Interview: Creo

Your debut EP, ‘Subtitles for X, Y, Z’, has been a long time coming. How long have you been sitting on these songs?

We started writing it beginning of 2016. The only song that sort of was written before that we recorded before that and sat on was Subtitles For X, Y, Z, the title track. We wrote that ages ago, it would have been 2014, when we wrote Afterglow. We wrote the chorus for it but couldn’t get anything else around it—putting it the side and on the back burner. For this release we revisited it and it came together really easily. I think it was because the rest of the songs fell into a similar style and that we’ve also grown as a band since then.

Is that why you chose that song to name your EP?

The meaning of the song, too, typified everything we were trying to say at the time. It’s a play on the fact that it’s relatable to everyone and anyone and the ability to get out of your own to write the song was real cathartic.

Did you experience moments of writer’s block while making these songs?

Yeah I went through a big bout of it when I started writing this EP and that’s why it took us so long to get it out. I think I was a little hard on myself too. I found I had to block myself from any sort of new music that was coming out. I’m a bit like a sponge—I take it all in and by the time I listen to something I like, I feel like I’m almost a writer for that band. To get our own thing happening and do something that is unique to us, I had to stop listening to everything else. It’s the whole process, too; instead of coming up with a banging pop song or a good hook that will explode into the world. I used the block as a time to reflect and take itself as a creative approach—narrating that journey of a struggling Australian group.

Was playing shows during the recording process a cathartic experience?

Subtitles For X, Y, Z  was playing a lot live before we recorded it and we knew it was going to connect because it’s always a crowd favourite. The other tracks we had never played live until we had recorded them this year. We find that when we write a song, initially, and then record it, it changes in that process and we have to relearn when it comes to the live version.

Has it been hard trying to convert that energy from the studio to the stage, or vice-versa?

We put a lot of energy in our live shows. So, with this record, we wanted to transfer what we do live into a recording. At the moment, the energy is there for most of the songs, but the power and emotion isn’t. That’s what we wanted to achieve with this release and I think we did that successfully.

There’s some real beautiful moments on the EP of subtle guitar work that, in my opinion, make it sound so much more full and alive.

We’re very much a band of payoff. The play on dynamics and layering is so important so when it does get loud, there’s this gradual, effortless build that we try to achieve in the guitar tones that’s very much a payoff. You’ll find that’s another reason why it takes so long for us to record and release because I think some of the tracks had over 150 guitar track so there’s a lot going on all at once. Everything we do, too, is all on a guitar—there’s no piano, there’s no synths, it’s all guitar.

June is my favourite cut off the EP. Tell me about that one.

I have a love-hate relationship with that song because it was a bitch to record. We actually recorded two versions of the song. One version, which we didn’t release, after that first verse-into-chrous and breaks into that smashing section with all the guitars then it broke into a cruising pace; much like a Foals-esque groove. We opted to go with the one you hear today, obviously. But it took so much time and so much energy that I was drained after the song’s process. There was a lot of mixing and production going on while recording the song it was very draining.

The other fantastic asset to Creo’s music is your vocals. How do you go about translating it live?

What you’re hearing is how we’d like it to sound live. On record, you’re hearing a lot of double-octave; I’ll sing the higher parts and Carlos [guitar] will sing the bottom harmony. A lot of the time it’s pretty natural. I’m a bit lucky that I do have a unique voice.

Read our review of Creo’s ‘Subtitles for X, Y, Z’ HERE.

Creo Live Dates

FRI 20 OCT
The Penny Black, Melbourne
SUN 22 OCT
Cherry Bar, Melbourne
FRI 3 NOV
Transit Bar, Canberra
SUN 5 NOV
North Gong, Wollongong
FRI 10 NOV
The Northern, Byron Bay
SAT 11 NOV
Rics Bar, Brisbane
SUN 12 NOV
The Cambridge Warehouse, Newcastle