Sun Feb 23 2025
7:30 PM (Doors 6:30 PM)
$20.00
Ages 21+
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Warmduscher
-
Warmduscher
Alternative Rock
When most bands get round to releasing album number live their sound, weighed down by expectation or having resorted to formula, has generally ossified. It might still sound good and fans will probably lap it up, but the days of adventure and exploration are quite often long gone.
Warmduscher are not most bands. Rather than closing up shop, on album number five – the magical Too Cold To Hold – they are most determinedly opening up. Taking on board the repetitive and polyrhythmic grooves of gqom (an alluring South African take on house music), adding in a dash of hip hop flavours and even jazz, and then harnessing that to their punk-funk, disco pogo, it’s a spellbinding mix that results in their best and most ambitious album to date. You could say they – the wonderful 12-legged groove machine comprised of Clams Baker Jr., Benjamin Romans Hopcraft, Adam J. Harmer, Marley Mackey, Quinn Whalley, and Bleu Ottis Wright – were, in fact, just getting started.
“I think we’ve realised we can hit the same emotional zone with different influences,” enthuses Ben about the 2024 version of Warmduscher . “We’re experimenting with
different ways of orchestrating the feeling of listening to a Warmduscher song and having the maturity to accept that a lot of the things that we like about ourselves are based on tonality and groove. It’s not just based on having a guitar that sounds fucked up.”
It’s not about forgetting everything you know about Warmduscher, then – they’re still an outfit proudly residing in la-la-land, where chaos reigns and their passionate diatribes and observational absurdities reveal the playful underbelly of modern life – but maybe looking at them from another angle. A diamond might look different in another light, but it’s still a diamond.
Much of this reinterpretation comes from the shock of the new. New influences, new label Strap Originals new goals and a new producer. Previously, the band had worked with outside producers (Dan Carey and Hot Chip’s Al Doyle and Joe Goddard among them) to realise their vision. This time they took it inhouse, trusting Ben, alongside Jamie Neville, to bring their sound alive.
“The melting pot of influences that shape our identity on this record is so personal to us that getting someone out of context would almost seem like creating unnecessary problems,” explains Ben. “So, with the help of my good friend and co-producer Jamie (of Teeth Studios), we were able to focus on how to embrace the influences of the album without putting it through a funnel that needed to be understood by others.”
This choice was not just about control – although Ben and Clams will both state they didn’t “want anyone else’s interpretation of what Warmduscher is to affect the sound” –
but being authentic.
“We wanted it to be brutally honest in our depiction of ourselves,” admits Ben. “We’re known for acting in a certain way, playing in a certain way and deploying a certain method. I think the formula for Warmduscher is chaos. In every aspect. There’s a lot of method to the chaos that we adopt, making sure that we are in control of that and the development of that chaos is really important. Otherwise, we’d be in the same loop of giving people what they think they want from us.”
$20.00 Ages 21+
Warmduscher
Alternative Rock
When most bands get round to releasing album number live their sound, weighed down by expectation or having resorted to formula, has generally ossified. It might still sound good and fans will probably lap it up, but the days of adventure and exploration are quite often long gone.
Warmduscher are not most bands. Rather than closing up shop, on album number five – the magical Too Cold To Hold – they are most determinedly opening up. Taking on board the repetitive and polyrhythmic grooves of gqom (an alluring South African take on house music), adding in a dash of hip hop flavours and even jazz, and then harnessing that to their punk-funk, disco pogo, it’s a spellbinding mix that results in their best and most ambitious album to date. You could say they – the wonderful 12-legged groove machine comprised of Clams Baker Jr., Benjamin Romans Hopcraft, Adam J. Harmer, Marley Mackey, Quinn Whalley, and Bleu Ottis Wright – were, in fact, just getting started.
“I think we’ve realised we can hit the same emotional zone with different influences,” enthuses Ben about the 2024 version of Warmduscher . “We’re experimenting with
different ways of orchestrating the feeling of listening to a Warmduscher song and having the maturity to accept that a lot of the things that we like about ourselves are based on tonality and groove. It’s not just based on having a guitar that sounds fucked up.”
It’s not about forgetting everything you know about Warmduscher, then – they’re still an outfit proudly residing in la-la-land, where chaos reigns and their passionate diatribes and observational absurdities reveal the playful underbelly of modern life – but maybe looking at them from another angle. A diamond might look different in another light, but it’s still a diamond.
Much of this reinterpretation comes from the shock of the new. New influences, new label Strap Originals new goals and a new producer. Previously, the band had worked with outside producers (Dan Carey and Hot Chip’s Al Doyle and Joe Goddard among them) to realise their vision. This time they took it inhouse, trusting Ben, alongside Jamie Neville, to bring their sound alive.
“The melting pot of influences that shape our identity on this record is so personal to us that getting someone out of context would almost seem like creating unnecessary problems,” explains Ben. “So, with the help of my good friend and co-producer Jamie (of Teeth Studios), we were able to focus on how to embrace the influences of the album without putting it through a funnel that needed to be understood by others.”
This choice was not just about control – although Ben and Clams will both state they didn’t “want anyone else’s interpretation of what Warmduscher is to affect the sound” –
but being authentic.
“We wanted it to be brutally honest in our depiction of ourselves,” admits Ben. “We’re known for acting in a certain way, playing in a certain way and deploying a certain method. I think the formula for Warmduscher is chaos. In every aspect. There’s a lot of method to the chaos that we adopt, making sure that we are in control of that and the development of that chaos is really important. Otherwise, we’d be in the same loop of giving people what they think they want from us.”
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