CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 133: SMALLWAYS. THE SELF-PROCLAIMED CLASS CLOWNS HAVING A GO AT OPENING THE FLOOR FOR EVERYONE

Interview by Matilda Elliott.

smallways. is a duo based in Gadigal, who create music that simultaneously is the most raucous in-your-face belter music, which also within two beats, will have you contemplating your existence, place in the world, and society as a whole. smallways. force listeners to feel such a sense of connection with their fellow man and to question what they endure, rather than falling into the mundane trap of life that we have thrusted upon us. 

Following the release of two tracks and two videos (one that I got to direct with a LOT of help from some amazing people!) the self-proclaimed ‘class clowns having a go at opening the floor for everyone,’ are releasing their debut EP, Mind Your Head shortly, alongside a slew of shows filled with passion and reflection. 

I got the chance to chat with smallways. - two incredibly inspiring and creative people who I just know you’ll love, too.

FMM: How do you collaborate as a band to create new music? What roles do each of you play in the songwriting and production process?

smallways. When we write, we jump into a rehearsal room and jam together. We always record every session so we can listen back to ideas and pick and choose what to work on. Sometimes, we book to jam on new ideas over a few hours and sometimes, we get in for practice and an idea just comes to life naturally when we break from running through our current set of songs.

We've had moments where it feels like the songs are just writing themselves and it happens quick, and other moments where they piece together over the duration of a month or so, and we'll play with the structures and lyrics, making changes along the way until we like the shape of the song. We write our own lyrics for ourselves individually, and we don't usually discuss song concepts. We allow ourselves to express what naturally wants to be expressed and we make sense of it later.

Teriece usually kicks things off with a bass line, and then we piece things together. We have written a couple that have started from Stevie playing around with a drum beat, too.

All of our songs are bass and drum heavy and this is the first project we've approached writing in this way.

The first band we were in together, 'Just A Number,' was structured with both Teriece and Stevie writing acoustic songs and then bringing those songs to the rest of the band to colour in. Each member would then write their parts and we'd sometimes make structural changes to songs until we felt they were finished.

The second band we were in together, 'STAIN,' was structured with us all coming together in a rehearsal space, with each member kicking off a jam and us all writing the music together. There was a kind of magic at the time with that project, where it all seemed to just write itself when we got together to play music.

smallways. has been interesting because of our previous band experiences and the challenge for each of us in writing all the parts for every one of our songs. 

It's meant the project has had space we wanted for it to be quite experimental. It’s also meant that method was flowed over into our solo works. Both Steven and Teriece are actively working on home-recorded solo releases to expand their knowledge and experience in songwriting, instrumentation, recording and releasing.

We want to develop ourselves as multi-instrumentalists and want to succeed in creating a career in music where we can play our music and smallways. feels right. We're enjoying ourselves, even the hurdles.

We perform live with bass, drum and both our vocals. We then record guitar, synth and other instruments for our releases.

We wanted to do this to challenge ourselves in both live sound and recorded production. We both write the other instruments either individually or together, combining our ideas to create some parts.

We record with Dave Bleus at Studio Bleus in Windsor. He's fantastic at what he does and we enjoy working with Dave not only to record, but to also experiment with parts and sounds.

When we recorded other instruments for COOL DOWN, we both had parts we'd already written on guitar and piano/synth. We then went into the Studio with Dave and experimented for a few hours with parts and sounds. Dave had some productions ideas that we used for the track and that oscillator you can hear in the song, is the man himself.

We've recorded our four-track debut EP Mind Your Head, with Dave at Studio Bleus in 2023. We've released two singles, LEECHES and COOL DOWN, with another two tracks to come. In June, just a few weeks ago, we laid down six songs for our second EP, coming in 2025. We're currently in the production process for both these EP's and it's a lot of experimentation and this is the best way to sum up our process.

FMM: LEECHES is the first single that we got a taste of from your debut release. Can you tell me about about how this song came about? 

smallways. Originally, LEECHES was a totally different song written by Teriece for a solo release. Who knows, maybe one day she'll share it for fun. Teriece was getting curious about how many songs you could make out of one riff, so it was brought to a smallways. jam. smallways. was new at the time. We were starting to write, figuring out our direction and the bass riff just felt right to explore. Stevie came up with an exciting and energetic drum beat that shaped the bass riff into a new song. The lyrics were written based on the felt energy in the room and toward life at the time. The change in the song was developed over a few jams and LEECHES was born. Lyrically, the song is about the impeding social structures that restrict all of us. The lyrics look to stir self-reflection, discussion, and ideas for change in the world that could benefit all of us.

FMM: What inspired the video for LEECHES? 

smallways. We've been working with a good friend, Liam Black, since meeting him in our first band 'Just A Number.’ We initially hired Liam for live photography, which transitioned into promotional photography and continued with our second band, 'STAIN.’ Our work together developed into videography and music videos throughout 'STAIN.’ We started collaborating further on concepts and creative ideas, which then continued with smallways. and has become even more collaborative.

Liam understands our visual thoughts and often the message we wish to convey, while offering his own style, flare and ideas to us. He knows how to guide and combine his and our ideas into practical implementation and we've formed a strong creative connection. 

The LEECHES music video (that we like to call Music Movie haha) was a collaboration with Liam Black (A WACK. PRODUCTION), with the three of us sharing visuals, imagery and experimental ideas. We then shortlisted and simplified what we had, so it was achievable. Liam understands our desire to create connection across our creative works and suggested channelling the 1981 film, Possession, for the Music Movie, tying the collection of our ideas together. BOOM, we went to work! We had to think on the spot throughout this one because sometimes you can plan well and there's still curve balls. We learned to adjust quickly, which was cool, and it was a hell of a lot of fun!

FMM: Next, we had a song I am very familiar with, COOL DOWN. Can you tell me a bit about the inspo for this song and video? 

smallways. First off, MATILDA ELLIOTT, YOU ARE AMAZING! Thank you and thank you to Finnegan Vallentine and Liam Black for your work and time on the music movie for our song, COOL DOWN. We adore the clip, it's cheeky, it's playful and it captures the mix of nonsense and rationality we wanted portray, perfectly.

COOL DOWN was written as a self-reflection. We're taking the mickey out of ourselves and others while expressing that emotions are often suppressed in all of us, in favour of the popular choice. This song and music movie is a representation of us asking why, just like a child. Why do we hold the things we do in such high regard? Is that our choice? Why is such importance placed on certain things amongst us all? And why do we care? We feel that money is the fuel for most of the world's problems, and we are all willingly playing along. We find that makes life often feel suffocating, creepy, and uncomfortable.

When we were in early discussion with Liam about the COOL DOWN music movie, we’d mentioned animation and stop motion ideas that led to Liam connecting us with Matilda Elliott. Matilda is experienced in Claymation, and we all felt that it would be a fun and fitting direction. The four of us got together one afternoon for about an hour or so and discussed the song. We shared the meaning, the ideas for the clip and Matilda wrote everything down to reflect on and to later create a storyline. We had some group ideas along the way and made those additions over a few months. Matilda got to work on creating the story and it was incredible to see it come to life, and we were blown away by the fact this was Matilda’s FIRST MUSIC VIDEO! Finnegan jumped on board for editing and compositing, adding his own quirks and style to the video and it then felt right on the money (unintentional pun here haha!)

FMM: You are a very visual band. How do you feel the element of visual art through your videos and live performances, influences your music? 

smallways. That’s an interesting observation. We do consider visual art an important component of our works. When we’re writing a song, often the visual just kind of comes with it. We’ll have flashes of imagery or visions that come along with the song at all different stages of writing, recording, and releasing, almost becoming a need for the song to feel finished.

When we perform, we like to express ourselves heavily through movement and facial expression. It’s somewhat of a response that’s spurred in us through feeling restricted in the past, observing insecurity in movement and expression in the industry and in crowds amongst people in general. I think that also feeds into the need we feel to share visually when releasing our music.

We pride ourselves on being weird, intense, silly, and erratic as much as possible to encourage others to let go and be in the moment with us. It’s also just natural for us. We understand the fear of judgement from others and taking life too seriously sometimes, so we consistently aim to challenge that. We are class clowns having a go at opening the floor for everyone. We try to put that forth into everything we do because we think everyone’s full of creativity and should feel free in expressing themselves in a variety of ways. We know by doing what we’re doing that it will encourage people to try new things and creative ways of expressing themselves. Maybe in just small ways (hehe), though it helps us significantly and it helps others feel good and that’s important.

FMM: How do you decide which songs make it onto an album or EP?

smallways. When we selected the four tracks for our debut EP, it was a matter of selecting the strongest songs and then realising there was a theme in that selection. When we were writing, it was to vent; to get what we needed to get off our chest.

The title of the EP, Mind Your Head, came from two origins. We realised all four songs were expressing our own and externally observed social struggles and Mind Your Head is a hazard sign that we felt quite ironically captured the meaning of the EP.

We’d both just left manual handling jobs that had resulted in both of us developing physical injuries in our necks, shoulders and back. We’re both still trying to heal and make a total recovery over a year later, which has had its challenges as a bass and drum duo who both sing and move a lot on stage, haha!

Mind Your Head felt perfect in capturing the physical and psychological place we were at the time the songs were written. This EP is quite personal, and we think it’s a pretty cool way to kick off smallways.

We think the title, Mind Your Head, captures not only the individual struggle of looking after yourself, but the united struggle we all feel in coexistence and sharing our world. What we do collectively affects us all and everyone’s future. Mind Your Head became a mirror for the world around us and within us.

FMM: Your Debut EP, Mind Your Head, is set for release on August 30, 2024. Can you give us a bit of a background on the recording of your debut release? 

smallways. WE ARE VERY EXCITED! We set the goal of recording six months after we spent some time writing material and playing live as smallways. We pretty much pushed ourselves into the deep end with recording. We started by recording demos at Soundworks Arts Hub, back when it was known as  Soundworks Studios and they were at their previous location near Sydenham Station. We sent these across to David Bleus at Studio Bleus where we regularly record and begun working on other instrument parts leading up to our recording sessions.

It was the first time Stevie had recorded drums professionally. It isn’t his first instrument, so it was interesting for Stevie going into a recording session with a different approach to recording and experiencing that differing and evolving dynamic between us, while also trying to write parts for other instruments.

We didn’t have all the parts worked out by the time the recording sessions were happening, so we figured we’d see what would come of experimentation on the spot. We realised we’d need to take some time to play more to finish all four songs and went away to do just that. We sent parts and ideas across that were then added to the tracks.

David Bleus at Studio Bleus is experienced, accommodating and knows how to create the right environment for us to flow. We’ve formed a great musical connection, professional relationship, and friendship with Dave, which allows for ease in navigating recording. If it weren’t for all those factors in combination, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we’ve done. We’re very grateful to have the options we have and the support from such fantastic people working in the industry.

FMM: Can you plug some of the next live shows you have on? 

smallways. We can’t help ourselves sometimes and it’s really hard to say no to a gig. We just want to play all the time and connect with people, so we find it hard to take breaks and we usually end up playing shows after saying we’re taking a breath, haha! We were supposed to be on break from June to September to prepare for the release of our Debut EP, Mind Your Head, while working on parts for our second EP, but alas, we are playing some shows, haha!

Cheeky local on July 12th at The Town Hall Hotel for a late night boogie! I want to shout out Sally here and Sally’s Sound Hole! Sally has been running live music at the Town Hall Hotel for years and essentially holds a place for all kinds of acts from new and cutting their teeth to established local acts/touring acts. This place can be missed amongst the hype of Newtown and what it has to offer. It’s a great place and we’ve been lucky enough to progress musically over the years on this stage. Thank you, Sally!

Both unconfirmed, we may be supporting hyper-punk locals, Dedpan, on August 17th at Lazy Thinking in Dulwich Hill; a cool place that Jim Flanagan owns. He is regularly putting on incredible lineups and entertaining evenings. And, August 31st at Waywards in Newtown supporting pals Rubber Necker.

We have our first show in Penrith supporting mates, DINGE, at a cool dive bar called Elton Chongs on Friday, the 13th of September. This show will be themed with more details to be announced.

On October 11, we’re planning to hit the Gold Coast, followed by Byron Bay with mates, Presque’ Vu and we’ll also possibly be joined by maties The Salty Tenders. We’ll be ending our weekend playing the FESTYVILLE festival in Lismore on October 13th, organised by legend, Kerrie Van Power of local Lismore punk band, Gusset Rats. We’ll then be back at Elton Chongs on October 18th, supporting QUADZILLA with David Bleus. We may have a cheeky surprise for this one!

We’re then set to join the lineup for the first installment of a new festival coming to Australia from the UK, based in Naarm, in December 2024. More details to be announced. We’re in the process of organising an underground festival in Sydney alongside Darling Niki’s, for the end of 2024, with more details of this also to come.

We’ll probably have two handfuls more by the end of the year, haha. CATCH YA’S AT A SHOW!