At Studios 301 we’re no stranger to having our production suites occupied by some of Australia’s best artists, producers and songwriters. One of our most recent tenants were the incredibly talented guys from Mansionair. Forming in January 2014, the band have gained quite a following in a short time. Their first single, ‘Hold Me Down’ has amassed a phenomenal 10 million+ views on YouTube, 2 million+ plays on Soundcloud, and peaked at #1 on Hype Machine upon release. After playing shows around the globe, headlining festivals, and selling out their own multi-date tour, the boys are back in the studio working on their debut album. We had a chat and laughs over some beers, and have put together for you the highlights in PG form.
You guys have a history with recording at Studios 301, can you tell us a bit about it?
We’ve been in and out of 301 since the start of our band. At the beginning of 2014 we moved into one of the production rooms (Studio 7) and began working together for the first time since we wrote ‘Hold Me Down’. We spent most days harvesting sounds we liked and developing who we wanted to be as a band. In there we wrote and mixed ‘Second Night’ and built our live show from the ground up which we debuted at Bigsound 2014. Following that we went in to Studio 5 and worked on a bunch of new live songs for some NYE festivals and also our first headline show. Over summer of 2015 we took some time off and jumped into Studio 8 for two weeks to touch up some songs for SXSW. Following this we returned to track our last two singles with Tony Buchan (‘Pick Me Up’ & ‘Speak Easy’), and finally earlier this year, we moved into studio 11.
What have you been working on this time around?
This time round we spent two months working on a bunch of new songs for our debut record and also touching up our live show.
How is the general vibe and experience working out of Studios 301?
301 is not like anywhere else we’ve worked. One thing we’ve always loved is the community. Everyone in the studio is such great company and everyone’s working on something different so it’s always refreshing to be around. We’ve made so many great friends with both other musicians and the 301 staff. Alex and Lach have become semi-professional ping pong players and Jack’s spent many sunny afternoons workshopping lyrics in the courtyard.
Finally, what’s on the horizon for you guys?
Over the next month we will have finished writing our album. We’re in the middle of deciding what tracks we want to include and also what tracks we feel are missing. We’ve got this massive bank of songs that we’re sifting through, 90% of them were written at 301. We’re looking forward to going on the road with The Rubens in June and then following that there will be plans to tour the album.
We can’t wait to hear new music from the guys, but in the meantime, we’ll leave you with their triple j Like A Version which is one of our all time favourites!
Here are some post from the Mansionair guys at Studios 301.
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Album is well under underway! (lyrics are taking a different turn)?? A photo posted by Mansionair (@mansionairmusic) on
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Easter fun times. Spent the holidays writing. Gonna go sleep now 🙂 ????? A photo posted by Mansionair (@mansionairmusic) on