Coming away from a series of gigs Happy spoke to Fractures about the inspirations behind his atmospheric tracks, his Splendour experience and heaven forbid, what he would be doing instead of music.
Fractures: I wouldn’t say any specific song comes to mind as having a direct influence on either aspect of my life. A lot of the time songs will remind me of a time or place from a period of my life more than anything. As far as artists’ influence, it’s something of a melting pot. I have older brothers so naturally what they listened to filtered down and it was eclectic. Bands like Tool, Toto, John Mayer, Coldplay, Radiohead and then because they were musicians, instrumentalists got a very good run. A lot of very daggy jazz-fusion. I don’t think it’s daggy but it’s just something you say when you mention you listened to it.
But yeah, ‘all over the shop’, as the expression goes.
Happy: There’s a lot of experimentation with other sounds and genres in your music, how would you describe your own sound?
Fractures: Put basically, I just do what I think sounds right. I don’t set out to necessarily do anything radical or left-of-centre, and I don’t really think I have done, but if the tone of an instrument, whatever it might be, appeals to me and makes sense in the musical bed I’ve already laid down then that’s what will be in the final product.
So as far as my sound, I’m unsure but generally the words ‘dark’ and ‘atmospheric’ spring to mind so let’s run with them for now.
Happy: How did your injury affect your music? Did it give inspiration to draw from or was it a setback?
Fractures: It gave me zero inspiration. It was quite defeating both physically and mentally and the duration of my convalescence yielded very little creative output, bar a remix towards the latter stages, so it’s not a period I look back on as a turning point. It gave me a lot of time, too much probably, to introspect and gauge what the best path for the project was. I certainly had songs prior to the accident that wouldn’t fit with the sound I’ve established now.
I suppose it was a silver lining of sorts to the whole ordeal – just being able to reevaluate and plot a more consistent path musically.
Happy: Ironic accident aside, what made you choose the name Fractures?
Fractures: This is a question that unfortunately has a very dull response. It was a word that I liked simply because it encapsulated the mood of the songs and the music. Dark music, broken people/relationships. Fractures. bang. done. Lock it in.
Happy: Your debut self-titled EP was recently released, can you tell us a bit about it?
Fractures: It’s been a process that’s stretched over the entirety of the project really. Some of these songs have been with me for almost two years and luckily I still like them enough for them to hang around. It’s basically just a collection of those songs as I rarely write with the intention of fulfilling a particular release. I just churn out the tunes and hope they sit together comfortably within the one place and these ones seem to.
Happy: How was playing at Splendour?
Fractures: It was a huge thrill. Just to get the gig in the first place was a victory of sorts and then to have the turn out I did being first cab off the rank was pretty extraordinary. It was certainly flattering for the same reasons – that they’d consider me worthy of filling a time slot and that the people who’d paid to go considered me worthy of their attention for the 45 minutes. It’s definitely a bench mark that’ll be hard to top as far as festivals go, only improvement I can make is my time slot.
Happy: What do you think about the role Triple j plays within the flourishing Australian indie music scene?
Fractures: Triple J is hugely pivotal in giving Australian musicians their launching pad. Their digital station, Triple J Unearthed cottoned on to me pretty early on in the piece without any intervention from management or labels and its a credit to their enthusiasm for finding new music and promoting it.
In my case it’s arguable that the internet did a lot of the initial leg work and now Triple J have jumped on board, and given the avenues offered to fledgling musicians it’s comforting to know that even if one of those channels doesn’t latch on to what you’re doing, there’s still every chance the other one will.
Happy: What do you have coming up next? Can we maybe expect a full length album, more live shows, any collaborations?
Fractures: With any luck, all of the above. I’m very keen to hit the live scene a lot harder than I have because it’s an element that people probably aren’t as familiar with when it comes to my music and what they hear on the EP is very much heightened for maximum effect live.
Some other sort of release down the track of course but like I said, I never go in to a writing period thinking an EP or album will pop out specifically, it’s more reading the room to see what is the right move.
Happy: If you weren’t in the music industry, what would you be doing?
Fractures: I would be a penniless pervert. I’ve definitely put all my eggs into one basket, fortunately or unfortunately depending on your viewpoint. I can take a half-decent photo so at a stretch a photographer for Zoo magazine or something with cars and women on the bonnets. Something like that.
Fractures EP Won’t Win is out now through iTunes.
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