Band Bio
The story so far...
Splurge is to quote MOJO magazine “a song-packing Melbourne four-piece”— although, having spent three years making a record, we are not sure how many pieces we have left.
What is known, however, is that Splurge has previously recorded two albums—1999’s Splurge and 2002’s Heavy Weather—and have now released a new album The Cure For The Cure. During the recording, quite a few people were born and some people died; others just got lost.
We are pretty sure that Splurge plays songs written by Greg Williams and propelled by drummer Owen Smythe. On the new record Greg Arnold sometimes plays bass... for a while Dallas Rayner did... Neville Hill played guitar most of the time, but what he did the rest of time you couldn’t really call music... James Black does lots of things and we are not at all sure how he does them... when we got tired of hearing two Gregs singing we gave James Macdonald a turn...
Another thing is certain: the identity of this new record was moulded in a makeshift studio set up inside a log cabin just outside Hall’s Gap (Take a look...); Owen did get to record his drum in a ‘real’ studio, then went and lived in the UK for two years; meanwhile, lots more scary guitar noises were made up in the cabin; and we remember many long afternoons singing at Greg’s house and James’ house, and many late nights hunched over laptops.
When we had finished Heavy Weather, most people thought it was a more reflective and melodic album than the hook-laden, guitar-driven pop of our debut. With The Cure For The Cure we wanted to make a record that came from some other place.
The Cabin and The Cure
Inside a log cabin and just outside Hall’s Gap, Splurge got stuck into the songs that make up The Cure For The Cure, the band’s third album, released in July 2007 by PopBoomerang.
It wasn’t the first time the band had taken up residence there—two tracks from their debut were recorded live in the big wooden room and the open fire crackles behind the vocals their second release Heavy Weather.
But this time a makeshift studio was cobbled together and this band headed for the hills of The Grampians with a station wagon full of their recording gear, vintage amps, guitars and effects (Take a look...).
“We wanted to make a record that came from some other place,” says songwriter Greg Williams. “More than that—not just to sound to like it, but to be in it. You get up there, you get your bunk, you get your spot in the room, you get up every day and make music. You get dug in.”
Splurge don’t exactly come from nowhere—MOJO magazine heard the ghost of Lennon in the way “they rock, they play it gentle, they deliver the hooks” and in Greg’s “expressive and emotionally direct” voice, Jeff Jenkins of Inpress found echoes of Grant McLennon.
While “the tunes come thick and fast”, others noticed “a keen eye for delicious pop treats, but also an emotive honesty” , an “innate ability to meld melody and mood” and an “eclectic mix of styles that displays confidence and ability”—while referencing Dylan, The Church, Oasis (“Liam with a brain”) and Teenage Fanclub.
But for the band, it’s just not what it sounds like that matters. “All the songs pick up on the idea that nothing is ever finished—by the time you find the cure, you’ll need a cure for that too. One thing you can do is be in the moment... what it is to be in this place at this time... and that’s what we tried to catch up in The Cabin.”
