AVALANCHE OF SOUND | FEATURE| WARP
“What kept us going during the making of Wildflower was a belief in the day-to-day experience of music as a life force – as life energy. Hearing a certain song on a certain morning can change your day; it can make the world look different, changing the way you perceive light refracting through the atmosphere for the rest of the afternoon. Literally changing the colour, feeling and tone of your world” - Robbie Chater, The Avalanches.
As part of the stellar line up just announced for Party In The Paddock next February, The Avalanches multi-instrumentalist Robbie Chater will play a rare DJ set, the thought of which sees him musing deliciously over his options, the morning we speak. “Hmmm go-go dancers?!” he jokes. “Usually with my DJ set I’m playing everyone else’s music, not a hell of a lot from the Avalanches back catalogue, but some tracks from Wildflower? Yes. And playing stuff from El Producto?! Maybe that could really be a great idea?!”
Having toured with heavyweights Beck, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Stereolab as part of some of the largest festivals in the world, Party In The Paddock festivities will see Chater playing in his element. “As an artist when you’re playing in European festivals they’re just so huge, there are just so many people and of course so much mud…it’s an insane and an electric atmosphere. It’s a luxury when you’re playing to actually go and catch some acts you’d like to see on those huge lineups, is a real luxury. I absolutely love playing festival shows, I love being around that number of people. There’s something about the energy of that many people that actually feeds you.” Playing Tassie’s PITP will also offer Chater the welcome opportunity to kick off a four week tour in a somewhat more gentle, scenic environment with some family catch-ups thrown in as a bonus. “The Party in the Paddock lineup is great, really strong.” he says. “I’ve also got some cousins down there so I’m hoping to have enough time to catch up with them. It’s all really exciting.”
After the protracted recording process of producing Wildflower, the album that infamously took The Avalanches sixteen years between drinks to release, it’s compelling to know that Robbie has been back in writing game recently. Perhaps the unexpectedly drawn-out process of creating and recording Wildflower has inspired a clear sense of self-reflection around the way the band approaches songwriting? “I think I do often start [writing an album] around a particular concept as a sort of illusion that I’ll be able to control the process. You work in and around that concept and inevitably what happens is that whatever wants to come through, comes through. That’s a beautiful thing. I’ve been playing with that a lot lately and it’s a privilege.”
As we wait for the next iteration of The Avalanches recorded glory to be spawned forth, Tasmanians will relish the opportunity to see Chater perform live as part of Party In The Paddock. “About all I’ve been doing lately is writing” he says. “I’ve been so inspired and I’m just trying to open myself up more and more to let all that light come through me.”
-Amanda Laver
Robbie Chater of The Avalanches plays as part of the Party In The Paddock line up which runs from Thursday 8th - Saturday 10th February, 2018 in White Hills (20 mins drive from Launceston) Tasmania. Tickets via oztix.com.au