Repairs Take Broken Bottles as a Compliment

Melbourne band Repairs are fuelled by minimal synths and industrial tones. Hailing from the picturesque suburb of Heidelberg, their sound is more garage than greenery. Over the years they’ve drawn inspiration from Australian political upheaval and the '09 heatwave that sent their organs way out of tune and helped define their sound.

This year is shaping up to be a memorable one after being featured in the recently released music tome Noise In My Head and with their new album expected later this year. We spoke to them about their best and worst gigs, and how Melbourne music has changed in the past few years.

Noisey: I just read your section in Noise In My Head, and a big chunk of that deals with a brawl at one of your gigs. What are the other memorable experiences of being on tour or at shows?

Alex: Summer Wins?

Ben: I was gonna say Summer Wins, it would have to be the close second to the brawl which might have been described in the book—I haven’t read the interview yet. We played the last Summer Wins which was a festival set up by a friend of ours who later when on to run Nihilistic orbs. We were the last act of the day.

How did it get started?

Alex: We were drinking from probably 11.

Ben: By the time we played it was amount midnight. I just remember playing and Sean who ran the festival wouldn’t get off the stage, so he decided to play as well and we just played this really insane set. There was quite a decent crowd and I just remember we were really wasted and just kind of going for it.

Then all of sudden there was a shower of bottles at our feet but it was actually a respect thing, because they could of hit us if they wanted to. We played for maybe only fifteen minutes.

Alex: It wasn’t long. It was a stretch though—it was tough.

Ben: There was this continuous stream of glass that ended with Sean tackling me, pulling me off and kind of sitting on me to prevent me from going back because he said, “I think this needs to stop”. It was pretty loose. I mean they could have hit us, if they wanted to hit us but I do remember picking bits of glass out of my hair. I mean that was fun.

It doesn’t seem to feel like Melbourne has that as much anymore.

Ben: Yeah I don’t know if it’s as much, maybe there’s a new generation. I’m not sure but definitely it was way more widespread back maybe five years.

It feels weird because we should kind of be angrier now, in regards to the way Australia is heading.

Alex: You mean politically? Yeah of course.

Ben: Yeah, it’s going nothing but down hill and it’s getting nothing but worse. I agree on that one.

What kind of music in Melbourne do you follow these days, considering how much it’s changed?

Ben: I like Vacuum.

Alex: Yeah, there’s a lot of two pieces. Flat Fix as well. They played a show recently and that was amazing.

Ben: And Free Jack was really great.

Alex: Those kind of emerging and smaller one or two pieces, I think they’re really interesting

Do you feel that we’re going to have another surge in the music scene?

Ben: I kind of believe that we will, but the problem is also the combination of authority staging these kind of happenings. Because the way that we’re going right now, I think we are heading towards a sort of police state, but probably not that different from 30-years-ago or something like that.

Alex: There’s still a state election this year

Ben: Let’s not get too dark just yet, but I think the way the political climate is heading there’s going to be some sort of creative tension about what is happening—things seem to be getting quite rapidly worse.

Repairs say they're about 75 percent of the way through their new album, tentatively titled 'Night Circuit'.

Watch them play live at our Melbourne Noisey Presents show on 15 May along with Reptiles and Constant Mongrel. It’s free so make sure you RSVP.