Body Type’s debut album, Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising

Photo by Jack Saltmiras

Fierce indie-rockers Body Type have been demonstrating their sheer power, as they reign in a new era for 2022 with the release of singles Sex & Rage (which we covered here), Bouyancy (again, more here), and the latest ‘f you’ anthem The Charm, all in preparation for the release of their debut album titled Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising, out today. 

Self-funded and recorded in eight days, it’s an extraordinary release from the group that’s playful yet gritty, filled with so much raw and ruthless emotion. Recorded and mastered by Jonathan Boulet, Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising was written during back-to-back tours and tracked in early 2020, the group sharing that "We were coming out of a period that felt quite suffocating and restrictive. We just kind of regrouped and re-energised and did it ourselves". And what better way to regain that control than setting cleverly articulated lyricism to catchy melodies, rolling rhythms, and sizzling guitar riffs.  

With a tight bond that dates back six years through acclaimed EPs, EP1 and EP2, the group have shared stage with the likes of Fontaines D.C., Big Thief, Cate Le Bon, POND, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Frankie Cosmos, and Rolling Blackouts Coast Fever, appeared at SXSW and The Great Escape, in addition to their own headline tours and shows across Australia, the US and the UK. In the lead up to Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising we caught up with the very talented (and very cool) Cecil & Sophie to talk more on the release.

Out now, take a listen through Body Type’s debut 11-track album Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising, as you take a read through the “journey” of the release, and what’s next for the group. 

Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising is your debut album following two incredible EP’s, what inspired you to do an album opposed to another EP?  

Sophie: Well we’ve done the two EP’s since the band started in 2016, and we had all these songs so it felt like a natural progression for the band to just put together a full-length body. But in this day and age, it's a thing that fits on both sides of a vinyl, and we had enough songs to do that. 

You all regrouped in 2020 to record, was much of the making of the album affected by the pandemic? 

Cecil: We kind of were really lucky, we got in just before everything went to shit. I think it was mid to late Feb, and then a week later like the WA border closed, the Australian Border closed, all this kind of stuff. So we were super lucky that we were able to smash it out in like 8 days with our friend John. We were very, dare I say blessed in that regard to get it done, because we know that a lot of our friends who are also in bands had to reschedule throughout that first year and last year too. So yeah, we've just been waiting for it to come out I guess.

There was a lot of back to back touring before the recording began, how did you manage your time between being on stages and writing new material? 

Sophie: It's the best part of being in a band, when you've got so much going on that you’re just living and breathing it. It’s been so jarring to not have that happening for the past few years, but when you're on the road and playing every night, it kind of is naturally a vibe, ideas are happening and sharing energy, and sharing crammed hotel rooms. You can't help being creative together. 

And would you say being on the road, being in those crammed hotel rooms, that has all influenced the songs? 

Sophie: Yeah, for sure. A lot of the songs on the record, the ones I wrote the lyrics for, are about our time in America, our time in LA, and the kind of things that happened while we were on the road. 

That’s a great segue into my next question, so Sophie, you Annabel and Georgia share the singing duties throughout the album, is lyric writing a collaborative process? 

Sophie: Yeah the lyric side is probably the least collaborative part of the Body Type I would say. Usually how we write a song is someone will write the lyrics and a very basic structure and then we bring that to the band. Lyrics are probably the usual skeleton for songs. So yeah, and it's usually Georgia, Bella or I bring it to the band, and we just go from there.

You have a lot of stories behind songs, and from the press release I see tracks like Flight Path are about the depth of a woman's anger (relatable), and 'Futurism' is an ode to L.A. inspired by the Chateau Marmont and a run-in with Nick Cave, Susie Bick and one insufferable, greasy-haired egotist, do you have any stand-out stories that you’d be willing to share? 

Sophie: Do you have any Cec? 

Cecil: Well I mean The Charm is probably the obvious one. I think there's a lot of songs on the record that came from collective experiences, like Soph said, there were stories from when we were touring, but I think The Charm is probably the one that stands out the most. That's quite a defined song, It's a bit of a “fuck you” to someone that told us some pretty awful shit so that, to me is probably my favorite one. There were a lot of collaborative moments, and it was written very quickly as well, which was really cool. It just kind of came together. I think there was a lot of energy and a lot of anger and frustration that went into that song and I'm really proud of  how it came out. 

Sophie: I really liked the story behind Buoyancy and Hot Plastic Punishment, which is kind of a little interlude into side B. Georgia and Annabelle have a beautiful relationship where they send each other poems a lot of time, and they send each other these cute poems over email or text or something, and then brought them to the band, and we turned them both into songs. That's quite an intimate example of our creative relationship I think. 

That is so wholesome. Another album track A Line is the most recent highlighted track from the album, and it has an accompanying video that has this 90’s girl power, trippy dream like quality to it, could you tell us a bit more on the collaboration with TV Moore and the making of the clip? 

Sophie: Yeah, so TV is an old old friend of Annabelle’s, and that was actually the first video that we filmed out of all the videos for the record, it was during lockdown. And we set up a green screen, and Georgia set up a green screen in WA, and TV was on FaceTime and just kind of telling us what he wanted and he directed us in our movements, in our style choices, in the paint that we've got all over our bodies, and he just kind of told us to go ham, but also told us exactly what he wanted to do. And then he overlaid it over this footage he had of New York or something. Is that right Cec?

Cecil: Yeah, he shot the paper mache hands when he was in New York a few years ago, I think at a similar time that we were there maybe. And yeah, Annabelle just sent him the song basically when we had just gotten the mix back in 2020 and was like “Do you want to do something with this?” So that clip’s been in the making for like two years. It’s really amazing. 

The album has 11-track on it, was that a conscious choice that was planned out from the start, or were there songs that didn't make the cut? 

Sophie: There were two songs that we recorded, oh maybe one song that we recorded in the album sessions that didn't make the cut. We had about 15 songs that we were working on and then we just kind of chose one just felt the strongest but like I said before, we just really wanted to put it on vinyl and so that was kind of the ultimate decider, and also the songs that fit together the best as well I suppose. But there’s definitely some more material that might make it onto the next record.  

Cecil: Everything where it is, like the track order, was very much a journey to put together. It was very, what's the word? I guess calculated in a sense. It was very much based on what went well together, and also trying to make it how ever many minutes it is per slide of a vinyl. It's like 19 minutes or something.

And those songs that didn’t make the cut, are they going to be incorporated in your live shows? 

Sophie: We're actually in the process of talking about whether we will play the album in full for the album tour, which I think is really cool. I see a lot of bands do that. So yeah, I don’t know if we’ll play any sneaky other ones. Maybe later, maybe not this one.

Cecil: Yeah. We're looking at the next record, and you know, Futurism is an example, we originally recorded that for our second EP and then decided to leave it off and then re-did it for our album. So who knows, some of those ones might pop up later down the line. 

You say next album, so there is another album in the works? 

Cecil: There’s always gonna be another one.

Sophie: We've got a bunch of songs that we've been working on. So we're pretty active to get back into the studio again, as soon as we can. 

You have the album tour coming up as well, are there any stand-out shows or locations you’re looking forward to playing? 

Cecil: For me, I can't wait to play Eltham, The Eltham pub.

Sophie: Oh, yeah! 

Cecil: That's gonna be mad. And we also have a sneaky show happening, we have the Brisbane show happening and then there's a special show happening that I won’t spoil too much. I’m quite excited about that one. 

Sophie: Yeah the Eltham pub, It’s like this idyllic pub. We saw our friends play there and had such a good time.

I guess we’ve kind of touched on it already, but do you have many plans following the album's release tomorrow? 

Cecil: Yeah, we want to do the next record. We've got some more shows later in the year. We need to get back to WA obviously. The three of us are from there, so we’re working that out. Yeah, they’re big goals. 

Sophie: Yeah we’ve got these two Fontaines D.C. gigs that have been postponed for the past two or three years now, so that’s scheduled for the start of next year, which I’m really looking forward to. We all are really looking forward to that, so hopefully it actually happens now (laughter).  

Yeah, there have been so many delays with everything. Well thank-you so much for your time, and congratulations on the release tomorrow! I’m really looking forward to when you do come back to WA.

Yay, it will happen! Hopefully we’ll tack a date on this tour. 

Sweet, I will see you then. 

Body Type's debut album Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising is out now via Poison City Records.

Tour dates TBA, make sure you're following Body Type's socials below to catch tour updates. 

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