It’s safe to say that 2020 doesn’t have a lot going for it. That does mean however that each little oasis of joy and beauty that we stumble upon in this monumental clusterfuck of a year feels all the sweeter. There’s plenty of great new music despite everything, and one of the finest escapes I’ve stumbled across in the past six months has been the brilliant debut EP from Australian indie quartet Tiny Castle. Blending post punk rhythms, retro synths and slick indie hooks, Perspectives is the kind of record that takes everything you know and love and serves it up on a silver platter. I fired a few quick questions over to Chris from Tiny Castle to find out how their stunning first EP came to life.

Thanks for your time! You’ve just released your debut EP Perspectives, are you happy with how it turned out?
Yes is the answer! We wanted to wrap up our ‘first wave’ of tracks into one release, and that’s what Perspectives is. We were pleased with the overall feeling and dynamic range of the body of work as a whole however we feel each tracks holds it’s own.

The record has a very rich, full sound, it feels like a lot of love and care went into making it. Were these songs that you spent a while tinkering and perfecting or did it all come together fairly naturally?
Yeah we spend a lot of time on the bits that no-one really notices. The songs came together really easily however we have a tendency to focus too much on little sonic Easter eggs when we hit the studio. We recorded the EP over the course of basically a year. Most of the time chasing the dragon of tone.

‘World‘ is definitely a highlight for me. It stands out as one of the EPs more upbeat and uptempo offerings, where did that energy come from?
I think it came from the excitement of something new. ‘World’ was one of the first tracks we workshopped as a band! We are trying to tap back into that energy for our next release (which we have already started recording). ‘World’ is such a tune and it fills the room up when we play it live. I think everyone has a great time.

Perspectives mixes together a few different styles but it always feels like there’s an underlying thread linking everything together. It feels like these songs are meant to be together, as all good records do. What would you say connects this collection of songs?
Our own individual styles. You can hear all of our song writing in all the songs, it’s the common thing. Whatever song we write, it always has our own unique flavour or colour palette. Ben likes to use a lot of synth, I come from playing heavy rock, Will is constantly writing and James’s voice brings it all together I think.

There’s something about the record that instills a feeling of nostalgia. What music do you love which gives you that same feeling?
Great question! There’s so many bands that are really good at that. We try to capture the whole ‘a memory you never had’ vibe. We love bands like Interpol, TV on the Radio, Bruce Springsteen, The National.

From an outsider’s view we’ve seen a fair few Australian bands absolutely smashing it in recent years. What’s the scene been like to be a part of in your experience?
I absolutely love the Aussie scene. Everyone is so supportive and encouraging, we have loved every band we have ever played with. It’s such a community specifically here in Brisbane of passionate and like minded musicians and creatives. There’s a lot of overlap in terms of medium too, artists might play music and paint or take photos, so everyone supports each other like that.

Obviously it still feels a very bizarre time to be releasing music. It’s been a crazy year. How have you been keeping busy while in lockdown?
Writing! We’ve just been writing and recording. Shows here in Australia are starting to slowly start back up but we have no plans to play any shows in the immediate future.

What do you hope the future has in store for the band once things start getting back to normal?
Well, EP2 is being recorded as we speak and we are releasing some visuals to go along with Black Dove. We want to play a few headline shows and book a tour, but that might have to wait for EP2.

Massive thanks to Tiny Castle! Their debut EP Perspectives is out now!