New Album And Tour For The Nation Blue

“Protest Songs for us represents our anxieties and preoccupations over the last few years,” explains Tom Lygncoln, guitarist and vocalist with the caustically furious Melbourne trio, The Nation Blue. “I’m sure a lot of people have similar reservations and concerns. We understand the irony of middle-class white men protesting anything, but we are interested in the discussion. I guess we wanted to introduce other points of view in opposition to what has seemingly been the popular consensus. These songs are reactionary and some of the angriest we have written.”

Recorded over two weeks by Matt Voigt (Cat Power) in July of last year at a borrowed property outside Melbourne, Protest Songs is doused in the group’s usual molten intent, but according to Lygncoln the session were the smoothest that he, bassist Matt Weston and drummer Dan McKay have been through.

“We all agreed that it was the best experience we have had recording,” enthuses Lygncoln. “The pressure was still on in turning what were basic pieces into actual songs and lines into lyrics, but even that part of it was hugely enjoyable.”

That makes the new album the polar opposite of its predecessor, Damnation, which the band laboured over for a year, planning in minute detail before relocating to an expensive studio to track and mix it over three months. The result, recalls Lygncoln, was “pretty stressful and induced neurotic obsession”.

This time, he adds, “we had only played the vast majority of songs once or twice before recording them. We wrote a lot of stuff up there and just played every day and got drunk and cooked. Where Damnation is quite claustrophobic, stifling, guitar heavy and multi-layered, Protest Songs employs the Phil Spector wall of sound technique and is open and sounds like three people in a big room.”

The stress appeared to follow the band on tour, with Weston infamously dislocating a kneecap mid-song at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre when they supported The Foo Fighters in late 2005. He played on, stretched out on his back, but the incident – and his extended recuperation – marked a turning point in the band’s attitude to music and work.

“We have loosened up and relaxed and are having fun again as friends. Speaking for myself, I had a lot to come to terms with since leaving Tasmania, a place relatively untouched by the music industry then. I went from total rejection of that industry to having to engage with it and thinking about it all the time,” Lyngcoln says. “That can wreak havoc with your ego and self esteem and Damnation is the culmination of that conflict. It’s only really been since then that we have turned away and concentrated on the enjoyable aspects of creating and performing music again.”

Protest Songs is out Saturday 3 March on Casadeldisco Records and after a 5.30pm instore set the day prior at Melbourne’s Missing Link Records, as well as a support slot with Helmet at their Sydney and Melbourne club dates, the band undertake a national tour.

Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Thursday 29 March

National Hotel, Geelong
Friday 30 March

Cherry Bar, Melbourne
Saturday 31 March

Crown & Anchor, Adelaide
Saturday 7 April

Oxford Tavern, Wollongong
Thursday 12 April

Spectrum, Sydney
Friday 13 April

Northern Star Hotel, Newcastle
Saturday 14 April

Columbian Bar, Brisbane
Friday 20 April

Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta
Saturday 21 April

Amplifier Bar, Perth
Friday 11 May

Mojo’s, Fremantle
Saturday 12 May

Republic Bar, Hobart
Friday 18 May

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