Tassie legends Luca Brasi have reached a new level with their fifth album Everything Is Tenuous. Propelled by the inactivity of Covid lockdown, and encouraged by friends (engineer) Andrei Eremin and (producer) Darren Cordeux, the four-piece took their first foray into self-recording... and it turned out to be an absolute game-changer. Empowered by their time at the helm, Luca Brasi have written their most potent songs to date, and are preparing to unveil the new album early 2021.
From his home in Hobart, singer and bassist Tyler Richardson reflects on the process of writing and recording Everything Is Tenuous. With touring being a total uncertainty, the time was right for Luca Brasi to try something new in order to keep exercising their creative muscle. Having already acquired a working knowledge of recording tech through years of demoing, it didn't take much to tip the boys over the edge into full blown self-production mode.
“We were so stoked,” Richardson beams. “Andrei is amazing. He was the one who said to us 'you guys can actually do this'. We did as much as we could by ourselves... we bought a bunch of gear and taught ourselves how to use it. We ended up self-producing the whole thing here, and Andrei mixed it by proxy on the mainland. Darren Cordeux from Kisschasy worked with us on structure, so we'd send them the songs and they'd give us their two cents and send it back,” he says.
And the results speak for themselves. “It gave us a massive chunk of time to work on the songs and learn how to produce them,” Richardson continues. “We've been writing this album for a couple of years. We were half way through it when we toured the UK late last year. The idea was to come home and get stuck into it over summer, then get back on the road. We had a big tour booked early this year that got cancelled, so we decided we wanted to make a record at home.”
Ah yes, touring. While it seems like both a distant memory and a mirage on the horizon, touring will at some point resume, which is music to the collective ears of Luca Brasi – one of the country's most roadworthy bands. During the period of social distancing and whatnot, Luca Brasi have mucked around with acoustic renditions of their new songs, but their desire to hit the road and perform them in full flight is palpable. For now though, patience is paramount.
In spite of this, 2020 has been massively productive for Luca Brasi. Everything Is Tenuous is a natural progression from 2018's breakthrough album Stay, which elevated the band up the ARIA charts and catalysed the biggest tours of their career. Uplifting, powerful and sophisticated, Everything Is Tenuous is the Luca Brasi record fans have been pining for. Already spawning three beautiful singles in Tangled; Content, This Selfish Love, and Dying To Feel Alive and, Everything Is Tenuous is trademark stuff... sweetly melodic, with a lyrical undertone of melancholia.
With 2021 being Luca Brasi's 12th year as a working band, Tyler explains that the key to their successes and longevity has been their friendship. From touring the world together, to now self-producing the greatest album of their career, their love and fraternity has guided them through some amazing times. Looking back, Richardson is both humble and grateful. The experience of creating Everything Is Tenuous serves as the perfect metaphor for Luca Brasi's enchanted career. “It was a gamble,” he says, “but it paid off.”