q&a: myth & tropics

Myth & Tropics, out of New South Wales, are another one of the lucky bands to get signed to Major Label. They’ve been around for a little while, playing warehouse parties, various gigs and little shindigs but according to guitarist, Liam O’Brien, they’re looking forward to a big year of opportunities and adventures, courtesy of General Pants Co.

So I’m pretty sure you get this question a lot, but where did the name Myth and Tropics come from?
Well it’s sort of a bastardised pun of the word ‘misanthropic’, which means an aversion to humanity. It just sort of came along, and looking at the lyrical content of most of our songs, and the fact that they’re mostly based on countries close to the equator, it made the most sense, sort of.

Congratulations on the Major Label signing, how did that happen?
Well it was all a matter of Sami [Stewart], who really took over everything. She emailed us, telling us how interested she was and that she was definitely a fan, so we sent her a new demo, she liked it and that sort of set things in motion. We sent over a polished version of it, which was later mastered at Sterling Sounds in New York. It’s all been really cool actually, pretty exciting.

Have they presented any sparkly opportunities?
Funnily enough we’re being featured in a General Pants campaign, which was a lot of fun. And while we were doing that, the Managing Director of the shoot brought up possibly doing a video clip. It’s all up in the air right now, all in good faith, so nothing too solid but we’re definitely looking forward to it.

Any touring plans? I saw you guys in Sydney a year ago, and you’ve been to Melbourne since, but is there anything else on the cards?
To be honest, not at the moment, we still need to work on a lot more songs. We had a single launch the other night in Sydney and it was a lot of fun, we actually got asked to encore but we really just had to be honest with the crowd, that we love it, but to put it simply, we don’t have anything more to play. We’re playing with Damn Dogs, on July 14th, they’re former Jet members so looking forward to that.

Hypothetically, if you were planning a tour, who would you like to play with?
I really have no idea. There’s this new band, like really new, called New Brutalists, they’re actually just from around where we’re from, so it feels kind of selfish, but most of the bands we really like are actually friends of ours. They have kind of a loose punk sound, with hip hop elements. I couldn’t really name anyone else off the top of my head, but it would be great to have a bunch of our friends around. Oh, but I think it would be cool to play with Kite Club. They’re from Melbourne, and have great wacky similarities to our music.

What do you think you would be doing if you weren’t making music?
Probably as little as possible. I studied audio production, and was lucky enough to find a job playing music, when I joined Faker. So that was really fortunate, I cant see myself doing much else other than music, really.

How’s it been since Rebecca joined the band?
It’s pretty cool having a girl drummer, we feel more like a band. Usually with a bunch of guys its sort of like a gang, just jamming, but she really adds a great vibe to Myth and Tropics. She really suited what we do, and fit in well with the sound.

Lastly, what’s been on your playlists lately?
At the moment, it’s just Mark and I writing and recording, as Rebecca is doing her HSC, so we just teach her the drum parts later on. So while that’s happening we usually listen to a lot of Phil Spector, and a lot of bubblegum pop from the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Myth & Tropics has now released ‘Waikiki ’71’ through General Pants Co.’s Major Label! They will be performing in Melbourne at The Toff in Town on July 14, click here for tickets and more information.