St Heartless takes us on a walkthrough of their six-track EP, ‘The Bite’ produced by James Raper, the 3 piece band has knocked it out of the park.
Western Sydney’s thriving music scene is ever-growing, and St Heartless is proof that there is a lot more to Western Sydney than just hip-hop. Almgamating punk and a 90’s Seattle vibe, the band, featuring Jim Magee on Guitar, Mitch Sinden on Drums, and Luke Vella on Bass, is bringing the best part of Sydney to the world, and we are here for it.
St Heartless break down their six-track EP ‘The Bite’, and share insights into the instant classic stylings of The Bite and You & Yours that sees Mitch’s smacking drums, Luke’s memorable riffs, and Jim’s simple punk C chords that make for one helluva bop.
The Bite
Bite is a great example of how we all work together in the band. It was written in about fifteen minutes at a rehearsal space. The lyrics were written some time ago by Jimmy and modified last minute before the recording by him and Luke.
But the whole centre of this song were the drums, beat and rhythm played out by Mitch. He just started smacking drums, Luke played his riff and then Jim just came in with these chords. It was nuts.
You & Yours
This one is basically your archetypical break up song. Penned and performed by Luke. It’s really very simple but it’s taken a long time to get a good recording of it. Potentially our most lyrically diverse, since it’s not got the typical verse chorus verse structure.
The short noise-inspired last verse is just pure chaos and we love it. Our drummer Mitch played guitar during the crescendo and it adds a whole lot. We all try to bring as much as we can to the songs we play. Even if they’re simple C chord punk songs.
The Kids
This song is a bit of an outlier, most of the time we do all heavy or all light with the tone of our songs. The kids sneak up on you, leading you through the garden path of the pop punk strumming headfirst into a fairly tasty riff. The lyrical content stands out. It’s a bit of a protest. The world is fucked, there’s a lot standing against this next generation in terms of political decisions, environmental crises and a quickly changing social scene. It feels
sometimes that all we have to fight back against tanks are stones.
Maybe a little sexy riff can give you all some hope. or at least a moment to bang your head for some release.
I Sail
The recording of this one felt like a breeze. It’s such a fun song to play. That heavy riff just carries the metal vibe all the way through. During the recording, we knew it was a good one, but none of the other tracks have had a response like this. Sometimes you have to accept that the tracks you spend forever on are not going to hit as hard as the ones you just bash out during the end of a session. Simplicity, we learned, is key.
The Signs
Easily our oldest song from the six. But we’ve kept it for a reason. In our professional opinion it just simply slaps. A little bit of post-punk, little bit of regular punk. This song is a poppy breakup song dressed up in a noise band’s jacket.
By the end, we’re all playing chords, even on the drums. We’re proud of the sound of this one above the others, through multiple iterations, band members leaving, and varied success at shows, it feels good to perfect it. An instant classic, great memorability with the repeated chorus and another absolute bop.
Bat on a Wire
Our newest addition to the ep roster. To be honest, when we got into the box, we weren’t entirely sure how this one would come out. It took a lot of work to match the mandolin riff from Mitch with the guitars in the verses. But with a little help from our amazing producer James Raper, we knocked it out of the park. If I do say so myself. Channeling Jack white, ZZ top, and all the great blues players who sold their soul to the devil we designed this puppy to smack you in the face, then do a little groove with you afterward.
Listen to their latest release The Bite below.
All photos: Sophie Joyce
