Rabbit Interview With Sunbeam Sound Machine

With one album under his belt (with some super rad artwork), working a lot with Stu from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, heading over to New York for the very exciting CMJ Music Marathon and releasing a 7 inch only a few days ago, Nick of Sunbeam Sound Machine has some really exciting things happening for him and I got to have a beer and chat with him over BIGSOUND.

I read that you've been compared to bands like Tame Impala, Grizzly Bear and Real Estate, how's that make you feel?

Yeah awesome, they are massive influences, love all those bands. I'm seeing Tame Impala when they come out in November.

You did a huge tour with Art Of Sleeping, how was that?

Yeah it was great, took us to a fair few places that we hadn't been to before like Maroochydore, Adelaide and Canberra, and the venues were packed out which was great as we were on first. The Triffid in Brisbane was the best venue we have ever played at so we really enjoyed going there.

What would be your dream collaboration?

The Avalanches or Flying Lotus, or even King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard as Stu from the band has already helped produce my first album actually.

How did you meet those guys?

They're on the same label as us, so we did most of the working together over the web as he was touring over in America and I was in Japan on a holiday.

What's the weirdest gig you've ever played at?

I played solo not too long ago in this really odd room above a bar with nobody in there. The band before me was just two guys and they were pretty intense, they were just bashing out their instruments facing away from the audience that wasn't there. I ended up just did my own thing and tried out a few songs and made up some new tracks. 

Do you have any guilty pleasures on your iPod ?

I don't know if I have any guilty pleasures but I definitely have some weird stuff on there, a fair few movie soundtracks, I had the Team America one there at some stage, Enya popped up at stage, I just give people my iPod and yeah things like that pop up on there.

Do you have favourite video clip?

Yeah I've got a few, any that Michel Gondry does, he's done some for The White Stripes, and 'Around The World' by Daft Punk and never catch me by flying lotus which came out last year

The album artwork for your album 'Wonderer' is so cool, who did that?

A guy called Jason, he does a lot of King Gizzard's artwork and actually travels around with them and does their lighting at their live shows

Whats the plans now, as your album came out late last year?

I'm putting out a 7 inch, 2 song release, and we're heading over to America for CMJ and then I'm keen to get back into doing some writing, I've got a few songs written so I just want to work on getting them out back home in Melbourne.

Sarah McEwan