Gosteleradio Interview

Having formed in early 2009, Melbourne indie-popstrels Gosteleradio are riding on a post-debut album wave. Having released “Great Deeds Against The Dead” towards the end of last year, the quartet are back and better than before, as they reveal their new sixties influenced sounds on their latest self-titled EP.

“The songs were written in early 2011, Josh and myself travelled overseas while Benny had to hold the fort on his own in Melbourne. On our return we decided that we should probably record them and expose the masses to our sound. It is in a similar style to our debut album but we decided on this recording to experiment more with vocal harmonies, layering of vocals and instruments and sounds of summer.” Melbourne quartet Gosteleradio may have unleashed their debut ‘Great Deeds Against The Dead” at the end of 2010, but as guitarist turned drummer Marty Umanski explains, the recording process they experienced and a stint overseas made them reconsider both their sound and direction. “We learnt that you don’t really have to record in a big studio to achieve something that you are happy with.”

“We really just wanted to record this and put it out, I guess similar to how it was done in the old days. All you need is a few good mic’s, an engineer that is gifted and knows your sound and how to capture it. Quite simple really.” With their latest, recording, an eponymous EP, all set for release, the quartet have taken the unusual decision of following their acclaimed debut LP with what many deem to be a stop gap release. Umanski assures fans that the decision was a conscious decision, “We really like the idea of the EP. We have more than enough songs to record an album but we were yet to record an EP, so we went with that.”
“Sometimes I guess with an album, you put songs on there that may have been kicking around for a while and it is hard to capture the true energy of a song that you may have been playing live for 12 months. The songs on this EP are fresh, we haven’t played really any of them live so they are fresh and I think that really came through on the recording.” Having recorded the EP in a day, the quartet were more than a little determined to keep their sound fresh. With all the material contained on the EP previously unexplored, the songs will now take on their own journey as opposed to relying on a journey building up to a release. He explains, “Sometimes when you dwell on the recording and you have too much time on your hands you change things that may have not needed changing. We knew the songs, we were happy with them and we just wanted to get in there and capture them much like a photo. Click, done, move on.”

By Jeremy Williams