COLLAPSE BOARD

An interview with Marco Ilinic of Swaying Buildings

By Darragh Murray

Swaying Buildings are a DIY Brisbane pop group, whose second record Bloom Beside The Freeway Moon is an indulgence in unassuming, brightly lit pop. It’s one of my favourite local releases from 2011. (Don’t believe me? They’ve got a free sampler floating about for you to try out.)

This is a quick chat I had Marco Ilinic, guitarist and vocalist in Swaying Buildings in late September.

While it’s been out for a while now, I still regularly listen to Bloom Beside The Freeway Moon. It’s gorgeous. I note that songs like ‘Different Now’ are being played on Triple Z. Are you pleased with the reception the record has got?

Thanks a lot. I think the album’s been out for about six months now. I’m yet to have personally had that watershed moment of stumbling upon any of our songs being played on radio, but I’ve been told it’s been getting some airplay on Triple Z and one punter had mentioned he came to a show based on a track he’d heard on Triple J. The reaction’s been heartening for sure. We’ve gotten some complimentary reviews and few people have really connected with it which has been great. We’re still flying under the radar in many ways, so the album is still there to be discovered.

Please tell me about the creative process behind the record.

We have a little studio at the back of my house which is where we do all our recording. Both our debut Something In My Shoes and sophomore Bloom… were recorded there, as well as a lot of other projects we’ve had going on over the years. We’d had a fairly unstable few years within the band following the release of the first album, so when we were finally able to focus on the making of a new LP it probably took the better part of 2010 to put together. Something In My Shoes was a bit of a sprawling experimental pop effort so we knew we wanted to rein things in a little for the next record. We decided to ease up on the instrumental element of our sound, and keep the track listing down to around 10 songs. Apart from that, we just wanted to write the most melodic songs we could.

Are you happy with the how the record came out? Would you do anything different?

Yeah, we’re proud of how the album came together and there’s little we’d change about either of our albums. We recorded, mixed, mastered and designed the artwork for both of them and while they’re definitely not perfect, I think you get to the point where you’ve put in enough effort and explored enough options creatively, that they’re fine as they are.

The title Bloom Beside The Freeway Moon does roll nicely off the tongue. Is there any significance to it?

A lot of the time I’ll get a song started lyrically by strumming away and letting words spill onto the page, hopefully finding an interesting image or idea to connect with. “Bloom beside the freeway moon” was a line that came from a situation like that. I liked its imagery and thought it sounded a little like a Neil Young record. We’d actually finished the album by that point and were starting to struggle for a title and it just went straight to the top of a pretty ordinary list.

Parts of ‘Meet Me At The Door’ does resonate uncannily like The Go-Betweens’ ‘Streets Of Our Town’. Is this a coincidence?

I’d agree with you. It wasn’t something we intentionally referenced though I do remember at the time when I was playing the song to the rest of the band I’d said that the song had a Go-Betweens’ vibe. 16 Lovers Lane is one of my favourite Go-Betweens albums, a perfect pop album, so I’m not surprised I might’ve taken some inspiration from there.

My favourite song on the record is ‘Different Now’. It seems to be a big favourite among other fans as well. I love those gorgeous chiming guitar melodies that float around on it.

Thanks for saying. Sometimes I think ‘Different Now’ is probably the most complete song I’ve written. Everything seems to have its place on that one.

You guys certainly like playing with The Bell Divers and The Stress of Leisure – two other local groups I’m also fond of. 

We decided this year that when we were booking shows we’d make every effort to be playing alongside bands we were into and were happy to be around and it’s made all the difference. We actually share a bass player in Ben Moore with The Stress Of Leisure so it was through that connection that we started playing a few shows together. They’re a great band and good people so it’s all pretty easy. We’ve not known The Bell Divers for as long but we’re fans of their music so hopefully we’ll continue to cross paths.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 31st, 2011 at 2:25 pm. It is filed under Brisbane and tagged with Brisbane, Brisbane music, Darragh Murray, Swaying Buildings, The Bell Divers, The Go-Betweens, The Stress Of Leisure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.