Let Love Through is the moody second single from Sydney band North Arm’s upcoming sophomore LP. And it’s something else.
The combination of lead singer and songwriter Roderick Smith’s angelic voice with Dan Parsons’ high-hat heavy drum beat gives Let Love Through an incredibly distinct feeling of light-hearted whimsy and frantic desperation.
It’s a perfect emotional contrast and makes for three and half minutes of music which is as interesting to listen to as it is beautiful.
Painfully relatable and intrinsically stunning, North Arm have gone above and beyond expectation in their new clip Let Love Through.
Many bands try to achieve this perfect mix of styles only to end up with a muddled mess which, more often than not, leaves the listener confused. Nailing this combination is a difficult thing and, to their credit, North Arm have managed to do this expertly.
The songwriting is stunning. Bright guitars chime over the top of a gorgeous string section and pounding bass line. There is so much going on, but somehow every instrument is given its chance to shine and the mix never feels too cluttered or busy.
Producer Robin Waters’ attention to detail backs up this densely layered track perfectly. Nothing feels lost and everything is clean, crisp and easily identifiable.
And the accompanying video clip for Let Love Through matches the desperate feel of the track perfectly. Directed by Geoffrey O’Connor, the clip revolves around a couple which can’t seem to sync up their feelings, and we watch as they take turns ignoring one another as they avoid a “serious talk”.
It’s a stunning video clip and one most of us can immediately relate to.
Let Love Through will be appearing on North Arm’s second album which is due out this year. And boy is it shaping up nicely. Watch this space.
Take in the stunning Afternoon Sky with North Arm
Nov 6, 2015
To coincide with the release of their debut, self-titled EP today, Sydney’s North Arm have dropped their brand new single Afternoon Sky, as well as the video for the track.
Afternoon Sky was written and recorded by the band’s frontman Roderick Smith, and like the rest of the album, was inspired by the coastal town of North Arm. Like the song title suggests, the video features some stunning scenery and sunsets.
The album was recorded in the front room of Smith’s house, with finishing touches added at his studio, The General Store.
North Arm will brighten your day with The Boys
Aug 28, 2015
North Arm have released the second single, The Boys, from their upcoming self-titled debut album, which will be celebrated by a single launch at Brighton Up Bar on Thursday September 3rd.
The Boys follows on from their previously released singles Quietly Lightly and Careless, that will also feature on their upcoming album, released through Inertia Access. Set for release later this year, the album was recorded in the front room of lead singer Roderick Smiths house in Newcastle and will be marked with a launch party on November 6 at Sydney’s Vic On The Park.
PREMIERE: Running Touch inject Careless from North Arm with disco funk soul
July 16, 2015
It was only a few months ago that Sydney’s North Arm gave us their reverb-drenched, folk-inspired indie rock tune Careless, an adventurous foray into something a little more pop for the band. The track had a lush, relaxed vibe with an electronic heartbeat at its core, and it only seems right that that heartbeat be ripped out and beefed up into something bolder. Running Touch has been given the honors this time around, brilliantly capturing the carefree vibe of the original and injecting it with disco funk soul.
Running Touch take the dreamy dynamics of Careless from North Arm and turn it into a whole different monster, injecting it with disco funk soul.
North Arm make music that seems ripe for an electronic takeover. Akin to bands like Wild Nothing and The War On Drugs, their music is dreamy and based around the strummed rhythms of a guitar, but at the same time there is an underlying metallic twang lurking beneath the surface, derived from drum samples that form the foundations of their tunes.
Their latest single Careless is an electronic producer’s dream. Hook-ridden and catchy as hell, the track has all the elements for a remix. It’s also delicate and dreamy, ready to be taken apart, beefed up, and put back together as a whole different monster. Hazy and nostalgic, Careless sounds like the soundtrack to your grainy childhood home videos.
The hooks are all in the vocals, as frontman and main songwriter Roderick Smith husks things like “I couldn’t care less/ I’ll live another day,” buried in a bed of dreamy, metallic reverb. Running Touch wasted no time in bringing those hooks to the forefront in the track’s funk-riddled remix. Reigning in the reverb, the track opens with a clean, prodding synth line and Smith’s husky vocals before blasting in to a club-ready, beat-heavy disco tunes. The remix never strays far from the original, with Smith’s vocals and fuzzy guitar riffs hovering over 80s funk beats.
The remix is all about dynamics, ducking between the dreamy soundscapes of the original and its late night evil twin. Just as the track takes off into a club groove, everything falls away until it’s just vocals and synth; but before you know it, the track whiplashes back to its dark side, all big bass and shredding guitar. Three and a half minutes seems like a tease. When the song decays in its finale, you half expect it to kick back into club mode, but the synths only fade in to silence. Running Touch have done a damn good job in harnessing the carefree vibes of the original and giving it some guts.
The band also have a brilliantly fitting video for Careless out today too. Comprised almost entirely from footage from the Aussie doco, Australian Daze, the clip is grainy and nostalgic, reminiscent of cracked lips and calloused feet.
North Arm sure know how to prod, provoke and appease the ears
May 19, 2015
North Arm possess the charm of a dreamy Sunday morning with the nostalgic glow of a midday Bloody Mary. That, coupled with its nostalgic essence and undeniable groove, wash musical notes over your body like a water-sprinkler on freshly mowed lawn. While their innocent lyrics provoke feelings of a hazy gone-by childhood, their guitar riffs emit a sense of musical maturity.
North Arm are cool, calm and collected. Their new track Careless pays homage to classic 80s indie precursors while giving their international contemporaries a run for their money.
Listening to their music, they are very much a ‘headlining’ band. Adept to the crowd, they understand just how to prod, provoke and appease the ears. Don’t be fooled however, this band is not a flash-in-the-pan indie-pop band and the feelings of sentimentality engendered in their music leave lasting impacts on the ones who listen.
The name “North Arm” is derived from a coastal town called North Arm Cove (positioned North East of Newcastle). Their name is uniquely Australia and so are their tunes. The band’s 2013 debut EP Thought Lines, later followed up by their sophomore EP Life Cycles, borrows from past 80s Australian bands such as The Church and The Go Betweens with their uniquely rock-n-roll, soul-baring lyrics.
And in true Aussie fashion, this band have cultivated their sound over the years. Culminating in their brand new single, Careless, off their forthcoming, much anticipated 2015 debut LP. The track is hazy collection of modulated vocals, synth-y 80s guitars and rattling tambourines. It has a inescapable summery vibe, a welcome change in these droll Australian months, led by upbeat, reverb-drenched guitars. The track never really takes off, it’s purposely un-dynamic, cruising casually as its own pace; cool, calm and collected, and something about this is irresistible.
It has already been causing international mouths to flap with comparisons to the indie-rock royalty such as The War On Drugs, Doves and Wild Nothing. It is fair to say that their sound would be little without their past Australian and international indie predecessors. And bands like The Church have definitely paved the way for bands like this.
So be kind Sydney punters, this five piece is on the rise!
North Arm – Hollow Days
May 1, 2014
North Arm comes from a place north of Sydney, called North Arm Cove. It’s in Port Stevens, where the man behind the project, Rod Smith, spent important years of his childhood.
Those who are familiar with North Arm’s Thought Lines EP, released last year though Spunk Records, will know of it’s nostalgic qualities. From the EP cover, which is an early 80’s snap of a freckly Rod, taken by his dad, to the accompanying video clips, to the songs themselves, each piece of work is drenched in the bittersweet sentiments of looking backwards.
With an obvious 80’s influence sonically as well as visually, we at Happy all loved the EP. It helps too that J. Walker of Machine Translations lent his hand to the production side of things, as well as actually contributing instrumentally on the record.
Rod Smith aka North Arm is an old Happy favourite. After releasing his Thought Lines EP last year, we have the first taste of his forthcoming full length debut.
Now, we’ve got a taste of North Arm’s forthcoming, full-length LP. Hollow Days is the first single taken from the LP to hit out ears. Lyrically, it speaks of the yearning for the simpler days of childhood – you know, living life without The Man – something we can all relate to I’m sure. The vocals are wistful, the guitars soaked in layers of noise, and always with a psychedelic, rolling skew.
Now for the live show. Although North Arm is very much a one man project, Rod has enlisted his all star musical cast to join him onstage: Sean Roche (lead guitar), Ianto Ware (bass) and Evan Clulow (drums and percussion) to work together to create the live North Arm experience.
To those who are familiar with the strange refocusing of one’s childhood days, a notion that bizarrely comes with reaching adulthood, listen to North Arm. It’s as close to flipping through a stranger’s family photo albums as you can get. It’s the weirdness in realising everyone’s childhood kind of looks the same.
North Arm – Interview and Exclusive Track
Aug 7, 2013
Rod Smith is a busy fellow. Between running his law firm Evescourt Legal, playing in Firekites and planning the release of his debut solo offering as North Arm, he found time to speak with Happy, and to give us exclusive access to his track “A Universe”. It just so happens that he’s also a lovely fellow. We spoke about the ‘purge’ EP, accused him of being a ’77 baby and agreed that Happy (no pun intended) by Machine Translations was a pretty awesome record.
Interview by Radi Safi
Happy: Where does the name North Arm come from?
North Arm: Uh yeah look North Arm comes from a place north of Sydney, called North Arm Cove. It’s in Port Stevens and that’s where my family bought a property by the estuary there, very cheaply in the late 70’s.
Happy: Cool.
North Arm: My dad’s a keen fisherman, and a very keen sailor, having been involved with the Sydney to Hobart yacht race for about three years from 1975-78 which is when I was born. There’s just a lot of affinity there with ocean sports or water sports kind of stemming from the family. We still have North Arm, we call it the bay, its North Arm cove. I devised the name about a year and a half ago. We’ve been working on the Firekites record which is just about finished, the second record and there was sort of a bunch of material that I had developed sort of, from about 2008 to 2012-2011 that was quite different in flavour to what we were working on with the second record and I don’t know, I just got a feeling that I sort of didn’t want them to sit on the hard drive too much longer.
Happy: When I first saw the EP cover for Thought Lines – I think it was an ad that Spunk ran in the background of a music blog – there was an immediate nostalgic feel and even before I read anything about you, I got the sense that you were a ‘77 baby.
North Arm: January ’78 man so not off by much.
Happy: So is that a picture of you? The bike looks so brand new I couldn’t place it. I was like this is either your kid and you’ve kind of treated the image so it’s got that 80’s feel or it’s just a photo out of the family album.
North Arm: Yeah it’s me, the BMX bandit. My dad took that photo.
Happy: What’s your take on the merits of the ‘purge’ EP? A term I’ve heard and maybe paraphrased but essentially it’s the kind of debut that’s designed to create a clean slate. More than a few artists I know have debuts that pull from material that’s been around for a few years.
North Arm: In a way it’s kind of a purge. There’s a record that two of those, in fact three of the songs from the EP actually came from in terms of the collection. It will be released later this year or early next year. I talked to Aaron from Spunk and he was like wow I really want to put that out now but in the background we had the Firekites record pretty much almost ready and placed to come out this year, so it was kind of like oh, how do we do both? So it was a bit of a decision to compromise but I’m happy that this EP has come out with the tracks that are on it.
Happy: Is the record finished?
North Arm: Yeah! The record is finished, its been mixed and mastered and the artwork is done and its ready to roll. I think it’s important to see how this EP goes, just to gauge how much interest there is in the music and whether or not it has a good chance of really striking. I love the songs I think they’re really great and I really want to take them forward. But you know, its sort of a little bit about resourcing and just making sure that things are kind of sequenced right you know?
Happy: That makes sense, and its one of the most difficult things about being in a band and about working with a label and trusting that all these things to come together. Timing is so important and you can really fuck things up if your timing is out.
North Arm: Yeah, yeah.
Happy: I think that as an artist you have to be spontaneous and you’ve got to go with the flow but I completely understand holding back and I kind of like the idea that you’re putting a taster out there. By the way I heard the single on FBi, which I thought was nice because I hadn’t heard it anywhere before that image caught my attention. I’m glad to see they’ve picked it up.
North Arm: I was really stoked that they did to be honest. Coming from Newcastle I really wish you could get it there on Newcastle Stereo.
Happy: I wanted to talk to you a bit about the single “Quietly Lightly”. I’m a big believer in syllables and the feeling that you’re left with as oppose to necessarily being able to understand all the words in a song. So I didn’t make a huge effort to understand everything but I’m certainly left with feelings of reflection and nostalgia not unlike your cover art. There was this feeling that you were talking about a younger self, and decision making as a younger self.
North Arm: I’d like to keep its true meaning somewhat oblique. Because I’m a ’77 boy [laughs] I really came on to music at around the age of 11-16. I started playing the guitar when I was 11 and I was heading up my first band at the age of 16 and there were a few things about my song writing and lyric writing process which I inherited. The first time I heard Nirvana it was almost as if someone had let off a firecracker in the room or in my brain and I decided that all I wanted to do with the rest of my life was be a musician, because I was just that excited by the intention and the sentiment of what I was hearing, and Cobain’s lyrics, were always really oblique but you could tell that it was just sung with intensity, and intention.
Happy: The intent is always there; regardless of if you can decipher the lyric itself.
North Arm: That’s right, and I never knew the lyrics because they never printed the lyric sheet but I didn’t care you know, it was just that feeling of excitement… that sort of sensory arousal when you’re hearing it and then what its kind of conjuring for you. And, in that way the song becomes personal to you, and I have a personal connection with artists that I love like Thom York, or Kurt Cobain or John Lennon, in ways because I’ve personalised their songs, and I really read into them my own experience and that is part of what makes music so beautiful, personal and potentially viral.
Happy: You mention viral which is all about striking a chord with society at a point in time. There are hundreds of great songs that only a few people know simply because they were released at the ‘wrong’ time. Of course there are other factors but let’s ignore those for the sake of this point we’re making.
North Arm: Yeah, that’s very true and I guess the thing about it for me is that music resonates with people. There’s always this subconscious feeling about music. I think that songs that really translate have a way of reaching into people’s experiences and kind of grabbing hold of their subconscious senses. Therefore, this kind of comes to a lyric writing process and that is essentially just working on the song, working on the song, working on the song, and not writing heaps of lyrics down but allowing the kind of feeling of the song to start informing you, the kind of story just starts to develop and then what happens is the lyric writing happens really quickly, on the fly, as I’m sort of working things through.
Happy: Will you be publishing a lyric sheet?
North Arm: Yes, yes I am actually! And that’s a conscious decision, because I think at the end of the day people do want to know what the lyrics are, but at the end of the day what I want is for them to interpret it for themselves and then discover a meaning that may accord with their initial impression by reading the lyric sheet.
Happy: Nice. Have you seen the Pitchfork documentary on Belle & Sebastian’s “If you’re Feeling Sinister”?
North Arm: No I haven’t!
Happy: What I loved about it was Stuart Murdoch is quite an introverted fellow, and he claims more than once throughout this interview that the songs aren’t about him, they’re just about these imaginary people and imaginary scenarios. And whenever they would cut to one of the band members they’d say the opposite. That he was writing about the shit he was going through. And so it’s a really funny notion because he’s lying and he isn’t at the same time, and that whole notion that art should be interpreted by the viewer or the listener is really important. He wants the listener to make up their own mind is what I was left with.
North Arm: Yeah I think it’s crucial to actually let people in, to the theatre, to what you’re saying and allow them to connect with it on their own terms.
Happy: Okay, so we have an EP here, which I really enjoyed by the way, which is a collection of tracks from between 2008 and 2013. But the first thing I thought was fuck, that’s five years and before I realised you had Greg on board for the mix, I wanted to know how you got the tracks to all glue so well. So, why don’t you talk to me a bit about getting J Walker on board, and the actual production process?
North Arm: Yeah man well you’re hearing sometimes first takes, in the guitar, “Quietly Lightly” is a really good example of that, that track is almost like three years old. With Greg, with Firekites he was a big fan he is a big fan of kites and we went on tour with Machine Translation a few times, just part of Spunk, kind of a showcase line-up, and I’m a massive Machine Translation fan.
Happy: Same here.
North Arm: Oh particularly of the Bad Shapes, Happy era, which I don’t like to emphasise too much with Greg because you know, he’s obviously written a lot more after that and lot more before that but I guess that’s where I really came on to Greg’s work and really connected with it.
Happy: How cool is it to discover an Aussie doing that sort of stuff right?
North Arm: Oh man, it just blew my brains off! I was in Surry Hills at the time and when I heard Happy I was like this is one of the best things I’ve ever heard and it remains so in relation to a few tracks in particular and the cohesion and general atmosphere of that record.
Happy: Totally.
North Arm: So Greg got in contact with us, essentially it’s something he rarely does. I felt it really lent itself to the sensibilities of Greg, and so I sent it down to him and the reason I sent it down to him, I was sending it down to a few people but the reason I sent it down to him, I was actually having a few beers with Aiden, Aiden Roberts from The Maple Trail, about a year ago and I showed him the demos and he’s like “dude you’ve got to send these down to Greg” and I was like fuck yeah I have to because I’ve got his email sitting in my email list, and I happened to have his number in my phone and I gave him a call I was like dude do you want to hear a few songs? And he’s like “Hell yeah!” so I sent them down and he just came back to me about an hour later and just went “Yeah lets do this thing” and I was like alright, bam. It was one of the most gratifying experiences that I’ve ever had where someone really connects with the material and such that they want to spend quite a bit of time working on it.
Happy: Nice. I did some research on The General Store which is credited as the studio you worked in. Is that a home studio for Greg? He needs a web site because I couldn’t find any info unless I was looking in the wrong places. [Greg if we got this wrong send us a link man].
North Arm: Yeah that’s Greg’s home studio, in South Gippsland, in rural Victoria. So we had a couple of sessions down there, and a bit of to and fro in between settling the mixes and stuff but I spent in total almost a week with him and we spent a good couple of months getting the tracks together…
Happy: I’m going to interrupt you there. I love that you said a couple of months because I think this is something that should be talked about more often. The reality of a good sounding record and the reality of time frames in recording and mixing and mastering and getting it right.
North Arm: Yeah. I mean there’s a time when it gets a bit ridiculous you know what I mean, like you don’t want to be pulling a Kevin Shields on this thing where it takes ages and there’s just so much build up over a record and its like six years on. But it does depend on what sound you want to achieve. For me, it was kind of more situational, the tracks, the gestation period of the writing of the songs was kind of long but the momentum really built quite quickly after I started to pull them into the new Pro Tools rig and really pull out a few elements, really whacking out some Tambo, some additional drums, some additional this, additional that, but certainly when you get down to, when all of the channels are in, and it gets down to actually, really trying to get the arrangements right, that was one thing that I had to focus on a bit really chopping and changing not in any big way, but a few songs needed a little bit of a nip and tuck and you know, just for some certain things and elements in the song to happen earlier.
Happy: It’s great that you had that foresight, it doesn’t always happen that way.
North Arm: Yeah well that’s true. I didn’t want the songs to overstay their welcome, I really wanted to make a kind of statement which kind of starts, has an end and a beginning and it has something to say and it says it, because I love the brevity of punk and 90s grunge, and the brevity of early Beatles you know? I wanted to skirt the middle but I really wanted to keep the tracks contained and I wanted the spirit of the songs to be strong. Oh and in relation to the production just speaking of Greg for a while, the reason I characterised it as a bit of a collaboration was because, obviously when working with producers there’s an element of collaboration involved.
Happy: Always, of course. Fifth member and all that.
North Arm: Yeah and Greg actually played on the record and is credited on the record and that is just a huge thing for me.
Happy: I think all great producers get hands on. They all have a number of magic tricks up their sleeves, that come out in the studio whether or not that’s ever credited. I think it goes hand in hand with working with somebody, in their space as well.
North Arm: Totally. Greg played drums on one of the tracks and get very hands on which was amazing of course.
Happy: Nice. Okay so one final question but before I go there just wanted to say I really loved your stuff I think it’s awesome that you’re doing it and you should continue to do it. What struck me as hilarious, and amazing and wonderful was your email signature. I think you know what I mean. It’s a bit like fuck everyone; here is everything I do in one place, take it or leave it, I’m a lawyer you can hire me, I’m signed with Spunk, and here is my Bandcamp link if you want to have a listen.
North Arm: Well yeah, look that’s a pretty long story. As I said I was in bands when I was sixteen, I went away to Uni, I studied a law degree, I thought that that was it for my music stuff I kind of thought it was done and dusted. I worked in Sydney for six years, well for five years and then I was really kind of depressed I just kind of hated life, and wasn’t enjoying anything. So I went back up to Newcastle, and kind of did music as myself and with Tim and focused more on the music with Tim because it was really, a great energy and it had a true momentum, which it still does. You know, I guess in the mean time I still had to do a job because stuff had to be paid for and things had to be worked out and then I was working for a law firm and the GFC hit and because of a beer industry client which was my old employer was my main client, I survived the GFC and then, all of a sudden there was a change. Yeah, so then that was kind of the main stay of my practise. The GFC eventually claimed me, I was made redundant and rather than becoming an employee of somebody else because I knew that I wasn’t employable because of what I wanted to do with music and I only really survived in that law firm because my old employer just used to be a radio DJ on 2SER, and was such a huge music fan and was a huge fan of Wayne Connolly who used to head up the welcome mat, and who produced the first Firekites record. So I was like far out what am I going to do? So I just started up my own law firm which I’ve been operating in the front room of my house for a couple of years.
Happy: Does it pay the bills?
North Arm: Yeah it does actually. It’s flexible you know, I couldn’t do it without my wife. [Happy hugs to wives, husbands and partners]. For me, it’s like going to King Willy’s sound and seeing Willy Bowden work in the backroom of his house, its kind of cool, its in this little out building, it’s a really amazing set up and the fact that The General Store is like an out building in J Walker’s place. But, with Greg, if he’s not doing soundtracks for the ABC or something like that he’s always working on other stuff and he’s working with Machine Translation and if he’s not doing that he’s producing someone’s record. I think you’ve got to diversify and have it all there. Yeah look you know, I always look up to lawyers like Brett Oaten.
Happy: Brett and I had a big fight once a long time ago.
North Arm: Yeah look, well I’ve had a fight with Brett as well on a few occasions, particularly in relation to a matter that I was handling once. [DELETE DELETE DELETE]. I guess it’s almost like yourself you know you’re involved in music, media, you’ve probably been involved with music yourself, written songs. You don’t want to say “YOLO” but it’s a bit like that, you’ve just got to be the person you want and it shouldn’t have to be any particular mould.
Happy: Agreed. So Happy right now is doing stuff like this, reviewing great new Aussie music and building the brand because I really think that there is space for an honest Australian owned and Australian focused festival. Instead of trying to go all out and do it once as a massive thing we’re kind of building the brand slowly through the doing things like this with artists like North Arm.
North Arm: That’s awesome.
Happy: We’re also planning some shows and North Arm is definitely on our wish list so once we’re booking shows we’ll be sure to send you an invitation to play.
North Arm: That’ll be great and look thanks heaps for getting in contact. I think that there is room for a music festival which operates like the music festivals that I remember you know. And I’m talking about ’91, ’92 Big Day Out kind of vibe, really cool, I’m not talking about Peats Ridge. I’m talking more about the music. Sure you’ve got to be corporate to some extent but the full on corporatisation of the music industry is something I’ve observed over a number of years both as them being my clients and them being my employer. And, it’s like far out, the difference is just so obvious now and I don’t know where it’s going to go.
Happy: I know, it’s pretty crazy, but I think that as long as people are thinking differently, charging forward with new ideas, and things are falling over because things do fall over and make room for new things then there’s always progress.
North Arm: And that’s actually happening in the UK, there’s actually some instances of some of these I suppose profiteers getting into the music industry kind of space and just not reading the tea leaves and coming up stuck.
Happy: Yeah. Well anyway look Rodd awesome to chat with you this morning so thanks for taking the time. Can’t wait to hear the whole album.
North Arm: Thanks heaps.
