“It’s been frustrating for us, but the EP’s finally coming out,” says Mercy Arms guitarist Kirin J Callinan. A one-off release on the Levity label, ‘Kept Low’ is the five track debut of the Sydney quartet, a band who until now have been known for the quality of the support slots they played and being one of several Australian acts signed and then dispensed with by American major label Capitol.

“They’re by no means my favourite songs of ours, or even my favourite recordings. It’s a snapshot of where we were over the past two years,” notes Callinan. The tracks cover sessions in Adelaide with P’nau’s Nick Littlemore and Pete Mayes, Sydney’s BJB Studios with Scott Horscroft and the exclusive setting of frontman Thom Moore’s kitchen. What unites the tunes is the band’s take on early 80s Brit beat, which is undercut by Callinan’s penchant for guitar noise, and Moore’s romantic pessimism.

“They’re generally songs Thom brings to the band and they evolve as we play them. He’s an absolutely brilliant songwriter. I write myself, for my own pleasure, but I really believe that Thom is one of the greatest songwriters of our time. That’s a huge call, but I truly believe it. It makes me very happy to do his songs,” enthuses Callinan.

The band came together in 2004, when Moore walked up to Callinan and percussionist Julian Sudek at a Morning After Girls show and asked the latter, who was absent-mindedly tapping away on his own legs, if he could play drums. Sudek said he could and Callinan added that he could play keyboards. Moore organised a jam session that lasted an hour before Callinan admitted he was lost on the keyboard, but could play guitar. Moore and Callinan went busking on Christmas Eve, knocking out Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massacre cuts, and in 2005, with the addition of bassist Ash Moss, they booked their first gig and began to rehearse properly.

Mercy Arms spent a year playing shows to half a dozen people at the Excelsior in Sydney and driving down to Melbourne to play at Pony, although the perception is that they emerged fully formed and fell straight into the embrace of Capitol. That relationship ended when Capitol was merged with Virgin and the label president and head of A&R who signed them both departed. The new regime initially wanted to keep them, at the behest of the British division, but insisted that the band had to relocate to America. They declined and a settlement was reached, with the quartet now likely to sign to a British major label.

The four members are all of 21-years-old now, which makes them old men compared to their recent tourmates, Ghostwood, who are part of the Sydney scene – alongside Bridezilla and Lost Valentinos – that Callinan sees Mercy Arms as a definite part of.

“There are heaps of great bands in Sydney at the moment. Ghosts have been thrown into the limelight, but I knew them before they were in a band together. They used to come into Allan’s Music when I worked there and we’d jam in the back room when my boss wasn’t around. They used to carry our gear into shows when they were underage so they could get in.”

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