Groove Armada - Finding The New Sound
In Australia to headline the Bacardi Express travelling train fiesta, Groove Armada talk to 3D’s Nina Bertok about their two upcoming albums. Yes, you read correctly: two.
While many international groups claim Australia as a ‘second home’, only UK DJ sensations Groove Armada call our country their “first home”. And rightly so when you consider the sheer amount of time Andy Cato and partner-in-crime Tom Findlay have spent playing in front of Australian crowds and hanging out with our top DJ/producers.
“Some of the most talked about and craziest shows we have ever done have happened in Australia,” Cato claims. “Hordern Pavilion holds a lot of memories. I personally reckon it’s the heritage thing because outside of the UK, no one really gets us like Australia does. There are tiny little bits of the United States that kind of do too, like San Francisco and New York, but not like Australia.”
Groove Armada’s fondness of Australia extends to their upcoming two new albums, both of which Cato and Findlay are working on at the same time and which feature man-of-the-hour Nick Littlemore (Pnau, Empire of the Sun).
“We’re going to try and finish at least one of our two albums before April hopefully,” Cato explains. “The first one is kind of the rockier one, if you think about it, it’s been the natural continuation of what we’ve been doing with the whole live band thing for a while now. We worked with Nick who has played a big part in this whole Australian dance explosion. We’ve already had a session with him. He’s just incredible, he really is quite an inspirational guy who was a pleasure to work with. The ultimate for us would be to persuade Nick to come on the road with us.”
While Cato describes the first project as “rocky”, he describes the second upcoming album as more “house-y”, ensuring a little something for everyone, really.
“We decided to do both albums kind of as a consideration that if we come up with a groove that isn’t really suited for one record, we could place it onto the other one. The second album will more house-y, hopefully it won’t take too long to get that one out too.”
For the time being, Cato says Groove Armada’s live show is the duo’s main concern in the lead up to their Australian return for the Bacardi Express tour.
“We’ll definitely have a new sound for people,” he announces. “The show we will put on this time will be very different from what we’ve done live before and I mean that in terms of the vibe, the sound and the look of it. The whole multiple screens and special effects thing, that’s all gone and replaced with a whole different thing, which I don’t want to reveal too much about just yet. I think people will be surprised. We’ll also have a cool band and hopefully quite a few people who appeared on the album. We’ve got a girl called Saint Saviour who is the singer with The RGBs and she is not only incredibly talented but she’s agreed to go on the road with us too.”
WHO: Groove Armada
WHAT: Play Bacardi Express Party at Luna Party
WHEN: Saturday 28 March
MORE: bacardiexpress.com.au