OUR CHAT WITH GREAT GABLE ABOUT THEIR NEW ALBUM

For the last few months, years really, the men of Perth local band, Great Gable, have been in a constant loop of either touring, writing or recording. And to show for it they have their latest album On The Wall In The Morning Light, released today. It’s a spectacular second album, the product of countless hours spent at Rainbow Valley Studio, with Matt Corby and Alex Heriksson at the helm, living on potato chips and a bit of beer here and there to churn it out. They gave us the rundown on the whole experience, the mateship, growth, serenity and all the bits in between. 

WANDERER: You've just finished your headline tour in Australia and across the pond in New Zealand. Now that you guys are home and gearing up for your album release, what have your past few days looked like?

CAL: Recovery.

ALEX: We've been relaxing, catching up with friends, girlfriends and whatnot.

C: We've also got an album release show, so we've been rehearsing for that as well. 

A: We don't get to relax too much. 

What does relaxing actually look like for you? Still doing lots of things?

A: Probably playing guitar, to be honest.

C: Yeah, being in the shed. It's been actually really sunny in Perth and, coming from New Zealand, we didn't get much sun. So I've personally been laying in the sun for a large amount of time. 

You guys are going on another national tour this year... Do you ever really stop or not really? 

A: Well, we were dying to get moving. Gigging is like our bread and butter, isn't it? We put a lot of time and effort into making sure we play a decent show and it's always at the forefront of our minds. So it's cool to be able to go out and play shows again now that the world's open, very cool. And we're not stoppin'! Well, when we turn like, 40 then I'm stopping.

You're putting a time limit on it?

A: Well, sometimes you see these guys gigging around when they're a bit older and you're just like, 'Oh God, I hope that's not me.’

Fair enough. Playing all the little pub shows?

A: Yeah, they've [played] all the big bloody venues and then they just start going back down. I've told my girlfriend to make sure she tells me when it's time, you know.

Your album On The Wall In The Morning Light is out Friday, 8 July. How long did it take you guys to piece this one together? 

C: We've been working on it for two years, maybe.

A: Maybe even three. We finished recording it nearly a year ago now. That's when we recorded it over at [Matt] Corby's house, but we started writing it probably a year and a half to two years before that. Just after we released 'Tracing Faces', our first album, we just got stuck straight into writing again. And then obviously the pandemic hit, so we had a lot of time and we utilised it by writing 30, 40 songs each.

So you've got probably about five or six albums in the making already haha.

A: We're getting started on the next, aren't we? That's recorded already haha. But no, it's cool to have a lot of options of songs because for the first record, we didn't. We had like 10 songs, that's all we knew how to write and that seemed like a lot for us at the time. But this time we were like, all right, we know that we at least wanna have options. We want Corby and our other producer, Alex Heriksson, to have a bunch of choices and then they can go through and go, 'Oh, these ones hit the hardest', you know? 

C: It was pretty sound advice that people were telling us to write heaps more songs because then the really good ones just stood out and it was really easy to pick. 

And it's a practice as well, where you just keep going through the process of creating songs. 

C: Definitely. And kind of before this album as well, Alex and [Matt] Preen would usually bring in the idea, whereas on this album, there's some of myself and Chris's (Christopher Bye) ideas and songs as well, so it's changed the dynamic of the songs a bit too.

A: Yeah, everyone pitched in. 

You guys just recorded the album at Rainbow Valley Studios. What was the creative process like working beside Matt Corby? 

C: Oh, it was great. One of the best things was living there, pretty much in the same house as the studio. So you just wake up and you're completely immersed in the recording process. And Matt, he was a machine, he was pretty much on the decks the whole time, helping everyone. He was really good at coming up with really smart ideas for the tunes. Like in the morning we'd go over the arrangement with Al and workshop the arrangement and the melodies. And then I might track some drums and then from there just build off the whole day and he would just be at the desk. I remember making pies for him cause he wouldn't get off the desk. 

A: He'd have a bag of bloody sweet chilli potato chips for dinner.

C: He was a fiend on them.

A: Cause he just wouldn't want to step away. 

C: So it was great to work with that, you're really just on the money the whole time.

One of my favourite songs on the album would be 'When I Grow Up'. Can you give us a little insight to this song and the inspiration behind the kind of warped and static intro? 

A: That one came from me, actually. My girlfriend couldn't work out if she even liked her job, what she wanted to do, and all that sort of stuff. And I realised that I haven't ever had to ask myself that question because... I feel like I never really grew up or anything. But that intro is just this nice little chill thing before it gets a bit chaotic. We've never really written a song that has a structure like that where it's a little bit different and moody at the start, then it brightens up. But the intro's about being lost, and then you ask yourself, 'What do I want to do when I grow up?' And then you start figuring it out a little more. That was on the tape machine that I've got which definitely made it sound a bit weird, didn't it? 

We did touch on this before, I know for the last album you released it and then jumped straight into creating the next one. Do you see yourselves doing this again? Is that the role that you're gonna be on now? 

A: I think it's a smart idea. I've already spent quite a bit of time writing at the moment; we haven't all gotten together to write yet, which is the most important part of course, but it's always in my mind that, if I get a day or two spare then I'll sit and play guitar the whole time, try to write some tunes. But I don't want to apply pressure to anyone else because everyone operates differently. But if I've got the time and I'm hungry for it, I'll do it. Have you written any tunes yet? 

C: Mm, not at the moment. I've definitely started thinking about it though. During the tour Chris and I were sending each other old demos that we've been doing to see if any were worth revisiting, which I think there might be like one or two. It's always good to go back through. 

A: Because the album comes out Friday, and the tour is in October, we've got a bit of time now to write. We like to go down south of Perth, about three, four hours south to this house and we all stay there for a week and record demos and be idiots together. So I'm sure we'll have some trips there.

Do you guys have a song that you're most proud of from the album? 

A: 'Do you belong', it's the last track. I think that's a cool one; probably my favourite one. We've been rehearsing it live and it's probably the funnest one. Each one has got a part, for me, that I'm proud of though. Like maybe the core progression is a bit different or something like that, but with 'Do you belong' I really like the lyric content. And I also like the vibe, it's this 90s slacker, it's its own, we've never really written a tune like that.

C: It's almost like stoner rock, super laid back. I think as a drummer, I love 'The Lookout' because I actually get to play a triplet group, bit nerdy but it's good.

With the album, was there a running theme to the songwriting and lyrics? And where did you draw most of your inspiration from? 

A: We don't write an album as a whole thing, we're not really there yet. I reckon that's a tool we could probably use in the future, but we're still just writing stuff that happens to us from day to day. We haven't really gone, 'Oh, what's this whole album mean?' Everyone was bringing in songs and we pieced them together, and it meant that it wasn't just one person coming up with all the lyrics or all the vibes of the songs. So it meant that there'll be [songs like] 'Dancing Shoes' which is this eighties, synth rock kind of thing. And then 'Do You Belong' is this 90s slacker, stoner thing that we've got. And then 'When I Grow Up' is this Psychedelic Porn Crumpets sort of psych rock. 

C: It feels very much like a collection of songs. 

A: Just a collection of good moments, I reckon. 

When recording the album, is there a certain memory that stands out to you guys from spending all the time together recording? 

C: Is it bad to say that I remember playing heaps of Skate 3 on Xbox haha?

A: We were playing Corn Hole as well, Corby's a freak at it as well, he is really good!

C: 3:30pm every day.

A: Yeah, 3:30pm every day we'd make sure to crack open a couple of stubbies and literally step outside the door of the studio and just play out in the garden. 

C: And just listen to the album, what we'd done so far.

A: We were a tight knit crew with Corby and Heriksson as well. The whole time we were all just immersed in it, which was something that no one can really take away from us. It was a really good moment, we just had a lot of fun. But we got stressed, we got angry, we got sad and all that, but it was a good month, you know? We hope everybody likes the album that came of it.