Since the release of their debut album ‘In A Million Years’ way back in 2012, Last Dinosaurs have managed to wade their way through the densely populated pool of Australian indie-rockers to land in a quaint pond of their own. Now with their sophomore album ‘Wellness’ cooked and more than ready to be served this Friday, the Brissy lads are about to hit the road for a national tour of mass proportions, leaving no willing Australian ear untouched with their catchy hooks and pop-certified melodies. We had the opportunity to chat with frontman and all-round legend Sean Caskey on the upcoming album and tour – here’s how it all went down…
Sean! Hey man, how are you?
Sean: Good man! How about you?
Yeah, I’m good… was actually thoroughly enjoying that ‘on hold’ music.
S: *Laughs* what did they have?
Some kind of jazz instrumental thing… I was really digging it. How’s your day been?
S: Yeah good! I make guitar pedals, and I managed to sell one a couple of days ago. I tested it yesterday, and it was making heaps of noise, so I was trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Turned out to be just the power supply I was using. So I basically just wasted three whole hours doing that!
That’s pretty cool that you make guitar pedals – makes a lot of sense now that I think about it…
S: Yeah! that’s basically my main income because we haven’t been touring for a while.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane for a second. ‘In A Million Years’ was a huge Aussie record by all measures. At what point did you guys decide that it was time to put it to rest and start working on ‘Wellness’?
S: Um, it actually wasn’t entirely like that. We don’t really sit down and go, “Time for new music!” I just end up making songs whenever I’m feeling something – I literally wrote a country swing song once *laughs*. Yeah, a couple of those older songs just ended up on the new album. As soon as recording finished, we just went home and kept demoing.
I’m guessing the country swing song didn’t make it on the album though…
S: Nah – but I do want it to eventually release it as a B-side, because it’s actually pretty solid! It’s got a great chorus. I actually tried really hard to re-do it as a ‘Dino’ song for it to fit in on ‘Wellness’, but maybe I’ll figure that out later. Songs just come whenever really. Our writing trips don’t ever really work out that well. For us, that’s always been the most natural way to do it.
You guys spent a lot of time after ‘In A Million Years’ essentially touring the world. In what ways do you feel this has shaped your sound?
S: Not really at all, actually! More than anything, though, it sort of solidified the need to write and produce songs for the live setting. I learnt to always keep that in the back of the mind. Actually, a lot of the songs on the album aren’t really that geared towards a live setting – something we’re actually finding out now in rehearsals.
To be honest, location doesn’t really impact us, even though we had the opportunity to write and record in places like Bali and Japan. In Bali, though, we wrote a song inspired by The Cribs, and we were actually fortunate enough to go see them live at a sneaky secret show, which was so cool. It definitely brought back high school memories. I guess we’re more inspired by bands we’re touring with – or maybe those that we are listening to while on tour – rather than where we are.
Yeah, definitely. It’s not necessarily linked with culture and place.
S: Yeah, I don’t think so. You don’t really get a lot of time in the places you’re touring. We spent the most time in Japan, but I’ve actually always been subtly influenced and inspired by Japanese music, especially in terms of songwriting and composition. I actually grew up watching a lot of Studio Ghibli stuff.
Same! I was about to say – any knowledge I have of Japan all comes from Studio Ghibli.
S: Yeah, it’s pretty much the same with me – but we didn’t have the English versions of them, so we couldn’t actually understand them. I just watched the movies and listened to the music. *laughs*
I think it’s visual enough that you don’t really need the dialogue – you just kinda watch it and appreciate the beauty.
S: It’s actually crazy how much you don’t really need dialogue to enjoy a movie.
I feel like this could become an extended conversation on all things Studio Ghibli – so maybe I’ll ask a little about Evie. After such a strong debut record, the expectations for your return and the follow up were pretty high, yeah? What was the thought process behind choosing “Evie” as the lead single for the comeback?
S: I guess it was an easy pick – that one from the get go was always going to be the single. Before it even eventuated, that was the idea behind the track, and it kind of jinxed it for me at the start. I think that’s because it was kind of close to the old stuff sonically; it has the same sort of energy and speed and everything, so it was always a contender. I think if we chose “Apollo” as the first single, people probably would’ve questioned what we were doing. In the end, Evie was the best choice for the single. Even though it’s not my favourite track on the album, it just made the most sense.
What’s your favourite song then?
S: Maybe “Wellness” – that’s the only song that’s actually my demo. We opened it up at the studio and Scott just said it was perfect, and we didn’t need to do anything at all to it.
“Wellness” is probably one of my favourite tracks on the album, and “Apollo” has definitely been a grower for me.
S: Yeah, Apollo was one of those ones. Whenever I’m doing something, I force myself to remember that I have to achieve something – even though I’m writing country swing songs every now and again, which is kind of fun – everything else is sort of serious-ish, or a job. Apollo was one of those ones where when we got the loop, I was kinda like, “Fuck… we got it!” It’s just one of those moments where you’re like, “Finally, I have something good.” It was almost relieving just to know you still have the ability to do something good. We’ve been writing for so long, and by that point, you can’t even tell what’s good or bad anymore. You just kind of lose your filter. But Apollo was decent… *pauses* enough. *laughs*
As well as audibly splitting up the first and second part of the album, “Wellness” has this really notable spacious, psychedelic sound. What was the original idea behind this track, and why was it chosen as the title track?
S: Well, what actually happened was that we were in Nottingham once and there was some awesome ‘noise’ music playing during soundcheck. It was really cool, and I’d never heard anything like it before – I don’t normally listen to noise. So I asked the guy who it was and he was like, “Bla, bla, bla,” and I was like, “What?” and he was like, “Bla, bla, bla,” again. He actually had the thickest accent. After the second time, I just pretended like I heard him… *laughs*
So you still don’t know to this day?
S: Nope, I don’t. Might be a band called kesu? K-E-S-U. But yeah, I’m not entirely sure! I’ve searched so hard…
‘Noise’ music, you say. Was it just a barrage of synths, or…
S: It was really, really slow, drawn out guitars – like heavy, heavy guitars, and really drawn out, slow vocals. It was so cool, and I wanted to find it so bad, but I couldn’t. I ended up just trying to recreate it in the end, just so I could listen to it. I was doing metal guitars and vocal stuff, which was initially terrible, but then the whole thing eventually morphed into what is now “Wellness”. A lot of the snyth sounds are just guitars – the warping, high pitched stuff is all guitars.
Lyrically, I was trying to play down the idea of falling in love. I was trying to make it an every day, mundane occurrence. Also, Brisbane was hot and dreary, so I guess I was linking it to that aswell. Actually, everyday in Brisbane is pretty boring and hot. *laughs*
Are you a love hater? Where are you at with that right now?
S: Nah! Definitely not – I’m probably a little bit too romantic sometimes, to be quite honest. Lyrically, it always seems to be about the negatives. I think it’s just because when I’m with someone, I don’t have the time to sit down and record. When it finishes, I’m all alone, and theres nothing else to do…
So it’s obviously going to end up with a pretty melancholic tinge in there.
S: Yeah, I’m always drawn to melancholy. Most of the music I listen to is melancholic, actually. It inspires me – it’s a relatable feeling.
Pretty much my entire high school art experience was inspired by sad shit like Bon Iver *laughs*. It’s actually funny you say that, because I feel like ‘Wellness’ leans more towards the accessible ‘pop’ end of the spectrum than ‘In A Million Years’ – particularly on tracks like “Apollo”. Was this change a sort of natural progression or a deliberate move?
S: You know what, that’s the funny thing – on the first album, we worked with JP, who is Scott Horscroft’s protégé, and his approach is to completely deconstruct every track to nothing, and then rebuild it with absolute simplicity and “popness”. It was a good approach, but a very difficult one as well. Scott would say, “Hey, this is your song in the end,” and maybe make some slight changes here and there – but it wasn’t ever like, “Hey, this is fucked. Let’s disassemble this, because there needs to be way more pop in here.” To be honest, I think we have always been “poppish” – we don’t really listen to pop music, but for some reason we ended up sounding like a pop band. We are planning to release the demos at the same time as the album, and you’ll hear the original ideas. They weren’t very pop at all. I don’t really know why it ends up like this, actually *laughs*. I think after years of playing, you end up figuring out what works in a live context, and we sort of lean towards playing that way – more energy, and bigger guitars. We’ve just accidentally ended up sounding poppy. I don’t think it’s such a bad thing…
I guess pop can be surrounded by really negative connotations, and if you’re an artist, there’s always the notion of wanting to knock ’em down because they aren’t doing things the organic, or “natural” way…
S: Definitely. But you know, then there’s really good pop. I actually think there are two types of pop, and I guess we are in the grey area because we aren’t on Nova 96.9 or particularly popular in the secular world either. I feel like an idiot sometimes, because I wonder about these bands that I love, and I think if I showed them our music, they would probably fucking hate us *laughs*. But I guess then I think about other bands I know of that we definitely aren’t as poppy as…
What songs or albums did you guys have on repeat when you were down the coast recording the album?
S: When we’re recording, we actually don’t really listen to a lot of music. Sloan had a Dreamcast, so we just smoked heaps of weed and played a lot of Dreamcast. Theres a lot of fucking around when you’re in the studio, and the last thing you wanna do is listen to music. During the writing process, however, I was listening to a lot of Twin Sisters and a bunch of electronic artists. I found that really great to work to.
What kind of electronic bands or artists?
S: Beat music stuff. Some J Dilla-inspired music…
Onto touring. Jetsetting around the world with some of your closest mates would surely make for some absolutely ridiculous memories. What’s the craziest situation you guys have found yourselves in?
S: We made friends with this awesome guy in Thailand, and it turned out that he’s actually the second richest guy in Thailand. We had an awesome time with him in Bangkok. We also got stopped heaps of times in a day in Bangkok, which was pretty crazy – that doesn’t really happen in Australia.
I’m actually surprised you don’t get stopped much in Australia!
S: I work in a record store in Brissy, so people will come in and say, “Are you the guy in the Last Dinosaurs?” I actually get really embarrassed for some reason. Sometimes people stare at me weird and I think they’re either going to fight me or they are trying to figure out whether they know me. There’s a fine line there – it’s the same look. *laughs*
You’re heading out on the road again for pretty much the remainder of the year to play a number of headline shows and festivals slots. Have you guys been working on adding more live show elements? More lights? visual displays?
S: We actually added a keyboard player – Charles Murdoch, a really respected electronic guy – so he’ll be playing with us. He’s got a lot of stuff to play, and he brings a new depth to it all. We want to put on a fuller, better performance, especially because the tickets are a bit more expensive. *laughs*
Thank you so much man! Was great to chat.
‘Wellness’ is available for pre-order here.
Head here to grab tickets to any of the shows on the upcoming national album tour.
LAST DINOSAURS ‘WELLNESS’ ALBUM TOUR
Fri 25 Sept – The Triffid, Brisbane (U18s Matinee – School Holidays)
Fri 25 Sep – The Triffid, Brisbane (18+)
Thur 1 Oct – The Corner, Melbourne (U18s Matinee – School Holidays)
Thur 1 Oct – The Corner, Melbourne (18+ / Public Holiday eve)
Fri 2 Oct – The Gov, Adelaide (AA)
Fri 9 Oct – The Enmore, Sydney (AA)
Sat 10 Oct – ANU, Canberra (18+)
Sat 17 Oct – The Rosemount, Perth (18+)
Sun 18 Oct – Jimmy’s Den, Perth (U18s Matinee)