GROUP THERAPY
The Taste’s new album Convalesce has turned out to be a healing journey for all nine members now in the line-up
WHEN The Taste started off as a humble duo its founder Mitch Sullivan had no idea it would become a sprawling nine-piece band.
Now the colossal band has recorded its second album
Convalesce relying on its collaborative abilities to commit the eclectic nature of The Taste to record.
“A lot of our songs had a simple starting point and would grow and grow after a lot of jamming,” Sullivan says.
“We’ve definitely grown as a band to be able to collaborate like this.”
He says things were quite different in the beginning.
“It was only two of us at the start, and then we grew out to four,” he says. “When we did our first CD in 2014 there were five of us.
“We’ve just gotten bigger and bigger.
“I’m not sure if we can get any bigger than we are now.”
He says the current line-up is delivering exactly the sounds he set out to create all those years ago.
“The last album we put out as a five-piece band wasn’t quite us. It sounded a bit forced, a bit scripted,” he says.
“This album is much more us, you can hear our creative process.” Convalesce shares the personal stories of heartbreak and growth from the band.
Sullivan says it was a clear thread through the recording process and inspired the name of the record.
“The title means to heal or recover, and the lyrics have that theme all the way through,” he says. “It’s about us getting older and growing up and getting over things.”
The album was released yesterday but the band already has big touring plans, including playing a slate of gigs down in Brisbane this week.
“We’re heading down there as a seven-piece for these shows,” Sullivan says.
“We’re playing two Brisbane shows on Thursday (today), then Brisbane Festival. On Friday we’re playing in Maroochydore, then heading to Nimbin on Saturday night, then doing a gig at Byron Bay Brewery, and then we’re going to head back to Cairns.”
He says it’ll be one of the biggest weekends the band has ever played.
“It’s going to be pretty fullon,” he says. “We haven’t done any Brisbane gigs since about 2015, but I don’t think we’ve ever played this many shows. We’re lucky to have worked with an agency who got us more work than we thought, but it’s great because we’ve got to do as much as possible to grow as a band.” The Taste’s new album
Convalesce is available from Bandcamp, at all their gigs, and to stream on Spotify and iTunes.