Perth indies, Cloning have emerged as one of Australia’s most singular alt-rock acts. Swirling with heartfelt, soft-spoken charisma and eerie hues, their ethereal new single, Just As You Are, expands on the quartet’s
established alternative charms and is out now. We caught up with them for a Q+A
Hi, thanks for taking the time to chat with Hear 2 Zen, what have you been up to today?
It’s our merch shipment day today so I’ve been printing off labels and packing shipments for this past week’s orders!
Tell us about yourself, how long have you been performing/creating music for?
I’ve (Felix) been playing guitar since I was about 7 and picked up drums in high school. I’ve been into music since as long as I can remember and I think writing tunes myself just became a natural evolution of that when I was around 15.
Who are your greatest inspirations? Why?
Radiohead, The National and Everything Everything are some that come to mind. For Radiohead and Everything Everything it’s the way they experiment and take their tunes in some really complex directions without making them sound indigestible.
With The National, their lyrics have been a big influence on my songwriting and I love how thoughtful and emotional their work is.
How do you create music? Are you lyrics/story driven, or does the music/melody come first? Explain your process.
Our songs usually start out with a chord progression and a vocal melody, sometimes with a fragment of a lyric. I don’t usually think about what I’m trying to write when starting a song. I just let the song flow and sort of figure out what it is the song is trying to be later on in the process. It’s all about getting a starting point that we’re really happy with, after that we can start to add other instruments and flesh out the other sections.
What has been your greatest challenge so far in performing/creating music?
Balancing the admin side with the time and headspace to make the art can be tricky – especially as an emerging artist in a city as isolated as Perth. But over the past couple years we’ve gotten much better at creating systems within the band and bringing in the right people to help strengthen the project. We’ve also been lucky enough to meet some incredibly smart, talented, wise people along the way – we’re never afraid to ask for advice when we can’t figure out how to do something!
Tell us about your new release, Just As You Are, how did it come about?
This track began as a jam in the rehearsal room – a change of pace for us, since we usually build songs more by recording and in the studio. Our bass player Nic records, mixes and produces everything, which gives us freedom to experiment during the recording process.
What advice do you have to artists who are just starting out?
Keep doing it, everyone’s journey is different and you need to really love it. Always keep an open mind but remember that what’s worked well for one artist might not work for another so you really need to find your own path and trust yourself.
Tell us your favourite Zen practice.
Meditation
