Sodastream

The acoustic Australian two piece Sodastream have looked set to to take the world by storm ever since John Peel started raving about their 1997 EP Enjoy, and support slots with both Pavement and Belle & Sebastian have certainly helped to heighten the band's profile.  We interviewed double bassist Pete Cohen on the eve of the band's debut album release in 2000.

How did Sodastream come into being?

Karl and I were playing in different bands in Perth, Western Australia before Sodastream formed.  Karl's bass player left and Ii was asked to begin a new band with him and Adam.  We played as a three piece and released an EP called Enjoy before Adam left the band at the beginning of 1998.  Karl and I then continued on as an acoustic two piece.

Is there any chance that Tugboat will ever reissue Enjoy, as they did with Practical Footwear?

We are hoping to re-issue Enjoy on a very low key level.  We don't have any money to do it at the moment, but when we do we are keen to hand sew all of the covers again, so it will be very limited and probably not attractive to most distributors.

Why the name Sodastream?

Why not?

Well, have Karl or yourself ever owned a Sodastream?

No, not us.  It was always the kid next door, or our cousins, or someone else that had a Sodastream.  But never us.  Ignore any hint of resentment there.

Was it an important moment for the band when John Peel started taking an interest?

Yes, we couldn't quite believe it and it was certainly the catalyst for the interest that we have received from Europe. God bless him...

What happened with Jeepster last year?

Katrina who used to work at Jeepster is also from Perth.  She helped us out when we were in the U.K. by organising some shows for us and very kindly accommodating us.  We didn't actually have very much to do with Jeepster as a record label, although we did help them move office.

I got the impression that Katrina was trying to convince Jeepster to sign you, do you not think that was the case?

No, I think Katrina was doing her very best to help us out at the time - which she did very well.  The issue may well have come up in the Jeepster office, but I don't think too much energy was spent trying to convince anyone of anything.  In hindsight it really wouldn't have been appropriate for us to be working with Jeepster, so things have worked out for the best.

There don't seem to be many double bass players in pop music, who do you draw inspiration from?

I just appreciate people who are trying to do new things in any type of music.

Who falls into that category at the moment?

I kinda meant bands that are challenging the established conventions.   Bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor who tour as a nine piece, or Songs:Ohia - a guitar and drums duo.  I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with having a guitar/bass/drum three piece or whatever, I just appreciate what you come up against when you are doing something out of the ordinary and the challenges it poses.

Did you start out by playing the electric bass and later switch to the double bass?  Its an unusual instrument to see these days, especially in a two piece!

No, I actually started on piano many aeons ago, but Ii played double bass for many years before I played electric bass.  I had classical training and all was good until my uncle taught me how to play the riff from Smoke On The Water on electric bass.  That was a bit of a turning point for me and I spent a significant portion of my teen years playing rock.  But I got over it, thankfully.

You seem very animated when playing live, are you often tempted to spin the double bass around in a rockabilly kind of way?

Never.  Firstly because I'm way too in love with my bass to try any crazy tricks.  Secondly, I have way too many leads wired up to comfortably move the bass, let alone spin it.

Do you feel that Sodastream are more a live band or a studio band?

I feel that we have a very strong element of both.  Karl and I love playing live gigs and we really enjoy recording in the studio.

Judging by the promo, your forthcoming debut album seems to reflect your live sound more closely than previous releases, was that a deliberate move?

I would say that Looks Like a Russian reflects our current live sound, as the previous releases did for the live sound we had at the time

What I meant was that Practical Footwear had a lot of additional instrumentation, whereas Looks Like A Russian seems to be pretty much just Karl and yourself.

Looks Like A Russian actually has more additional instrumentation than Practical Footwear.  I would say though that the production isn't as heavy handed on Looks Like A Russian and the other instruments are sitting better in the mix.

Looks Like A Russian is an unusual title, where did it come from?

Its actually a bit of an in joke that we've had going for some time basically stemming from an offhand comment that my dad made when he saw me playing in an orchestra with my new glasses.

Which Sodastream songs are your personal favourites?

That is a really hard question.  We are always writing and playing so much that it changes all the time.  Although we don't play songs from Enjoy very often any more, I must say that New Horse always strikes a chord with me, as does Unsteady from Practical Footwear (both track #1 - weird huh?).   The new album has a lot of songs that I really enjoy playing and we are writing a lot of new stuff at the moment which is what we are concentrating on.  I know I haven't really answered your question, but I guess I don't really know.

What are Sodastream's plans for the future?

The album comes out here in Australia at the end of May and hopefully soon in Europe.  We are organising to come up to Europe around September/October/November and then return home to get on with recording our next album.