Salad Boys Share New Album 'This Is Glue' + Interview

Christchurch's indie-rockers Salad Boys have gone from strength to strength, dropping a run of excellent tunes throughout 2017 and now unleashing their much-anticipated sophomore album This Is Glue. The collection brings together a dozen tunes from the fresh-faced Cantabrians, ranging in modes from emotive cinematic alt-rock to manically propulsive kraut/jangle-pop stompers. There's more than enough infectiously catchy hooks to keep fans happy, the group have embarked on a nationwide tour in much-deserved celebration of the record's release. Wrap your ears around This Is Glue which is out digitally and in stores today, and check our our quick chat with Joe Sampson of Salad Boys below...

Hi congratulations on the new record! Are there any specific themes you're exploring with This Is Glue?

Hi, thanks! No specific themes lyrically, at least not intentionally, but production-wise the theme is rough. I've been inspired by The Shins' first record, and early Modest Mouse recordings among others, and I've come to realise people like their indie rock better when it's presented sounding like it's half-finished, I think it stimulates the imagination more. The artwork was done by my friend Tyne Gordon whose work I'm a big fan of, and it's a good contrast to the last record which was very colourful and breezy.

How did the new record come together?

The drums were tracked in mid 2016 when (first drummer) James was in town, the rest was tracked sporadically over the following year in various places around Christchurch. I ended up mixing and engineering most of it myself, which wasn't the original plan, but it was a good (although slow) learning curve for me. I use a program called Reaper which is a great entry level DAW and for the most part I used the factory plugins. I was strict on limiting the use of compression and I'm proud to say only one song has reverb on the vocals! Toward the end of the sessions I got my friend Anita Clark to come in and add some violin and that really took the record to another level. I also used a synth on one track, which is a new thing for Salad Boys, and on some tracks I used a pedal called a Superego, which when layered up sounds like a very disturbed string section.

We were impressed with how mature your single 'Exultation' sounds, is there a feeling of progression since Metalmania?

Thank you. People who have heard the record have told me they can hear a progression, which is a great compliment, but if it's true I couldn't exactly say why. Some of the songs are comparatively old, some were even written for my old band T54, so perhaps the progression could be more attributed to the new approach to the production. Or perhaps I unconsciously picked the immature sounding songs for the last record! Metalmania sounds very boyish and candy coated to me, which was intentional as we were trying to be accessible back then, but this album sounds less excited-for-life, so to speak.

You've got an album release tour starting this week right?

Yes, we had our first show tonight (Thursday) and it was a great start to the tour. As I write it's 4:00am and I'm supposed to be up in an hour and a half to fly to Wellington. This tour we're hitting some new spots (Blenheim, Barrytown) and playing some places we haven't done in a long time (Dunedin, Auckland). We're also lucky enough to be doing a live to air on Radio NZ on the 2nd of February, so tune in!

What other projects are your band members involved with?

Everyone plays in everyone's band in Christchurch, so between us there is The Dance Asthmatics, Wurld Series, Contact Rock, Fran, Avon Dads, The Fluffies... to name a few.

What does 2018 hold for Salad Boys?

I'm keen to take Salad Boys back to Australia soon, and I'd really like to go back to the US but it depends on a few things, like getting visas! We're always recording new stuff (Brian and I have been working on a batch of songs for the next record since October) so we'll probably do another album this year.

Salad Boys are currently touring nationwide, for more info and ticketing see below.