Dan Hillier
The titular fifth record from the Australian experimental instrumentalists, V is the sound of a math and post rock band who don’t really comply with what one would expect from either genre. In fact, in some instances, they’re the polar opposite to standard stereotypes regarding the world of all things post and math.
The brainchild of primary songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Simeon Bartholomew that’s here joined by a whole array of musicians including drummer Chris Allison, V is a record that fully embraces both the joys and trails that come with a drive to constantly grow in all aspects of life. Be it to incorporate new instruments into their band, spontaneously collaborate with friends orsomething more personal like trying to be a better person in the wake of newfound fatherhood, SEIMS throw themselves into it headfirst and have ultimately channeled that energy into this record.
The end result is a record is a record that’s simply glowing with charm, energy and enthusiasm. There’s no po-faced stoicism. Human imperfections are favoured over compressed edits. Chaos is preferable to control. And maybe most evidently at all, growth and outside thinking is better than musically perfect albeit conventional stagnation. All of this is what makes this record and band just so exciting. V is the sound of a human band in a scene where many chose to hide dehumanised behind their instruments and a record that’s simply instantly lovable yet mindbogglingly technical.
With that in mind and with V out today via Bird’s Robe / Dunk! Records, we got in touch with Simeon Bartholomew to break down the record, track by track.
“An orchestra can make mountains move with a single legato. Drums? Try harder. Harder. HARDER. C’mon Chris. HARDER. DO MORE. MORE. I SAID MORE. MORE OUTRAGEOUS.”
“Almost a decade ago (omg) our live show got coined with the term “controlled chaos” – and it’s been something I’ve held dearly close to the mantra of how we turn up, live and studio. With the trope of the genre going for the “perfectly polished” 187 takes / highly edited / compressed / silenced and processed sound; SEIMS’ sound sits in the magic of the unknown. We don’t rehearse before we record. I generally use the 1st take of every tracked line. I love hearing how the band could fall of the rails at any moment – this is what makes the music exciting. So let’s capture it, and etch it into everything this band spits out.
I’d initially approached Rory from And So I Watch You From Afar to shred a guitar solo on the outro of this tune. Everything I kept doing wasn’t sounding right, but I knew it needed some colour. Rory was keen, but unfortunately we couldn’t make timings work. In hindsight – this section didn’t need a guitar solo at all – just a reprioritise of what the mix was bringing to the front – we layered a stack of vocal harmonies running through my pedal board, with literally every pedal turned on. Pumping that hard gave that outro the uplift it needed, without taking away the constant push that tune embodies right from the start.”
“I feel like the lyrics at the end of the tune give away the meaning of this tune pretty easily – so let’s approach this as nerds. How do you create the sentiment of “forever being the optimist” through moments of darkness, but in a musical form? The main riff constantly changes from Amaj to Amin, then quickly flicking back to a major key as if that minor chord never happened. It’s taking the traditional 4/4 feel but phrasing the emphases on a hidden (4/4 4/4 3/4 5/4) rotation in Theme A, or 7/8 + 9/8 nuance in Theme B if you really play the counting game – constantly making you feeling like you’re tripping up an uneven stair. It’s the intentional dissonance in the vocal harmonies as we’re reaching the climax of the song. Is the magic ruined yet?”
“Being a father to a gorgeous, independent, witty joker – “trying” has so many new meanings. It’s about being able to be on the same plane as someone who has literally only experienced this planet for a mere four years. It’s also about dealing with your own inner demons in a mature manner – trying to role model not just who you are, but helping your child see who they could be. Flowing Upstream is exactly this. Getting thrown into the deep end of the worst, and trying to embrace it – ending up somewhere new.”
“Ok let’s nerd out some more. There’s so many subtle changes in this tune to truly embed the preoccupied state. Theme A is a (4+5/8) signature (so, 9/8 but counted as subs of 4 and 5), and changes to a 4+6/8 when the chords change in Theme B (which is not 10/8, as that’s commonly felt as a 5/8+5/8 cadence). Theme C – the big fuck-off TAKATAKATAKA bit with the orchestra as the same idea – constantly reframing where that beat one should sit. Now that you’ve spent enough time being… preoccupied… working all that out… SURPRISE. It’s a spaghetti-western guitar solo. Now it’s two guitar solos. Now they’re playing the same solo, so maybe it was one guitar solo… but listen harder… what’s that? A third guitar solo…? Wait… didn’t this bit start with a piano solo?”
“When I told my wife this song was about our daughter she straight away screamed, “that’s so horrible!” at me. What it actually is about, is the mindset of a 3 year old. A similar concept to Preoccupations, but with a very different world view. Everything is new, and (almost) every wish and want is abandoned in an instant for the next shiny thing they discover in the world. You can hear this in the music with the constant charm and enlightenment as it moves through the themes with joy and intrigue. The big life questions and revelations hit hard and impact their little brains more than you expect i.e. “dad, why is night-time dark?” and comes out the other end with the more inquisition, and just a little more context of the greater world.
You can also hear the literal version of this at the end of the tune. Our daughter is talking about our cat Harry – pointing out his black and white fluffy fur, and how he can hop onto the coffee table. All the while, I’m watching her chocolate ice cream melt away right in front of her. Assessing how a cat can jump onto a table is far more exciting than eating chocolate ice cream.”
“I’ve been very conscious to take family photos as much as I can in these early years. In a digital world photos have almost lost all sense of prominence because it’s so easy to take a photo that no one really does. Spending almost half my life with a career in television also has made me generally steer away from the camera if I’m not getting paid to use it.
My granddad passed away when I was 10 years old, on his way from Sydney, Australia, to see us in Athens, Greece. He died in Hong Kong whilst in transit from DVT. I adored him a lot growing up. he was charming, and knew how to make my brother and I feel like we could accomplish anything in the world. We would spend every weekend at his place watching Argh! Real Monsters and Legends of the Hidden Temple. “I cannot remember, his face; his smile; nor the feathers in his cap; nor the pattern on his suspenders…” “There were no photos of him at any family gatherings… he was always behind the lens.”
(I hope) I won’t make this same mistake with my family.”
“Ok let’s nerd out on this one. Without any lyrical definition to illustrate how to be at the end of one’s tether – we can do it with… music! Omg what?! Forcing the cello to sit at the most uncomfortable G#, holding it for as long as possible, or the stacks-on outro that’s phrased in 7/8 7/8 7/8 9/8 to make it really feel like this cyclical motion has no resolve until that big open D in 4/4 right at the end… it’s so tension-provoking! Mark from We Lost the Sea also made a joke about wanting to play on one of my records, so I forced him to play a solo over that section. After a few hours of rambling (and a few glasses of red wine), he belted out the perfect mess to seal the deal on this dense, chaotic closer.”
“IT HAS A SOUSAPHONE SOLO HOW SICK IS THAT.
I recorded this solo piano at 3am one night. I never revisited it. I never attempted to clean it up. All the imperfections are there, and embraced. I knew it needed something else. In the studio, I randomly asked Luke (tuba/sousaphone) if he’d want to shred a solo on it. I didn’t preview the track with him – just told him the key, and threw him straight into the deep end. One take. No breaks. No redos. No editing. Just like the piano. Also, I have a sousaphone solo on a record and I just think that is so sick.”