Jordan Sturdee is a funny guy.
The lead vocalist and guitarist of Sydney band Battleships has many a thing going on; the completion of their tour with The Paper Kites and Art Of Sleeping, the creation of their new mini album To You, and the growing excitement over their own tour to support said mini album.
And yet with all of this musical splendour, Sturdee remains (on the outside at least) the embodiment of casual coolness and animated expectancy.
“It’s always meant so much to us to create music and play it together. It was a pretty big deal [to start a band,] something we’d always wanted to do,” he begins. “We didn’t take it lightly.”
Ain’t that the truth. Forming at the beginning of this year and now with three outstanding singles released, two with high rotation on Triple J and even out yonder in the UK, not to mention a huge tour just completed and one right around the corner it’s a wonder they haven’t keeled over in exhaustion; but Sturdee laughs it off.
“It’s been really good, lots of fun. It’s like you finally feel like you’re doing something that you want to be doing, rather than something that’s just going to pay the rent,” he says.
Battleships were created from humble beginnings, growing up on the Sunshine Coast with bassist Jonathan Bowden, and later, with drummer Dan McMurray.
“John and I had been childhood friends mostly because both of our families had four boys about the same age. So I’ve known John since I was so young and we’d always wanted to play music,” he responds with a laugh, reminiscing about the old days.“Maybe eventually the day will come where we can make massive demands about how we want half a kilo of elephant dung or we’ll only eat ostrich eggs served on large blankets of toast
“We started a band with John and his little brother and I was the only one who could play a musical instrument, it was really bad, an ‘I knew three chords’ kind of thing.”
But look how far they’ve come. From Sturdee’s somewhat apprehensive decision to join Bowden and McMurray in their move to Sydney, where they had met guitarist Nato Hannaford and were messing around under the name Battleships, to their growing success and soon to be debut mini album To You.
There’s been much anticipation for To You, especially regarding its description as a ‘mini album.’
Sturdee explains “we didn’t want to do really a short EP with four or five songs, we sort of wanted to get a bit more variety; a better summation of who we are. I guess we weren’t really ready for an album so it just made sense to put a few more on; and then we had to decide what to call a release of seven songs,” he adds with a chuckle.
On asking peoples reaction to this, he laughs again. “Some people give a look at a mini album and go “what? That’s ridiculous, that’s not anything.”
But he doesn’t seem fazed by the fact that Battleships have created a whole new way to release and listen to music.
“I think the next one we bring out is going to be like a jumbo album or something.”
Despite his self-diagnosed Simon & Garfunkel fetish and a penchant towards the sounds of Elbow, To You’s influences remain few and far in-between. Disregarding Sturdee’s insistence that the tracks were selected by an all-out band brawl, he later articulates:
“We’ve been playing a collection of songs for a little while now in our shows, and after a while we just got favourites, ones that worked really well and ones that we liked. I like to think To You has enough variety without it sounding all the same, but also with keeping some sort of cohesion I guess.”
Aesthetically, Battleships sound far more developed and mature than they probably should, considering they’ve only been together for a year. The same can be said of the band’s lyricism, particularly their latest single, “Your Words”, which brims with authenticity and genuine depth.
“It was a song that has always been brewing,” says Sturdee of the tune. “I’ve always sort of had ideas for it, but it wasn’t until we really sat down and started thinking about melody and stuff that it came to be.”
Something great about music in general is that it is open for interpretation. It’s a great show of musicianship when a band can accept this with grace, and that’s exactly what Sturdee does in regards to “Your Words.”
“It’s funny because whenever people talk to me about the song and what it’s about, people always have a different take on it, about what it means to different people, so that’s good I think in a way. It is definitely one of my favourite songs to play,” says Sturdee.
Having just completed an insane tour with The Paper Kites and Art Of Sleeping, Battleships aren’t slowing down.“I guess we always hoped that we would be something that people recognised,”
“Touring at the moment as a small band… for us it’s pretty bare boned. We’re all working jobs trying to fund this trip, then pretty much every weekend for the last month we’re flying to all these different places. So it’s been a lot of fun but probably not as glamorous as what I thought it would be.”
He jokes, “maybe eventually the day will come where we can make massive demands about how we want half a kilo of elephant dung or we’ll only eat ostrich eggs served on large blankets of toast and stuff;” before adding modestly, “but at the moment we’re just trying to get there.”
In terms of playing with The Paper Kites and Art Of Sleeping, Sturdee becomes animated as he explains, “they’re not only really good bands, but ridiculously nice people as well. It’s been really good, really enjoyable. It’s pretty hard work, especially as this is the first time we’ve really toured at all.”
When questioned about any possible tomfoolery and/or shenanigans on tour, Sturdee admits ‘what happens on tour stays on tour’ definitely isn’t his philosophy.
“I tell all, that’s the problem” he laughs. “For a while Art Of Sleeping were… I guess you could call it sexual harassment? Basically over Instagram they were sending us messages and pictures that weren’t really appropriate.” He laughs again, “we tried to return fire but I’m just not sure that we could quite do what they could do.”
When the question of the future is raised however, Sturdee becomes somewhat stumped. “I feel like with indie bands you’re not supposed to say you want to be really big, or that you want to be huge,” he hypothesises – “it’s like everybody’s trying to be too cool to be too big.”
“I guess we always hoped that we would be something that people recognised,” adds Sturdee. “That we would be able to create something that people would be able to hear and obviously know. So I’d be lying if I didn’t say that we want to be recognised and want to get our music out there.”
His honesty is refreshing, but his modesty tops off the package, as he finishes with “but just doing it at the moment is really good as well.”
To You is out now. Battleships are currently on tour, with dates around the nation through November and early December. Full dates and details here.
