Northeast Party House Interview

It’s a fair claim to say Northeast Party House is the hottest band in the country at the moment, and, if not that, their live show certainly makes them the sweatiest. In preparation of their national album tour, keyboardist Sean Kenihan chats to Ruben Seaton about Tony Abbott, their new album Any Given Weekend, and why their live shows get so sweaty.

All Ages Concerts Sydney: Congratulations on the release of your debut album Any Given Weekend released last week – how does it feel to finally get your album out to the world?

Sean Kenihan: Thanks, it feels really good. We’ve had the album digitally in our hands for months now, but we’re all really happy to get it out to the people.

AACS: Even your cat – was that a Northeast cat I saw proudly holding the album on your Facebook page the other day?

SK: Yeah, that’s Jackson’s cat. Jackson loves taking pictures of his cat.

AACS: Well, who doesn’t? It’s a cracker of an album which really showcases how much your sound has evolved – do you think 2011 Northeast Party House would be surprised by what you guys are producing now?

SK: I think they’d be really happy – maybe a little surprised about how intensely guitar-driven a lot of the songs are now though. We’ve been heading in this direction for a while now – after the release of [2012 singles] ‘Pascal Cavalier’ and ‘Stand Tall’, we really explored that rough, guitar-driven element that we really liked.

AACS: You guys are just about to embark on your album tour, which stops off for an all ages show at The Lair in Sydney on the 29th of June – what can we expect from you guys there?

SK: Well, last time we played in Sydney it was incredible – it was with The Jungle Giants to an all ages crowd. It has to be up there as one of my favourite shows of all time, the energy in that room was insane. The amazing thing about under 18 shows is…. Well, I don’t know if it’s whether younger people haven’t been to as many shows, or that they don’t judge the music scene as harshly, but the atmosphere in those shows was incredible. Literally, before each song there was absolute silence, and after the song there was the most screaming and noise I’ve ever heard. If I had a choice of only playing over or underage shows, I’d choose under every time.

AACS: There’s going to be a lot of angry adults then! Speaking of angry adults, there’s been a lot of talk about the Government’s new budget cuts and with that comes talk about the ‘Youth Allowance’ (hyperlink to youtube video) – so I ask to you: if Northeast Party House were Prime Minister for one day, what would you do?

SK: Oh my god… (sighs) that’s a hard one, especially when you’re in your early twenties and you have so many opinionated views about the world and what’s wrong and right. Well, as a band, we would probably be in a lot of trouble…

AACS: That doesn’t matter – it can be a police state if you want!

SK: Well, since the band has the connotation of being a party band, we come with that real energetic party mystique so I think the country would just fall into chaos! I don’t think I’d vote for us, to be honest. I’d put us above Tony Abbott but I wouldn’t put us above anyone else.

AACS: What was Northeast listening to in the studio when writing Any Given Weekend? Do you think that influenced the end product?

SK: Lots of different stuff – especially on tour when we were all together. I know the guitarists have been reaching back in the catalogue for stuff like INXS – in fact, I got into trouble the other day for telling Kingsmill on triple j that we weren’t influenced by them at all, and I ended up getting hounded by my guitarist. We’ve always loved the Arctic Monkeys, which lead us back to Black Sabbath. I’ve taken my influences from house music – prog-house, techno, electronica and even some classical music, on top of 90s bands like Portishead.

AACS: So this is how these genres combine to create that Alternative Rock/Dance genre you guys are exploring now?

SK: Yeah. We all see eye to eye on our decisions, so it’s easy for us – we moved away from the synths being the provider of the energy and instead changed to guitar to get that more rock-and-roll sound. We wanted to move away from being all intricate and plucky and get nice and dirty so we can really enjoy it live and make it loud.

AACS: Would it be fair to say that the album was less of a logical process and more of an experimental compilation?

SK: Definitely. In fact, there are songs like ‘You And I’ which were written and finished back in 2012, and were just pushed to the back because we were playing other songs live, and songs like ‘Any Given Weekend’ and ‘Fake Friends’ were written just in the months leading up to the album recording. So when it came to making the album, we knew the theme we wanted to send, so then it was just a matter of choosing the songs that would fit together well so we’re not trying to over-conceptualise.

AACS: At All Ages Concerts Sydney we really support young musicians, so what advice do you have for young people trying to start out in the music industry.

SK: Don’t rush! You’ve got so much time; it’s better to really practice and write a lot more songs than you need and be over-prepared so that if and when your chance comes you can take it. You need a solid back catalogue, a solid sound and a solid band that know what they’re doing, otherwise you might end up coming apart at the seams as you start to build momentum.

AACS: Sean Kenihan, thanks so much for talking to AACS!

SK: No problem – we hope to see you at the shows!

Any Given Weekend, the band's debut is out now on Stop Start.

See them at the Lair - check out the event in our guide.

Interview by Ruben Seaton

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