In The Studio Something With Numbers

From the street, you wouldn't know there's a high-tech recording facility tucked away in a sleepy corner of inner-western Sydney's Annandale, but that's just what you have in Jungle Studios. It's a relatively new recording facility boasting an SSL 4056 EG with Total Recall Automation, imported from one of New York City's biggest studios. NSW Central Coast-based five-piece Something With Numbers have been ensconced in the studio working on their fourth album with the studio's co-owner, producer Lachlan Mitchell, who produced their first album, 2004's Etiquette, and was nominated for an ARIA this year for his work on The Jezabels' Prisoner album (he also runs Attic Studios in Glebe).

“I guess I just wanted to work with him again,” said the band's singer, songwriter and, though he admits his limitations, now proudly third guitarist, Jake Grigg explained the decision to rekindle the working relationship with Mitchell. “We already had a relationship with him so half of the point of when you start a record with a producer is that initial period of trying to get to know the person. We already knew Lachlan, so we didn't have to go through all that red tape – we just got straight into it.”

Something With Numbers recorded their last album, Engineering The Soul, back in 2008 with American producer Tim O'Heir (Dinosaur Jr., The All-American Rejects) in Mission Sound Studios in New York. The band has gone through a few changes in the interim, guitarist Lachlan Scott opting out to start a family and work as a substitute teacher at a selective catholic high school on the Central Coast, replaced by Trent Crawford, and similarly drummer Dave McBeath has moved on and been replaced by Lachlan West, who also plays in The Vines. The other founding guitarist, Tim Crocker, is still very much part of the firm. That's perhaps prompted Grigg to approach the recording process a little differently.

“In the past, we have always rehearsed a million times, got all our parts down to the point where we could play them blindfolded. For this particular recording with Lachlan, I wrote all the songs at home in my bedroom, brought them into the band, we rehearsed them maybe four times – no one even really knew the songs as we came into the studio.”

With this album, the band has been using the studio itself as a creative tool. For Grigg, the perfect example of this open and creative approach to recording is the evolution of a song called Runaway.

“We had this song called Fuck Winter, and we brought it in and it's this real sort of boppy, upbeat number and a tinge of country but also it was a heavy rock song. It was really good, real summery and we were jamming it out and I think accidentally played the chord and it sounded cool and then Scott [Chapman – bass] played the wrong chord. Then we're all playing the wrong thing until all of a sudden, we were playing this, dark heroin-dredgy thick piece of music, and we're all just sitting on the A Minor chord looking at each other thinking, 'This is fuckin' bullshit!' right? So I'm like, 'Stop, stop, stop – lunchtime'. So everyone went to lunch and I sat in there and wrote a whole brand new song from that one little chord we were jamming on.”

Of course, it's far easier and cheaper to do that sort of thing these days because you can record straight to ProTools, as Something With Numbers have, straight into the digital realm. Another reason for dropping the whole heavy pre-production approach for this album has been simply to try something different, but for Grigg, it's also been about Mitchell giving him the confidence to do just that.

“He made me realise that you don't have to be ridiculous on the guitar to be able to play. I didn't start playing guitar until a lot later than most people. I was always a singer and I picked it up because I wanted to write songs and stuff, but I played a lot on this record and that makes me feel proud.

“On this record, we've really experimented a lot with different pedals and different effects on the guitars. There are a couple of songs where we specifically tried to make the guitars sound like they weren't guitars, so you really couldn't tell what the instrument is, whether it was a keyboard, guitar or bass – so we tried to make a universal sound.

“In the past, all we've done is plug it into 'the Marshall stack and have a whack', you know? This time we wanted to make more of a musical piece than just a bunch of songs. We've still been going through pedals into amps, though sometimes we'll DI the guitar part and then re-amp it later, things like that. I've just been using an Orange [amp], 'cause I'm just addicted to reverb, so I always put that reverb all the way up. But there's like a whole bunch of other boxes that make music in there.

“One of the main pedals we've been using is the Pog. It's one of those toys that you plug into and you're supposed to be recording and then you find yourself halfway across the universe in your mind, and you're playing something exotic and you realise everyone's waiting for you to record your take! It's really fun.

“It's on, I think, three track so far,” added guitarist Trent Crawford. “I've been playing an original '60s Gretsch Country Gentleman – I borrowed it from a friend so I've had to give it back – but besides that the Bill Nash Telecaster has been getting a lot of play, and the Bill Nash Stratocaster as well. The Les Paul is getting a run – there are probably five, six different guitars that have been getting used – the SG's been sounding really good, the mandolin's been getting a run – we're goin' for it. We've even plugged the acoustic guitar into the electric amp and been getting' some stupid noises.”

Due for release early next year, the as yet untitled album will be mixed by Tim Carr at Studios 301 Sydney.