Whats the background to the Ausmusic Month featured track, Roses?
‘Roses’ evolved from the bass line, which Will wrote during a soundcheck in Sydney. After we started to rehearse it, we were left with a sort of slow, trippy groove that was still quite danceable in the drum line, which reminded us of the ‘baggy’ Manchester sound pioneered by The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses. The song was still largely incomplete by the time we were in the studio, so we didn’t expect to record it but Harry really liked it and encouraged to round it off and make it more of a pop song. Harry was very helpful at putting the song together and the result is what you hear on the record. Harry’s tambourine track was left on the recording because it was nice in its spontaneity. The lyrics appear to be written about romance but they’re also about drugs and other such addictive things. When we were working on the song we used the working title ‘The Stone Roses type song’ which was, of course, shortened to ‘Roses’. The studio or the stage – where’s your comfort zone? We love
