THE CHERUBS SHARE TOUR STORIES IN Q&A AFTER DEBUT SINGLE RELEASE
Indie duo The Cherubs have recently released their debut track ‘Nausea’ out into the world and to celebrate the release they caught up with us for a little Q&A.
Firstly, Tell us about yourself.
We are The Cherubs, Dylan and I [Johnny] formed this band after a jam together, where we instantly hit it off. We have both been session musicians for years, playing in other people’s projects, and we wanted to create our own band with our own artistic vision - to make something in our own right.
You’ve been working behind the scenes of the music industry for a while now, what inspired you to start The Cherubs?
We see this as our opportunity to bring our own vision to life. For me specifically [Johnny], I love performing the drums for other artists across genres - pop, indie and rock - and making people dance. I love being trusted to bring other artists’ vision to life but I still consider myself an artist too and this is a special project for both of us to bring that dream into reality.
Where do you take your main inspiration from when creating for this project?
Anything that makes people dance! The Cherubs are inspired by that ‘now classic’ sound of the early noughties, the music that we grew up with - specifically bands like LCD Soundsystem, Franz Ferdinand and Foals - these bands are an easy inspiration for us as they are drum and guitar centric but also classified as dance music which fits our vision perfectly and inspires us!
Can you share some of your experiences from working behind the scenes and as session musicians?
Sorry, what happens on tour stays on tour and I’ve signed NDA’s. Just kidding.
We’ve been very privileged to see all of Australia at some incredible venues, thanks to artists including Nyxen, Go-Jo, Little Sea. Being behind the scenes at these events and venues, you develop a real appreciation for all of the aspects that occur to make live music a reality. Although it hasn’t all gone smoothly; between us we have experienced gear lost in transit, Ableton failure minutes before showtime and tours with tight deadlines requiring pack up and immediately on the road to the next show; but it’s all worth it for those 45 minutes when you’re on stage making people dance.
Do you prefer creating your own music and being in the spotlight or working behind the scenes in the industry?
We have a massive appreciation for everything that goes on behind the scenes and we both love being part of the process in making that happen; but The Cherubs is our opportunity to be on the other side of that process and experience that too - as scary and vulnerable as the process of releasing your work into the world can be!
Tell us about your debut track ‘Nausea’ and the creative process behind it.
‘Nausea’ harks back to that post-punk revival sound that Dylan & I admire. Writing it was an easy process, it came together over the course of days. Dylan had written the lyrics and we jammed a riff, I played a beat that felt natural to me and it just worked. We made some tweaks in the studio, but overall it was one of the fastest songs to come together, of all the songs we’ve written so far. Nausea was easy to write because we weren’t trying to be anything other than just ourselves and we feel like that shines through clearly in the track.
What is next for The Cherubs this year?
Our plan is to release some additional singles before the end of the year and start performing! We can’t wait to see audiences interact with the tracks we’ve written and poured so much love into - it takes on a whole life of its own when you see people singing along and dancing to the songs you’ve made, I see why it’s so special for other artists.