Exclusive: Stream Spilt Cities' excellent debut album, 'life, on hold'

While Spilt Cities have been kicking around since 2012, it's been a steady slow burn leading up to the release of their debut album, life, on hold, officially out next Friday 4 October. Over that time the Perth-based four-piece have honed their craft, evolving into the accomplished, mature outfit we find in 2017. Something evidenced perfectly on the diverse, at-times melancholic, at others soaring 12 tracks they've laid out for their first ever long play. They've spent over a year working on life, on hold, and the resulting assuredness with which it is delivered showcases a band at the peak of their powers.

We're stoked to premiere it a week out from release, and also offer some fantastic insight into the release from frontman Shaun Rodan. Check it all out below, pre-order it via BANDCAMP and catch 'em launching it live on Saturday 21 October (event info HERE).

Ephemeral

One of the easiest songs we’ve ever recorded. And the most fun. We wrote this on a whim in our jam space and thought it would be a good way to open the album, show both the delicate side and the louder side of everything that was to come.

Sharing Lungs

This changed a lot in the studio. Initially it was very bare bones, and sounded a bit like early Death Cab For Cutie. Once we had played around with a bunch of tones and approaches at playing our parts, it moved away from that sound a bit. The first song we’ve ever written with a key-change, hopefully not the last.

Keep Quiet

The oldest song on the album, and probably the one that kick-started the new sounds we started exploring after Bondurant (2014 single). Lyrically, this song tackles a lot of identity crisis issues that tend to change meaning to me as I age.

Dash! Be Quick

The title of this song is reference to something my brother's friend yelled to him in Japan when he nearly missed his train. I never thought we would write a song like this, but I’m glad we did. To me, it sounds like some weird mix between At The Drive-In and Sunny Day Real Estate, and has some of my favourite sounds on the album.

Long Grass/River People

This is hands down my favourite song on the album. A lot of these lyrics came from a trip I took through the USA and Canada a few years ago, and put a lot of my life and decisions under the microscope. This one really deals with coming into adulthood and accepting responsibility, something I’m never as far ahead in as I think I am.

Lovers

The same time I was travelling around North America, we had just had our first major death in the family. Being away from everyone, I had a lot of time to think about it and realise how important the people in my life are. We’ve been playing this one live for a while, and it’s still hard sometimes.

Post-Career Depression

Initially the outro of a song we had titled ‘Kevin Sorbo’. Our drummer wasn’t in the studio when we got some free time to record it, so Mike (bass player) took on drum duties for this one, and everyone humoured me when I attempted to contribute too.

The Drifter

I spent most of my early 20s feeling pretty lost. A lot of people I knew seemed to be driven and achieving things and I was working dead-end jobs and didn’t really know what I wanted to do. That feeling can really put a strain on a relationship at times, and that whole sentiment seemed to really pour into this song.

Tired Of Ourselves

This song seems to take the sentiment of Keep Quiet and offer some reprieve. Feeling comfortable in your own skin can be hard, but it just takes some time.

Whirlpool

This is another one that went through a few stages before being ‘record ready’. Initially very slow and surfy, I think we had been listening to the newest Title Fight record when we wrote this. And The Smiths…

Saturate

Started out of nowhere, when we were jamming the outro of the song in the studio. Mike and I went kind of crazy on this, and just layered a bunch of different guitars playing similar chords while Andy (the engineer) messed around with the tape delay it was running through.

No End, No Beginning

The moment we started writing this, we aimed for it to be the album closer. This song is about everything that has happened over the last 10 years; broken hearts, growing up, death, new life, the whole deal. However, I made the mistake of playing guitar and singing in a different timing, which has ruined my brain forever. The second half of this song is the cathartic payoff though.

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