Track By Track: PVT on New Spirit

Spirit Of The Plains

The Australian outback feels neverending. We wanted this record to have more space to feel like it would soundtrack it. This is a little intro to get started - a song that I feel could have been five times longer and I'd still be happy with it. Repetitive. Wild.

A Feeling You Can Find

We've been known for warm analog sounds on past records, but on this one we've deliberately gone for a more digital vibe. Midi-esque samples and a under-used '90s keyboards. This track is a good example of that. Super rhythmic and hypnotic. The lyrics speak of finding new positivity in a new environment, much like the music.

Salt Lake Heart

Aeon Flux keyboards and song about the heart of Australia drying up, getting drained by Conservative fuckwits groveling to the corporations that fund them. Shit (still) happens.

Another Life

Australia has a very 'grass is greener' attitude to almost every aspect of it's society. This song talks a little about that. While we're focussing our attention elsewhere, we're getting the rugged pulled from us, particuarly those less fortunate.

Fool In Rain II

A homage to our own track from O Soundtrack My Heart - another mid-album instrumental breather; it's a renewed version for 2017. Another one that I imagine could be on repeat for hours while driving across the Nullabor.

Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend

The title comes with a photo by the Australian photographer Peter Dombrovskis depicting a bend in the Franklin River in Tasmania. The photo was used in a 1983 campaign against the intended destruction of large areas of national forest by the government of the day. Today, still, Australia's wildlife is getting destroyed at an alarming rate, mainly due to successive governments giving some of their biggest donors, mining corporations, free reign to poison the land, water, and air we live in. There's a pretty big sense of dread in this one.

Kangaroo

Before writing the lyrics to this one, we called the instrumental 'Kangaroo' as the synth was bouncy and energetic. Richard then took the title and turned it into a metaphor for Australia in general. We worry that the Australian people are going from being a welcoming and relaxed people to vicious and selfish much like the animal itself can be.

Murder Mall

A stabbing in a shopping centre in the suburbs. There's something incredibly feral about someone walking into a shop, buying a knife, then stabbing someone in front of shoppers. It's based on a true story and one that felt particularly 'of the moment' in Australia.

New Spirit

Our first 'rap', but nothing like one really. Closer to INXS's "Mediate" I hope. Lyrically, it references all the regressive politicking over the past five years. The Spirit of Australia. We need to work on a better one.

Fake Sun In China

We're already in the bleak future we were promised in science fiction novels and there was a great example of that in China where authorities thought it would be a good idea to broadcast the sun rising on a giant TV as the real one had become obscured due to smog. Digital blips and hopeful synths close, aching for something to change for the better.