Shortstraw’s SA domination

Local rock/pop act Shortstraw began the year with a bang. Not only did they officially release their brand new album, entitled Youthless, the album debuted at #1 on the iTunes Album Chart in first week of January.

It’s Shortstraw’s third full length album to date and sees the band venturing into a new direction musically, one that has paid off because fans seem to love it. The guys said that they didn’t want to replicate their last album, so they branched out and explored different genres for this release. We caught up with them to find out about the ins and outs of their latest release and of course, what’s in store for them in 2015.

You guys have had a phenomenal 3rd album début on iTunes, what were you doing at the time you heard you reached number one?

We were all busy with our day jobs!

How did the band react?

We were obviously elated, but at the same time a bit relieved. We put a lot of time and effort into making this the best possible product we were capable of making and to see it pay off with a number one spot is really special.

What do you attribute the success of the album?

We spent a lot of time in pre-production, so we had a solid understanding of what the songs needed and how they were going to sound. It resulted in us not having to spend too much time on them in studio because the songs were basically finished before we started recording. All the tracks share a similar theme, which ties the album together and I think people appreciated that.

Tell me a little about how the album was put together?

We wrote the bulk of the songs over the last year and combined them with songs we wrote years ago that we had previously abandoned because we didn’t think they fit the style of the band. We figured this time around we should just let loose and do anything we wanted to try, so it’s a bit schizophrenic in that sense.

Why the title Youthless?

The album has a constant theme of age and the loss of youth. Getting older without growing up. Youthless just felt appropriate.

What’s your method/ingredients for writing a good song?

Al constantly jots down ideas for phrases or ideas that could get stuck in your head, so when it comes time to write a chorus, he’ll find one of those and belt it out. Musically, we just jam until we all like the sound of something, then we’ll try turn it into a song. We feel like if we like something, hopefully our fans will too. Maybe that relate-ability is what people latch onto. We don’t really know!

Who writes the music, what is the process before you guys do a new song?

We all write the music together. Someone will have an idea and then we’ll just work on that until it becomes a song.

What did you do differently with this record than the previous album?

We were just more prepared with this one than the last one. We had all the songs before we went into studio, as opposed to last time when we went in with a bunch of ideas and hoped for the best.

Where did you record, was there a specific feeling or vibe your were going for and how did you achieve it?

We recorded at High Seas Studios. The guys who run that place have become really good friends of ours and the energy at the studio is amazing. They’re really talented and helpful guys and they helped us in so many ways. We drank a lot of red wine while we recorded which probably helped us get a relaxed vibe.

What was the most challenging thing about putting this album together?

We set ourselves a relatively attainable deadline, but any deadline is still a deadline, so that put a bit of pressure on us. But apart from that it was pretty smooth sailing.

Who was involved in the process?

Jacques du Plessis (from High Seas) and Al (vocals) produced the album after we all recorded our individual parts.

You’ve performed at almost every festival, what is the trick of getting a crowd so big to dance along and engage in the music?

We feed off the crowd’s energy and I suppose that goes both ways. We try and make music you can dance to and then follow that up with dancing badly on stage!

How do you structure and plan your live shows?

We spend a bit of time on creating our set lists. It’s a massive part of any show, especially when you’re trying to work in new songs. So we put a lot of attention on that. Everything else just tends to fall into place.

It seems most bands have fan names, what do you call your fans?
We just call them fans. We’ve never really thought about it. Maybe strawberries? Strawpers? Just straws? No idea.

What’s in store for you in 2015?

We’ll be touring this new album extensively and we’d love to go back to Japan and maybe explore Europe a bit. Then we’re also making a live DVD that’ll get released later this year. And hopefully we’ll get to play some more festivals.

Check out Shortstraw’s newest video for Heaps Keen: