Quarantine & Chill With Northeast Party House

With all the madness going on in the world at the moment, and lots of people self-isolating, we decided to bring the party to you and caught up with Northeast Party House to chat about their new album ‘Shelf Life’. Whether you’re stuck inside or not, pop this banger of an album on and you’ll be having a great time in no time. We guarantee it.

Do you feel you have progressed with ‘Shelf Life’ from your last project ‘Dare’?

Yes, absolutely on every level.  Writing, lyrics, performance and production and mix. This is the first time we have sat down with a clear game plan for the album and pushed ourselves until we had achieved it (for the most part).  This time we actually had more songs than we needed as opposed to recording the handful we had. We chose the songs that worked best as an album. Our previous album was more a process of throwing ideas at a wall and seeing what sticks.  This album is more considered and there was more spontaneity and freedom in creating it.

Who would you say were the top three influential artists of the album?

It differs from person to person. For me, the songs I kept going back to were Disclosure – ‘When A Fire Starts To Burn’, Chemical Brothers – ‘Free Yourself’ and ‘Hey Boy Hey Girl’, and M83 – Reunion and Midnight City. 

Collectively which would you say are your favourite tracks in the album?

There are six of us and we rarely all agree on anything.  My favourites are ‘Shelf Life’, ‘Lose Control’ and ‘Dominos’. From my often inaccurate memory, ‘Dominos’ and ‘Shelf Life’ were the two songs we were all on board with.  ‘Magnify’ had 5 out of 6 votes. I can’t speak for what makes them stand out, but I can say what it is that drew me to them.  Dominos has a great mix of party, fun, kooky and fat dirty bass lines topped with a hook that is immediately engaging.   ‘Shelf Life’ is grimey and the vocals are unique. Zach is telling a grabbing true story while the track slowly pulls you on a journey into a big grimy mess of energy and aggression. 

When creating the album, was there a certain place/party / club festival you envisioned the album to be played.  If so where and why.

We have all had really great life moments watching other artists perform at festivals.  Those moments with your friends sharing a connective experience as an artist takes you on a journey.  Specifically, Meredith Music Festival at around sunset and then again around 3am.  Thinking of moments, I’ve had at Falls Festival also factored in. That was always the environment we wanted the songs to connect with.  We even wrote a songs called ‘Sunset’ which is exactly about that moment. The sun is setting, the night is kicking off, you’re with your pals in a moment of bliss. 

How as a group did you tackle the production together?

It was very difficult and slow.  The challenge I felt was not watering down anyone’s vision to suit the group, so we didn’t end up with something everyone likes but no one loves.  I would often speak of the value of having something polarising rather than safe. After many different attempts at writing in groups, we found working solo was the most productive for fleshing out the initial stages of a song, then would come together in groups of 2 or 3 to get it to close to finished.  Once we had around 15+ sort of finished songs we got together with Kim Moyes of Presets.  He helped us choose the best tracks and acted as a mediator to resolve some disputes (or at least provided an environment for us to work through it) and helped us with tracking the drums guitars and vocals. Then we went back to our band studio and the 6 of us put the finishing touches on the songs. Mostly in groups of 2 or 3 where we really dialed in the synths, extra vocal production and electronic instrumentation.  We were still making small production changes as I mixed it. 

What is it like to have other dance legends (Jungle Giants) asking you to remix their work?

It’s an honour and heaps of fun to make. 

Lastly, how are you feeling with the news that Splendour in the Grass Festival will be postponed due to COVID-19?

This is an exciting opportunity to come together as a global community.  We have to do what’s best for the world at large and I’m really glad everyone I have interacted with is doing their bit to help. Splendour has made a tough but necessary decision. Super excited to play the festival when it’s safe to do so.  Hopefully, we can all work together in the same way in the future to address the growing climate crisis.

Interview by Mia Seabrook Shelf Life is available to stream now