Interview : The Butterfly Effect – Four Wheels & a Heartbeat Tour

Interviews — 30 March 2011

The Butterfly Effect are without question one of the biggest rock bands in Australia. Now the band is busy recording its fourth album, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2008’s Final Conversations Of Kings. Bassist Glenn Esmond has mentioned that the writing for the album has taken some time to set in. “The album was coming slowly but now it’s coming fast. There was some conflict about how we wanted this record to sound but that’s all been sorted now. We’ve been playing one of the songs live (Five Golden Rings).”

One thing about this album is different, the absence of long time producer Forrester Savell. According the Esmond, the band is looking to stay out of a creative rut. “Forrester’s not producing this album as yet, he is doing some pre-production though. We wanted to try something different this time. We don’t want to get stuck doing the same sort of thing all the time.”

Esmond has stated that the band may be moving away from the sound they established on Imago and continued on Final Conversations of Kings.“To me it feels like that album was the final chapter of what we started with Imago, we explored that progressive sound. I don’t know if everyone in the band would agree that Final Conversations of Kings is the album that we love the most. To me it represented the end of an era rather than the beginning of one. The new record will probably be the beginning of something new.”

So what is the new album going to sound like? Esmond has mentioned that the new album is taking all the best bits of the band and bringing them together. “We’ve been a band for over 10 years. I think we’re taking the best bits of what we do as a band, whether it’s the heavy bits or the super-melodic bits and creating a hybrid. I want to get away from the modern way of making records. We’ve spoken about having some bells on some songs, some mandolin on some songs, just whatever the song needs. Generally we let the song be the boss.”

The Butterfly Effect has managed to make a lot of noise during their time together, both in Australia and overseas. Esmond states that the band has built up a bit of a following in Europe and that they haven’t forgotten about their European fans. “Overseas people seem to have discovered us in the same way that we were discovered in Australia. We’re anxious to get this record out so we can tour Australia and go back to Europe. Our main source of finance is our live shows. When you spend about 50 or 60 grand to tour Europe for six weeks you have to be prepared. ”

Given their emerging success in Europe, are The Butterfly Effect going to have a crack at the lucrative American market? Not according to Esmond. “The United States seems way too imposing for me, a lot of bands seem to want to crack America because of the size of the market there. We’re quite happy to focus on Europe as our secondary market, I like the vibe around Europe a lot more.”

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