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Grafton Primary - Let The Primary Colours Shine

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Monday, September 1, 2008

Local boys done good Grafton Primary talk to 3D’s Rezo ahead of their debut album Eon’s release.

It mightn’t seem like much water has passed under the bridge since their seminal release Relativity made waves last year, but it has – and Joshua Garden is quick to take it all in his stride. “Basically the band started as just my brother and I – so we’ve known each other for a long time and we’ve known music from a young age. A lot of old records and our parents got us into old classical and instruments and things; as you grow up even if you grow up with classical roots, you get exposed to other things. To look back now and think what you’ve achieved is really a great feeling!”

Through old rock and jazz, contemporary music and electronica, the boys from Grafton Primary School discovered music genres separately. Benjamin and Joshua lived in separate cities and led quite separate lives until they came together about five or six years ago by sending each other music. “It all just seemed to click,” Josh explains. “We were on the same plane and we were also a family – which helped!”

In 2008 though, with the impending release of their debut album Eon Josh is surprised how perfectly things have fallen into place. “You say that the album has been pending for years,” Josh begins. “At the same time, we’ve had high standards for ourselves and we grew so fast as musicians and producers so we could never finish the album. It was like chasing your tail – you sort of know how you want to put something out there – and it took a lot of time to arrange the people in the background to get it happening. Years of working together has seen that happen – sure we got on each others nerves, but we also pushed each others musical knowledge and kept raising the bar until we were happy with it.”

Joshua says the group needed to understand how each of their ideas could come together. “For example, how your music and someone else’s artwork or music video can come together and how your original ideas can work,” he says. “One of the biggest things we’ve learnt is the notion of having to let go. We have to trust people and put the right spin on things and reinterpret them in our own way. The artwork guys had a concept from the lyrics and conversations and I think to myself a year ago, I couldn’t have done that.”

Yet despite their whirlwind success, the guys consider themselves like any other band. “We’re completely obsessive about sound and production – and that’s what inspires us. When you make a song it has to inspire you and those around you. You have beats and you have to make things happen within it – we love getting involved in the minor details and that process gives us a real buzz. Once it stops being a buzz we scrap it. It has to keep your attention all the way through. Even life in general inspires us. Lyrically, you see a lot of things going on in the world and you have to reinterpret that in some kind of positive direction. We’re all individuals so we have to deliver without necessarily wanting to take just what we can get.”

WHO: Grafton Primary
WHAT: Eon through / Play Oxford Art Factory / ANU Bar, Canberra
WHEN: Out 13 September / Saturday 6 September / Saturday 13
MORE: myspace.com/graftonprimary

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