23. July 2014 By Walter Price 0

The Naysayers: Fools Gold Rush

By Walter Price

It was just almost a year ago we had the pleasure of meeting a garage rockin’ power poppin’ post punk group of goodtime fellas’ straight outta Melbourne, Australia called The Naysayers and their new release DEE EYE WHY. Clever.

DEE EYE WHY found the gang searching the sonic landscape and interpreting the favorite niches and doing it all on an 8-track and a dream of making it into your ears and subsequently your hearts. From what we can tell, mission well received.

This is now and The Naysayers (Nathaniel Parbery – Vocals/Bass, Simon Gemmill – Drums, Gordon Holland – Vocals/Guitar, Harrie Kingston – Guitar/Vocals/Picture Drawer) have released the first of three overall singles, Fools Gold Rush, in a project they’re calling The Photo Singles < more on that later.

The A-side finds the guys blazing through mod glam garage rockin’ brilliance in a fashion you’ll associate with all the greats of the same description. The musicianship is far more advanced than their previous EP and so it should be. These players are obviously more comfortable in their own multidirectional approach to songwriting and compositions. The sing along chant, perfectly sticky guitar work and thick n’ rich as molasses rock anthem qualities that will leave you wanting them to set up shop in your living room to satisfy your head boppin’ urges.

But if you want my two cents, what congeals this single and proves the staying power of The Naysayers is the B-side Molotov Fairytale. The track straddles The Sonics, Frankie Lymon and Green Day resulting in a doowoppinpunkintastic gem. No doubts about it, that is a great word and these cats bring it in a multi-layered layout of a story song with its deceiving nature, lo-fi chills and a last half of the track break that will make Mike Dirnt.and his gang wish they had the song in their repertoire. I like it, a lot.

Single artwork provided by Polish photographer Rafal Karczwho is deemed experimental and perhaps controversial by those who know more than I about those sorts of things. Let that be for another day. Cool pic though.

I will be dumbfounded if this release doesn’t propel The Naysayers to the next level. It would be cool to see them out of their day jobs, if they have jobs, and take these sounds global.

All and all The Naysayers prove they are in perpetual motion. They seem cool with exploring and melding genres and textures. I don’t expect them to ever let themselves become pigeonholed. Damn eager to lay these ears o’ mine on the next two singles…

I caught up Nathaniel Naysayer for a quick chat…
 
Can you tell me about the recording of the single?
We recorded the first one (Fools Gold Rush /Molotov Fairytale) one weekend away in Benalla (Rural Victoria, AUS). A friend of ours had a holiday house up there which they kindly let us use. It was a good 3 hour drive from the city and was super isolated. Worked out well for us as we could track as loud as we wanted as late as we wanted. Some good food was eaten, maybe a little too much booze was drunk, but we managed to lock down 90% of the tracks for those 2 songs by the time we left. We finished up the vocals a week or two later at Harrie’s. Very happy with the results!
 
Can you go into detail about the Photo Singles project?
We came up with the idea to do Tri-single release late last year, not too long after we dropped DEE EYE WHY. The idea of calling them “THE PHOTO SINGLES” came from the cover art. A Polish photographer. Rafal Karcz, contacted us after we released DEE EYE WHY, offering us to use some of his work for anything we had coming up. We liked the photos so it all fell into place after that. We also liked the idea of releasing 3 things in a row, rather than blow our collective wad on one release.
 
We’ve taken different recording approaches to each single so it’s also been groundwork for the next big project; how we want to record the album.
 
Is there a real person/name behind Molotov Fairytale? (i.e. who the song is about)
Yep. Though I won’t say who.
 
Does releasing EPs and singles give you guys more freedoms in writing and recording?
Absolutely. You have complete creative control when you record/release your own material. You can do it fairly cheaply as well. You make the calls on everything, which can be pretty liberating.

It is a double edged sword though. It can also be good to have a person outside who can give feedback on things that you don’t notice being so close to something. You can also be fairly limited depending on your financial position, and technical experience. Ideally you’ve got to find what works for you I think.
 
We’re pretty open minded and have tried a few different methods. The DIY approach has been the favorite so far though!
 
What are the 5 things you guys have learned about the band since the release of Dee Eye Why?
First – You can do it yourself!
Second – You don’t need a bunch of money!
Third – Harrie is actually pretty good at drawing!
Fourth – We should do more instrumentals!
Fifth – We love this shit!
 

The Naysayers: Facebook. Buy Their Music. Website
 

Thank You, Come Again…