Gig Preview: The Acid Tease Debut Album With Homerton Show

Doron
By Doron Last edited 120 months ago
Gig Preview: The Acid Tease Debut Album With Homerton Show

THEACID

The Acid's particular brand of juxta-pop emerged from the nuptialisation (yeah, we just make all these words up — go with us on this!) of three separate backgrounds and personalities: Grammy nominated DJ/producer Adam Freeland, Californian producer and composer Steve Nalepa, and Australian artist and producer Ry X. Together, they've worked on an album, 'Liminal, which promises to showcase their successful experiments with pulsating pumping-beats, grazing guitars and bracing bass.

The record's coming out in June and the trio are starting to build on the hype with a show at Homerton's Chat's Palace next week. While the interview below makes them sound a tad serious, to be fair to the boys it was carried out over e-mail, which does tend to twist the nuance out of things and, in any event, they certainly make up for it with the tunes.

To the uninitiated, can you tell us a little bit about how you guys got together to make music?
We — Ry and Adam — had known each other and talked of creating together a few years ago. We then had an unlikely reconnection just after we both had been on deep personal metamorphoses. We grew a lot individually, as people, and on artistic levels before we reconnected, the sum of those parts finding us ready to explore the music that we have now freely. Steve and Adam had been collaborating musically on various projects over a number of years and had a studio session booked for just hours after Adam and Ry's reconnection. We all followed the flow of the synchronistic timing and jumped in. It's possible we wouldn't have been in the space to explore it had we reconnected earlier.  We each hold different energies for the project, when it needs to be pulled in, we lean into that. humility has to hold a big place too. to know when not to do something, musically, or otherwise. Space becomes as important as the things that could fill it. We all believe in that.

What's the provenance of the name The Acid?
One of us came up with it. The others resonated with it. We thought twice because of the weight that this name carried, the lineage, but we collectively wanted to carry weight and strength within our art making so we decided to stand around it.

We really love Basic Instinct - what's it about?
It is a comment on what's happening politically and socially right now. Inability of fair press and lack of egalitarian society.

Your music has been described as genre-less. Do you agree with that provocative statement?
We can't say if that's a provocative statement or not, but we all believe in pushing the boundaries of the styles we cross between. The Acid represents that push to blur lines in music and art making.

Your self-titled debut EP was reportedly written very quickly. How do you tend to work together?
We work as a collective. We create differently each time. Generally, a musical thread from one of us leads to an intuitive writing process. We work best as the three, if two agree, it stays, if not it goes. No time to second guess.

You're playing your first ever London show next week. Do you have any expectations about what your London audience might be like?
We don't hold expectations of an audience. It's up to us to lift musically in that environment, to elevate that space for all of us within it. We are new as a project and playing live is going to be an unknown to some degrees. There's beauty in that. To stand on the edge a bit.

Have you done any other live gigs internationally?
Only in a forest in Australia, for thousands of animals.

What excites you about the prospect of touring?
To be present with those that are connecting to the music. That is the point. To give a new expression every night. Making art continuously.  The downside: Airport security and being away from loved ones.

Can you share with us what has been your favorite track of 2014, so far?
The chorus of cicadas around our rehearsal space near Byron Bay.

Any advance reconnaissance on 'Liminal'?
We went deeper than the EP into the things we love: drones, environmental soundscapes, heavy beats, no beats at all, tape machines, synths and lying on the floor recording vocals.

Finally, which of the following are you likely to do during your forthcoming London visit: (1) go to Harrrods; (2) see the Alpacas at the Horniman Museum; (3) go on a Jack The Ripper walking tour; or (4)  have a curry on Brick Lane?
None of the above. Our time will be spent in Brighton by the sea, working on visuals for live shows, rehearsing and connecting with friends.

The Acid play Chat’s Palace on 31 March. Liminal is out on 2 June 2014 through Infectious Music. You can get previously unheard album track ‘Creeper’ as an instant download through iTunes when you pre-order the album.

Last Updated 25 March 2014