Q & A with Mexico City

It’s been six years since Brisbane outfit, Mexico City have visited the Sunshine Coast (or let alone put out new material), but they’re back, with a new album and tour.

Before heading to play The Bison Bar in Nambour on April 30, we got to ask guitarist Simon Radich a few questions, including where the hell they’ve been…

Hi Simon. Congratulations on the new album, ‘When The Day Goes Dark’. Your last album, ‘Brown Bird’ was released back in 2009… So why the big gap of Karnivool-esque proportions between that album, and WTDGD?

Short answer is life got in the way. We all had a couple of kids in that time so it was really hard to find the time to get together to work on new songs, let alone record them. But we kept chipping away at it. Recorded a batch of tunes with Jeff Lovejoy back in 2010, then completed a few more with Jamie Trevaskis in the ensuing years. But it was really stop start. A few days here and there then nothing for months. I don’t think any of us would want to do it that way again but we got there in the end.

The first single off the album (released in December last year) retells an ugly piece of Australian history – that of the Cronulla Riots in 2005 (personally, I can’t believe it was that long ago).  What was the decision behind using this event as a lyrically theme?

Adam came with the tune and it just felt right you know? I think I may have been doing some uni work about the riots at the time and once I settled on the topic it pretty much wrote itself. It’s probably the most overtly political song we’ve done and I’m really happy with how it came together. 

Does the album, lyrically, after the single, further focus on grittier issues (to complement, musically, the record being a quiet revolution)?

I dunno, all of our songs are kind of heavy in a sad sack, slit your wrist kind of way, and I guess this one is no different. Maybe they’re a little more specific in terms of places (St Lucia, Rosewood Line etc) than some of our other stuff. But yeah, there are a few more quiet numbers than the previous two albums. It’s got a nice late-night vibe going.

The band has been surrounded by other amazing Australian musicians and engineers, including You Am I’s Rusty Hopkinson (who released your first EP), your former drummer is now in Mess Hall, Jeff Lovejoy (was in Brisbane band, Lavish, now producing full time with Magoo), and bloody hell, now you have Ben Ely added into the mix…  So, my question is, with such a mix of talented company, plus how damn cool Mexico City’s sound is… Why isn’t the band as big as should be? Or in other words, is it utterly important for you to be ‘big’?

Ha, yeah it’s funny you say that. If someone had said to me when we were starting out that Rusty would release our first couple of records or that Ben Ely would join our band I wouldn’t have believed them – it would’ve been too good, and fantastical (is that a word?) to believe. So we’ve been pretty lucky I guess but they must see something in us or our songs that most other folks don’t.

But in terms of how big we should be? I dunno, I’m probably the worst person to ask. To be honest I think we’re a thousand times better now than we were even a couple of years ago. So I dunno, we’re probably as big as we deserve. But we’re just happy to play in front of people to be honest. If there are folks in the room and they seem to dig what we’re doing I’m satisfied with that.

You’re heading to the Sunshine Coast very soon, to play The Bison Bar in Nambour. Such a cool little venue, so will you be going all out, or stripping it back for this show?

Yeah, I’ve heard lots of great things about it so I’m really looking forward to it. Adam and I have been doing a bunch of acoustic shows so we can definitely strip it down but we’ll probably throw in a few rockier numbers just to keep it interesting. Our good mate, Zac Gunthorpe, is from up that way and is playing solo so we might mix it up a bit. Should be a fun night as Ben Ely is doing a solo set afterwards.

Finally, you’ve added an array of covers from various artists into your set lists in the past, but what would be the quintessential choice?

We used to do the Beatles “Yer Blues” and I was thinking the other day we should revive it so maybe that? Great song by a pretty good band!

Thanks, Simon. We’ll be seeing Mexico City, along with Zac Gunthorpe and Ben Ely at The Bison Bar on April 30.

When The Day Goes Dark is available now via iTunes.