STEAM-POWERED

LOCAL NOISENIKS NO ANCHOR ARE SET TO RELEASE THEIR SOPHOMORE ALBUM LESS THAN SIX MONTHS AFTER THEIR DEBUT. MATT O’NEILL SPOKE TO DRUMMER ALEX GILLIES ABOUT THE BAND’S MOTIVATION.

Author and academic Stephen Fry suggested in his debut novel The Liar that there were many different forms of deceit - deceit with the intention to deceive, deceit with the intention to entertain and deceit bereft of any intention whatsoever. The common thread, Fry posited, was that each form of deceit involved saying that which was not.
There are, by the same token, many forms of rebellion. There is violent anarchy, quiet refusal and, similar to deceit, rebellion by ignorance. All forms of rebellion, however, are united by their agents being that which is not.
Brisbane noise-rock duo No Anchor have, over the space of a very short career, rapidly proven themselves to be masters at being that which is not. The unlikely meeting point between Black Flag’s nascent ferocity, Kyuss’ expansive sludge-rock and Steve Albini’s caustic abrasion, No Anchor’s music is the sonic embodiment of visceral dissent – but the pair’s rebellion is much more comprehensive than a clutch of thunderous chords and pounding drum beats. No Anchor defy most, if not all, conventions one would seek to associate with them.
The band’s cathartic squall springs from the creative loins of a university lecturer (bassist/vocalist Ian Rogers, formerly of local heroes Iron On) and a librarian (drummer Alex Gillies). Where most bands as defiantly cacophonous in their output as No Anchor seek to conquer the world and destabilise the established hierarchies, Messrs Gillies and Rogers exist only to pursue their own peculiar vision of beautiful music. The pair’s ambitions, or lack thereof, are so thoroughly divorced of conventional rock mythology that it’s hard to conceive of them as a rock band – Gillies didn’t even learn drums until he was 30.
“I don’t want a million people to like my music,” the drummer announces with unflinching sincerity and veiled humour. “I just want the right two hundred, three hundred people to like my music. I work as a librarian and I wouldn’t expect 90 per cent of my co-workers to even know I’m in a band. They just know me as a quiet guy who likes to read. My mum knows I am in a band but she doesn’t know what kind of band…and I’m going to try and keep that up as long as possible. It isn’t that I’m not proud of what Ian and I have accomplished – I am. I think it’s amazing the territory we’ve covered in such a short territory. I’m just not a masochist.
“I’m not interested in forcing people to sit through something they obviously won’t enjoy. All the bands and artists that I admire who deal with inaccessible or fringe works have managed to make it at least as far as me. I look at a band like My Disco who started within their own town, still only play to fifty people or so within their own town, but have opportunities to tour and release stuff overseas. I think that’s all I really want with No Anchor – to reach people who understand and appreciate this kind of music. If we can reach those kinds of people, then I’ll be happy.”
The past six months have already seen Rogers and Gillies significantly further this cause. The band’s eerily titled debut album Fire-Flood & Acid Mud announced the duo to the Brisbane massive late last year, while performances with respected Brisbane names like Violent Soho, Secret Birds and Lawrence English introduced the outfit to a slew of disparate and appreciative audiences. It is the band’s forthcoming sophomore album Steam, however, that will truly establish No Anchor as a noteworthy institution of Brisbane, and Australian, music.
A masterful artistic statement stretching above and beyond the stylistic confines of their debut, Steam finds No Anchor exploring textured epics, ambient expanses, punk-rock blasts and psychedelic textures with a thrilling disregard for the conventions of their own sound. It’s astonishing to find such a young band releasing such a scintillating record. But the record’s quality is borderline-miraculous given it has been a scant six months since No Anchor released their acclaimed debut album. It’s a devastating display of utterly prodigious growth and Alex Gillies is fully aware of it.
“It has been six months,” the drummer proclaims with a proud grin. “I think we were always going to be turning over material within a very short period of time. We both knew when we first started that we just wanted to put something to tape. There was so much territory that we both wanted to cover that we knew we couldn’t go through the motions of just releasing EPs or singles – we needed to release an album. We thought ‘we’ll just put down something as a blueprint to show the polar opposites of the band’, which obvious became our first album.
“It was only through taking that approach that we started to get a better idea of what we were trying to achieve. And it allowed Ian and I a chance to well and truly get inside each other’s heads and that entire process happened while Fire-Flood was being recorded, so it was only natural that Steam came together very rapidly afterwards. We’re a very impatient band. We’ll probably be playing two or three new songs that we’ve written post-Steam when we start promoting the album with concerts and there’s a whole other piece of music that we’ve pretty much already completed.
“I do think Steam has given us a much clearer idea of what we’re trying to accomplish. When Ian and I first started, we just bonded over the dark, heavy, noisy material we both liked but this record has given us an opportunity to explore the different musical territories we’re individually interested in - the entire record was actually written on paper before it was written on record. We sat down and examined what we wanted to achieve, what we’d like certain songs to sound like – but all with a particular flow and final product in mind.”
No Anchor’s precise and considered artistic processes are already allowing the pair to access more peculiar levels of rebellion. The duo will be launching their anticipated sophomore record via the Judith Wright Centre’s acclaimed Syncretism series and will be performing alongside legendary Brisbane media artist and composer Lawrence English. Gillies, however, embroiled in the calm before the storm, isn’t entirely sure how to view the forthcoming event – his manner shifting rapidly through pride, confusion, amusement and excitement.
“It’s good in that it seems to signify to certain people that we’re being taken seriously,” the drummer considers, before laughing. “But I don’t think we are being taken seriously! I don’t think they actually know what it is that we do! It’s more been through people like Lawrence (English) and other friends that we’ve been allowed to do it. We are definitely appreciative of the opportunity to use that space and we’re glad to be using it for such a specific event. We’re actually setting up the sound system almost quadraphonically. We’re hoping that the sound won’t be coming at you from one side – but from all sides. We really want to fill the space.”

WHO: No Anchor
WHAT: Steam (out independently March 21)
WHERE & WHEN: The Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts, Saturday Mar 21