It’s a good day to have great taste in music. One of Australia’s most revered and influential bands has surprise-dropped their first album in seven years - and is heading to Sydney for the first time in 15 years. Melbourne garage rock band Eddy Current Suppression Ring will play a free show on June 12 as part of Vivid’s Tumbalong Nights series, joined by Ethiopian-Australian five-piece Chikchika. Brendan Huntley, Mikey Young, Danny Young and Brad Barry will come together to play tracks from the new record, alongside songs from their twenty-year discography that have helped shape Australia’s underground music scene. We spoke to Mikey about the new album, the band’s evolution, and returning to Sydney.

‍I want to dive straight into the live show. It's your first Sydney show in 15 years - how do you guys feel playing live again, and how has your show evolved?

It feels really good so far. We took it really slow. We just we did a bunch of very tiny Melbourne shows in secret venues to make sure we still were any good at it. I don't want to be another old band that's just doing their thing and nowhere near as good as they used to be. So I think it went all right. Then it just gradually evolved and we did the Fed Square show [in Melbourne], and that went pretty overwhelmingly well. Baby steps, booking a couple of shows at a time. The offer of a free show came up, which is  the perfect thing for us ,because then everybody can come.

You've all been doing your own things and making music with other people over the years. How do you think that you guys have grown together as a band when it comes to the way you're playing now?

Weirdly it hasn't changed too much. It feels exactly the same in its own strange way, and we have always had a pretty good ability to block out the outside world and make the band  our own thing. I was in Total Control and a few other bands for the last 10 years or so, and Brandon was in the Bloom Gaze, for a bit and before that Eddy Current was Brandon's first band. So I think having those experiences of dealing with a different bunch of people in a band and seeing how not every band's the same... you have different responsibilities and all that helps understand what's special and unique about this band. I think we're all just a little older and wiser, hopefully.

You released an album seven years ago, but from when you first started to now, what's been the biggest shift you can feel in the industry?

I guess the last album's a funny one because right when we put it out was right when Covid happened, so it's probably not a really good example of how things were at the time. It was such a kinda weird time. We've always put our records out ourselves or at least with through our friends' labels, and it's always been pretty self-sufficient, so I feel like we've never really been part of the industry anyway. The ups and downs of the industry don't really affect us. I guess the main difference is back then you used to be able to sell 10,000 CDs or something, and now that's dead. But, can still sell some records. Not much has changed for us which is good.

Is there a song or album that you now at this point in your life feel particularly proud of that you guys have made?

I'm very happy that people still gravitate to the Primary Colours album and it means a lot to people. There's not really a particular song that stands out for me but also, once they're done for me, I'll never listen to them again. We play them live but the music is not for me at this stage, it's for everyone else. Which Way To Go is still a special one live, and it can be quite cathartic and overwhelming when we do play it in front of people.

Have there been any Australian bands that you have been listening to or kept an eye on that are rising or have recently debuted in recent years that you're excited about?

Let's see... I work on music every day for people. I'm constantly getting slaughtered by bands which is great, but... I'm actually going to see a band play their first gig on Saturday night, called The Bolt Ons and I have a sneaking suspicion that they'll be fantastic due to who is in the band. That's probably the most excited I've been about a local gig for a while.

Are you guys working on new music? I don't know if I'm allowed to ask that.

You can ask whatever you like. We're always working on new music. We just jam every week at my workspace, which is behind me, which is also our jam room. So every time we practice, we just make stuff up. But yeah, we pretty much finished an album. And that'll be out soon. Very, very soon.

Has your sound changed?

Not at all.

Perfect.

I like to set these kind of limitations, kind of parameters, where we use the same guitar amps and there's no real effects and everything's recorded live in a room. So it sounds scrappy to an extent and but it's meant to just sound exactly like us or exactly like I hear us when we practice. Anytime I try to veer away from that, it feels really dishonest. I don't really have that attitude with any other bands I'm in, but just for this, I like to keep it as simple as possible. So yeah it's pretty much the same stuff again.

Cool. That's exciting. Are you playing any of the new stuff at the live show?

I imagine we will. We'll try not to bore everyone with the new songs too much.

I love your self-awareness.

A couple of them have already come out with film clips, so people are aware of those ones, and the album will hopefully be out by then, so the new songs won't be total strangers.

See you then.

Listen to Eddy Current Suppression Ring HERE.

vividsydney.com