The debut album, ‘As We Drift Apart‘ from Perth trio Dan Cribb and the Isolated will be released this Friday through the folk at Pee Records.
‘As We Drift Apart‘ lends heavily from the mid 90’s punk rock heroes who defined the Fat Wreck generation with melody-drenched, riff-heavy, rowdy rock. Bad Religion harmonies preside over Lagwagon hooks, and jubilant Me First and the Gimme Gimmes refrains but with a slightly Frenzal-esque fury.
Mixed and mastered by Mark Michalik (The Wonder Years, The Swellers) at Chicago’s Drasik Studios, the full length is a welcome and notable progression from Cribb’s 2012 acoustic EP.
Pre-orders on CD, Vinyl and Digital formats can be found [Here].
Want to try it on for size first, you are in luck as we have the album streaming in full for you below. Whilst you are listening, take a read of Dan’s answers to our On The Record questions too.
It’s a lyric taken from album opener ‘The Last Time’. Most of the album deals with shifting relationships, so it seemed like a fitting title for the record. Our guitarist, Scott, and I were txting each other ideas for weeks and nothing really stuck until that one came up.
Tell us about the artwork.
This was another element of the record that took a while to lock down. We knew we wanted a cartoon-like illustration on the cover, but weren’t sure what we wanted exactly, or who we wanted to do it. We stumbled across an artist by the name of Bobby N, threw the album title and some lyrics at him and he came up with the perfect imagery to match.
What format/s will it be released on and how will it be packaged?
You can (and should) buy it on transparent blue and opaque white vinyl, as we well CD.
Who will it be released through, and when?
It drops May 15 on one of the best indie labels in the country, Pee Records.
Tell us about the studio and why you chose to record there?
We recorded at Electric City Studios in Fremantle as I’ve tracked their before and it has got a nice vibe about it. There’s plenty of gear there, too.
Tell us about the producer / engineer and why you chose to record with them?
A big part of choosing Electric City was our engineer, Sam Allen, works out of there and is a legend.
Did you go into the writing process with a clear direction in mind?
We had sort of refined our sound to what it is now before even thinking about recording an album, so we knew what we wanted the end result to sound like.
Were you listening to anything in particular during the writing / recording process that influenced the songs at all?
I was listening to a lot of pop punk (as always) while writing and recording. I like the idea of writing songs that sound like that they come from a dark place – which is kind of hard to do when everything in your life is pretty sweet. It’s all about taking certain situations and leaving them just vague enough so as they’re open to interpretation – a song about not hanging out with an old friend anymore can come across as a break-up song, which people might connect with more.
Were there any albums you were referencing in the studio to aim for a certain type of sound production wise?
We wanted it to sound like a tight pop punk release that wasn’t too over produced, and I think we achieved that.
How long did you spend in the studio recording?
We ended up spending about 10 days tracking at Electric City, and then we sent the sessions to Nick Diener of The Swellers, who spent some more time adding harmonies and guitar leads to it. The files then made their way to Mark Michalik in Chicago for mixing and mastering.
Tell us a little about the recording process the band used?
We spent a lot of time on pre-production, and some of the songs were demoed numerous times. It meant when we went into record, everything ran smoothly. Kind of – more on that later. It was a fairly standard recording process: Go into the studio, try play guitar, bass and sing. Leave studio wondering why the hell you suck at life so badly.
Was this any different to previous processes you have used?
It was the same. I wish I could track live, but my world would probably come crashing down if I attempted to do so.
Any guests involved? if so, who.. and what did they do?
I was going to say Nick, but he’s pretty much a member of the band now. We did have Darren Cordeux of Kisschasy sing in the bridge and last chorus of ‘Let’s Move To New York’. We also had David Liebe Hart feature in the video for ‘The Last Time’.
When it comes do naming the tracks, is there any particular approach or process to it all?
I usually give songs horrible working titles, so their final names tend to be completely different. The songs are usually named after a lyric in the end.
Any particular equipment outside your usual live gear used in the process?
On the intro of the song ‘The Brightest Spark’ we used a tiny amplifier/speaker that was packed inside a cigarette box. It was awesome.
Any memorable studio moments?
Everything seemed to go wrong while we were recording. The first day we went in to track drums and the studio harddrive was missing. So we decided to use mine. That was corrupt. So I went and purchased another. That was also corrupt. The power was also cut one day. Oh, and our engineer, Sam, also had some problems with his hearing while we were tracking – he’s fine now. Someone or something really didn’t want us to make this record.
Any additional tracks recorded that didn’t make the cut but may see the light of day sometime?
The tracklisting as it now sits is completely different to how it was when we finished tracking. We had two tracks that weren’t going to go on the album, but showed some people and they said those tracks were awesome. One of the songs is called ‘The Feeling’ and everyone that hears that record says it’s their favourite. And we almost cut it from the album. Whoops.
What track/s are you most looking forward to playing live?
We play a lot of them at the moment, but the most fun songs to play live for me are ‘Just Like You’ and ‘Return To Sender’.
How would you compare the final product to previous releases?
We haven’t released anything as The Isolated yet, but this album is a lot different to my 2013 acoustic EP.
Anything else you want to say or about the release?
This album wouldn’t have been possible without Pete from Pee Records. That dude is an absolute legend and supporting the scene so much. It was also great to be able to make music again with old mate James Davies, and write more music with Scott and Nick.
