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INTERVIEW: Clubfeet

11 July 2012 | 12:09 pm | Staff Writer

With their follow-up LP to 'Gold on Gold', and a tour just announced we got the chance to sit down for a Q&A with Clubfeet.

When we blogged CLUBFEET's double A-side City of Light/This Time’ it had been roughly two years since when had last had an original release from the guys.

But now with the band full force into work on their second album Heirs & Graces (the follow-up to debut LP Gold On Gold) and a massive tour in progress as we speak - we took the chance to sit down for a chat with the South Africans of subtle indie disco.

First off, any meaning behind the name?

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It's an anagram, can you work it out?

You guys are originally from South Africa. Why the move?

Australia has 10% less sharks and 30% more beauty therapy schools. We still love going back to Cape Town for holidays - it's such a beautiful place, a unique mash up of first world and third world. Last time we were there we went kloofing, played some shows, and rented motorbikes and scooted around Chapman's Peak like in that arthouse film American Ninja. Highly recommended!

You’re debut record Gold on Gold was released way back in 2010, talk us through the process you went through recording it.

We recorded and mixed Gold on Gold ouselves in our lounge room in East Brunswick. It was a side project to release some steam, we had no idea it would end up how it did. Before we knew it a friend of ours Alex Goddard had shot the first video, FBI began spinning 'Teenage Suicide', and an indie dance label from New York contacted us via Myspace (the old days!) wanting to release a 12 inch.

You’ve been wrapped by media/blogging heavyweights like NME, Pitchfork and Discobelle. Are you feeling any pressure at the moment?

Not really. Lets be honest, media is a pretty fickle beast. I guess the only pressure we feel is to make sure we write at least one song that gets onto the next season of Gossip Girl and to not be labelled 'nerd rock.'

Your music is reminiscent of Hot Chip/Whitest Boy Alive. Would you consider yourselves ‘nerd-rock’? How would you describe your sound?

Oh shit, is it that obvious? Vivian is actually staff writer for New Scientist and sits on the review board of Critical Inquiry, he's particularly sensitive to the nerd tag. This Higgs Boson business is making him fall of the bloody click though! Recently a journalist referred to our sound as 'blow-wave', so maybe that's where we sit - somewhere between Boy George's rat tail, Nick Rhodes's mane and Belinda Carlisle's mega-perm.

Do you guys have any problem with being labeled pop?

Not at all. Some of our favourite artists are pop, like Philip Glass, Kangaroo Skull and The Field.

Do you have a favourite remix that’s been put out of your music so far?s

That's a tough one, we've been blessed with amazing remixes! The RAC remix of 'Last Words' was pretty special. As was the Kap10Kurt version of 'Teenage suicide'.

'City of Light/This Time' have distinct inter-stellar qualities about them. Do you guys have any interest in space travel?

Sebastian's grandfather was an astronaut, but he was kicked out of the program for an incident I'm not allowed to speak about.

You guys are touring Australia right now! Do you have any plans for down-time? What can we expect in the next six months from the Clubfeet camp?

We've got a busy year ahead! After this tour we're heading on the road with Alpine, then we’re going to drop the first single from our new album Heirs & Graces and chase the summer for as long as we can.