Interview: Earth Tongue Touring Aotearoa NZ in June

Ahead of a big string of international dates and their homecoming New Zealand tour in June, singer and guitarist Gussie Larkin (Mermaidens) of the now European based psychedelic stoner heavy fuzz rock duo from Te Whanganui-a-Tara Earth Tongue — also featuring Ezra Simons — sat down with Oscar Toy (Lavender Menace) to discuss film, foreign audiences, missing home, and their eagerly anticipated upcoming third album...

UnderTheRadar proudly presents...

Earth Tongue Aotearoa Tour

Thursday 12th June - The Loons, Lyttelton
Friday 13th June - Meow Nui, Wellington*
Saturday 14th June - Double Whammy, Auckland

Auckland and Christchurch tickets on sale HERE via UTR
*Wellington tickets via ticketek

Oscar Toy: You guys are about to go off on a big European tour soon, right? Or a series of tours?

Gussie Larkin: It’s funny, we didn’t plan on doing a tour but, this string of shows, when you put it all together, it looks like almost a world tour. We’re playing shows in Germany, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, so that’s cool. We’ve just been finishing up our record over the last couple of days, really looking forward to just playing some new songs. It’s gonna be chaotic, but we’re pretty used to that by now.

Are you going to be playing mostly new stuff? Or can we expect some hits as well?

We try to make the set list sort of a mix of songs from Great Haunting, and there’s just old ones that we just always have to play cause they go down really well live. I think we’ve got maybe three or four brand new songs in the set now, trying to make sure we don’t forget them. It’s scary playing new songs and getting them ready to play live, because I feel like it’s quite different recording them and then translating them to the live show.

The first time I saw you guys play was maybe 4 or 5 years ago at the second Welcome To Nowhere. Are you gonna be playing any songs from that era?

Yeah, I'd say so. We always play 'Pentagram on the Moon', because it’s got the big scream… It's a mix.

As a two piece live, do you find it’s harder to play newer stuff live? Because in the studio you can do lots of overdubs and stuff like that… what's your approach to recreating stuff like that on stage?

We’re really careful when we’re recording to not do heaps of overdubs, we really want the records to sound like an enhanced version of the two piece. With the record we just recorded, we definitely stuck with that because we were recording it all analogue, all 24 track tape machine. You think "24 tracks… that’s heaps!" but actually, when you’ve got lots of microphones, they all get used up pretty quickly. I’m really happy with this new stuff, it feels like a live record.

Is that a big jump for you? Have you ever recorded much stuff on tape before?

Yes… for our last two albums, we didn’t record every song on tape, but for the vast majority, we only recorded the drums to tape. But actually doing the whole record this way, it was a real jump, just in terms of showing up and having to absolutely nail it. The singing was a big challenge… you’re able to punch in sections, but you can’t use Melodyne [pitch detection / shifting software] or nothing like that. You're really conscious of every breath, but I really enjoyed it. It was a challenge, and I kind of had to let go of some perfectionist tendencies. People love the sound of records that are recorded like that, and for good reason. There’s such a human element, I hope that people will dig it.

Do you think it’s going to turn out as more of a raw album? With less fixing it in the mix?

Yeah, it’s raw. It’s got a really great vibe.

I also saw that you’ve started doing a Substack now, which is something I see lots of independent musicians doing as a way to just get more ideas out there, more personal musings… is that how you’re approaching it?

Well, honestly I've been pretty slack with the Substack. I have dreams of being a band that puts it out every week and has really interesting things to say… but it takes a lot of time. I think you do have to really nurture these small groups of fans that you have. We probably have like 200 people that subscribe, and I know that there are people that are quite invested, and I really think that’s important to just… build that kind of personal thing, and it doesn’t have to be with heaps of people.

Do you find that there’s this rabid, crazy Earth Tongue cult out there?

We’ve been really fortunate touring over here, particularly in Germany, where the music is really connecting with people. We’re starting to see people coming to our shows again and again, and that’s really awesome, especially in the more heavy rock, stoner rock scene in Europe, the fans are real fans. They will come to the same festivals every year, they’re really great at buying merch, they’re just quite dedicated music lovers and I feel really glad that we’re in this kind of niche. It feels pretty big over here, but it feels like a niche in New Zealand. I’m really glad we’ve found ourselves slotting in and starting to get a sense of that community over here, and it’s only been a year, so it’s been really nice.

Do you think maybe people in Europe are quicker to embrace bands then they are in New Zealand?

Yeah, I do actually! Because there are so many bands touring here, and it’s such a melting pot of people from different places. The culture of going out is so strong, I think yeah people are a lot more open. I also think people seem to have a bit more disposable income, extra money for going out, than in New Zealand, that’s just the reality over here. I also think the fact that these European cities are really big population, everybody lives in apartments, small apartments, so they love to get out, they love to meet people in the street. Where our version of that in New Zealand is kind of like going to peoples' houses, so that all flows into having an effect on gig attendance.

I wanted to ask, because you’ve called yourself movie buffs before in the press. Is there a movie that’s like… if you meet someone who likes this movie, they’re a friend of Earth Tongue? Do you have a shibboleth movie?

Peter Jackson’s Braindead keeps coming up over here, because when we talk to people and say, "Oh yeah, we’re from New Zealand, We’re from Wellington”. SO many people have said "that’s where Braindead was shot". It’s just amazing how the cult following of that film over here attracts the right kind of people, the kind of people we want to hang out with. That’s been really cool and we’ve met some mega Peter Jackson nerds, fans of his early films. In no way am I a huge buff of his films, but I think they’re great, I love them. I know if Ezra was here he would mention this '90s Italian horror called Cemetery Man [loosely based on the horror comic Dylan Dog - Ed.]. That’s his favourite film, it’s just got such a strange tone, it’s very janky. It’s like a '90s film, but it feels '70s…

Is it funny but it’s not supposed to be funny?

It's supposed to be funny... I can't say too much about that because that’s his film, but Cemetery Man, I do recommend it.

As a two piece, drums and guitar duo, do you think you could take The White Stripes in a fight?

In a fist fight?

Like prime era White Stripes, versus you guys, in a fist fight.

Yeah, I reckon we’d beat them... yeah, we’d smash them!

Do you guys miss living in New Zealand much? Since you’ve relocated?

Yeah definitely, I'm really missing my family and friends. But it hasn’t been too hard because I’ve been back once, I was there in December, Ezra’s been back, and we’re coming back in June. Just knowing that that’s coming up makes it totally fine. Definitely in winter here it was pretty tough, just like, "what are we doing?!" But now that it’s summer, it’s "oh yeah, there are many reasons I like being here".

I’ll give you one more question... are there any good small bands that you’re seeing in Europe, that you’d like to expose people in New Zealand to?

Yeah, so there’s a band called Zahn, who we share a rehearsal space with. They’re a three piece, instrumental band. They sort of cross a few genres... it's a little bit krautrock, a little bit post punk, and then they have sections of the set that are almost like this kind of dark electronic beat with analogue synths... these guys are very cool. First saw them in 2023 and we’ve kept up with them, they’re one I've been really into… uh, who else? I’ve been to a lot of shows lately but it’s all been bigger bands. This is not really my thing but I went to the show of this band called Blood Incantation, who are a progressive death metal band, they’re huge. That was insane, the most kind of technical death metal sections, then it would go into a jazzy organ bit...

Is that giving you some inspiration?

Yeah, I'm just loving that you can go to any sort of show like that just for the experience of the live show. I'm really trying to be open and go to gigs I wouldn’t usually.

Well, I'll be looking forward to the technical death metal song on the next Earth Tongue album. Do you have any closing remarks?

Just can’t wait to come back and play some shows, especially in Wellington, I'm really, really excited!