Sydney alt-rockers Nantes have just released their brand new EP titled Limbo, produced in Sydney, mixed in Glasgow and mastered by Frank Arkwright from Abbey Road in London, Limbo is a stunning example of the impressive dark alt-rock from the duo aka David Rogers, Josiah Eastwood.

Beginning as a simple recording exercise purely for their own entertainment, David Rogers and Josiah Eastwood have proven that Nantes are a force to be reckoned with, with the release of this new EP.

Jos Eastwood of Nantes gave us some insight into Limbo “We’d spent about a year uncertain about whether we should make another record, but Dave had a few songs that we thought we could do something with. It was a pretty different direction sonically, but all of the songs we went with had a pretty distinctive vibe and that was exciting. This record is a little darker and a little heavier thematically than our previous releases, but it’s far more cohesive. There was more of a focus on lyrics, each of the tracks work through different elements of an overarching concept.”

In celebration of the EP the band gave us a track by track run down of the stunning release, check it out below and be sure to check the band out while on tour.

7

“This track began with the guitar riff, and from that it practically wrote itself. The tone was already pretty solid from early recordings, we were playing with the idea of a riff instead of a traditional chorus and it worked out pretty well. It’s a very personal song, but hopefully we made it broad enough lyrically that people can relate to it. It’s a personal favourite from the record, definitely sets the tone.”

Static

“This song was written at a pretty low tempo on a really old Steinway. It was a lot darker and moodier than it is now, and I was writing a lot of that kind of music at the time and after a while it was all sounding a little too whiney and dreary so I thought I’d try and make something with a bit more energy, and this track was the best candidate.

A big part of adapting it for the record involved dynamics and instrumentation to move away from the original tone that was still lingering, specifically in the slow melody and the repetition. We experimented with some interesting layers that we think gave it a lot of character, like the q-chord (a weird Autoharp made by Suzuki) in the second verse and the drums being fed through the synth bass. We went with a choir for the ending to bring back a more Nantes kind of flavour, harking back to the gang vocals in some of our past releases, but we thought we’d take it a little further with some harmonies and layers. The female choir parts were the last thing we recorded for the record, it happened about a month after we’d wrapped everything else.”

Adaptor

“The demo for this one was deliberately kept simple. I’d been listening to a lot of Interpol and I’d been trying to keep the rhythms pretty bare bones. It changed completely as we recorded it; pretty dramatic changes.

The groove and a lot of the rhythmic flavours changed in the studio – that came from working with a real drummer. We rewrote the chorus twice the day before we did vocals, both melodically and lyrically, hurling a million lyrics and ideas around. A lot of that came from trying to articulate the mood set by the verse (which we were pretty happy with), and trying to develop a good response to that. All of that late development made it feel a lot more collaborative in a really good way. Tonally it fells pretty detached and apathetic, and I think a lot of that came out of those changes.”

Stay The Same

“The record has two distinct flavours, and this track is at the furthest end of that spectrum. Initially we weren’t sure if it would make the cut, but we really liked the groove and how the instruments fit around it, so we kept it in there. Part of that comes from when this song was written, which was more in the neighbourhood of our last record, which was a while ago now. There’s a big juxtaposition in this one between the verse and chorus, that dynamic makes the groove in the verse all the more satisfying.”

Reimagine

“We wanted to write something doomier. There’s a little irony in the lyrics. Very guitar heavy and we spent a lot of time working on tones to make it fit together.”

1199

“A solid bliss out track, definitely a good closer for the record. The groove was the focus, and that simplicity was the exciting part. It just feels good to play, and hopefully to listen to. Melodically this one is pretty distinct, definitely in the higher vocal range which sets it apart. I got a text from Dave the day before we were booked in to do the vocals, he asked me to work on the lyrics.

I thought he meant touch ups, but when I asked for what he used for the demo he told me he was ‘just rapping’. So I wrote something as a response to some of the other lyrics on the record. It came together in about an hour and sounds pretty Lord of the Rings, but I think it came out pretty well. Overall it gives a little resolve to some of the tension in the record.”

Upcoming Tour Dates

WED 15 APR – BEACH ROAD HOTEL, BONDI
THU 16 APR – RAD, WOLLONGONG
FRI 17 APR – TRANSIT BAR, CANBERRA
SAT 18 APR – NEWTOWN SOCIAL CLUB, SYDNEY
FRI 24 APR – SHEBEEN, MELBOURNE
THU 30 APR – BRIGHTSIDE, BRISBANE
FRI 01 MAY – SOL BAR, MAROOCHYDORE

Tickets and info at www.nantesband.com