Bushwalking’s Highly Cinematic Sounds

“We don't really think about what kind of fans we want to attract when writing music, we make it for ourselves, ultimately.  I would say listen to this album, if you want to hear something interesting from Australia,” Ela Stiles (of Songs) tells me of her latest project, Bushwalking… which is beyond interesting and actually quite brilliant.  Bushwalking is comprised of Stiles, in addition to Nisa Vernerosa of Fabulous Diamonds and Karl Scullin of Kes Band.  “I met Karl in Melbourne at a show I was playing a few years ago. We became friends, he introduced me to Nisa, and we recorded First Time. Half-way through making the record we decided to become a band,” Ela tells me.  First Time, the band’s first LP, was released earlier this month on Josh Fauver’s (of Deerhunter) Army of Bad Luck Records.

Ela tells me that the biggest inspirations behind the sounds found on First Time are “Each other’s personalities.”  She also implies that fans of their other projects won’t be let down: “In the past few years we've all been busy with our other bands and it’s all connected in some way or another I'm sure.”  The album is heavily-laced with dark, 1960s psychedelics, but also seems to take quite a bit from 80s ethereal wave and shoegaze.  It’s quite somber and moody, but in the most elegant and unaffected way.  It’s actually hard to believe it came out in 2012.  There’s something very soundtracky about it.  However, whose work it could be scoring is somewhat open-ended… Herschell Gordonn Lewis, Richard Kern, and Gregg Araki all seem like suitable candidates.  Unfortunately, for interested parties, it doesn’t seem like we’ll get the chance to see the trio live before the rest of the year, but there is more music on the way soon.  As for Bushwalking’s plans for the rest of 2012, Ela tells me, “At the moment we are working on a new album to be released next year, we've got our Melbourne and Sydney album launches for First Time in August and September, and Nisa and I are going to India in November."