as a child that subconsciously represents
itself in your mature adulthood. I guess it's sort of similar to what
they mean when they say that you make a lot of decisions based around
the decisions that your parents made, but in a round about way. That's
pretty much what it is without quoting the dictionary's exact words.
I think the fact that 'Imago' has two different meanings is good because
we've all picked our own interpretations! (Laughs) I think the butterfly
one is a bit corny so I lean more towards the other meaning. Being the
lyric writer, (cocalist Clint) Boge is always searching the dictionary
for different words. When he came in with that, we all agreed that it
was a really interesting word and we all had different takes on the
meaning, including the one you just gave me. I actually like the look
of the word! (Laughs) And when I heard its definition, it gave the word
a bit more merit. I guess we're trying to do something a little different
on this album compared to the last one and I would like to think that
we're growing up as well. That's where it all started. When we looked
the word up in the dictionary and realised that it had a couple of different
meanings, that's when the word took on a whole new meaning."
The Butterfly Effect's new album 'Imago' hits stores
on June 17th.
I would personally like to thank Ben Hall for his generous
time and Anna Wallace at Roadshow Music for making the interview possible.
For more information on The Butterfly Effect, check out
- http://www.thebutterflyeffect.com.au
© Justin Donnelly - justindonnelly@ozemail.com.au
