One of this country’s most landed and respected band The Getaway Plan are about to release their brand new third LP titled Dark Horses (out this Friday July 3rd via thegetawayplan.com). Having just wrapped up a hugely successful ‘Landscapes’ single tour, now they’re now gearing up to unleash dramatically expanded Dark Horses national album tour.
After a long time between records, Dark Horses sees the break the almost five year drought with this impressive independently release effort. Working alongside friend of the band Samuel K on production duties, this is The Getaway Plan‘s first album conceived, written and recorded completely in Australia.
Funded through the generosity of the band’s incredibly dedicated fan base, Dark Horses sees the band explore, develop and refine their sound, drawing from experiences gained since 2008’s Other Voices, Other Rooms and 2011’s Requiem .
After a decade as one of Australia’s most dedicated and loved bands, the four piece show no sign of slowing down, with an output that’s as fresh and inspired as ever.
To celebrate the release of Dark Horses, we’re premiering the record as an early stream – check it and the band’s track by track run down below.
Landscapes
When this song was written, it was originally intended to be a closer to the record. After some drastic changes it became clear that it was the perfect opener. We feel like this song is a nice bridge between our old record and this one. We like to put those songs early on our records to ease people in. One day during pre-production we spent almost 2 hours jamming the bridge section on repeat.
F(r)iend
This track was written during the recording of Requiem and stayed with us since then. With every release we tend to have a few songs that overshoot where we’re at musically at the time. They always make for a perfect starting point for the next record.
Castles In The Air
This song was written entirely as a band while we were in the studio which is something new for us. Usually our songs are founded by one person at home and then brought to the band. Toward the end of the recording process we almost made the decision to cut the instrumental bridge section entirely. We were a bit worried that we’d lost our minds. Our producer Sam. K quickly reminded us the importance of not giving a fuck and so we took the plunge and left it in.
Dark Horses
I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this, but Dark Horses would most likely be our favourite song on the record. As far as structure and flow goes, we think it’s the best song we’ve ever written. Hate to be one of those bands that make stupid calls, but that’s how we feel at this point. Really happy with the sounds we pulled for this one. Our producer Sam asked for a few artist references for every song on the record. Our references for this track were Fleetwood Mac, Daft Punk and Enya.
Battleships
This song was a bit of a mess when we brought it to the table. We were too focussed on ourselves and things weren’t really working. In the end we decided to scrap our individual parts and all play the exact same riff for 80% of the song. As a result, the guitar sound is fairly massive. We still get blown away by the impact this song has when everything first comes in together.
Dreamer/Parallels (Feat. Freeds)
The music in Parallels came about when one of us accidentally hit a fucked up jazzy chord at the end of a live take of Dreamer. Everyone joined in as a bit of a joke and we took it way too far. After we listened back to the take we were stoked with what was there and decided to leave it as is and put it on the record. Everything you hear is live. Freeds’ part on Parallels was a very late addition. We’d worked on the idea of some spoken word but nothing really worked out. We spoke to Freeds whilst touring with him and he said he wanted to give it a try. He came over to one of our houses and casually laid down his parts in our living room. We gave him very little direction with what we wanted and he delivered exactly what we envisioned, and with ease.
The Means
This is another one that was written during the recording of Requiem. The cinematic feel of this song was something that came about rather naturally. It was never really a goal to have it sound so overdramatic. After we had someone contribute some amazing strings over the drums, it ended up sounding like something from a Michael Bay soundtrack. Sweet!
Baby Bird/Effigy
For a long time we’ve been discussing wanting to create some kind of “epic” (whatever that means). We set out to make this song somewhat of a journey for the listener. We think we achieved that. This was probably the most difficult to nut out in the studio. The original version went for 11 minutes long and was a very, very different song when first conceived. Maybe we’ll release the original someday…
Monuments
Originally, this song was released on an acoustic EP we made for people who pledged toward the record. There was another track which was meant to be in it’s place which we had to cut at the very last minute. Everything on this song was recorded by each member individually at home and then mixed by our producer, Sam K.
Exodus
The music for this song was written by our drummer, Dan. This is the first time we’ve had a member from our rhythm section contribute music and we we’re fucking blown away! With the ending and the reason why it cuts so suddenly- We got carried away in the studio and kept building and building layer upon layer until it got to a point where we had no choice but to pull the plug. Where else would we have taken it?
‘Dark Horses’ Tour Dates
SEPTEMBER
Thursday 3rd – Small Ballroom, Newcastle NSW
Friday 4th – Entrance Leagues Club, The Entrance NSW
Saturday 5th – Studio Six, Sutherland NSW
Thursday 10th – Wollongong Uni , Wollongong NSW
Friday 11th – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW
Saturday 12th – Transit Bar, Canberra ACT
Friday 18th – The Gapview Hotel, Alice Springs NT
Saturday 19th – Darwin Railway Club, Darwin NT
Wednesday 23rd – Dalrymple Hotel, Townsville QLD
Thursday 24th – Magnums Hotel, Airlie Beach QLD
Friday 25th – Villa Noosa Hotel, Noosaville QLD
Saturday 26th – Parkwood Tavern, Gold Coast QLD
OCTOBER
Thursday 1st – Racehorse Hotel, Ipswich QLD
Friday 2nd – Wooly Mammoth, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 3rd – Spotted Cow, Toowoomba QLD
Friday 16th – 170 Russell, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 17th – Riverview Hotel, Tarwin Lower VIC
Thursday 29th – Werribee Plaza Hotel, Werribee VIC
Friday 30th – Chelsea Heights Hotel, Chelsea Heights VIC
Saturday 31st – Workers Club, Geelong VIC
NOVEMBER
Friday 6th – Club 54, Launceston TAS
Saturday 7th – Republic Bar, Hobart TAS
Thursday 12th – Inferno, Traralgon VIC
Friday 13th – Hallam Hotel, Hallam VIC
Saturday 14th – Commercial Hotel, South Morang VIC
Wednesday 18th – Leisure Inn, Rockingham WA
Thursday 19th – Prince of Wales Hotel, Bunbury WA
Friday 20th – Rosemount Hotel, Perth WA
Saturday 21st – Mojos Bar, Fremantle WA
Sunday 22nd – Dunsborough Tavern, Dunsborough WA
Friday 27th – Whalers Hotel, Warrnambool VIC
Saturday 28th – Fowlers Live, Adelaide SA
