Blending modern hard rock with big hooks, sharp riffs and an unmistakable live energy, Riff Raiders have quietly built a strong reputation on the Australian scene since forming in 2017. Their explosive live shows and relentless early run of gigs saw them shortlisted for Best Punk / Rock Act at the 2021 Music Victoria Awards, while support slots alongside acts including D-A-D, Baby Animals, The Poor and The Lazys helped cement them as one of Melbourne’s most dependable live bands.
Welcome To Mars features 11 tracks from almost every rock flavour. From the darker depths of Broken Halo to the punchy title track, Welcome To Mars, swampy rock of Climbing The Walls, three-part power pop smoker, Feels Like Something, then on to touch the sides of psychedelic grunge with Sound Mirror, there’s something different every time you spin it.
“I can’t help but think, that variety that you used to enjoy from a band to throw you curveballs is rare these days,” says Marty from Riff Raiders as we sit down to talk about the album.
“It’s before any of our time, but I always think of The White Album by the Beatles – it’s pop and rock and it’s a crazy record,” he says continuing. “A modern marketing person wouldn’t touch it – the label on the jar wouldn’t fit, if you know what I mean, regardless of the popularity of that band. Those sort of products aren’t mainstream. So, we’re certainly not trying to make The White Album or anything, but that’s been the concept. And I think the algorithms of streaming services and Spotify and the way you have to position yourselves may have contributed to what you’re describing because there’s so much great music being produced and more than it was around in the 90s or early 2000s even – so you have to try and slot into a category. I think that’s what may have created the situation.”
As we continue to discuss the variations on Welcome To Mars I tell him that I see the album a lot like Pink Pills by The Mavis’s – an album that went from one end of the spectrum to the other at will.
“Yeah, it’s incredible, isn’t it? And I think music fans are more mature these days, even ones that have been around a long time – They don’t tend to only like one style of music so that’s where it’s an exciting opportunity to express yourself,” he says.
“But then with a hard rock band if you go too far one way, someone really likes Broken Halo and then they hear something that’s just too pop you can see them turn off as well so it’s a really an interesting thing to try and balance in terms of our new direction. The new material I’m writing is really keen to get another album out next year after our break, so it’s been exciting to go through this process at the moment. It probably is down more the Broken Halo path, etc. but you don’t write songs to fit a tone either, so whatever comes, comes, but we’re trying to rope it in a little bit more next time.”
As our conversation goes on we start to move away from the different sounds on the album and begin to talk more about what the band were discussing when they first started to work on it.
“Being our third record, it was, you know, you want to try and make it a bit different each time and you evolve as songwriters etc too,” he explains. “But I think our second album had a lot more overdubs and we were exploring the studio a lot more and this time it was a bit more back to basics in terms of the sound. So, it’s very much the bass and drums are up and they were recorded live together. Really single sort of direct guitar sound and plenty of space for Jenny’s vocals. So just to give it a bit more of a modern feel to classic rock sound.”
That leads me to ask whether that was something that was deliberate or whether it happened organically.
“It was deliberate,” he quickly says “I really wanted to try that because music changes as we go along and different eras sort of ask for different things. The Struts were around a few years ago and others, and they were overdubbing Light Queen and we weren’t trying to copy any of that, but you can just hear where people are going so that was the idea just to make it a bit drier. And there’s still certainly harmonies and things that are there, but it made it a quicker recording process as well to keep the energy levels up.”
“Not that that was slow last time,” he adds. “But it was really exciting to do things in a couple of takes and try and capture performance and not be too fastidious about other things. So, we spent a bit of time pulling the sounds, but otherwise it was, let’s get on with it. A couple of the songs were written right at the end before recording, so the rest had been gigged live for a year or so. But the title track, Welcome to Mars, came together right at the end, so did Nothing To Lose. So, they were intentionally left with that band still being excited about the tracks as well and trying to capture that.”
Welcome To Mars is out now and can be ordered through Rue Morgue Records.
