It only took them six years, but Mukaizake have followed up their acclaimed debut ‘Mapping the Static’ with a mini-album, ‘Unknown Knowns’. Simon Struthers explains the delay and speculates on the band's future with ADAM D MILLS.

In the world of Mukaizake, it seems that nothing happens quickly. After casually coming together back in 1999, it was four years until they put out their debut album Mapping the Static. Riding high on the record's success, the band booked themselves some studio time over a long weekend in 2004, recording six songs intended for the follow-up. But then, almost instantly, the band disintegrated. Two members decamped from Perth – Dan Erikson settling in Melbourne, Simon Struthers in Sydney – forcing Mukaizake into an indefinite hiatus and leaving the recordings in a semi-finished state.

“Being spread across three different states isn't the most productive way to keep the band going,” says Struthers with a chuckle. “We always had in the back of our mind that we'd release those tracks that we'd recorded. But with Dan and I living away it was too hard to get into a position where we could finish it off and release it.”

But in late-2009, Struthers returned to Perth, which provided the necessary spark to reignite Mukaizake. “Now we're only dealing with two states in Australia instead of three, so it's easy for us to fly Dan back for a show.”

The first order of business for the newly-reunited band was to finish off those 2004 recordings, creating what became the Unknown Knowns mini-album. Despite the fact that it dated back five years, Struthers says that the material still felt fresh to him and his bandmates, and that the opportunity to tackle them anew after such a prolonged absence was greatly beneficial to the finished product.

“It was actually quite nice revisiting the tracks that long after it,” he says. “A lot of things came a long way in the mixing. We did a bit more production and got a bit more creative with how we approached them. I think we wouldn't have had that if we hadn't had that long of a break.

“Bands I've played in, you always approach songs from your own bit – you hear your parts in songs more than anyone else's. When you mix things it becomes a bit of a battle between band members, like are you listening to your bit or are you saying that for the whole song. So having that gap means that you can get in there and be a bit more objective about it and not be very precious with your bit. [You can] make decisions based on, 'Is this going to make the song better?'”

“We're all too close as friends to bring it to an end. There's also not a lot of point in putting out a release for a band that doesn't exist.”

No additional recording was done to finish the songs. Everything you hear on Unknown Knowns was recorded in 2004 and mixed in late 2009. “The main thing that changed in the mixing of the record was that we took a lot out,” explains Struthers. “We were one of those bands where everyone was playing all the time, and part of coming back and revisiting the record was, 'Do we really need that part going for the whole song? Is it better pulling out some of those those bits, creating a bit more space?'”

With Unknown Knowns now having seen the light of day, Mukaizake are once again a going concern. That was always the plan, says Struthers; at no point did he and his bandmates consider putting a full-stop on the band's career by releasing their final recording session as a kind of epitaph.

“We're all too close as friends to bring it to an end,” he says. “There's also not a lot of point in putting out a release for a band that doesn't exist. So much effort goes into it that it doesn't seem all that meaningful.”

As for the future, nobody – least of all the band – are keen to endure another five-year wait between releases. Though any plans are at this point tentative at best, Struthers says that Mukaizake do intend to follow up Unknown Knowns sooner rather than leter. “There's a bunch of stuff floating around that we have played with,” he says. “But nothing we've played live or finalised as a song. I think ultimately we might look at trying to do a record and getting it out early next year.”

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Unknown Knowns is out now through Hidden Shoal. It was launched at a rare show in Perth last month.