Revered Brisbane prog/post-rock trio Balloons Kill Babies release their eagerly awaited new EP, Prodromal, tomorrow, and theMusic.com.au is stoked to have been granted a first-listen stream to please your ears today.
The EP's title has medical roots, describing the period between the appearance of initial symptoms and the full development of an illness, a concept that is reflected in the twisting, meticulously crafted soundscapes offered up on the five-track release.
According to the band, they see the EP as "following a subject on his journey into their illness; each song is a different stage of that journey".
Among the tracks, the band have included a bonus in the form of the newly released clip for EP track Feb 25, a collaboration between Shots For Bands (Luke McClean) and Jonathan Creed, the creator of the Devil May Care short film trilogy, with the Feb 25 clip serving as the films' official music video.
The trilogy itself — individually, Blood, Lust and Wrath — tells the tale of reluctant Irish mafia heir Ryan O'Connor, his unsuccessful attempts to outrun a past that keeps catching up to him, and his pursuit by a hitman, Jack Layendecker, out to avenge the death of a sex worker with whom he'd fallen in love and had been killed at O'Connor's hands.
"Basically, Luke filmed the trilogy and wanted to use the music video to add a little more; Jonathan and BKB were on board with the idea of a collaboration straight away," guitarist Twiggy Carter said in a statement. "We were able to sneak a few of our ideas into the video but it was all basically Luke's vision using our music and Jonathan's characters.
"We couldn't be happier with the result. Luke really took this on as a passion project and put the work in to make sure not just all three parties were happy with the outcome, but that it turned out to be something visually stunning."
You can watch the video, hear the EP, and read a track-by-track rundown written by Carter about the themes behind each of the band's new songs, below.
HTFK
We thought this song would be the perfect way to start the record, it's just raw and primal and instantly gets the blood flowing in the rehearsal room. Karl always liked playing around with these crazy noisey effects when we'd play it live and sounded so ominous. Scott's drumming just turned things up to another level; he really wanted to make sure the song was just dripping with attitude. This is start of the Prodromal experience; the subject is grounded but starting to exhibit chaos.
Breach
This is one of my personal favourite BKB songs. I had the intro stuck in my head one day and just had to sit down with my acoustic and write it. Breach is definitely one of our "journey" songs; we were really playing around with the idea of "if the song feels like it's going in this direction, let's push it in the other direction" and I think that sort of controlled chaos is what makes it work. We had our longtime friend Greg Olley add some synths and violin just to add to the epic feel. This is where we wanted to push the experience a little harder; things are really starting to happen to the subject, he's in turmoil.
Illuzia
Our first music video with Luke McClean (Shots For Bands). We wanted to really capture this dreamlike, almost psychedelic state that takes place when someone is intently listening to music they enjoy. That was a late night of trying to shoot very specific angles to obscure each of the band members. Luke and our lighting guy, Beau Sharpe, pulled it off perfectly, and adding dancer Debbie Olcorn into the mix gave the song a kind of personality. In the context of the record this is where our subject starts to realise something is seriously different inside them, the EP version is the first "voice" on the record too. "Life itself is only a vision, a dream, nothing exists except empty space... and you are but a thought."
Feb 25
I think this is everyone's favourite song off the record. Feb was the first song Scott sent us drums to when he was learning our material. After hearing how he worked the groove to flow between the bass and the guitar we knew instantly that he had to be a part of BKB. This was probably one of the easiest songs to get down in the studio as well. For some reason, everything just worked, including the addition of vocals from Megan Vessi (of local band Interalia); we just told to her sing what she felt and, bam, there it was.
For the video clip, we went back to Luke [McClean]. I had a few vague images in my head that I thought fit the song and we discussed the idea of a collaboration. Luke had been working on the Devil May Care short film trilogy, written and directed by Jonathan Creed, and wanted to flesh out that universe a little more. The music video takes place as a prequel to the second film in the trilogy, Lust, following the character Jack Layendecker as he's haunted by guilt and the memory of Olivia, who follows him throughout the clip. Luke and Jonathan really understood the feel of this song and were able to bring the abstract emotions we had described to them onto the screen perfectly.
Prodromal
We knew a long time ago this would also be the title of the release. Prodromal was one of those songs that seemed to come from thin air, it was written in a free-form, improvisational jam and took about 45 minutes to get down. The struggle was, when we hit the studio, we knew it had to be epic; this is the song where everything comes to a head and our subject leaves the prodromal phase and enters into their illness.
Scott brought some tribal drums into the studio and the layering began for the end of the track. There are so many crazy effects going on in that song and the tribal drums just seemed to give everything such gravitas. Megan was locked in a sound booth and I basically screamed and jumped around outside getting her to push her vocals to the limit, giving it that cool "great gig in the sky" kinda vibe. We wanted it to sound like absolute chaos, like someone losing their mind. Hopefully we pulled it off.
Prodromal will be released tomorrow, 22 September. Pre-orders are available now.
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