There’s not really anything out there quite like Same Name Confusion. The Wellington duo, made up of Luke Courtney and Andrej Radosavljevic, craft indie-pop tracks that are so unashamedly honest, they feel a little surreal. On the band’s new EP, In Theory, self-reflective lyrics and idiosyncratic instrumental arrangements meld together to create these dream-like meditations on social situations.
Courtney says the EP is filled with ‘unnecessary truths’, but these truths form the basis of an incredibly unique and exciting musical project. So fresh off the EP’s release, we caught up with Courtney to chat about dropping ‘unnecessary truths’, social anxieties, and staying ahead of everyone else.
Fresh off the release of their new EP In Theory, we caught up with Same Name Confusion’s Luke Courtney to chat about unnecessary truths, social anxieties, and staying ahead of everyone else.
HAPPY: Hey! How’s it going? What are you up to at the moment?
LUKE: I’m answering these questions you sent. At work, pretty grumpy. But I’ve been keen for a while to discuss our new record and the themes behind it so really looking forward to this.
HAPPY: Well, congrats on releasing In Theory! How are you feeling now that it’s out in the world? Nervous? Relieved?
LUKE: I’m not sure it’s right to say that In Theory is out to the world – we haven’t played the shows to anyone yet. Sure you can listen to the EP now but it’s really just a taster of what In Theory will be as an event. It’s nice to allow people to just listen to the music without all the blinding lights and sweaty boys. And it’s important that people have an opportunity to hear what the songs are about and to get comfortable the musical ideas before they buy a ticket to see us. I guess the EP is a movie trailer – a preview of a much bigger experience.
So yeah it’s pleasing to get the EP out, but releasing recorded versions of these songs was just a task that we had to tick off in order to take SNC to a bigger place. It’s just another thing we’ve done. It’s good to do stuff. When you’re doing stuff you get better. I’m sure someday we’ll make a thing that people decide is a classic. Maybe this is it? Probably not.
HAPPY: Comparing this new EP to your first round of recordings, it feels like a big step forward. But even back then, you always seemed so certain of your sound. What was the process of landing on your individual sound? And, do you think it’s still evolving?
LUKE: Our first stuff didn’t really have any clear direction – something that Andrej and I wanted to change for this record. The EP is called In Theory because when we started writing it we still weren’t sure what we wanted our sound to be. So I went and wrote all these different songs – each based on a different theory. Different theories that explain how a relevant, accessible, exciting pop song comes about. I assume most pop artists try to pick a sound/direction for their music and then write a bunch of hits. I thought we could do that, but in reverse. People have this really romantic perception of artists; that we’re these wholesome beings that just let whatever is inside of us pour out onto a canvas or a page or a guitar. In reality, most of us are just copying something that’s worked for someone else – hoping that we can cash in while it’s still the ‘in’ thing. I burnt through a bunch of different ‘in’ theories – Romantic R&B, Edgy Non-Fiction, Dance Banger. Most of them came across as pretty lame when attempted by SNC but eventually we settled on a theory that felt right for us and now we’re here with this EP. It’s a combination of extreme attitude and unnecessary honesty.
Do I think our sound is still evolving? We decided on a style for this latest EP and made a point not to stray from that at all. If we decide that our next stuff should be different then we’ll build it from the ground up again. We wouldn’t want to draw from this style we have here and evolve it into something slightly different, because then we might start blending genres. That kind of music sucks.
HAPPY: To me, In Theory feels really introspective – like a reflection on insecurities or social anxieties. But it still always holds a sense of peacefulness. Am I misinterpreting things? Or was this counterbalance something you intentionally tried to instil in the EP? If so, why?
LUKE: Yeah, it’s introspective – it’s about me. It had to be if I wanted to write in unnecessary-truths. People just don’t talk about the kind of stuff that I wanted to touch on – myself included. The lyrics do reflect on social anxiety at times but I don’t think you can tie that to insecurity. I’m not insecure about being socially anxious or socially inept – that’s just the way it is sometimes. It’s just the truth and that’s why it comes up in the words. And I’d say that’s where the peacefulness comes from. When I’m singing about being afraid of sculling beers or awkwardly sitting next to a couple of passionate lesbians, I’m not insecure about any of that stuff. It’s just how it is or how it happened. Not Fake News, for example, is a song about being socially inept but it’s a celebration of that trait. There’s no point lamenting what you’re stuck with. I really wanted people to be able to relate to the words in all the songs. To be able to listen along and think “yeah, that’s so true” I mean, everyone has been in an awkward social situation and not really had the ability to get out of it.
HAPPY: One lyric that really stood out to me was how you’re scared of “pushing someone into depression.” Could you tell us a bit about this line?
LUKE: That lyric is a great example of an unnecessary truth. Like no one would ever say this if asked what they’re afraid of. Because it’s obvious. It’s just assumed that we’re all aware not to abuse someone so much that they get depressed. I’m a big fan of Blank Space by Taylor Swift. How she takes these criticisms of her personality and runs with them and blows them up. People say I can be abrasive at times so I thought I’d run with that. Here I’m suggesting that my personality is so harsh that I’m constantly afraid that I’ll say something that sends someone into depression. It’s a fun way of running with that criticism and blowing it out of proportion. Serious issue though.
HAPPY: Could you walk us through how Same Name Confusion came together back in 2016?
LUKE: Can we talk about the EP please? There’s plenty of good stuff in there. I could really talk about it all day. In fact, if anyone reading this wants to talk about it with me they should give me a call: +64278741805. I’d be stoked.
HAPPY: Do you feel like since then you’ve been working towards a concrete vision of what Same Name Confusion should be? Or do you prefer to leave that kind of thing open?
LUKE: SNC exists to be an entertainment machine. To be the best show money can buy. Maybe we’re not there yet but we’ll get there. I’ll never give up on that aspiration. We’re already so far ahead of most live acts in this country. We’re doing things on stage that most can’t get close to. We’ll go past the rest soon and they won’t catch us because we’re always getting better. We’re always pushing ourselves, trying new things that we haven’t seen done anywhere before. It’s exciting when you know that there are no limits to what you can produce in your field. That’s the point of all of this. To excite and to entertain. So no it’s not open. I don’t know how you could invest all your time and effort into something if you didn’t have a clear vision of what you want to do. That seems a bit pointless to me.
HAPPY: You canned all the original tracks for this EP, right? Is a move like that frustrating or disappointing at all? Or did it feel natural at the time?
LUKE: Oh wow how did you know? One of the theories early on was that our songs needed to be easily replicable live. We have this song How’d You Get So Cool – it’s a great song but we could never do it justice at the gig because it’s really just layer-upon-layer of vocal takes. So we thought we’d better start making songs with arrangements that could be reproduced by our live band – and with that in mind, we started writing and recording the original demos. Then at some point, I came up with this completely different arrangement for How’d You Get So Cool. We went and played it at a show and it was just massive. That was a bit of a lightbulb moment for us. In that moment it became apparent that we were holding ourselves back by trying to make music exclusively for the live show when it’s a completely different experience – consuming a song live compared to at home in your headphones. If you come to our shows now you’ll hear the songs in quite a different form – which I think people appreciate. It’s just a different way of conveying the same themes. We ran home after that gig, burned all the demos to CD, erased the digital copies, and then went and threw the hard copies in the harbour. Frustrating? No, not really.
HAPPY: And you recorded this EP in your flat, right? Could you walk us through what your setup looked like?
LUKE: Like the gear? We don’t really do gear. We had a mic for the vocals and a mic for the guitar. I was a good place to make music. Always close to the fridge. And there were always plenty of people around that could sing backing vocals – you can hear my flatmate Finn singing “Don’t touch yourself” at the end of David, What Are You Afraid Of if you listen closely.
HAPPY: Were there any notable limitations to working in this environment?
LUKE: Not really. I mean maybe there was but who cares. A space rocket has limitations but it still takes you to space. It’s not like making a record at home is a revolutionary thing. Everyone’s doing it. People who go to a studio are just stuck in 1999. It’s exactly the same as at home except they don’t let you eat in there. There’s a mic for the vocals, and a different mic for the guitar. Sometimes they try and use five mics, but it still just sounds like a guitar. The most important thing about the recordings was to make sure they had attitude in droves. I think we achieved that.
HAPPY: What’s next for Same Name Confusion? Any other new music in the works?
The In Theory world tour starts this weekend at Tora Bombora. It’s our first ever festival gig. We’re on just before the Babe Rainbow – hopefully they’ve been practising. All the time we’ve spent with this EP – writing the songs, getting the record out. It all boils down to these shows and the impression that we can leave on people. It’s an opportunity for us to announce ourselves as the entertainment machine that we hope to be.
As far as new music goes, Andrej’s got some ideas that he’s been working over. We’ll pick out the good ones and get another EP out for the fans mid-year. If anyone wants us to write a song about something in particular they should get in touch on our Instagram. We’re looking at a June 28 release – mark your calendar.
HAPPY: Cheers for the chat!
LUKE: No worries Bill, stay in touch mate.
