Phantasm Street

Breakbone: What's the concept behind the album?

Kaleb: The actual meaning of Swamp Puppies isn't that deep. I kept seeing this video of a guy in the Florida Everglades who would just refer to alligators as 'Swamp Puppies,' and I always thought that was funny. I related that to how we feel as a band. The music we make is a bit swampy, and where we're from in Redcliffe is surrounded by a lot of swamps and wetlands. So, 'Swamp Puppies' to us is like, we'd probably be a Swamp Crocodile, actually, because that's the Australian way.

The EP was recorded in about a month at my old house before we were leaving Redcliffe. Me and the drummer, Tim, lived together, and I recently moved to West End. I just smashed out five songs, and then there was an extra one, "Less Than Death," which I did separately with our friend Tom Myers. Before that, we had "Samashi Ways" and "Rope," and we weren't necessarily happy with the production. With Swamp Puppies', it was done really raw, and I was learning how to mix music while making it.

It has that raw, more lo-fi sound than our previous work, where we spent more time micing things up properly. I think going forward, this is more of the sound we'll try to capture. All of our influences and the music we're inspired by doesn't necessarily sound really hi-fi and perfect. A lot of it's recorded lo-fi, on tape machines, or whatever people could get their hands on, and I think there's a beauty in that. I was really trying to capture that with the EP. It's meant to feel really raw, home-recorded. It's almost meant to sound like you're in the house and it's burning down, but then there are beautiful moments as well.

Breakbone: What would you like your fans to know about the EP before listening to it?

Kaleb: Just go in with an open mind. It's so open to interpretation, which is what I love about music. I want it to hit everyone in their own unique way and relate to them, almost like it's the soundtrack to their own life. Our music is rough around the edges, especially live, and noisy. But beneath that, we always try to write a solid, meaningful song that could be taken out of that loud, noisy context and still be there. I love bands that are like that. There's a band called Guided by Voices, and all their recordings are so raw and DIY, but the songwriting is brilliant. We really strive for that: beautiful songs masked with loud fuzz that you feel in your whole body.

Breakbone: I suppose the EP is a bit of a self-discovery record for you, right?

Kaleb: Yeah, exactly. For us, the live show is separate from the recording. When we get into recording, it's mainly just Theo, who plays bass, and me who predominantly tackle the production, ultimately because we're control freaks. Me and Theo met at a music school in the Valley, and we started the group together, so it's our baby in a way. I want people to feel that, too. I want people to discover parts of themselves or emotions they don't necessarily face often.

Breakbone: Would you describe it as 'psychedelic' in concept? Of course, your sound is very shoegaze, indie, alternative, but in terms of your artistic vision?

Kaleb: Yeah, in a way, there is that influence. And a stoner rock, slacker edge that we try and aim for.

Breakbone: What's the difference between your live show and your recorded sound?

Kaleb: With our recorded sound, we have all the time in the world, especially because we recorded it at home. It allows you to take more time and get the vocals right. Plus, I'll layer my voice quite a bit and do lots of harmonies, and you have a lot more freedom with guitar layers. Me and Theo have been studio rats since we were little kids, just experimenting for years and years. When I went to do Swamp Puppies, it was like applying everything I had learned into one concise piece of art.

The live show is a lot more improvised, explosive, and raw. We have more of a punk edge when we play live because you're more limited. You've only got two guitars, a bass, a drummer, and vocals. One of our things live is that we play so loud. A recording can only get so loud, but live, you have so much control, and it's meant to be a full experience happening in the moment.

If I were to use a metaphor, recording is like spending a long time on a painting to get it right. Playing live is happening right in front of you, and at any moment, something can go wrong. It's way more chaotic, and there's a balance between chaos and order that you ride. Every time we play live, it's different. It's more of an alive thing, whereas a recording is like this timeless piece of art you can hang on your wall. Live is performance art.

Breakbone: That's analogous to what Pink Floyd was like in the 60s. You had their whimsical, pop sound on their first album, but at the same time they were going crazy with improvised prog stuff in their live shows.

Kaleb: Yeah, that is a heavy basis for our sound.

Breakbone: What do you think of their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn?

Kaleb: That is an underrated album. I'm pretty fond of that. My favourite album by them is probably Meddle, the one with "Echoes" on it.

Breakbone: Oh yeah, Meddle is really good. It was when they found the sound they were looking for.

Kaleb: That's probably my favourite, but I do love the Syd Barrett era. It's very noisy, chaotic, and has this punk energy to it. I do love that first album.

Breakbone: You also said your sound is very loud, I can really see some of that My Bloody Valentine sound come through.

Kaleb: Oh, for sure. It's funny, we almost don't like saying they're an influence because it's so obvious, they're the shoegaze band, I guess. But 100%, you can't deny their influence, especially their live shows. There's this certain thing that happens when you have the amp so loud and you reach a certain decibel level.

Breakbone: It just makes you one with the music.

Kaleb: Yeah, it trips you out. It's an out-of-body experience, and we definitely strive for that. Them and Dinosaur Jr. are on similar levels. I saw Dinosaur Jr. live, and it was literally the loudest thing I've ever seen in my life. I had to have earplugs, and it was that loud. I felt it in my whole body, but it was so good.

Breakbone: I think what sets you apart from other bands in the scene is that you're not afraid to experiment and break conventions.

Kaleb: Thanks, man. It's funny, none of us, besides Theo who has a little bit of a jazz background, are formally trained. The rest of us are self-taught, but we love chords. I've always been a real guitar nerd like that, just finding unique shapes and trying to think outside the box. There are lots of influences, like Sonic Youth and even King Krule. There's also a lot of the math rock, midwestern stuff we loved in high school, and they always play around with weird tunings. The basis of our sound is a lot of '60s pop.

We love the songwriting. It's so melodic, and we always try to make use of that in our songs, but almost like Pink Floyd if they had full fuzz pedals and were shoegaze as fuck. I really try to take the time, and most of the songs are written on acoustic guitar. I try to make use of chords and melodic shifts.

Breakbone: What's your first memory of wanting to become a musician?

Kaleb: Well, I come from a pretty musical family. It's what I've known since I was born; I've always wanted to be a musician in some way.

Breakbone: If you had to put a label on your sound, what would it be?

Kaleb: In the past, we haven't liked to define ourselves as just a shoegaze band, because there are a lot of them. That sound is good, and a couple of bands have done it so well, like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. A philosophy in our music is that we try to make something truly unique and different and somehow progress music forward. I guess that is progressive rock. Prog rock bands get a lot of flack, but Pink Floyd and King Crimson are such a heavy influence. All the changes, that's definitely a massive influence.

We've always just been geeks, obsessing about music and all different genres, all four of us: me, Tim, Josh, and Theo. We've all been best friends since high school, especially me, Tim, and Josh. We knew each other from year seven and went through school together. Then I met Theo in years 11 and 12 at MIC. We've always bonded over finding obscure music and immersing ourselves in it. We also used to do psychedelics a bit when we were younger.

Breakbone: I can definitely tell that. Like from your sound and just the indescribable emotion of your music it's not that hard to come to my conclusion.

Kaleb: But we don't necessarily condone drug use.

Breakbone: Kind of like that Pink Floyd interview where Gilmour said, 'We're definitely not drug-oriented.'?

Kaleb: [Laughs] it's hard because you don't want to be defined by drugs. There's a lot of darkness, pain, addiction, and suffering, and none of that's good. Ultimately, I find music is just such an outlet. I don't want to get too dark, but a lot of the lyrics are very personal and autobiographical, about things I've gone through or addiction. That side of it is the part that is not very obvious to the audience.

I don't want people to get the wrong impression and think that we're a 'druggie' band or that you have to get messed up to come see us. It ultimately doesn't lead to good things. As four friends, we're all realising that, now that we're in our early 20s.

Breakbone: I think when people hear the word 'psychedelic,' they always think of drugs.

Kaleb: Exactly, and it's hard to integrate elements of that without being labelled in some way.

Breakbone: The meaning of the word is to journey inside your mind. Your music is psychedelic in that it invites the audience to see who you are as people. Your live experience makes the audience become one with your music.

Kaleb: That's what we strive for, 100%. It's meant to be an immersive thing that puts you in a mood. It's like stepping into a pond, it's cold at first, but then it's nice once you dive in. Psychedelic is more of a mindset of being open-minded, seeing the world from a different perspective, and just sitting back...

We've always been introverted and quiet. It almost feels like we're in our own little bubble. We have other friends in bands in Brisbane, but ultimately, it's just us four, and we've all got each other's backs. We try and protect ourselves in that way.

We're just trying to be ourselves and stand alone from everything. We don't really try and make lots of TikTok reels or that kind of thing. There's nothing wrong with it; it works, and I'm low-key jealous of the people who can do it. I just can't. We're too good for that, no. It's just not us. It wouldn't feel natural or represent who we are and the music. We're just trying to be a classic band.

Breakbone: What do you want people to take away from your music?

Kaleb: That we just find it fun. We have a lot of guitar gear and we find it fun putting on these shows, because ultimately we want to inspire other people just like we've been inspired. We're trying to inspire people to break the mould or just do whatever you want musically. There are no real rules, and genres do box bands in a lot of the time. There's nothing wrong with that, because there are some great straight-up punk bands and some great straight-up rock bands.

Breakbone: What's your vision for the future?

Kaleb: It's funny, we try not to look too far ahead and get too far ahead of ourselves. We could push ourselves and go out more and network to try and get signed, but at the moment, we have a good workflow. We've got this great friend, Taylor Bragg, who's done the last three videos, and two of them got on Rage, which is huge for us. We want to have that appeal that we are independent. There's something kind of swag in being fully independent. We're not against major labels, but in this day and age, you don't need them.

Ultimately, they can be money traps. They might give you a loan of $100,000, but you have to make that money back. If your album flops and your tour flops, there's so much pressure on you, and then you get in debt. It seems like a shit world. We're not the biggest fans of the music industry in general. We're just music lovers. We don't necessarily like the business side of it. We are aware that it's a possibility one day, but we're just waiting to see. We've just released our first EP. We did a recording at SAE University with this guy Matt Leo, and it's going to be a standalone single. It's the first time we've been in a pro studio, and it sounds really good. It's almost like we're just focused on making good music, good artwork, and good videos. That's all we are trying to do. If people show us attention, that's great, but we're doing it for the love of music. It's just a passion.

In a way, I just hope I'm still making music. That's all I really care about. I hope I have a cool studio and am earning enough money off my music that I can invest it into making more music. We have plans to record another EP over Christmas. My pop lives on a farm, and he's got this shed, so we're going to turn that into a studio. We are trying to push ourselves a little bit more and get more traction, but we're just taking our time with it. We don't necessarily want to have a moment where we get all this attention at once and then it slowly dies. We're wanting a slow build, and that's what we've been doing for the past two or three years.

Breakbone: So, you're really in it for the long game?

Kaleb: Yeah, we just want to slowly build a loyal fan base that ultimately sticks with us. We aren't trying to be commercial. There's something about being underground. We love bands like Fugazi, their whole career they refused to have merch and every single show was $5. They're purely about the music. We probably wouldn't be that extreme. There's something cool about having merch and physical media. We want to have records, tapes, CDs, and shirts. We're trying to build it slowly, be smart, and protect ourselves for the long game. Ultimately, we're not the most confident people in ourselves, but we are confident in the music that we make, if that makes sense.

Breakbone: Do you have any messages for your fans? What do you want people to know when their friends invite them to a gig and they go like 'what is this band called Phantasm Street?'

Kaleb: That you're going to experience a pretty unique-sounding band. We're just here for the music. We love music. We feel like outsiders a lot of the time. We just live our lives like that. We use social media a bit, but none of us are on TikTok. We're kind of stuck in this old way of thinking, in a future that never was. Like if the '90s and the early 2000s kept going before the internet got so out of hand. It's crazy now. We just kind of sit back and are like, what? If you just want to experience a straight-up band, then come see us.

Breakbone: Good stuff.

Kaleb: Well, thanks, man. I hope that was good.