On a cold Melbourne May afternoon, Jordan White of Playwrite tries to find a suitably quiet place in a busy Sydney shopping centre. He apologises for the background noise, but his easy phone manner already gives the feeling of catching up with a friend, and his calm excitement at being able to talk about his new band is infectious.
With shows scheduled in Sydney and Melbourne this month and plans to visit the rest of Australia later in the year, the release of Playwrite’s new song ‘Borderline’ is well under way; getting back in touch with the Sydney audiences who fell in love with them in February is just the first step.
“It’s safe to say a lot has happened to us over the past twelve months” notes White, “since June last year we’ve released two EPs and we’re now releasing the single ‘Borderline’. We’ve definitely been hard at work – playing a lot, with some great support shows. It’s been lovely to be so well received”
In June 2011, from the ashes of a band called Cacophony Society rose a phoenix in the form of Playwrite. Jordan White and long-time fellow thespian friend Patrick Holcombe began their new project in a small studio in the Brunswick performing arts school run by White’s parents.
Fully aware of how fortuitous these circumstances were, White and Holcombe took grateful advantage by locking themselves away in the back of this artistic hub for three months and sculpted the building blocks of Playwrite.
“Cacophony Society was a big experiment which was very noisy, very melodramatic, and it was a very ambitious thing to have that many people and that many sounds going on at once” says White.
“We started with twelve band members,” he details, “we had two drummers, a whole horn section, a violinist and we were really going for it in that way. So we stripped that away and refined it a lot.”
Playwrite consists of an electric guitar, a keyboardist who doubles playing saxophone, a drummer, a bassist, two acoustic guitars, and White providing lead vocals and electronic percussion. Though he describes their current inventory of instruments as “straight-down-the-line,” the synergy of electronic and acoustic sounds holds a fascination for him.
“I think that’s kind of a focus for us at the moment. I’m really heavily influenced by a lot of electronic stuff,” explains White. “I’m really curious about the relationship between the straight-down-the-line drum kit with electronic additions. I think it’s an interesting choice; to have the relationship of the two rhythmic elements playing off and complimenting each other in that way. In the way of adding something a bit more interesting, we’re definitely trying to throw in new stuff all the time. We’ve definitely got the number of hands to do it!”
White confesses that Patrick Holcombe is the prodigious songwriter of the group, though the formative process of each song is very much a shared activity.
“All the songs come from Patrick; he writes a lot of lyrics and he’s a very talented singer-songwriter in his own right, so he kind of develops the shell of the song and then takes it to me,” says White.
“I take on a production role and I’m a multi-instrumentalist, so I write all the parts for the different sections. Then we workshop that in the rehearsal room,” he continues, “so it’s pretty organic when we all come together. But yeah there’s definitely an idea of what we want it to sound like in the stages between Patrick and I.”
When asked about the inspiration for their moniker White explains, “basically it stems from Patty and I both coming from theatrical backgrounds; we’re both actors and performers. Obviously the spelling, well, you know,” he laughs, “it’s incorrect, it’s ‘play’ and ‘write.’ Which I guess are both things that we do.”
“It came from the idea that we wanted to bring something extra to the music,” adds White. “We identify with having a huge experience when you go and see live music, so a whole performance is really important for all of us. I think in our own wacky way I guess you could say that we’re all playwrights” he adds, laughing at his own corny suggestion.
Slightly embarrassed at his sudden saccharine affection for his band, he adds that he probably shouldn’t be quoted on that, but this is something that makes this band so endearing, and is gaining them a large following. Just last year the Workers Club in Fitzroy invited Playwrite back to its woodland-themed band-room due to popular demand.
“We’ve literally just spent the past two weeks at the sewing machine, making hand-made pendants,” reveals White. “I’m not even joking. We had a lot of people asking about it [after the Workers Club gigs] and it forced us to think about what they actually meant for us as well.”
“It’s something really important that a lot of bands don’t think about,” he details, “the fact that people come to our shows and makes the effort to come out and have a night with us… coming out and celebrating life, I think that’s really great. I think that’s kind of embodied in the unity that those necklaces can create for us… without wanking on, that’s kind of the idea behind it!”
Using these symbolic pendants to build a relationship between the band and the audience is an important element in all of Playwrite’s shows, and White mentions that though there is a time and place for the “garage bands that don’t leave the garage,” that’s not what Playwrite is about; they want you to be a part of it.
Having already been compared to indie giants Arcade Fire in their devotion to a performance experience like no other, one wonders if they share similar ambitions to create themed albums and film collaborations. To which White responded “Yeah I can completely relate to the ambition of that.”
“Artists like Björk and Radiohead who have a wide scope to play with what they have on a huge scale” White continues, “one of my favourite artists, Sufjan Stevens, I believe to be one of the most creative people on the planet. We’d love to be at the stage where we can have those additions to our show and have that scope to play with. “
Speaking of his own creativity, White says, “we’re all in love with art, we’re all art students, and we have that within us. I feel that there’s so much to explore… especially in Melbourne, a lot of the gigs you go to now people are putting in that effort.”
“It’s breeding this new age of creativity… it’s very fulfilling.”
Tone Deaf is presenting Playwrite’s single launch for “Borderline” at Melbourne’s Phoenix Public House this Saturday 26th May. Full details here.
