Sydney quintet The Morning After Girls look shell-shocked. Fittingly, it’s the morning after the night before. The previous evening saw a brief UK tour climax with a particularly raucous night in Scotland, capped off by a mid-morning ferry trip.
“It’s been a hectic year, never mind a hectic couple of days,” notes keyboard player Aimee Nash, the group’s only female member, as a spaced-out Sacha Lucashenko (vocals/guitar) stumbles into their make-shift dressing room. “We’ve pretty much been touring none stop all year.”
Dressed all in black and looking as if they’ve bought in heavily to the rock 'n’ roll lifestyle, the psychedelic rockers come across not un-like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club or Brian Jonestown Massacre.
Proclaimed the darlings of South By Southwest in 2004, such lofty comparisons have been strengthened with the release of their debut album, Shadows Evolve, a record distilled in a mesh of feedback, swirling harmonic vocals and dusty bluesy rage.
“Well we’ve just come off a tour with Black Rebel. And The Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown are all mates of ours, so it’s cool to be mentioned along with them,” notes Nash.
“We’ve actually just spent some time out in Portland, in the Dandy Warhols’ studio, recording our next album so that was cool," she says. "I don’t know though if we’re part of a scene or anything like that though.”
“Maybe people see a similar sound or a similar crowd or something like that,” offers Lucashenko, slouched back in his chair. “But really pop-culture can’t help itself and needs to place us in a sort of box. We’re probably influenced by the same people as all those guys anyway.”
Lucashenko and Co’s influences range from Jimi Hendrix to Spaceman 3 to Iggy Pop to cohorts Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. But completing their fantasy festival line-up is a Dublin band they first met in 2004.
“I fucking love Mainline,” says Nash as Lucashenko nods approvingly. “What a fucking band. They’re one of our favourite bands around at the moment. ‘Black Honey’ (their debut single) is just amazing. I never get sick of that song. We first met them in Texas, and since then we’ve bumped into them at In The City and Bud Rising. They’re just a great bunch of guys. They should have a record deal. It’s crazy that they don’t. Their new stuff is amazing.”
As for The Morning After Girls, given that Shadows Evolve was an amalgamation of their first two EPs, when can we expect their new material to see the light of day? “Well it’ll hopefully be sometime next year,” says Lucashenko, dragging on a cigarette. “As Aimee mentioned, we’ve done some recording in the Odditorium (Dandy Warhols’ studio) but it’s tough to get stuck in to it when we’re on the road so much. Hopefully it’ll be soon though. And we won’t disappoint you. Let’s just get through tonight though first and we’ll go from there.”