Minibikes bring a darker twist to the songs of Marcel Borrack, writes Larry Schwartz.
THE debut album by Melbourne pop band Minibikes may seem a big departure for its founder, Marcel Borrack.
Not so, says the quietly-spoken singer-songwriter, who notes that his two solo albums were “loosely described as rootsy, alt-country”.
“I think it is just a slight attitude adjustment and the production is different but essentially they are all pop songs,” says Borrack, who recorded much of For Woods or Trail in his home studio.
The second of two 2006 albums, Help and I Was Only Dreaming, prompted a reviewer in this newspaper to write that his music “fits nicely within the alternative country tent, with radio-friendly catchiness”.
“Ten years before that I was playing in rock bands, disco bands,” says Borrack, a prolific songwriter with eclectic taste who has recently been enjoying Melbourne folk singer Laura Jean’s 2008 album, Eden Land.
“I have always been interested in making those sounds and recording and doing different things. So I guess I felt after that second record like doing something different.”
Borrack selected the 12 tracks on For Woods or Trail from up to 25 “solid ideas” among about 100 songs. “I think initially I just wanted to be satisfied with the songs that I was writing and have a homogeneous idea of what it was going to be,” he says. “So I spent a little while writing lots of stuff but I couldn’t work out how it would all fit together.”
He had a particular sound in mind. “Musically I wanted strong melody and strong rhythms and there are a lot of repetitious sounds and claps and percussion and stuff like that,” he says.
Borrack says the lyrics dwell on “darker subjects”. “Everybody knows from your head to your toes,” he sings on a track characterised by ringing melodic guitars and subtle vocal. “You don’t get what you’re owed/just broken bones”.
“I’m lucky enough to be able to do a lot of walking in the middle of the day around Melbourne,” he says. “I use that as a time to ruminate about stuff and I think that somehow affects what comes out.”
He founded the band in 2010. First to join Borrack, who has played guitar in several bands and backed artists including Michael Thomas, was drummer Al Barden. The most recent was guitarist Tim Harvey. The line-up also includes keyboard player Libby Chow and bassist Nathan Farrelly.
“I always anticipated it would take a while but it just took a ridiculously long time,” Borrack says, citing factors including distribution.
The album’s release coincides with a retrospective by his father, the Australian landscape painter, John Borrack, at the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum. “Painting is a layered process,” Borrack says of parallels between visual art and music. “I think it probably is quite similar.”
He describes himself as “less of a songwriter and more of a song compiler … someone who just builds up layers”.
The Age, 28-Sep-2012
Larry Schwartz Writer 