August 13, 2025 • 14 mins
BIGSOUND can be anything you want it to be. You can choose to revel in the activities and workshops, or check out the band showcase gigs or watch/see/listen to any number of things, but the one thing that catches HEAVY every year is the range of live bands out there plying their trade.
This year's BIGSOUND, to be held in the usual areas of Brisbane's Fortitude Valley over September 2 to 5, features more than 120 bands playing across 18 stages so it looks like we are going to have our work cut out for us.
But getting to know the bands a little better beforehand always helps, so today we chat with one of the emerging bands from New Zealand heading this way for BIGSOUND, Grecco Romank.
Described as offering dysfunctional music - the kind played in your uncle's garage rave while he's in the middle of a hellish k-hole after being dismissed from his drop-shipping office - in a world increasingly obsessed with the exact opposite, Grecco Romank are a breath of fresh air on a scene that is often weighed down too much in its own self-importance.
But just to make sure the band are the genuine article, HEAVY sat down to chat with two of the three members, Billie Fee (classical soprano, vocals) and Damian Golfinopoulos (samples, synths and more), to find out just how interestingly different Grecco Romank really are.
"I've listened to every single one," Damian replied when we mentioned the number of bands playing at BIGSOUND. "It's gonna be a good year, I'm excited."
We ask Damian what bands stood out most after listening to them, not at all hoping to catch him out.
"Spike Fuck, UGLi, Mumfighter, Shock Corridor," he quipped without missing a beat.
Maybe they are the real deal... We ask how well prepared the band is for what will be a hectic few days in Australia.
"We've definitely we've got a bit of homework to do on trying to plan our days and make sure everyone gets to see what they want to see," Billie smiled. "We're also bringing our manager, so he can go do a lot of that stuff on our behalf (laughs)."
In the full interview, we further discuss Grecco Romank's upcoming performance at BigSound 2025 in Brisbane, where Damian and Billie shared insights about their band, which has been active for five years and has released three albums, primarily performing in Auckland. They described their music as a fusion of electronic elements and operatic vocals, emphasizing their goal of delivering an engaging live experience. The band is eager to connect with new audiences and fellow artists at the festival, and they plan to participate in workshops and networking events.
They also mentioned an unofficial show at the Junk Bar and a subsequent gig in Melbourne. Additionally, they provided details about their acclaimed third album, Arts Colony, highlighting its collaborative nature, the inclusion of a 330-page art book, and a secret version accessible via a code in the book and more.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.
This year's BIGSOUND, to be held in the usual areas of Brisbane's Fortitude Valley over September 2 to 5, features more than 120 bands playing across 18 stages so it looks like we are going to have our work cut out for us.
But getting to know the bands a little better beforehand always helps, so today we chat with one of the emerging bands from New Zealand heading this way for BIGSOUND, Grecco Romank.
Described as offering dysfunctional music - the kind played in your uncle's garage rave while he's in the middle of a hellish k-hole after being dismissed from his drop-shipping office - in a world increasingly obsessed with the exact opposite, Grecco Romank are a breath of fresh air on a scene that is often weighed down too much in its own self-importance.
But just to make sure the band are the genuine article, HEAVY sat down to chat with two of the three members, Billie Fee (classical soprano, vocals) and Damian Golfinopoulos (samples, synths and more), to find out just how interestingly different Grecco Romank really are.
"I've listened to every single one," Damian replied when we mentioned the number of bands playing at BIGSOUND. "It's gonna be a good year, I'm excited."
We ask Damian what bands stood out most after listening to them, not at all hoping to catch him out.
"Spike Fuck, UGLi, Mumfighter, Shock Corridor," he quipped without missing a beat.
Maybe they are the real deal... We ask how well prepared the band is for what will be a hectic few days in Australia.
"We've definitely we've got a bit of homework to do on trying to plan our days and make sure everyone gets to see what they want to see," Billie smiled. "We're also bringing our manager, so he can go do a lot of that stuff on our behalf (laughs)."
In the full interview, we further discuss Grecco Romank's upcoming performance at BigSound 2025 in Brisbane, where Damian and Billie shared insights about their band, which has been active for five years and has released three albums, primarily performing in Auckland. They described their music as a fusion of electronic elements and operatic vocals, emphasizing their goal of delivering an engaging live experience. The band is eager to connect with new audiences and fellow artists at the festival, and they plan to participate in workshops and networking events.
They also mentioned an unofficial show at the Junk Bar and a subsequent gig in Melbourne. Additionally, they provided details about their acclaimed third album, Arts Colony, highlighting its collaborative nature, the inclusion of a 330-page art book, and a secret version accessible via a code in the book and more.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We Greco Romance. I'm Damien and I'm Billy.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
We're from Tamiki, Makoto, Alti or New Zealand also known
as Auckland, and we are coming.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
To Skip Sound in September.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Very nice, guys, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Chris By Pleasure.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
So Greco will be one of more than one hundred
and twenty bands playing across eighteen stages of Big Sound
twenty twenty five, which is going to be held in
Brisbane's Fortitude Balley from September two to five. More than
one hundred and twenty bands, guys, that's a ship down
the band to be playing.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I feel sorry for them.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
You you had a day and afternoon listening to everything.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I've listened to every single act list. Yeah, it's gonna
be it's gonna be a good year. I'm excited. It's
gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Rich five stood out to you the most.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You say, Spike, fuck, ugly, mumfighter shock at all. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I was a test to see if you haven't done
your homework, and you were me.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
You've done the.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Home of Guy.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, Yeah, we're don't we're doing a little side show
with Spike Fuck as well, which is quite exciting.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
But yeah, yeah, nice.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Before we get at anything else, I was like, I'm
sure there's people over here on this side of the
ocean that haven't heard too much about Greco, So tell
us a bit about the band and a bit of
history at this point.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, so there's three of us. Mikey right now is
driving a bus on an island, who's our third member,
And we have been performing and writing songs and putting
out music for five years now. Yeah, we've got three
albums under our belt. We play a lot in Auckland
(01:50):
and around the country, and in terms of what we
kind of sound like and what our buzz is, it's
kind of electronically. It's it's got a bit of kind
of operatic vocals. I'm a classically trained singer, so that's
where that kind of comes in, and it's kind of ravy.
If you like hard, rave industrial things, then maybe you'll
(02:14):
like us.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, it's it's it's like too too kind of shitty
to be like proper techno music and also not qualified
enough to be, you know, a band with musicians playing stuff,
so it's like garage uncle rave that's got you know,
crazy operatic falsetto singing over the top. But it's a
little bit industrial as well. That was interesting, people say,
(02:40):
despite despite that, it's actually kind of fun as well.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Well, there we go, actually come to be part of
beachwe guys.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Well, I know that big sound every year is a
it's a big deal for us killies because they only
take sort of a handful of us. So we went
through all the the channels.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I think I think I think some people spied our
live show. We're pretty fun live act.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, we try and we try and like, yeah, put
on a put on a good time.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
It's like the Blood Rave, but without the blood Rave budget,
you know.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, I've got to say without the blood.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah we want the blood, but we need the budget.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah. Blood's bloody expensive these days, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, you know, it's a little blue life. It's a
little bit cheap all around the place. You know, if
anyone's willing to step up, well we'll take your plasma.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Do you know what gigs you do it over those
three days yet or is that like a bit of
a surprise.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
People, So we are doing we should look at our
blonden notes like yeah, the Tuesday and the Wednesday. So yeah,
on the Tuesday it's nine o'clock at the Wonderland upstairs
and and then on the Wednesday it's the Prince Consort
(04:01):
Hotel that's at ten o'clock.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
These are very very very like I don't know what's
the weird gracious times for us, where we're often the
band that's put on right when people are getting very
skanky and scongey with it.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
So these are like one.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Am band typically, so tough for us because we're also
often the oldest.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Band making the track from New Zealand. You deserve a
good place.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Just ye, it's nice and we're doing like an afternoon
show as well on Tuesday the second. It's an unofficial one,
but that's going to be a show the Jump Bar
Junk Yeah, yeah, that'll that'll be fun. And then I
mean not really related to what we're talking about, but
we are doing one show over at the Tote in Melbourne,
number sixth with Pit Split and Electronic Girl Epic.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah. Very nice.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Of course, Big Sounds much more than just turn it
up playing and then going home. By there's workshops, there's showcases,
there's networking opportunities, like it's it's not just all funny games.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Do you guys come over? Is it? No?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And we're definitely we've got a bit of homework to
do on trying to plan our days and make sure
everyone gets to see what they.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Want to see.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Also, we're also bringing our managers so he can he
can go do a lot of that stuff on ourpohoe.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, but I mean it's it's definitely an exciting opportunity.
There's just this It's yeah, I've been like so overwhelmed
with all the comms and looking at all the incredible
people coming. So yeah, we need to do some research,
I think, and really.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Plan it out. There is a breathwork class for stressed
out musicians, which I reckon there'll.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Be a few people that one.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
So what sorts of things do you hope the band
is going to take out of Big Sound experience?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well, I think it's just for us. It's definitely just
obviously Big Sound. It's not the same as just rocking
up and doing an Aussie tour. So I think we're
trying to just get the most out of this opportunity
and getting in front of people that we wouldn't normally
be able to get in front of and for them
to see our live show and just hang out and
(06:09):
meet people who are in a similar position or who
have had similar experiences to us and can give us
some advice.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
We want more Rossies to want us to come back
and play.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, yeah, we want to come back. We want to
do some festivals and.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, it's a fit in the door for us to
be seen by folks that are actually not that far
away from us that we feel like we'd have a
good sell to and folks who have like a good
time seeing us.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, you guys drop your third album, Art's Colony Sorry
back in May.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
So how's the reception been for that?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, it's been really, really really great. We this album
was a bit of an epic for us because it
was the longest one we've ever done, and also we
released it. So we did vinyl on our second album,
but instead of vinyl this time, we decided to do
a book. So we made a three hundred and thirty
page full color art book with contributions from forty other
(07:06):
artists from around alt.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Or photographers, painters, writers. It comes with the free cockering
as well if you buy the book.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, and we're almost sold out of those, we've got
a couple of days.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
To be fair too heavy to bring overseas as well.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
We're bringing the last like three to Australia, I think.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
But yeah, like.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It's been, it's been. The reception has been really amazing
because this was our opportunity to just do something with
our immediate community. The thing about GRICO that we've always
wanted to do is invite people that are more talented
than us to collaborate with us. So that seemed like
the best way to do it because we were able
(07:52):
to not just have musicians come and collaborate with us
on the album, but also like artists of all sorts,
of different kinds.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I guess we've got our own kind of the world.
But like you know, nationalist gothic identity song on the album,
it's not that you know national identity gothic kind of
he says, just got something like eight singers on it.
There's there's a track that we did with Tonesa, who's
like an amazing outside artist from I don't know, from Canada.
(08:24):
That that's I feel like some people know, but yeah
it was.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And importantly we also did a track on that album
with Al Carlson, who's from nam Melbourne, who we've played
with here before, So that was really fun having a
bit of a trans Tasman thing going on.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah, but the press really says that the album represents
a bold evolution of the band's sound.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
So in what way?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Well, I think I mean definitely in terms of those
collaborative elements and in terms of I think that, yeah,
this this album more than any other, Like each song
feels really different, and I feel like it's got a
sort of yeah, it's very very there's something for everyone.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I think, would you say, yeah, you know, I mean,
like there's a slow one.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Fast one, the fast one, really fast one.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
It's it's it's yeah. I don't know, Like the first
couple of albums sound really distorted and kind of like
in a good way, which people actually quite like, and
like we haven't we haven't cleaned it up, but we've
tried to figure out what what what what happens if
you do take away that merk, like can you still
have this threatening but kind of more sonically kind of
(09:41):
clean thing happening? And I think you might find that
if you listen to the album, it would actually be
some good results and that that front, like.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
It's yeah, not too much into the national stereotypes. But
our first album did have a lot of sheets on
it in the background if you listen carefully because of
where we were recording. Uh, they were sheep And this
album we've got no and it will sound we do.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
We're doing our neighbors have got chickens.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm actually intrigued. Now, can you send
me over a link to the album?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah, we've done you a digital link with your name
on it.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Now.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
I also read something about a secret version of the
album that could be unlocked using a Spelton key. What's
the idea of story by name?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So if you get the book, there's like I mentioned,
the cock ring, it's not just for whistling, you know,
it's it's also for decoding some secret kind of things
we've linked throughout the album. And then that basically leads
to a mirror version of the album, which is.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Secret.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I mean, I can't it.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Can only be a locked through the book. The book
has a bunch of easter eggs that if you kind
of create the code, you can listen to the bizarro.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Version of the Over the last five years, we've been
building our own website and we just keep adding random
pages to it every day because I don't know, maybe
social media is going to collapse, but we just want
to have this huge kind of like it's like a
sewer system that you can roam through on the Internet
that's just made up out of Greco ambience and like
(11:28):
Greco bits and pieces, and yeah, this is kind of
adding to that.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
There's one more quoe already.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
The press release that caught my eye and said, in
an age of functional music, Greco offers dysfunctional music.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
I love that, I love to say, but can you
elaborate on it a bit more?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Well, Yeah, this is kind of inspired by Liz Pela's
book The Mood Machine, which talks a lot about how
Spotify has co opted the streaming age in order to
you know, create this in list shoot of content that
you know, people can just like tap into and listen to,
(12:07):
and how you know, what was initially an optimistic period
of musicians maybe escaping from under the thumb of really
horrible you know, corporate record labels kind of turned into
something much worse, in which all music was not all
music obviously, because there are people who listen to the
(12:27):
show and people out there who go and seek it out,
but you know, you people know because we're out there
trying to seek it out. But essentially, you know, things
like Spotify have flattened out the landscape of music so
that in order to kind of you know, peek and
reach to the top and to have any attention paid
to you, you sort of have to do certain things
that you know, prick the algorithm.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Well, and that music becomes a means to the to
an end. It's like, I mean, it's like the end
goal is to be on a Spotify playlist that's like
chill Vibes or whatever, which is really uninteresting to us.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
And yeah, and you could easily fill that platform as
they do with their own kind of ghost ghost artists
and bots that kind of you know, do that sort
of thing. And a lot of that music kind of
comes across to me as Mouzak, you know, the kind
of functional ship in the background that used to play
to in elevators in elevators to get people from A
(13:23):
to B so that they could have it piped into
their office and they staff in the department st and
I feel like Greco romance does not sound functional, like
we we we make your scalp and you want to scratch.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I guess you have to kind of pay attention to it,
whether whether you like it or not. At the very least,
you can't really just tune it out.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
It's not friendly. Office music.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
The best place for people to go to find out
more about the.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Band, So I would say probably go to our instagram,
Greco romanc and we've got a little link treat thing
that's got all the link to our band camp, to
our website, as Demian mentioned, to information about the book
and all our shots in Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, you can go to greco romance dot com if
you want to be confused, and I think I get
the feeling some of you might want that. Yes, it's good.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It's a beautiful thing, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, it cracks and skulls open hopefully.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
All right, guys, well, thanks very much for your time
for me to pleasure speak with you.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I'm going to definete out a big sound because sounds,
like I said before, sounds intrigue.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Thanks Chris, lovely to me.
We Greco Romance. I'm Damien and I'm Billy.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
We're from Tamiki, Makoto, Alti or New Zealand also known
as Auckland, and we are coming.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
To Skip Sound in September.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Very nice, guys, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Chris By Pleasure.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
So Greco will be one of more than one hundred
and twenty bands playing across eighteen stages of Big Sound
twenty twenty five, which is going to be held in
Brisbane's Fortitude Balley from September two to five. More than
one hundred and twenty bands, guys, that's a ship down
the band to be playing.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I feel sorry for them.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
You you had a day and afternoon listening to everything.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I've listened to every single act list. Yeah, it's gonna
be it's gonna be a good year. I'm excited. It's
gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Rich five stood out to you the most.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You say, Spike, fuck, ugly, mumfighter shock at all. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I was a test to see if you haven't done
your homework, and you were me.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
You've done the.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Home of Guy.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, Yeah, we're don't we're doing a little side show
with Spike Fuck as well, which is quite exciting.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
But yeah, yeah, nice.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Before we get at anything else, I was like, I'm
sure there's people over here on this side of the
ocean that haven't heard too much about Greco, So tell
us a bit about the band and a bit of
history at this point.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, so there's three of us. Mikey right now is
driving a bus on an island, who's our third member,
And we have been performing and writing songs and putting
out music for five years now. Yeah, we've got three
albums under our belt. We play a lot in Auckland
(01:50):
and around the country, and in terms of what we
kind of sound like and what our buzz is, it's
kind of electronically. It's it's got a bit of kind
of operatic vocals. I'm a classically trained singer, so that's
where that kind of comes in, and it's kind of ravy.
If you like hard, rave industrial things, then maybe you'll
(02:14):
like us.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, it's it's it's like too too kind of shitty
to be like proper techno music and also not qualified
enough to be, you know, a band with musicians playing stuff,
so it's like garage uncle rave that's got you know,
crazy operatic falsetto singing over the top. But it's a
little bit industrial as well. That was interesting, people say,
(02:40):
despite despite that, it's actually kind of fun as well.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Well, there we go, actually come to be part of
beachwe guys.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Well, I know that big sound every year is a
it's a big deal for us killies because they only
take sort of a handful of us. So we went
through all the the channels.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I think I think I think some people spied our
live show. We're pretty fun live act.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, we try and we try and like, yeah, put
on a put on a good time.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
It's like the Blood Rave, but without the blood Rave budget,
you know.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, I've got to say without the blood.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah we want the blood, but we need the budget.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah. Blood's bloody expensive these days, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, you know, it's a little blue life. It's a
little bit cheap all around the place. You know, if
anyone's willing to step up, well we'll take your plasma.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Do you know what gigs you do it over those
three days yet or is that like a bit of
a surprise.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
People, So we are doing we should look at our
blonden notes like yeah, the Tuesday and the Wednesday. So yeah,
on the Tuesday it's nine o'clock at the Wonderland upstairs
and and then on the Wednesday it's the Prince Consort
(04:01):
Hotel that's at ten o'clock.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
These are very very very like I don't know what's
the weird gracious times for us, where we're often the
band that's put on right when people are getting very
skanky and scongey with it.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
So these are like one.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Am band typically, so tough for us because we're also
often the oldest.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Band making the track from New Zealand. You deserve a
good place.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Just ye, it's nice and we're doing like an afternoon
show as well on Tuesday the second. It's an unofficial one,
but that's going to be a show the Jump Bar
Junk Yeah, yeah, that'll that'll be fun. And then I
mean not really related to what we're talking about, but
we are doing one show over at the Tote in Melbourne,
number sixth with Pit Split and Electronic Girl Epic.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah. Very nice.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Of course, Big Sounds much more than just turn it
up playing and then going home. By there's workshops, there's showcases,
there's networking opportunities, like it's it's not just all funny games.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Do you guys come over? Is it? No?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And we're definitely we've got a bit of homework to
do on trying to plan our days and make sure
everyone gets to see what they.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Want to see.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Also, we're also bringing our managers so he can he
can go do a lot of that stuff on ourpohoe.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, but I mean it's it's definitely an exciting opportunity.
There's just this It's yeah, I've been like so overwhelmed
with all the comms and looking at all the incredible
people coming. So yeah, we need to do some research,
I think, and really.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Plan it out. There is a breathwork class for stressed
out musicians, which I reckon there'll.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Be a few people that one.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
So what sorts of things do you hope the band
is going to take out of Big Sound experience?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well, I think it's just for us. It's definitely just
obviously Big Sound. It's not the same as just rocking
up and doing an Aussie tour. So I think we're
trying to just get the most out of this opportunity
and getting in front of people that we wouldn't normally
be able to get in front of and for them
to see our live show and just hang out and
(06:09):
meet people who are in a similar position or who
have had similar experiences to us and can give us
some advice.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
We want more Rossies to want us to come back
and play.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, yeah, we want to come back. We want to
do some festivals and.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, it's a fit in the door for us to
be seen by folks that are actually not that far
away from us that we feel like we'd have a
good sell to and folks who have like a good
time seeing us.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, you guys drop your third album, Art's Colony Sorry
back in May.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
So how's the reception been for that?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, it's been really, really really great. We this album
was a bit of an epic for us because it
was the longest one we've ever done, and also we
released it. So we did vinyl on our second album,
but instead of vinyl this time, we decided to do
a book. So we made a three hundred and thirty
page full color art book with contributions from forty other
(07:06):
artists from around alt.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Or photographers, painters, writers. It comes with the free cockering
as well if you buy the book.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, and we're almost sold out of those, we've got
a couple of days.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
To be fair too heavy to bring overseas as well.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
We're bringing the last like three to Australia, I think.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
But yeah, like.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It's been, it's been. The reception has been really amazing
because this was our opportunity to just do something with
our immediate community. The thing about GRICO that we've always
wanted to do is invite people that are more talented
than us to collaborate with us. So that seemed like
the best way to do it because we were able
(07:52):
to not just have musicians come and collaborate with us
on the album, but also like artists of all sorts,
of different kinds.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I guess we've got our own kind of the world.
But like you know, nationalist gothic identity song on the album,
it's not that you know national identity gothic kind of
he says, just got something like eight singers on it.
There's there's a track that we did with Tonesa, who's
like an amazing outside artist from I don't know, from Canada.
(08:24):
That that's I feel like some people know, but yeah
it was.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And importantly we also did a track on that album
with Al Carlson, who's from nam Melbourne, who we've played
with here before, So that was really fun having a
bit of a trans Tasman thing going on.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah, but the press really says that the album represents
a bold evolution of the band's sound.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
So in what way?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Well, I think I mean definitely in terms of those
collaborative elements and in terms of I think that, yeah,
this this album more than any other, Like each song
feels really different, and I feel like it's got a
sort of yeah, it's very very there's something for everyone.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I think, would you say, yeah, you know, I mean,
like there's a slow one.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Fast one, the fast one, really fast one.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
It's it's it's yeah. I don't know, Like the first
couple of albums sound really distorted and kind of like
in a good way, which people actually quite like, and
like we haven't we haven't cleaned it up, but we've
tried to figure out what what what what happens if
you do take away that merk, like can you still
have this threatening but kind of more sonically kind of
(09:41):
clean thing happening? And I think you might find that
if you listen to the album, it would actually be
some good results and that that front, like.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
It's yeah, not too much into the national stereotypes. But
our first album did have a lot of sheets on
it in the background if you listen carefully because of
where we were recording. Uh, they were sheep And this
album we've got no and it will sound we do.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
We're doing our neighbors have got chickens.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm actually intrigued. Now, can you send
me over a link to the album?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah, we've done you a digital link with your name
on it.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Now.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
I also read something about a secret version of the
album that could be unlocked using a Spelton key. What's
the idea of story by name?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So if you get the book, there's like I mentioned,
the cock ring, it's not just for whistling, you know,
it's it's also for decoding some secret kind of things
we've linked throughout the album. And then that basically leads
to a mirror version of the album, which is.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Secret.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I mean, I can't it.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Can only be a locked through the book. The book
has a bunch of easter eggs that if you kind
of create the code, you can listen to the bizarro.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Version of the Over the last five years, we've been
building our own website and we just keep adding random
pages to it every day because I don't know, maybe
social media is going to collapse, but we just want
to have this huge kind of like it's like a
sewer system that you can roam through on the Internet
that's just made up out of Greco ambience and like
(11:28):
Greco bits and pieces, and yeah, this is kind of
adding to that.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
There's one more quoe already.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
The press release that caught my eye and said, in
an age of functional music, Greco offers dysfunctional music.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
I love that, I love to say, but can you
elaborate on it a bit more?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Well, Yeah, this is kind of inspired by Liz Pela's
book The Mood Machine, which talks a lot about how
Spotify has co opted the streaming age in order to
you know, create this in list shoot of content that
you know, people can just like tap into and listen to,
(12:07):
and how you know, what was initially an optimistic period
of musicians maybe escaping from under the thumb of really
horrible you know, corporate record labels kind of turned into
something much worse, in which all music was not all
music obviously, because there are people who listen to the
(12:27):
show and people out there who go and seek it out,
but you know, you people know because we're out there
trying to seek it out. But essentially, you know, things
like Spotify have flattened out the landscape of music so
that in order to kind of you know, peek and
reach to the top and to have any attention paid
to you, you sort of have to do certain things
that you know, prick the algorithm.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Well, and that music becomes a means to the to
an end. It's like, I mean, it's like the end
goal is to be on a Spotify playlist that's like
chill Vibes or whatever, which is really uninteresting to us.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
And yeah, and you could easily fill that platform as
they do with their own kind of ghost ghost artists
and bots that kind of you know, do that sort
of thing. And a lot of that music kind of
comes across to me as Mouzak, you know, the kind
of functional ship in the background that used to play
to in elevators in elevators to get people from A
(13:23):
to B so that they could have it piped into
their office and they staff in the department st and
I feel like Greco romance does not sound functional, like
we we we make your scalp and you want to scratch.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I guess you have to kind of pay attention to it,
whether whether you like it or not. At the very least,
you can't really just tune it out.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
It's not friendly. Office music.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
The best place for people to go to find out
more about the.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Band, So I would say probably go to our instagram,
Greco romanc and we've got a little link treat thing
that's got all the link to our band camp, to
our website, as Demian mentioned, to information about the book
and all our shots in Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, you can go to greco romance dot com if
you want to be confused, and I think I get
the feeling some of you might want that. Yes, it's good.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It's a beautiful thing, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, it cracks and skulls open hopefully.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
All right, guys, well, thanks very much for your time
for me to pleasure speak with you.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I'm going to definete out a big sound because sounds,
like I said before, sounds intrigue.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Thanks Chris, lovely to me.
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