Until very recently, Loose Fit have been a secret Australian commodity. The Sydney 4-piece released their debut EP earlier this month; consisting of 5 tracks that are bursting with deadpan danceability.
We caught up with Loose Fit’s Kaylene to learn more about the Aussie post-punks..
Anna’s vocals sits somewhere between the 80s sound of Siouxsie Sioux and the talk-singing that is huge in the UK right now, how would you describe the band’s brand of vocal delivery?
Describing it is hard! I think Anna takes a unique approach to every song, she listens to the music we’ve all created and finds an emotional hook and words that fit the feel. Sometimes this means adopting a persona or emotional state when she’s singing. Everyone else besides Anna had been in other bands before Loose Fit so we kind of had our own ways of doing things, but she approaches each song as a unique project without preconceived ideas about conventional song structures, so it feels really fresh.
Tell us about the Sydney music scene! How does it compare to the likes of Melbourne and Perth?
At times in the last decade there has been a real “Sydney sound” but it seems to be really diverse at the moment. Loose Fit have played on bills with hardcore bands, experimental techno acts, bent pop groups, solo synth cabaret, weirdo prog rockers… It seems like in Melbourne more people are doing stuff, so it’s a bit more of a “legitimate” and self-sustaining scene? Whereas in Sydney nobody gives a shit except the people doing it – so there’s a lot of freedom in that. No real idea about Perth sorry, it’s too far away! Great town though.
The new EP was recorded a couple of years ago now; have they been available for Australian ears? or locked away in storage?
We recorded the EP only a few months after forming the band and released it in Australia as a VERY limited run on tape – our friends and family probably collectively own half of that run. It definitely hasn’t been locked away, just lurking in the dark depths of Bandcamp.
Has your own relationship with these songs evolved over this period?
We still really love playing these songs live. They bang! Even though our songwriting has evolved a lot in the last year or two, I think we established a sound that felt like “us” pretty early on – a sort of danceable post-punk vibe.
Kaylene, you also work in clothing design – how would you summarise WAH-WAH’s lookin 5 words?
Over the top woolly wearables.
We love the EP artwork, what’s it’s story?
We were throwing around ideas for the EP artwork, and we were all really loving the surreal hyperrealism of artist Botond Keresztesi. Botond was kind enough to let us marry parts of his artwork, “Lost in Highway”, with our music. Anna then worked her graphic design magic to bring it all together for the tape, and now the LP.
Loose Fit’s self-titled debut EP is out now via FatCat Records
