Introducing WATERLOO, a new musical collective from Melbourne, Australia, featuring members of Graveyard Train, The Peep Tempel, Cherrywood, Blue Stratos and The Escargo-go’s.
Their first album, Constellation Deluxe, can be described as an ‘epic psychedelic space jam’, that was written and recorded in one afternoon at the Barberium studio in Melbourne, Australia.
The concept behind Waterloo started in 2009 when vocalist Charlie Cheese and drummer Stevie Striker were regularly meeting up for long and epic improvised jam sessions. ‘I never enjoyed writing songs’, recalls Charlie, ‘building a structure, you know, the old verse, chorus, verse, etc, so this was a great outlet to just play and let flow whatever came in the moment. A friend then offered us to play a small festival a few weeks later, and we stupidly accepted a 2am slot, thinking that we'd just improvise our set from a few ideas we had jammed. I thought we would pull it off but I was off my face and the show never happened. That was pretty much the end of Waterloo!’
Charlie has since been part of French garage party band The Escargo-go’s with Matty Chow (bass), Beau Skowron (keyboards), Derek Spencer (guitar) and Marcin Zablocki (drums), who then got replaced by Stevie Striker upon moving to the US. In 2013, Chris Drane also joined the band, initially as a joke (he was playing the money tin), but quickly became their second drummer.
Striker explains how The Escargo-go’s accidentally led to the rebirth of Waterloo: ‘We were keen to play again at that same friends festival where we initially attempted to do Waterloo, but the guys already had played as The Escargo-go’s the year before, and as the festival was growing, they only wanted new bands that year. So Charlie and I thought it could be our chance to revive Waterloo. Which was quite easy to convince the others of since we were all so busy with other bands at that time that we could only find one day to get together and write songs for a set. So we all met in the studio that day, and also invited our mate Richie (Richard Smajdor from Capsicum, The Engine Room…) to join along and play slide guitar.’
After a quick setup by Matty Chow, who suggested to use a delay pedal for the vocals, 97 minutes were put down on tape, and then left with Matty for an intense session of crafting and mixing. The result was then mastered by Nao Anzai, and is now available both digitally and on 180 gram vinyl via French Arrogance.
Charlie concludes: ‘I think for us, the process of improvising the songs has been just as interesting as playing the music itself. The planets were aligned that day, and it was a pretty amazing experience to have seven of us actually truly be on the same level at the same time. The space theme then came naturally a bit as a joke as we listened back to the recordings that afternoon. It was actually quite strange listening back, as we had all already pretty much forgotten what we had just done. It was like being possessed and then coming back to reality. In the end, this could have just been a lost jam session like many others, so we're quite proud that it made it to a vinyl, and that that there are people out there enjoying it. We now look forward to doing another session soon, hopefully with some additional members. And see what happens.‘
You can listen to Constellation Deluxe now on: http://waterloo.frencharrogance.orghttp://soundcloud.com/waterlooproject/sets/constellationdeluxeOr watch their intergalactic video clip on:For contact:Charly Vanni
French Arrogance
waterloo@frencharrogance.org+61 448 743 120
