Geordie McCallum From 'SINSIN'
Geordie McCallum is back with a new project, as the mastermind behind SINSIN.
McCallum, best known for being the guitarist from Motocade, has been joined by Zowie bass player Harry Champion and Kerretta drummer Hamish Walker.
We caught up with Geordie McCallum and found out some more about this intriguing project.
How did SINSIN start?
It kind of was a bit of a collaboration I guess, we all kind of decided on playing something together... myself, Harry and Hamish. I guess it kind of spawned from having the same ideas, direction and all that.
Is there a story behind the name?
Not really. On the back of a box of matches it actually had written SINSIN, so it kind of just stuck with me. I don't know, it's really hard to come up with band names. I find that all the good ones are already taken. But SINSIN has a nice ring to it.
Your EP Layers is out now, where did you record it?
It was recorded all over the place actually. Started off recording at the Auckland School of Rock; they have a little studio and I was working there at the time so was able to record all the drums and guitars, as well as overdubs.
So for the EP you played the majority of the instruments?
Yeah, I played pretty much everything except for on one track. Emma Rosenberg sings on ‘Sorry I'm Falling Down Again' and some people have commented to me "Oh, you can sing really high!" (laughs).
How did the songwriting process work for Layers?
I have a bad habit of writing down little bits of ideas... sketches of a riff or something, so not even a structure of a song. I went back through all my little sketches and chose the best parts really, then kind of re-recorded them as I went along.
So how long did it take for you to make the EP?
Probably a couple of years (laughs). Yeah, it's been a slow burner because I've been pretty busy with Motocade stuff and other work. It's always been a thing that I've wanted to do and it's taken this long to get it to where I'm happy with putting it on CD, and getting a band together so we can play live. It's always been a wish of mine to get this thing going and it's finally come to fruition.
Did you produce it yourself?
I did yeah. All the music was produced by myself and was mastered by Dale Cotton.
I see that you also directed the music video for Layers. Where did you get the footage?
That footage was sent to me out of the blue. I caught up with my Aunt in Australia last year and she told me she had this super eight footage that she was getting put on to DVD and would I like a copy. It's got my father in it who just passed away and relatives from Scotland, so I said "Yep, that would be great". It was like a gift when I saw it, a gift music video because I could slice it up and had the track ready. It all fell into place really.
It took a bit of chopping to get it where it is, because there was quite a lot of footage, but it's really good to have a video that is quite reflective of part of my family so I feel very attached to that video clip.
Do you have plans to follow up the Layers EP with a full-length album?
That would be awesome and I guess next on the cards. It would be more of a collaborative effort with Harry and Hamish on board, instead of me churning in a couple of years by myself. The next effort will be more of a SINSIN band collaboration album, which would be fantastic. I'm a teacher and have the summer holidays coming up, so that might be a great time to get stuck into it.
What other musical projects do you have on the go?
Motocade is still trucking along. We have a new album which is pretty much ready to drop. It's been a bit hard because our singer Eden has moved to Australia, but hopefully it comes out soon. Also I've been helping out a band called 1995 and playing guitar for them... just helping them out, as their guitarist has been really busy.
And what is next for SinSin?
I guess getting the live shows happening and getting amongst it. I think that's where it at nowadays. It seems now that most people don't really buy records so the live shows are really important. We're practicing and don't really want to play any shows until we're really happy with where we are at. It's quite hard to play the EP live as, ironically, it does have a lot of layers... lots of drones and extra bits, which aren't really necessary to play live. A lot of the EP is slow and downbeat, so we are just trying to work on a way to make it more lively.
Tagged as : SINSIN | Geordie McCallum | interview |
